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I'm still a bit dazed over the Seattle Seahawks' selection of West Virginia DL/LB Bruce Irvin in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. I did not see that one coming. Nevertheless, it addressed one of the team's draft needs, leaving them with offensive line and linebacker as what I deem to be their next most pressing spots to fill with draft picks.

Seattle has the No. 11 selection in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft on April 27. Who might the Seahawks have to choose from at that spot?

Offensive Line

Offensive line jumps to my mind. Only four o-linemen were selected in the first round--OT Matt Kalil, OT Riley Reiff, OG David DeCastro, and OG Kevin Zeitler--but several teams ahead of Seattle in the second round, including the St. Louis Rams twice, could also use some help on the offensive line. Linemen could become hot commodities on Friday.

In my opinion, the best remaining options at offensive line are Stanford OT Jonathan Martin, Georgia OG Cordy Glenn, Wisconsin C Peter Konz, Ohio State OT Mike Adams, and Midwestern State OG Amini Silatolu. Keep in mind that Adams will miss the first five games of the season as a result of the Ohio State scandal.

My first choice would be Martin (6-foot-5, 312 pounds), but I seriously doubt he'll make it down to the Seahawks at No. 11. In fact, it wouldn't shock me if the Rams took him at No. 1. Glenn (6-foot-5, 348 pounds) may also be gone by No. 11, as might Adams (6-foot-8, 320 pounds), despite his five-game suspension.

The Cleveland Browns may be shopping for an offensive lineman at No. 5. So might the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 6 or the Rams at No. 7. The Indianapolis Colts might even be tempted at No. 2 (although I'm hoping they take Stanford TE Coby Fleener, instead) to protect their newly-acquired quarterback of the future, Andrew Luck.

Konz (6-foot-5, 315 pounds) is a great center, but the Seahawks could really use help at guard and tackle before center.

Silatolu (6-foot-3, 324 pounds) sounds pretty good at the guard position, so all told, my order of preference would be Martin, Glenn, Adams, Silatolu, and Konz if the 'Hawks go o-line at No. 11.

Linebacker

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Seattle Seahawks' Ideal Second Round 2012 NFL Draft Pick: Fan Opinion

By Glenys Roberts

PUBLISHED: 17:57 EST, 22 April 2012 | UPDATED: 19:50 EST, 22 April 2012

As a unit of currency it may not be worth much, but do we really want to bid it farewell? Weve long since seen the demise of the farthing and the much-loved 12-sided threepenny bit, but now theres a campaign to consign the penny to history, too.

No matter that there are more than 11billion in circulation, a growing number of Britons think we can do without one of the oldest coins in our history.

Canada has already ditched its cent (known as a penny) following similar moves in Australia and New Zealand to abolish their low-denomination coins. The Canadian finance minister said: The penny is a currency without any currency. Financial institutions face increasing costs for handling, storing and transporting pennies. Over time, the pennys burden to the economy has grown relative to its value as a means of payment.

Treasure the penny: The biggest argument for keeping the penny is financial. Its existence helps to keep prices down

With the U.S. and Russia toying with the idea of doing away with fiddly cents and kopeks (one-hundredth of a rouble and the equivalent of our penny), should we follow suit?

Battle has already joined between the modernisers and the traditionalists.

On one side of this great currency divide is the Federation of Small Businesses, which claims shopkeepers hate the penny. They say it clutters up tills and forces staff to make unnecessary trips to bank bags of low-value coins.

They point out that the pennies clogging up our purses and wallets and rubbing holes in our pockets are worth less than one-twelfth of their value when they were introduced in 1971 (then, they bought the equivalent of 12p).

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They¿re fiddly, virtually worthless and weigh down your pockets. Now a radical idea is gaining currency: Should we the ...

Seven months from now we will be seeing the release of Disneys latest animated feature Wreck-It Ralph. The movie is based on the world of coin-operated arcade games and follows Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) as an antagonist of a rampage-like arcade game.

Bored of the same old mundane defeats he suffers at the hands of Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer), hero and overall good guy, Ralph decides to break out of his world and jump into other arcades to prove that he is more than just a guy who wrecks stuff, hes a hero.

Now we got the first poster for Wreck-It Ralph (via MSN) and if you are familiar with 8-bit technology and retro gaming, then you should be happy to see this piece of work.

The first poster for Wreck-It Ralph successfully conveys that this will be a movie about video games. The older generation, especially those who still remember first generation Nintendo games, will love the 8-bit feel that the poster has.

However, what concerns me is whether or not gamers only familiar with the current-gen games will understand what Wreck-It Ralph is. How many younger gamers have experienced classic 8-bit games of the late 80s and early 90s in an actual arcade?

Though the poster clearly shows that the movie is a Walt Disney Animation creation, its hard to tell what they are selling given that there is no actual title for the movie displayed on it (outside of the Facebook tag). So unless you attended last years D23 Expo or have been keeping up with movie blogs, then you might not even know what this is for without having it described.

Still,Wreck-It Ralph is in the early stages of its marketing campaign and hopefully with the release of this poster, there will be a trailer coming out very soon.

Directed by Rich Moore, Wreck-It Ralph features the voices of John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Sarah Silverman. Wreck-It Ralph will hit theaters on November 2, 2012.

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First Poster for ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Goes 8-Bit

It's April 1, and that means pranks abound from around the Web. Here are some of our favorites.

Its April Fools Day, and tech companies this year are out in full force to put a smile on your face. If youre wondering where to go and get fooled online this year, look no further than some of the April Fools Day jokes that weve discovered.

If youve needed directions recently and resorted to Google Maps, you might have noticed that the map was in 8-bit. Nice touch Google. For the geography majors out there, this simplified map in fact is helpful in delineating exactly where the mountainous regions are located throughout the globe. But thats beside the point. The extent to which Google has gone to sell their prank on April 1st is rather extensive. Theyve outfitted the map with a Quest mode where users can scope out monsters and visit 8-bit landmarks. If you happen to drill down to Street View, youll notice that the landscape has been changed into a multi-colored 8-bit world.

To top off their homage to the NES, Google released a video revealing its 8-bit build for Google Maps in NES cartridge form.

For the complete YouTube collection on your choice of DVDs, videocassettes, laser disc or Betamax, you can have your selection shipped to you by freight, postage or boat for the low, low price of $2.7 million. Unfortunately, if youve place your order today youre in for a long wait. When checking out our items for purchasing, we were notified that we would be receiving our collection on June 16, 2045, Due to heavy demand. Considering the sheer volume of content being burned for countless people, wed say that a 33-year wait is a reasonable shipping time.

Weve noticed clever articles cropping up from The Registers breaking news on Apples patent on the rectangle, Stuff magazines 42-inch Apple iPad exclusive, and TechRadars coverage on the leak of Photoshop CS6s Content-Aware Age Tool, which will allow the users to, Dramatically increase or decrease the age of a person captured in a photograph.

Google announced a partnership with NASCAR to integrate self-driving cars into races. Stemming from the self-driving project, Google is driving forward with Google Racing, a groundbreaking partnership with NASCAR to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing. Havingrecently publicized a video of its self-driving car taking a legally blind man to run errands, we wouldnt be surprised if one day racers control theirrace carswith their Droid phones.

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Roundup: April Fool’s Day jokes from around the Web

anna mehler paperny From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 30, 2012 10:29PM EDT Last updated Friday, Mar. 30, 2012 10:39PM EDT

Pity the penny: In the past 15 years its lost its copper, its usage and its cost-effectiveness the butt of jokes and bane of neat freaks well before its end became official in Thursdays federal budget.

Despite its lowly monetary status, the penny is a high-maintenance bit of metal. It is by far the most expensive Canadian coin to produce, relative to its value. At a cost of a little over 1.6 cents per penny, its the only piece of currency in the country that now costs more than its value to make.

While the news of the pennys phase-out came as a surprise even to the Royal Canadian Mint, the analysts and coin-crafters in charge of Canadas money say theyve known for years its days were numbered.

Penny evolution

The pennies immortalized in overused sayings were primarily of the copper variety. But Canadas modern one-cent piece bears little resemblance to that traditional composition.

Originally 95.5-per-cent copper in 1908, the penny went from 98-per-cent copper in 1996 to 98.4-per-cent zinc and 1.6-per-cent copper plating in 1997. Its now 94-per-cent steel, 1.5-per-cent nickel and 4.5-per-cent copper plating or copper-plated zinc. With the price of copper rising, it just doesnt make financial sense to use the metal on such small-fry currency.

Apart from drastic changes in its makeup, however, the pennys surface design on the tails side has barely changed since 1937, when G.E. Kruger-Gray made the twig-and-maple-leaf thats on todays coins (if youre really bored, take a close look at those leaves: His initials are in teensy font on the right).

A familiar face

Susanna Blunt remembers seeing the first penny she designed, in a fistful of change while grocery shopping in the fall of 2003.

Continued here:
Penny's demise signals an empire in decline, some say