sneakily persian: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A football family: Behind-the-scenes with the Trufants, who now ...

?"Football?s been in my life forever. With Marcus, my cousin Grady, my cousin Omar, they all played football. I?ve always been around the game. I was at practices running around with them, my cousin had his practices, I was the ballboy on Marcus? team when they went to the state championship, things like that. As far as I can remember, football?s always been in my life."? ~ Desmond Trufant

Tacoma isn?t a city of dreams. It?s a mill town, a blue-collar city, the ugly middle child between genteel Seattle and the crunchy capitol in Olympia. But on clear days at Wilson High School, where the Trufant brothers played football, Mount Rainier rises into the sky without connection to the horizon, a floating colossus of impossible height. It is ghostly and distant -- but in truth, it?s not so far away. It can be climbed.

Lakewood, the nondescript Tacoma suburb where Lloyd and Constance Trufant live now, was, until the mid-?90s, just another undesirable stretch of Tacoma: the closest place to Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base for young married soldiers and airmen to live. As such, many of the houses date back to the post-Cold War military boom and are appropriately shabby -- mold creeping up from the ground, yards and roofs overrun with wet leaves, a general low-slung disrepair exacerbated by the long shadows cast by towering conifers.

Stumble onto the right street, though, and you?ll find enclaves of wealth, usually on the shores of one of the town?s four lakes. It?s here, on Lake Steilacoom, nine days before the 2013 NFL draft, that I find the house Marcus Trufant bought for his parents after an All-Pro selection led to a six-year, $50 million contract with the Seahawks in 2008.

Whereas most of the houses on the block are hidden by hedges or fences, the Trufant residence is open, welcoming. The split-level is neither ostentatious nor modest, but the wide deck over the lake makes it clear that it?s in no way cheap. The house is filled with family photos, football paraphernalia and floor-to-ceiling windows on the lake side.

Next week, Marcus, who went to the Seahawks with the 11th overall selection in the 2003 draft, will see his youngest brother, Desmond, go to the Falcons with the 22nd pick. Isaiah, the middle brother, went undrafted in 2006 and played arena football and in the UFL before landing with the Jets, where he?s played the last three years. The stated purpose of the family gathering -- including grandfather, aunts, cousins -- is a celebration of Desmond?s impending jump to the pros. But over the course of the night, I get the feeling that they?re together simply because that?s what they do.

***

Desmond was 12 years old when Marcus, a second team All-America cornerback at Washington State, was drafted by the Seahawks.

"I remember he had a separate party, family or coaches or anybody that influenced him, at this place called Julius?s. I was a young kid, I really didn?t know what was going on, I was just excited for him, I was going to be happy for him no matter what happened. And he got picked by Seattle, we went over to the party, and I remember him having to do his press conference."

A lot has changed since 2003, from the way the NFL draft gets covered to the rules that hamper a defensive back?s game.

"All the rules, all the stuff you can?t do nowadays, it?s a little bit crazy, but that?s just how the game is," Marcus says. "You gotta be able to adjust, but I think he?ll be OK. And I?m going through the same thing as the game changes -- I just finished my 10th year, of course -- and you have to adjust if you wanna make it in the game."

A decade later, Desmond stands in front of the Atlanta press in a smart navy suit -- zip sweater, natty plaid tie, pocket square -- for his own press conference, offering the Teflon platitudes about his work ethic and skill set that are at once true and too general to sound like anything substantive.

"I can fit into any scheme," he said to me -- and likely other media members at different times. "Because at Washington, we did a little bit of everything. We played zone, we played man, I played off coverage, I played press, I played slot, I even lined up at safety sometimes. I?m diverse, you can put me in different spots."

It is the practiced art of saying nothing (encouraged by the media?s habit of asking the same questions), and if the press conference was all I knew about Desmond Trufant, I wouldn?t know him at all.

***

Lloyd "Chill" Trufant has a cornerback?s build: even in his 50s, he?s compact and trim with ramrod posture. He acts and dresses like a New Orleans musician, which he is, in parts. Though he grew up just outside of the Crescent City, he didn?t play music until he was an adult. "I craved music as a child," he says. "I always wanted to be in the school band, but we couldn?t afford it. And I?m not ashamed to say that, because there were 10 of us. For me, to go ask my dad to buy a trumpet, or a guitar, that would be like suicide." He laughs.

"I got to working as a teenager -- I?m talkin? slave labor, pickin? tomatoes and cucumbers -- and I bought me a guitar and an amplifier. I didn?t know how to play nothin?. I got chased out of the house ?cuz I didn?t know how to play it."

Stationed at Fort Lewis after being drafted, Chill borrowed a bass and taught himself how to play one song. "I was playin? that song, and this old sergeant came up and said, ?Man you sound good on that. You wanna be in the band?? I said, ?Yeah!?"

Chill?s love of music was the spark for his future family. Or, in his words: "Constance was kinda like a groupie. She was stalking me."

His wife laughs. Did she have a crush on Chill? "I did. I followed the band around." But they never actually met until her car broke down. She glances sheepishly at her father, Frederick "Pa" Johnson, before telling the story. "My father probably don?t know this," she says, eliciting laughter.

"I had a little orange Pinto, ?72 hatchback, I went on Fort Lewis with my friend Anita to meet her friend -- I had to drive her because I had the car. But the car broke down. ... It was my shining star, nice and orange, big rims and everything. It was tricked out. I know a tricked out Pinto sounds bad, but you had to see it. Anita called her friend that we were going to meet, and lo and behold, Lloyd was in the car -- he was best friends with her friend, and I didn?t even know that.

"And so he fixed the Pinto, and ever since then, he?s been fixing my cars. Thirty-five years later, here we are."

***

"I just wanted to take advantage, show everybody that I?m elite."

USA Today Images

Without games on TV, it?s easy to forget that even the offseason is rigorous for players, and this is truest for the college players who declare for the NFL draft. After finishing his senior season at the University of Washington, Desmond had a week to relax before moving to Arizona to train at Athletes? Performance -- the "leader in integrated performance training, nutrition, and physical therapy for elite and professional athletes," according to its website -- where he trained for the Senior Bowl.

A sparkling Senior Bowl performance in January catapulted him up the draft charts. As NFL.com analyst Daniel Jeremiah noted:

Most teams that I spoke with prior to the Senior Bowl had Trufant pegged as a middle-of-the-second-round-type player. Following three days of practice, nearly every personnel executive I spoke with considers him a likely first-round pick.

Most scouts pegged Desmond as the best cornerback at the Senior Bowl, where he shined against the toughest wide receivers in college. "I just wanted to take advantage, show everybody that I?m elite," he says of the showcase.

After that, it was back to Arizona. "I continued to work, work really hard there to get ready for the combine," he tells me, and the results from Indianapolis in February reflect his words: He ran "a cool 40," he says, opting not to disclose the time of his blistering 40-yard dash (4.31 unofficial, 4.38 official). He survived the other hoops, as well -- "the meetings, the interviews, the hospital, the psychological tests -- there?s a lot of things at the combine. It was a stressful time, but I was prepared for it."

He returned to Arizona once again, this time to prepare for UW?s pro day in March, where he skipped the 40 and weights but put on a positional workout that NFL.com described as "phenomenal." The long build to the NFL draft, he says, "has been an incredible journey," and the miles alone justify a literal meaning.

***

Music was Chill?s passion, but it didn?t pay the bills. "I was what you call a ?starving musician?," he says. During the day, he worked as a framer for Milgard Windows, while Constance was a manager in the Social Security Administration. Their focus on family sounds like a political ad?s description of middle-class triumph.

"We put them first," Constance says. "My husband and I did a lot of sacrificing to give the kids what they wanted. I think they saw that we made sure that they were fed, they were clothed, that they were in school and did their homework, and that it mattered. We cared, and they saw that we cared."

Marcus? stories of childhood reflect effective parenthood: the adults rarely appear in the stories, but they?re an ever-present source of boundaries. "We?ve got a lot of cousins," he says, "either we were at my grandfather?s house and we was tearin? up his front yard, or runnin? through the yard, actin? crazy, or at our parents? house. There were games; we would race all the time. There were games our parents didn?t know about. We?d be downstairs, turn the lights off, and just go crazy, fight, then we?d wait for a little bit because someone was crying, then we?d talk about it, then we?d do it again. We had a lot of fun."

"Everybody kind of fed off of each other," says Grady Maxwell, a cousin two years older than Des and a former three-star recruit who signed with Washington State before injuries ended his career. "It?s always been competitive. My grandfather had 10 girls, but he?s got over 40 or 50 grandkids, and over half of them are boys, so we?ve always been competing, no matter what it is. Even though [Marcus and Isaiah were] way older than me, I was competing against them, regardless of what we were doing."

"We?d go to the park as a family," says Marcus, "me and all the cousins -- me, Isaiah, Des, everybody. There?d probably be about 10 to 20 of us, everybody in the neighborhood. We played out in the street. And we did that stuff all the time -- it was always competitive, it was always fun, it was always lots of laughter."

But the Trufant boys were never pushed into sports, insists Chill. "Our objective was mainly to keep them active with the boys? clubs and sports. We just let them try everything, and made sure they did what they said they were going to do. To me it was exercise -- something besides going to school, come home, and look at TV. You gotta go to practice, you gotta go to school, and you gotta do your paper route in the morning ... That made them stronger, to realize that you can accomplish things with hard work.

"There were times when they were real little, they wanted to play, but somebody might not want to go to practice. ?No, you goin? to practice!?"

Constance interjects: "You make the commitment, you follow through."

"People will respect you for your word," Chill continues, "and that?s what I instilled in them. Don?t just say something to pacify [others] -- and I see that in them now, as grown men. One of them calls me and says, ?I?m doing this,? I can bank on that."

Despite the money Marcus has made, and the lucrative contract Desmond will soon sign, the family remains committed to the competitive nucleus of family that fostered its inherent athletic talent.

"When I look at my sons with kids," says Constance, "Marcus and Isaiah, they?re very caring, very nurturing. Desmond, he doesn?t have any children yet, he loves kids--"

Des laughs his assent, a distinct, relaxed laugh that sounds like a less energetic version of Jay Pharoah?s impression of Jay-Z on "Saturday Night Live."

Constance finishes: "--he loves playing with his nieces, his nephews, he?s really kind-hearted."

She reminisces about the family and the time they spent together before her mother died, before the turn of the century. "We were always together at get-togethers like you saw tonight, having chicken or whatever, sweet potato pie, barbecue--"

"Cakes," Marcus adds.

"My mother?s cakes," Constance explains.

Des chimes in: "Blackberry pie!"

She finishes: "That was our family, so that?s our heritage, that?s our tradition. That?s what we do, and we want to carry that on, and the kids, they carry that on also."

***

Desmond had originally planned to be in New York for the draft, but changed his mind out of his concern for Pa. "I wanted my grandfather to be with me, it?s hard for him to travel, and I want him to experience the moment with me. I?m gonna be home with my family -- it?s gonna be similar to Marcus? [draft party] -- we?ll have all the friends and the people that have helped me get to this point."

On Thursday night, Atlanta trades up from 30 to 22 in order to draft Desmond. ESPN shows him on the phone, mostly listening to coach Mike Smith and owner Arthur Blank, while tears well in his eyes.

"It was just exciting," he tells me a few days later, back in Seattle after the Atlanta press conference. "So much hard work throughout my whole life, you dream about that one day, you finally reach it, you?re just so happy. I was just happy and thankful."

"Was it the biggest night of your life?" I ask.

"Definitely. I?ve been working for that moment my whole life, to reach it and finally get there, and just having my family with me there and supporting me, it was big. My parents were right there, my brothers, my cousins, my little nieces and nephews were there, too. My grandfather -- my entire family was there. It was a beautiful thing."

Before the draft, I asked Constance if she felt spoiled having Marcus in Seattle for 10 years while Des played his college career at UW. "We?re definitely going to miss him," she said. "We were just blessed to have Marcus here close, Desmond here close. ... It was great. It was easy. We were definitely spoiled."

But, she added, they traveled to the Meadowlands regularly to see Isaiah, so they?re accustomed to long travel.

"We?ll come see him. We?ll be there."

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/4/30/4281884/desmond-marcus-trufant-profile-nfl-seahawks-falcons

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Boston suspect's defense team gets major boost

FILE - In this April 26, 2013 file photo, Judy Clarke, a defense lawyer whose high-profile clients include "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, and Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, speaks at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Clarke was appointed Monday, April 29, 2013 to the team representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

This Friday, April 19, 2013 photo shows the home of Katherine Russell's parents in North Kingstown, R.I. Russell, widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has been staying there. FBI agents visited the home Monday, April 29, 2013, and carried away several bags. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

Katherine Russell, right, wife of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves the law office of DeLuca and Weizenbaum with Amato DeLuca, left, Monday, April 29, 2013, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev's legal defense is in the hands of Miriam Conrad, the chief federal public defender for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Conrad has asked a judge to appoint two additional lawyers with experience in death penalty cases. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)

BOSTON (AP) ? The defense team representing the Boston Marathon bombing suspect got a major boost Monday with the addition of Judy Clarke, a San Diego lawyer who has managed to get life sentences instead of the death penalty for several high-profile clients, including the Unabomber and the gunman in the rampage that injured former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Clarke's appointment was approved Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler.

Bowler denied, at least for now, a request from Miriam Conrad, the public defender of 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to appoint a second death penalty lawyer ? David Bruck, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction during the April 15 marathon. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line.

The suspect's lawyers could renew their motion to appoint another death penalty expert if he is indicted, the judge said.

Clarke's clients have included the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski; Susan Smith, who drowned her two children; Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph; and most recently Tucson, Ariz., shooter Jared Loughner. All received life sentences instead of the death penalty.

Clarke has rarely spoken publicly about her work and did not return a call seeking comment Monday. However, at a speech Friday at a legal conference in Los Angeles, she talked about how she had been "sucked into the black hole, the vortex" of death penalty cases 18 years ago when she represented Smith.

"I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us," she said. "I don't think it's a secret that I oppose the death penalty."

Bruck has directed Washington and Lee's death penalty defense clinic, the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, since 2004.

In other developments in the Boston case:

? FBI agents visited the Rhode Island home of the in-laws of the suspect's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and carried away several bags. The brother was killed in a gun battle with police.

Katherine Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has been staying at the North Kingstown home and did not speak to reporters as she left her attorneys' office in Providence later in the day. Attorney Amato DeLuca says she's doing everything she can to assist with the investigation.

? President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed terrorism coordination Monday in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Obama expressed his "appreciation" for Russia's close cooperation after the attack.

The suspected bombers are Russian natives who immigrated to the Boston area. Russian authorities told U.S. officials before the bombings they had concerns about the family, but only revealed details of wiretapped conversations since the attack.

___

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-29-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-5bdebce447284d50903b4cf3796f612f

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Tell Silly Stories Together With Skit

If ?Skit had existed in the early 1970s, there is a chance that the career of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam could have been stunted because Skit can produce videos reminiscent of the aforementioned great one's seminal work. And that example is what comes to mind as the easiest way to describe how this TechCrunch Disrupt NY Startup Alley participant's new app works and looks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JLoWF4_HksA/

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Japan's SoftBank says no need to improve Sprint offer

By Mari Saito

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Corp said there is no need to improve its $20.1 billion bid for 70 percent of U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp, which has been challenged by a counter-offer from Dish Network Corp.

SoftBank's billionaire founder and top executive Masayoshi Son, who had been tight-lipped on Dish's $25.5 billion bid for Sprint since it emerged this month, told a briefing on SoftBank's latest earnings it was not possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison of the two bids.

Asked if he was considering altering the terms of his offer, Son replied: "There is absolutely no need for that since we believe our offer is above theirs."

Son will brief the media about the deal from 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) in Tokyo.

SoftBank reported a record 745 billion yen ($7.59 billion)operating profit for the year ended on March 31, up 10 percent from the previous year, and Son forecast a further rise this year to between 800 billion and 900 billion yen.

The Japanese mobile operator announced its deal for Sprint last October as it looks for growth abroad. The company faces a stagnating market at home, crowded by large competitors such as NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp.

Son said U.S. regulatory review of the deal was on schedule and reiterated that the offer was on track to close by July 1.

The Japanese company received support for the deal from Intel Corp Chief Executive Paul Otellini, who wrote to the Federal Communications Commission saying Son's vision to build a high-speed U.S. national network was compelling.

"We need this competition in the wireless space as the ATT/Verizon model is not giving that to consumers at this time," Otellini said.

U.S. satellite TV provider Dish has offered $25.5 billion for Sprint, aiming to tap the company's wireless network to offer services that would let U.S. consumers watch video anywhere, anytime.

Sprint said on Monday that SoftBank has waived some terms of their agreement so that Sprint can seek more information from Dish.

Analysts and sources say Son is unlikely to walk away from Sprint, with SoftBank's lenders open to providing additional financing if the company decides to raise its bid.

Sprint has set June 12 as the tentative date for a special meeting for shareholders to vote on the proposed deal with SoftBank.

SoftBank's shares ended 1.2 percent higher on Tuesday, before Son's comments, compared with a 0.2 percent dip in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average. Although the shares lost nearly one-fourth of their value in the two days after the Sprint deal was announced, they have since rebounded and are up 67 percent since that time, in line with the Nikkei's 62 percent surge.

($1 = 98.1500 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japans-softbank-brief-sprint-deal-gets-intel-ceos-055103439.html

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Monday, April 29, 2013

14-year-old forced to get pregnant: surrogate for her mom

An American woman living in Britain forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant with donor sperm. She forced the girl to get pregnant 7 times; most led to miscarriages, but a baby was born when the girl was 17.

By Jill Lawless,?Associated Press / April 29, 2013

A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of?donor?sperm, a British judge said.

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In a ruling reported for the first time Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had behaved in "a wicked and selfish way" that almost defied belief.

The judge said the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children, hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.

The scheme involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of?sperm?purchased over the Internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos International.

Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, "became pregnant at the mother's request, using?donor?sperm bought by the mother, with the purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own."

In his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying said she was shocked by the suggestion, but thought, "If I do this ... maybe she will love me more."

"My mum is a very determined person and she does her best not to let anything get in her way if she wants it," the teenager added.

The judge said the mother also made the teenager take extreme measures to increase her chances of having a girl.

The judge said it was likely but not certain that the daughter soon became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. After six more attempts with the?donor?sperm, she gave birth to a baby boy in July 2011, when she was 17.

But midwives at the hospital became alarmed by the odd behavior of A's mother. Her daughter wanted to breastfeed the baby, but her mother said: "We don't want any of that attachment thing."

The hospital alerted the authorities, and the children were taken into foster care. The mother is now serving a five-year jail term for child cruelty.

Details of the case were heard during proceedings at the family division of the High Court over the children's future last year. They were reported for the first time Monday after several British media organizations, including the publisher of The Guardian newspaper, challenged reporting restrictions.

A court order bars identifying the family members in order to protect the children

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bX7ZTUWGVJ0/14-year-old-forced-to-get-pregnant-surrogate-for-her-mom

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Hospitals see surge of superbug-fighting products

NEW YORK (AP) -- They sweep. They swab. They sterilize. And still the germs persist.

In U.S. hospitals, an estimated 1 in 20 patients pick up infections they didn't have when they arrived, some caused by dangerous 'superbugs' that are hard to treat.

The rise of these superbugs, along with increased pressure from the government and insurers, is driving hospitals to try all sorts of new approaches to stop their spread:

Machines that resemble "Star Wars" robots and emit ultraviolet light or hydrogen peroxide vapors. Germ-resistant copper bed rails, call buttons and IV poles. Antimicrobial linens, curtains and wall paint.

While these products can help get a room clean, their true impact is still debatable. There is no widely-accepted evidence that these inventions have prevented infections or deaths.

Meanwhile, insurers are pushing hospitals to do a better job and the government's Medicare program has moved to stop paying bills for certain infections caught in the hospital.

"We're seeing a culture change" in hospitals, said Jennie Mayfield, who tracks infections at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Those hospital infections are tied to an estimated 100,000 deaths each year and add as much as $30 billion a year in medical costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency last month sounded an alarm about a "nightmare bacteria" resistant to one class of antibiotics. That kind is still rare but it showed up last year in at least 200 hospitals.

Hospitals started paying attention to infection control in the late 1880s, when mounting evidence showed unsanitary conditions were hurting patients. Hospital hygiene has been a concern in cycles ever since, with the latest spike triggered by the emergence a decade ago of a nasty strain of intestinal bug called Clostridium difficile, or C-diff.

The diarrhea-causing C-diff is now linked to 14,000 U.S. deaths annually. That's been the catalyst for the growing focus on infection control, said Mayfield, who is also president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

C-diff is easier to treat than some other hospital superbugs, like methicillin-resistant staph, or MRSA, but it's particularly difficult to clean away. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers don't work and C-diff can persist on hospital room surfaces for days. The CDC recommends hospital staff clean their hands rigorously with soap and water ? or better yet, wear gloves. And rooms should be cleaned intensively with bleach, the CDC says.

Michael Claes developed a bad case of C-diff while he was a kidney patient last fall at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital. He and his doctor believe he caught it at the hospital. Claes praised his overall care, but felt the hospital's room cleaning and infection control was less than perfect.

"I would use the word 'perfunctory,'" he said.

Lenox Hill spokeswoman Ann Silverman disputed that characterization, noting hospital workers are making efforts that patients often can't see, like using hand cleansers dispensers in hallways. She ticked off a list of measure used to prevent the spread of germs, ranging from educating patients' family members to isolation and other protective steps with each C-diff patient.

The hospital's C-diff infection rate is lower than the state average, she said.

Westchester Medical Center, a 643-bed hospital in the suburbs of New York City has also been hit by cases of C-diff and the other superbugs.

Complicating matters is the fact that larger proportions of hospital patients today are sicker and more susceptible to the ravages of infections, said Dr. Marisa Montecalvo, a contagious diseases specialist at Westchester.

There's a growing recognition that it's not only surgical knives and operating rooms that need a thorough cleaning but also spots like bed rails and even television remote controls, she said. Now there's more attention to making sure "that all the nooks and crannies are clean, and that it's done in perfect a manner as can be done," Montecalvo said.

Enter companies like Xenex Healthcare Services, a Texas company that makes a portable, $125,000 machine that's rolled into rooms to zap C-diff and other bacteria and viruses dead with ultraviolet light. Xenex has sold or leased devices to more than 100 U.S. hospitals, including Westchester Medical Center.

The market niche is expected to grow from $30 million to $80 million in the next three years, according to Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm.

Mark Stibich, Xenex's chief scientific officer, said client hospitals sometimes call them robots and report improved satisfaction scores from patients who seem impressed that the medical center is trotting out that kind of technology.

At Westchester, they still clean rooms, but the staff appreciates the high-tech backup, said housekeeping manager Carolyn Bevans.

"We all like it," she said of the Xenex.

At Cooley Dickinson Hospital, a 140-bed facility in Northampton, Mass., the staff calls their machines Thing One, Thing Two, Thing Three and Thing Four, borrowing from the children's book "The Cat in the Hat."

But while the things in the Dr. Seuss tale were house-wrecking imps, Cooley Dickinson officials said the ultraviolet has done a terrific job at cleaning their hospital of the difficult C-diff.

"We did all the recommended things. We used bleach. We monitored the quality of cleaning," but C-diff rates wouldn't budge, said nurse Linda Riley, who's in charge of infection prevention at Cooley Dickinson.

A small observational study at the hospital showed C-diff infection rates fell by half and C-diff deaths fell from 14 to 2 during the last two years, compared to the two years before the machines.

Some experts say there's not enough evidence to show the machines are worth it. No national study has shown that these products have led to reduced deaths or infection rates, noted Dr. L. Clifford McDonald of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His point: It only takes a minute for a nurse or visitor with dirty hands to walk into a room, touch a vulnerable patient with germy hands, and undo the benefits of a recent space-age cleaning.

"Environments get dirty again," McDonald said, and thorough cleaning with conventional disinfectants ought to do the job.

Beyond products to disinfect a room, there are tools to make sure doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are properly cleaning their hands when they come into a patient's room. Among them are scanners that monitor how many times a health care worker uses a sink or hand sanitizer dispenser.

Still, "technology only takes us so far," said Christian Lillis, who runs a small foundation named after his mother who died from a C-diff infection.

Lillis said the hospitals he is most impressed with include Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, where thorough cleanings are confirmed with spot checks. Fluorescent powder is dabbed around a room before it's cleaned and a special light shows if the powder was removed. That strategy was followed by a 28 percent decline in C-diff, he said.

He also cites Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., where the focus is on elbow grease and bleach wipes. What's different, he said, is the merger of the housekeeping and infection prevention staff. That emphasizes that cleaning is less about being a maid's service than about saving patients from superbugs.

"If your hospital's not clean, you're creating more problems than you're solving," Lillis said.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/hai/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hospitals-see-surge-superbug-fighting-063400543.html

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For subway station devastated by Sandy, road to recovery just beginning

Craig Ruttle for NBC News

Corrosion and oxidation are being repaired in the signal relay room the South Ferry subway station in lower Manhattan, devastated by flooding in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The station is being repaired with damage done to all components of the infrastructure, especially the electrical system.

By Carlo Dellaverson, Digital Producer, NBC News

When the gleaming South Ferry subway terminal in Lower Manhattan opened in 2009, it came with a vast concourse filled with public art installations of wrought iron and smoked glass, polished white walls?and a hefty $500 million price tag.

The cost of rehabilitating it from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy? At least $600 million?though a full assessment of the damage hasn?t even been done yet.

?It?s a complete gut job,? said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. ?Every component of the station needs to be replaced.??

As communities rebuild and residents return to their homes, dozens of workers at the South Ferry station are taking the very first steps toward getting the station back online, starting with scrubbing mold from virtually every surface. Before the storm, 30,000 people passed through South Ferry each day, shuttling between Staten Island and Manhattan and around the labyrinthine streets of New York?s financial district.

Now, the stillness of the station is unsettling. The 90-foot platform sits empty, with strings of construction bulbs lighting two tracks and tunnel walls still covered with debris and dirt from the storm. Drywall and tiles have been ripped up by construction workers to expose the film of mold that quickly built up in the dark, humid space after the storm hit six months ago. The air is thick and pungent.

Craig Ruttle / AP file (top), Cr

Joseph Leader (top) of the MTA shines a flashlight on standing water inside the South Ferry 1 train station in lower Manhattan on Oct. 31, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Six months later, Leader (bottom) descends the stairs toward the track in the same station.

But the greatest damage inflicted from Sandy is not visible. The salty ocean water that flooded the station eighty feet below street level corroded nearly every piece of equipment in the space, adding considerably to the cost of recovery.

Over 700 relay components ? devices critical to the signaling systems of trains ? were destroyed. A separate room of signaling equipment at the end of the platform flooded to the ceiling and is now a ?complete loss,? said Joseph Leader, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority?s chief maintenance officer, who is overseeing the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the station.

Leader was actually the first person to see the damage from Sandy?s storm surge. On the morning after the storm passed late last October, Leader entered the station and saw ?just a trickle? of water coming down the stairs, he said.

?I thought our barriers held and that we were doing good,? he said, referring to the makeshift barricades ?sandbags and plywood -- the MTA constructed at the street-level entrances of certain exposed stations.

But as Leader ventured further, he realized the surge had breached the main station entrance. ?Water was coming up the steps at me from the platform level, lapping at my feet,? he said. The entire subway "tube" was filled to the brim; 14 million gallons of seawater had to be pumped out before officials could even get a look at the destruction.

South Ferry was designed to be the last stop on a busy line that follows Broadway as it snakes through Manhattan as well as a connector to another main subway artery and the Staten Island Ferry. The original station, which opened in 1905, was much maligned for a layout quirk that only allowed five of ten subway cars to open at the platform; inattentive straphangers who neglected to move to one of the cars with open doors were forced to take the ?loop? back uptown one stop to exit.

Craig Ruttle / Craig Ruttle for NBC News

The subway map, with mold spreading up from the bottom, can be seen on the platform after being under water at the damaged South Ferry subway station in lower Manhattan. The station is being repaired with damage done to all components of the infrastructure, especially the electrical system.

While the new South Ferry station addressed many of the engineering problems that existed at the old station, the possibility that a 14-foot storm surge could take it offline in the span of a few hours was not accounted for.

The MTA says it is now ?considering all options? that would mitigate the effects of a similar or even lesser surge as it rebuilds South Ferry, along with other vulnerable parts of its city-wide network (Sandy also wiped out an entire above-ground section of a subway line in the Rockaway section of Queens that is yet to be reopened). New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid some of these ideas out in his State of the State speech earlier this year, calling for subway stations to adopt ?closing vents?roll down doors? inflatable bladders,? and repeating his refrain that ?there is a 100 year flood every two years now? as reason to invest in infrastructure improvements.

One of the options under consideration involves letting subway tunnels and stations flood in a storm ? but only after workers have removed valuable pieces of equipment and taken them to higher ground. This use of ?modular infrastructure" allows critical gear to be packed up like suitcases and brought to higher ground so it can be ?plugged right back in? after the pumps have removed the water from tunnels and stations, Leader said.

?Can you stop every ounce of water that comes into the system? Theoretically yes,? Leader said. ?But is it feasible? Probably not.?

Footing the bill, at least in part, will be the feds. The MTA has received $1.2 billion to date in federal funding as part of the $51 billion Sandy relief bill signed by President Obama in January. It is asking for billions more (the total hit to New York?s transit system from Sandy is estimated to be $5 billion). The MTA plans a bifurcated approach to how that money is spent: partially for repairs to damaged infrastructure in places like South Ferry, and partially toward making long-term improvements that would harden and protect the system in future storms. ?

Craig Ruttle for NBC News

Joseph Leader of MTA holds an example of cable damaged by sea water in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, typical of damage found at South Ferry subway station.

?As we work to bring our system back to normal, we must also make the necessary investments to protect this 108-year old system from future storms. We must rebuild smarter. The South Ferry subway station is a perfect example,? said MTA Chief Executive Thomas Prendergast.

Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who specializes in urban economics and infrastructure, cautions that federal money is ?apt to disappear quickly in cost overruns? and that the MTA should carefully examine precisely how it can apply the aid to projects that will keep the system from suffering catastrophic damage in the next storm, and not on ?complex and untested mitigation efforts? that may not work.

?Otherwise, this ?free money? from the feds doesn?t end up being free at all, and taxpayers end up on the hook,? Gelinas said.?

The MTA recently reopened the old South Ferry station, which was entombed next to the new terminal after its grand opening four years ago ? the first time the authority has ever brought a decommissioned station back into use, Leader said. Engineers knocked down a wall between the two stations to allow passengers to get to the old platform area through the new entrance. It?s a way to reestablish subway service to the area, however imperfect. ?We?re building a new station within a new station,? Joe Leader said. ?It?s going to take a while.?

Until that monumental task is completed, commuters in Lower Manhattan will need to reacquaint themselves with a once-familiar phrase thought to be relegated to history:

?You must be in the first five cars to exit at South Ferry.?

MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - South Ferry and Whitehall St Station Damage.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b42ea56/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C280C179325980Efor0Esubway0Estation0Edevastated0Eby0Esandy0Eroad0Eto0Erecovery0Ejust0Ebeginning0Dlite/story01.htm

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Kristin Cavallari: I?m Putting My Acting Career on Hold

"I've passed on a couple of things that would have kept me here in L.A. because my fianc? Jay has to be in Chicago, so if I was here, we would never see each other," Cavallari says in Coco Eco magazine's April/May issue.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/0Wn7nI_yfaE/

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

E-commerce And Business To Business Online Market | ICM

Posted on April 28, 2013 by job

E-commerce can be simply explained as buying and selling via electronic systems like internet or other computer networks. Internet has become an important tool for marketing as it helps to reach global markets. Electronic commerce allows small and big businesses to capture global market segments easily. The number of e-commerce users is increasing rapidly. Various electronic transactions are carried out by organizations these days like electronic funds transfer, e-marketing, online marketing, electronic data interchange, automated data collection systems, supply chain management, online transaction processing, and automated inventory management systems.
The e-commerce market is very large and you can buy anything sitting at one place through internet. Some products are less suitable for online marketing such as the products which need trials or testing before use. You should be smart enough to decide whether your product is suitable for promoting through sources of e-commerce. According to market reports the annual growth rate of e-commerce market size is 25%. Analysts have found that number of e-commerce transactions is more in Britain, France, Europe and Germany. The transactions carried out these countries are near about 72% of total market share. The products and services which are highly sold on internet sources are Information Technology, hardware and software, tourism, real estate, computers, and financial services. According to recent research in USA total online transaction is likely to be more than $130-$200 million. As per Computer Intelligence reports more than 3 million customers have conducted on-line transactions in a single day.
Using a wrong e-commerce strategy may just increase you expenditure for online marketing rather than generating income. Especially small and medium businesses should do proper marketing plan for this as your marketing budget is low compared to the big enterprises. Try to latest Search Engine Optimization and marketing techniques. This will help you to attract prospective customers and increase sales. Social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube have become sources to find and attract potential customers. You can use these sites to attract visitors to your website. Try to convert these visitors into potential or regular buyers by doing effective promotion of your products. Provide attractive offers, discounts, gifts or coupons to convert the visitor into your customer. Dont make fake promises while promoting your product or services online. Promise only what you can offer so that the customer is not disappointed when he visits your website.
The market size and trends have drastically changed from traditional days. In this modern era everybody wants lead in the competition and are using aggressive marketing strategies to promote their business. Businesses to business portals are very useful for those who want to grab new market opportunities and increase their market size. You can become member of various marketing websites to reach international marketplaces. Online marketing websites are offering various services to improve your business performance. The advanced facilities offered by B2B online marketing portals lead to increase online users. Online marketing websites are contributing towards increase in market size of e-commerce market.

Source: http://www.icm2010.com/e-commerce-and-business-to-business-online-market.asp

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Rotoworld NFC Grades: Niners strike gold

The 2013 NFL draft concluded Saturday evening. Rotoworld blurbed every single selection, picks one (Eric Fisher) through 254 (Justice Cunningham).

After a grueling three days of ?work,? we'll put the finishing touches on our intensive draft coverage with post-draft grades.

But let's be clear: We don't believe in assessing draft hauls immediately after the three-day event. This is for your pleasure. If you're reading this intro, you're interested. And we want to appeal to you. Don't take these grades too seriously. We'll know a lot more about this draft around 2016.

I'll break down the AFC on Sunday. Here are the NFC Draft Grades:

Arizona Cardinals

7. Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina.
45. Kevin Minter, inside linebacker, LSU.
69. Tyrann Mathieu, free safety, LSU.
103. Alex Okafor, outside linebacker, Texas.
116. Earl Watford, guard/center, James Madison.
140. Stepfan Taylor, running back, Stanford.
174. Ryan Swope, receiver, Texas A&M.
187. Andre Ellington, running back, Clemson.
219. D.C. Jefferson, tight end, Rutgers.

Overview: Rookie GM Steve Keim's first-ever draft looks solid on paper. In Cooper, Minter, Mathieu, and Okafor, Keim secured as many as four immediate starters for a roster that needed them. Sixth-rounder Ellington is a better back than fifth-rounder Taylor and will add juice to Bruce Arians' offense should injury-prone Rashard Mendenhall and Ryan Williams break down again. I would like to have seen the Cardinals add a developmental quarterback like Tennessee's Tyler Bray, although Arians may believe he already has one in Ryan Lindley. A lingering concern in Arizona is offensive tackle play. The Cards attacked guard instead -- and in Cooper got an outstanding player -- but Levi Brown is still a worrisome proposition on Carson Palmer's blindside.

Grade: C+

Atlanta Falcons

22. Desmond Trufant, cornerback, Washington.
60. Robert Alford, cornerback, SE Louisiana.
127. Malliciah Goodman, defensive end, Clemson.
133. Levine Toilolo, tight end, Stanford.
153. Stansly Maponga, defensive end, TCU.
243. Kemal Ishmael, safety, Central Florida.
244. Zeke Motta, strong safety, Notre Dame.
249. Sean Renfree, quarterback, Duke.

Overview: The Falcons may receive universally mediocre draft "grades," but there is a method to GM Thomas Dimitroff's madness. Beyond day-one starter Trufant and 2014 hopeful Alford, Dimitroff targeted players for specific on-field roles. Goodman is a classic 4-3 strong-side end with vine-line arms and powerful performance on tape. He's an edge container. Toilolo isn't Tony Gonzalez's heir apparent; he's an in-line tight end who'll push for snaps as a rookie if he blocks well in practice. Maponga is an edge-rushing specialist. Ishmael and Motta should both be immediate core special teamers. Renfree could develop into Matt Ryan's long-term backup and a future trade chip if his arm gets stronger while riding the bench. Ultimately, Dimitroff wasn't trying to load up on stars in this draft. He added role players to upgrade the bottom third of his roster.

Grade: C+

Carolina Panthers

14. Star Lotulelei, defensive tackle, Utah.
44. Kawann Short, defensive tackle, Purdue.
108. Edmund Kugbila, guard, Valdosta State.
148. A.J. Klein, linebacker, Iowa State.
182. Kenjon Barner, running back, Oregon.

Overview: Rookie GM Dave Gettleman entered his first draft with five picks and emerged with five players. He clearly prioritized upgrading in the trenches and delivered by securing the draft's premier defensive tackle in Lotulelei. Short's motor ran alarmingly hot and cold in the Big Ten, but he can be an impact interior pass rusher working in waves with Lotulelei, Dwan Edwards, and Sione Fua. Klein is solid insurance should Jon Beason's numerous surgical recoveries experience a setback. I think it's fair to wonder if the Barner pick foreshadows a DeAngelo Williams transaction. At the very least, it's a confirmation 2013 will be Williams' final season in Carolina. While he continues to build one of the NFL's most underrated defensive front sevens, Gettleman displayed a surprising amount of faith in his shaky receiver and secondary corps.

Grade: C

Chicago Bears

20. Kyle Long, guard, Oregon.
50. Jon Bostic, inside linebacker, Florida.
117. Khaseem Greene, outside linebacker, Rutgers.
163. Jordan Mills, tackle/guard, Louisiana Tech.
188. Cornelius Washington, defensive end, Georgia.
236. Marquess Wilson, receiver, Washington State.

Overview: I expected GM Phil Emery to stay true to his board on the draft's first day. I'm not sure he did with the Long pick -- it seemed like need-based reach on an inexperienced, boom-or-bust lineman -- but Emery went value searching on days two and three. Bostic is an athletic thumper who'll give D.J. Williams a run for his money at inside 'backer, replacing Brian Urlacher. Greene's pre-draft measurables disappointed, but he is fast to the football and NFL-ready after earning back-to-back Big East Defensive POY awards in Rutgers' pro-style system. Washington is an explosive edge pass rusher with starting-caliber tools. He was robbery toward the back end of the third day. If Wilson's head is on straight, he's capable of earning an immediate spot in Chicago's three-receiver package with Brandon Marshall in the slot and Alshon Jeffery outside.

Grade: B-

Dallas Cowboys

31. Travis Frederick, guard/center, Wisconsin.
47. Gavin Escobar, tight end, San Diego State.
74. Terrance Williams, receiver, Baylor.
80. J.J. Wilcox, safety, Georgia Southern.
114. B.W. Webb, defensive back, William & Mary.
151. Joseph Randle, running back, Oklahoma State.
185. DeVonte Holloman, linebacker, South Carolina.

Overview: Owner/GM Jerry Jones' draft strategy seemed very needs- rather than value-based, spurning better players in favor of theoretical hole-fillers. The Cowboys were needy on the interior offensive line, but I'd be willing to wager they could've gotten Frederick with the 47th pick. Escobar can create passing-game mismatches, but offers zero as a blocker and isn't necessarily an upgrade on incumbent No. 2 tight end James Hanna. Williams and Holloman were probably the only two true value picks in this group. Randle is a stiff, straight-linish runner with an awfully long way to go in pass protection. I watched tape on him before the draft and found him to be a whiffer in blitz pickup and thoroughly lacking in elusiveness. It would be difficult to say with any confidence that Dallas' lineup improved with this draft. And they entered it with a mediocre roster.

Grade: D

Detroit Lions

5. Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, BYU.
36. Darius Slay, cornerback, Mississippi State.
65. Larry Warford, guard, Kentucky.
132. Devin Taylor, defensive end, South Carolina.
165. Sam Martin, punter, Appalachian State.
171. Corey Fuller, receiver, Virginia Tech.
199. Theo Riddick, running back, Notre Dame.
211. Michael Williams, tight end, Alabama.
245. Brandon Hepburn, linebacker, Florida A&M.

Overview: Left tackle seemed to be GM Martin Mayhew's biggest need entering the draft, but his selections indicate he feels otherwise. Mayhew must have a lot of faith in 2012 first-rounder Riley Reiff. He bypassed Menelik Watson for Slay. Rather than Terron Armstead, Mayhew selected Warford to add a mauling presence at right guard. I still found this to be a value-heavy draft. Ansah, Slay, and Warford are Week 1 starters. Taylor, Fuller, Williams, and even versatile Riddick could make year-one impacts. Ansah has been knocked as a possible bust by some observers, but the Lions' coaching staff has special insight after coaching him in Mobile. I thought Mayhew stayed true to his board and -- aside from perhaps the punter -- drafted the best available at each pick.

Grade: B-

Green Bay Packers

26. Datone Jones, defensive end, UCLA.
61. Eddie Lacy, running back, Alabama.
109. David Bakhtiari, guard/tackle, Colorado.
122. J.C. Tretter, guard/center, Cornell.
125. Johnathan Franklin, running back, UCLA.
159. Micah Hyde, defensive back, Iowa.
167. Josh Boyd, defensive lineman, Mississippi State.
193. Nate Palmer, outside linebacker, Illinois State.
216. Charles Johnson, receiver, Grand Valley State.
224. Kevin Dorsey, receiver, Maryland.
232. Sam Barrington, linebacker, South Florida.

Overview: GM Ted Thompson annually dominates on draft day; it's where he butters his bread. The Packers are not a free-agency team. Jones is a relentless, potentially special inside rusher who finally gives Green Bay a legitimate replacement for Cullen Jenkins. Lacy and Franklin can form a Thunder & Lightning backfield with the former as a light-footed wrecking ball and latter in the big-play, change-up role. Both rookies can pick up the blitz and play on all three downs. Bakhtiari is a heady, athletic mover and fit for the Packers' zone scheme. Hyde, Palmer, and Barrington are core special teams guys. Johnson abused his competition at small-school Grand Valley State and has Julio Jones-like measurables. The value on Lacy, Franklin, and Johnson was sensational. Chalk up another draft-weekend "win" for arguably the top GM in the sport.

Grade: B+

Minnesota Vikings

23. Sharrif Floyd, defensive tackle, Florida.
25. Xavier Rhodes, cornerback, Florida State.
29. Cordarrelle Patterson, receiver, Tennessee.
120. Gerald Hodges, linebacker, Penn State.
155. Jeff Locke, punter, UCLA.
196. Jeff Baca, guard/center, UCLA.
213. Michael Mauti, linebacker, Penn State.
214. Travis Bond, guard, North Carolina.
229. Everett Dawkins, defensive tackle, Florida State.

Overview: Keep in mind GM Rick Spielman dumped game-changing slot receiver and return specialist Percy Harvin for the 25th and 214th picks, in addition to a 2014 third-rounder. That deal must be factored into Minnesota's grade. Spielman acknowledged the big loss and responded by targeting big-play ability from his hat trick of first-rounders. Floyd is a penetrating three-technique tackle ideally suited for Leslie Frazier's 4-3 scheme. The Vikings paired Rhodes (6-foot-2, 210) with Chris Cook (6-foot-2, 212) to form one of the NFL's biggest, longest corner duos as they attempt to slow Calvin Johnson, Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Brandon Marshall, and Alshon Jeffery in the NFC North. The Patterson pick at the very least offsets Harvin's special teams value because Cordarrelle offers similar game-breaking return skills and arguably just as much receiving upside. Patterson is a freak. I liked athletic mover Baca as a late-round value.

Grade: B-

The 2013 NFL draft concluded Saturday evening. Rotoworld blurbed every single selection, picks one (Eric Fisher) through 254 (Justice Cunningham).

After a grueling three days of ?work,? we'll put the finishing touches on our intensive draft coverage with post-draft grades.

I'll break down the AFC on Sunday. Here are the NFC Draft Grades:

Arizona Cardinals

Grade: C+

Atlanta Falcons

Grade: C+

Carolina Panthers

Grade: C

Chicago Bears

Grade: B-

Dallas Cowboys

Grade: D

Detroit Lions

Grade: B-

Green Bay Packers

Grade: B+

Minnesota Vikings

Grade: B-

New Orleans Saints

15. Kenny Vaccaro, free safety, Texas.
75. Terron Armstead, left tackle, Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
82. John Jenkins, nose tackle, Georgia.
144. Kenny Stills, receiver, Oklahoma.
183. Rufus Johnson, defensive end, Tarleton State.

Overview: GM Mickey Loomis was working without a second-round pick due to Bountygate, but still landed two day-two values in Armstead and Jenkins and arguably a third on day three in speedster Stills. Vaccaro can team with Malcolm Jenkins to give Rob Ryan two safeties with range and one-on-one matchup skills, likely pushing overpriced box SS Roman Harper out the door. Jenkins is a mammoth athlete with a Haynesworthian ceiling. Johnson is a dominant small schooler with plus measurables, and Loomis has hit on that kind of player before (Akiem Hicks, Jermon Bushrod, Jahri Evans, Marques Colston). The Saints only added five players, but they were all quality picks. The Saints are going to be much better than they were last year.

Grade: C+

New York Giants

19. Justin Pugh, guard/tackle, Syracuse.
49. Johnathan Hankins, defensive tackle, Ohio State.
81. Damontre Moore, defensive end, Texas A&M.
110. Ryan Nassib, quarterback, Syracuse.
152. Cooper Taylor, safety, Richmond.
224. Eric Herman, guard, Ohio.
253. Michael Cox, running back, UMass.

Overview: Much like Ted Thompson in Green Bay and Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore, Giants GM Jerry Reese is a best-available drafter. If he'd have selected his first three players in January and you didn't know the rounds, you would've figured he traded up for three first-round picks. Each player has a flaw -- short arms for Pugh, motor for Hankins, and translatable production for Moore -- but they're all great football players. Moore dominated in the SEC; 8.0 of his 12.5 sacks last year came versus conference opponents. Pugh permitted a half-sack of Nassib and otherwise didn't allow a single hurry. Hankins offers elite potential as a 4-3 nose guard. Nassib was a sheer value pick, while Taylor, Herman, and to a lesser extent Cox offer versatile, "multiple" skill sets and plus measurables. This draft gives the G-Men a needed infusion of young talent, even if only Pugh and perhaps Hankins are surefire first-season contributors.

Grade: B

Philadelphia Eagles

4. Lane Johnson, right tackle, Oklahoma.
35. Zach Ertz, tight end, Stanford.
67. Bennie Logan, defensive tackle, LSU.
98. Matt Barkley, quarterback, USC.
136. Earl Wolff, free safety, North Carolina State.
212. Joe Kruger, defensive end, Utah.
218. Jordan Poyer, cornerback, Oregon State.
239. David King, defensive end, Oklahoma.

Overview: The draftnik community should love this group because aside from seventh-rounder King every member has a big name. They are all identifiable. The first two picks look like surefire hits; Johnson is an outstanding match for Chip Kelly's fast-paced offense as a well-oiled athlete with second- and even third-level blocking skills. Ertz can stretch the field vertically and creates downfield separation better than consensus top tight end Tyler Eifert. Logan and Barkley were odd picks because the former's fit is questionable in Philly's new three-man front and Barkley lacks athleticism in addition to starting-caliber arm strength. All of Philly's rookies look like good values -- particularly Kruger and Poyer -- but this haul included a lot of head scratchers. I still feel confident saying the Eagles' roster improved with this draft, and quite possibly significantly.

Grade: C+

San Francisco 49ers

18. Eric Reid, free safety, LSU.
40. Tank Carradine, outside linebacker, Florida State.
55. Vance McDonald, tight end, Rice.
88. Corey Lemonier, outside linebacker, Auburn.
128. Quinton Patton, receiver, Louisiana Tech.
131. Marcus Lattimore, running back, South Carolina.
157. Quinton Dial, defensive end, Alabama.
180. Nick Moody, linebacker, Florida State.
237. B.J. Daniels, quarterback, South Florida.
246. Carter Bykowski, tackle, Iowa State.
252. Marcus Cooper, cornerback, Rutgers.

Overview: The rich got richer. The 49ers entered Thursday with an NFL-most 13 picks. GM Trent Baalke turned them into very arguably the most impressive haul in the league, along the way picking up a 2014 third-rounder in Friday's trade with the Titans. Only Reid and McDonald may be definite first-year contributors, but that's far more a testament to Baalke's roster building than his individual selections. Carradine is a to-the-whistle edge rusher who along with Lattimore could be "redshirted" as a rookie due to knee woes, before emerging as plus 2014 starters. Patton is a silky smooth route runner with ball skills and insurance on contract-year No. 1 wideout Michael Crabtree. Lemonier might have been a first-rounder had he not played on such a bad Auburn team. San Francisco is filthy rich with pass rush. Baalke is constructing a dynasty.

Grade: A

Seattle Seahawks

62. Christine Michael, running back, Texas A&M.
87. Jordan Hill, defensive tackle, Penn State.
123. Chris Harper, receiver, Kansas State.
137. Jesse Williams, nose tackle, Alabama.
138. Tharold Simon, cornerback, LSU.
158. Luke Willson, tight end, Rice.
194. Spencer Ware, fullback, LSU.
220. Ryan Seymour, guard, Vanderbilt.
231. Ty Powell, defensive end, Harding.
241. Jared Smith, defensive tackle, New Hampshire.
242. Michael Bowie, tackle, NE Oklahoma State.

Overview: Per GM John Schneider, the Seahawks spent Thursday night watching Percy Harvin's YouTube highlight reel after sacrificing the Nos. 25 and 214 picks, and next year's third-rounder in exchange for the NFL's premier slot receiver. Understandable. The Harvin acquisition is factored into Seattle's grade. Schneider finally went on the clock Friday night and simply made picks straight off his board. Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin? Who cares. Michael is the best player. He's ours. Harvin, Sidney Rice, Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin? We'll take Harper and his Boldinian skill set. Williams is an immovable beast who makes us better in the trenches. Pick him. Simon is a press-man corner. Perfect scheme fit. Draft him. Late picks were primarily reserved for small schoolers and test freaks. Upside players who don't hurt you if they bust. The Seahawks have drafted just like this every year under Schneider and Pete Carroll. Seems like it's working.

Grade: A-

St. Louis Rams

8. Tavon Austin, receiver, West Virginia.
30. Alec Ogletree, linebacker, Georgia.
71. T.J. McDonald, safety, USC.
92. Stedman Bailey, receiver, West Virginia.
113. Barrett Jones, center/guard, Alabama.
149. Brandon McGee, cornerback, Miami.
160. Zac Stacy, running back, Vanderbilt.

Overview: A year after unearthing small-schoolers Brian Quick, Greg Zuerlein, Trumaine Johnson, and Daryl Richardson, GM Les Snead took an all-big-school approach. This draft was dedicated to playmakers, and St. Louis accomplished its goal even if some members (McDonald, Jones, to a lesser extent Stacy) may struggle with the college-to-pro transition due to major flaws. Austin was the premier offensive-skill player in the 2013 draft, and Snead offset his losses in the trade up to No. 8 by trading down from the 22nd spot. He still came away with a day-one starter in Ogletree, whose character issues are concerning but not as much under coach Jeff Fisher. Bailey was a great value late in round three and fortifies St. Louis' receiver depth behind Austin, Quick, and Chris Givens. The McDonald pick lowers the Rams' grade because he is a tight-hipped, straight-line safety with inconsistent physicality. Jones projects as no more than an NFL reserve.

Grade: B-

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

43. Johnthan Banks, cornerback, Mississippi State.
73. Mike Glennon, quarterback, North Carolina State.
100. Akeem Spence, defensive tackle, Illinois.
126. William Gholston, defensive end, Michigan State.
147. Steven Means, defensive end, Buffalo.
189. Mike James, running back, Miami.

Overview: Not forgotten in the Bucs' grade is the acquisition of Darrelle Revis for the 13th pick, plus a 2014 third-rounder. He is a Hall of Fame talent capable of masking multiple defensive weaknesses and every bit worth the cost. GM Mark Dominik otherwise came away with a slightly questionable draft, noticeably failing to add a pass-catching tight end. Banks is a cornerback/safety 'tweener who was beaten deep too frequently as a senior. Three-technique prospect Spence has ability, but was not a finisher in the Big Ten and is ultimately an underachiever. Same goes for Gholston, who is Vernon's cousin. Means is probably a special teamer at best. James is a plodder on tape, and I wouldn't expect him to make the 53. Glennon is a schematic fit in Tampa's vertical offense. His selection puts Josh Freeman on notice.

Grade: B

Washington Redskins

51. David Amerson, cornerback, North Carolina State.
85. Jordan Reed, tight end, Florida.
119. Phillip Thomas, free safety, Fresno State.
154. Chris Thompson, running back, Florida State.
162. Brandon Jenkins, outside linebacker, Florida State.
191. Bacarri Rambo, free safety, Georgia.
228. Jawan Jamison, running back, Rutgers.

Overview: GM Bruce Allen and coach Mike Shanahan's draft focus was on ballhawks, and they came away with three in 2011 NCAA interceptions leader Amerson, 2012 NCAA picks leader Thomas, and Rambo -- who ranked second to Amerson in INTs two years ago. But Rambo and Thomas can't tackle and Amerson got beat deep more than any cornerback in college football last season. Both running back picks are potential throwaways; Thompson broke his back in 2011 and tore his ACL in 2012, and Jamison doesn't do anything well. Jenkins was a big-time sack specialist in 2010, but is coming off a Lisfranc fracture. Reed is a potential "Joker" tight end who could contribute on passing downs. Washington drafted a slew of big names and added productive collegiates, but I'm not sure they got more than one or two productive NFL starters.

Grade: C

Source: http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/43159/174/draft-2013-nfc-draft-grades

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FAA says air travel system to be normal by Sunday night

* Lewandowski scored four goals against Real Madrid * Poland international refuses contract extension (adds details, background) BERLIN, April 26 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski have not signed a deal, the newly-crowned champions said on Friday, shooting down widespread speculation of another imminent surprise transfer. "Bayern, as opposed to some reports, has no contract with Robert Lewandowski," the Bavarian Champions League semi-finalists said in a brief statement. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/faa-says-air-travel-system-normal-sunday-night-171531869.html

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Study finds Galaxy S4 screen to be huge improvement over Galaxy S III

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-finds-galaxy-s4-screen-huge-improvement-over-030002672.html

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Facebook CEO reaped $2.3B gain on stock options

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaped a gain of nearly $2.3 billion last year when he exercised 60 million stock options just before the online social networking leader's initial public offering.

The windfall detailed in regulatory documents filed Friday saddled Zuckerberg, 28, with a massive tax bill. He raised the money to pay it by selling 30.2 million Facebook Inc. shares for $38 apiece, or $1.1 billion, in the IPO.

Facebook's stock hasn't closed above $38 since the IPO was completed last May. The shares gained 71 cents Friday to close at $26.85.

The 29 percent decline from Facebook's IPO price has cost Zuckerberg nearly $7 billion on paper, based on the 609.5 million shares of company stock that he owned as of March 31, according to the regulatory filing. His current stake is still worth $16.4 billion.

Zuckerberg, who started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004, has indicated he has no immediate plans to sell more stock.

The exercise of Zuckerberg's stock options and his subsequent sale of shares in the IPO had been previously disclosed. The proxy statement filed to announce Facebook's June 11 shareholder meeting is the first time that the magnitude of Zuckerberg's stock option gain had been quantified.

The proxy also revealed that Zuckerberg's pay package last year rose 16 percent because of increased personal usage of jets chartered by the company as part of his security program.

Zuckerberg's compensation last year totaled nearly $2 million, up from $1.7 million last year. Of those amounts, $1.2 million covered the costs of Zuckerberg's personal air travel last year, up from $692,679 in 2011.

If not for the spike in travel costs, Zuckerberg's pay would have declined by 17 percent. His salary and bonus totaled $769,306 last year versus $928,833 in 2011.

Zuckerberg will take a big pay cut this year. His annual salary has been reduced to $1 and he will no longer receive a bonus, according to Facebook's filing. That puts Zuckerberg's current cash compensation on the same level as Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page, whose stake in his company is worth about $20 billion.

The Associated Press formula for determining an executive's total compensation calculates salary, bonuses, perquisites, above-market interest that the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits or stock option gains such as those recognized by Zuckerberg did last year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-26-Facebook-Executive%20Compensation/id-23de47cd6de5470db02b6a33e635a8e2

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