Five Best Mobile Sports Trackers [Hive Five]

When the big game is on but you have to head out and away fro the TV, staying on top of the action while you're away from the big screen has never been easier. There are several mobile apps and services that will make sure you never miss a big score and let you cheer your favorite team on even when you're not watching the game. Here's a look at five of the most popular, based on reader nominations.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which apps or services you used on the go to stay on top of your favorite games and matchups, whether you just wanted to know the score or you were interested in a play-by-play. You responded, and now we're back to highlight the top five. Photo by Audrey Pilato.

Yahoo! Sportacular (iOS/Android)

The Yahoo! Sportacular mobile app lets you keep set up watch lists of your favorite teams and players so you can stay on top of their performance when you're on the go. Whether you're working late or have to miss a game because of another appointment, you'll be able to track the scores and the get alerts for scoring plays and tight-score situations in real time just by firing up the app. Sportacular lets you check in to events, and offers coverage of major league and college sports in the United States, and multiple major futbol leagues in Europe.

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ScoreMobile (iOS/Android/BlackBerry/WP7)

With support for major leagues in the US, auto racing, MMA, futbol in European leagues, tennis, and even Cricket, ScoreMobile bills itself as the best sports app ever. The app also supports live push notifications when the tide of a game changes, a team scores, or another major game-changing event takes place. If you're a soccer fan in the US or a futbol fan anywhere else in the world, ScoreMobile FC tracks over 60 leagues and teams in over 20 countries. Plus, the app has tablet-specific apps for the iPad, Android Honeycomb tablets, and Windows slates.

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ESPN Scorecenter (iOS/Android/WP7)

Brought to you by the most well-known name in broadcast sports, ESPN Scorecenter brings you play-by-play events and scores in almost every major sport worldwide, including American major league sports, tennis, cricket, and hundreds of national and international soccer leagues and tournaments. In addition to comprehensive coverage, you can also create personalized scoreboards and get live game details, like the last play and the last scoring play. You can set up push-alerts for scores and games involving your favorite teams. Of course, since the app was built by ESPN, you can expect video clips and other in-depth game analysis from ESPN anchors and experts.

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SportsTap (iOS/Android)

SportsTap comes in the form of a mobile site and mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. All platforms give you direct access to game scores, team standings, player information, and more for almost every major American sports league and then some, including futbol and tennis. Like many of the other apps, you can set up push notifications for important events, and in the Android app you can set up a homescreen widget to stay informed just by glancing at your phone.

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Twitter

A number of you pointed out that if you're really interested in a play-by-play with behind the scenes action, all you have to do is follow the right Twitter accounts. Whether it's the official accounts of the teams that you love, or some of the players on those teams, sometimes following the right Twitter account is the difference between getting the official account of the game and what's really being said on the sidelines.

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Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to vote for an all out winner.

Honorable mentions this week go to the NFL ?11 mobile app, which a number of you noted is the perfect way to stay on top of your favorite games, players, and scores now that American football season is in full swing. Some of you also mentioned that Google had a good thing going with Google Scoreboard, which was a great sports tracker for Android, but Google neglected it, and then eventually pulled it from the Android Market. Unfortunately it's no longer available, which means we can't include it in the roundup.

Do you have a favorite sports app that didn't make it into the roundup? Have something to say in defense of one of the contenders? Have your say in the comments.

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You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/yK1sjyPR3JA/five-best-mobile-sports-trackers

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AP source: Big East to invite Boise St, 3 others (AP)

NEW YORK ? The Big East plans to invite Boise State, Air Force and Navy as football-only members, and Central Florida to compete in all sports, after it doubles the exit fee for current members to $10 million.

An official in the Big East, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conference had not authorized anyone to speak publicly about its plans, told The Associated Press the invitations could go out as soon as next week.

The official also said Commissioner John Marinatto was in Cincinnati on Friday meeting with UCF's president and athletic director.

Conferences do not publicly invite new members unless they are confident those invitations will be accepted.

CBS Sports first reported the Big East would invite Boise State, Air Force, Navy and UCF.

The Big East announced earlier this week it wanted to expand to 12 football schools.

Big East officials made protecting the league's automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series their expansion priority. That pushed Boise State, which is in its first season in the Mountain West Conference after a decade in the Western Athletic Conference, to the top of the Big East's most wanted list, along with the service academies.

The Broncos are 71-5 since 2006, finished 10th in the final BCS standings last season and at 5-0 seem on their way to a top-10 finish. Big East officials believe putting Boise State's record on the Big East's ledger when the BCS reviews which leagues should have automatic bids beyond 2013 should allow the conference to make the cut.

The Mountain West Conference does not have an automatic bid to the BCS. Nor does Conference USA, where UCF currently plays.

Later Friday, those two leagues announced they would "consolidate" their 22 football programs by 2013.

MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson said he has been notified by the leaders of Boise State and Air Force that they had been in contact with the Big East, but the presidents of those schools also participated in the league's unanimous vote to approve the merger with CUSA.

He said the merger creates stability and is a "viable option" for Boise State and Air Force, but he would not speculate on what those schools would do.

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said the president of UCF took part in his conference's vote and that he and Marinatto have been in contact about Central Florida.

"I hope UCF will stay," he said. "But if a school feels like it's in a better situation somewhere else that's OK."

Both commissioners said they are having internal discussions with their members about possibly adding other schools.

Right now, the Big East has only six schools committed to play football in the league beyond this season.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse have announced they will move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, though Big East rules require them to stay in the league for the next two seasons and Marinatto has said he will hold the Panthers and Orange to that. However, that seems unlikely if the league can grow to 12 teams for next season without them.

TCU was slated to join the Big East in 2012, but the Horned Frogs reneged on that commitment and accepted an invite to the Big 12 last week.

Trying to recruit new members has been tricky for the Big East because its remaining members might also be looking for new conference homes.

Louisville and West Virginia are possible targets for the Big 12 if it needs to replace Missouri, which is pondering a move to the Southeastern Conference, or decides to expand back to 12 teams.

Connecticut has interest in joining the ACC if it expands again, and there has been speculation about Rutgers moving, too.

By raising the exit fee, the Big East is trying to show the schools it is recruiting that the conference will be viable in the long run. Boise State, Air Force, which also competes in the MWC, and Navy, an independent in football, all had reservations about the Big East's long-term health.

The Big East is still considering adding Temple, and UCF's CUSA rivals SMU and Houston. Temple, which was kicked out of the Big East in 2005, plays football in the Mid-American Conference.

The Texas schools would replace the presence in the state the Big East thought it was going to have with TCU, and help make the move to the Big East more palatable to Boise State.

Boise, Idaho, is nearly 1,900 miles from the closest current Big East member, Louisville. Though the trip to Houston is about as far, having a presence in Texas is alluring to Boise State.

Boise State and Air Force would have to find a conference to house their other sports. A return to the WAC is possible for both, though WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said Friday that he has only had hypothetical conversations with Boise State and Air Force officials about those schools joining as non-football members.

The Big East also has eight members that do not compete in football: Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul and Notre Dame.

Notre Dame's goal is to remain a football independent, but if the Big East crumbles the Fighting Irish could end up with no place for their basketball, baseball and Olympic sports to compete. That could force Notre Dame to finally give up football independence and put its storied program in a conference, because it's unlikely another league will give the Irish the same deal they have in the Big East.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at http://Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_big_east_expansion

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Carbon nanotube muscles generate giant twist for novel motors

Friday, October 14, 2011

New artificial muscles that twist like the trunk of an elephant, but provide a thousand times higher rotation per length, were announced on Oct. 13 for a publication in Sciencemagazine by a team of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Wollongong in Australia, The University of British Columbia in Canada, and Hanyang University in Korea.

These muscles, based on carbon nanotubes yarns, accelerate a 2000 times heavier paddle up to 590 revolutions per minute in 1.2 seconds, and then reverse this rotation when the applied voltage is changed. The demonstrated rotation of 250 per millimeter of muscle length is over a thousand times that of previous artificial muscles, which are based on ferroelectrics, shape memory alloys, or conducting organic polymers. The output power per yarn weight is comparable to that for large electric motors, and the weight-normalized performance of these conventional electric motors severely degrades when they are downsized to millimeter scale.

These muscles exploit strong, tough, highly flexible yarns of carbon nanotubes, which consist of nanoscale cylinders of carbon that are ten thousand times smaller in diameter than a human hair. Important for success, these nanotubes are spun into helical yarns, which means that they have left and right handed versions (like our hands), depending upon the direction of rotation during twisting the nanotubes to make yarn. Rotation is torsional, meaning that twist occurs in one direction until a limiting rotation results, and then rotation can be reversed by changing the applied voltage. Left and right hand yarns rotate in opposite directions when electrically charged, but in both cases the effect of charging is to partially untwist the yarn.

Unlike conventional motors, whose complexity makes them difficult to miniaturize, the torsional carbon nanotube muscles are simple to inexpensively construct in either very long or millimeter lengths. The nanotube torsional motors consist of a yarn electrode and a counter-electrode, which are immersed in an ionically conducting liquid. A low voltage battery can serve as the power source, which enables electrochemical charge and discharge of the yarn to provide torsional rotation in opposite directions. In the simplest case, the researchers attach a paddle to the nanotube yarn, which enables torsional rotation to do useful work ? like mixing liquids on "micro-fluidic chips" used for chemical analysis and sensing.

The mechanism of torsional rotation is remarkable. Charging the nanotube yarns is like charging a supercapacitor - ions migrate into the yarns to electrostatically balance the electronic charge electrically injected onto the nanotubes. Although the yarns are porous, this influx of ions causes the yarn to increase volume, shrink in length by up to a percent, and torsionally rotate. This surprising shrinkage in yarn length as its volume increases is explained by the yarn's helical structure, which is similar in structure to finger cuff toys that trap a child's fingers when elongated, but frees them when shortened.

Nature has used torsional rotation based on helically wound muscles for hundreds of millions of years, and exploits this action for such tasks as twisting the trunks of elephants and octopus limbs. In these natural appendages, helically wound muscle fibers cause rotation by contracting against an essentially incompressible, bone-less core. On the other hand, the helically wound carbon nanotubes in the nanotube yarns are undergoing little change in length, but are instead causing the volume of liquid electrolyte within the porous yarn to increase during electrochemical charging, so that torsional rotation occurs.

The combination of mechanical simplicity, giant torsional rotations, high rotation rates, and micron-size yarn diameters are attractive for applications, such as microfluidic pumps, valve drives, and mixers. In a fluidic mixer demonstrated by the researchers, a 15 micron diameter yarn rotated a 200 times larger radius and 80 times heavier paddle in flowing liquids at up to one rotation per second.

"The discovery, characterization, and understanding of these high performance torsional motors shows the power of international collaborations", said Ray H. Baughman, a corresponding author of the author of the Science article and Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and director of The University of Texas at Dallas Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute. "Researchers from four universities in three different continents that were born in eight different countries made critically important contributions."

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University of Texas at Dallas: http://www.utdallas.edu

Thanks to University of Texas at Dallas for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114287/Carbon_nanotube_muscles_generate_giant_twist_for_novel_motors

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Blame game looms over BlackBerry email delays (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? BlackBerry maker Research In Motion faced the prospect of a compensation bill from network providers on Thursday as it wrestled for a fourth day to get the world's dominant mobile email service working properly.

RIM said services were starting to improve in all affected regions, reducing disruption for the millions of users hit by delays and outages this week.

But significant damage may have been done to a business that had its share of troubles already, and a hefty bill to compensate customers could well land at RIM's door.

Spanish group Telefonica said on its website it would compensate customers, in line with Spanish law, and Britain's Vodafone is looking at the issue too.

"We are reviewing our options in terms of compensation," said a Vodafone spokesman. He would not be drawn on whether such costs might be passed on to RIM, but analysts said there was little doubt the British group and other operators would try.

"In the past there have been outages but they have been limited to an hour here and an hour there and the operators have been tempted to let that go," said Will Draper, analyst at Espirito Santo.

"They have not been happy about it but it is not the kind of thing you go to court over. But this is completely different. This is a three-day outage. This is 10 percent of your working month, so I am pretty sure there will be compensation claims and I am pretty sure they will try and pass it on to RIM, but my feeling is it will be very difficult to make it stick."

The Spanish Consumer Association FACUA estimated clients would receive 0.23-1.90 euros ($0.31-$2.62) for each 24 hours of service interruption. At such a rate, one full day's compensation to all 70 million BlackBerry users worldwide could cost the telecoms industry as much as 133 million euros ($183 million).

RIM is unique among handset makers in that it compresses and encrypts data before pushing it to BlackBerry devices via carrier networks. Apple and other rivals rely on the carrier networks to handle all routing and delivery of content.

But other providers are hitting it with smarter handsets and many with free offerings. Overnight, Apple started rolling out new version of its iOS software, which includes BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)-like iMessage service.

"Clearly there are issues. And clearly this has come at a bad time - just as Apple are launching their rival service to BBM," said a person at the major European retailer which sells Blackberry products.

SERVICES RECOVER

RIM said there had been a significant improvement for services and some users said services had started to work again, although there were still some delays.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a video posted on BlackBerry's Youtube channel it was too early to call the problem solved and he could not estimate time for full recovery.

"We are seeing steady improvements," Lazaridis said. "We expect to see continued progress, possibly some instability as the system comes back to normal service levels everywhere."

Singapore employees of global news and data provider Thomson Reuters were still having problems on Thursday but colleagues in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Beijing, Tokyo, Jakarta and Bangkok said BlackBerry service was normal.

The outages -- and RIM's sluggish communications with its customers -- have fanned rising dissatisfaction Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, RIM's other CEO.

Critics have called for a shake-up, saying the top managers have let the company fall too far behind Apple and other rivals in a rapidly changing market.

RIM shares have tumbled more than 50 percent this year on a series of profit warnings and product missteps -- a sharp reversal of fortune for a company that once dominated its market.

SILVER LINING?

Anecdotal evidence suggested some users of the device are jumping ship.

"We have lost clients. Two clients changed their BlackBerrys for an iPhone yesterday here in our boutique," said a salesman in an SFR boutique in central Paris. "They are not very satisfied."

But there are those with a BlackBerry in their pocket who sometimes half wish it wasn't there. "It's been a God-send," one user joked in an email to colleagues. Let's hope the bloody things never work again."

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki in Helsinki and Kate Holton in London; Additional reporting by Mehdi-Nicolas El Moueffak, Mark Potter and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Andrew Callus)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111013/bs_nm/us_blackberry

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Controlling cell death prevents skin inflammation

ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2011) ? The outer layer of the skin, called the epidermis, forms a critical physical and immunological wall that serves as the body's first line of defense against potentially harmful microorganisms. Most of the epidermis consists of cells called keratinocytes that build a mechanical barrier but also perform immune functions. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal Immunity provides evidence that stopping of a type of regulated cell death called "necroptosis" in keratinocytes is critical for the prevention of skin inflammation.

The Fas Associated Death Domain (FADD) protein interacts with "death receptors" to activate a well-known programmed cell death pathway called apoptosis. Death receptors have also been shown to induce necroptosis, which is a different type of cell death and is mediated by the proteins RIP1 and RIP3. "Previous studies have suggested that prevention of RIP-mediated necroptosis is essential for embryonic development," says senior study author, Dr. Manolis Pasparakis, from the University of Cologne. "However, the physiological significance of the mechanisms regulating necroptosis for normal tissue function and disease pathogenesis remains unclear."

Dr. Pasparakis and colleagues discovered that mice with epidermis-specific ablation of FADD showed spontaneous necroptosis of keratinocytes and developed severe inflammatory skin lesions within a few days of birth. Further, RIP3-dependent necrotic death of FADD-deficient keratinocytes was identified as the initiating event triggering skin inflammation. "In contrast to the well-established role as a mediator of apoptosis, we discovered that FADD performs an essential pro-survival function in keratinocytes that is crucial for the maintenance of a balanced skin immune response and the prevention of skin inflammation," reports Dr. Pasparakis.

Taken together, the findings reveal a previously unrecognized physiological role for FADD in preventing necroptosis of epidermal keratinocytes and identify sensitization of keratinocytes to RIP3-mediated cell death as a potent mechanism triggering skin inflammation. Further, these results suggest that genetic or external factors sensitizing keratinocytes necroptosis could be implicated in the pathogenesis of skin inflammation, a feature of many chronic or acute skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and drug rashes. "Our findings provide a first experimental paradigm that regulation of necroptosis is important for the maintenance of immune homeostasis and the prevention of inflammation in the skin," concludes Dr Pasparakis.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marion C. Bonnet, Daniela Preukschat, Patrick-Simon Welz, Geert van Loo, Maria A. Ermolaeva, Wilhelm Bloch, Ingo Haase, Manolis Pasparakis. The Adaptor Protein FADD Protects Epidermal Keratinocytes from Necroptosis In Vivo and Prevents Skin Inflammation. Immunity, 13 October 2011 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2011.08.014

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111013121512.htm

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Senators Press for Mass Mortgage Refi Plan | Marshfield Real Estate

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, 12:03 pm

A group of 16 senators sent a letter to regulators Tuesday, pressing for a? plan to boost mortgage refinancing for more homeowners as soon as possible. Such? a plan is being widely discussed admittedly, and now the lawmakers are ready to? see some action.

?Time is of the essence and we urge you to act quickly and aggressively to? ensure that responsible homeowners receive the full benefit of these lower? rates,? the senators said in the letter to Treasury Secretary? Timothy Geithner, Department of Housing and Urban Development? Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting? Director Edward DeMarco, and National Economic Council Director? Gene Sperling.

In September, President Obama said his administration was working on a plan,? as part of his larger jobs bill, to eliminate fees and negative equity? restrictions to refinance Fannie Mae and Freddie? Mac mortgages. The FHFA is considering changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program? to get there.

Already, the two are experiencing a refinance boom as the average mortgage rates slipped below 4%? to a new all-time low. According to the senators, there are nearly 19 million? mortgages guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie with interest rates above 5%.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Robert Menendez? (D-N.J.) led the letter Tuesday, pointing to their bill introduced earlier in? the year that would remove the loan-to-value limits, loan-level price? adjustments and second-lien holders from the refinancing process.

?All of these changes can be accomplished administratively and we urge that? you take immediate steps to do so,? the senators said. ?We also support efforts? to address other hurdles that have limited the success of current refinance? programs, including representations and warranties, mortgage insurance, and high? lender origination fees.?

At the Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference in? Chicago Tuesday, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said a plan would be coming in the? next few weeks, just as Geithner said before Congress last week.

More than 13 million homeowners have refinanced their mortgage since 2009, he? said, translating to close to $20 billion in savings.

?With HARP responsible for less than 1 million refinancing and mortgage rates? below 4%, we need to pick up the pace. We?ve been engaged in intense discussions? with FHFA, lenders, mortgage insurers and investors to enhance the program and? increase its reach,? Donovan said. ?We hope to have a plan ready in the next? couple of weeks, and we need you to use your resources and your focus to this? effort as well.?

Follow Len and Leslie Marma of Success! Real Estate on their facebook business page, ?Marshfield Matters? ?. click LIKE to receive real estate info and what?s happening in Marshfield.? They also have a blog entitled, ?LenandLeslieMarma.com?

Source: http://marshfieldrealestate.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/senators-press-for-mass-mortgage-refi-plan/

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Terence Clarke: George Clooney's The Ides of March (Huffington post)

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