Sonny Bono Dies For Naught: New Protective Fabric Comes To Ski Gear

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 03-01-11    No Comments

via Dowcorning.com

If only Sonny had Deflexion technology, there could have been a Sonny and Cher reunion tour!

Yes, fans, Dow Chemical has come up with force absorbing soft armor called Deflexion.  The pads are made of shock absorbing silicon and can take the shock out of  falls without the added bulk of padding or stiff plastics.

And Dow says the padding can be placed in sewn garments that are breathable, washable and durable.

Deflexion showed up in stuff like sailing gear, bronco riding and other rough and tumble applications last year when it came out.  And the news is, ski maker Scott is bringing the product into its ski line.

This would be just another product announcement, save for the fact that spills and chills are big right now. With concussion now issue number one for the NFL and the NHL. And if a small ski company can makes its customers safer, what’s keeping professional sport from doing the same? The answer is, nothing.

Which means if anybody is telling you that the only choices sports have is the nutty gear athletes wear now and no equipment at all, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

FIFA Sets High Bar For Goal-Line Technology

Posted by Seth in EQUIPMENT, GENERAL, STADIUM on 02-24-11    No Comments

So stodgy old FIFA finally decided to act like it wanted to embrace modern technology. Act is the operative word here.

Soccer’s governing body is apparently taking a look at goal-line sensor technology that would help determine whether the ball crossed the line or not. They had a dog and pony show last week in Zurich where 10 companies had the chance the show the FIFA muckety-mucks what they could do. But if you read between the lines of a report in England’s Guardian, the whole thing was a sham.

First of all, one of the major players in this field, Hawk-Eye Innovations, declined to participate because they didn’t care for the conditions of the test. But regardless of the circumstances, there is one key problem that leads you to believe FIFA isn’t too serious about adopting goal-line technology: They want any system they put into use to deliver a verdict to the referees that is 100 percent accurate in 1 second.

One tick. One-one-thousand. Goal or no goal? Anybody else think that’s a ridiculous expectation?

It takes time to look at the video and see if the ball got all the way across the line. Not a lot of time. But longer than one second. FIFA should talk to the folks in the NHL’s War Room in Toronto, where they monitor goal/no-goal situations every night. It doesn’t have to be as hard as FIFA is making it.

At this point, the smart money says FIFA will add a goal judge behind each net before they put in goal-line technology. When the game clock starts counting down instead of up, then we’ll start looking for soccer to seek out techno solutions.

NASCAR Goes All Electric? EVCup Set To Come To U.S.

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-23-11    No Comments

Electric cars are coming to racing.

The England-based all-electric race circuit, the EVCup, has scheduled a race for the U.S. in 2011. Never mind that the venue hasn’t been determined, the contestants are not fully fleshed out and nobody here really knows what an electric race car is.

Nonetheless, full-on electric road racing is getting real. And it’s getting real fast.

The EVcup already has six weekend events in Europe — mostly in England, and some racing teams are taking the so-called zero emission racing seriously. An outfit called Drayson Racing is committing to race a way-cool looking vehicle in the series, and several  big-name international racing minds are digging the idea of running on electrons. James Allen, who is sort of  the Don Cherry of Formula 1 in England, has been talking up electric racing in his blog.

Now, before all you NASCAR purists mock the notion of an electric stock car, keep in mind that electric vehicles now routinely race in drag formats. And successfully. The National Electric Drag Racing Association routinely has racing  that crushes all-gas competition.

How nutty is an All-Electric NASCAR Series sponsored by, say, GE?

Not nuts at all.

Comfy Running Shoes That Won’t Kill The Earth

Posted by Alex Dalenberg in EQUIPMENT on 02-23-11    No Comments

Here’s some new kicks for the runners out there: Brooks is out with its Glycerin 8 running shoes.

The neutral-cushioned shoes debut Brooks DNA, the company’s new smart cushioning system. The thermoplastic rubber soles are designed to adapt to changing force of each foot strike, making for what should be a customized ride for each individual runner, no matter their weight, gait or what kind of surface they’re running on.

It looks like the shoes have scored some good reviews so if you’re looking for a comfortable shoe that won’t leave you footsore on long runs, you may want to check this one out.

Also, if going green is your thing, the soles and shoelaces are 100 percent biodegradable.

The Daytona 500: Most-Watched Physics Experiment Ever

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-21-11    No Comments

Who burped? Via LOLNascar.com

I am not sure NASCAR realized it was getting into the turbulence theory business back in moonshine days when it ran hooch home deliveries for $200 a load.

But considering how eerily fascinating it is to watch cars you would see parked in Walmart — save some fancy paint — driving in pairs at more than 200 miles per hour, clearly NASCAR will never be the same after this year’s Daytona 500.

That NASCAR has hit ratings —  and sports business — gold with its new high-tech, uber-fast, push-racing model with in Daytona is without doubt. Not only was the event the highest=rated Daytona 500 since 2008, it was probably the hottest NASCAR story online  ever. The event grabbed nearly 3,800 media sources today. That kind of attention is usually reserved for athletes sending inappropriate pictures of themselves, not men turning left for four hours at a time.

So what was all buzz about?  That’s easy: Physics were in “phull ephfect” for this weekend’s stock car classic. The race was an afternoon-long experiment in turbulence theory. Nobody knew what would happen if you ran 43 2-ton cars 200 miles per hour in bumper-to-bumper pairs. Watching what would — or might — happen was compelling.

The results were equally fantastic.. Out of nowhere a 20-year-old rookie won the race. You can’t make it up.

The question becomes, if this is the future of NASCAR, what is the future of NASCAR’s cars? From a technological and financial standpoint, this is what we’re looking at:

• Fully Articulated All-Wheel Drive. If you are going to run bumper-to-bumper for hours on end, you have to give drivers the added control of  having both the front and back wheels drive and steer. This will give the drivers a chance to recover when cars start sliding into spins instead of watching what we have now. All it takes is one driver to hit the back end of the car in front of him, and we get a nonsensical 10-car accident. The technology is currently available in many production cars and can be easily adapted for racing. If we want real racing back, we need to give  drivers control over all wheels.
• Computer-Assisted Crash Avoidance. Again, if we are going to be racing this fast for this long, NASCAR needs to take a lesson from Formula 1 and begin installing computer-aided crash avoidance systems that allow computers to help drivers when they lose control at high speed. These systems would start making rapid decisions to keep all wheels working to control the vehicle. As much fun as it is watching NASCAR’s racing elite get wiped out in one crash, no real sponsor is going to enjoy watching their investment go up in smoke every time a bumper is touched.
• Crash-Worthy Bodies. The last piece of the new NASCAR puzzle is creating body types out of materials that can survive a collision. As light and fast as carbon parts might be, it makes no sense to have cars explode into plastic bits when they touch a wall. Making the NASCAR automotive form factors more durable should keep races competitive longer.

Add all these technologies to these cars and then you will have high-speed racing that is still tactical, aggressive and even more fun to watch.

Beer Cooling Technology Helps Weekend Warriors Heal Faster

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-21-11    No Comments

High Tech Ice Maker Saves Yet Another Weekend Warrior, via The Cambridge Network

One of the rare perks of being the nerd in a sports tech franchise is I get to sit back and mock my weekend warrior colleagues Seth and Dan when they clobber themselves playing this kid’s game or that.

This weekend it was Seth and soccer. He  had an “inappropriate experience” with another player and bashed the living heck out of his ankle.

Well, buddy this post is for you: A British firm has come up with a low-cost ice generator called the 42T that supposedly speeds the healing in sports related injuries.

It’s all got something to do with heating and cooling and compressed ice. But the best part? The 42T comes from technology developed in making beer!

Here is the company copy to keep things honest:

• The unit uses low-cost, high-efficiency refrigeration technology to create pumpable ice crystals on demand – a technology originally developed by 42T for use in the brewing industry – while at the same time inflating the compression cuff surrounding the injured area. The ice slurry is pumped into the cuff, re-circulated back to the unit to form more ice crystals as required and after 20 minutes the unit automatically infuses the cuff with warmed water to return the treated region back to normal body temperature. The system cycles between icing and warming for the prescribed course which allows treatment to be maintained through the night as the patient sleeps.

Makes you almost want to get hurt.

Adventures In Counterintuitive Thinking: Helmets Make Sports More Dangerous

Posted by Alex Dalenberg in EQUIPMENT on 02-21-11    No Comments

It seems the latest battle in the concussion wars is being fought over helmets in women’s lacrosse.

If you’ve never been to a women’s lacrosse game, I’ll fill you in: They don’t use helmets, but the sport did start requiring goggles a few years ago. Women’s lacrosse leaders would like to keep the game helmet-free — for safety’s sake — despite pushback from leaders in organizations like the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, who would like to see the ban on face guards and hard helmets lifted.

The thinking here is that the better a player is protected, the more likely that player is to take risks and play more aggressively, making the game more dangerous instead of safer.

The idea that helmets actually make sports more dangerous isn’t new. Some writers have even thrown around the sacrilegious idea of taking helmets out of football (if only as a thought experiment). The issue came up last fall amid all the debates over helmet-to-helmet hits.

What’s interesting about women’s lacrosse is that it’s a potentially dangerous sport that actually puts that theory into practice — and the idea is deeply ingrained into the sport’s culture. Despite the sport’s inclination toward finesse over brute force, athletes still suffer concussions, and, according to some sources, plenty of them.

That doesn’t stop players and coaches from vigorously defending the no-helmets policy. For one thing, athletes argue that adding more headgear would completely change the game. And let’s face it, that’s probably true. This is an argument we’re going to keep seeing across sports — how much gear can you add or take away from a sport before it’s not the same game anymore?

Soccer To Get A Techno Boost?

Posted by Seth in EQUIPMENT on 02-18-11    No Comments

Crusty old soccer, the only sport where the clock counts up instead of down, may finally get a bit of a techno makeover.

FIFA, the sport’s governing body is set to hold a meeting in early March where the organization’s executive committee may vote on whether to approve goal-line technology, allowing everyone to see for sure whether the ball actually crossed the line. As an alternative, FIFA may decide to position assistant referees behind each goal. Hey, here’s an idea: How about doing both, just like the National Hockey League. Soccer should definitely take a page from the NHL’s playbook and make use of whatever technological option there is. Give the NHL credit for that. They get the goal/no-goal calls right.

Of course, the subtext to this whole argument goes a little deeper than just nudging stodgy old FIFA toward something that resembles a 20th-century approach — let’s not even ask them to make it all the way to the 21st century. Mohamed Bin Hammam, the head of the soccer federation in Qatar, is at odds with longtime FIFA chief Sepp Blatter. The two of them are bickering over whether Qatar should agree to move the 2022 World Cup to the winter out of concern that it’s too hot to play there in the summer, which traditionally is when the World Cup is held. Bin Hammam is reportedly a proponent of goal-line technology, and he’s also considered a candidate to unseat Blatter when FIFA elects its next president later this year.

Yeah, soccer is getting political. Here’s hoping it gets a bit more technological as well. And then we can do something about the clock counting up.

Sports Cars To Car Business: Time To Get Some Carbon In Your Diet

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT on 02-14-11    No Comments

It's Not Black, Dude. It's "Carbon American:" Lamborghini Aventador is part of wave of carbon car parts: via AutoBlog

If I’m reading the techno-tea leaves properly, it looks like carbon car parts will be coming to a Camaro near you.

Two major car makers are beginning to offer limited-production car parts in carbon fiber.

Lamborghini and McLaren are both announcing that upcoming models will have significant components made from pricey and once-hard-to-deal-with carbon.

All this carbon is a good thing. Carbon fiber is lighter, stiffer and offers designers all sorts of cool options beyond what’s possible with  metal or fiberglass. But carbon can be a pain. Traditionally it’s thought of as brittle, hard to build with and insanely expensive, but not so much any more.

Carbon fiber ain’t the techno torture that it once was. The price of building from the material has gotten lower, and the technology has become easier to deal with. Overall, car makers — like bike makers, boat makers and ski makers before them — are finding applications for carbon, and the market is only growing.

This is not to say that your next Prius will have pricey carbon parts. But for the sports geek, the fact is that racing technology is filtering down into mass-produced vehicles, and we think that’s good news. Besides being more fuel efficient, carbon fiber is just flat out cool.

NHL Fighting The Good Fight On Concussions — Not!

Posted by Seth in EQUIPMENT on 02-04-11    No Comments

The National Hockey League is taking a serious look at concussions, and there is technology that might help the cause. But there’s something a lot simpler the league might do to help keep players safe: Get rid of the brawling.

Last weekend during the league’s all-star festivities, Commissioner Gary Bettman talked to a room full of reporters about an NHL concussion study. The subject has gotten a lot of attention, what with the league’s top player – Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby – on the shelf for the past month as he recovers from getting his bell rung.

The numbers of concussions are on the rise in the NHL, though Bettman stressed that inadvertent contact is primarily to blame, according to the study. The league has tried to legislate blind-side hits out of the game in the hopes of reducing the number of concussions that result from premeditated contact. Apparently that’s working.

There’s no word on what steps the NHL will take from here in order to reduce concussions, but a professor at Villanova University has developed a system for measuring brain activity that could be adapted for use in hockey helmets. The chip analyzes brain activity and provides baseline measurements that can be checked against readings after someone has suffered a blow to the head.

And that’s all well and good. We’re gaining more and more insight into the science of concussions every day.

But the fact that Bettman spent a significant chunk of his state-of-the-league address talking about concussions is really preposterous when you consider that hockey remains the only team sport where you can stand toe-to-toe with an opponent and slug the crap out of him without getting ejected from the game. Fighting in hockey gets you five minutes in the penalty box. In any other sport, it gets you an early shower and a suspension.

Hockey purists will call me a sissy, but I just don’t think the NHL can get serious about concussions and player safety while it allows players to beat the hell out of each other with their fists.

It was poetic justice that as play resumed after the all-star break this past week, we saw two high-profile fights, one of which involved Boston’s Gregory Campbell, whose father Colin Campbell is in charge of discipline for the NHL. And in the other — a simply nonsensical bout between goaltenders — New York Islanders’ netminder Rick DiPietro went down in a heap from a punch by Pittsburgh’s Brent Johnson. And now DiPietro — whom the Islanders are paying $4.5 million this season — is out 4 to 6 weeks with facial fractures.

Further, the NHL has resisted ideas that could make the game safer for players. Bombastic Canadian commentator Don Cherry has said for years that the ledge where the top of the boards meets the bottom of the glass should be covered with some sort of padding, since players often go into the boards in a crouched position and run face-first into that spot. It’s an easy fix that really wouldn’t have to cost that much. Yet it hasn’t happened.

Once again, we’re talking about a league that is studying concussions, but they’ll still let guys engage in bare-knuckle fighting.

If it weren’t so stupid, it would be funny as hell.

Episode 73: The TSC Zombies Live!

We celebrate our final show at Hothead Studios by breaking down sports video games from E3;  talkin’ through some dang sports video baseball cards and then go getting into the fallout from Derek Boogarrd’s untimely death.  Finally, what we have all been waiting for: Dan on latest on with Posada’s crazy, tweeting wife. Share this [...]

Episode 72: Dan’s Cool Rugby Shirt

Blum breaks down 42 miles on a bike with no chain. Evans reports on the Oprah/Nike summit. Dan’s got a rugby johns he would like to share. And some high tech tricks to baseball scouting. (26.8 KB, 27.10 Minutes) Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 71: The NFL For President!

Dan breaks down the body blow online poker just took from regulators. Blum talks up the new book about what the NFL has to teach capitalism. Seth hates yet another video game. And finally ESPN on your iPad. (25.3 mb, 25.4 minutes) Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 70: “Are You Ready to Rumble?”

MLB TV’s online service is legitimately cool. The Masters will be a non-event online. Tiger Woods plays with crappy equipment and Blum compares betting on Wrestlemania to trading corn futures. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 69: “A Podcast Unlike Any Other”

The organizers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar seek to bend nature to their will with artificial clouds. Blum gloats over the NCAA Selection Committee’s epic seeding failures. Blackberry “Super” Apps underwhelm and Dan takes a crack at the new Masters video game. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 68: “Revenge of the Nerds”

Seth and Blum mix it up with MIT over sports data. Dan reviews EA’s Fight Night Champion (virtual boxing is better than the real thing). Amar’e Stoudemire’s goggles get explained and the guys tour some physical fitness web sites. All that, plus, the week in review. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 67: “Follow the Bouncing Blum”

Dan’s on the injured reserve this week, so Blum’s flying solo (with an assist from Seth the Tech Nihilist). In this episode: Seth breaks down March Madness On Demand, Blum wonders what gives with the crap-tastic apps that are dominating college athletics, a look into the NFL’s financial picture, plus the week in review at [...]

Episode 66: “It’s Hockey Night Tonight!”

It’s all hockey all the time for this week’s episode. Dan and Blum look at the cross-border battle between the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic as well as the Buffalo Sabres ownership change. Dan and Seth the Tech Nihilist reminisce about the classic NHL video games. Plus, how did a trade between the Stars and [...]

Episode 65: “Take This Job and Shove It”

Blum pitches his wild-eyed plan for NFL players to use social media to circumvent ownership. Seth the Tech-Nihilist gives his report on the new MLB.Com. Dan reviews NHL ’11 (it’s awesome) and digs into some racing tech at Daytona. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 64: “Jets Fans are Damaged Individuals”

As Blum gloats, Dan lets the Jets know they can go straight to hell. Also, the best televisions for your Super Bowl party; Dan discovers Broadcast HD; Blum shares his illicit passion for wooden baseball bats; PLUS, the best sports e-books for your e-reader. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg