Why Danica Patrick can win the Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The odds of Trevor Bayne winning last year’s Daytona 500 were so long, there weren’t any. Bayne was such an unknown, he didn’t garner an individual line and instead was lumped together with “the field.”Danica Patrick has never competed in a Sprint Cup race. Never. Yet she’s already one step ahead of where Bayne was a year ago. She’s got a 60-1 chance to win Sunday’s Great American Race, according to online sports book Bovada.So it’s become with the Daytona 500, the biggest crapshoot in sports.Few outside the NASCAR world had ever heard of Bayne before he won last year’s Daytona 500 as a 20-year-old...

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Osama bin Laden's Pakistan home is no more

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities have reduced the house where Osama bin Laden lived for years before he was killed by U.S. commandos to rubble, destroying a concrete symbol of the country's association with one of the world's most reviled men.Workers completed the demolition job in the garrison town ofAbbottabad in northwest Pakistan on Monday.The al-Qaida leader moved into the three-story house in 2005. Acting on intelligence gathered by the CIA, a team of U.S. commandos flew in by helicopter from Afghanistan and killed bin Laden on May 2 before dumping his body at...

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Daytona 500, Danica Patrick’s debut on hold

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Blessed of late by exciting action, an infusion of star power and a plethora of enticing storylines, NASCAR rolled toward its 54th Daytona 500 prepared to fully shake off some recent struggles.Danica Patrick waves to the crowd during driver introductions for the Daytona 500. (Getty Images)And then the rain came.For the first time in history, NASCAR had to postpone its signature, start-of-the-season event until Monday at noon ET (weather permitting, of course).“It’s one of those days here in Daytona,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said.Monday could be one of those days, also, as the forecast calls for scattered...

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Alex Rodriguez, Jeremy Lin roommates? A-Rod makes offer ‘to crash’

Alex Rodriguez says he has noticed the sudden rise of Jeremy Lin, and he has read the stories about how the New York Knicks point guard had nowhere to live. A-Rod's response: Stop sleeping on your brother's couch, or your teammate's couch, and come bunk with me! Per the Associated Press:"If he's still looking for a place to crash, maybe he can crash at my apartment," the New York Yankees star said. "Imagine the tabloids then."Linsanity. Wow."(I'm beginning to think that Rodriguez enjoys the attention, you know?) Anyway, A-Rod had not heard that Lin recently moved into a new apartment in White Plains, N.Y., just north of the city. But why would...

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Pressure builds for civilian drone flights at home

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heads up: Drones are going mainstream.Civilian cousins of the unmanned military aircraft that have tracked and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Asia are in demand by police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations and others wanting a bird's-eye view that's too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to get.Along with the enthusiasm, there are qualms.Drones overhead could invade people's privacy. The government worries they could collide with passenger planes or come crashing down to the ground, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.Despite...

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Alzheimer's: 5 Greatest Risk Factors

Alzheimer’s disease begins at the synapse, the space where neurons connect. The biggest bad guy in this disease is a sticky protein called beta-amyloid. Either too much is made or not enough is cleared away, and as beta-amyloid accumulates, it creates a gooey clog in the synapse, preventing the neurons that meet there from communicating. As a result, the information those neurons carry can’t be transmitted or retrieved. The beta-amyloid “goo” prevents these two neurons from “talking” to each other. We notice this molecular event because we forget something.When too much beta-amyloid causes the synapse to fail, we begin to see the symptoms of...

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Video: Kobe passes Michael Jordan to top all-time All-Star scoring in narrow West win

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant has played in 14 All-Star games in his career, enough to put him at third place (in a tie) on the all-time list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and former teammate Shaquille O'Neal. As one of the best scorers in NBA history, he's had his fair share of big All-Star Game performances, too, winning four MVPs.So, during Sunday night's contest, Bryant reached a milestone that before the game seemed like a foregone conclusion. With five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Kobe took a pass on a fast break and finished with an easy two-hand slam, putting him past Michael Jordan on the all-time All-Star Game scoring list with 263 points. In at least one aspect, Kobe has overtaken the player on which he seems to have modeled his entire career.[...

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2012 Fisker Karma: Motoramic Drives

 is the Fisker Karma, a $100,000 electric sedan with a backup gasoline engine and the claim on a $529 million government loan meant to build the future of eco-friendly transportation. It may need some spiritual balance to get there.The brainchild of designer Henrik Fisker, the Karma arrives after years of delays — and a maelstrom of politics and publicity, especially over the U.S. Department of Energy loan meant to fund the next car from Fisker. The company hosted several dozen journalists in Beverly Hills this week, days after laying off a few dozen workers when the Energy department halted the loan over Fisker's...

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Jeremy Lin scores his second straight Sports Illustrated cover, joining some lofty company

You can point to New York's cupcake schedule in the days following Jeremy Lin's ascension into the Knicks rotation on Feb. 4. You can point to the minutes he plays in New York's frantic pace, as Jason Terry did on Sunday, and all the possessions he gets to dominate. That's what Player Efficiency Rating -- which adjusts for pace, minutes, and takes into consideration all those turnovers and all those possessions used up -- is for. And, 2 1/2 weeks into his star turn, Jeremy Lin has gone from D-League refugee to eighth in the NBA in PER. And, as the biggest story in sports at the moment, he's more than deserved his two straight...

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