Math

David de Gea. Joe Hart. Zac MacMath. OK, now before you go telling me to pump the brakes on the last goalkeeper, the Union variety does have something in common with the other two. All three are quietly debunking the myth that to be a successful goalkeeper you need to be older and more experienced. The days of the Peter Schmeichels, Oliver Kahns and Kasey Kellers of the soccer world are not a thing of the past in fact, quite the contrary. Older keepers are still proving that experience over the long haul is better between the posts.

Kathryn Hibbs Voit, 80, of Cheltenham, a math educator and advocate for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, died of the disease Thursday, March 8, at home. Mrs. Voit taught math at the Community College of Philadelphia for 20 years, until 2001. She was diagnosed in 1998 with ALS, a degenerative disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. Mrs. Voit continued to teach for three years, using a cane, then a walker, and finally a motorized wheelchair, her husband, Gerard A. Voit, said.

Harold's fork truck is rated for 4,000 pounds. He has to move and stack 10 skids (pallets) of paper, each weighing 1,500 pounds. What is the maximum number of skids he can lift at one time? If someone wants a job at Case Paper Co. , that person had better know how to calculate the answer. Even more basic: Can the person use a tape measure? "You'd be amazed at how many people can't read a ruler to one-sixteenth of an inch," said Lee Cohn, who directs production at the Philadelphia company.

WHEN THROWING around the we're-like-brothers designation, some guys are way too loosey-goosey. Not Jeffon Powell. He lives in South Philly with the family of teammate Will Williams, and for the last 2 weeks, he has been the happiest guy in the house. Powell, a 6-5, 200-pound junior forward, and Williams, a senior, deep-sub guard who's 10 inches shorter and weighs the same, are basketball players for Math, Civics & Sciences Charter, the defending PIAA Class A state champion. Will the Mighty Elephants return on Friday to Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center to defend their title?

An advocacy group campaigning nationally for changes to public pensions visited Philadelphia on Thursday promising to "expose" the city's top pension recipients - including one retiree with a $4.5 million estimated lifetime payout. But what the group really exposed was its own fuzzy math. The Chicago-based Taxpayers United of America released a list of local pension recipients, topped by former Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, who it said would get an "estimated lifetime pension" of $4.5 million.

AN ADVOCACY GROUP campaigning nationally for public pension reform visited Philadelphia yesterday promising to "expose" the city's top pension recipients - including one retiree with a $4.5 million estimated lifetime payout. But what the group really exposed was its own fuzzy math. The Chicago-based Taxpayers United of America released a list of local pension recipients, topped by former Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, who they said would get an "estimated lifetime pension" of $4.5 million.

PORTLAND, Ore. - In their first road game of 2012 Monday night, the Union took an early lead, but couldn't hold onto it. The Portland Timbers ran roughshod over the Union after Gabriel Gomez's 51st-minute free-kick goal, dealing the Union a 3-1 defeat in their Major League Soccer season opener. Backed by the raucous Timbers Army fan club, Portland controlled the ball early in the game. But the Union's defense - especially outside backs Sheanon Williams and Porfirio Lopez, a new signee - held firm within the narrow confines of Jeld-Wen Field's artificial surface.

2012 > 2011. So far, at least, that's the case for District 12's basketball teams with regard to the assorted PIAA state tournaments. In '11, the D-12 entrants captured 10 of 15 first-round games for a winning percentage of .667. Then came last weekend and the first-rounders in all four, enrollment-based classifications and, guess what, the Pub/Cath guys actually did better, going 11-4 for .733. Only Philadelphia Electrical and Technology Charter (14 points in AAA) and Samuel Fels (nine in AAAA)

Mitt Romney faced the usual nagging questions Wednesday: Why does he have a hard time connecting with very conservative and working-class voters in the Republican presidential race? What will it take for him to shut down relatively weak opposition? Yet even as pundits asked those questions, and Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich vowed to fight on after Super Tuesday, the harsh math of delegate allocation suggested that Romney's rivals have little hope of overcoming his huge lead in the currency of the GOP nomination: voting delegates to the national convention in Tampa, Fla. Romney's campaign argued that he had taken a big step toward an inevitable claim on the nomination after winning six of the 10 states that voted on Super Tuesday - including a come-from-behind victory in the big prize of Ohio - and capturing the majority of the delegates at stake.

Some applications actually help kids do their homework rather than avoid it. Here are a few that put the   smart in a smartphone: Math , from YourTeacher.com, is free for the first five lessons on an iPhone. To keep going, though, it requires a one-time $9.99 payment. The company makes instructional apps for Apple and Android. From the opening screen in Math, type a keyword, such as " equations," to see a list of lessons that include word problems and real-world uses for the knowledge, such as figuring sales taxes, discounts, and interest.