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Kate Murphy writes at NYT about John Urschel whose latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians". "I have a Bachelor's and Master's in mathematics, all with a 4.0, and numerous published papers in major mathematical journals."
But as an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. "I play because I love the game. I love hitting people," Urshel writes. "There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else."
Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has "a bright career ahead of me in mathematics," but he doesn't feel able to quit. "When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work."
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 12 2015, @05:36AM
"old-school chalkboard"
Old-school blackboard. Didn't matter if it happened to be green or blue, it was a "blackboard".
The grass, please, youngster. Get off the grass, and nobody gets hurt.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:15AM
I take it you are a certified member of the OGS ( Old Geezer Society ) - and have the AARP card and a cabinet full of pills to prove it....
Again, I stand corrected. All of 'em were black for the longest time. All in wood frames.
Remember those gawd-awful screetches the chalk used to make? It did not have to be loud but something about it would just about make everything in me curl up. I never did figure out just what it was in that sound that was so blood-curdling.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Tuesday May 12 2015, @03:33PM
> All in wood frames
You had frames?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 12 2015, @12:39PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sudo rm -rf on Tuesday May 12 2015, @01:06PM
...quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua maledicere temptant. Although they are under the water, under the water they still continue to swear. (Ovid, Metamorphoses) This quote still sticks in my head, it describes the cursing and swearing peasants being transformed into frogs, and my Latin teacher used to put an emphasis on the words "sub aquaaa, sub aquaaa" so that it sounded like croaking frogs. He never threw anything around, though.