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John Urschel: The 300 Pound Mathematician Who Hits People For a Living
HughPickens.com writes: Kate Murphy writes at NYT about mathematician 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." "Believe me, I am aware that terms such as multigrid, Fiedler, and vector are not words that people use in their daily lives," says Urshel.
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 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."
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 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."
I prefer cycling and climbing myself; not really into hitting things/being hit. Sitting in a chair all the time isn't healthy.
For the rest of us no surprise at all. 40 years ago I studied graph theory with a professor that was also a competitive karate fighter.
The mind of the true sociopath.
When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around
Funny I would have thought the opposite.
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"
Funny how the NFL officials only care about potential brain injury on players who are good at math. If the risk of brain injury was truly that high, nobody should be playing it.
Kinda lame not mentioning the three co-authors that worked with him on that paper.
Anybody got any ideas? I'm sure he'd do ANYTHING to continue living among white people.
So I don't understand why this seems to come as a surprise to a lot of people. We're physical *and* mental beings, you need to exercise both aspects to be truly healthy IMO. However there do seem to be far to many people who focus on one to the exclusion of the other (and even more who don't focus on either but thats for another argument).
Scholarly & Athletic: I was a lettering NCAA athlete in Lacrosse (violent enough) for LeMoyne College (an often division or national champ @ division II level) + good enough to get room + board partial combined academic/athletic scholarship for it.
(I was pretty much "straight A's" elementary school to highschool - senior year I didn't give a hoot since I had my credits done by junior year & I went to work after going for 1 class most of senior year only in the a.m. then off to work during the rest of the day, & I even played football as a cornerback defensemen, 1st string for an often state championship winning team in highschool - I didn't play my junior & senior year since my Dad cut off monies he gave me & asked me "how old are you now?" & I said then "16" & he said "you can go work for money now" so, I did... He also pointed out that I should pick one sport over the other, & that football was FAR more dangerous + had more competition for scholarship (nevermind the pros), so, Lacrosse it was instead, since better chance for scholarships etc. that way since I learned & played it in the BEST city in the nation for decades in it, in Syracuse N.Y. ...).
You can be *ANYTHING* you want in this life, both the mind & body are "plastic" responding to the needs you have you place on them...
*There are, no limits: Only the limits you put on yourself...
APK
P.S.=> I think it's great there's people like the man in this article setting that example - it's close to the 'greek ideal' of "sound mind, & sound body"... apk
two years ago i took up tennis at the recommendation of a friend. before that i'd done tai ji, full-contact karate (shin kyu-kshin), long-distance skating (86 miles athens-to-atlanta 1999, 65 miles new york park 1999, 26 miles rotterdam 2006) and yoga (ashtanga and T.M Asanas). it's a big list of different physical activities, which have the following things in common:
* complex coordinated movement
* requiring or recommending very deep breathing (skating especially)
* very long and regular practice
the reason why i specifically love tennis is that in addition to these things it is necessary to not only be extremely physically fit but also, if you would like to win, you require strategy and planning both on and off the court. tennis is particularly harsh on the body in that it is a series of very short explosive sprints, standing still, *then* hitting the ball, and then doing it all over again.
also the types of movement required are *unbelievably* complex! serving involves *six* degrees of freedom of movement (x-y-z, rotation in x-y-z) in order to impart the maximum amount of inspired deviousness into a small yellow round object.
to fully understand why it was that, aged 44, i started this sport and now practice over an hour a day, you have to understand that prior to that i was sitting 12 hours a day in front of a computer screen: average distance approx 1 metre. for the prior 4 years that was a 24in imac, so the panorama i *initially* thought was great.... turned out to have caused extreme alterations in my eyes.
just over two years ago i discovered that my eyes had gone "prism". this is a new development: i've always had -0.75 astigmatism, but prism basically means that i can focus easily on an object that's 1 metre away, but if i look at something 3 metres or greater away i see *DOUBLE*. in the dark, i can't bring the two together.
the implications of that are that not only has there been physical damage caused by long-term computer usage but that there has also been *NEURAL* damage caused by long-term computer usage.
the bottom line of this story is, in this context, that this football player is being extremely sensible. if a few neurons get knocked out of place by a concussion, so damn what: his pursuit of mathematics will, by virtue of it being so incredibly challenging, allow him to grow new pathways and literally grow new neurons. the reason why his peers get brain damage is because they *don't* have anything other than football to challenge them.
each of his pursuits therefore supports the others. the physical exertion keeps his body - and his heart - fit. that in turn allows him more oxygen with which to feed his brain and thus sustain the pursuit of mathematics. the increased mental alertness allows him to play with tactics and strategy that the average player would not be able to consider. his specialty in mathematics would allow him to apply physics (moments of inertia) in a *really* practical way that would keep both him and the people he smacks down safer than would otherwise be done by someone without his knowledge.
but the best part of all this is that if he has a successful long-term career, i predict that he will end up inspiring thousands of young football players to pay a bit closer attention to their other studies, and that coaches will have an example - a specific person - that they can quote as to why, when they go recruiting, they are looking for someone who has not only the physique but also the high academic aptitude as well. ... wouldn't it be great to have an entire team of football players who not only kick ass (literally) but who have degrees and even PhDs? that would change how people think of football, forever.
Ha, that's nothing!
"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."
This is your indication that you are talking with an adrenaline/endorphin junkie.
I play futbol (soccer) defense, and can completely understand this. Its an otherwise thankless position. If you do it well pretty much nobody but your goalie notices, and if you mess up everyone hates on you. So why do it? Honestly, I believe I got addicted to the adrenaline/endorphin hit. I don't even feel right until I've had my first hard tackle. It is next to impossible to get that fix in real life, but a good physical confrontation will bring it right up. I once hadn't got there yet, and then a (clearly juicing) big forward knocked me to the ground while the ref wasn't looking. I got up laughing and thanking him. Not quite the reaction he was expecting.
I don't know how many here have seen Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose, but the main character Philo clearly had this as well. It was a major plot point that he had to fight, and had an unusual thing where he got better the more he was hit. Classic Endorphin/Adrenaline junkie.
I think it ought to go without saying that as a mathematician Urschel isn't going to get his body chemical "hit" in his daily life. I've certainly found that to be the case as a software engineer.
The Ravens are a professional football team. The majority of his income almost certainly comes from football, not math.
He is therefore a footballier first and a mathmaticiary second, not the other way around.
There are no more real news to read...
Why aren't we allowed to see who downmods us (or for that matter, upmods us also)? You can't confront detractors, plain & simple (which is EXACTLY how sneaks & whimps behave in life, which is WHY jocks hated them (I was both, I know & it's NOT unjustified - backstabbing's the province of weasels)).
* In response from "the powers that be" here? LMAO - I heard "We'd have 'flamewars'" - WELL, YOU HAVE THEM ANYWAYS, so that b.s. DOES NOT "WASH"... it's crap.
The structure of the so-called "moderation" system is here bullshit - it's EASILY CHEATED via the creation of multiple registered 'luser' accounts for 1 thing, & those are used to downmod those you don't like (for no reason), & to upmod the sockpuppeteer's REAL primary account.
Funniest part is, most of us KNOW that's how it really is around here... the 'moderation system' (aka sockpuppet to cheat the system system) blows, mainly for the reasons above.
It's a system for weasels, BUILT by weasels that allow it (& to create the means to confront such whimps is EASY - I know this since soylent news runs the /. code, & one of their MAIN devs told me he could make a system where you can confront such detractors, in MINUTES time (& conversely, so you can thank those that upmod you also)).
As to WHO downmodded me & why? Hey - It's some fool who I've gotten the best of & his "geek angst" is showing. Nothing more (it's pretty obvious). He's "butthurt".
APK
P.S.=> Personally, since your "ghost really IS in the machine" when you write code, I think it shows the character of those who created the site here in making it that way (backstabbing deceitful weasels, nothing more)... apk
I bet this guy will kick ass at chess boxing when his NFL days are over.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) about 6 years ago. One of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a higher percentage of technical/professional than I found in other athletic activities I had done in the past. Yes the UFC has made BJJ a bit trendy but it is more than that. BJJ is great for a smaller and weaker person because it effectively demonstrates technique over strength from day one.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
Does it mean that even clever people may need some virile exercise, or does it mean, as TFA suggests, that NFL players are all retarded?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I think that the 'surprise' here is related to the (quite numerous, now that the NFL has pretty much lost the battle to keep CTE under wraps) stories about how the head trauma you experience in football has a nasty habit of wrecking your brain in a variety of unpleasant ways.
The fact that not all math professors are wholly sedentary, feeble, and bookish isn't a huge surprise; but seeing one doing something well known to have a high risk of chewing up his brain and spitting it out, that is somewhat curious. I would have expected him to choose something with more below-the-neck contact. Soft tissue damage and broken bones are something that humans cope with fairly well, and Team Medicine knows a lot about dealing with, if natural recuperation isn't cutting it; but brains are touchier; and there is a lot less we can do for you if yours isn't working so well.
It's a sin to say that to a student if he isn't Terry Tao. No doubt Urschel is gifted, but in academia you'll need more than a gift and hard work to have a real career, let alone a bright one..
First, a guard is possibly the least likely player on the field to get a concussion. Sure they hit hard every play, but it's almost more like wrestling than anything, and almost never the high speed impacts that result in concussion.
Second, I think it's great for young men to hear this. We've spent pretty nearly the last 20 years identifying "male" behaviors as pathologies that need to be circumscribed, if not outright "corrected", and wonder why young men are checking out. There is a joy to physical head to head competition and no reason one can't be intelligent AND enjoy such activity immensely.
-Styopa
Making fun of people who use vector in their daily lives even though he's a professional mathematician??
Jocks never change.
I know it's just an anecdote, but in my personal experience, at the higher levels of football (college and up: I played in college and have known several people that have moved on to the NFL) it takes a certain amount of intelligence to succeed, simply because the plays and the calls get more complicated. And while the stereotype of offensive linemen is that they are big and dumb, from what I have seen is that they actually tend to be smarter than other players. On my college team at least 2-3 out of our teams academic top 10 every year were offensive linemen, and a surprising number of our offensive linemen went on to graduate school, whether at our school or others. Of course, I may be slightly biased as I was an offensive lineman, I was one of those that went to grad school, and I was on my team's academic top 10 all 4 years.
Another interesting observation I have made is that certain personalities or characteristics seem to congregate to certain positions. For example, if you were to walk through a college or NFL locker room, more often than not you can tell if a player is offense or defense based solely on the state of their locker: offensive players tend to have cleaner, more organized lockers while defensive players tend to have messier, jumbled lockers.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
In my first year of college I had one math professor who was a former pro football player and another who was a former pro hockey player. Both were excellent professors.
Do you have ESP?
In superhero and roleplaying game terms we have a name for this: Genius Bruiser.
The mind of the true sociopath.
Apparently you don't know what the word sociopath means. Enjoying playing rough contact sports does not make you a sociopath. In fact off the competitive field most athletes who are good at contact sports like football, MMA, wrestling, etc are about as far from being sociopaths as you can get. I've been a wrestler and a wrestling coach for about 35 years so I speak from long first hand experience. Had you bothered to speak with anyone actually involved at those sports you'll find that most of them are very calm, caring, decent people.
When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around
Funny I would have thought the opposite.
That's because you made some ill founded assumptions about something you plainly know nothing about.
Thanks for your anecdote, which comprehensively contradicts all other research into abnormal psychology.
You could bother to look up the definition for yourself in any clinical textbook and you'd find that he was largely correct although the term sociopath isn't really used by professionals. Furthermore in both cases the definition has to do with an inability to form emotional attachments or feel empathy towards others. That has NOTHING to do with enjoying rough contact sports. The mere fact that someone enjoys a rough contact sport does not and never did mean that a person has an inability to form emotional attachments, feel empathy or that they are manipulative.
Oh, and if you like hitting people, you're violent. It's sort of the definition of the word. And hitting people is not the same thing as enjoying physical activity or contact.
You will find that most of the male population enjoys rough contact sports to some degree. If you don't personally, that is fine but you ARE an exception. Sports like (american) football, MMA, boxing, rugby, hockey etc are popular in significant part precisely because of their rough nature. Does that make the participant's violent? I suppose to a degree but sports are an appropriate outlet. And you are wrong that it isn't the same thing as enjoying physical activity and contact - it is a subset of those things. What you need to worry about is people who hit others at inappropriate times. If you step on a football field, you know what you are getting into and accept the risks involved which may include you getting hit rather hard. This does not make the person doing the hitting psychotic, sociopathic or otherwise mentally ill.
They can downmod me as I don't have limits on my posts counts like most "AC" posters - no stopping me, IF I wish... I do have the option to post again, as much as I like, anytime.
Thus, making them blow their modpoints, which they DO "run dry" of... lol!
* :)
(If the "best they've got" in my 'courageous detractors' is mere 'downmods' on an easily cheated so-called "moderation system"? They don't have squat... & they KNOW it!).
Martial Arts? I don't know *WHERE* you got that from, as I didn't mention it, but, I did that ages ago (8th-10th grade, gratis, learning from a friend down my block who was a 5th Dan blackbelt in MuTai (sp?) & go-ju ryu (that's what he called them @ least - I was his 'punching bag' for the 1st yr. but I'll never forget him for it, I learned a lot...)).
APK
P.S.=> See subject - it makes me laugh that they do it, knowing they're wasting their time & "ne'er-do-well" lives doing it, but yet NEVER ever disproving points I make here validly & on-topic... apk
See subject: He'd be faster if he did what you said, that's certain (of course, he's crippled, but put a guy with a mind like his to work, properly motivated? He might surprise us all...).
You're being rather "obtuse", don't you think? For instance, I don't even imagine I could play in the same league with say, Michael Jordan, in basketball - he's got FAR more experience & saavy, which I *might* be able to accrue over the same timeframe as he did... however, God didn't genetically gift me with his physique/height, so there you go.
APK
P.S.=> You guys here are amazing - I was merely making a point that IF/WHEN you apply yourself, you can do amazing things, & even surprise yourself...
HOWEVER, in fairness:
Perhaps I ought to have added "within reason + considering 'design-constraints'"...
Just so you couldn't nitpick!
Then again, I make a post a bit longer than most? Trolls would pull their WEAK "TL:DR" b.s., since it'd be all they'd have (along with bogus downmods via sockpuppets to cheat the moderation system here)... apk
Really nobody should be playing football.
Curiously this is almost always said by people who never played themselves. Tell me, what exactly is the problem with consenting adults playing a potentially violent game where there is some chance of getting hurt? How is it worse that an X-Games skateboarder who knows he's going to injure himself at some point? Or a sailor who knows they might drown?
Brain injuries are just one of the numerous medical problems caused by football
The only real problem I see with that is that children aren't adequately protected by the rules of the game when they play it. If an adult wants to take the risk of injury then that's their problem. They can reasonably be expected to understand the potential consequences of their participation. Children, not so much and incidence of concussions and certain other injuries in american football are far higher than for most other sports played by youths.
One might consider why one has hostile moods in the first place rather than trying to control that demon by feeding it.
One of the demonstrated best ways to deal with hostile or other moods is through exercise and sports. I cannot think of a more appropriate outlet or better treatment for such issues. I would much rather someone work out their issues on the playing field than in some less appropriate venue.
It is quite rare for someone to be capable of working at a professional level in sports and academics at the same time.
Not as rare as you might think. I've been in the sport of wrestling for 35 years and D1 college wrestling has world class talent in the sport. Right now the toughest wrestling conference in the country is the Big10. The second toughest conference is the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) which consists primarily of the Ivy League and Patriot League schools - schools like Lehigh, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, American, Army, Navy, Columbia and the EIWA routinely has several of the top ten teams in the country. Brains and athletic talent go together far more often than many realize. Schools with high academic standards may not have as deep a bench as schools without high standards but they certainly can compete.
While the number of people who are gifted in both academics and sports is necessarily smaller than the number who are gifted in just one or the other, you'll find that it isn't particularly unusual for someone to excel in both. I myself competed in D1 college wrestling at an EIWA school while getting an engineering degree and I now have two master's degrees, one in business and one in engineering. And I wasn't the most academically gifted athlete on my team. There were guys who were All Americans on my team who got better grades than I did. People who think smarts and athletics rarely go together hasn't met a lot of real athletes.
Was his first name Khalid? Does he play classical guitar? If so, we may have studied under the same professor.
...he's the Incredible Hulk?
We're making him angry. We wouldn't like him when he's angry.
Show up @ my door w/ that bat & *try* use it: I've had to do that in this neighborhood before sadly, I've got NO problems with it - & I've always come out "on top"...
* Plus I severely DOUBT you'd even make it to my doorstep alive (w/out being eaten alive by "the natives" around here)...
Your "unidentifiable ac post" now? Speaks WORLDS about you - you're too much of a chicken-shit to stand behind your words... fact.
APK
P.S.=> Funniest part is, I know WHO you are now - clue: Get over it - you're sick in the head buddy!
See, oddly & IRONICALLY enough, I stumbled across that postcard you sent me yesterday from SWEDEN ("Spring Cleaning" here is why)!
Face facts - You started up w/ me, & had to "eat your words" for it, lol... I simply used the ammo YOU stupidly provided, & you're still "stinging" from it? Grow up, lol... apk
Not everyone can run the probabilities in their head...oh wait...
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I don't follow football a lot, but my understanding is that players on the offensive line are a lot less susceptible to this problem. They don't tend to tack other players or collide at high speeds. They're almost right next to the opposing player who needs to be stopped and usually just end up grappling with this person. Contrast this with other positions where the player needs to tackle someone or ends up getting tackled a lot.
Players on the line are more likely to have their knees worn out. Carrying that much weight around is going to be hard on the knees already and the constant up/down motion doesn't help matters at all.
"Fighters" are either soldiers or people who do full-contact armed sport combat. People who spar competitively in the Asian martial arts are called "karateka". It's a meaningful distinction, art .vs. sport.
I doubt they are less susceptible. They may even be more susceptible, as they are butting heads on every snap, not just when they tackle or are tackled. Christ, just take a look at their helmets after the first quarter. I was a pulling guard in high school, and trust me; you'd be amazed at some of the impacts you experience on the line. And that was 20 years ago. These guys today are 6'7, 300+ lbs, and some run a 4.6-4.7 40 yard dash. The amount of power they generate off the line is incredible.
Not anymore they can't...
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
See subject: For no good reason as stated. Someone upmodded is all.
You're correct: I always DO post ac... why?
Well - Would you like to see some of the 'threats' I've gotten in regards to telling me to get a "registered 'luser'" account here & how said AC troll (+ registered lusers) said they would "modbomb me to hell" etc. & even using TOR to do it (webmistressrachel for example)...
I've got many of those bookmarked (as I was instructed to do in fact).
You can see how one loon sent me a postcard above, ac post of course, & said things about "bringing a baseball bat to my door" etc. (which since he posted ac isn't impressing me @ all whatsoever on that note - it shows he's TRULY, a cowardly little worm, nothing more... utterly reprehensible & disgusting, imo @ least).
No... I don't INTEND to *ever* be an "easily tracked sheep", since once you make an 'enemy' online, especially nerd weasels, they stoop to such "LOWS" as that, every single time (makes me laugh & proves my points here in fact). I do JUST FINE, minus 'modpoints', & that's really all I "lose out on" not having such an account here... if I have to tell something to someone? I do it directly (ala "Good Job/Good Post" etc.) is all.
APK
P.S.=> Anyhow/anyways: Nice to see someone upmodded my post now (to offset that initial downmod on it made for no good reason), but it's time to continue my "Spring Cleaning", so gotta "jet" & wash the car... apk
That I never stated: Did I SAY I had "anonymity"? No. Wrong on part of that information (it's stale)... See subject!
* Do you actually THINK I care if someone knows who I am? Heck - I actually want others to know who I am (especially in the field of computing) &/or things I've accomplished of decent note in it (& yes, there are PLENTY of those)...
APK
P.S.=> Anonymity? It's for people with NO honor, or integrity (period) imo @ least - which is WHY I post using my initials to identify myself @ least, with my REAL initials... apk
I started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) about 6 years ago. One of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a higher percentage of technical/professional than I found in other athletic activities I had done in the past. Yes the UFC has made BJJ a bit trendy but it is more than that. BJJ is great for a smaller and weaker person because it effectively demonstrates technique over strength from day one.
^^^ this. Pretty much almost every person I've seen in BJJ (or Judo) has a technical/professional job. Training is not cheap, and it requires a certain type of income to keep it up. It is also worth noting a significant number of UFC fighters wrestle in college.
I don't follow football a lot, but my understanding is that players on the offensive line are a lot less susceptible to this problem. They don't tend to tack other players or collide at high speeds. They're almost right next to the opposing player who needs to be stopped and usually just end up grappling with this person. Contrast this with other positions where the player needs to tackle someone or ends up getting tackled a lot.
Players on the front lines have incredibly high rates of TBI because one of the common methods used by both the O and D lines is to whack the opposing player in the head to disorient them. TBI is greatly influenced by the frequent whacks to the head as well as using one's own head as a weapon - one doesn't need to be knocked out to have a concussion or subject to TBI.
The Big Bang Theory taught me that all smart people were pencil-necked geeks or had some obvious visual clue that they were intelligent. It is just not possible for someone to be athletic and intelligent.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Judo is pretty cheap. One can frequently find classes at the local YMCA for $10-20/month. BJJ, on the other hand, is very proud of what they offer. If you can find lessons for $100/month or less, good luck!
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Why aren't we allowed to see who downmods us (or for that matter, upmods us also)? You can't confront detractors, plain & simple (which is EXACTLY how sneaks & whimps behave in life, which is WHY jocks hated them (I was both, I know & it's NOT unjustified - backstabbing's the province of weasels)).
* In response from "the powers that be" here? LMAO - I heard "We'd have 'flamewars'" - WELL, YOU HAVE THEM ANYWAYS, so that b.s. DOES NOT "WASH"... it's crap.
The structure of the so-called "moderation" system is here bullshit - it's EASILY CHEATED via the creation of multiple registered 'luser' accounts for 1 thing, & those are used to downmod those you don't like (for no reason), & to upmod the sockpuppeteer's REAL primary account.
Funniest part is, most of us KNOW that's how it really is around here... the 'moderation system' (aka sockpuppet to cheat the system system) blows, mainly for the reasons above.
It's a system for weasels, BUILT by weasels that allow it (& to create the means to confront such whimps is EASY - I know this since soylent news runs the /. code, & one of their MAIN devs told me he could make a system where you can confront such detractors, in MINUTES time (& conversely, so you can thank those that upmod you also)).
As to WHO downmodded me & why? Hey - It's some fool who I've gotten the best of & his "geek angst" is showing. Nothing more (it's pretty obvious): He's "butthurt".
(Lastly/Added: Last time this post was downmodded http://science.slashdot.org/co... is effete & ineffectual - I'll just post it again, as I said I could ("no limits" posting AC here...)).
APK
P.S.=> Personally, since your "ghost really IS in the machine" when you write code, I think it shows the character of those who created the site here in making it that way (backstabbing deceitful weasels, nothing more)... apk
"The house is a bit of a dingy gray/blue color, you have a few wooden chairs out back in your poor excuse for a yard, and there's a wooden power pole directly by your house." - by EmeraldBot (3513925) on Thursday May 14, 2015 @11:53AM (#49689803)
Do you own a home? Doubt it. Prove otherwise... & IF you do, which I doubt you'll produce evidence of??
Hey - I can take "potshots" @ you too (& that photo you're looking at must be VERY old, since my yard's pretty nice + has radically improved since I initially got the place (that's "how I roll/what I do")).
* :)
(In fact, I've set myself up fairly well - well enough to no longer have to be a "wageslave" anymore, my bills + taxes are ALWAYS paid in full, like a good citizen does, & I can actually ENJOY the remaining years of my life - running my OWN business, that's proven successful for nearly a decade now in fact so... can YOU say the same? Again - prove it...)
APK
P.S.=> You know, I just LOVE fools like you - I can turn your b.s. around with ease... apk
Not to take anything away from your achievements (I certainly couldn't compete in any sport at that level), but college wrestling isn't exactly "professional-level sports". Your athletic activity was still a part-time one while focusing on your education...
You are quite wrong. Collegiate wrestling very much IS pro level athletics. I've been there and done it and know first hand. It is a full time job on top of your academic load. We're talking 40+ hours a week when in-season. And at a school like Cornell or Lehigh or Northwestern or Stanford they don't cut you any slack in the classroom. While the pay isn't as much as say someone in pro basketball (not even close), the amount of work it requires is very much the same to be at the top of the sport. Furthermore the quality of the competitors in collegiate wrestling is world class in the top programs. There are guys wrestling in college right now who are among the best in the world. Logan Steiber is just now graduating from Ohio State and he has beaten world champions wrestling in the middle of Times Square. Jordan Burroughs won his first of three world and Olympic titles just months after winning his second NCAA title. I assure you that these guys are pro athletes in every sense of the word even if they don't get paid a whole lot.
The professional athletes, whose full-time job is to play sports, are exceedingly rarely accomplished academics at the same time.
Rare but not unheard of. And certainly not as rare as you probably think. There are quite a few coaches in college getting advanced degrees while training for world and Olympic competition. I can show you guys who became national champions while doing medical residencies. I can show you Olympians who were practicing doctors.
See subject, & answer the question here http://science.slashdot.org/co... "Emerald Bot"
* Let's see how a 'bigshot' critic like you handles that... lol, "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" will be the result on YOUR end I'd strongly wager.
APK
P.S.=> I seriously wonder HOW scum like you can live with themselves... apk
Nothing like hitting/getting hit to clear the mind.
I loved training, it was a great way to get rid of excess stress energy. The "scream", or Kiai allowed for clearing of the lower chakras and the throat chakra, wonderful release of anger. Serene state of mind resulted from an intense session, yielded deeper meditative states and connecting deeper with intuition facilitating easier problem solving.
Then age catches up...Sigh.
On to tai chi.
A.C.
Play Eve and he'll be all sorted
When are we going to get him on here for an interview?
I! Tego Arcana Dei.
You're truly an unidentifiable "anonymous" COWARD with no balls, lol!
So- Wanna find out?
* Come to my door with that baseball bat you spoke of, you little fucking weasel... we'll see.
APK
P.S.=> It'd be the LAST thing you'd ever do, I shit you not... apk
a guy who knows what he likes to do. Especially when what he likes to do is pound people into the pavement.
He is trying to get the Field Medal or the Fields Medal. Either way he can't lose.