Category: Items of Interest

Rushing yards

The histogram represents the distribution the top 250 career rushing yard totals in NFL history. It includes active players and is not normalized for the number for years played. I don’t have much to say about this, except that it appears that one must rush for more than 12,000 yards in a career to be truly exceptional. Calculating the yards per year (ypy) indicates that Jim Brown (1368ypy), Walter Payton (1287ypy), and Barry Sanders (1527ypy) are the three greatest running backs in NFL history. It also suggests that Curtis Martin (1282ypy) should be in the Hall of Fame.

The Ewok Line

Frankly, Neil Patrick Harris‘s lecture on Ewoks sounds like the kind of thing I would do. Therefore, I love it. And you should too.

Is it “Doctor Princess” or “Princess Doctor”?

Thanks to the enjoyable Bragg Lecture by Sir Paul Nurse (Nobel laureate and president of the Royal Society) at the Physics of Living Matter conference here in Cambridge, I now know a bit more about how to order British titles. The correct order is “Professor Sir Paul Nurse”, much like “Vice Admiral Lord Nelson“.

This got me to thinking about how we would sort it out if one the British royalty dedicated themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. Would it be “Doctor Her Royal Highness Princess Whatsherface”? Would it be acceptable to shorten it to “Her Royal Doctorness”?

With the dedication of Prince Charles to more mystical medical remedies, I’m not sure they’ll need to worry about this issue any time soon.

Eagles at Rugby World Cup

Having played with and/or traded knocks with many of the players on the Eagles World Cup side, I could not be more pleased with their play so far. These guys are playing up to their potential. The quality of the play (as well as the improved TV coverage in the US) should make everyone hopeful for the future of rugby in the US. Also, coach Eddie O’Sullivan deserves high marks for his selection of talented and complementary players.

Ask for Evidence

Sense about Science, a UK based group trying to equip the public to understand scientific and medical claims to which they are exposed, has launched a new campaign Ask for Evidence that seems well worth supporting.

The concept is simple and should make sense to most people. When someone makes a claim, you should (and have every right to) ask why you should believe that claim. Ask for evidence. Below, I have illustrated an example of this: Continue reading “Ask for Evidence”