The USA’s largest gladiatorial sporting event, Super Bowl XLVI, takes place tonight. 68,000 spectators will cram into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and 113 million Americans will watch the game on TV, along with unknown millions of viewers in more than 180 other countries. A 30-second Super Bowl television ad cost $3.5 million. You may have read these facts as well as speculation on the physical condition of various Giants and Patriots players, but you probably overlooked these critical 2012 Super Bowl stories:
Today’s final score in the final game of the season: Philadelphia 34, Washington 10. For the fourth straight year, Washington DC’s professional football team finished last in their division. Perhaps this abysmal season — and decade — is the result of bad karma due to a team name that trademarks racial slurs and stereotypes. But don’t expect any change in the name or losing performance. The team is run by the worst owner in the league, Dan Snyder.
Related:
“It’s time once again to tell Washington’s football team to ditch the ‘Redskins’ racist moniker,” Courtland Milloy, Washington Post.
American sports fans: upset that there’s no pro basketball due to the NBA strike? Bored by the NFL and NHL, disgusted with college football? Don’t despair. The Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament has just started at Fukuoka Kokusai Center and continues through November 27th. Don’t miss it, it’s the last big sumo tournament of 2011. This is truly heavy competition: rishiki (wrestlers) weight in at 250 to 400 pounds. And talk about your World Series: competitors are from Mongolia, Brazil, Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Estonia, and the Czech Republic as well as Japan.
Ever watch someone jumping rope really fast? you probably noticed that the top of the arc of moving rope bends away from the direction the rope is moving in. So did two scientists. After using high-speed video, a rope-skipping robot, and computer modeling of jump rope fluid dynamics, they have suggestions for building a better jump rope: lightweight, short and smooth, with a small diameter.
Guys: if you want to be a champion sumo wrestler, don’t look as your belly, look at your hands. According to a newly published study, the ratio between the length of your index finger and ring finger might indicate your chance of sumo success. A smaller ratio is believed to indicate greater in-utero testosterone exposure, and has been correlated with increased performance in competitive sports. Data about sumo pros seem to agree. A higher ratio? Well … fly-fishing is nice, too.
More:
“Friday Weird Science: Look Carefully at your hands…were you meant to be a Sumo Champion?” Scicurious, Neurotic Physiology
Image (“Mutsugamine Iwanosuke on the Cover of the Sports Illustrated Sumo Issue, after Utagawa Kuniyoshi”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Now if Mr. Snyder would only change the racist name of his team, and they would win a few football games, the town might have a team it could be proud of.
Germany has an active surfing scene, and its capital is Munich. That’s pretty amazing, since the Bavarian city is nowhere near the ocean. Wet-suited enthusiasts surf a well-formed wave in the Eisbach River in Englischer Gartens park. Munich has a surf festival, a surfing magazine, a surfer bar, and a surfboard company (be sure to get the right fin for riversurfing).
The United Kingdom is sparing no expense in preparing for next summer’s Olympic Games. The host city of London is testing new demonstration sports – rioting, arson, and looting – and enthusiasm for these Xtreme sports is sweeping the country.
The ACLU wants to slap Dan Snyder with a penalty. That’s Dan Snyder, millionaire owner of DC’s NFL team, and SLAPP, as in Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. A SLAPP is a rich man’s bludgeon, used to suppress criticism or other actions by pesky peons who lack the financial resources to fight back. In this case, a critical sportswriter in DC’s weekly alternative newspaper. Mr. Snyder first filed his SLAPP in New York, then re-filed in the District of Columbia.
But DC has an anti-SLAPP law, as the ACLU just reminded him. Some other folks noted that, too, and signed on to the ACLU’s amicus brief: D.C. Councilmember Mary M. Cheh (a law professor), National Public Radio, Public Citizen, the American Society of News Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, WJLA-TV 7, and WUSA-TV (Channel 9).
