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As we get ready for another weekend of football, we should be aware that football players sustain head blows equivalent to a severe car crash in every game. They get an average of 50 head blows per game, each one equal to a boxer’s punch. Researcher Stefan Duma says players “have headaches after every game.”

Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that the average force of a blow to the head during a game is 40G, which is 40 times the force of gravity. Duma says, “That’s loosely analogous to a boxer punching another boxer with a gloved hand.” The most severe blows, at 120G, are “more analogous to a severe car crash.” He doesn’t know how players endure blows like this week after week, but he does know they can be left “dazed and confused.”
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The Kuwaiti Al-Anba daily reports that Sadam Hussin has an advanced terminal case of cancer of lymph nodes, according an Iraqi official. Doctors who checked him over after his capture in December predict he will only live for a few more years. The U.S. military was aware that he might be ill, since one of his private doctors in Syria informed them about this when we first invaded Iraq. This means he may not live long enough to come to trial. While this will not give his enemies the closure they seek, it may prevent a backlash from his followers, as well as from al-Qaeda terrorists.
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Monks living in 565AD may have been the first to produce art depicting the Loch Ness Monster. Ancient stones found in the vicinity of Loch Ness have animal carvings on them. Historian Norman Newton says, “They are all incredibly accurately drawn. There is no doubt what they are: the horse, the stag, the salmon, the wild boar, the eagle, the snake. Then we come to something which is often described as the Pictish Beast and occasionally as the Pictish Elephant.” He thinks it’s Nessie.
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