Coffee 6:50 Fri Aug 3
Your top geniuses?
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Who for you are people of true genius? Any field - music, the written word, art, cinema, sport, whatever. A couple of starters:
Music - much of Pink Floyd's output. The composer Gorecki, Bach, Freddy Mercury...
Books - most of what Charles Dickens wrote, because not only did he tell good stories, he did so entertainingly and helped shape the social conscience. Oscar Wilde,
Science - Charles Darwin
Politics - Winston Churchill, largely for his oratory skills. Nelson Mandela for keeping South Africa together after apartheid.
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Replies - Newest Posts First ( Show In Chronological Order)
Bungo
2:36 Sun Aug 5
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Difficult to see much past Newton really.
His list of achievements includes:-
3 Laws of motion
Colour theory (refraction and defraction )
Reflecting telescope
Law of universal gravitation
Law of cooling
Calculus
When Michael Hart put together his 100 most influential people in history, Newton came second behind Muhammad, and in front of Jesus, Buddha and Confucius. Einstein came in 10th.
Subjective I grant you but impressive nonetheless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100
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Far Cough
7:46 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Agree with Homer, a complete genius in winding up Ned Flanders
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stomper
7:40 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Homer
Socrates
Archimedes
Gaius Marius (for his invention of the pilum)
Da Vinci
Gallileo
Shakespear
Descartes
Newton
Spike Milligan
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Hammer and Pickle
7:24 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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Something about squirrels makes me angry.
I think it's their insolent beady eyes.
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Alex V
7:18 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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Have you ever seen a squirrel? It might change your life.
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Hammer and Pickle
7:14 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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I've often seen hooded crows drop walnuts from a very precise height onto tarmac to crack them.
Especially impressive if you see it done it on a motorway in traffic.
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20 benson
5:55 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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Them crows in Japan (I think) that leave nuts on the road and wait for cars to roll over them so they can eat them are genius
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hammerintheorient
5:45 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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Schruti
The Lord Buddha
Everything else pretty much downhill since then apart from Arthur Schopenhauer, Shostakovich (music), Herman Hesse (literature), Nietzsche, B.K.S Iyengar (yoga), Sergio Leone (cinema), Tommy Cooper (Comedy) ...
Scientific developments certainly, but I really wonder if the credit is attributed correctly sometimes, eg "it's who you know ..."
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LSD T
4:06 Sat Aug 4
Re: Alex V
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Tis a shame but the website http://www.venganza.org is down at the moment but Zeb is referring to the Great Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
As any fule kno
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LSD T
3:59 Sat Aug 4
Alex V
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That shows what an ignoramus you really are.
All bow before his noodly appendages and bequeath your first born daughter in symbolic offering.
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Alex V
3:54 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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>>> We are all touched by his noodly appendage.
What on Earth does that mean?
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zebthecat
3:53 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Alex V 3:42 Sat Aug 4
I beg to differ.
We are all touched by his noodly appendage.
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Alex V
3:42 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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I disagree Manor - on that basis you could dispute every fact in science on the basis that some unknown mechanism may become apparent.
The odds of some other process than evolution being responsible for what has occurred are absolutely minute.
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ManorParkHammer
3:41 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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'Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth is no more conclusive that Hawkins book on what he thinks black holes are made of...'
I have to go off and drink lager in the sun and eat good food all day now. What a bugger. Would love to stick around and thrash around on your now obvious hook for the rest of the day.
Kwaheri LSD.
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LSD T
3:39 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth is no more conclusive that Hawkins book on what he thinks black holes are made of...
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ManorParkHammer
3:36 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Its 99% proven V.
Always leave 1% margin or error outside of a Mathematical proof!
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Alex V
3:35 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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>>> Not a single piece to prove the whole theory, just enough evidence to prove THE theory.
That's exactly what I'm saying. You seem to be saying this ironically when in reality this is exactly the case in point.
>>> I'm glad you're slowly getting round to the conclusion that documented evidence is far more reliable than say some spurious conspiratorial theory
As I say, the theory of evolution is 100% proven. What is wrong is the focus on a requirement for one piece of evidence to prove it, rather than the huge weight of evidence that does exist.
One good example is the 'missing link' in terms of fossils that is demanded by skeptics. But of course whenever a fossil does close such a link, there would now be two missing links, only smaller ones. It's a demand for evidence that can never be fulfilled, and defies any reasonable logic.
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ManorParkHammer
3:29 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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I am glad you asked LSD. Unfortunately the answer you seek requires explanation in far more detail than I can give you here. Like I said a few peer reviewed science papers or for ease of reading a Dawkins book will be able to explain. I am also not a fan of blind speculation and gladly neither is science in principle.
It would help me if you could let me know whether you are questioning evolution or a whole or simply the evolution of humans? As we can demonstrate in your life time the evolution of fruit flies or the existence of antibiotic resistant bacteria as definitive proof? Or we can demonstrate the universal code of DNA existing in all living things?
The fossil record has proved quite a lot as it goes. For example shows how the simple organisms are the oldest gradually increasing in complexity as the fossil gets younger. We also have found many fossils of our ancestors which you could go and see in museums. We can look at the DNA record and see our universal code,
Yep, there was a very famous forgery as you mention. However forgeries are a demonstration of the flaws in the scientists as opposed to evolution. Although I suppose you could and have made that a conspiracy of some sorts. Yep, you were probably taught ‘facts’ about science which have been become, due to further learning, falsehoods, this is a strength if science however not a weakness.
Also the mitochondrial eve thing has not been pissed on really. It’s currently being debated and like everything in science open to revision, it’s exciting to think of the ramifications of that.
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LSD T
3:25 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Not a single piece to prove the whole theory, just enough evidence to prove THE theory.
I'm glad you're slowly getting round to the conclusion that documented evidence is far more reliable than say some spurious conspiratorial theory, even if it's given to us by those in places of authority.
I would like to see some verifiable evidence really before I commit to any theory...
I'm not closed minded on this, just unconvinced as yet.
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Alex V
3:13 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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Your interpretation of evolution science is 'interesting'. It's an area which I'd like to know more about. But I think it betrays a misunderstanding of how science works in practice...
The out-of-Africa hypothesis for example. You call it speculation, but that is why it is a hypothesis. Science is not only the establishment of facts, it is also the formulation of falsifiable ideas that may explain something. There are other hypotheses, and this is not evidence of a controversy - that is just how science works.
Likewise you say there is 0% evidence for evolution, and this is a common criticism. But it is only skeptics (creationists for example) who call for a single piece of evidence that would prove the whole theory. As others indicate there is a wealth of evidence, and the case for evolution is 100% proven, but there is no piece of evidence that accounts for all of it as a proof - thinking logically what piece of evidence could?
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LSD T
2:57 Sat Aug 4
Re: Your top geniuses?
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It was probably one of the many other fake ones then,like watching the Euro 2012 they all kinda meld together by the end.
I was however taught not to question authority.
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