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Subject: Survey finds Britain has most living geniuses
AdamB    11/1/2007 1:49:05 PM
Britain, the country that started the Industrial Revolution becoming the first mechanised, industrialised and urbanised country on the planet, the country that spawned the world's biggest ever empire, the country that gave the world the computer, the lightbulb, the television, the train, the World Wibe Web, the cardiac pacemaker, the lawnmower, innoculation, the discoverers of gravity, evolution and dinosaurs, the father of geology, the photographic negative, the jet engine, the internal combustion engine, penicillin, the radar, the tank and the aircraft carrier, has more living geniuses per head of population than any other country in the world. The country that gave the world Newton and Darwin still produces great geniuses. More than 60% of the people in the list are British and American. But Britain is way ahead of even second-placed America - it has one genius per 2.5 million people, more than any other nation. Next is the US, with one genius per 6.9 million people..... [SIZE="5"]British brains dominate list of living geniuses[/SIZE] By Aislinn Simpson 30/10/2007 The Telegraph Britain has more living geniuses per head of population than anywhere else in the world, according to a new survey which reveals the country's influence on science, technology, business and the arts. [img]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/10/29/ngenius129.jpg[/img] British scientists Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 Almost a quarter of those featured in the list of 100 living geniuses are Britons, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web, in joint first place, and physicist Stephen Hawking at seven in the list. British artists and musicians feature heavily, including Brit Art leader Damien Hirst at number 15, poet Seamus Heaney at 26, playwright Harold Pinter at 31, Sir Paul McCartney at 58, David Bowie at 67, Harry Potter author JK Rowling at 83 and filmmaker Ken Russell at 100. Sir Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Group, at 49, chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, at 58, and psychologist Dorothy Rowe, at 72, also made the list. With 24 Britons in the list, the country has generated one living genius per 2.5 million people – a higher proportion than any other country. The list, compiled by a panel of six experts in creativity and innovation, is jointly topped by Sir Tim and Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who created the drug LSD. They are followed by George Soros, the American financier and philanthropist, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Nelson Mandela, the former South African president. There are also some surprise entrants. Osama Bin Laden ranks at number 43, a spot he shares with Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and Mohammed Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion. The Americans have 43 geniuses on the list – one per 6.9 million people. Creators Synectics, a global consultants firm, chose their geniuses by awarding scores out of 10 to each entrant against a number of factors: paradigm shifting; popular acclaim; intellectual power; achievement and cultural importance. They received back 1,100 nominations for individuals in all walks of life, more than 60 per cent of whom were either American or English. Only 60 per cent were still alive. The panel was then charged with ranking the list in order of genius and to present a resulting shortlist of 100, who were then scored against the five factors. [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Richard_dawkins.jpg/210px-Richard_dawkins.jpg[/img] British scientist Richard Dawkins is at number 20 in the list Nigel Clarke, a managing partner of Synectics UK & Europe, said: "Many people argue that a genius can be defined by their contribution, where it turns conventional thinking on its head. "I think that Albert Hoffman and Tim Berners-Lee have this in common with the great geniuses of the past. ''Both of them have, in their own way, turned the world that we live in upside down. And it may be that alone that accounts for their acclamation as the world's greatest living geniuses." [SIZE="5"]Top 100 living geniuses [/SIZE] 1= Albert Hoffman (Swiss) Chemist 1= Tim Berners-Lee (British) Computer Scientist 3 George Soros (American) Investor & Philanthropist 4 Matt Groening (American) Satirist & Animator 5= Nelson Mandela (South African) Politician & Diplomat 5= Frederick Sanger (British) Chemist 7= Dario Fo (Italian) Writer & Dramatist 7= Steven Hawking (British) Physicist 9= Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian) Architect 9= Philip Glass (American) Composer 9= Grigory Perelman (Russian) Mathematician 12= Andrew Wiles (British) Mathematician 12= Li Hongzhi (Chinese) Spiritual Leader 12= Ali Javan (Iranian) Engineer 15= Brian Eno (British) Composer 15= Damian Hirst (British) Artist 15= Daniel Tammet (British) Savant & Linguist 18 Nicholson Baker (American Writer 19 Daniel Barenboim (N/A) Musi
 
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SGTObvious       11/2/2007 11:43:28 AM

 "Britain, the country gave the world...  ...the dinosaurs,"
 
Older nation than I gave it credit for.  Wow.


"  The list, compiled ...  ...entrants... ... They received back 1,100 nominations"
 
Entrants, Compiled, Nominations:  You'd think with all those damned Geniuses around, ONE of them would have recognized sampling bias when they saw it.  You have to choose the samples RANDOMLY,  or the survey is mathematically worthless!  

"Nigel Clarke, a managing partner of Synectics UK & Europe, said: "Many people argue that a genius can be defined by their contribution, where it turns conventional thinking on its head."

Um... Nigel... complete idiots ALSO turn conventional thinking on its head.  Even more people argue that genius is extroardinary mental ability,"
 
Note the factors included:  "...paradigm shifting; popular acclaim; intellectual power; achievement and cultural importance. "

 Only ONE is actual genius.  The others have more to do with Charisma, Wealth, Fame, and whether or not you are lucky enough to be born into a society where you can access global media, as well as plugged into the social network that handed out the invites .  By this ranking, a person ranking well ahead in intellectual power but born in, say, Papua New Guinea, doesn't have much hope. 


SGTObvious
 
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SGTObvious       11/2/2007 11:45:36 AM

only 2 canadians on the list.  i'm outraged hehe.



It's the cold weather, Ehran.  You guys can't fill out the survey forms so quickly wearing mittens.
 
SGTObvious
 
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SGTObvious       11/2/2007 11:48:03 AM

I'm sorry but any list that puts Matt Groening ahead of Stephen Hawking is not in any way respectable.



Stephen Hawking  (in animated form) has appeared in a Matt Groening production, but Matt has never appeared in any of Dr. Hawking's works.  I think that explains it.
 
SGTObvious
 
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Ehran       11/2/2007 12:43:58 PM




only 2 canadians on the list.  i'm outraged hehe.





It's the cold weather, Ehran.  You guys can't fill out the survey forms so quickly wearing mittens.

 

SGTObvious


it's a daft list.  i've no idea who the canadian physicist is but margaret atwood for crying out loud???  i'm sure she's a lovely woman and i understand a lot of people quite fancy her books but she sure as heck never rocked my world at all much less yours.
 
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Ehran       11/2/2007 12:44:56 PM
 i know i'm gonna regret asking but why herald do you think the dalai lama is a crook?
 
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Lynstyne       11/2/2007 12:46:35 PM

i was lazy and didn't read the main text, just the list (top 100)

could someone tell me what constitutes 'genius'? there are a number of people i would remove from this list

oh and i agree with lynstyne (sorry i can't remember the spelling)... hold that taxi mate, we'll share the fare


Avec pleasure
 
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paul1970       11/8/2007 3:46:40 AM








1= Albert Hoffman (Swiss) Chemist
1= Tim Berners-Lee (British) Computer Scientist
3 George Soros (American) Investor & Philanthropist [Actually he's a Hungarian]
4 Matt Groening (American) Satirist & Animator
5= Nelson Mandela (South African) Politician & Diplomat [criminal psychotic]
5= Frederick Sanger (British) Chemist
7= Dario Fo (Italian) Writer & Dramatist
7= Steven Hawking (British) Physicist
9= Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian) Architect
9= Philip Glass (American) Composer [hack composer]
9= Grigory Perelman (Russian) Mathematician
12= Andrew Wiles (British) Mathematician
12= Li Hongzhi (Chinese) Spiritual Leader [shill]
12= Ali Javan (Iranian) Engineer
15= Brian Eno (British) Composer
15= Damian Hirst (British) Artist
15= Daniel Tammet (British) Savant & Linguist
18 Nicholson Baker (American) Writer [have you ever read him? Yucko]
19 Daniel Barenboim (N/A) Musician
20= Robert Crumb (American) Artist
20= Richard Dawkins (British) Biologist and philosopher
20= Larry Page & Sergey Brin (American) Publishers [shills]
20= Rupert Murdoch (American) Publisher [Australian isn't he?]
20= Geoffrey Hill (British) Poet
25 Garry Kasparov (Russian) Chess Player
26= The Dalai Lama (Tibetan) Spiritual Leader [a crook]
26= Steven Spielberg (American) Film maker [hack film maker]
26= Hiroshi Ishiguro (Japanese) Roboticist
26= Robert Edwards (British) Pioneer of IVF treatment
26= Seamus Heaney (Irish) Poet
31 Harold Pinter (British) Writer & Dramatist
32= Flossie Wong-Staal (Chinese) Bio-technologist
32= Bobby Fischer (American) Chess Player [neurotic]
32= Prince (American) Musician [under appreciated]
32= Henrik Gorecki (Polish) Composer
32= Avram Noam Chomski (American) Philosopher & linguist [a total idiot]
32= Sebastian Thrun (German) Probabilistic roboticist
32= Nima Arkani Hamed (Canadian) Physicist
32= Margaret Turnbull (American) Astrobiologist [under appreciated]
40= Elaine Pagels (American) Historian [hack researcher whose methodology in religious mythology research is deeply suspect]
40= Enrique Ostrea (Philippino) Pediatrics & neonatology
40= Gary Becker (American) Economist
43= Mohammed Ali (American) Boxer [idiot]
43= Osama Bin Laden (Saudi) Islamicist [psychotic]
43= Bill Gates (American) Businessman [capitalist opportunist]
43= Philip Roth (American) Writer [pedestrian novelist, rather overrated for Portnoy's complaint] 
43= James West (American) Invented the foil electrical microphone
43= Tuan Vo-Dinh (Vietnamese) Bio-Medical Scientist
49= Brian Wilson (American) Musician [????????????????? you've got to be kidding?]
49= Stevie Wonder (American) Singer songwriter [?????????????? ditto]
49= Vint Cerf (American) Computer scientist
49= Henry Kissinger (American) Diplomat and politician [this lunatic was no genius, warcriminal? certainly]
49= Richard Branson (British) Publicist
49= Pardis Sabeti (Iranian) Biological anthropologist
49= Jon de Mol (Dutch) Television producer
49= Meryl Streep (American) Actress [ROTFLMAO]
49= Margaret Attwood (Canadian) Writer
58= Placido Domingo (Spanish) Singer
58= John Lasseter (American) Digital Animator
58= Shunpei Yamazaki (Japanese) Computer scientist & physicist
58= Jane Goodall (British) Ethologist & Anthropologist [average researcher of dubious product] 
58= Kirti Narayan Chaudhuri (Indian) Historian
58= John Goto (British) Photographer
58= Paul McCartney (British) Musician [???????????????? maybe if you like then Beatles]
58= Stephen King (American) Writer [ROTFLMAO]
58= Leonard Cohen (American) Poet & musician [Definitely not]
67= Aretha Franklin (American) Musician [Definitely not]
67= David Bowie (British) Musician [Definitely not]
67= Emily Oster (American) Economist
67= Steve Wozniak (American) Engineer and co-founder of Apple Computers 7
67= Martin Cooper (American) Inventor of the cell phone
72= George Lucas (American) Film maker [ROTFLMAO]
72= Niles Rogers (American) Musician <
 
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Herald1234       11/8/2007 4:01:57 AM

 i know i'm gonna regret asking but why herald do you think the dalai lama is a crook?



Regret away, Ehran. The Dalai Lama panders superstition for money. Why else wouldn't I define him as an Elmer Gantry? Come on, get with the program.

PS. Paul, as I noted last time, you have a lot pf ground to cover before you make it to the pot/kettle club.

Keep plugging away, though,there is hope for you!

Best wishes,

Herald  

 
 
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