Greatest People Of The World

[suegha]

Okay, here I go, some smart a$$ will start with derogatory comments... The greatest thinker ever was Jesus. Plain and Simple.

And his followers responsible for the greatest loss of life and misery in history.

I would agree that these people said they were acting in His name, but let's be honest - they weren't doing as He told them. Jesus Christ is at the top of the list, IMHO - don't confuse Him with those purportedly acting in His name. The Yorkshire Ripper told the Daily Mail that Jesus told him what to do, and that is the same as the Conquistadores, the Crusaders and all the rest of the vile bunch. Doesn't mean it was true.

Nice one sadman, thanks for adding a bit of intelligent balance.

[CMCool]

greatest brain, Steven Hawking

He was also at the top of my list of great thinkers until I started to do a little personal research into string theory and discovered Edward Witten. Probably few here will have heard of him but those interested in really abstract physics should take a look.

"Edward Witten is so softly spoken that his voice sometimes threatens to drift away completely. His desk is a jumble of papers and his blackboard a mess of equations. But his hushed words come straight to the point and are infused with understanding and passion.

Witten's quiet manner belies his status. In his role as de facto scientist-in-chief of string theory, Witten, the Charles Simonyi professor of mathematical physics at the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, is undoubtedly the heir to Albert Einstein's title of greatest living physicist. If Einstein were alive today, he would probably be a string theorist, engaged in a remarkable, but still very controversial, theory that claims to explain absolutely everything around us.

As personal opinions go, Witten's make other scientists sit up and listen. His ideas in the development of string theory are legendary.

"There is no question of the extraordinary quality of Witten's intellectual achievements," says renowned physicist Roger Penrose in his latest book, The Road to Reality. "Where Witten goes, it does not take long for the rest to follow."

Source:

Strings theory is a beautiful mathematical theory which has nothing to with reality! Otherwise could you tell me what did it achieve since the standard model of particle physics? Zero.

[Tywais]

Strings theory is a beautiful mathematical theory which has nothing to with reality! Otherwise could you tell me what did it achieve since the standard model of particle physics? Zero.

Nothing to do with reality? I suggest you do a little more research into it and its' implications. It's still a virgin field, not like particle physics so one can't say what has it achieved but rather what will it achieve. If it (string/M-string theory) indeed can be fully understood and formulated then the "Unified theory" will be complete. Remember, laws often start out as theory until proven.

Actually I should put this to the Bedlam forum right along with the chaos theory thread. Interesting stuff.

Edited March 6, 2006 by tywais

[CMCool]

Strings theory is a beautiful mathematical theory which has nothing to with reality! Otherwise could you tell me what did it achieve since the standard model of particle physics? Zero.

Nothing to do with reality? I suggest you do a little more research into it and its' implications. It's still a virgin field, not like particle physics so one can't say what has it achieved but rather what will it achieve. If it (string/M-string theory) indeed can be fully understood and formulated then the "Unified theory" will be complete. Remember, laws often start out as theory until proven.

Actually I should put this to the Bedlam forum right along with the chaos theory thread. Interesting stuff.

I know this off-topic. But I believe as long as this theory can not derive a measurable physical quantity, such as the mass, electrical charge, or the spin of a particle, it remains just a mathematical curiosity. Where is the connection with reality then?

BTW I don't know what is the Beldam forum.

[Tywais]

I know this off-topic.

BTW I don't know what is the Beldam forum.

You are right, we shouldn't hijack an interesting thread and it's clear you and I could have a good discussion. Unfortunately you are a long way from the 500 posts required to enter Bedlam (semi-private forum) where this could be carried on. So let's just leave it at that.

[CMCool]

,we shouldn't hijack an interesting thread and it's clear you and I could have a good discussion. Unfortunately you are a long way from the 500 posts required to enter Bedlam (semi-private forum) where this could be carried on. So let's just leave it at that.

Agree Anyway, I didn't know such a forum existed within TV

Sir Isaac Newton

"Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in night;

God said, 'Let Newton be!' -- And all was light." (Alexander Pope)

[wolf5370]

I read somewhere that the people who have had most influence on our everyday lives, out of all proportion to their population, are the Scots.

Adam Smith - Founding father of economics.

Alexander Graham Bell - Telephone.

Alexander Fleming - Antibiotics.

James Watt - Inventor of the steam engine, which started the industrial revolution in earnest.

Robert Stevenson - Inventor of the steam locomotive.

I'm sure there are many more.

How about...

Anaesthetics

James Simpson, an Edinburgh physician, was the first doctor to use anaesthetics to relieve the pain of surgery in the mid 19th Century. His main objective at the beginning was to alleviate the pain that women felt in childbirth. There was strong opposition to this idea from the Church, because the Old Testament claims that God's punishment to women for the sins of Eve was that they should bring forth children in pain. Fortunately for women everywhere, Simpson won this argument. I despise the recent trend in the USA for impressionable pregnant women to refuse any painkillers during delivery. Their fear of harming the baby with the drugs often means a longer birth and more trauma to the baby than a quick painless birth.

Antisepsis

Joseph Lister, Professor of surgery at Glasgow University, was the first to realize that the high post-operative mortality of his patients was due to the onset of bloodpoisoning (sepsis) caused by micro-organisms. Operating theatres were not the pristine places they are today. In the early 19th century, they were awash with blood and amputated body parts. In 1865 Lister found that carbolic acid was an effective antiseptic.

Artificial Diamonds

In the mid 19th Century, a Scottish scientist managed to produce some tiny artificial diamonds by a secret process that has never been duplicated.

Agricultural Reaping Machine

Patrick Bell won the prize from the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1790 for a reaping machine - long before the better known machine of Cyrus McCormick patented in 1834.

Bakelite/Damard

The inventor and electrical engineer, Sir James Swinburne, patented many ideas and inventions including improvements to electric lamps and dynamos. He was beaten to the patent office by only one day by Baekeland for Bakelite the thermosetting resin that founded the modern plastics industry. Swinburne had discovered this material independently but did not profit from his discovery. He did patent another synthetic lacquer, Damard.

Latent Heat

Joseph Black (1728 - 1799) Chemist. Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry in Glasgow University (1756) and then Professor of Medicine and Chemistry in Edinburgh (1766). Developed the concept of "Latent Heat" and discovered Carbon Dioxide ("Fixed Air"). Regarded as the Father of Quantitative Chemistry.

Brownian Movement

Botanist Robert Brown observed small specks of pollen suspended in a liquid were continually dancing around in a haphazard way. He correctly surmised that they were being pushed around by the molecules of the liquid which were themselves too tiny to see. In time his discovery contributed to the development of the Quantum Theory.

Buicks

Buick is the brand name stamped on over 25 million cars in the USA. This car is the named after David Dunbar Buick, a Scot who immigrated to the U.S. in 1856. Buick started out as a plumber at age 15, and is credited with developing a method for bonding enamel to cast iron; a process responsible for our blue bathtubs and pink sinks. But David's passion was the internal combustion engine. In 1899, in the city of Detroit, he formed the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, manufacturer of gasoline engines. David also patented a carburetor and designed an automobile, but business debts and failed investments prevented him from realizing profits from his inventions. He died, impoverished, in 1929. But General Motors saluted his inventiveness in 1937 when it adopted the Buick name and family crest for its new line of cars.

Pneumatic Tyres

John Boyd Dunlop patented his pneumatic tyre in 1888. He was a vetinary surgeon, but his interest in inventions led him to develop the tyres for his son's bicycle. He lived long enough to see his invention become the foundation for a huge industry around the world.

Chemical Bonds

Alexander Crum Brown (1838 - 1922) was born in Edinburgh. After studying in London and Leipzig, he returned to the University of Edinburgh in 1863. He held the chair of Chemistry, which now bears his name, until his death. He devised the system of representing chemical compounds in diagrammatic form, with connecting lines representing bonds.

Decimal Point

The notation we use today first appeared in a book called "Descriptio" by the Edinburgh mathematician, John Napier, Laird of Merchiston, in the 1616. He used a decimal point to separate the whole number part from the decimal number part. Known as 'Marvellous Merchiston", he published many other treatises including "Mirifici logarithmorum" (1614) and Rabdologia (1615) on systems of arithmetic using calculation aids known as Napiers Bones. Other achievements include his revolutionary methods for tilling and fertilising soil. To defend the country against Philip of Spain he came up with a number of "Secret Inventions" including the round chariot with firepower but offering protection (the tank); an underwater ship (the submarine); an artillery piece which would mow down a field of soldiers (the machine gun). Biographical details of John Napier

Fax Machines

Invented by a blacksmith in Dumfries in the early 19th Century. This was not the same electronic process used today, but was a functional technique. Some years later, Napoleon used a similar process to send messages to his commanders all over France.

Flailing machines

The first successful machine to replace the primitive hand flail for husking grain was invented by millwright Andrew Meikle in 1784. His machine consisted of a drum into which the grain was fed, which rotated inside a curved metal sheet with very small clearance. The husks were rubbed off the grain. the

Iron Bridges

Engineer Thomas Telford is famous for building more than 1200 bridges, many of them using cast iron. Other major achievements of his include the Caledonian Canal, the Menai suspension bridge, and the London to Holyhead road. As a road builder he ranked second only to McAdam. Telford founded the Institute of Civil Engineers.

The Kelvin scale of temperature

Named after the scientist, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), professor at Glasgow University, who was a pioneer in the field of thermodynamics.

Percussion Powder

Presbyterian minister Alexander Forsyth invented this in 1809. Within a few years the flintlock, always susceptible to damp, was obsolete. It was replaced by a weather-proof hammer action, the cap resting on the crown of a nipple which contained the flash-hole.

Logarithms

Natural logarithms were invented by the Edinburgh mathematician, John Napier, Laird of Merchiston, in the late 1500s. He published many treatises including "Mirifici logarithmorum" (1614) and Rabdologia (1615) on systems of arithmetic using calculation aids known as Napiers Bones.

Maxwell's Equations in Electromagnetism

Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynnman said that a thousand years from now the 1860s will be remembered not for the American Civil War which will be a mere footnote in history, but for Maxwell's mathematical description of electromagnetism. James Clerk Maxwell(1831 - 79), who was known as "daftie" Maxwell as a schoolboy at the Edinburgh Academy, became a professor of physics by the age of 21. He created the electromagnetic theory of light, and interpreted Faraday's electromagnetic field mathematically. He correctly predicted the existence of radio waves later confirmed experimentally by Hertz. Maxwell made important contributions to the study of heat and the kinetic theory of gases.

"As a creative and imaginative genius, he ranks with Newton and Einstein" ...Trevor Williams wrote in his book The History of Invention.

Mackintosh Raincoats

Since the rainiest spot in Europe is found in the Scottish highlands, it is not surprising that this technique for waterproofing clothing was developed there.

Macadamised roads

John Loudon McAdam devised the macadamized road in which the underlying soil is protected by a light protective layer that is waterproof and cambered to divert rainwater to the sides. the

Microwave Ovens

Microwave ovens were a direct offshoot of the development of the magnetron in 1940. The magnetron is a device that produces electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of about 5 inches. Its first application was in radar. The American science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein, author of the novel "Starship Troopers" amongst many others, was the first civilian to use a microwave oven.

Penicillin

Discovered in 1928 by the bacteriologist . Sir Alexander Fleming. This drug has saved more lives than the number lost in all the wars of history.

Paraffin

James Young was a chemist who made his fortune as the first to market paraffin as a lighting and heating oil.

Hollow-pipe drainage

Sir Hugh Dalrymple (Lord Drummore) (1700 - 1753) Invented hollow-pipe drainage. This innovation allowed the drying of water-logged land, bringing large areas into agricultural production.

Radar Defense System

Physicist, Sir Robert Watson-Watt, was the mind behind the radar network on the coast of England that detected incoming German aircraft in World War II. He had worked on the radio detection of thunderstorms (hazardous to aviators) during World War I. In 1935 he proposed a method for locating aircraft by a radio-pulse technique. The radar system was invaluable to the defense of Britain during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It operated day and night over a range of 40 miles, giving the Royal Air Force information about the height and bearing of German planes.

Refrigerators

James Harrison, who emigrated to Australia from Scotland, invented a cooling system for a brewery in Bendigo, in 1851. He had noticed that ether had a cooling effect on metals, and so he pumped it through pipes. As the ether evaporated it took heat from its surroundings to provide the latent heat of evaporation. His idea was used in the first refrigerated ship, the SS Strathleven, which carried a cargo of meat from Australia to England, a voyage of several months, in 1876. Refrigeration was a major force in the economic development of both Australia and New Zealand.

Quinine

George Cleghorn (1716 - 1794) was the army surgeon who discovered that quinine bark acted as a cure for Malaria.

The Steam Engine

Invented by James Watt, instrumental in powering the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century. His engine was not mobile, but was fixed in position. Soon it was being built and used in mining, to pull coal carts up to the pithead. Mine manager, John Blenkinsop, put one of these steam boilers on wheels so that it could carry the coal further. This came to the attention of George Stephenson who was also a mining engineer. Stephenson took the idea a stage further with his invention of the steam locomotive.

The Steam-hammer

Invented by the engineer and manufacturer of steam engines and machine tools, James Nasmyth, in 1839. The steam-hammer made it possible to forge much larger items than before.

The Stereotype

Until the invention of the stereotype in 1727 printing type had to be reset if a second printing was to be made. It was not economic to keep the type standing for prolonged periods of time. William Ged, a goldsmith in Edinburgh, took a plaster mould of the type and then cast the whole page in metal.

Sulphuric Acid

John Roebuck of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, invented the lead chamber process for the distillation of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is of central importance in the manufacture of many other chemicals and in metal refining.

The telephone

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh and lived there until his family emigrated to Canada when he was 18. He patented the telephone in 1876 and now there are more than 500 million of them spanning the globe. He revolutionized world communications.

Thermos bottles (Dewars)

Sir James Dewar (1842 - 1923) invented the dewar flask to keep liquids cool in the laboratory. The idea became the domestic thermos flask, which keeps hot liquids hot as well as cold things cold by isolating them from their surroundings, thus reducing the flow of heat. His scientific career was noted for his pioneer work on low temperature physics and vacuum techniques. He was the first to liquify hydrogen.

The telegraph

The Scots Magazine first published the concept for the telegraph in 1753. An anonymous contributor suggested that words could be spelled out along a 26 wire system activated by static electricity. The receiver had twenty six pith balls, each with a different letter of the alphabet. The pith balls would be attracted to their corresponding charged wires when the wires were activated with static electricity. The state of technology was not up to the task until Volta invented the electric battery in 1800, however.

Television

A photo-mechanical device invented by John Logie Baird in 1922. He set up the first practical television system in the world in 1929, in Britain. In 1935 Baird worked with the German company, Fernseh, to start the world's first 3-day per week television service.

In 1908, another Scot, Alan Campbell-Swinton, outlined the use of the cathode-ray tube for transmission and reception that is used in modern television. This method replaced Baird's in the 1930's.

Tubular steel

Sir William Fairbairn (1789 - 1874) was born in Kelso, in southern Scotland. An engineer, he developed the idea of using tubular steel, which was much stronger than solid steel, as a construction material.

Breech-loading rifle

Patrick Ferguson (1744 - 1780) Born in Pitfour, Aberdeenshire, Ferguson invented the breech-loading rifle, which was capable of firing seven shots per minute. With the help of this weapon, the Americans were defeated at the Battle of Brandywine (1777). He was killed at the Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina, USA.

Paleobiology

Around 1815 William Nicol (lecturer of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh) had used Canada balsam to cement pieces of fossil wood or minerals onto a glass plate and then ground the sample down to slices so fine you could see through them with a microscope and discover all kinds of good stuff--like bubbles in crystals, which told you something of the way the minerals had been formed, or the cell patterns that showed what kind of plant the sample had come from. Prior to this, paleobotany (... the morphology of fossil plants) was a subject virtually untouched, except for some earlier research by another Scotsman."

Polarization of Light

In 1828, William Nicol discovered polarization of light (the effect that makes polarized sunglasses useful). He stuck two bits of an Iceland spar crystal together and invented the Nicol prism. Iceland spar splits a beam of light into two polarized rays, with the transverse electromagnetic waves vibrating in orthogonal directions in the two beams. If two Nicol prisms were used, when the second one was rotated, one of the polarized light rays coming through would dim and then cut off once it had rotated through 90 degrees.

The Cloud Chamber

was invented by Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869 - 1959) an eminent Edinburgh scientist. After observing optical atmospheric phenomena in the Highlands, he realized that condensation trails could be used to track and detect atomic and subatomic particles. The cloud chamber became an indispensible detection device in nuclear physics, and therefore he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927. In addition to his research on atomic physics, Wilson studied atmospheric phenomena all his life and his work on the electrical behaviour of the atmosphere is the basis of our understanding of what is involved in thunderstorms

[wolf5370]

My 'best mids' are as follows:

For Brain power: James Clerk Maxwell(1831 - 79) (Einstein's famous theories were based on the work if this man!!!); Sun Tzu; Clive Sinclair (not always sucessfull - C5 -, but gave the world the first affordable home computer - the ZX80)

For Peace: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha); Dalai Lama; Ghandi; Christ; Fridtjof Nansen (look him up - http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1922/nansen-bio.html)

For Culture: Mozart; Beethoven

[monochaser]

Forget about Einstein, all he did was invent a bomb that killed a ton of people. I vote for Billy Gates

[thedude]

Feynman__65.bmp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

the bad boy of physics. not just brilliant, but funny.

Edited March 7, 2006 by thedude

[ilyushin]

William the Conqueror, Hannibal Barca, Hypatia Of Alexandria, Nikola Tesla, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Philip Emeagwali, Socrates, Marie Curie. Genghis Khan. Plato. Albert Einstein. Napoleon Bonaparte, Aristotle. Alexander Fleming. Robert E. Lee. Francis Bacon. Jonas Salk. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Rene Descartes. John Locke . Sophocles. Constantine the Great. Voltaire. Virgil. Charlemagne. Jean Jacques Rousseau. Dante Alighieri. Queen Elizabeth I. Adam Smith. Geoffrey Chaucer. Oliver Cromwell. Immanuel Kant. William Shakespeare. Benjamin Franklin. Karl Marx. John Milton. Catherine the Great . Friedrich Nietzsche . Charles Dickens. George Washington. George Eliot .Thomas Jefferson. Marco Polo . Leo Tolstoy. Abraham Lincoln. Christopher Columbus. Emily Dickinson. Vasco da Gama. Mark Twain . Mahatma Gandhi . Ferdinand Magellan . Winston Churchill. James Cook . Johann Sebastian Bach. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roald Amundsen. George Frideric Handel. Martin Luther King, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Archimedes. Ludwig van Beethoven. Abraham . Johann Gutenberg. Frederic Chopin. Moses. Eli Whitney . Richard Wagner . Lao Tzu. Thomas Edison . Johannes Brahms. Buddha . Alexander Graham Bell. Peter Tchaikovsky. Confucius,Henry Ford . Claude Debussy. Jesus Christ . The Wright Brothers. The Apostle Paul . Guglielmo Marconi . Leonardo da Vinci. Saint Augustine . Raphael . Muhammad . Galen. Michelangelo. Thomas Aquinas , Nicolaus Copernicus. Rembrandt . Galileo. Claude Monet. John Calvin. Issac Newton.Vincent van Gogh. Joseph Smith. Charles Darwin. Pablo Picasso, Louis Pasteur. Gregor Mendel. Alexander the Great , Alexei Leonov , Sawasdi Horrungruang, Walt Disney, Elvis, Ho Chi Minh, Homer.

Edited March 7, 2006 by ilyushin

[TRIPxCORE]

If anyone would consider America to be a great feat or accomplishment...

does anyone ?

and in a way (and if you want to go to the core...) this is a good example how "colonization" of the original inhabitants was "successful" unlike India mentioned earlier in this thread

Does anyone consider America still occupied and India free though ?

KY

lets get back to the real heroes...

I knew this would come up. Another America basher. How did I know?

Apparently, he's been advising Tony Blair and George Bush on warfare! Silly me, I thought that the Bilderberg group told them what to do.

They do!

Greatest people of the world? Well, lets see.........

If anyone would consider America to be a great feat or accomplishment then we should recognize the people responsible for it. Of course I am talking about Italians. Yes, thats right, Italians. Now I know you might be asking yourself "What the heck do Italians have to do with America?" Well, I shall tell you.

To put it simply, America is an Italian country at its core. It was officially founded by one Italian and then named after another Italian. So, in essence, America is an Italian country.

Sorry .....Columbus wasn't Italian...he was Genoan

Its a part of Italy Lampy. They speak Italian in Genoa and it is wholly within Italy.

[Sir Burr]

Its a part of Italy Lampy. They speak Italian in Genoa and it is wholly within Italy.

There was no Italy when Columbus was alive, just city states, principalities and kingdoms.

Columbus was Genoan, not Italian irrespective of what language he spoke.

[chuchok]

Its a part of Italy Lampy. They speak Italian in Genoa and it is wholly within Italy.

Who says that CC was Italian? I thought that part was disputed?

Genoese is also spoken in Genoa.

[TRIPxCORE]

Genoese language is Italian albeit with dialects

[Morden]

Okay, here I go, some smart a$$ will start with derogatory comments... The greatest thinker ever was Jesus. Plain and Simple.

Apparently, he's been advising Tony Blair and George Bush on warfare! Silly me, I thought that the Bilderberg group told them what to do.

Martin Luther King must be somewhere near the top of the list. He brought freedom to many at the expense of his own life. Having considered for a moment the history of the various Christian churches, I would say that puts him above Jesus.

There you go, what did I say would happen, confusing Jesus with the 'various Christian churches'. I rest my case!

Well, Suega, you didn't rest your case because later you went on to attack others who did not agree with you. There is no evidence that Christ was a thinker or great brain and, if you want to believe what you read in the gospels, he only repeated what God told him. Whatever, Christ did not have enough foresight to see that his pontifications would be used by others as justification for war, oppression and torture so he wasn't so great, was he?

I guess that you're one of those born again christians who is all smiles when everyone agrees with you and then gets out of his pram when they do not. Isn't that how the Spanish Inquisition started?

You posted your view with the expectation that someone would disagree and some did. Now live with it and respect the right of others to hold views that you don't like.

[Sir Burr]

Genoese language is Italian albeit with dialects

Well, using your logic, Julius Caesar was also an Italian and Hannibal Barca was Tunisian.

[LaoPo]

Wolf....let me guess....are you Scottish?

LaoPo

William the Conqueror, Hannibal Barca, Hypatia Of Alexandria, Nikola Tesla, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Philip Emeagwali, Socrates, Marie Curie. Genghis Khan. Plato. Albert Einstein. Napoleon Bonaparte, Aristotle. Alexander Fleming. Robert E. Lee. Francis Bacon. Jonas Salk. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Rene Descartes. John Locke . Sophocles. Constantine the Great. Voltaire. Virgil. Charlemagne. Jean Jacques Rousseau. Dante Alighieri. Queen Elizabeth I. Adam Smith. Geoffrey Chaucer. Oliver Cromwell. Immanuel Kant. William Shakespeare. Benjamin Franklin. Karl Marx. John Milton. Catherine the Great . Friedrich Nietzsche . Charles Dickens. George Washington. George Eliot .Thomas Jefferson. Marco Polo . Leo Tolstoy. Abraham Lincoln. Christopher Columbus. Emily Dickinson. Vasco da Gama. Mark Twain . Mahatma Gandhi . Ferdinand Magellan . Winston Churchill. James Cook . Johann Sebastian Bach. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roald Amundsen. George Frideric Handel. Martin Luther King, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Archimedes. Ludwig van Beethoven. Abraham . Johann Gutenberg. Frederic Chopin. Moses. Eli Whitney . Richard Wagner . Lao Tzu. Thomas Edison . Johannes Brahms. Buddha . Alexander Graham Bell. Peter Tchaikovsky. Confucius,Henry Ford . Claude Debussy. Jesus Christ . The Wright Brothers. The Apostle Paul . Guglielmo Marconi . Leonardo da Vinci. Saint Augustine . Raphael . Muhammad . Galen. Michelangelo. Thomas Aquinas , Nicolaus Copernicus. Rembrandt . Galileo. Claude Monet. John Calvin. Issac Newton.Vincent van Gogh. Joseph Smith. Charles Darwin. Pablo Picasso, Louis Pasteur. Gregor Mendel. Alexander the Great , Alexei Leonov , Sawasdi Horrungruang, Walt Disney, Elvis, Ho Chi Minh, Homer.

Impressive list (and I agree with quite a few of them).....but why? and where did you find the bag of names

Also: interesting to see you added a few names of great painters, like:

Rembrandt (van Rijn)

He was (just...) a painter, but Michelangelo was an allround artist, not just painter but did also famous sculptures, designed buildings etc.

LaoPo

Edited March 7, 2006 by LaoPo

[stumonster]

Nikola Tesla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla

[steve w]

and how has everybody forgotten the current largest brain in england

[LaoPo]

and how has everybody forgotten the current largest brain in england

He didn't know how to do the schoolwork from his daughter

LaoPo

[lappami1]

Okay, here I go, some smart a$$ will start with derogatory comments... The greatest thinker ever was Jesus. Plain and Simple.

And his followers responsible for the greatest loss of life and misery in history.

I would agree that these people said they were acting in His name, but let's be honest - they weren't doing as He told them. Jesus Christ is at the top of the list, IMHO - don't confuse Him with those purportedly acting in His name. The Yorkshire Ripper told the Daily Mail that Jesus told him what to do, and that is the same as the Conquistadores, the Crusaders and all the rest of the vile bunch. Doesn't mean it was true.

So Jesus was a great man but Christians suck.

[LaoPo]

Okay, here I go, some smart a$$ will start with derogatory comments... The greatest thinker ever was Jesus. Plain and Simple.

And his followers responsible for the greatest loss of life and misery in history.

I would agree that these people said they were acting in His name, but let's be honest - they weren't doing as He told them. Jesus Christ is at the top of the list, IMHO - don't confuse Him with those purportedly acting in His name. The Yorkshire Ripper told the Daily Mail that Jesus told him what to do, and that is the same as the Conquistadores, the Crusaders and all the rest of the vile bunch. Doesn't mean it was true.

So Jesus was a great man but Christians suck.

May I suggest that we leave a 'Religious' discussion out of this topic, please?

LaoPo

Edited March 7, 2006 by LaoPo

[suegha]

Okay, here I go, some smart a$$ will start with derogatory comments... The greatest thinker ever was Jesus. Plain and Simple.

Apparently, he's been advising Tony Blair and George Bush on warfare! Silly me, I thought that the Bilderberg group told them what to do.

Martin Luther King must be somewhere near the top of the list. He brought freedom to many at the expense of his own life. Having considered for a moment the history of the various Christian churches, I would say that puts him above Jesus.

There you go, what did I say would happen, confusing Jesus with the 'various Christian churches'. I rest my case!

Well, Suega, you didn't rest your case because later you went on to attack others who did not agree with you. There is no evidence that Christ was a thinker or great brain and, if you want to believe what you read in the gospels, he only repeated what God told him. Whatever, Christ did not have enough foresight to see that his pontifications would be used by others as justification for war, oppression and torture so he wasn't so great, was he?

I guess that you're one of those born again christians who is all smiles when everyone agrees with you and then gets out of his pram when they do not. Isn't that how the Spanish Inquisition started?

You posted your view with the expectation that someone would disagree and some did. Now live with it and respect the right of others to hold views that you don't like.

Such vehemence! No, you are wrong, I’m perfectly happy for people to disagree with me, and yes, I do respect other people’s opinion. So just who did I attack?

Look at your post! Look at the posts that repeatedly confuse Jesus with his ‘so-called’ followers. If you don’t agree with me, that’s just fine and dandy! I don’t care.

As for your point, “I guess that you're one of those born again Christians who is all smiles when everyone agrees with you and then gets out of his pram when they do not. Isn't that how the Spanish Inquisition started?”

Such assumptions! You guess wrong, I am not one of those born again Christians! And then you finish with the Spanish Inquisition, I guess you blame Jesus on this also.

Now practise what you preach and respect the right of others to hold views that you don't like.

Just to close, what was I resting my case on? Exactly what happened. Here's the quote for you to read again. "There you go, what did I say would happen, confusing Jesus with the 'various Christian churches'. I rest my case!"

So I was resting my case on what I said would happen! And it did!

[kayo]

well thats easy to answer

Agreed with homer from the simpsons...

how about this guy...

good looking, friendly English Bartender from Guatemala....

[opothai]

the chinese, for thinking and a people way ahead of thier time until they diccovered opium, then the egyptians, then the greeks, romans closly followed by winny churchill and maggie

[CMCool]

the chinese, for thinking and a people way ahead of thier time until they diccovered opium, then the egyptians, then the greeks, romans closly followed by winny churchill and maggie

...and the Babylonians, Mayas, Indians, Persians, Arabs, and in fact everybody

[opothai]

the chinese, for thinking and a people way ahead of thier time until they diccovered opium, then the egyptians, then the greeks, romans closly followed by winny churchill and maggie

...and the Babylonians, Mayas, Indians, Persians, Arabs, and in fact everybody

yes my friend, we were taught at school life is but a circle,

and how true it is.

is it true the chinese were the first organised civilisation, leading the world in the then technology of that time, if this is correct then in fifty years time they will have come full circle as they will probably be leading the world then.

[englishoak]

The greatest ???? Thats easy Mr Thaksin of course ..........

[CMCool]

the chinese, for thinking and a people way ahead of thier time until they diccovered opium, then the egyptians, then the greeks, romans closly followed by winny churchill and maggie

...and the Babylonians, Mayas, Indians, Persians, Arabs, and in fact everybody

yes my friend, we were taught at school life is but a circle,

and how true it is.

is it true the chinese were the first organised civilisation, leading the world in the then technology of that time, if this is correct then in fifty years time they will have come full circle as they will probably be leading the world then.

Agree with that, but I think it will happen much sooner than that. Just have a look at the names of faculty members at the top universities in the world and you'll see what I mean. For example, do you know that now more than half of science and engineering professors at Birmingham University are Chinese? The Indians too are not far behind...