Sometimes it seems these mathematicians have inhaled too much chalk dust for their own good.

Perhaps that explains the hair...

I think there are most certainly more mathematicians that Newton that should be credited with this invention; a whole host from Archimedes through to Descartes and especially Lagrange who considers Fermat to be the inventor of calculus.

And then there is the work of Leibniz and the post Newtonian work of Jacob Bernoulli and Johann Bernoulli.

Not denying Newton’s importance – but no man is an island.

Seems we're both right and both wrong. I heard some of the early Indian mathematicians were brilliant, but not to this extent.

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

As you suggest, no man is an island.

[

But please explain how fire was the first here, before Earth , before water, before anything?

LaoPo[/color]

I thought everyone knew that. The Earth was originally a big ball of fire like the sun. Then it went it's own way, cooled and, Bob's yer uncle.

The Earth was originally a big ball of fire like the sun.

WAS ??? (about half of it still is)

Kind of interesting when one thinks about it. Lots of people are afraid of jets, roller-coasters, motorbikes, and other things fast and scary.

Yet here we all are, sitting on top of a cooling fireball, circling another fireball at a speed of 20 miles per second, while spinning about at a rate of the length of a football pitch per second.

Helluva ride eh??

The Earth was originally a big ball of fire like the sun.

WAS ??? (about half of it still is)

Kind of interesting when one thinks about it. Lots of people are afraid of jets, roller-coasters, motorbikes, and other things fast and scary.

Yet here we all are, sitting on top of a cooling fireball, circling another fireball at a speed of 20 miles per second, while spinning about at a rate of the length of a football pitch per second.

Helluva ride eh??

Yeah. If you could re-create a ride like that at a theme park, how many people would be brave enough to try it ?

Imagine sitting in a seat that is spinning at about 265 miles (425 kilometers) per hour, while the arm the seat is attached to spins around a ball of molten lava at a speed of about 72,000 miles (115,000 kilometers) per hour !

Buckle up and hope nobody stuffed themselves with hotdogs before getting on the ride

A bit expensive but here you go: Connections

######! You weren't joking about the price! I've bookmarked the link- maybe splurge on it as my Christmas present to myself this year.

Might actually be a decent value- many hours of entertainment if all 10 DVDs are full!

Thanks for the info all the same Tywais......

Best Discovery - Fire.

2nd best Discovery - Electricity (which led to computers and Thai Visa !)

Best Invention - Wheel.

2nd best Invention - Beer (followed by Beer Bars !)

So, what are the Worst Inventions/Discoveries ?

I'd love to have the series on VCD/DVD!

I have Series 1 (the best IMHO) shared on that hub we're not allowed to mention.

PM me if you want VCD's (small beer charge)

effects of boiling water must be one of, if not the, most important discovery in the last 300 years.

The Chinese have been drinking tea for over 2,000 years and Indians were drinking herbal infusions for at least this long.

So, one would assume they had a way of heating the water.

Thomas Edison and the invention of the first reliable filament lamp - his telephone

The telephone's attributed to Alexander Graham Bell - though it is thought he 'borrowed' it from another American immigrant (from Italy I think) - a priest who had been experimentinmg as a hobby and showed his 'toy' off, but made no attempt to produce it or sell it (Bell was Scottish by birth though lived in Canada and America too - his telephone was while in America). It can also be attributed even earlier to a (I think Russian) who, while experimenting on his sick wife by electrocuting her to see if it would cure her (!) accidently came across electronic voice transfer down cables - the story goes that he was fed up listening to her screams as he jolted her, so trailed cables from another room - he could hear her still through the cables that where vigrating through the equiptment and relaying her screams.

Best discovery for me: Fire is the obvious one, but as thats been said: The seasons? (saved us from freezing or startving)

Best Invention: Language followed by writing.

language..wirting... words in general, the WORST ever... Every man made problem derives dir, or indirectly from faults of communication, and our inability to interact instinctively.

So there.

Tits are the best invention ever, followed closley by music, beer, and cigarettes.

That´s the last word. This is not the last word thread.

language..wirting... words in general, the WORST ever... Every man made problem derives dir, or indirectly from faults of communication, and our inability to interact instinctively.

So there.

...

Time to read.

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis brilliantly explores this theme.

The story focuses on the relationship of a writer and intellectual, modelled on Kazantzakis, and an uneducated man, Zorba, who drinks, works, loves and lives like a force of nature. His character has been seen as the personification of Henri Bergson's ideas of élan vital. He doesn't care about books, he values more experience and understanding than scholarly learning.

The narrator meets Alexis Zorbas in Pireus. He plans to reopen on the island of Crete an abandoned mine and Zorbas becomes his foreman. Kazantzakis weaves the narrator's childhood memories and thoughts against the life and teaching of Zorbas. After a series of tragedies, failures and small victories, the narrator leaves Crete, but asks Zorba to teach him to dance.

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea."

But please explain how fire was the first here, before Earth , before water, before anything?

LaoPo

I thought everyone knew that. The Earth was originally a big ball of fire like the sun. Then it went it's own way, cooled and, Bob's yer uncle.

Now that was hilarious, lampy.

I'd say that quantum physics is perhaps the greatest discovery since this has the potential of unveiling the reality behind the illusion of physical reality. Then, look out for massive changes.

Edit: Another recent discovery which I think will also ultimately create massive changes is the discovery that thoughts, powered by emotion, create. I know, I know, an idea orbiting somewhere in the vicinity of Pluto. But certainly not to those who are educated about it.

Good thread Mr. Merton.

language..wirting... words in general, the WORST ever... Every man made problem derives dir, or indirectly from faults of communication, and our inability to interact instinctively.

So there.

Ah but that's no because of the invention, that's because other people tried to copy the concept and made a completely different format - rather tlike Sony does to everything that Phillips invents (VHS/DVD/Solid State Memory/etc)

Every man made problem derives dir, or indirectly from faults of communication, and our inability to interact instinctively.

I think a lot of today's problems derive from the fact that we do interact instinctively.

Man has been a tribal animal even before he began walking on two feet. Being a part of a tribe/clan was necessary in order to survive and prosper. Other tribes/clans were a threat to the well-being of your clan.

Today we see the same behaviour pretty much any where you look. Some tribes are based on family, some are regional, some are religious.

In almost every circumstance, you can find the attitude that "our tribe" is better than yours, your tribe is different and therefore not to be trusted, we know where we want to go with our tribe but yours acts differently and is a possible threat to ours and so on.

It's the old "us" against "them" instictive attitude that drives prejudice and racism. We instinctively (as a group and in most individuals at some level) band together against those that are not the same as us.

The inability to overcome this tribal instinct is one of the biggest hurdles that man has to overcome in order to progress as a species.

LSD:

"LSD inventor keeps on truckin' at 100"

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?...060111110815134

language..wirting... words in general, the WORST ever... Every man made problem derives dir, or indirectly from faults of communication, and our inability to interact instinctively.

So there.

...

Time to read.

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis brilliantly explores this theme.

The story focuses on the relationship of a writer and intellectual, modelled on Kazantzakis, and an uneducated man, Zorba, who drinks, works, loves and lives like a force of nature. His character has been seen as the personification of Henri Bergson's ideas of élan vital. He doesn't care about books, he values more experience and understanding than scholarly learning.

The narrator meets Alexis Zorbas in Pireus. He plans to reopen on the island of Crete an abandoned mine and Zorbas becomes his foreman. Kazantzakis weaves the narrator's childhood memories and thoughts against the life and teaching of Zorbas. After a series of tragedies, failures and small victories, the narrator leaves Crete, but asks Zorba to teach him to dance.

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea."

That sounds like something I would enjoy reading.

I´ve heard the name of this book flung about a lot, but I never really had any clue as to what it was about... Knowing the way life swings, I´ve a feeling it may just turn up at one of our local book exchanges here soon...

Thanks TM.