Random Rants XVIII: It's cold as hell!

[Cheezy the Wiz]

You know, I didn't recognize Tyson's name as first but a quick search revealed that I've obviously heard of him - he's famous for efforts to "popularize science" though, not a bad guy at all, but it was kinda odd for you to mention him as a "great mind" and what that implies.

If Tyson is known by laymen its most likely because of his recent (last few years) involvement in the Pluto question. I shouldn't have called him a "great mind," but he's obviously a very smart person.

It's always been like that. Like any other culture cares more about science than sports and celebrities.

It hasn't always been like that. Scientists used to be virtual superstars.

 

[Ulyaoth]

When has it ever been like that? Only time I could think would maybe be a brief time around Einstein and that time when major changes in how people thought the world was were being made frequently. And even then it'd have been mostly just educated middle-class people interested in his stuff, but the common man was mostly still just focused on who was in the world series.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Yes it about ended around that time.

But that doesn't change the fact that "its always been that way" is a thoroughly stupid reason for doing anything, or that that's the only way it can be.

 

[choxorn]

What he hell is wrong with our culture that people worship Miley Cyrus and the like and have no clue who the great scientific minds are? How many "average" people today know who Carl Sagan was, or Richard Feynman, or Niel DeGrasse Tyson? Who knows what our scientists are discovering today, even if it does make national headlines for a moment? How many people can talk for hours about the Steelers' defensive line, but don't understand how a simple prism works? Or can recite the lyrics of ever 50 Cent song but couldn't tell you the three laws of thermodynamics? And even among the "educated," how many know anything about epistemology?

You know all of this?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

You know all of this?

Except for epistemology, I'm still sketchy on that one, since its, you know, hard and stuff.

 

[Masada]

Cheezy, nobody knows anything about Classical Southeast Asia, I cry myself to sleep on a regular basis because of it. Bloody Philistines the lot of you.

 

[kulade]

It's sad that there are actually people in this world who are simply too dumb to troll.

 

[Masada]

Well, according to Cheezy's test I must be a borderline idiot. I couldn't tell you anything about Miley Cyrus, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Niel DeGrasse Tyson, the Steelers', 50 cent or epistemology; although, I do know a little about prisms and thermodynamics. All those unknowns represent, to me, esoteric knowledge. I don't have any immediate use for it, yet I'm sure Cheezy doesn't consider me a stupid person for not knowing it. I likewise don't consider him a stupid person for not knowing about my own obscure little corner of history and economics -- or rugby, or Indonesian history, or the economics of the Northern Territory. The sum total of knoweldge in the world has exponentially expanded in the last few hundred years, it was easy for the educated at the turn of the millennium to know all past and living 'great minds' there weren't all that many of them.

Perhaps subtlety of meaning is lost?

 

[kulade]

My rant was irrelevant to what you children were speaking about before I entered the thread.

 

[Masada]

... Cheezy test them.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Well, according to Cheezy's test I must be a borderline idiot. I couldn't tell you anything about Miley Cyrus, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Niel DeGrasse Tyson, the Steelers', 50 cent or epistemology; although, I do know a little about prisms and thermodynamics. All those unknowns represent, to me, esoteric knowledge. I don't have any immediate use for it, yet I'm sure Cheezy doesn't consider me a stupid person for not knowing it. I likewise don't consider him a stupid person for not knowing about my own obscure little corner of history and economics -- or rugby, or Indonesian history, or the economics of the Northern Territory. The sum total of knoweldge in the world has exponentially expanded in the last few hundred years, it was easy for the educated at the turn of the millennium to know all past and living 'great minds' there weren't all that many of them.

Perhaps subtlety of meaning is lost?

They were just placeholder examples of things, it wasn't supposed to be some sort of magic "are you as smart as Cheezy?" rubric.

 

[Adria]

If injuries keep occurring at this rate, the Vancouver Canucks will soon be the Vancouver Moose.

 

[Ansar]

Some leaders are not as great as one thinks they are.

 

[Gilder]

Ugh, today was going so well up until this afternoon. Then friends act like stupid, self-righteous gits, and the rain didn't help with traffic on the highway. None of this is helping my paper.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Some leaders are not as great as one thinks they are.

Well it shows how truly hard it is to rule well.

 

[Ulyaoth]

My stupid cat has a cold or something because he's been sneezing nonstop with a runny wheezing nose since yesterday. He of course then has to sleep on my bed, sneezing on me all night, then going psycho meowing and running around whining to go outside, finally he stopped and is snoring on a chair in my room now.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Speaking of which, my piano teacher's dog coughs up all manner of foreign objects during my lesson.

 

[bhsup]

The customer is not always right.

I apologize to anyone (particularly in the legal profession) who may have been hurt or offended by some of my posts this morning. Stuff happened and I vented in my posts. Sorry.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

That's really quite obvious, isn't it?

 

[Tee Kay]

I'm sick.