October 30, 2007

100 geniuses.

"The top 100 features not just brainiacs and boffins, but 19 musicians, two artists (Damien Hirst and the illustrator Robert Crumb) and one sportsman (Muhammad Ali). He is joined at number 43 by a surprise entry: Osama bin Laden."

Boffins? I don't know what the hell is going on here, but it's irking me, and why are so many of the geniuses British? Was the list compiled in Britain by any chance? In this country, when we make a thing of calling people geniuses, we give them half a million dollars.

19 comments:

john said...

Ann,

These surveys are generated for the more prestigious periodicals -Parade Magazine, People, women's magazines.

The methodology was flawless, by the way. Groenig always beats Hawking, rock beats scissors.

knox said...

a lot of ???? on that list

john said...

Looking further: Soroos beats Oscar Meyer, don't that take the cake.

Revenant said...

I can't imagine how, if you had to pick two genius artists, Damien Hirst would be one of the two. Crumb, maybe, if the list was being compiled twenty years ago -- but Hirst? I liked him better when he was named Andy Warhol.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

What really surprises me is that Al Gore didn't make the top 10.

Chip Ahoy said...

The global consulting business Synectics, which compiled the list, asked 4,000 people in the UK to nominate up to 10 living people they considered to qualify as a genius.

I'm continuously reminded, mostly because of the internets, these are the descendants of the people from whom my ancestors sold the farm to cut loose. They have no problem adding Bin Laden. Fine. They'll never miss a chance to make a point, but it's not possible within their framework to include the single person on the planet capable of seriously challenging him. It's this kind of attitude that makes me glad I don't know them better than I do.

Crumb, the "keep on trucking" guy, apparently is a real mess.

al said...

A long time ago I had the opportunity to go to a talk given by Tim Berners-Lee and meet with him afterwards about this thing he called hypertext on the Internet. Didn't go as I thought it was a silly idea...

Stupid, stupid, stupid me.

Unknown said...

I hope Margaret Sanger, Pete Singer and Michael Vick made the list. With OBL making it, it goes to show to be a genius, sacrifices must be made. You first.

ricpic said...

What, no evil genius Rove?

Anonymous said...

You know what, Ann,

Genius is what you do, not how you test. All these liberal women,faggots, lesbians...they're all completely selfish, self- centered and prima-donnas ( you should see them faggots swinging their asses looking for fresh meat
-its the same in our nations prisons, the origin, perhaps, of that specialty of certain cultures known as "the down low" ).
But these weirdos are only out for their own kinds of depravities.
See what the ACLU is all about today, below.

Tom


jewsyonkersislam # 430 Addiction: off-blog Althouse; Lou Maniace ( Journal News reporter ) by Thomas J.P. Courtney

To my dear lassie, Ann Althouse, Your advice about writing (1-i) and your comment (1-d) are appreciated. You will note that all of my comments are pointed and direct (1-b,f,g) and comments by others (1-c,e,h,g) are accomodated here as well as in past postings.
However, you and yours are not my only audience. From personal experience, kowledge and connections, I know that I am closely watched by the FBI, CIA, DIA, DARPA...numerous police departments ( including the intelligence depts of the NYPD, YPD, Westchester County, NYS...) and, if I've done things properly and the way I was taught, the intelligence services of Russia, China, India, many Arab countries ( and Israel, of course)...For all get individual copies of all I post on my blog ,shortly after I post them -and which I have been posting on your blog as well. One of my teachers might have called it "hiding in plain sight" ; as a TBI survivor, shame is not one of my big problems. Nor is guilt -except for not doing the best I could/can do to save the human race from its own follies.
As for Journal News Reporter Len Maniace, he either backed off the story noted below because I am anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-feminist, anti-ultra-liberal,,,and generally anti-stupidity -and he/The Journal News isn't. Or he is waiting for "bigger and better" news. See below.

Tom

1)Comment by Ann Bloghouse:
a) What I miss when I'm "off-blog Althouse." I've been on my little weekend jaunt to Stuart, Florida, absorbing sun instead of my usual nourishment of on-line news, so.....
And I will talk about it in a minute, but first I want to say.... Blogging makes everything feel so transitory! If you don't notice a story in the first 12 hours, it seems utterly pass�. I prefer hanging out on line, where I can see � or feel that I see � the world unfolding. It flows by continuously, and one thing or another catches my attention and sets me off writing again. It's my way of life. I love being in that flow, and whenever I step outside it and go off into the world as a character I like to call "off-blog Althouse," I miss some things that I'd have liked to engage with.
b) tc said...What have I told you Ann, You are addicted to your blog. You get your jollies from your blog (aside from your lesbian interludes at Park Slope soirees with Hillary Clinton, Ellen Degeneres...). You, because of feminist nonsense, have been denied the pleasure, satisfac- tion, contentment, fulfilment, joy... (and, of course, the problems and sorrows of such) of love, marraige,child-bearing-and-rearing... In essence you are not a real woman, not a full woman. And I do so pity you and all your fellow (?) confused feminists/ lesbians... Ah, the follies that feminism is responsible for, the pains, the sufferings, the anguish, the emptiness.. I truely grieve for you, Ann, you and all your sisters - equally deluded as they are. And I grieve for the human race as a whole, as well. For it is also a fact that your loneliness, your emptiness, the ache inside you will only get worse as you age. And I will pray for you and all your equally deluded sisters. All the best, Tom 5:16 PM
c) Sigmund said... With your site meter, your groupies, and your ADHD, you have lost the ability to enjoy life on its own. That is, "off-blog," as you call it. If you can't brag about it, or otherwise show off to others, what's the point? That is so sad. Thanks for the honesty, though. This is the most honest post you ever put up. It explains so much. Much more than you can see. And of course you suck at being a spectator. The event is not about you -- oh, it must be torture having all that attention on others!! 5:20 PM ( exactly who Sigmund is talking about, I dont know...nor do I care).
d) Ann Althouse said... Tom, how do you figure I don't have children? I have two sons. It's very well established. 6:30 PM

e) Gedaliya said.. Ann...Why do you respond to that nutcase? 7:13 PM
f) tc said... To Ann and Gedaliya, You, Ann, are beginning to see -just a little bit- something about me, who and what I am ( see my blogjewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com -for more ) and what is -unsought on my part- mine. You Gedaliya are yet childish, selfish, spoiled... As for you, Ann, my wife and I have been maried for 36 (37 ?) years. And we have two fine boys,both near 30. And all of this is attributable to the fact that my wife is a real woman, unlike so many of today's women who -like Gedaliya- are near terminally confused by feminism. You do not mention whether you are married or not, whether you ever were... So I can make no firm conclusions. However -in light of the masculine femininity of so many women today (including you, Ann)- let me speculate. Perhaps you're divorced... ? You have lots of money...but you're empty inside and terrified about the kind of world your sons... are being left to live in. And you're even more worried about and confused for your grandchildren present or yet to come. And you subconsciously realize that all your worries are because of the nonsense that feminism has foisted on the world. Unfortunately, you have no way to articulate these inner demons haunting you -just like they haunt all women. Funny thing is that I can and do articulate all your deepest fears and anxieties. Tom 8:38 PM

g) tc said...Oh, and by the way, Ann, Before anyone else tells you, I love to sing...tenor, baritone... And, by the way, Dennis Day was a cousin... on my father's side. And my mother went to Juillard School of Music in NYC, sang on the radio...Tom 11:33 PM
h) blogging cockroach said... gedaliya you asked why professor althouse responded to that nutcase around here of course the nutcase category pretty much extends to about 2/3 of the commenters so that's a very imprecise question but of course i know the one you mean who writes prescription drug warning pamphlets and credit card agreements for comments and is dennis day's cousin i think the answer is that either althouse is trying to cultivate a troll garden or she wants to get on the arthur godfrey show not quite realizing it's been off the air for 48 years 1:00 AM

i) Ann Althouse said... Tom, you seem to be intelligen. Why don't you think through what you're writing? Edit. Make it a lot shorter. Take out everything wacky. And don't repeat material from old posts or stuff unrelated to my post. You are capable of raising your game, so do it. 9:11 AM
j) Meade said... See, Tom - she's clearly head over heels for you? Practically swooning. Now is your chance, big guy. Seize your moment. Do what she says (in a, you know, prefeminism sort of way) and I'll be damned surprised if wedding bells aren't soon ringing around this joint. 9:54 AM

2) Len Maniace, a reporter for the Journal News here in Westchester County, N.Y. emailed me on Friday, 10-26-07. He wanted my comments on a story that he was writing about a person who was banned from speaking before the Yonkers City Council. The reason he wanted me to call him was that Chuck Lesnick, the current City Council President, told him that the Council had also banned me ( indeed, I've been banned from speaking before the Council at various times and by numerous City Councils [10,20 or more times] over the past 25+ years because I'm anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-feminist, anti-ultra-liberal,,,and generally anti-stupidity ).
As I recall, the conversation went as follows -although,as I'd had a beer or two, I wasn't interested in long conversations ( which is why I told him he should read the editions I send him [ same as those I post on Ann's blog] ) :
I called, asked for Len, he said "this is he", I said who I was and he said "Hi Tom" and explained why he'd emailed me, asking what I thought of the Council's actions. I said "they're childish" and explained why they banned me. Len said that what I thought and believed was pretty "politically incorrect"; I said that is why we need it and asked him if he got my stuff ( no nice sound-bites from me) -he said he had- and I said to use that ( to understand why I think the way I do). He said "they're kind of long" -by way of saying he hadn't read any of it. And that was the extent of our conversation. Of course, the story never appeared.
Back in the 1980s when the Council first tried to ban me from speaking before it, Norm Seigel, then President of the NYCLU, came to my defense and got the Council to back down. But today, the ACLU and the NYCLU are dominated by feminists, gays, lesbians and other weirdos...and they want nothing to do with me because I'm out to destroy their ways of thinking, believing and behaving. Ask Westchester's Civil Liberty Union chiefs, Linda Berns and (my old friend) Arlene Popkin.

Gahrie said...

Somebody really needs to track tc down and convince the nurses to take away his computer privelages.......

amba said...

MacArthur has yet to honor its first blogger . . .

IgnatzEsq said...

Morrisey?

While he's enjoyable, I didn't realize that his scientific hypothesis that "Some Girls are Bigger than Others," and it's corollary, "Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers" are quite in the genius camp.

MadisonMan said...

The one thing I thought before I clicked the link was that it would be very Euro-American centric. I didn't think Nelson Mandela would be one it, and was pleased to be wrong. It takes a kind of genius to transform a society without too much blood shed.

Ann Althouse said...

Amba: Yes, I noticed.

rcocean said...

When genius isn't "diverse" enough, just redefine it.

Hard to take the list seriously. But Soros really is a genius.

Richard Fagin said...

If George Soros is a genius, where's Warren Buffett? Where's Michael Millken or Sam Walton? Hell, Ted Turner for that matter, in the almost certain event that some readers will think I'm picking on Soros for his politics.

Henry said...

I'd take Tiger Woods over Muhammad Ali.

And Damien Hirst? The British have always have a problem coming up with a genius artist of their own.

Oh that Constable, he's so good with the sheep.

former law student said...

where's Warren Buffett? Where's Michael Millken or Sam Walton? Hell, Ted Turner for that matter

Those 4000 Brits! They're sooooo parochial. They never heard of Bobby Rahal or Jerry Rice either, I suppose.

Of course, we wouldn't nominate Marks, Spencer, or Tim Tesco(whatever) to our list.