From Scott M. Kozel:
On Friday, March 23, 2018 at 7:21:21 PM UTC-4, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:
Stuf4 wrote:

snip "zero gravity"

Surely Stephen Hawking knew this.

He did.

Even if his website didn't.

It doesn't matter. I still call my vacuum cleaner "the hoover", even
though it was not made by Hoover.

Likewise you can say that you are "Hoovering the floor",
even though it was not made by Hoover.

There's a HUGE difference between genericizing a brand name versus using words that indicate that you have a conceptual deficiency in understanding what you're talking about.

Let's say that you're the world's foremost expert on vacuum cleaners. And on your website there's this one video that says...

"Hoover Blows Floors Clean"

Those four words in that vid title serve as clear indication that whoever wrote it has a major conceptual deficiency in their understanding of how vacuum cleaners work.

To use 'Hoover' as a generic term is simply a matter of style, and I would readily agree that that part is no big deal. The problem is all contained in that second word. And using it calls into question whether or not you deserve the title/reputation of being this world's leading expert on vacuum cleaners.


Now back to Hawking...
It's very easy to imagine that he may have never visited his website. But the man had plenty of friends, and it is not easy to imagine that for all the years that this "Zero Gravity" video had been posted there, not a single one of them called this to his attention. Something like:

"Hey Stephen, you know the title of that video on your website says 'Zero Gravity Flight'. You might want to change that. And even better if you were to make a statement to educate the public on how this 'Zero Gravity' saying is utterly bogus."

Stephen Hawking never made any effort to that end, as far as I saw. And because he turned a blind eye to this, it becomes a huge black mark on this person who left earth with the reputation of understanding gravity better than most anyone else.

It shows the limits on how much he actually cared about educating the public.


And this problem is not limited to Stephen Hawking. Another person who is a current celebrity in science is Neil deGrasse Tyson. And he's got stuff on his own official website that shows he is absolutely clueless when it comes to a certain aspect of gravity in astrophysics. Yes, one of the foremost experts on astrophysics published something on his website that has been posted for a whole bunch of years that shows he does not understand a very basic situation in astrophysics. (This one has particular interest to the new Space Telescope set to launch next year.) This posting was written by his own hand, so here again severe limits of knowledge have been exposed.

This NdT thing deserves its own thread. I look forward to the day when he fixes his website. Hopefully in time before the new Space Telescope gets launched.


As for Stephen Hawking fixing his "Zero Gravity Flight" vid title on his website, he's out of time. Too late. It is now a permanent fixture that is part of his legacy showing the world how well he understood gravity and how much he cared about educating the public on what gravity is and what gravity is not.

~ CT