Hawking profile

For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.

"Wally Anglesea" wrote in message
...
For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.



I noticed this advertised and decided to miss it.

The cult of personality around Hawking I find annoying. Whilst there is no
doubt he is a great physicist, the only reason he is worshipped as a science
god is because he is physically disabled. Talk to the general population,
and they all know all about Hawking, but have never heard of (for example)
Feymann, who made far broader contributions and (if this is what you are
after) seemed a more interesting person all round. One friend of mine
claimed that Hawking was the greatest physicist who ever lived, better than
Einstein and Newton (the only other two she could name), because he
"discovered black holes".

Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

"Peter Webb" wrote in message
...

"Wally Anglesea" wrote in
message
...
For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.



I noticed this advertised and decided to miss it.

The cult of personality around Hawking I find annoying. Whilst there is no
doubt he is a great physicist, the only reason he is worshipped as a
science
god is because he is physically disabled. Talk to the general population,
and they all know all about Hawking, but have never heard of (for example)
Feymann, who made far broader contributions and (if this is what you are
after) seemed a more interesting person all round. One friend of mine
claimed that Hawking was the greatest physicist who ever lived, better
than
Einstein and Newton (the only other two she could name), because he
"discovered black holes".

Well, obviously he was sadly misinformed :-)

I dunno about a cult of personality. Whilst I admit the general media hypes
him up, we need good communicators (and that's not a pun), who can
demonstrate real thinking science, and a real scientist that can be looked
up to, otherwise we end up with a world where Honeydew and Beeker become the
most admired scientists - wait, didn't that just happen? - :-)




Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical
media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

I have to disagree on that, we need a populist, the media hang onto and
promote the 15 second grab, and we end up as we are with the "science" of
Star Trek and X-files. Hawking is the one small balance to that.
Unfortunately there's no "Steve Irwin" of science. Unless someone can point
me to one to correct me

Feynman was great. I have his hard cover edition of his lecture series and
a few of his tape set. You think it is cool to read his stuff. You should
here him lecture. He has a cool accent that sounds like he is from Brooklyn
(is he?). It's like hearing Joe the Plumber talk about QM. Really a gas.
He played bongos too.

However, he has his detractors too. One of my friends, quite a bit older,
got his degree at Caltech and was in his lectures. He said the guy was a
great lecturer but was also a legend in his own mind.

Another "story" I heard surrounded his death. I guess he was really
obsessed about death and what he would go out saying. One of his
contemporaries saw it fit to talk about his obsession during his eulogy.
His final words were something to the extent of "death is...boring." Not
sure how true it was and I've read some of the books about him and they did
not mention it.

I think what is amazing is that Hawking has to do all of the calculations in
his head. It's hard enough for me to work stuff out without a pencil and
paper.

BP

"Peter Webb" wrote in message
...

"Wally Anglesea" wrote in
message
...
For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.



I noticed this advertised and decided to miss it.

The cult of personality around Hawking I find annoying. Whilst there is no
doubt he is a great physicist, the only reason he is worshipped as a
science
god is because he is physically disabled. Talk to the general population,
and they all know all about Hawking, but have never heard of (for example)
Feymann, who made far broader contributions and (if this is what you are
after) seemed a more interesting person all round. One friend of mine
claimed that Hawking was the greatest physicist who ever lived, better
than
Einstein and Newton (the only other two she could name), because he
"discovered black holes".

Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical
media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

Peter Webb wrote:

"Wally Anglesea" wrote in message
...

For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.




I noticed this advertised and decided to miss it.

The cult of personality around Hawking I find annoying. Whilst there is no
doubt he is a great physicist, the only reason he is worshipped as a science
god is because he is physically disabled. Talk to the general population,
and they all know all about Hawking, but have never heard of (for example)
Feymann, who made far broader contributions and (if this is what you are
after) seemed a more interesting person all round. One friend of mine
claimed that Hawking was the greatest physicist who ever lived, better than
Einstein and Newton (the only other two she could name), because he
"discovered black holes".

Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

But did Feynman, Einstein or Newton ever do rap music?

There. Gotcha. M.C. Hawking rules!


--
Tom McDonald

"BP" wrote in message
...
Feynman was great. I have his hard cover edition of his lecture series
and
a few of his tape set. You think it is cool to read his stuff. You
should
here him lecture. He has a cool accent that sounds like he is from
Brooklyn
(is he?). It's like hearing Joe the Plumber talk about QM. Really a gas.
He played bongos too.

I have a some of his lectures in PDF., and I bought a hard cover edition of
"Genius" by James Glieck. Nice book.


However, he has his detractors too. One of my friends, quite a bit older,
got his degree at Caltech and was in his lectures. He said the guy was a
great lecturer but was also a legend in his own mind.

http://www.amasci.com/feynman.html has some good background



Another "story" I heard surrounded his death. I guess he was really
obsessed about death and what he would go out saying. One of his
contemporaries saw it fit to talk about his obsession during his eulogy.
His final words were something to the extent of "death is...boring." Not
sure how true it was and I've read some of the books about him and they
did
not mention it.

That webpage has it included in a list of his quotes.



I think what is amazing is that Hawking has to do all of the calculations
in
his head. It's hard enough for me to work stuff out without a pencil and
paper.

Ahh, but can he balance a checkbook that way?

You know, I agree with you Wally. Hawking has done a bit but so has Kip
Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler. They are just as, if not more,
interesting. But, when it comes to promoting someone like Hawking that is
fantastic. Anything that furthers the cause. Who cares why he is
popular...

There is a saying we have in flying. When asked what makes an airplane fly,
a novice would talk about lift and the aircraft being propelled by thrust
and all that...the pro would talk about the lift equations and angle of
attack... but the veteran would say "Money, money makes an airplane fly...no
bucks no Buck Rodgers." This was most often uttered by test pilots and
flight test engineers when they were referring to government funding. For
me, anything that makes physics and astronomy "sexy" to investors furthers
the cause.

BP

I dunno about a cult of personality. Whilst I admit the general media
hypes
him up, we need good communicators (and that's not a pun), who can
demonstrate real thinking science, and a real scientist that can be looked
up to, otherwise we end up with a world where Honeydew and Beeker become
the
most admired scientists - wait, didn't that just happen? - :-)




Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical
media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a
freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

I have to disagree on that, we need a populist, the media hang onto and
promote the 15 second grab, and we end up as we are with the "science" of
Star Trek and X-files. Hawking is the one small balance to that.
Unfortunately there's no "Steve Irwin" of science. Unless someone can
point
me to one to correct me

"BP" wrote in message
...
You know, I agree with you Wally. Hawking has done a bit but so has Kip
Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler. They are just as, if not more,
interesting. But, when it comes to promoting someone like Hawking that is
fantastic. Anything that furthers the cause. Who cares why he is
popular...

Yeah. However, the media only got interested in Kip after he did a paper on
time warps and black holes, and even then they got it twisted.
Mind you, Kips book (Time warps and Black Holes - Einsteins outrageous
legacy), is great reading (I have an autographed copy).
Unfortunately, go into any book store in Australia, and you will find more
pseudo-science books than any science books. That only changed once, IIRC.
When it was a Hawking book. Dymocks had an entire display of Hawking at the
front of the store, after the release of one of his books in paperback..



There is a saying we have in flying. When asked what makes an airplane
fly,
a novice would talk about lift and the aircraft being propelled by thrust
and all that...the pro would talk about the lift equations and angle of
attack... but the veteran would say "Money, money makes an airplane
fly...no
bucks no Buck Rodgers." This was most often uttered by test pilots and
flight test engineers when they were referring to government funding. For
me, anything that makes physics and astronomy "sexy" to investors
furthers
the cause.

They used that line in "The Right Stuff"



BP

I dunno about a cult of personality. Whilst I admit the general media
hypes
him up, we need good communicators (and that's not a pun), who can
demonstrate real thinking science, and a real scientist that can be
looked
up to, otherwise we end up with a world where Honeydew and Beeker become
the
most admired scientists - wait, didn't that just happen? - :-)




Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical
media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a
freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.

I have to disagree on that, we need a populist, the media hang onto and
promote the 15 second grab, and we end up as we are with the "science" of
Star Trek and X-files. Hawking is the one small balance to that.
Unfortunately there's no "Steve Irwin" of science. Unless someone can
point
me to one to correct me

Yeah. However, the media only got interested in Kip after he did a paper
on
time warps and black holes, and even then they got it twisted.
Mind you, Kips book (Time warps and Black Holes - Einsteins outrageous
legacy), is great reading (I have an autographed copy).

I've been going through Gravitation now and then, it hurts my head. I like
it but, it hurts. I read "A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime when I want
to go to sleep in a good rather than frustrated mood.

Unfortunately, go into any book store in Australia, and you will find more
pseudo-science books than any science books.

Sometimes I help the people at the local bookstore move their 'metaphysics'
books out of the 'physics' section. Being in California, I think some of
the store people are disturbed by me doing that.

They used that line in "The Right Stuff"

Yeah, true... I met an engineer/inventor that was an P-51 pilot...he claims
that the movie Tom Wolfe stole his lines. Maybe we should start a thread
about Tom Wolfe. Did he harm or promote science with that movie/book. I
guess he really is poking at technology in kind way saying..."look at all
the mistakes you have done."

BP

An interesting observation ...

I am a Feynman fan and have his autobiography as well as his lecture series
and some of his audio tapes. He is, to me, the consummate physicist.
Hawking, to me, is dealing in nearly a pseudoscience. He hypotheses on
cosmological theories that may never be proven or disproven in his
lifetime. Some of his theories in his first book, "A Brief History of
Time", seem as much conjecture as science.

Feynman was able to talk about nearly every segment of physics. Admittedly,
science has exploded over the last decades, but I consider Feynman the true
physicist.

A colleague of mine attended Cal Tech and took a retaping of part of the
physics classes Feynman taught. Apparently, Feynman didn't like the first
version, so he retaught portions of the classes. My friend said that
although he understood what Feynman taught in class, the homework was nearly
impossible because there was no textbook. My friend has a Ph.D., but said
after the Feynman course, he decided he wasn't smart enough to get a Ph.D.
in physics; His Ph.D. is in EE. That legacy is one which Feynman should not
be proud.

I have read other articles that noted his course was not well received by
the undergraduates, but as they disappeared from his class, the seats were
filled by grad students and other scientists who could more appreciate
Feynman's insight (and didn't have to do the homework).

I think that anything that may lead a child to a career in science is a good
thing. Unfortunately, after my career in science, I can see how greed
seems to guide grad students to MBAs and careers adding no value as stock
brokers or political pundits. There are few heroes in science and it is
sad.

- Russ in Santa Barbara


"Peter Webb" wrote in message
...

"Wally Anglesea" wrote in
message
...
For those in Australia, the ABC has a documentary on Stephen Hawking, on
Sunday 12th September at 8.30.



I noticed this advertised and decided to miss it.

The cult of personality around Hawking I find annoying. Whilst there is no
doubt he is a great physicist, the only reason he is worshipped as a
science
god is because he is physically disabled. Talk to the general population,
and they all know all about Hawking, but have never heard of (for example)
Feymann, who made far broader contributions and (if this is what you are
after) seemed a more interesting person all round. One friend of mine
claimed that Hawking was the greatest physicist who ever lived, better
than
Einstein and Newton (the only other two she could name), because he
"discovered black holes".

Hawking doesn't need any more promoting. Furthermore, such uncritical
media
promotion (as all the other bio pieces on him have been) promotes a freak
show image of physicists, unltimately detrimental to the field.