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Most overrated Scientist in history

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nzlockie
By nzlockie | Aug 12 2014 10:37 AM
After thinking about the other thread, who was the most over rated scientist in history?
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 12:46 PM
nzlockie: Bill Nye. No question about it.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 12:47 PM
nzlockie: Stephen Hawkings. His science is very faulty and he likes to bypass a lot of laws.
Close second would be Albert Einstein, simply because people often overstate his accomplishments. E=M2
Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 12:49 PM
admin:

admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 12:53 PM
Blackflag: Einstein's weird. His intellect is definitely overrated. His scientific accomplishments, in my view, are probably a little under-rated. You go up to somebody and ask them "So what IS Einstein's special theory of relativity?" and 99% of the time they'll have no clue.

Also, your video totally proves what I mean.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 12:53 PM
admin: Why? He is an American pop culture icon, nothing overrated about him.
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 12:55 PM
Blackflag: I would rather be lectured by Mrs Frizzle of the Magic School Bus than Bill Nye. Heck, I'd settle for Barney the Dinosaur. He's probably got more credentials than Bill Nye does.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 12:55 PM
admin: The theory of relativity is overrated if anything. He's in the same boat as Stephen Hawkings.
Every other thing said contradicts itself.
Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 12:57 PM
admin: He is a renowned science professor. He received a recognition at Rhodes.
Bill Nye has been very vocal and active in American politics. Especially global warming, and as silly as this sounds, is debated heavily in the United States.
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 12:58 PM
Blackflag: I think the key difference is that Steven Hawking has proven himself wrong all the time. Einstein did break the accepted laws of his day with relativity, but his new laws actually turned out to be more accurate and haven't been seriously challenged outside of the relatively niche field of quantum mechanics. And even there there's still dispute about whether he's really wrong I believe, or whether the observations are merely flawed.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 1:03 PM
admin: I agree. Einstein is respected, even among the stupidest of self styled scientists.
Stephen Hawkings has some cult following simply because he is disabled and looks odd. He made the BBT even more ridiculous.
There were three flaws that kept the big bang theory as a theory rather than a fact
- SLO Thermodynamics
- Creation of Universe
- Layers of reality

He challenged all three with these zany theories and was grilled.
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 1:09 PM
Blackflag: He's an aircraft engineer. He holds one or two honorary doctorates for his work in popularizing science. And he teaches "introduction to astronomy" at Cornell. At one point he was a Rhodes professor but that's expired now.

All he does is read the science of other people and regurgitate it. Even his patents are only very slight variations on things that already exist. He's pretty much an anti-scientist to me - somebody who uses the findings science but not the scientific method. I hate anybody who says something like "The world is warming globally!" because that's an absolute - science is self-correcting and thus you have to admit you're wrong. I like people who say "here is the objective evidence, here is the methodology, and the best interpretation of this data is a general warming trend across the world". I have never seen Bill Nye talk like that. Other science people - the Neil deGrasse Tysons and Carl Sagans of the world - actually have contributed a lot of original research, and moreover, are far more likely to talk like scientists should. Science is not a body of facts, it's a method for discovering more about our world.
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nzlockie
By nzlockie | Aug 12 2014 1:39 PM
Would we class Ben Franklin as a scientist?
Given the massive props he gets, I would have expected him to have contributed more to science.

Thomas Edison is not really a scientist, but he's what got me started on this whole thing. I reckon he would have to be one of the most over rated characters in American history for sure.

Finally, what about Pythagoras?
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 1:54 PM
nzlockie: Yip. Thomas Edison counts as overrated. Ben Franklin counts as pretty much everything. I like him though.

Pythagoras - he was weird for sure. But in his day, science as something distinct from philosophy didn't exist yet. I'm sure he's not even overrated, it's just his theory that everybody knows.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 2:29 PM
nzlockie: Thomas Edison isn't even taught much in our schools, so I don't know why you would call him overrated.
admin
By admin | Aug 12 2014 3:36 PM
Blackflag: Really? That's interesting. He's quite famous round these parts.
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Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 12 2014 7:27 PM
admin: That's interesting. I'm starting to learn that the inside outs of America are well known outside our borders. I would prefer it if we go reclusive. I hate that our country is a center of attention. You puny protectorates need to deal with your own problems :)

In all seriousness, I think I'm going to make a topic on that.
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Aug 12 2014 10:01 PM
Blackflag: Personally I don't think that its a case of the US being the centre of attention as such.
In NZ and Australia we get a lot of TV from you guys, that'd account for a lot of it. Also i think it'd be fair to say that on average people from other countries tend to know more about other countries than Americans do.
All of that being said, and present company excepted, you guys do tend to go out of your way to make sure everyone knows about your stuff. When I was in Italy earlier this year, I was stuck on a tour bus with a bunch of yanks that just would not stop comparing EVERYTHING to how America does it... Im not saying that everyone is like that, but a disproportionately high number are.
It's one thing to do that after learning about the country/culture/customs you are rubbishing, but these guys were doing it from a place of complete ignorance. It's embarrassing.
Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 13 2014 6:55 AM
nzlockie: I was being sarcastic :)
I think I know what kind of American you are talking about. They have 5 flags hanging from their house. A bunch of bald eagles on the rails of their truck. Extremely religious and conservative, edgy around blacks, hates gays and mexicans with a burning passion, and has one infamous quote!

"America is #1!"

That is the problem with the southern american complex. They seem to think that America is always right and we're superior to other countries. You don't know how many times I've heard "America is the best country". There is no such thing as a best country. There is a best country for me (USA) and a best country for you (NZ). I think your criticism on America's knowabillity is overstated though. While some people will rub America''s holy glory into your face, the main reason America is
Blackflag
By Blackflag | Aug 13 2014 7:03 AM
....... America's stuff is so well known, is because we have a lot of media and consist of 300 million people. All the factors come together to formulate America's public opinion. As a side note, people always use the word Yankee wrong. Yankee has a specific meaning in the United States that is misused in other nations. A Yankee is someone who lives in the north. During the Civil War, the Union army were called the Yank's, in the same derogatory manner the British used to insult the continental army. The ignorance you described can only come from the southern pool of vermin. '





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