Great People name lists are too short

[Enigma_Nova]

However, I'm glad that women are getting equal opportunities in developed countries these days, especially since they're not making as much of a fuss about the past as the black people are.
... Which raises another interesting point, do we have -any- black great people? Everyone seems to be European or Asian.

No, Tupac Shakur doesn't count.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova

... Which raises another interesting point, do we have -any- black great people? Everyone seems to be European or Asian.

Certainly Dumas pere and Pushkin both acknowledged and were proud of being of African descent.

Mary Seacole pioneered the use of both 'traditional' non-European and European medicine, on the battlefield as well as off the battlefield, where she had gained experience tending the sick during cholera and yellow fever epidemics in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

[Cort Haus]

Thierry Henry = Great Artist
Jimmy Hendrix also

yeah, the list could be better!

[molly bloom]

Scott Joplin

C.L.R. James

James Baldwin

Chinua Achebe

Wole Soyinka

Josephine Baker

[djpsychonaut]

Martin Luther King Jr should definitely be a GP

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Bluefusion

Edit: Referring to Jesus Christ... He WAS a prophet. Even if you're a Christian, like myself, who views him as a savior, he prophesied many things. Being a prophet and the singular savior of mankind are not mutually exclusive occupations...

That's great news. Now J. H. Christ can update his resume on monster.com

[Enigma_Nova]

"Well ... I was born in 500AD in New York, and it took me one year to build the Kong Miao in Seattle (in 550AD). All in all, I think I contributed greatly to the American conquest of the Persian empire."

[Shogun Gunner]

All hail the Enigma!

[[to_xp]Gekko]

Originally posted by CarnalCanaan
Great Artist

Shigeru Miyamoto

I want Shigeru in the game too!!!

Imagine just how fun it would be to have an enemy city revolt and join your empire cause he created Super Mario in a border city...

[Kuciwalker]

Sid should be a Great Artist.

[Enigma_Nova]

Sid should be a Great Barbarian.

[CarnalCanaan]

Originally posted by molly bloom

Yes, acknowledging her contribution might have made his penis fall off, obviously...

Hey now. That'd be no laughing matter!

[apingaut]

i am glad Twelvefield spoke up .. I felt the same.

And some of you guys seem to be racists and sexists .. how unfortunate. In a "civilization" forum I expected to find people of higher intellect.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by apingaut


And some of you guys seem to be racists and sexists .. how unfortunate. In a "civilization" forum I expected to find people of higher intellect.

What's hilarious are the boneheaded assumptions and assertions about women scientists- without any reference to the kinds of obstacles placed in the path of women scientists even to study science, let alone be practitioners in any field of science.


The case of Lise Meitner is an obvious one- cheated of a Nobel Prize by an at best disingenuous male collaborator, then having to face exile from the Nazi Germany and subsequently not even having her own laboratory to work in.

Still, she was given the consolation prize of having an element named after her...

But going through the biography of any woman scientist (but especially in the 17th, 18th and 19th Century) one comes across phrases such as:

'she was forbidden to'

'women were not allowed to'

'it was felt that women did not have the capacity for'

'women could not join'

'women were barred from attending lectures'

and frankly in those kinds of circumstances it's a wonder any women persevered at all.

Bad enough having to attempt pioneering work, without first having to surmount legal obstacles and the petty minded prejudice of males and institutionalized sexism.

Mary Somerville (December 26, 1780 - November 29, 1872) :

At age 15 Mary noticed some algebraic formulas used as decoration in a fashion magazine, and on her own began to study algebra to make sense of them. She surreptitiously obtained a copy of Euclid's Elements of Geometry over her parents' opposition.

and

In 1804 Mary Fairfax married -- under pressure from family -- her cousin, Captain Samuel Greig. They had two sons. He too opposed Mary's studying mathematics and science, but after his death in 1807 -- followed by the death of one of their sons -- she returned to Scotland with her other son and began to study astronomy and mathematics seriously. She began solving math problems posed by a mathematics journal, and in 1811 won a medal for a solution she submitted.

Her scientific reputation grew and she soon found herself in a circle with John F. W. Herschel, Charles Babbage, William Whewell, and George Peacock. She became known for her exceptional expository talent.

then:

Mary Somerville began publishing papers on scientific subjects in 1826, using her own research, and after 1831, she began writing about the ideas and work of other scientists, too. One book prompted John Couch Adams to search for the planet Neptune, for which is he is credited as a co-discoverer.

She was 68 when she wrote her treatise on geology. For that, the devout Somerville was condemned by the fundamentalist dean of York Cathedral, right along with the leading male scientists of the day -- a peculiar but significant mark of equality.

"Queen of Nineteenth Century Science"

mathematician, scientist, astronomer, geographer

one of the first two women admitted to the Royal Astronomical Society

Somerville College, Oxford University, is named for her

dubbed "Queen of Nineteenth Century Science" by a newspaper on her death.

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_mary_somerville.htm

http://www.mathnews.uwaterloo.ca/BestOf/WomenInMath7105.html

[Enigma_Nova]

Originally posted by apingaut
i am glad Twelvefield spoke up .. I felt the same.

And some of you guys seem to be racists and sexists .. how unfortunate. In a "civilization" forum I expected to find people of higher intellect.

Intellect is derived not from the views one holds but the clarity with which you understand those views and the cohesiveness of each of your beliefs with each-other.
The belief that those with differing beliefs are stupid is an ignorant and stupid one. No law of the universe prevents a racist from being intelligent, I think I make a fine example of an intelligent racist.
Though, I suppose my belligerence towards people who think I am incorrect signifies a weakness somewhere.

It is commonly believed that people who don't capitalise 'i', and start a paragraph with 'and', are not as intelligent as those with proper grammar. =]