Greatest [insert your nationality] Person

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


No Hitler?

IIRC there was a long controversy if Hitler should be included as candidate or not. In the end the tv station which did this decided against it. I know it is debatable, but then the show was labeled "Best Germans" not "Greatest Germans" (and even then the decision would be at least understandable IMO).

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Zulu: no Shakespeare? No Chaucer? No Newton?

How dare you suggest that the pre-eminent political philosophers weren't as great as Shakepeare and Newton!

(s******)

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

OK- here's a tougher one. If you had to pick one living person for your top 10, who would it be?

I'd pick Sir David Attenborough.

[Provost Harrison]

I thought you'd consider everyone else to be filth

Seriously though, David Attenborough is a pretty good pick. I'm surprised you didn't go for Thatcher though

Hmmm, for me? That's a tricky one - I can't think of anyone alive who is worthy

[Kuciwalker]

Also, Britain definately has to include Douglas Adams

[DanS]

If you had to pick one living person for your top 10, who would it be?

That's a real tough one, because we don't know who will have the most impact in the future. Toni Morrison?

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Locutus


Greatest Earthling: Ted Striker

[Nostromo]

Locutus, you forgot Spinoza...

Once, I met a japanese who told me that his area of expertise was Canadian studies. I laughed.

[FrostyBoy]

For New Zealand:


Not in order of importance:


Sir Edmund Hillary: First to climb Mt Everest

Alexander Aitken: New Zealander Alexander Aitken was one of the world’s most brilliant mathematical minds, able to multiply two 9-digit numbers together in his head and recite the answer in 30 seconds, or render awkward fractions into decimals to 26 places in under five seconds. His extraordinary abilities were studied by psychologists in Britain during the 1920s.

Nancy Wake: Nancy Wake was the Allies' most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo’s most-wanted person. They code-named her 'The White Mouse'. She led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis.

Keith Park: "If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I do not believe it is realised how much that one man, with his leadership, his calm judgement and his skill, did to save, not only this country, but the world." Lord Tedder – Chief of the Royal Air Force, February 1947.

Ernest Rutherford: The creator of modern atomic physics and forerunner of the nuclear age, one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. The man who "tunnelled into the very material of God":


Maurice Wilkins: Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine in 1962. Research undertaken by New Zealander Maurice Wilkins helped lead to the discovery in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick of the DNA molecule structure - the very essence of life itself. The discovery revolutionised biology and medicine.


Richard Pearse: On or about 31st March 1903 reclusive New Zealand farmer Richard Pearse climbed into his monoplane at his Waitohi property and flew for about 140 metres before crashing into a gorse hedge. "Mad Pearse": self-taught inventor, prophetic designer, trail blazing aviator, and eccentric visionary, who against incredible odds, ingeniously sought the sun and pioneered powered flight.


William Pickering: The launch of Sputnik in 1957 forced the United States into the space race. In the Cold War they needed to show the world that they too could launch a rocket into space. Less than three months later Explorer 1 was launched. The man behind it: William Pickering.

Kate Sheppard: The leader and main figurehead of the suffragist movement in New Zealand, the first country in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally. Kate was a source of inspiration to suffragists, both in New Zealand and throughout the world.


Sir Harold Gillies: The introduction of more ferocious weapons and trench warfare in the First World War resulted in devastating injuries. A new type of surgery was needed. Rhinoplasty, skin grafts, and facial reconstructions have been practised for centuries. However, it was New Zealander Sir Harold Delf Gillies who standardised these techniques and established the discipline of 'plastic surgery'.

[Provost Harrison]

I don't think Alexander Aitken's abilities are particularly useful to society as a whole as a calculator or someone with a piece of paper could do it reasonably quickly with a normal amount of ability. I have come across studies of people with eidetic memory and despite their abilities to remember data, they fall down on normal stuff due to the organisation of the brain; there was a very famous study on a Russian who could memorise sheets of numbers and recite them decades later. But when it comes to recognising a face he couldn't do it, because they constantly change...it memory, although powerful, was very 'linear'...

[our_man]

Great Irishmen:

1. Michael Collins (1890 - 1922)
Fought in the GPO during the 1916 Rising. He went onto mastermind the War of Independence against the British, commanding the Irish Volunteers (later IRA) in a geurilla war; his strategies would later be used by Begin during the Israeli War of Independence. A signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 that led to the Civil War, he was accused of betraying the Republic upon returning to Ireland. He led the Free State forces against the 'Irregular' IRA rebels. He was assassinated by anti-treaty forces at Beal na mBlath, August 22nd, 1922.

2. Theobald Wolfe Tone (1764 - 1798)
Father of Irish Republicanism. A protestant, he believed in an Ireland where all Irishmen would be equal, irrespective of their religion - a radical opinion with the penal laws still in place. He joined the French Army and convinced the French to send three expeditions to Ireland. He was on the final one of these, where he was captured by British forces. Executed for treason.

3. Eamon de Valera (1882 - 1975)
Highest ranking leader of the leader of the 1916 Rising who was not executed. Spent most of the War of Independence touring the U.S.A., trying to raise funds for an Irish Republic. Opposed the Anglo-Irish treaty and was interned for most of the Civil War. Broke from Sinn Fein to form Fianna Fail, who came into power in 1932. He declared consitutional independence from Britain in 1937 and became Taoiseach. Re-elected Taoiseach in 1948, 1951 and 1957. Kept Ireland neutral in the 2nd World War. Was elected President, 1959-1966.


4. Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691)
The father of chemistry.

5. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
Famous writer. Extremely eccentric - while at Oxford he had a pet lobster that he used to walk down the main street on a leash. He was thrown into jail for being homosexual. One of the most quoted people in history.

Lots more, but these will do for a start.

[Dauphin]

Living persons, Tim Berners-Lee could be up there even though most would not know why.

[our_man]

Living persons, Tim Berners-Lee could be up there even though most would not know why.

World wide web while he was at CERN, right?

[Locutus]

Originally posted by nostromo
Locutus, you forgot Spinoza...

No, I didn't actually, I'd rate him 12th or 13th or so (after Johan Van Oldenbarneveld and maybe Queen Wilhelmina).

As for living person, that's a no-brainer: definitely Johan Cruijf

[Gangerolf]

Great Norwegians? There are so many, I wouldn't know where to begin.