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24 Feb 12 - 10:11 AM (#3312685) Subject: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk I'm thinking it would be Woody Allen. But maybe it would be Jerry Lewis? Or Steve Urkle? Hmmmmm. Anyway, it's not me...so just don't even bother suggesting it is, okay? ;-) Submit your nominations for: 1. Greatest nerd in USA history. 2. Greatest nerd in Canadian history. 3. Greatest nerd in ALL history!!! Give cogent reasons and links to supporting evidence. |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:34 AM (#3312706) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Bill D no |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:42 AM (#3312713) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk Wet blanket! Party pooper! Tort feaser! Winkie-twister! |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:59 AM (#3312730) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Nigel Parsons Are we looking for someone who was 'great', but also a 'nerd'? Or are we looking for the most 'nerdy' person? The title doesn't make this clear. |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:00 AM (#3312731) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: GUEST,HiLo What do you mean by "nerd" ? What a singularly odd question. |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:12 AM (#3312743) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk Words mean (to you) whatever you think they mean. Just go with the "meaning" that suits you best. Or look up "nerd" on Google, and go with their definition of the term. I think, Nigel, that we could go with "someone who was 'great', but also a 'nerd'". I don't see why not. |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:28 AM (#3312753) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: GUEST,number 6 Greatest nerd in U.S. history .... I'll have to add John Dean to that list, it's debatable, but those glasses, and seersucker suits are what makes it. Plus he just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of "those guys" at all Greatest nerd in Canadian history .... Sir Frederick Banting Greatest nerd in history .... I'll have say T. E. Lawrence was the greatest biLL |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:31 AM (#3312757) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: GUEST,HiLo Words mean what they mean, not what I think thye mean..."Nerd" has always struck me as a somewhat derogatory term, but I may be wrong, since I am truly unsure of what it means. Therefore, I do not understand your premise. |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:33 AM (#3312760) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Greg B Bill Gates. Was a hands-on programming dude. Socially awkward. Kind of needs a "keeper." Really an introvert, but forced to be outgoing. Changed the world. And does some really great things with the proceeds. Steve Jobs comes to mind, but he was a lot smoother than Gates. Wozniak also comes to mind, but hasn't had the follow-through of Gates. |
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24 Feb 12 - 12:06 PM (#3312781) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Bert Greatest Nerd in USA history. Ah yes it has got to be old whatsisname, you know that guy who couldn't get a commission in the British Army so he went and started his own country. Can't get more nerdy than that. HEE HEE! in Canadian History I'd sa Charles DeGaulle for his Quebec Libre speech. In all history has probably got to be a Mathematician, but there are a few contenders, Maybe Napier, Can you get nerdier than inventing Logarithms? Or possibly Pascal who gave up math because his carriage crashed and he thought it was a sign from God. Or even Fermat who comes up with this great theorem and forgets to write it down. |
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24 Feb 12 - 07:23 PM (#3312983) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Gerald Ford? Don T. |
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24 Feb 12 - 07:31 PM (#3312987) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Paul Burke Why ask? Tom Lehrer. |
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24 Feb 12 - 07:41 PM (#3312991) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk Some good nominations there, folks! Bill Gates is definitely a very strong contender. HiLo - Yes, Nerd is a somewhat derogatory term. So what? You can't have a spoken language without having a few derogatory terms in it, such as stupid, foolish, oafish, dunce, moron, etc.... And words DO mean...for you...exactly what you think they mean. What you think they mean has virtually always been foisted upon you by OTHER people while you were growning up and learning about those words. I'll give an example: "communism", to a communist, means something good. To your average American, it means something bad. Therefore, they have very different perceptions of what it means, and they interpret the word accordingly, through the filter of their own perceptions and past assumptions. Whether they know in a textbook sense what the word really means is another matter entirely...and even the textbooks may disagree in some cases. It's a subjective matter...as is your reaction to the term "nerd", which is a slang term, as far as I know. |
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24 Feb 12 - 09:10 PM (#3313014) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Rapparee Benjamin Franklin. Charles Babbage. Ada Byron Lovelace. Vint Cerf. Henriette Avram. Ainsworth Spofford. Semen Korsakov. Herman Hollerith. Blaise Pascal. |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:00 PM (#3313034) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: gnu Sagan. |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:36 PM (#3313045) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Bee-dubya-ell Steve Shepherd - You've never heard of him, but I went to school with him for four years. Trust me, I'm right. |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:38 PM (#3313046) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk Heh! ;-) Okay, then. Did he carry a briefcase? |
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24 Feb 12 - 10:40 PM (#3313049) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Rapparee Bruce La Wall. You've never heard of him, but trust me on this. |
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24 Feb 12 - 11:44 PM (#3313068) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: JohnInKansas It's pretty obvious that most people here think history ends about 30 minutes ago. While I wouldn't argue about "the greatest," if ye'r gonna make a list you'd need to put Bucky Fuller close to the top. Invented more things that didn't work than anybody else I can think of (except maybe Tesla) and still has sort of a reputation for "gennnnioosity." A really deep thinker ("deep" as in don't step in it). John |
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25 Feb 12 - 12:33 AM (#3313086) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Bert I'd forgotten about Charles Babbage. Good one Rap. |
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25 Feb 12 - 12:35 AM (#3313087) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk Ahh...another Bucky critic, are you, John? ;-) I had a friend who had a fetish for criticizing Buckminster Fuller. He used to refer to him as "Fuckminster Buller". I have no opinion about the man myself...don't know enough about him to have an opinion. |
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25 Feb 12 - 05:53 AM (#3313138) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: JohnInKansas Fuller had lots of good ideas, but wasn't too great at the implementaton. One of his grand inventions was the Dymaxicon(?) House, that he conned a couple of aircraft makers into working on, with substantial investments and no real results. A grand "arena" that he managed to get constructed has the distinction of being the first** building that featured rain on the inside on a nice day. ** a couple of big sports arenas had some problems of a similar nature that were solved with some minor ventilation improvements. Bucky never manage to stop the rain in his. He did do a lot of publicizing on the "geodesic" style of construction that saw some application when some others got into it, but the naming of the "bucky ball" seems sufficient honorarium for that work. Some would sat that "eccentric" described him better than "nerd," I suppose. John |
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25 Feb 12 - 11:30 AM (#3313225) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk I presume it was condensation that was causing the rain inside the buildings? Must have been pretty uncomfortable in there! ;-) |
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25 Feb 12 - 12:03 PM (#3313243) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Rapparee had dinner with Bucky Fuller once (I really did!). Unpleasant little man. A good example of the difference between intelligence and genius. |
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25 Feb 12 - 12:03 PM (#3313244) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: JohnInKansas It was, surprisingly, attributed to an external air circulation effect that acted somewhat like an air-cycle refrigeration device, cooled the upper exterior of the dome shaped structure so that clouds formed in the cold air sucked in, and it rained on all the guests. It dampened the spirits the attendees at what what was supposed to be a joyous unveiling of Bucky's "miracle of modern architecture." Bucky had an "interesting" career, well worth taking a glance, if you can find a short account. Too bad he didn't stick around to hear about the recent discovery (claimed) of naturally occuring "bucky balls" in extragallactic space. He'd have been quite proud, and would have told us ... and told us ... and ... ... how he invented them. John |
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25 Feb 12 - 12:15 PM (#3313255) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Little Hawk It's a damn shame he never got to meet Chongo. Chongo enjoys blowing cigar smoke in the faces of pretentious "boffins", irritating them with wisecracks, and generally making them feel quite uncomfortable. |
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25 Feb 12 - 04:05 PM (#3313389) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Rapparee I didn't feel anything other than pity for his rudeness and inflated ego. |
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25 Feb 12 - 04:08 PM (#3313391) Subject: RE: BS: Greatest Nerd in USA history! From: Rapparee Fred Kilgour (Frederick G.) was another story entirely. Open and friendly -- you'd never have thought he was who he was. Former OSS operative, too. |