...is well known that the guy was helping other ideas, that is quite normal in the scientific community...

Again I ask, please explain how we have overrated Prof. Hawking. Your accusation seems like handwaving, based only your belief that Hawking receives more attention in general than he deserves. Given, as I said, that the original post asks us to comment on a statement made by him, why would it be inappropriate for the resulting discussion to mention Hawking prominently? Why would it be relevant to, say, mention other physicists?

Please identify the post or posts in which we have "overrated" Stephen Hawking, and describe exactly in what the overrating consists.

__________________
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Sure, it's fun to correct one mistake out of a long post.

Meanwhile, you ignore that the other man's post was so laden with errors that it was hard to get anything but the overall emotional gist of what he was attempting to say.

I do not correct minor mistakes in grammar. Unless it's in German, and that's only done for practice.

__________________
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." -- Thomas Paine

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. -- Heinlein

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

So where's the conspiracy?

Well, since we've already overgeneralized badly in this thread, I think we can also make a straw man.

The typical conspiracy theory that arises here is the alleged conspiracy by mainstream science and media to discredit and belittle UFO enthusiasts. UFO believers want to think we continue to suppress the truth by making their claims seem as if they come from unreliable people.

__________________
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

He also holds the physics chair at Cambridge once held by some "Isaac" guy. But never mind that; he's been on The Simpsons (three times). And Futurama.

"Your idea of a donut-shaped universe intrigues me Homer; I may have to steal it."

__________________
"Slapping a guy on the head is just as funny now as it was eighty years ago."

Indeed, I was just having a little fun.

But it was the first statement in your post and I felt it necessary to point out how some good advice might get ignored; it was confrontational and grammatically incorrect.

I didn't ignore the other man's post, Lonewulf.

To me, if someone's words and ideas are so laden with errors and incoherence I wouldnt' threaten to mock them and proceed to play english teacher.
In this case, to me, nothing in zerocold's posts was worth responding to.
S/He obviously doesn't understand Hawking's contributions to science.

But if you're so inclined...

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Ah, I see.

To me, it was simply a scientist's wry sense of humor and comedic timing using words which alienate the masses.

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

And an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And a Pink Floyd song

__________________
'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

Stephen Hawking is an eminent physicist. Whether he is as eminent as some elsewhere have made him, or as competent and eminent as other physicists, or deserves the accolades that have been heaped upon him for any reason is, in my opinion, irrelevant to the topic at hand. Prof. Hawking made a statement. The propriety of that statement is what is being debated. So far I have yet to see any portion of the argument on either side that requires Stephen Hawking to be more or less than he is made out to be. And so I see the entire issue of whether we have overrated Hawking is irrelevant distraction, likely a knee-jerk "Stephen Hawking is over-rated" response every time the man's name is mentioned.

I personally have met and worked with Prof. Hawking on a project of his that required my skill -- or more precisely, the combined skills of the team to which I then belonged. In my judgment he was competent and likable. I didn't have the background to judge his competence as a physicist, nor any need to in order to further our collaboration. To me his most admirable talent was the ability to tell jokes and put people at ease who might have been uncomfortable with his disability. Only he can tell a joke that starts out, "Stop ... me ... if ... you've ... heard ... this ... one." (Composing original responses, as opposed to common canned statements, on his speech device is tedious for him.)

Because he is the only eminent physicist I've ever met, my opinion of him compare to his peers is obviously very biased. My response to his comment on UFOs remains the same: I consider it to be in his character.

__________________
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Personally, I'd say "were."

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

He's also a rap artist in his spare time.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...g&search_type=

__________________
"Time travel gives me a headache." - Capt. Kathryn Janeway

One thing that has garnered a lot of attention for Stephen Hawking is, not just the physics he did, but the books bringing that information to the non-physicist masses. That is something--most physicists could not write a best seller (well, most people of most professions couldn't either)--and it is an important function in society.

__________________
-----
Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

He can also be an opera star; it's just a software change.

__________________
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Orion437, is that the conspiracy you are advocating? If not, what is yours? Or is the thread in the wrong place?

I'm still uncertain what your context is, what sort of response you seek, why you put your statements in this forum. We can guess at your motivation, but why not tell us directly?

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

Just out of my own curiosity...

When I put the Google Results thread in About BAUT- I had some responses saying the thread sounded like it should be in CT.

So does a thread in CT HAVE to have a Conspiracy in the OP? Or can a thread just talk about the Usual CT stuff without having a designated conspiracy in that particular OP?

Orion437 does believe some UFO's are aliens. So we know he is a CT.

I don't think that a Conspiracy in the OP is necessary for him to just talk about UFO's and others reactions to the stories.

[pedant]"I'd mock your grammer if it were."[/pedant]

__________________
Wanted: Diabolical Plan for World Domination.

Topic New Change for Conspiracy Theory section: only space and astronomy:

Edit: Often the specific conspiracy is elided and a discussion ensues anyway. But, I think we should always be able to ask for a clarification as to what conspiracy the OP is advocating. If there isn't one, then that changes the context (and probably makes the thread wrongly placed). I'm not sure we're adressing the OP as needed. What is this about?

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

You are right, i started this thread here, but maybe it was for Life in Space, my mistake.

__________________
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/au..._einstein.html