Question for Spiney (And other Members)

***Marts*** · 16-10-2006

Do you have a mentor ? Who do you admire ? other than family that is

Me ? well obviously old Eddy, but as stated in another thread I do hold the likes of Richard Branson, Michael O'Leary and Ron Jeremy in high esteem http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/w/thumbs.gif

Not so with the Rooney's and golden balls of this world

Regards - Marts

spiney · 16-10-2006

No problem!

My heroes are:

J S Mill (individual liberty).

Karl Popper (scientific discovery).

Many many others, but not as important ...... anyone who's advanced the sum total of human knowledge, or - at least - sincerely tried to!

***Marts*** · 16-10-2006

Originally Posted by spiney

No problem!

My heroes are:

J S Mill (individual liberty).

Karl Popper (scientific discovery).

Many many others, but not as important ...... anyone who's advanced the sum total of human knowledge, or - at least - sincerely tried to!

Ooops .. I should have been more specific spiney .. and said those still alive today. The list of deceased high rankers is as endless as Da Vinci's achievements

Maaarts

spiney · 17-10-2006

Originally Posted by Marts

Ooops .. I should have been more specific spiney .. and said those still alive today. The list of deceased high rankers is as endless as Da Vinci's achievements

Maaarts

I don't quite understand .... in what way would Sir RIchard be a "mentor"?

I don't admire anyone currently "in the public eye", if that's what you mean!

***Marts*** · 17-10-2006

Originally Posted by spiney

I don't quite understand .... in what way would Sir RIchard be a "mentor"?

I don't admire anyone currently "in the public eye", if that's what you mean!

I'm sure he's many peoples mentor .. Sir Richard .. especially anyone in business or who has read his autobiography http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/w/thumbs.gif

Wow spiney me owd .. rather profound and sweeping statement there .. no admiration for anyone in the public eye

Maaarts

spiney · 17-10-2006

Sorry, Mart, really can't think of anyone ...... of course, I 'd say the people I've mentioned are still very much a "living influence" ......

As for Sir RIchard, have you read Tim Jackson's biography?

(I still don't see how he's a mentor, does he write letters to you?).

***Marts*** · 17-10-2006

Originally Posted by spiney

(I still don't see how he's a mentor, does he write letters to you?).

Yep with these http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5elf/lips.gif but there again I (we) did meet the guy a couple of years ago at the BUDDHA BAR PARIS together with his good lady, and Jean Michel Jarre, together with his most gracious Charlotte

Also worth noting, I am second on Richards list (after Ron Jeremy as mentioned in my intro post .. another of Marts mentors) of would be space tourists .. possibly some time in 2045 .. you see that's not lateral or new thinking .. it's forward thinking

Maarts

spiney · 17-10-2006

Crikey, Marts, you do seem to be very well connected ....... I'm jealous!

Living in Malta, trips to Paris ..... crikey.

(When in France, avoid eating soup, unless you can see right through to the bottom of the dish!).

I go shopping occasionally ..... it's a change of scenery!

My understanding is that tricky dicky (oops, I mean Sir Richard!) is intending to "do the little hop" himself, which means the 1st suborbital vehicles should be ready quite soon ........

Meanwhile, if you see him again, if you could just mention the trains .....

And back to mentors:

Isac Newton famously said "if I've seen further than other men, it's because I've stood on the shoulders of giants ....." (or something very similar).

Sometimes, by standing on a huge pile of science/electronics textbooks - if I don't fall off - then standing on tiptoe, and looking over the fence, I get a brief glimpse of a neighbour's satellite dish (before starting to wobble).

**rolfw** · 17-10-2006

Isaac Newton may have said it Spiney, but he borrowed it from a 12th Century Chartrain Monk, Bernard of Chartres.

" We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness on sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."

PS. I certainly don't have anyone I would consider a mentor and as for a hero or iconic figure, can't really think of one, so I guess that means that I don't have one.

spiney · 17-10-2006

Rolf, that's very interesting indeed! The Newton quote is often given (for example, it's on our £2 coin), and I've never before seen the original source!

Did you know that, or look it up?

As for not having a mentor, what did Polonius say to Hamlet (hope that's right!)?

" ..... finally, to thine own self be true, and it follows - as night follows day - that thou cannot then be false to any other man .....".

(or something like that, Shakespeare was a bit fussy about words!).

(added later): he actually said:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

**rolfw** · 17-10-2006

I only knew spiney, because my sister (who lives near Chartres) told me.

Also apparently William Tell spent a lot of time there, as one of the city gates is named after him.

spiney · 17-10-2006

Amazing ........ I must get out more!

**PaulR** · 17-10-2006

Originally Posted by spiney

Amazing ........ I must get out more!

You mean they allow you out?

**PoloMint** · 18-10-2006

Just to add to the Newton quote discussion. Newton, who had had a bit of a twisted personality, was probably poking fun at Robert Hooke with the giant reference.

Newton has been thought to have 'borrowed' many of Hooke's and other's ideas (stole them some would say).

Newton wrote to Hooke saying If I have seen further [than you and Descartes] it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants. This might seem like acknowledging and even thanking Hooke, except Hooke was a bit of a midget (well short anyway) and Newton was not keen on thanking people. It is likely that Newton choose those words very carefully, and Hooke took the literal meaning.

Newton may have been a great thinker, but he didn't have the personality to match.

spiney · 18-10-2006

Newton was certainly strange, but "twisted" is wrong, although it's recently fashionable.

1) There was a priority dispute with Leibeniz, who - although his calculus notation was better, and did eventually supercede Newton's - did in fact invent his verison after Newton.

2) Hooke went around claiming he'd discovered the inverse square law of gravity. In fact, only Newton was able to prove that elliptical planetary orbits resulted from this, and his complaint about Hooke was fair enough.

**PoloMint** · 18-10-2006

Originally Posted by spiney

Newton was certainly strange, but "twisted" is wrong, although it's recently fashionable...

Maybe it is just fashionable to say that now, or maybe people are just more willing question some of his antics.

Like so many things we will never know, but there are many people who seriously doubt his character. Can't think of any significant ones off the top of my head - I'm sure there's stuff on the web about it.

An eccentric genius, most would agree, it's where he is on the boundaries between eccentricity, strangeness, and plain old nastiness where people argue.

Sorry if this is

***Marts*** · 18-10-2006

Originally Posted by PoloMint

Sorry if this is

No problem at all young chap. Tomorrow I will give you Plato .. and we all know who his mentor was
http://smilies.sofrayt.com/fsc/conversation.gif

spiney · 18-10-2006

Newton might have been gay, and possibly manic depressive. Certainly moody! He wrote loads about biblical prophecy, and spent much time on alchemical experiments. Later on, as "master of the mint" he regularly had coin forgers executed, so was responsible for killing quite a few people!

In recent years, these aspects have been much exaggerated, but it's better to see him more traditionally, as the author of Principia and Optiks.

spiney · 19-10-2006

Originally Posted by PaulR

You mean they allow you out?

I have my own key, but please don't tell them!

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