[MarkWar]

>THE CRACKPOT INDEX A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.

Yes, yes, all very funny, but---

This kind of thinking glosses over the interesting fact that THERE IS NO PARTICULAR CONNECTION between a person's "sanity" and the possibility that they may make a great contribution to society.

Newton was SO religious that people today would call him a nut.

Galileo was SO obnoxious that today he'd almost certainly be sued out of any academic or business setting.

And, in other contexts, such as the arts, people like Paul Cezanne were flat out crazy...

(In fact, if you make a list of "influential" people from the past, it's difficult to find _anyone_ who wouldn't be called a crackpot for one reason or another today.)

Maginalizing people because they don't fit socially is a pretty bad practice because the whole world then misses out on the potential contributions such people can make.

Mark W.

[francisandbeans]

Me thinks you have issues with E=mc2 and are just preparing your closet exit.

[francisandbeans]

and further Newton was a nut.

His THEORY on gravity is just a theory. It is not the truth.

Everyone should know that gravity is nothing more then microscopic white men holding everyone down.

[John H K]

The problem is, again, not being exposed to enough of the crackpots. I've seen everything in that list pretty much ACTUALLY said by a REAL crackpot.

For every nut who turns out to be right, there are a million nuts who are crackpots. But because the media, and the world of film, etc. LOVES the nuts who are right, every nut who is full of it convinces themselves that THEY are one of those special nuts that are right.

[RightWhale]

You have earned at least 60 and probably over 100 points on that post alone.