The "Famous people you've probably never heard of but should have" thread

[BFM_SüprM@ñ]

-bows to Dunant- Heh, I almost imagine him being like, "Hey, look what I did... Shouldn't I get some kind of award for this? I mean... seriously..."

J/k, I'm sure he was at least somewhat modest.

[jim360]

A short post this time - Jamie Burnett is a snooker player with the remarkable distinction of being the only player in tournament play to record a break higher than 147. In 2004 he recorded a 148 break.

Just to explain, snooker is sort of Pool's bigger brother, played on a larger table with 22 balls - 15 reds (1 point each), and 6 balls worth 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and then the black ball, worth 7 points (the 22nd ball is the cue ball). You pot a red, then a colour, then a red, and so on, and the colours are returned to the table until all reds have been potted. Then, all the colours are potted in order of how many points they are worth.

If you do the maths, that leads to a maximum score of 147 points in a single 'break' - a visit of potting balls in sequence. So how could anyone score more than that?

Suppose your opponent played a foul shot and left you unable to see any reds properly. This gives you a "free ball", that can count as an extra red. If all the reds are on the table at the time, you might find yourself able to pot a maximum of 16 reds and blacks for a total of 155 points.

And this is roughly what happened. Jamie Burnett's opponent fouled, gave away a free ball, which Jamie Burnett potted and he cleared up for a total break of 148. This is likely to be the highest official break in snooker for a long time to come.

[BFM_Kiwi]

The "Sort-of Famous (if you're in England) people you've probably never heard of and probably shouldn't have" thread.

jk jk, keep 'em coming three60!

[jim360]

People you might have heard of if you spent time on Wikipedia looking up useful stuff instead of the celebrity pages.

[BFM_SüprM@ñ]

Glad to know someone else that does that instead of just assuming others did it. = )

[jim360]

Rather sadly the person of this article has just passed away. Norio Ohga was purportedly the person responsible for developing the compact disc - not the science behind it, but in making it into the huge global success that it was. Sony developed the CD over the 70's, when Ohga was an executive there, and despite negative feedback he continued to push it through. In joint research between Sony and Philips it turned into the successor to the cassette and the gramophone record.

CD technology revolutionised not only the music industry, but later of course CD-ROM's drove the gaming industry and DVD's are based on the same basic principle.

The fact is that even the seriously good ideas need money and backing, and Ohga was the man who provided it.

By the way, all CD's are the same size - 4.7 inches in diameter. This allows them to store about 75 minutes of music (at least in the early years). Why? That's how long Ohga's favourite piece, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, was.

[jim360]

For those of you living in England, the next month is full of possibilities for political reform. There's the referendum on the voting system (don't forget to vote if you can!); and some time next month a Bill on Reform of the House of Lords is due to be released, turning it into a chamber similar to the US senate - with elected peers (or at least most of them will be elected).

For many people Lords Reform has been a major issue, and in fact we're coming up to the 100th Anniversary of the Parliament Act 1911 that started it all. Before then the elected Commons and the unelected Lords clashed over a Budget inspired by today's entrant, Henry George. (Gosh, what a preamble!)

Henry George was an American Economist of the 19th Century who proposed the idea that land belongs to the people, therefore it should be taxed. This fairly reasonable idea was taken up by the UK Government of the time, and opposed by the Lords (who, unsurprisingly, owned the land that would be taxed). So began a huge battle over who should run the country that, in a way, still isn't over.

Henry George's influence stretches far beyond just UK politics. His ideas were taken up in Australia - in particular in New South Wales - and in some US states. However his theories in general have been replaced by, for example, the theories of Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes, and other modern economists.

The second major influence on modern life is that the game of Monopoly was inspired by Henry George's economics. So now you know.

[BFM_SüprM@ñ]

I have a love hate relationship with Monopoly.... more than 2 people and it takes too long.... with 2 only two people, it's too easy to win. v.v

[jim360]

It doesn't matter how clever you are, if you have a brilliant idea but don't know how to express it then you're in trouble. For example, suppose you'd just come up with a brilliant new theory in science, explaining how the world must be constantly renewing itself, and tell everyone like this:

Consequently, besides an operation, by which the earth at the bottom of the sea should be converted into an elevated land, or placed high above the level of the ocean, there is required, in the operations of the globe, a consolidating power, by which the loose materials that had subsided from water, should be formed into masses of the most perfect solidity, having neither water nor vacuity between their various constituent parts, nor in the pores of those constituent parts themselves.

This, of course, makes perfect sense... probably. It's more likely that, when reading it, you wouldn't have a clue what he's trying to say.

Now I didn't make up this quote. It's an extract from James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" in which he outlines how the Earth must be constantly renewing itself to fight against the process of erosion. He also writes it in the most impenetrable language possible. Go on, have a look yourself here!

Despite all this, James Hutton was a brilliant scientist and the father of modern geology. But the person of this article is his friend, John Playfair, whose own work, "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth", actually explains what Hutton was trying to say. As a result, with what was, in fairness, some brilliant insight was finally appreciated for what it was, and the science of geology kicked off.

There are many other people such as John Playfair, who have taken brilliant ideas and presented them in a way that is more easily understood. Through people like him the new generation can take up these ideas and improve on them.

Next post will include a second, more modern example of this.

[jim360]

Jospeh Bazalgette's rather unsavoury claim to fame is that, in the wake of the so-called "Great Stink" of 1858 in London, he was tasked with designing the new sewage system for that great city. There are two remarkable things to note about this system: firstly, that despite its being over 150 years old it is still in use today, and secondly, that this was entirely deliberate.

You see, unlike some other building projects that often find themselves being knocked down because there wasn't enough foresight (such as bridges over motorways [freeways] that need to be replaced every time the road is widened...), Bazalgette in fact deliberately built his sewers to last for, pretty much, ever. They are meant to cope with the needs of the densest part of London, extrapolated over the whole city, and then doubled. The current population of London peaked at over eight million in the 1950's. In 1860 it was closer to three million, but the sewers were nevertheless able to cope with more than double that number of people.

Some remarkable foresight. Well done Bazalgette.

Mind you, in the early days of the new system all the sewers led to the Thames... so he didn't get it exactly right. Oh well.

[BFM_SüprM@ñ]

Eh, close enough right? Here's an award! -hands random award to designer- Now, let's cut some stinky ribbons!

[jim360]

Richard Feynman is another one of those people who managed to write about science in a very clear way, and has helped several generations to understand the complicated world of science. In fact, not only did he write about it, he was also a ground-breaking pioneer as well, developing the theory now known as Quantum Electrodynamics. This describes the physics of light, and is the foundation for much of the work in modern physics today.

Among his other areas of study:

 - Nanotechnology
 - Quantum computing (potentially even faster than the world's fastest supercomputers)
 - Development of the atom bomb

And, as stated, he worked very hard to communicate these ideas to the public. The Feynman lectures are a very readable description of pretty much all of Science.

Thank you Richard.

[jim360]

The third author on my list, although there are many, is of particular importance to me personally. Kjartan Poskitt is the author of a series of popular mathematics books, read the world over I understand, aimed at children. They really do explain very well pretty much the whole of maths, and then some more, up until the end of High School. In many ways I owe my ability at maths to him, I learned it all from his books so that I was ready to take the GCSE (end of High School) exams about two years earlier or more.

I think I can safely say that he is also the craziest guy I have ever met, and I have met him, which was a pleasure.

Anyhow, I'm writing this from Cambridge University, and tomorrow morning I have a maths exam. Assuming I pass it of course, it'll be (almost) the end of a journey that started with my reading Kjartan Poskitt's first book, and getting hooked by maths. Even the tortures of two of the worst maths teachers in the history of the world didn't stop me (though the first one came mighty close, lol).

Thank you Kjartan!

[jim360]

Mary Whitehouse was to British Television what BFM is to Halo - in the 70's and 80's she worked tirelessly to "clean up TV" - no bad language, inappropriate content or disturbing scene went without notice and a stern letter, and indeed as she became increasingly well-known, her voice carried more and more weight.

In many ways she did us all a favour since, even though maybe she failed and perhaps went a bit far, she did at least give the "crudeness" of English TV a strong test, and had a huge influence on modern standards.

[jim360]

There are probably as many as forty people who can lay a claim to owning the title "person who single-handedly won WWII", among them Churchill, Alan Turing (more of which later, probably), General Montgomery, and so on. Memorably, Churchill was the one who provided the isolated British with stirring speeches and "never-surrender" leadership during the dark days of 1940 and beyond, Montgomery led his forces to victory in the Desert War, and Turing was one of the many mathematicians (most of whom came from King's, oddly enough) who helped to break German codes, giving the Allies a huge edge in the war.

One of the more unusual claimants might be Group Captain (Sir) James Martin Stagg, whose job it was to ... predict the weather. Specifically, he was the meteorologist who was working on predicting the weather in early June, 1944, at about the time of D-Day. Sea crossings can be fairly hazardous, and in addition for the Allied Navy and Air Force to do their thing you needed calm seas, good visibility and reasonable cloud cover too. Without this the whole business might not have worked at all, and it was Stagg's job to give the OK to launch the invasion fleet.

The BBC's version of the story goes that the morning of June 6th was the only gap in a nasty weather front that lasted for about two days, and Stagg predicted this gap, allowing the invasion to be launched. The cruncher was that the defending forces did not see this gap coming, so as a result the forces caught the defence off guard in more ways than one.

And the rest, as they say, is history...

[With thanks to the BBC's "Great British Weather" for inspiring this post.]