Delicious LiveJournal Links for 2-4-2010

[andrewducker]

• Captured terrorist treated like human being, gives useful evidence.
  Jack Bauer wouldn't have done _that_.
  (tags: torture terrorism law usa)
• A timeline of nuclear events in the USA from 1941 to the present
  (tags: nuclear us)
• Why In Fact Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon: A Deeply Slanted Play in Three Acts
  (tags: funny business books JohnScalzi)
• Musical tastes around the world - and the anglophonic hegemony
  (tags: music globalization society)
• Why do people vote against their own interests?
  Which was a discussion on my journal last week...
  (tags: politics psychology usa health business healthcare)
• Pollution in recent IPv4 allocation of 1.0.0.0/8
  Apparently a lot of people are hitting 1.1.1.1 even though it only just came into existence...
  (tags: tcp ip internet technology)
• Shiny, swanky car boosts men's appeal to women, but not women's appeal to men
  (tags: sex attraction psychology gender wealth)
• You don't have to be bipolar to be a genius â“ but it helps
  A study of more than 700,000 adults showed that those who scored top grades at school were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those with average grades.
  (tags: genius intelligence psychology)

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

The IPv4 link -- are you intentionally linking to something that doesn't have the actual article on it?

Everyone should go listen to Johnny Halliday on Last.FM just to skew the results! ;)

[andrewducker]

I meant to link to the actual article - but the discussion links to it, so it's not the end of the world.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Am highly amused that they list Sting and Fry alongside the likes of Van Gogh, Plath and Woolf. Not that Fry doesn't have legitimate manic-depression, but does he really possess significant artistic genius? I'm aware that he's a wit, reasonably smart, and a competent writer, but really? Van Gogh, Woolf, Plath and Fry?

I want to write comedy Twitters for the other three, now.

starry_night Going crazy here. Please send paint.
big_bad_woolf @wry_vita Did you borrow my favourite overcoat? I need it for something.
plathetic is baking cookies for the kids.

[andrewducker]

Stephen Fry is definitely a genius - whether he's an artistic genius is an entirely personal judgement. Certainly his writing has worked for me on multiple levels. I can't compare him to Van Gogh, as they work in entirely different media - and I can't compare him to Woolf or Plath as I haven't read any.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

I think the term genius is definitely over-used. I'm not doubting Stephen Fry is hugely talented, but I find it difficult to assign him the mantle of genius. Wondering if this was just me I thought I'd wikipedia the term and came across this lovely quote. I wouldn't say Fry reaches this heady height, but of course this is all personal opinion (as to what genius is and whether Stevie, as anyone who has their name on the same credits list as him is allowed to call him, achieves it).

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."
— Arthur Schopenhauer

[andrewducker]

I tend to take Genius as the top 0.1% - he might not quite make this, but he's not far off, and you're right, it's all personal judgement.