Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]"Barney Quinn, Jr." wrote: > > Johnny, > > One of my work friends is a very senior atmospheric scientist. He's a genius at > physics, and he's world famous in his field. When some of our newly minted > PhD's get frisky enough to be aggravating ( Can you imagine such a thing? A > young, arrogant Ph.D.? ) he just loves pointing out to them that the entire > history of twentieth century technology can be understood as nothing more that > an elaboration of nineteenth century inventions. ( This isn't really true, of > course, but that's not the point of the game.) > > He then goes on to ask a series of loaded questions - When was electricity > "discovered?", When did Edison live?, When was the phonograph invented?, Are > there any known recordings of Johannes Brahms playing the piano? WHen was > photography invented? When was the speed of light measured? And so forth. I'm > sure you get the idea. Those of us who know the drill just love to watch the > show. Frequently we join in ourselves. Now, I will be the first to admit that > this is all a bit of an over generalization, but it's all done in the spirit of > good fun. It does make an important point, and it sure gives the young'uns > something to think about. :-) > > Barney > I was hoping all the answers would be appearing upside down at the bottom of the post but that would require HTML and a special typeface. ): Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/