Stephen Hawking Is "Very Ill" In Hospital 413
C S Miller writes "Not much more to add.
The BBC is reporting that 'Stephen Hawking is "very ill" in hospital.' He has had a few health scares before, and as a post-graduate he was told he didn't have much longer to live; he's now 67."
Re:Death announced before death? (Score:2, Informative)
They're reporting on him as he is now, very ill and in the hospital. TFA was a brief article on BBC discussing what they knew about his present condition, not a link to the Death Clock.
Re:Oh dear (Score:5, Informative)
ok.. Any intelligence which is that conceited, petty and needy has no buisness being worshipped. Actually such an intelligence wouldnt even have my respect.
Storm
Re:Oh dear (Score:4, Informative)
It is disrespectful toward him, for people whom don't know anything about physics, to brown nose all over the guy, just because he's handicapped. Note, I'm not saying he's a loser, its not a binary this or that response. It is more respectful of his considerable intellectual achievements to describe him as definitely well above average in his profession, rather than a polite version of condescendingly fawning over every little little achievement of a sick child.
I'm going to butt in here and point out that Hawking's achievements were beginning to be known even as a post-grad, when his illness was [i]first diagnosed[/i]. At this point he's been restricted to a wheelchair for most of his life, but he was more or less normal for his first 20 or so years, physically. He was even on the rowing team IIRC.
Now, I don't know if his illness increased his focus and productivity in the realms of theoretical physics or not, other than to note that if he'd been whole in body he'd have a far easier time outputting his ideas, researching, etc... Not to mention possibly having an extra 30 or so years of him. His lack of mobility has likely led to certain health issues that will take him from us early.
Re:Oh dear (Score:2, Informative)
"Should've" = "Should have".
Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even inside single quotes. [grammarbook.com]
That depends which country you're from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Punctuation [wikipedia.org]
Re:Death announced before death? (Score:2, Informative)
The untimely demise of the mother of two young sons is not a boon to humanity, however much she may have irritated you or somehow symbolized the intellectual rot of our society to your spiteful little mind.
But hey, who cares about those two little boys? Clearly it's the good of the elitists who take reality television as a personal affront that matters.
Re:More than handicapped (Score:3, Informative)
I lost my dad to ALS when I was 12. He was diagnosed when I was 8. 46 years with ALS is literally unprecedented. Most people don't make it to the 5th year after diagnosis. I hope he's willed his body to science because his final act of discovery might be to help medical science figure out how to slow the progression of the disease.
Oh yeah: if you want to do something in Dr. Hawking's honor, drop a few coins ALSA [alsa.org]'s way. The DNA of the foundation my mom started after my dad was diagnosed is a part of the current charity.
Re:Oh dear (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh dear (Score:3, Informative)
If your linking of self-reference and consciousness wasn't inspired by Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid [wikipedia.org] , then I'd advise you to read that book as soon as possible, as that's pretty much its main thesis.
Re:Oh dear (Score:2, Informative)
Fail.
There have been numerous interviews with Hawking and other scientists, mathematicians, physicists, etc. that reference "god" as an unknown quantity in the face of stupendous data. Not to be confused with a deity. Einstein also wrote about "god" in this same reference, and he was a very well known atheist.
Re:Oh dear (Score:3, Informative)
"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice." - A. Einstein
Sounds like an acknowledgment of a creator to me.
Faith and science are not mutually exclusive, they never have been.