***Geek Club History Draft***

[jerryskids 6,974]

 

My students are retards. They try to write the answers on the desk before the test. They try writing it on their shoes. The copy off each other, so the a whole section of the room will have the exact same answers.

 

For homework, the plagarize shamelessly. The other day, I had them use the phonics words in a sentence for homework.

 

one of the words was "Sue" as in a girl's name. One of my dumber students wrote, "Corporations register trademarks so that they can sue infringers." Like I'm not gonna notice that.

 

The Chinese don't seem to care. It's part of the way things are done here. And frankly, as long as they can manage to cheat on the government exam too, I don't really care either. I'm here for the quai.

 

I would think that if you can teach them how to cheat better, you might find yourself in high demand.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

 

I would think that if you can teach them how to cheat better, you might find yourself in high demand.

Step one...

 

Only cheat of the smart kids. Don't copy from the guy dumber than you.

 

Frankly, we are talking a spelling test for eight year olds in their second language. It would be easier just to learn the words honestly.

[Voltaire 5,392]

In many ways, Chinese students have cheating in their DNA already.

[vuduchile 1,945]

Drafting this category is like drafting a kicker to me.

 

Mathemetician:

 

Johann Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infinitesimal calculus and educating Leonhard Euler in the pupil's youth.

[Voltaire 5,392]

I got the story confused about Euler as a kid and Gauss.

 

The one where the class was naughty and for punish the teacher assigned them as busywork to add up the numbers from 1 to 100 and the kid had the answer as the teacher turned around to sit down.

 

100, 1+99, 2+98, 3+97....49+51 = 50x100= 5000

 

Plus 50.

 

Wait a minute, did Vudu just take that teacher? No, no. Good story, wrong kid.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Everything becomes mathematics at some point... Astronomy, Economics, Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, even Poker. So there can be a lot of overlap.

[vuduchile 1,945]

Everything becomes mathematics at some point... Astronomy, Economics, Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, even Poker. So there can be a lot of overlap.

Agreed. I don't understand advanced math, and I'm not interested in it. So, I don't really know anything about great mathematicians.

 

That's why it's like drafting a kicker to me.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Last two picks before the halfway mark...

 

 

James Oglethorpe (reformer) - James Edward Oglethorpe was a British general and social reformer who founded the colony of Georgia. Along with being a military leader he was also a politician who served as a Member of Parliament for 32 long years. Born as the son of a prominent politician, he had a privileged childhood. In spite of his own comfortable life he was not oblivious to the sufferings of the underprivileged and developed an early interest in helping those who were not as fortunate as he was. In keeping up with family traditions he too joined politics. As a politician, he played a major role in convincing the British government to authorize the establishment of its first new colony in North America in more than five decades. As a humanitarian, he believed that the establishment of a new colony would provide an opportunity to resettle Britain’s poor in the New World. He led the expedition of colonists to Savannah in the 1730s and spent several years in Georgia overseeing the economic and political development of the new colony. As a military leader, he played a significant role in resisting the Spanish invasion of Georgia following which the Spanish never again dared to attack Britain's colonies on the East Coast of America.

 

 

Amerigo Vespucci (Explorer) - Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer and navigator after whom the Americas were named. He was the first person who demonstrated to the world that Brazil and the West Indies were not a part of Asia’s eastern outskirts as was generally believed in the 15th century. Based on his extensive navigation and explorations, he stated that the newly discovered lands constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to the Europeans. Initially referred to as the “New world”, the super-continent was later named “America” in the honor of this great explorer. Born into a prominent family in Florence, Italy, he received a humanistic education from his paternal uncle, a Dominican friar named Giorgio Antonio Vespucci. He embarked on a career as a merchant upon growing up and found employment as a clerk at the Florentine commercial house of Medici. He was once sent by his employer on a trip to France and he became fascinated with the concepts of travelling and exploring. Eventually he moved to Spain and became an explorer when he was in his 40s. Initially he sailed under the Spanish flag but was later on invited by the king of Portugal to participate in voyages. During these voyages he discovered that the modern-day South America extended much further south than previously thought.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Also can I have Billy Mays moved to wildcard? I hate when I make picks when I am drinking thinking I struck gold only to later find out it was a terrible pick.

[Voltaire 5,392]

OK.

 

I'm paranoid about updating things, it should only take a couple of minutes instead the last couple of times have been upwards of a half hour.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

I can help you a bit if thats possible, if you'd like.

[Voltaire 5,392]

I can help you a bit if thats possible, if you'd like.

If it were to be the first three post in this thread, I'd have to trust you with my username password -which actually I do trust you with if anyone, but it seems too personal, I've never done that before and it seems extreme.

 

I keep it updated at Ed's board as well but I like the color at FFT and Ed's site doesn't support color.

 

We'll see how intolerable it gets. Those three posts on page one are where they need to be. If you were to copy and paste them elsewhere, it would be less than ideal.

 

Hmmm... We're doing our mid-draft review after this round. Maybe a new fourth post that mixes the second and third together is called for. Conquerer large and in black. My four together in blue, TBBOM in red, Bear in green, Vudu in purple, you in saddle brown.

 

Or a fifth where we rank them not in the order they were picked but by our judgmental opinions somehow.

[Voltaire 5,392]

That's enough time. Bear can go.

[BiPolarBear 495]

Virginia Woolf - Writer (non-fiction)

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Jacques Coustou - Explorer

[Voltaire 5,392]

Jacques Cousteau went 11.3 to Bear.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Sorry. I searched the first page with the CTR-F function and it missed him.

 

I'll take Leif Ericsson - Explorer

 

Considered the first European to reach North America
Explorer Leif Ericson is considered to be the first European to arrive in North America and he did so almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus. He created a Norse settlement in Vinland which was located on the far north tip of Newfoundland in present day Canada.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

And with my next pick...

 

George Westinghouse - Inventor

 

Though it was Edison that got most of the credit, it’s hard to argue that in many ways Westinghouse’s contributions were almost as great as Edison’s. Certainly it was his electrical system, which used alternating current based (a result of the work of Nikola Tesla, by the way), that ultimately prevailed over Edison’s insistence on direct current and paved the way for the modern power grid. But Westinghouse wasn’t a one-hit wonder; before he bested Edison with his AC power system, he invented the railway air brake, which did much to improve the safety of the American railway system. Like Edison, he also had an experimental streak which induced him play around with a perpetual motion machine. It didn’t quite work, of course (largely due to the fact that such a machine would violate the laws of physics) but you couldn’t blame him for trying. In any case, a prolific inventor and engineer with 361 patents to his credit.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Ericsson at 19.3s to 90sbaby. The Explorer category continues to frustrate TBBOM.

 

Westinghouse works for invented though.

 

Rolling with

 

Thucydides - Writer (Non-Fiction)

 

 

Trofim Lysenko - Dumb Focking Moron

 

I don't want to take him because I could sit on him for a long time but the upcoming mid-Draft review has forced my hand. I think Mao was a great pick for Bear in it's on right but the reasoning for putting him in Evil Mother Focker didn't work for me.

 

Stalin's famine inflicted on the Ukrainians was Evil MF worthy since it was deliberate political retribution. Mao's famine wasn't so. He wasn't trying to starve anyone. The landowners were forced out their farms collectivized. Chinese agricultural policy has to be re-written from scratch. Mao turned to a Communist foreign expert to help him design his agricultural reforms.

 

Enter Soviet Agriculture Minister Trofim Lysenko.

 

Lysenko had been a peasant farmer. He had little to no formal education. He had a good grasp of how to go about turning spring wheat and winterizing it, a technique that he hadn't invented but had mastered. And that was his entire credentials for working his way to the top of the Soviet Agricultural Ministry. Stalin wasn't a big fan of the intellectuals. In this winter wheat expert, he'd found a proletariat guy who could do the job just as well.

 

Unfortunately, there was more to the job than winter wheat. And it turned out he wasn't that good at that either. You have to winterize the crops each season. The seeds of winter crops aren't suitable for winter until they are winterized.

 

It's like my idiot roommate in college who got this absurd idea stuck that after generations of vaccination, eventually we won't need to vaccinate anymore. I tried to explain to him that's not how it works, only to overhear him embarrassing himself to someone else with his same line of BS a few weeks later.

 

Anyways, so he focks that up. He plants seeds too deeply and too many at the same time. He kills off all the birds because they eat seeds, not realizing they also eat the pests that eat the crops. He's a pseudo-scientist abject failure who's ideas are embraced by dim leadership and so jerks over both Russia and China causing crops not to grow.

 

In China, his influence ushered in a time frame call 'Three Years of Natural Disasters' the influence of which reaches into my own home as my mother-in-law who lives with us lived through that era as well. Her grandmother would routinely defer her food rations to my MiL so my MiL could eat. Eventually my MiL's grandmother was one of the 10s of millions who died of famine.

 

Lysenko was eventually discredited and removed from office but only after having accidentally been responsible for the deaths of nearly 100 million people in two countries.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Give me

 

Zheng He - explorer

 

He led a massive Chinese fleet on expositions to east Africa, the Middle East, and exploring Southeast Asia. There is also evidence to suggest that he led a Chinese fleet to discover California, long before the Europeans.

 

Later, the emperor decided China should turn its face from the world, and bad the fleet destroyed.

[BiPolarBear 495]

Stalin's famine inflicted on the Ukrainians was Evil MF worthy since it was deliberate political retribution. Mao's famine wasn't so. He wasn't trying to starve anyone.

 

Correct. He was evil for having enough grain to feed everyone stashed away in warehouses and not releasing it while millions died. People ate there children and parents. Mao also gets credit for having 60,000 people commit suicide just because they were scared of him. If that doesn't fit in the Evil MoFo category, what does?

 

"Perhaps the most tragic aspect is that most of those deaths were unnecessary. Although the fields were empty, massive grain warehouses held enough food to feed the entire country — but the government never released it."

 

That quote is from this site:

 

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/the-great-sparrow-campaign-was-the-start-of-the-greatest-mass

[BiPolarBear 495]

Give me

 

Zheng He - explorer

 

He led a massive Chinese fleet on expositions to east Africa, the Middle East, and exploring Southeast Asia. There is also evidence to suggest that he led a Chinese fleet to discover California, long before the Europeans.

 

Later, the emperor decided China should turn its face from the world, and bad the fleet destroyed.

 

You got me with that one. I am a big fan of his trip to America. I read stuff (pre-internet) that I have been unable to get off of the web. It suggested that the Indians and Chinese monks found each other through meditation and that Zheng He knew what he was going to find when he arrived. I also seem to remember that his ships were huge by European standards.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Thucydides (/θjuːˈsɪdɨdiːz/; Greek: Θουκυδίδης, Thoukudídēs, Ancient Greek: [tʰοːkydídɛːs]; c. 460 c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.[1][2]

 

He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest.[3] His text is still studied at both universities and advanced military colleges worldwide.[4] The Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory while Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history, and classical studies.

 

More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Let's see, Bear can go, Vudu was skipped and he can also go any time. Also we are passed the halfway mark and can begin our Mid-Draft evaluation.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

 

You got me with that one. I am a big fan of his trip to America. I read stuff (pre-internet) that I have been unable to get off of the web. It suggested that the Indians and Chinese monks found each other through meditation and that Zheng He knew what he was going to find when he arrived. I also seem to remember that his ships were huge by European standards.

I remember seeing a history channel documentary on it. As I recall, there were some stones found at the bottom of San Diego harbour that had Chinese markings and were shaped like anchors. Estimates date them to his era.

 

Interesting to think what might have been if the emperor had not burned the fleet and followed up on the discovery. If they had begun sending waves of colonists to North America. Would pretty drastically change the course of history no?

[jerryskids 6,974]

Give me

 

Zheng He - explorer

 

He led a massive Chinese fleet on expositions to east Africa, the Middle East, and exploring Southeast Asia. There is also evidence to suggest that he led a Chinese fleet to discover California, long before the Europeans.

 

Later, the emperor decided China should turn its face from the world, and bad the fleet destroyed.

 

Love that pick. Four years ago when my daughter was in 5th grade, her class did a "who discovered America?" contest. My daughter drew the role of this dood, and I had never heard that the Chinese very likely discovered America. I learned a lot from that "smarter than a fifth grader" experience.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Whereas Columbus had three merchant ships intending to trade, the Chinese went to explore and did so with a massive armada fit for an invasion. They never found anything worthy of the massive cost undertaking and different emperors had a different budgetary and exploratory priorities.

 

The Portuguese and Spanish made money from their trips but for the Chinese it was a huge expense with little tangible upside.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Whereas Columbus had three merchant ships intending to trade, the Chinese went to explore and did so with a massive armada fit for an invasion. They never found anything worthy of the massive cost undertaking and different emperors had a different budgetary and exploratory priorities.

 

The Portuguese and Spanish made money from their trips but for the Chinese it was a huge expense with little tangible upside.

But imagine if they had had vision and foresight. I know, a Chinese with vision is like a unicorn.

 

They could have been dumping excess population here for centuries before the white man got here. The entire Western Hemisphere could be part of the Chinese commonwealth. They would literally rule the world.

 

Too bad for them. Their loss, our gain.

[vuduchile 1,945]

Commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the remains of his cherished wife, the Taj Mahal stands on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India. The famed mausoleum complex, built over more than 20 years, is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences. At its center is the Taj Mahal itself, built of shimmering white marble that seems to change color depending on the sunlight or moonlight hitting its surface. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, it remains one of the worlds most celebrated structures and a stunning symbol of Indias rich history.

 

Many believe it would have been impossible for a single man to design and engineer such a place, but , Ustad Ahmad (a.k.a. Isa Khan), an architect in the court of Shah Jahan from Lahore, is most often credited as the chief architect (or plan drawer) of the Taj Mahal, based on a seventeenth century manuscript which claims that Ustad Ahmad was the architect of both the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi.

 

Ustad Ahmad. Engineer (structural) Architect.

[Voltaire 5,392]

I'm having another nightmare editing problem. Fortunately it's in the second post which is the easiest to fix. Theoretically, I "just" cut and paste from ed's board and add color five times... under normal circumstances it'd take about forty seconds.

 

The first post is updated, the third post is not. I'm mortified of getting an error there with all the colors because fixing that is too much work. I'd rather get the kinks out of #2 before trying my luck.

[BiPolarBear 495]

Ties Shakespeare for number of books sold (between 2 and 4 billion).

 

Agatha Christie - writer (fiction)

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Fredrick II aka Frederick the great - general, strategic

 

Frederick II of Prussia was a student of modern warfare, and later its guiding voice in the late 18th century. He modernized the army of his disjointed pseudo-German kingdom, and fought continuous wars against Austria, the dominating power of the Holy Roman Empire at the time. Known for both his books and treatises on warfare, as well as leading troops into battle personally (he had six horses shot from under him), Frederick was a force to be reckoned with

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Henry H. Arnold - General, strategic

 

Taught to fly by the Wright brothers, and one of the first three rated military pilots in the world, general Arnold rose to command the United States Air Force through WWII. He pioneered the use of strategic bombing and basically built the USAF.

 

He later went on to have a hand in the founding of pan am airlines after the war.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Arnold

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

If it were to be the first three post in this thread, I'd have to trust you with my username password -which actually I do trust you with if anyone, but it seems too personal, I've never done that before and it seems extreme.

 

I keep it updated at Ed's board as well but I like the color at FFT and Ed's site doesn't support color.

 

We'll see how intolerable it gets. Those three posts on page one are where they need to be. If you were to copy and paste them elsewhere, it would be less than ideal.

 

Hmmm... We're doing our mid-draft review after this round. Maybe a new fourth post that mixes the second and third together is called for. Conquerer large and in black. My four together in blue, TBBOM in red, Bear in green, Vudu in purple, you in saddle brown.

 

Or a fifth where we rank them not in the order they were picked but by our judgmental opinions somehow.

 

Sorry for the delayed post, I was at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the final race, didn't really have much reception down there where I was at.

 

I could always the next half when I get more time, update it and message you the updated draft board or I could just do the second post on page 1 and you do the first somethings like that, and just send you a PM here.

 

Would something like that work?

[vuduchile 1,945]

In 1936-37, a dirt poor juke joint guitarist laid down 29 tracks that would become the basic framework for every rock and roll song ever recorded. Nobody knows for sure who actually invented the 3 chord Blues, but there is no debate about who perfected the sound, wrapped it up and presented it to the musical universe on a platter spinning at 78 rpm

 

 

His songs have been covered and turned into hits by Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, The Allman Bros and even the Blues Brothers.

 

Offstage, his womanizing and colorful lifestyle are the stuff of legend. Details are sketchy, but it's believed that all caught up with him when he was murdered at the age of 27 via a poisoned bottle of whiskey.

 

His legendary status has reached mythical proportions, but the tallest tale of all puts him at a crossroads way out in the Mississippi Delta where he meets up with Satan himself. The story says he sold his soul in return for masterful guitar skills.

 

It's easy for non musicians to listen to those 29 recordings and wonder what all the fuss was about. True enough, they don't sound impressive by today's standards. But they absolutely launched a musical revolution and everyone from Chuck Berry to Metallica and Taylor Swift owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude.

 

He could be my last pick in the performer category, but since his music has such widespread influence, I'll take him as Composer:

 

Robert Johnson.

Today's a good day to listen to some Robert Johnson as it's the anniversary of Johnson's first recording session in 1936.

 

 

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

We skipped the mid draft review?

[Voltaire 5,392]

We skipped the mid draft review?

I don't know what everybody else's excuse is, Monday I've got my phone but I'm not at my desk at work. You were at the races. It was the other three assmegs who skipped the review.

[Voltaire 5,392]

I'm also having some serious problems getting pages to load in here. The same as before when Mike's hamster was wheezing. Apparently though that's a me-only problem.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

I don't know what everybody else's excuse is, Monday I've got my phone but I'm not at my desk at work. You were at the races. It was the other three assmegs who skipped the review.

I was also at work, and when I wasn't, I had better things to do than a review.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Ok, due to the vagaries of the chines internet, I can connect to fft, but volty can't. So I'm picking for him.

 

Virgil - poet

 

Wrote the aneid among others

 

John dalton - science (other)