Drunkard's Walk Forums

No context, no discussion of methodology, just a list - The Telegraph's Top 100 living geniuses
I have to wonder how the names were chosen, and what methodology was used for ranking them. Considering how many ties there are, I'm guessing that the names were either selected or ranked by popular ballot.
Tim Berners-Lee and Abbie Hoffmann tied for first place. Stephen Hawking tied for seventh, placing behind Matt Groening (at #4).
And there's 101 names on the list - Larry Page & Sergey Brin were listed as one person (tied for #20)
Mind you, any list that awards ties between Mohammed Ali, Osama Bin Laden, Bill Gates, and Philip Roth (four of six to place at #43), or Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov and JK Rowling (two of eight to place at #83) can't be all bad, can it? The comedy value alone is priceless...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Um. Abbie Hoffman is dead, has been for more than a decade.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

The chemist Albert Hoffman, however, is alive. ^.^
--Sam
"If I could just reach those peanuts...!"

How the heck they decide who is "top" and who isn't... that's an interestingly loaded question. I'm looking at this list and every few names I go "They think he/she's a genius, much less top 100 material? They're crazy!".--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

That list makes no sense.
Ken Perlin isn't even on the list and as far as computer science goes he definitely beats Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Quote:

---

Um. Abbie Hoffman is dead, has been for more than a decade.

---

Did I say "Abbie"? Oopsie... Sorry about that.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012