[ExI] transplant tragedy!

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 10 20:01:11 UTC 2015


Does Ben Franklin count for the magic square?  Eh, not really, or not
much.  The Mayan pyramid builders must have had some math, but somehow it
all came to naught.  There were plenty of humans here a long time ago, but
I know of not one important mathematical discovery from the Americas, North
or South, from the old days, nada.



spike


You have to remember that old Ben was entirely self-taught after, roughly,
grammar school, being apprenticed then to his brother.  No opportunity to
learn higher math, and probably no time either, being preoccupied with the
printing business.  But he is clearly one of the greatest minds of all time
and my favorite person in history.  (Even though it is not clear what he
ever thought about anything much, as he was one of the greatest liars of
all time, and needed it in France. A really slippery guy, esp. if you asked
him about God.)  He was superior at everything he tried - truly a
polymath.  And from such a tight-assed family - he was sent to bed without
the rest of his supper once because he praised it!

  bill w

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:41 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
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>
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> *>…* *On Behalf Of *Giovanni Santostasi
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] transplant tragedy!
>
>
>
> >…Russia is not communist any longer but it is back to its old white
> Russia tsarist ways…
>
>
>
> Old habits die hard.  It’s too bad: they were good competitors there for a
> while.  Competition breeds excellence (assuming of course it doesn’t result
> in the competitors nuking the planet to a sterile radioactive wasteland.)
>
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> >>…Well, technically the doctor is Italian…
>
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> >…As you noted doctor is our compatriot so a westerner. If this succeeds
> Canavero should be elevated to the pantheon of Galileo, Fermi, Marconi and
> other great Italian science mavericks.
>
>
>
> Ja!  You guys are really on it in the math world, from way back.  There
> was a good site on this topic several years ago I can’t find now, called
> WopsInMath (their term, not mine) which listed several Italian math biggies
> and gave good bios and summaries of their contributions and discoveries.
>
>
>
> Many of my personal favorites are Italian:  Fibonacci, da Vinci (he
> counts, even if he did a lotta lotta other stuff) Galileo, Ricci, Cataldi,
> de Terzi, Corsini, Lagrange was one of yours, and these are all just the
> old timers I can think of, because I lose count of all those in the 1800s
> and later.
>
>
>
> Compare to the USA, or just say the North American continent.  Well no,
> either of the Americas.  We had no mathematicians of note before the 19th
> century that I can think of, none.  Anyone?  Does Ben Franklin count for
> the magic square?  Eh, not really, or not much.  The Mayan pyramid builders
> must have had some math, but somehow it all came to naught.  There were
> plenty of humans here a long time ago, but I know of not one important
> mathematical discovery from the Americas, North or South, from the old
> days, nada.
>
>
>
> spike
>
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>
>
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