N&P: Discuss governments, nations, politics and recent related news here.
Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, SCRawl, Thanas, Edi, K. A. Pital
-
Eulogy
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 868
- Joined: 2007-04-28 10:23pm
Post
by Eulogy » 2018-03-14 12:11am
Physicist Stephen Hawking dies aged 76
Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76, his family has said.
The British theoretical physicist was known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity, and was the author of several popular science books including A Brief History of Time.
His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.
"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."
They praised his "courage and persistence" and said his "brilliance and humour" inspired people across the world.
"He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever," they said.
The BBC

"A word of advice: next time you post, try not to inadvertently reveal why you've had no success with real women." Darth Wong to Bubble Boy
"I see you do not understand objectivity," said Tom Carder, a fundie fucknut to Darth Wong
-
mr friendly guy
- The Doctor
- Posts: 9937
- Joined: 2004-12-12 10:55pm
- Location: In a 1960s police telephone box somewhere in Australia
Post
by mr friendly guy » 2018-03-14 12:57am
He survived this long with his disease. Rest in peace.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to.
Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
-
ANGELUS
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 409
- Joined: 2003-03-04 02:11pm
- Location: Valhöll
Post
by ANGELUS » 2018-03-14 01:21am
Today the universe got a little bit darker.
~ Some men just want to watch the world burn ~
-
Marko Dash
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 599
- Joined: 2006-01-29 03:42am
- Location: south carolina, USA
-
Contact:
Post
by Marko Dash » 2018-03-14 01:56am
damn, i knew his condition had been declining these last few years but i thought he'd last a while longer.
If a black-hawk flies over a light show and is not harmed, does that make it immune to lasers?
-
Dragon Angel
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 745
- Joined: 2010-02-08 09:20am
- Location: A Place Called...
Post
by Dragon Angel » 2018-03-14 01:58am
...God fuck. This world would be miraculously lucky to see another like him once more. Rest in peace, sir.
"I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers, consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin', while my thoughts were busy hatchin', if I only had a brain!
I would not be just a nothin', my head all full of stuffin', my heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be would be a ding-a-derry, if I only had a brain!"
-
wautd
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7268
- Joined: 2004-02-11 10:11am
- Location: Intensive care
Post
by wautd » 2018-03-14 05:10am
An icon
-
Iroscato
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2317
- Joined: 2011-02-07 03:04pm
- Location: Great Britain (It's great, honestly!)
Post
by Iroscato » 2018-03-14 07:09am
I’m not really one to get upset over the deaths of people I don’t know, but god fucking dammit. He was a childhood hero of mine due to his mind and resilience, and helped spark my interest in science to begin with. RIP to an immense and unique intellect and an extraordinary man.
Yeah, I've always taken the subtext of the Birther movement to be, "The rules don't count here! This is different! HE'S BLACK! BLACK, I SAY! ARE YOU ALL BLIND!?
- Raw Shark
Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent.
- SirNitram (RIP)
-
ray245
- Sith Acolyte
- Posts: 6359
- Joined: 2005-06-10 11:30pm
Post
by ray245 » 2018-03-14 07:14am
He was alive and well at my uni just a few months before...
Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.
-
The Infidel
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 569
- Joined: 2009-05-07 01:32pm
- Location: Norway
Post
by The Infidel » 2018-03-14 07:16am
A great man outlived all expectations and changed the way we look at the world.
Fittingly, he died on pi day.
It is very difficult to believe in a god when some people are never struck by lightning. -Calvin
-
EnterpriseSovereign
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2019
- Joined: 2006-05-12 12:19pm
- Location: High orbit
Post
by EnterpriseSovereign » 2018-03-14 12:12pm
Well shit, this sucks. And I have several of his books too- I expect that Theory of Everything will air as a tribute.
It's no use debating a moron; they drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
Just because you have the attention span of a fruit fly doesn't mean the rest of us are so encumbered.
"As you know science is not fact"- HuskerJay
"The Delta Fyler [sic] isn't even a shuttle craft" -HuskerJay69
"The Dominion War wasn't really all that bad"- Admiral Mercury
-
Eternal_Freedom
- Castellan
- Posts: 9060
- Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
- Location: Bound in a nutshell
Post
by Eternal_Freedom » 2018-03-14 12:57pm
A truly remarkable man. I was lucky enough to meet him at an event at the Science Museum in London a few years ago, he seemed...unbreakable I think is the word.
I think his greatest legacy, as far as I'm concerned, is proving that the disabled can still do amazing things. Rest in Peace Sir.
"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams" - Hamlet
“I’ve always thought the Yankees had something to do with it.” - Confederate General George Pickett, on being asked why his charge at Ghettysburg failed
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
-
U.P. Cinnabar
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2373
- Joined: 2016-02-05 08:11pm
- Location: Aboard the RCS Princess Cecile
Post
by U.P. Cinnabar » 2018-03-14 03:22pm
We shall not see his like again. RIP.
"Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone amongst God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of Death.."
—29th Scroll, 6th Verse of Ape Law
"The Constitution's a piece of paper. A kick in the head is a jolt."
—Stanley "Ray" Kowalski
"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty."
---NRA motto
-
darth_timon
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 220
- Joined: 2007-05-18 04:00pm
- Location: UK
-
Contact:
Post
by darth_timon » 2018-03-14 06:19pm
A remarkable mind and a resilient soul. RIP.
-
The Romulan Republic
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 13988
- Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am
Post
by The Romulan Republic » 2018-03-14 06:26pm
The world has lost one of its brightest minds, and a man truly remarkable both for his scientific brilliance, and his perseverance in the face of adversity. May he rest in peace, and may his work never be forgotten until the stars themselves go out.
God, yesterday was quite possibly the most hellish news day since November of 2016. And we've had some doozies.
"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy." - Lincoln.
-
Numa
- Redshirt
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 2018-03-14 08:46pm
Post
by Numa » 2018-03-14 09:52pm
So he will never win a Nobel Prize.
-
LadyTevar
- White Mage

- Posts: 19355
- Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm
- Location: Tahalshia Manor
Post
by LadyTevar » 2018-03-14 10:04pm
Numa wrote: ↑2018-03-14 09:52pm
So he will never win a Nobel Prize.
posthumously, like several others, maybe.
Librium Arcana, Where Gamers Play!
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
-
Numa
- Redshirt
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 2018-03-14 08:46pm
Post
by Numa » 2018-03-14 10:30pm
I thought it was against the rules to receive a Nobel Prize posthumously. Who has received one?
-
Sea Skimmer
- Yankee Capitalist Air Pirate
- Posts: 37192
- Joined: 2002-07-03 11:49pm
- Location: Passchendaele City, HAB
-
Contact:
Post
by Sea Skimmer » 2018-03-14 10:32pm
The problem with Hawking vs a Noble prize is two sides of one coin. One, everyone was waiting to see if he did anything even greater then what he had already before giving him one. The other is that while a brilliant man, precisely because of how advanced the subjects were he worked on many of his theories are still rather unproven and impossible to quantify, which again, favors waiting, least he win a Nobel prize for something proven wrong later, he was never always right after all Nobody is. Sadly he was at the time of his death years into working on a new paper with another physicist I forget the name of to explain his information theory for black holes, and it may well be that this paper will now never be published. That was totally going to be the work he'd get the Nobel prize for if it had panned out. Part of the reason he was working closely with another person though was because his health hasn't been great for years. He was deliberately trying to pass on as much as he could while he had time.
Amazing man, a shame he's gone now, but we are talking about a guy who was supposed to die decades ago and just decided against that plan. He doesn't need a Nobel prize to be inspiring.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
-
SCRawl
- Has a bad feeling about this.
- Posts: 4113
- Joined: 2002-12-24 03:11pm
- Location: Burlington, Canada
Post
by SCRawl » 2018-03-14 10:54pm
Numa wrote: ↑2018-03-14 10:30pm
I thought it was against the rules to receive a Nobel Prize posthumously. Who has received one?
While not strictly true, it is effectively true. No one who is deceased can be named the winner, as it's against the rules of the prize. It used to be that if you were nominated before your demise, you could still be considered and (eventually) awarded the prize, but the rules were changed in 1974 to permit deceased persons to receive the award only if they expired after the announcement but before the actual ceremony.
So no Nobel for Professor Hawking, for this and all the reasons Sea Skimmer laid out.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
I'm waiting as fast as I can.
-
Numa
- Redshirt
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 2018-03-14 08:46pm
Post
by Numa » 2018-03-14 11:48pm
Yes, a great man.
-
CetaMan
- Youngling
- Posts: 111
- Joined: 2015-08-28 02:44am
- Location: Alberta, Canada (Eh?)
Post
by CetaMan » 2018-03-15 12:30am
Considering that his projected lifespan was when he got diagnosed, he was absolutely amazing.
May you rest in peace Hawking. We won't forget you.
-
Eternal_Freedom
- Castellan
- Posts: 9060
- Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
- Location: Bound in a nutshell
Post
by Eternal_Freedom » 2018-03-15 12:43pm
A random piece of trivia,but worth noting among his accolades. He's the only person to play himself on Star Trek (TNG's Descent, Part 1).
"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams" - Hamlet
“I’ve always thought the Yankees had something to do with it.” - Confederate General George Pickett, on being asked why his charge at Ghettysburg failed
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
-
Imperial528
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 1727
- Joined: 2010-05-03 06:19pm
- Location: New England
Post
by Imperial528 » 2018-03-15 01:18pm
My favorite anecdote about him was from the filming of that episode. Naturally they gave him a tour of the set, and when they showed him the engineering area, he looked at the warp core and said "I'm working on that"
I'd hoped he'd live to see such a breakthrough, or a confirmation of hawking radiation. Though from what works of his I have read and the writings of those who knew him, he seemed perfectly content with the theoretical nature of his work and confident it would be proven with evidence as it was with math.
He lived so long for someone of his condition, yet as with so many, it always feels like the loss came too soon.
-
Soontir C'boath
- SG-14: Fuck the Medic!
- Posts: 6462
- Joined: 2002-07-06 12:15am
- Location: Queens, NYC I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF MANHATTEN IS CONSIDERED NYC!! I'M IN IT ASSHOLE!!!
-
Contact:
Post
by Soontir C'boath » 2018-03-15 10:37pm
Death is only the beginner for others to take his place in the limelight of the laboratory.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
-
Sea Skimmer
- Yankee Capitalist Air Pirate
- Posts: 37192
- Joined: 2002-07-03 11:49pm
- Location: Passchendaele City, HAB
-
Contact:
Post
by Sea Skimmer » 2018-03-15 11:10pm
Soontir C'boath wrote: ↑2018-03-15 10:37pm
Death is only the beginner for others to take his place in the limelight of the laboratory.
Yes, and hopefully they'll be as capable of humor as Hawking was in public.
But it is also reality that with each genius who passes it becomes a little bit harder for someone else to take the place, because the problems we are trying to solve only get harder, and while humans are getting smarter and more numerous it's slow on that. The reality is we have no basis to believe or disbelieve that humans are actually capable of comprehending the universe, it might go either way. It might be that we'll need true AI linked to a human brain in combinations to do it as well, and that neither acting alone will ever achieve it for example. And that's leaving beside the question on if it's even possible to fully model the universe from within it's own existence or not.
I for one plan to live a long time to see how this pans out.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956