So my plea again, if this is your type of charity, buy a ticket and help a little girl.
Now, on to the daily rant and ramble.
One of the things that I used to do when I worked in an office was periodically send out polls on various topics. Not any particular reason, just something would strike me and I'd ask people or send out emails (as that become popular) and see what I got back. I also ran some polls on my site, but it got kind of crazy and I'd prefer you people don't kill my personal site. They usually were things like "What's the best movie of 2003?" or something like that.
But I had some interesting ones that people really liked, so I'd like to start dropping a few here and there to see what people say in the forums.
One hint, read the poll and then post your answers before reading everyone elses'. It will be more fun. For this time:
With Bill Gates turning 50 recently, I was thinking of a list I'd made some years ago. Now that we're in the 2000s, who are the top ten most influential people of the twentieth century?.
Take that as you will and post your list. I'll add mine in a day.
Steve Jones
Jesus Christ
Billy Graham
Franklin D Roosevelt
Albert Einstein
Thomas J. Watson
Bill Gates
Sister Teressa
Lyndon Johnson
1) Homer Simpson. - everyone's foil
"Doh"
2) The six million dollar man. - hero
"Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster. "
3) James Burke -author / teacher
". . . the moment man first picked up a stone or a branch to use as a tool, he altered irrevocably the balance between him and his environment. From this point on, the way in which the world around him changed was different. It was no longer regular or predictable. New objects appeared that were not recognizable as a mutation of something that had existed before, and as each one emerged it altered the environment not for a season but for ever. While the number of these tools remained small, their effect took a long time to spread and to cause change. But as they increased, so did their effects: the more the tools, the faster the rate of change." --James Burke, Connections
4) Darth Vader- villian
"No. *I* am your father."
5) Joseph Lister - surgeon
The discoverer of the use of antiseptics for surgery.
By using antiseptics, death from post op-surgery septis ( bacteria infections) dropped down to 15% rather than 50%
6) Adolf Hitler- despot
His regime brought about the creation of international law and the creation of laws for dealing with war crimes. One might even support that his actions created the UN.
As this except from Un's website says:
"The name "United Nations", coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers."
7) Helen Keller - survivor
“The public must learn that the blind man is neither genius nor a freak nor an idiot. He has a mind that can be educated, a hand which can be trained, ambitions which it is right for him to strive to realise, and it is the duty of the public to help him make the best of himself so that he can win light through work.”
8) T.S. Elliot - poet
"We are the hollow menWe are the stuffed menLeaning togetherHeadpiece filled with straw. Alas!Our dried voices, whenWe whisper togetherAre quiet and meaninglessAs wind in dry grassOr rats' feet over broken glassIn our dry cellar"
9) Bill Gates - business man
If you want to see 'money'. Bill is the definition of the word.
I suppose that he had bought and then redeveloped SQL Server to keep track of his assets.
And last but not least
10) Laika, a dog - the first earthing in outer space
She was launched into space on the Sputnik 2 in 1957. She survived the launch and for a time in space, but after a week, the air ran out and Laika died. The following year, as its orbit deteriorated, the craft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and, without heat shields, burned up along with Laika's body
10 More Influential (but not always in a positive way!)
Martin Luther King
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Adolf Hitler
Winston Churchill
Ronald Reagan
Mikhail Gorbachev
Robert Oppenheimer
Orville & Wilbur Wright (I know, technically two in one slot...)
Henry Ford
Wright Brothers
Hank Williams
Jimi Hendrix
Babe Ruth
Michael Jordan
Jim Henson
Ansel Adams
J. Robert Oppenheimer1904 - 1967
...Robert Oppenheimer's name has become almost synonymous with the atomic bomb, and also with the dilemma facing scientists when the interests of the nation and their own conscience collide.
...On July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer witnessed the first explosion of an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. "We knew the world would not be the same," he said
(source ref. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/baoppe.html)
