>rlbell.nsuid@gmail.com wrote:

>> On Aug 22, 10:06 pm, "BobW" roadrunner.com>
>> wrote:

>>> "John Larkin" highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in
>>> message
>>>
>>> news:9vvua49tgus4il3fujl660055ar34b6ut4@4ax.com...
>>>
>>>
>>>

>>>> On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:08:05 +0200, QuantumDot
>>>> ohnoyoudont.co.za> wrote:

>>>

>>>>> On 2008-08-22 22:57:40 +0200, BretCah...@peoplepc.com said:

>>>

>>>>>> "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this
>>>>>> sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

>>>

>>>>>> -- Jonathan Swift

>>>

>>>>> This quote is usually self-applied by fools and kooks. Those who
>>>>> are truly insightful are also wise enough not to apply it publicly
>>>>> to themselves.

>>>

>>>> It's not true anyhow. Shakespeare; Feynman; Einstein; Kovacs;
>>>> Kelvin; all revered in their time.

>>>

>>>> Can anybody name a real genius who was attacked by all available
>>>> dunces?

>

>>> Galileo.

>

>> One of the Great Myths of modern times was that Galileo was persecuted
>> for describing the truth of the planets. He was in fact lightly
>> punished for being a tactless boor who could label a friend he knew
>> since childhood as an simpleton to advance point (even if that was not
>> what he meant to do). Unfortunately for Galileo, that man he had
>> known since childhood was the pope, so Galileo was placed under house
>> arrest in a luxurious papal palace. It was not what he said, but how he said it.

>
>How odd that Bruno got burnt at the stake.
>

>> Galileo's troubles was nearly fifty years after the papacy
>> started to sponsor astronomical research, in a big way.

>
>And didnt like what that sponsoring produced.