In regard to Columbus being a bad pick- it is clear at this point that Columbus wasn't the first person that discovered the Americas. The reason that Columbus should be on the list (although I agree that #9 is quite a bit too high. I would place him in the 50s or lower probably) is that he is the person who made conquering the Americas stick. Lief Erikson may have been here a lot earlier, but no one followed. Columbus landed here by mistake, but people followed him. That is a big deal.

The authors reasoning for JFK (which as I have noted before I think is terrible) is that he is the person who in 500 years, when we are all taking vacations to Venus, we will look back on as the person who led us into space. Weak if you ask me, but that is his reasoning.

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The authors reasoning for JFK (which as I have noted before I think is terrible) is that he is the person who in 500 years, when we are all taking vacations to Venus, we will look back on as the person who led us into space. Weak if you ask me, but that is his reasoning.

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Yeah, it is very weak. Space exploration seems like a pointless endeavor and you can tell everybody at NASA that I said so. I think that the main reason JFK was put on the list is because of all of the news coverage that he recieved after his death and still continues to recieve to this day. I am sure that eventually there will be a national holiday to commemorate his death but he wasn't really quintessential to American society. Although one could argue that he took the first steps towards the Vietnam War.

no not reasonable at all.

maybe because he didnt get the chance.

are u hearing yourself...jfk was supposed to be the savior.The man that would change it all.

A posative outlook.

He easily deserves every accolade he gets.

The world would be a very different place if he was not killed.For the better.

I think the key phrase there is "supposed to be". I think JFK's ACTUAL impact and the impact he MIGHT have had are two different things. I agree that he was a force for peace and progress, and he didn't get to complete his work. But I'm not sure he deserves the spot he has on that list based on his accomplishments...

maybe...but i dont buy the arguement that space exploration is not important.

If we are trying to bette rourselves as a nation and world for that matter.Then we need to always be trying to looka nd move forwards...and that means exploring anything we can explore.

Of course there is things that are of more a dire need.But i think the money we spend now based on what we spend on everything else....is sufficient and not overr the top.


I didnt pay much attentiont o the list...its just that i have noticed lately some kennedy bashing.Maybe its edwards wacky ideas.

Isnt there a kennedy in congress...who may run for president...Joseph...son of robert??

Not quite sure on that.

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
Isnt there a kennedy in congress...who may run for president...Joseph...son of robert??

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Robert's son Joseph served in the late 80s and most of the 90s as a Representative from Massachusetts. He has made an unsuccessful bid for Governor and rumors are he will try again in 2006.

Edward's son Patrick is a Representative from Rhode Island. I met him a few years ago at a fundraiser when then Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez was running for Indiana Secretary of State. It's the only time I've met a member of the Kennedy family. The charisma is undeniable.

Now Playing: "Thinking About You" Ivy streaming on WOXY

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Robert's son Joseph served in the late 80s and most of the 90s as a Representative from Massachusetts. He has made an unsuccessful bid for Governor and rumors are he will try again in 2006.

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I remember seeing a kennedy in an hbo documentary entitled "indian point".Which was very revealing and actually very scary.

But is that the same guy? ??

answered my own question...

that is robert kennedy jr.

I would give an honorable mention to Linda Lovelace. Her performance in "Deep Throat" pretty much ignited what is now a 20 Billion dollar a year industry.

how does that make her influential??

Myabe some kind of half-assed pioneer in that field.

RayRay is either spamming for his company or making a funny. I woulda sworn when I saw it about 30 years ago she was completely-assed.

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Originally posted by mark f:
RayRay is either spamming for his company

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company??

rayray is in the field of selling pornography or something like that?


Interesting

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
maybe...but i dont buy the arguement that space exploration is not important.

If we are trying to bette rourselves as a nation and world for that matter.Then we need to always be trying to looka nd move forwards...and that means exploring anything we can explore.

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I agree with you on that front, Imprezu. I think putting someone like Columbus on the list shows exactly that point. I think space exploration is overemphasized as a solution to our problems (in the 1960's, did people REALLY beleive there would be colonies on the moon?) but that the exploration part was pretty important. But, again, how much of that was DUE to JFK himself?

Hell, for the sake of social/cultural import, the folks who invented the atomic bomb (Oppenheimer is the only one I know by name) are probably FAR more important than any of the ones who got the first moon mission off the ground. The terror of the Cold War ought to prove that.

Ben franklin and ghandi were way more in fluentia than hitler.

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Originally posted by E.M.:
Also, I really am surprised that Gandhi didnt make it. I am a person of peace, and he inspires me greatly.

And John F Kennedy????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Out of all the presidents, I see no particular greatness in this one, besides the fact that he was assasinated. I would love to know the logic behind this pick.

I'm in total agreement with these two assessments. JFK making the list is absurd. For what? For being a model white liberal president and getting assassinated? If you're gonna say for space exploration, I disagree there as well. That was just a propaganda campaign to try and look better than the Soviet Union. If the moon had been merely a stepping stone to more human space exploration I think you'd have a case, but once they showed up the Soviets, they didn't really care much more. It wasn't some grand, cosmic purpose. It was pretty damn provincial.

And how does Ghandi not make it? Not only for what he did in India, but for all the people he inspired, primarily MLK, Jim Lawson, and many of the other major players in the civil rights movement.

Personally, I think the list vastly overrates inventors. Let's face it, for most inventions, if the inventor hadn't been born, it probably just would've been created 10 years later. of course, you could say the same thing about a lot of social movements, but I think there's a lot more variability and different contingencies in them. The airplane and the lightbulb were going to be invented. Radioactivity was going to be discovered. Those advancements couldn't have gone in a very different direction. But social movements can go in all kinds of different directions, sometimes for bad, sometimes for good.

Thought I'd drag this one back up, as after seeing The Prestige, I did some reading on Nikola Tesla.

In terms of pure mental, creative power, Tesla was probably one of the most brilliant people who ever lived. He holds the patents for the radio, the AC polyphase system (what powers your house), and sooooo many other important inventions...that he was not included on that list is a little disappointing. While working for Thomas Edison (#38), many times over Tesla had to restrain himself from correcting the man's erroneous thinking, or from demonstrating to Edison a simple formula that would save him literally hundreds of hours' work. His IQ was probably greater than Newton's or Einstein's.

Interestingly, the whole bit in the movie about Tesla being able to power light bulbs without wires from miles away is totally true. The only reason we have power cables running to our homes, really, is so someone can regulate the power and charge us for it.

Just throwin' this out there...

I just feel stupid that I can't even give a good argument or suggest an alternative, but I, too, don't believe John Kennedy belongs on there.

I didn't research things, like klt did, but I think Kennedy is used as a catch-all. He attempted to find peaceful means, at least outwardly, to deal with other countries. He also tried to engineer civil rights legislation, at least as far as was possible at the time. Then again, he attempted to push mankind to go where they had never gone before (outer space). Finally, he's the last truly, at least socially-seeming, American president who tried to sway popular opinion in an international sense. Ask anybody from another country who they think the greatest U.S. president of the 20th century was, I bet we'd get Kennedy. This is basically a concept of perception. But that's what lists and LIFE are all about.