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STEVE HAWKING AIN'T AN ATHEIST ANYMORE
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Intrepid
Apr 5, 2013, 1:57:52 PM4/5/13
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<
STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
to his senses.
<
The British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and
bullshit artist now believes all human beans were created
by The Man Upstairs.
<
"He IS. I know He IS. And nobody can tell me He
ISN'T," Hawkins told Sean "Ins" Hannity of Fox News
in a conversation earlier today via an electronic device.
<
In fact, this is what Steve had to say when his microphone
was hooked up and his garbled words made sense.
<
http://www.elihu.envy.nu/NeoPics/Sounds/Hawking1.wav
<
WHY STEVE UNDOUBTEDLY CHANGED HIS TUNE
<
GOOD GOD! Boy, You Certainly Can Say THAT Again!
<
http://www.edconrad.org
<
MAN AS OLD AS COAL
<
http://www.edconrad,com
<
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.ed-conrad/msg/522305f 02e955b66
<
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO OF ED CONRAD BEATING A DEAD HORSE
<
http://likethedew.com/img/beating-a-dead-horse.gif
<
WORLD'S LARGEST NEWSPAPERS
<
Rank Country Circulation
1. Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) 14,532,694
2. Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 12,601,375
3. Sichuan Ribao (China) 8,000,000
4. Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) 5,845,857
5. Bild (Germany) 5,674,400
6. Chunichi Shimbun (Japan) 4,323,144
7. Sun (England) 3,718,354
8. Renmin Ribao (China) 3,000,000
9. Sankei Shimbun (Japan) 2,890,835
10. Nihon Keizai Shimbun Japan 2,705,877
11. Gongren Ribao (China) 2,500,000
12. Daily Mail (England) 2,387,867
13. Daily Mirror (England) 2,339,001
14. Chosun Ilbo (South Korea) 2,225,000
15. Dong-A Ilbo (South Korea) 2,150,000
16. Hokkaido Shimbun (Japan) 1,962,666
17. Eleftherotypia (Greece) 1,858,316
18. Xin Min Wan Bao (China) 1,750,000
19. Wall Street Journal (U.S.) 1,740,450
20. Yangcheng Wanbao China 1,730,000
21. Kerala Kaumudi (India) 1,720,000
22. Wen Hui Bao Daily (China 1,700,000
23. USA Today (United States) 1,653,428
24. Joong-Ang Ilbo (S. Korea) 1,550,000
25. Economic Daily (China) 1,500,000
26. Rodong Sinmun (N. Korea) 1,500,000
27. Kyung-Hyang Daily News 1,478,537
28. Sports Nippon (Japan) 1,452,699
29. Shizuoka Shimbun (Japan)) 1,442,310
30. Sankei Sports (Japan) 1,367,734
31. Deutche Allgemeine Germ 1,313,400
32. United Daily News (Taiwan ) 1,300,000
33. China Times (Taiwan) 1,270,000
34. O Estado de Sao Paulo Brazil) 1,230,160
35. Jang Daily (Pakistan) 1,200,000
36. Jang Lahore (Pakistan) 1,200,000
37. Akhbar El Yom (Egypt) 1,159,339
38. Hankook Ilbo (South Korea) 1,156,000
39. Hochi Shimbun (Japan) 1,119,031
40. Daily Express (England) 1,118,981
41. Los Angeles Times (U.S.) 1,067,540
42. New York Times (U>S) 1,066,540
43. Tokyo Shimbun (Japan 1,062,080
44. Daily Telegraph (England) 1,047,861
45. Nishinippon Shimbun Japan 1,041,104
46. Jiefang Ribao (China) 1,000,000
47. Nanfang Ribao (China) 1,000,000
48. Nongmin Ribao (China) 1,000,000
49. Zhongguo Qingnian Ribao (China) 1,000,000
50. Nikkan Sports (Japan) 984,058
51. Al Akhbar (Egypt) 980,000
52. Guangming Ribao (China) 950,000
53. Al Ahram (Egypt) 900,000
54. Al Goumhouriya (Egypt) 900,000
55. Seoul Shinmun (S. Korea) 900,000
56. Xin Hua Ribao (China) 900,000
57. Verdens Gang (Norway) 870,267
58. Corriere della Sera (Italy) 868,266
59. Kyoto Shimbun (Japan) 839,499
60. Chugoku Shimbun (Japan) 820,000
61 Kobe Shimbun Japan 820,000
62. Times of India (India) 813,000
63. Kobe Shimbun (Japan) 810,353
64. Beijing Wanbao (China) 800,000
65. Hubei Ribao (China) 800,000
66. Jiefangjun Ribao (China) 800,000
67. Trybuna Slaska (Poland) 800,000
68. La Gazzetta dello Sport Italy 798,243
69. Ouest-France (France) 790,133
70. Holos Ukrainy (Ukraine) 768,000
71. The Times (England) 766,999
72. ABC (Spain) 765,668
73. Washington Post (U.SSS>) 759,122
74. La Repubblica (Italy) 754,930
75. De Telegraf (Netherlands) 751,400
76. Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) 750,000
77. Zero Hora (Brazil) 727,188
78. Diario dos Campos (Brazil) 725,000
79. New York Daily News (U.S.) 723,143
80. Sabah (Turkey) 722,950
81. Jornal da Tarde (Brazil) 709,793
82. Beijing Ribao (China) 700,000
83. Chongqing Ribao (China) 700,000
84. Clarin (Argentina) 700,000
85. Thai Rath (Thailand 700,000
86. Zhejiang Ribao (China) 700,000
87. Diario Insular (Portugal) 684,143
88. Granma Internacional (Cuba) 675,000
89. Chicago Tribune (U.S.) 673,508
90. Daily Record (Scotland) 671,267
91. China Daily News (Taiwan) 670,000
92. The Daily Star (England) 650,406
93. Guangxi Ribao (China) 650,000
94. Malayala Manorama (India) 630,068
95. La Nacion (Argentina) 630,000
96. Hurriyet (Turkey) 615,579
97. Herald Sun (Australia) 600,000
98. Hurriyet (Pakistan) 600,000
99. Liaoning Ribao (China) 600,000
100. Oriental Daily News (Hong Kong) 600,000
<
LARGEST U.S. NEWSPAPERS
Circulation
1. USA Today (Arlington, Va.) 2,154,539
2. Wall Street Journal (NY N.Y.) 2,091,062
3. Times (New York, N.Y.) 1,118,565
4. Times (Los Angeles) 914,584
5. Post (Washington, DC) 732,872
6. Daily News (New York, N.Y.) 729,124
7. Tribune (Chicago) 680,879
8. Post (New York, N.Y.) 652,426
9. Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) 580,069
10. Chronicle (Houston) 553,018
11. Chronicle (San Francisco) 512,640
12. Morning News (Dallas) 510,133
13. Sun-Times (Chicago) 481,798
14 Globe (Boston) 450,538
15. Arizona Republic (Phoenix) 432,284
16. Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.) 408,672
17. Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 380,354
18. Inquirer (Philadelphia) 376,493
19. Journal-Constitution (Atlanta) 371,853
20. Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 365,288
21. Free Press (Detroit) 352,714
22. Oregonian (Portland) 342,789
23. Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 334,742
24. Union-Tribune (San Diego) 328,531
25. Herald (Miami) 315,850
26. Register Orange County CA 302,864
27. Sun (Baltimore) 301,186
28. Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) 289,905
29. Post (Denver) 288,937
30. Rocky Mtn. News Denver 288,889
31. Post-Dispatch (St. Louis) 285,869
32. Mercury News San Jose CA 271,997
33. Star (Kansas City, Mo.) 267,273
34. Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) 257,222
35. Times-Picayune N Orleans 253,610
36. Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) 252,564
37. Star (Indianapolis) 249,891
38. Journal Sentinel Milwaukee 244,288
39. Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Pa 242,546
40. Herald (Boston) 241,457
41. Sun-Sentinel (Ft L'dale, Fla ) 233,634
42. Times (Seattle) 231,505
43. News (Detroit) 227,392
44. Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) 226,849
45. Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) 224,220
46. Express-News S Antonio Tx 222,536
47. Investor's Business Daily LA 215,788
48. Star-Telegram Ft Worth, TX) 215,452
49. Courier-Journal L'ville Ky 213,176
50. News (Buffalo, N.Y.) 207,989
51. Daily Oklahoman Okla City 207,538
52. Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) 201,141
53. World-Herald Omaha Neb. 192,075
54. Pioneer Press(St Pau, Minn 190,392
55. Times-Dispatch Richmond 188,540
56. Courant (Hartford, Conn.) 185,570
57. Press-Enterprise R'side CA 183,974
58. Democrat-Gazette (L'l Rock 183,343
59. American-Statesman Austin 183,312
60. Contra Costa Times (Calif.) 182,541
61. Enquirer (Cincinnati) 182,176
62. Record (Bergen County, N.J.) 179,270
63. Daily News (Los Angeles) 178,360
64. Democrat (Rochester, N.Y.) 173,900
65. Tennessean (Nashville) 172,149
66. Post (W. Palm Beach, Fla.) 168,147
67. Times-Union(Jacksonville Fla 167,851
68. Journal (Providence, R.I.) 167,609
69. Asbury Park Press (N.J.) 167,284
70. News & Observer Raleigh NC 163,769
71. Review-Journal (Las Vegas) 160,391
72. Bee (Fresno, Calif.) 158,651
73. Commercial Appeal Memphis 157,820
74. Register (Des Moines, Iowa) 150,851
75. Post-Intelligencer (Seattle) 150,851
76. Daily Herald (Chicago) 150,364
77. News (Birmingham, Ala.) 148,938
78. Daily News (Philadelphia) 143,631
79. Journal News Westchester NY 142,873
80. Advertiser (Honolulu) 142,025
81. Blade (Toledo, Ohio) 139,520
82. World (Tulsa, Okla.) 139,383
83. Press (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 138,620
84. Tribune (Salt Lake City) 134,985
85. Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio 128,511
86. News Tribune Tacoma Wash 128,511
87. Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) 126,642
88. La Opinion Los Angeles Calif 124,692
89. Post-Standard Syracuse, N.Y. 120,701
90. Tribune-Review (Greensburg Pa 119,646
91. News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) 116,398
92. News-Sentinel (Knoxville Tenn) 114,593
93. State (Columbia, S.C.) 114,442
94. Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) 111,594
95. Journal (Albuquerque) 109,693
96. Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.) 106,941
97. Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Fla.) 105,636
98. News-Journal (Daytona Fla.) 104,654
99. Telegram (Worcester MA) 102,592
100. Times (Washington, DC) 102,255
<
WORLDWIDE NEWS AGENCIES
Associated Press AP
African Eye News Service
Agence France Presse
APTN
Bloomberg
Cable News Network
EFE News
Indo Asian News Service
Iran Press Service
Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA)
Iraq Press
IRIN News
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Inter Press Service
Itar-Tass -- Russia
Latin American Press
Middle East News Agency
Pravda -- Russian News and Analysis
Prima News Agency
Reuters
Television News Archive
United Nations News Wire Service
United Press International UPI
Xinhua News Agency -- China
=========
Agence France Press, AFP
Agencia EFE, EFE
Agencia Estado
Agencia Lusa
Agency Telegraphique Belge De Press, AGNECE BELGA
Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, ANSA
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, AGI
Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau, ANP
Albanian Telegraphic Agency, ATA
Alternativna Informativna Mreza, AIM
Anadolu News Agency
Armanian News Agency, NOYAN TAPAN
ArmenPress
Asbar News Agency
Associated Press, AP
Athens News Agency, APE
ATH news agency - Kharkov, Ukraine
Atlantic News Service
Austria Press-Agentur, APA
Australian Associated Press, AAP
Baltic News Service, BNS
Bolivia Web - News from the ERBOL News Agency
Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, BTA
Canadian Press, CP
Central News Agency, CNA
Ceskolovenska Tiskova Kancelat, CTK
China News Service
COMPASS Media, Inc.
Cubapress
Cyprus News Agency, CNA
Deutsche Presse - Agentur Gmbh , DPA
ELTA - Lithuanian news agency
Eesti Teadete Agentur, ETA
H.K China News Agency
Hrvatska Izvjestajna Novinska Agencija, HINA
Indonesian National News Agency, ANTARA
Interfax News Agency
Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA
Jiji Press (Jiji Tsushin-Sha)
Korean Central News Agency, KCNA
Kyodo News Service
LETA News Agency
MIA - Macedonian Information Agency
Makfax - Macedonian News Agency
Reality Macedonia
Magyar Tavirati Iroda, MTI
Malaysian National News Agency - BERNAMA
Mediafax - Romanian News Agency
Mercopress News Agency
Montsame News Agency, SABA
New Zealand Press Association, NEPA
Official Jordania News Agency, PETRA
Oman News Agency
Pakistan Press International, PPI
Panafrican News Agency
Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP
Prensa Latina
Press association
Prime-TASS Economic News Agency
Reuters
Russian Information Agency, Ria "Novosti"
Schweizerische Depeschen Agentur, SDA
Serbian Press Agency, SRNA
Slovene Press Agency, STA
SNARK News Agency
Suomen Tietotoimisto
Tanjug News Agency
Telegrafnoye Agnetstvo Sovietskogo Snyuza, TASS
Tidningranas Talegrambyra, TT
Tlacova agentura Slovenskej republiky, TASR
Vietnam News Agency
Yemen News Agency, SABA
Yonhap News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
<
PENNSYLVANIA NEWSPAPERS
Altoona Mirror (Altonna)
Beaver County Times (Beaver)
Blairsville Dispatch (Blairsville)
Bradford Era, The (Bradford)
Bridgeville News-Star (Bridgeville)
Buck County Courier Times (Levittown)
Butler Eagle (Butler)
Centre Daily Times (State College)
Chester County Press (Oxford)
Citizen's Standard (Valley View)
Citizen's Voice, The (Wilkes Barre)
City Paper (Philadelphia)
Clarion, The
Coraopolis Record-Star (Coraopolis)
Courier-Express (DuBois)
Cranberry Journal-Star (Cranberry)
Daily American (Somerset)
Daily Courier (Connellsville)
Daily Item, The (Sunbury)
Daily Local News (West Chester)
Daily News, The (McKeesport)
Daily Review, The (Towanda)
Delaware County Times, The (Chester)
Derrick, The (Oil City)
Ellwood City Ledger (Ellwood City)
Erie Times-News, The (Erie)
Evening Sun, The (Hanover)
Express, The (Lock Haven)
Express-Times, The (Easton)
Fulton County News, The (McConnellsburg)
Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg)
Green County Messenger (Waynesburg)
Harrisburg Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
Herald, The (Sharon)
Herald-Standard (Uniontown)
Indiana Gazette, The (Indiana)
Lancaster Online (Lancaster)
Leader Times (Kittanning)
Lebanon Daily News (Lebanon)
Main Line Times (Ardmore)
Meadville Tribune, The (Meadville)
Mercury, The (Pottstown)
Morning Call, The (Allentown)
Morning Times, The (Sayre)
Mountaintop Eagle, The (Mountaintop)
Murrysville Star (Murrysville)
New Castle News (New Castle)
News-Item, The (Shamokin)
Norwin Star (Irwin)
Observer-Reporter (Washington)
Perry County Timesr (New Bloomfield)
Philadelphia Business Journal (Philadelphia)
Philadelphia Inquirer / Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia)
Philadelphia Online
Phoenix, The (Phoenixville)
Pittsburgh Business Times (Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh City Paper (Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Pittsburgh)
Plum Advance Leader Star (Plum)
Pocono Record (Stroudsburg)
Pottsville Republican (Pottsville)
Press Enterprise (Bloomsburg)
Reading Eagle-Times (Reading)
Record Herald (Waynesboro)
Rocket-Courier (Wyalusing)
Scranton Times, The (Scranton)
Sentinel, The (Carlisle)
Sentinel, The (Lewistown)
Sewickley Herald-Star (Sewickley)
Standard-Speaker (Hazleton)
Suburban and Wayne Times, The (Wayne)
Times Herald, The (Norristown)
Times Leader, The (Wilkes-Barre)
Times News, The (Lehighton)
Titusville Herald, The (Titusville)
Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown)
Tribune-Review (Greensburg)
Upper Dauphin Sentinel (Millersburg)
Valley Herald (Aspinwall)
Valley Independent, The (Monessen)
Valley News Dispatch (Tarentum)
Wayne Independent, The (Honesdale)
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
Williamsport Sun-Gazette (Williamsport)
York Daily Record (York)
York Dispatch, The (York)
<
REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS IN ENGLAND
Ashford Herald
Berwick Advertiser
Birmingham Mail
Birmingham Post
Bolton News
Bournemouth Daily Echo
The Post, Bristol
Bucks Free Press
Cambridge News
Camden Gazette
Camden New Journal
The Citizen
Cornish Guardian
The Cornishman
Coventry Telegraph
Deal and Sandwich Express
Derby Telegraph
Dover Express
Dover Mercury
East Kent Gazette
East Kent Mercury
East Riding Mail
Eastern Daily Press (owned by Archant)
East Anglian Daily Times (owned by Archant)
Express and Echo
Express & Star (Wolverhampton and the Black Country)
Essex Chronicle
Folkestone Herald
Gravesend and Dartford Reporter
Hampstead & Highgate Express ("Ham and High")
Hull Daily Mail
Hampshire Chronicle
Hastings Observer
Herne Bay Gazette
Hythe Herald
Isle of Wight County Press
The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Kent and Sussex Courier
Kent on Saturday
Kent on Sunday
Kent Messenger
Kentish Express
Kentish Gazette
Lancashire Evening Post
Lancashire Telegraph
Leicester Mercury
Lincolnshire Echo
Liverpool Daily Post
Liverpool Echo
London Evening Standard
Lynn News
Manchester Evening News
Medway News
The Mercury (Lichfield, Tamworth and surrounding area)
Mid Sussex Times
Newcastle Evening Chronicle
Newcastle Sunday Sun
Northampton Chronicle & Echo
Northampton Herald & Post
The Northern Echo (North East England)
Nottingham Evening Post
Oldham Chronicle
Ormskirk Advertiser
Oxford Mail
Oxford Journal
Oxford Times
Patterdale Chronicle
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The Press (York)
Reading Chronicle
Romney Marsh Herald
Salford Advertiser
Salford City Reporter
Salisbury Journal
Scunthorpe Telegraph
The Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire)
Sevenoaks Chronicle
Sheerness Times Guardian
Sheffield Star
Shropshire Star
Southern Daily Echo
Southport Visiter[3]
Southport Reporter
Star Courier Hampshire and Surrey
Stockport Express and Times, Stockport and district
Sunday Independent (South West England)
Sunderland Echo
Tavistock Times Gazette
Teesdale Mercury
The Champion (Southport)[4]
The Argus (Brighton & Hove and Sussex)
The Asian Today (Midlands) (owned by Urban Media)
Yorkshire Post
Watford Observer
The West Briton
Warwickshire Telegraph
Western Daily Press
Western Morning News
Whitstable Gazette
Wigan Observer
STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
to his senses.
<
The British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and
bullshit artist now believes all human beans were created
by The Man Upstairs.
<
"He IS. I know He IS. And nobody can tell me He
ISN'T," Hawkins told Sean "Ins" Hannity of Fox News
in a conversation earlier today via an electronic device.
<
In fact, this is what Steve had to say when his microphone
was hooked up and his garbled words made sense.
<
http://www.elihu.envy.nu/NeoPics/Sounds/Hawking1.wav
<
WHY STEVE UNDOUBTEDLY CHANGED HIS TUNE
<
GOOD GOD! Boy, You Certainly Can Say THAT Again!
<
http://www.edconrad.org
<
MAN AS OLD AS COAL
<
http://www.edconrad,com
<
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.ed-conrad/msg/522305f 02e955b66
<
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO OF ED CONRAD BEATING A DEAD HORSE
<
http://likethedew.com/img/beating-a-dead-horse.gif
<
WORLD'S LARGEST NEWSPAPERS
<
Rank Country Circulation
1. Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) 14,532,694
2. Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 12,601,375
3. Sichuan Ribao (China) 8,000,000
4. Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) 5,845,857
5. Bild (Germany) 5,674,400
6. Chunichi Shimbun (Japan) 4,323,144
7. Sun (England) 3,718,354
8. Renmin Ribao (China) 3,000,000
9. Sankei Shimbun (Japan) 2,890,835
10. Nihon Keizai Shimbun Japan 2,705,877
11. Gongren Ribao (China) 2,500,000
12. Daily Mail (England) 2,387,867
13. Daily Mirror (England) 2,339,001
14. Chosun Ilbo (South Korea) 2,225,000
15. Dong-A Ilbo (South Korea) 2,150,000
16. Hokkaido Shimbun (Japan) 1,962,666
17. Eleftherotypia (Greece) 1,858,316
18. Xin Min Wan Bao (China) 1,750,000
19. Wall Street Journal (U.S.) 1,740,450
20. Yangcheng Wanbao China 1,730,000
21. Kerala Kaumudi (India) 1,720,000
22. Wen Hui Bao Daily (China 1,700,000
23. USA Today (United States) 1,653,428
24. Joong-Ang Ilbo (S. Korea) 1,550,000
25. Economic Daily (China) 1,500,000
26. Rodong Sinmun (N. Korea) 1,500,000
27. Kyung-Hyang Daily News 1,478,537
28. Sports Nippon (Japan) 1,452,699
29. Shizuoka Shimbun (Japan)) 1,442,310
30. Sankei Sports (Japan) 1,367,734
31. Deutche Allgemeine Germ 1,313,400
32. United Daily News (Taiwan ) 1,300,000
33. China Times (Taiwan) 1,270,000
34. O Estado de Sao Paulo Brazil) 1,230,160
35. Jang Daily (Pakistan) 1,200,000
36. Jang Lahore (Pakistan) 1,200,000
37. Akhbar El Yom (Egypt) 1,159,339
38. Hankook Ilbo (South Korea) 1,156,000
39. Hochi Shimbun (Japan) 1,119,031
40. Daily Express (England) 1,118,981
41. Los Angeles Times (U.S.) 1,067,540
42. New York Times (U>S) 1,066,540
43. Tokyo Shimbun (Japan 1,062,080
44. Daily Telegraph (England) 1,047,861
45. Nishinippon Shimbun Japan 1,041,104
46. Jiefang Ribao (China) 1,000,000
47. Nanfang Ribao (China) 1,000,000
48. Nongmin Ribao (China) 1,000,000
49. Zhongguo Qingnian Ribao (China) 1,000,000
50. Nikkan Sports (Japan) 984,058
51. Al Akhbar (Egypt) 980,000
52. Guangming Ribao (China) 950,000
53. Al Ahram (Egypt) 900,000
54. Al Goumhouriya (Egypt) 900,000
55. Seoul Shinmun (S. Korea) 900,000
56. Xin Hua Ribao (China) 900,000
57. Verdens Gang (Norway) 870,267
58. Corriere della Sera (Italy) 868,266
59. Kyoto Shimbun (Japan) 839,499
60. Chugoku Shimbun (Japan) 820,000
61 Kobe Shimbun Japan 820,000
62. Times of India (India) 813,000
63. Kobe Shimbun (Japan) 810,353
64. Beijing Wanbao (China) 800,000
65. Hubei Ribao (China) 800,000
66. Jiefangjun Ribao (China) 800,000
67. Trybuna Slaska (Poland) 800,000
68. La Gazzetta dello Sport Italy 798,243
69. Ouest-France (France) 790,133
70. Holos Ukrainy (Ukraine) 768,000
71. The Times (England) 766,999
72. ABC (Spain) 765,668
73. Washington Post (U.SSS>) 759,122
74. La Repubblica (Italy) 754,930
75. De Telegraf (Netherlands) 751,400
76. Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) 750,000
77. Zero Hora (Brazil) 727,188
78. Diario dos Campos (Brazil) 725,000
79. New York Daily News (U.S.) 723,143
80. Sabah (Turkey) 722,950
81. Jornal da Tarde (Brazil) 709,793
82. Beijing Ribao (China) 700,000
83. Chongqing Ribao (China) 700,000
84. Clarin (Argentina) 700,000
85. Thai Rath (Thailand 700,000
86. Zhejiang Ribao (China) 700,000
87. Diario Insular (Portugal) 684,143
88. Granma Internacional (Cuba) 675,000
89. Chicago Tribune (U.S.) 673,508
90. Daily Record (Scotland) 671,267
91. China Daily News (Taiwan) 670,000
92. The Daily Star (England) 650,406
93. Guangxi Ribao (China) 650,000
94. Malayala Manorama (India) 630,068
95. La Nacion (Argentina) 630,000
96. Hurriyet (Turkey) 615,579
97. Herald Sun (Australia) 600,000
98. Hurriyet (Pakistan) 600,000
99. Liaoning Ribao (China) 600,000
100. Oriental Daily News (Hong Kong) 600,000
<
LARGEST U.S. NEWSPAPERS
Circulation
1. USA Today (Arlington, Va.) 2,154,539
2. Wall Street Journal (NY N.Y.) 2,091,062
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88. La Opinion Los Angeles Calif 124,692
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90. Tribune-Review (Greensburg Pa 119,646
91. News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) 116,398
92. News-Sentinel (Knoxville Tenn) 114,593
93. State (Columbia, S.C.) 114,442
94. Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) 111,594
95. Journal (Albuquerque) 109,693
96. Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.) 106,941
97. Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Fla.) 105,636
98. News-Journal (Daytona Fla.) 104,654
99. Telegram (Worcester MA) 102,592
100. Times (Washington, DC) 102,255
<
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=========
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<
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<
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Malcolm McMahon
Apr 8, 2013, 10:17:56 AM4/8/13
to
On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
> <
>
> STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>
> No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>
> to his senses.
>
As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the impression he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
> <
>
> STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>
> No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>
> to his senses.
>
Jason
Apr 8, 2013, 5:51:46 PM4/8/13
to
In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
The Unification of Stephen Hawking
By Mark O'Brien
The opportunities available to the disabled reporter to practice his craft
are scant and uninteresting. When The Fessenden Review asked this disabled
journalist to leave his Berkeley apartment and trek to southern California
to interview Elizabeth Bouvia, a disabled woman who demanded medical
assistance to help her starve herself to death, I had to say no. I very
much wanted to talk with her, but I would have had to rent a van with a
wheelchair lift, find accommodations for myself, an attendant or two, and
a 900 pound iron lung. I spend most of my time in a 900 pound iron lung
because polio has shriveled my lungs. Such a dependence upon the iron lung
greatly reduces my mobility, so I told the editor of The Fessenden Review
that I had to refuse the assignment. Throwing out my Clark Kent fedora, I
resumed my career as a small-time poet, freelance book reviewer, and
author of an unfinished novel.
Four years ago, I reviewed a book called Stephen Hawking's Universe, a
biography of an Englishman who was disabled by Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) in the 1960's while studying physics and mathematics at
Cambridge University. I praised the deft manner in which the author, John
Boslough, described Hawking's startling work in theoretical physics, but I
expressed disappointment that he failed to say much about Hawking as a
person. All Boslough could say on this point was that Hawking was the
toughest man he had ever met.
I was fascinated with the idea that one of the world's leading physicists
was disabled because the popular image of disabled people has us do
nothing besides mope over being disabled. It seemed likely that Stephen
Hawking would become, whether he wanted to or not, the most famous
disabled person since the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Like Roosevelt,
Hawking had become well-known more through his work than his disability.
Unlike Roosevelt, Hawking never sought to hide the fact of his disability.
Where I had the sense that Roosevelt was what a disabled friend of mine
had called "a closet crip," I felt no such reticence or shame emanating
from Hawking. While not wishing to hide his disability, neither did
Hawking seem to regard it as the only important thing in his life. If he
was obsessed with anything, it was with the universe--its origin,
workings, and destiny. In his own book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking
says he is seeking nothing less than "the unification of physics," the
reconciliation of quantum mechanics with relativity and an integration of
the four forces (electromagnetism, gravity, and the weak and strong
nuclear forces) which would provide an explanation for all phenomena.
Given the scope of his ambition and the brilliance of his intellect, it
seems likely to me that he will achieve this goal and in the process avoid
becoming fixated upon being disabled, a condition a friend of mine calls
"being a full-time crip." But Hawking still has to deal with his
disability, even if he is just a part-time crip. I wondered how Hawking
dealt with becoming severely disabled. How did he get to be so tough? What
was it like for him to have a wife and children? What has he done with the
feelings of depression which disability usually brings?So when I learned
that Hawking would give a series of lectures on the Berkeley campus of the
University of California, I saw my chance. I live a few blocks south of
campus, so travel would not present a problem. I phoned the university's
public information office and was told that Dr. Hawking (everyone with the
university called him Dr. Hawking) would give a press conference the
following Tuesday.
I didn't attend Hawking's first lecture (or any of the others) because I
felt too tired to get out of the iron lung on those days and because I
felt I would have little chance of asking him for an interview in the
post-lecture crush.
When the morning of the press conference came, I worried that I would not
get the interview. Armed only with a cassette tape recorder and a manila
envelope stuffed with a formal letter requesting an interview, my
disability poems, my science poems, my autobiographical essay, my reviews
of Stephen Hawking's Universe, and Hawking's new book, I hoped to persuade
him to grant me an interview.
I had asked Miguel, my lunch attendant, to come at 10:30 to get me into my
wheelchair and push me to the press conference. I worried that he might be
late, as he often is, but this time he wasn't. When he lifted me, I
screamed much less than usual (getting lifted always scares the sweet
bejesus out of me, even if the lifter looks like an olympic basketball
player), because my chief concern was to get to the press conference on
time. Miguel took me out into the warm March day while I fretted about my
lack of press credentials.
Gentle reader, all of those reporters you see on TV talking about their
press credentials are working for some corporation, usually a huge one
such as Time, ABC, or Rolling Stone. I,being a freelancer, which is to say
an unemployed poet and novelist who occasionally deigns to work at
journalism when prompted by a desire for thrills or money, had no press
credentials at all. When I was a student in the UC Berkeley journalism
school, I had been issued a little white card that shrilly insisted I was
a bona fide, honest-to-pete reporter for something called the California
News Service, a dummy organization invented by the journalism school for
the sole purpose of issuing press credentials to its students. But it had
been years since I dropped out of J-school and tossed out my CNS cards. I
had asked the editor of The Fessenden Review to send me press credentials,
but they were delayed in the mail. Now I approached the greatest story of
my journalistic career with no more press credentials than a hyena. More
reason for me to be anxious. What if they demanded proof that I was a
reporter? I would sputter "Oh, yeah?" like Tommy Smothers. No, a better
idea struck me. I would tell them to phone the editor of The Fessenden
Review. But what if he weren't in? What if he was in his office, but the
person checking my credentials had never heard of The Fessenden Review?
Such trepidations tumbled in my mind like dice as Miguel pushed me into
the student union building, where the press conference was to be held in
Heller Lounge. Acting as the navigator,for I knew the campus better than
Miguel did, I confidently told him that it was on the top floor.
"I remember because it's where I rented my cap and gown for my graduation."
But there was nothing called Heller lounge up there. When Miguel told a
man emerging from a room that we were looking for Dr. Hawking's press
conference, the man said he was also going to it and led the way.
Downstairs, we entered a long, vaguely defined area which I had always
thought of as the student lounge. Miguel pushed me by students lounging,
reading, or sprawling across the bright blue sofas in complete exhaustion.
Near the end of the lounge, folding chairs had been set up in an open,
glass-walled area, presumably as a special accommodation to the
able-bodied journalists. On a long table in front of us all were press
handouts and a vase of flowers in Cal colors, yellow and blue. No one
asked me to produce anything to prove that I was a reporter. I concluded
that if you look sufficiently disabled, people will judge you to be
harmless.
We were early, so I asked Miguel to grab some handouts and get my cassette
recorder out of the red backpack that hangs loosely from the back of my
wheelchair like a turkey wattle. Then we waited. The inquisitive reporters
looked at each other, at the handouts, at the flowers, and at the view
through the tinted glass walls of Lower Sproul Plaza, a barren, concrete
space that is afflicted most noons by bands of the heavy metal or
acid-punk (or whatever they're called these days) persuasion screeching as
though they are being vivisected. But now the bands and their tormentors
had the good sense to be absent. In the stark silence, I heard the low
buzzing of an electric wheelchair.
"Is that him?" I asked Miguel, who can look around easier than I can.
"No, it's someone else."
Finally, a tall bearded man started talking into the microphone.
"...Will you please welcome to the university Doctor Stephen W. Hawking."
Applause spattered the room like a sudden rainstorm. Then I saw him to my
left, a slight figure moving slowly across the room in a brown, padded
wheelchair. Wearing a crumpled hounds-tooth suit, he looked very English
and very academic, happily fulfilling our preconceptions. His face,
middle-aged and knobbly, reminded me of a pensive Alfred E. Neuman.
Suddenly, his face blessed us with a smile as dazzling and casual as Jack
Kennedy's. A beatle cut, greying, remained from his student days. After he
parked his wheelchair by the table, the microphone was lowered and placed
next to his voice synthesizer, a plastic and metal device that sits on the
wheelchair's lap tray like a large, propped-up book.
"Doctor Hawking," began the first questioner, who proceeded to ask about a
recently-discovered super-nova.
I wanted to ask my question early to get through my anxiety. I had decided
to ask him what he would say to disabled people who were stuck in nursing
homes or in a room in their parents' house. I wanted to ask him this
because I had spent too many years of my life stuck in such frustrating,
life-stopping places. That I have come to live in such a jazzy, juicy
place as Berkeley astonishes me so much that I inspect the mailing labels
on magazines to make sure that my name is two lines above BERKELEY, CA.
It took Dr. Hawking a couple of minutes to type his first answer, which
came abruptly from the speech synthesizer in a deep American-sounding
voice, impressively human though somewhat robotic around the edges.
I wanted to get my question in, but Dr. Hawking possesses no body language
to indicate "next?" The other reporters beat me to it several times.
During the long pauses occasioned by Dr.Hawking's voice synthesizer,
photographers scuttled about like hyperactive lobsters, standing,
kneeling, leaning, trying to get every angle on Dr. Hawking, whose
movements were limited to his cool blue eyes and that smile. Although his
answers were slow in coming, everyone present had their attention devoted
to him. I wondered what the passers-by on the walkway outside the glass
wall would make of the scene--thirty or forty able-bodied people
expectantly looking at a small, thin man in a wheelchair who never moved
his lips to speak.
A photographer knelt on the floor, blocking my view of Hawking. I asked
her in a whisper to move, but my whisper was too soft and I feared that if
I asked her in my normal tone of voice, I would break the eerie silence
between questions and answers. I seemed unable to croak out a medium-sized
request, so I asked Miguel to ask her to move, which she did. Now that I
could see Hawking again, I decided I should ask my question before someone
else came along to block my view. Shimmering with anxiety, I pondered the
puniness of my question. Would Hawking be annoyed that my question would
pull him away from the pristine glory of physics and into the sad, ancient
swamp of disability? Looking steadily into his halcyon eyes, I pretended
to have the courage to ask him my question.
"Doctor Hawking, what can you say to all the disabled people who are stuck
in nursing homes or living with their parents or in some other untenable
situation and who feel that their life is over, that they have no future?"
As I heard this long question unravel like an ill-mannered ball of yarn,
Hawking continued to look at me and typed his answer into the voice
synthesizer. I couldn't see his right hand, the one he used to type. I
waited. All of us waited. Then the silence was cracked by the voice
synthesizer's crisp, booming voice.
It can be very difficult. I know that I was very fortunate. All I can say
is that one must do the best one can in the situation in which one finds
oneself.
He continued to look at me as his answer was spoken, as though he missed
the simultaneity of speech and eye contact. I thanked him, then the other
reporters asked questions which veered away from physics, a subject very
few of us understood, and toward God, a subject on which we all consider
ourselves experts. Hawking told the attentive reporters that he did
believe in God, but not in a personal God. At least, that's what I thought
he said. I would be corrected later. The final question asked whether Dr.
Hawking really wanted the riddle of the universe to be solved. Wouldn't
discovering The Answer have the distressing effect of ending a grand
quest?
I hope that we will find it, but not quite yet.
We laughed, even though we half-expected such a sly answer.
The press conference over, the able-bodied people got out of their folding
chairs to cluster into knots of conversation, which is what able-bodied
people do when they are not sure of what they should be doing. Miguel
picked my tape recorder off the floor and put it in my backpack. I asked
him to give my envelope to someone in Hawking's entourage, but Miguel
asked whether I wouldn't rather have him give my envelope directly to
Hawking. Suspended in indecision, I thought of how little space there was
on the lap tray of Dr. Hawking's wheelchair, the possibility that he might
be offended by such naked American chutzpah, and how unlikely it was that
I would ever get this close to him again. After a long internal debate of
a second and a half, I felt the cold, sharp gust of What the hell blast
away my irresolution.
Miguel gave the envelope to Hawking, who then approached me.
Hello, said Hawking in his calm electronic voice.
"It's such an honor to meet you," I burbled in my tremulous
meeting-a-celebrity voice. I explained the contents of the envelope,
including the letter asking him for an interview. Rather than wait for him
to read my letter, I asked him for an interview right there and then,
while the able-bodied reporters towered around us like a circle of curious
trees.
Yes. The week of April fourth.
"Good, good. That'll give me time to... I have my phone number on the
letter, so you...you or one of your people can call me to set a time and
place."
Yes.
Your people, my people. I was beginning to sound like a CEO.
He left to talk with others amidst the milling, mumbling crowd.
I got it, I got it! I thought. This'll be the biggest story of my
journalistic career. Just think. I and The Fessenden Review will be quoted
by the two dozen companies evoked in the American mind by the trendy and
mellifluous word "media."
A balding man leaned down to me, his microphone hungering for my words.
"National Public Radio."
"Are you William Drummond?" I asked, giddy at the thought. Drummond taught
at the UC Berkeley journalism school, he had worked for President Ford, as
NPR's correspondent in Lebanon he had faced constant danger, and he had
met Susan Stamberg, NPR's sultry-voiced, witty anchor. Oh my God, he knows
Susan Stamberg!
"No, I'm not Bill Drummond," he said, interrupting my delirium. "Rick McCourt."
Now that was a stupid thing for me to say, I thought, chastising myself.
Why didn't I just let him introduce himself? But he didn't seem to mind. I
told him I had heard his science reports. So what if he hadn't met Susan
Stamberg? Maybe he would someday.
Beside him stood a woman who didn't identify herself. She asked me whether
seeing Dr. Hawking gave me hope. This struck me as an awfully stupid
question. Hope for what? Could Dr. Hawking change my life, make me walk,
get me a lover? I tried to think of a polite way to answer her.
"It's not that, so much, as, uh...he gives me a sense of
'hurray-for-our-side.'"
What was I saying? God knows. I just didn't want to get sucked into being
cast as a Spokesperson for the Disabled in a dreary story headlined
"Disabled Inspired by Dr. Hawking." Their interview of me lasted about two
minutes. McCourt told me he'd phone me if NPR used his interview with me.
Then they left. My celebrity status ended with thirteen minutes left to
go.
"Let's go," I told Miguel, who pushed me through the sunny campus and down
Telegraph Avenue back to my apartment.
After a week had passed without any word from Hawking, I grew anxious. He
was a busy man in a foreign country and could easily have forgotten about
me and my proposed interview. So when I heard that the university's
Disabled Students Program was honoring Dr. Hawking with a barbecue, I
decided to attend it in the hope of reminding him of the interview.
Miguel took me to the barbecue, which was held in the parking lot behind
the old pinkish-red mansion that houses DSP. It was a hot Thursday, the
day of Dr. Hawking's third and final lecture on the Berkeley campus. The
parking lot was crowded with people in all kinds of wheelchairs, blind
people, attendants, deaf people signing at feverish speed, the DSP staff,
and reporters from KQED-TV and National Geographic. Heat bounced off of
the three white buildings that surround the parking lot on three sides.
The last thing I wanted was to have a hard, mean, crunchy hamburger pushed
into my mouth. This being Berkeley, there was pasta salad, but the good
vegetarians of Berkeley had devoured the pasta salad, confident that the
pasta salad never said moo, never blinked large brown eyes, and never gave
birth to mewling, puking baby pasta salads.
Where was Hawking?
God knew, having a better vantage point than mine, which was in my new and
unsteady reclining wheelchair, reclined to almost flat, which put my head
about three feet above the hot asphalt.
A man in a tall psychedelic wheelchair bumped into my recliner, causing it
to tip backwards maybe an eighth of an inch. Convinced that my skull would
be cracked open like an egg and that my brains would fry sunny-side-up on
the asphalt, I screamed in falsetto panic. As my wheelchair steadied
itself, everyone looked at me.
"Are you all right?" they asked me.
"Yeah."
Now certain in the knowledge that I was having a thoroughly terrible time,
I told Miguel I wanted to leave.
"Can you see Hawking? Over there?"
He pointed and I saw him, surrounded by people. He was eating something
and looking as though he were enjoying himself in spite of wearing a tweed
suit in the Fourth of July heat.
"I'll try to get you over there to see him," Miguel said.
As Miguel knifed my wheelchair through the densely-packed crowd, I could
see the circle around Hawking break. A DSP official tested the microphone,
then said what a privilege it was to have Dr. Hawking present. She then
presented the famous disabled physicist tokens of admiration, one of them
a T-shirt that proclaimed:
I SURVIVED THE BARBECUE AT THE UC BERKELEY DISABLED STUDENTS PROGRAM APRIL
7th, 1988
Thinking that I deserved such a T-shirt more than Hawking did, even though
he wore that tweed suit, I observed the brief ceremony, which concluded
with the announcement that Dr. Hawking would autograph copies of his book
at the other end of the parking lot.
A DSP staffer began singing into the microphone as Hawking zoomed by me,
two feet to my right. I recognized his wife from her photo in Boslough's
book. I had enough cash to buy the book, so Miguel and I waited in line,
the sun glaring in my face and raising a bumper crop of skin cancer cells
on my potato-pale Irish face. While we waited, Miguel brought one of
Hawking's attendants, a tall Englishwoman with curly reddish hair, over to
talk with me. When I told her that I wanted to interview Dr. Hawking that
Saturday, she said she was terribly sorry, but they were leaving Berkeley
the next day.
Was all this for nothing?, I asked myself.
"But I can't speak for him," she said. "You should ask him yourself."
With this slight encouragement in mind, I asked Dr. Hawking whether he
could still give me an interview. Close up, he looked uncomfortable. Was
it the heat or was it that I was bugging him? I was rehearsing my
yes-i-understand speech when he said Yes. Half eleven in the lobby of my
hotel.
Once again, I was startled by his willingness to talk with me.
The red-haired attendant pressed Hawking's right thumb into an inkpad,
then into the inside cover of his book. I had his autograph..
That Saturday morning, I sat with Miguel in the lobby of the Durant Hotel,
a stately green structure which flies an enormous American flag on its
roof. Although I had never been in a hotel lobby before, I seemed to
recognize the decor and ambience--overstuffed furniture, hushed
conversation, men in suits vacuuming the carpet and polishing the brass. I
sensed the quiet, genteel boredom prized by old money. Perhaps Miguel and
I had entered one of the wormholes Hawking writes about, a rent in
time-space that leads to unexpected destinations, in this case, the
Algonquin Hotel, circa 1924. Was that Robert Benchley reading The Herald
Tribune? No, it was just a Japanese businessman flipping through The San
Francisco Chronicle.
Miguel and I looked about, checked my tape recorder, and drummed the
fingers of our minds. The two clocks in the lobby went off every fifteen
minutes, but had differing ideas of the exact time. Was one right and the
other wrong? Were they both wrong?
I was trying to remember whether relativity applied to hotel lobbies when
some men entered the lobby, one of them sitting in a tall and unmistakably
psychedelic wheelchair. One of the men was red-haired and seemed to act as
attendant to the man in the psychedelic wheelchair. The other two men, one
British, the other American, were white-haired. The red-haired man sat
atop the back of a profoundly upholstered chair, whereupon the group broke
up into two groups to provide Miguel and me with polyphonic conversation.
The white-haired American talked with the man in the psychedelic
wheelchair about the remarkable distribution of ALS, Alzheimer's, nd
Parkinson's disease on Guam, whose inhabitants come down with either
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's on the one hand, or ALS on the other. It seemed
that no one on Guam ever got ALS and one of the other diseases, and that
disorders of the nervous system were so popular on Guam because of all the
toxic dreck dumped there by the U.S. military. Through the other channel,
I heard the red-haired man talk with the Briton about the bizarre nature
of the universe as described by Dr. Hawking at one of his lectures. It
struck me that anyone's description of the universe must sound bizarre
upon a first hearing, but that Hawking's description seemed especially
bizarre, what with black holes seeming to radiate gamma rays and the big
bang not necessarily signifying any sort of Beginning. When the two
conversations fugued together in my mind, I realized that they were both
about aspects of Hawking's life.
Suddenly, I saw Hawking emerge from the elevator with the same attendant
who had talked with me at the barbecue. She walked over to tell me she was
terribly sorry, but Dr. Hawking would be meeting some people before he
could see me. Did I mind? No. It was still only 11 or 11:15, depending on
which clock you believed. Hawking disappeared down a hallway with his
attendant and a group of people who had been sitting in the lobby.
I waited nervously, trying to imagine what I would do if the interview
failed to yield me the information I would need to solve the riddle of
Stephen Hawking. I knew that I would have only half an hour with him and
that it would take him a minute or two to answer each of my questions.
When the red-haired woman came to tell me that Dr. Hawking could see me,
Miguel pushed me to the meeting as I felt a feeling of this is it, I'm
going to hit the beach at Normandy.
Stephen Hawking, sitting beside a long wooden table in a posh conference
room, was dressed in a striped T-shirt and brown pants. The walls of the
room were paneled in wood and decorated with water colors of the campus
sold by the Berkeley alumni association. As I inhaled the importance of
the room and the situation, I noticed that the roseate calm of these
paintings clashed with the confusion and clamor I had come to associate
with the same scenes in real life. After Miguel set up my tape recorder, I
asked him to leave. I was alone with Hawking and his attendant, who helped
him drink a glass of tea and occasionally asked me questions as I waited
for Hawking's answer to emerge from the voice synthesizer. He seemed
preoccupied and would occasionally gag on the tea, which made him seem
vulnerable. Telling him that I wanted to ask him personal questions in
regard to his disability, I began.
TFR: It looks like you're becoming a celebrity. Your lectures have drawn
overflow audiences. How do you feel about this?
HAWKING: It may help to sell my book, but I really want to get back to my
scientific work.
TFR: From what I've read in Boslough's biography of you and other places,
meeting Jane Wilde seems to have been an important point in your life. Can
you tell me how you were feeling, physically and emotionally, when you met
her?
HAWKING: A bit mixed up.
TFR: How did knowing her affect you?
HAWKING: I wouldn't have been able to do what I have done without her help.
TFR: Did you think women wouldn't be attracted to you after you were
diagnosed as having ALS?
HAWKING: I didn't know.
TFR: Do you ever feel frustration, rage at being disabled?
HAWKING: No.
TFR: Does your work help you to deal with these feelings?
HAWKING: Yes. I have been lucky. I don't have anything to be angry about.
When I asked him how he relates to his children and whether he disciplined
them, his attendant asked me whether I knew his children's ages.
"Twenty, seventeen, and seven," I said, relieved that I could recall this
information.
"The youngest is nine," she said. "Actually, I don't think he disciplines
them enough," she added, smiling at Hawking, who was busy typing his
answer. "But that's just my opinion."
HAWKING: I get along well with them. I'm lucky to have such nice children.
TFR: I've read that you've been to Moscow ten times, to the U.S.
twenty-five times to meet with other physicists. Do you find travel to be
tiring?
HAWKING: Yes. I travel a lot. I'm going to Israel and to Russia.
TFR: Do you find different attitudes toward disability in different countries?
HAWKING: People help wherever I go.
TFR: Do you find this book publicizing tour boring?
HAWKING: I have been meeting colleagues.
TFR: Do you read outside of the reading you have to do in physics?
HAWKING: I don't get much time to read.
TFR: Did you derive your idea of an impersonal god from Buddhism, Vedanta,
or some other tradition or have you developed your own religious ideas?
His attendant then told me that I had misunderstood what Dr. Hawking had
said at his press conference, which was that he didn't believe in a
personal god, not that he believed in an impersonal god.
HAWKING: It is better not to use the word "god" to describe what I believe
because most people use the word to mean a being with whom one can have a
personal relationship.
TFR: Do you sense a connection between how the universe operates and why
it exists?
HAWKING: I don't. If I did, I would have solved the universe.
Had I succeeded in my quest to solve Stephen W. Hawking? I felt that I had
not. His answers were brief and unrevealing. Being disabled myself, I
found it difficult to believe that he felt he did not have "anything to be
angry about." Had I asked him the wrong questions, questions he considered
to be too intrusive? Was it that the slowness of the voice synthesizer
tends to make him want to speak laconically? Or, what seems most likely,
is he just a shy man wrapped up in his work and his family? Perhaps we
demand too much of people when we ask them to turn their lives inside-out
to satisfy our raging curiosity about celebrities. The one thing I learned
was that Hawking's work succeeds in distracting him from a becoming
obsessed with his disability, just as Roosevelt's work as Governor of New
York and President of the United States rescued him from dark years of
brooding and frustration. And was I so different with my writing? Didn't
my constant work on book reviews, poems, journalism, and my novel take me
out of and beyond my wretched body? If the unification of Stephen Hawking
is ever to be achieved, it will teach us the necessity of love and work,
not only for those of us who are trapped in unworkable bodies, but for
everyone who is trapped in the stark, unyielding prison of time-space.
NOTES
1) Stephen Hawking's Universe, by John Boslough (William Morrow and
Company, 1985).
2) A Brief History of Time, by Stephen W. Hawking (Bantam Books, 1988).
The Unification of Stephen Hawking
By Mark O'Brien
The opportunities available to the disabled reporter to practice his craft
are scant and uninteresting. When The Fessenden Review asked this disabled
journalist to leave his Berkeley apartment and trek to southern California
to interview Elizabeth Bouvia, a disabled woman who demanded medical
assistance to help her starve herself to death, I had to say no. I very
much wanted to talk with her, but I would have had to rent a van with a
wheelchair lift, find accommodations for myself, an attendant or two, and
a 900 pound iron lung. I spend most of my time in a 900 pound iron lung
because polio has shriveled my lungs. Such a dependence upon the iron lung
greatly reduces my mobility, so I told the editor of The Fessenden Review
that I had to refuse the assignment. Throwing out my Clark Kent fedora, I
resumed my career as a small-time poet, freelance book reviewer, and
author of an unfinished novel.
Four years ago, I reviewed a book called Stephen Hawking's Universe, a
biography of an Englishman who was disabled by Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) in the 1960's while studying physics and mathematics at
Cambridge University. I praised the deft manner in which the author, John
Boslough, described Hawking's startling work in theoretical physics, but I
expressed disappointment that he failed to say much about Hawking as a
person. All Boslough could say on this point was that Hawking was the
toughest man he had ever met.
I was fascinated with the idea that one of the world's leading physicists
was disabled because the popular image of disabled people has us do
nothing besides mope over being disabled. It seemed likely that Stephen
Hawking would become, whether he wanted to or not, the most famous
disabled person since the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Like Roosevelt,
Hawking had become well-known more through his work than his disability.
Unlike Roosevelt, Hawking never sought to hide the fact of his disability.
Where I had the sense that Roosevelt was what a disabled friend of mine
had called "a closet crip," I felt no such reticence or shame emanating
from Hawking. While not wishing to hide his disability, neither did
Hawking seem to regard it as the only important thing in his life. If he
was obsessed with anything, it was with the universe--its origin,
workings, and destiny. In his own book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking
says he is seeking nothing less than "the unification of physics," the
reconciliation of quantum mechanics with relativity and an integration of
the four forces (electromagnetism, gravity, and the weak and strong
nuclear forces) which would provide an explanation for all phenomena.
Given the scope of his ambition and the brilliance of his intellect, it
seems likely to me that he will achieve this goal and in the process avoid
becoming fixated upon being disabled, a condition a friend of mine calls
"being a full-time crip." But Hawking still has to deal with his
disability, even if he is just a part-time crip. I wondered how Hawking
dealt with becoming severely disabled. How did he get to be so tough? What
was it like for him to have a wife and children? What has he done with the
feelings of depression which disability usually brings?So when I learned
that Hawking would give a series of lectures on the Berkeley campus of the
University of California, I saw my chance. I live a few blocks south of
campus, so travel would not present a problem. I phoned the university's
public information office and was told that Dr. Hawking (everyone with the
university called him Dr. Hawking) would give a press conference the
following Tuesday.
I didn't attend Hawking's first lecture (or any of the others) because I
felt too tired to get out of the iron lung on those days and because I
felt I would have little chance of asking him for an interview in the
post-lecture crush.
When the morning of the press conference came, I worried that I would not
get the interview. Armed only with a cassette tape recorder and a manila
envelope stuffed with a formal letter requesting an interview, my
disability poems, my science poems, my autobiographical essay, my reviews
of Stephen Hawking's Universe, and Hawking's new book, I hoped to persuade
him to grant me an interview.
I had asked Miguel, my lunch attendant, to come at 10:30 to get me into my
wheelchair and push me to the press conference. I worried that he might be
late, as he often is, but this time he wasn't. When he lifted me, I
screamed much less than usual (getting lifted always scares the sweet
bejesus out of me, even if the lifter looks like an olympic basketball
player), because my chief concern was to get to the press conference on
time. Miguel took me out into the warm March day while I fretted about my
lack of press credentials.
Gentle reader, all of those reporters you see on TV talking about their
press credentials are working for some corporation, usually a huge one
such as Time, ABC, or Rolling Stone. I,being a freelancer, which is to say
an unemployed poet and novelist who occasionally deigns to work at
journalism when prompted by a desire for thrills or money, had no press
credentials at all. When I was a student in the UC Berkeley journalism
school, I had been issued a little white card that shrilly insisted I was
a bona fide, honest-to-pete reporter for something called the California
News Service, a dummy organization invented by the journalism school for
the sole purpose of issuing press credentials to its students. But it had
been years since I dropped out of J-school and tossed out my CNS cards. I
had asked the editor of The Fessenden Review to send me press credentials,
but they were delayed in the mail. Now I approached the greatest story of
my journalistic career with no more press credentials than a hyena. More
reason for me to be anxious. What if they demanded proof that I was a
reporter? I would sputter "Oh, yeah?" like Tommy Smothers. No, a better
idea struck me. I would tell them to phone the editor of The Fessenden
Review. But what if he weren't in? What if he was in his office, but the
person checking my credentials had never heard of The Fessenden Review?
Such trepidations tumbled in my mind like dice as Miguel pushed me into
the student union building, where the press conference was to be held in
Heller Lounge. Acting as the navigator,for I knew the campus better than
Miguel did, I confidently told him that it was on the top floor.
"I remember because it's where I rented my cap and gown for my graduation."
But there was nothing called Heller lounge up there. When Miguel told a
man emerging from a room that we were looking for Dr. Hawking's press
conference, the man said he was also going to it and led the way.
Downstairs, we entered a long, vaguely defined area which I had always
thought of as the student lounge. Miguel pushed me by students lounging,
reading, or sprawling across the bright blue sofas in complete exhaustion.
Near the end of the lounge, folding chairs had been set up in an open,
glass-walled area, presumably as a special accommodation to the
able-bodied journalists. On a long table in front of us all were press
handouts and a vase of flowers in Cal colors, yellow and blue. No one
asked me to produce anything to prove that I was a reporter. I concluded
that if you look sufficiently disabled, people will judge you to be
harmless.
We were early, so I asked Miguel to grab some handouts and get my cassette
recorder out of the red backpack that hangs loosely from the back of my
wheelchair like a turkey wattle. Then we waited. The inquisitive reporters
looked at each other, at the handouts, at the flowers, and at the view
through the tinted glass walls of Lower Sproul Plaza, a barren, concrete
space that is afflicted most noons by bands of the heavy metal or
acid-punk (or whatever they're called these days) persuasion screeching as
though they are being vivisected. But now the bands and their tormentors
had the good sense to be absent. In the stark silence, I heard the low
buzzing of an electric wheelchair.
"Is that him?" I asked Miguel, who can look around easier than I can.
"No, it's someone else."
Finally, a tall bearded man started talking into the microphone.
"...Will you please welcome to the university Doctor Stephen W. Hawking."
Applause spattered the room like a sudden rainstorm. Then I saw him to my
left, a slight figure moving slowly across the room in a brown, padded
wheelchair. Wearing a crumpled hounds-tooth suit, he looked very English
and very academic, happily fulfilling our preconceptions. His face,
middle-aged and knobbly, reminded me of a pensive Alfred E. Neuman.
Suddenly, his face blessed us with a smile as dazzling and casual as Jack
Kennedy's. A beatle cut, greying, remained from his student days. After he
parked his wheelchair by the table, the microphone was lowered and placed
next to his voice synthesizer, a plastic and metal device that sits on the
wheelchair's lap tray like a large, propped-up book.
"Doctor Hawking," began the first questioner, who proceeded to ask about a
recently-discovered super-nova.
I wanted to ask my question early to get through my anxiety. I had decided
to ask him what he would say to disabled people who were stuck in nursing
homes or in a room in their parents' house. I wanted to ask him this
because I had spent too many years of my life stuck in such frustrating,
life-stopping places. That I have come to live in such a jazzy, juicy
place as Berkeley astonishes me so much that I inspect the mailing labels
on magazines to make sure that my name is two lines above BERKELEY, CA.
It took Dr. Hawking a couple of minutes to type his first answer, which
came abruptly from the speech synthesizer in a deep American-sounding
voice, impressively human though somewhat robotic around the edges.
I wanted to get my question in, but Dr. Hawking possesses no body language
to indicate "next?" The other reporters beat me to it several times.
During the long pauses occasioned by Dr.Hawking's voice synthesizer,
photographers scuttled about like hyperactive lobsters, standing,
kneeling, leaning, trying to get every angle on Dr. Hawking, whose
movements were limited to his cool blue eyes and that smile. Although his
answers were slow in coming, everyone present had their attention devoted
to him. I wondered what the passers-by on the walkway outside the glass
wall would make of the scene--thirty or forty able-bodied people
expectantly looking at a small, thin man in a wheelchair who never moved
his lips to speak.
A photographer knelt on the floor, blocking my view of Hawking. I asked
her in a whisper to move, but my whisper was too soft and I feared that if
I asked her in my normal tone of voice, I would break the eerie silence
between questions and answers. I seemed unable to croak out a medium-sized
request, so I asked Miguel to ask her to move, which she did. Now that I
could see Hawking again, I decided I should ask my question before someone
else came along to block my view. Shimmering with anxiety, I pondered the
puniness of my question. Would Hawking be annoyed that my question would
pull him away from the pristine glory of physics and into the sad, ancient
swamp of disability? Looking steadily into his halcyon eyes, I pretended
to have the courage to ask him my question.
"Doctor Hawking, what can you say to all the disabled people who are stuck
in nursing homes or living with their parents or in some other untenable
situation and who feel that their life is over, that they have no future?"
As I heard this long question unravel like an ill-mannered ball of yarn,
Hawking continued to look at me and typed his answer into the voice
synthesizer. I couldn't see his right hand, the one he used to type. I
waited. All of us waited. Then the silence was cracked by the voice
synthesizer's crisp, booming voice.
It can be very difficult. I know that I was very fortunate. All I can say
is that one must do the best one can in the situation in which one finds
oneself.
He continued to look at me as his answer was spoken, as though he missed
the simultaneity of speech and eye contact. I thanked him, then the other
reporters asked questions which veered away from physics, a subject very
few of us understood, and toward God, a subject on which we all consider
ourselves experts. Hawking told the attentive reporters that he did
believe in God, but not in a personal God. At least, that's what I thought
he said. I would be corrected later. The final question asked whether Dr.
Hawking really wanted the riddle of the universe to be solved. Wouldn't
discovering The Answer have the distressing effect of ending a grand
quest?
I hope that we will find it, but not quite yet.
We laughed, even though we half-expected such a sly answer.
The press conference over, the able-bodied people got out of their folding
chairs to cluster into knots of conversation, which is what able-bodied
people do when they are not sure of what they should be doing. Miguel
picked my tape recorder off the floor and put it in my backpack. I asked
him to give my envelope to someone in Hawking's entourage, but Miguel
asked whether I wouldn't rather have him give my envelope directly to
Hawking. Suspended in indecision, I thought of how little space there was
on the lap tray of Dr. Hawking's wheelchair, the possibility that he might
be offended by such naked American chutzpah, and how unlikely it was that
I would ever get this close to him again. After a long internal debate of
a second and a half, I felt the cold, sharp gust of What the hell blast
away my irresolution.
Miguel gave the envelope to Hawking, who then approached me.
Hello, said Hawking in his calm electronic voice.
"It's such an honor to meet you," I burbled in my tremulous
meeting-a-celebrity voice. I explained the contents of the envelope,
including the letter asking him for an interview. Rather than wait for him
to read my letter, I asked him for an interview right there and then,
while the able-bodied reporters towered around us like a circle of curious
trees.
Yes. The week of April fourth.
"Good, good. That'll give me time to... I have my phone number on the
letter, so you...you or one of your people can call me to set a time and
place."
Yes.
Your people, my people. I was beginning to sound like a CEO.
He left to talk with others amidst the milling, mumbling crowd.
I got it, I got it! I thought. This'll be the biggest story of my
journalistic career. Just think. I and The Fessenden Review will be quoted
by the two dozen companies evoked in the American mind by the trendy and
mellifluous word "media."
A balding man leaned down to me, his microphone hungering for my words.
"National Public Radio."
"Are you William Drummond?" I asked, giddy at the thought. Drummond taught
at the UC Berkeley journalism school, he had worked for President Ford, as
NPR's correspondent in Lebanon he had faced constant danger, and he had
met Susan Stamberg, NPR's sultry-voiced, witty anchor. Oh my God, he knows
Susan Stamberg!
"No, I'm not Bill Drummond," he said, interrupting my delirium. "Rick McCourt."
Now that was a stupid thing for me to say, I thought, chastising myself.
Why didn't I just let him introduce himself? But he didn't seem to mind. I
told him I had heard his science reports. So what if he hadn't met Susan
Stamberg? Maybe he would someday.
Beside him stood a woman who didn't identify herself. She asked me whether
seeing Dr. Hawking gave me hope. This struck me as an awfully stupid
question. Hope for what? Could Dr. Hawking change my life, make me walk,
get me a lover? I tried to think of a polite way to answer her.
"It's not that, so much, as, uh...he gives me a sense of
'hurray-for-our-side.'"
What was I saying? God knows. I just didn't want to get sucked into being
cast as a Spokesperson for the Disabled in a dreary story headlined
"Disabled Inspired by Dr. Hawking." Their interview of me lasted about two
minutes. McCourt told me he'd phone me if NPR used his interview with me.
Then they left. My celebrity status ended with thirteen minutes left to
go.
"Let's go," I told Miguel, who pushed me through the sunny campus and down
Telegraph Avenue back to my apartment.
After a week had passed without any word from Hawking, I grew anxious. He
was a busy man in a foreign country and could easily have forgotten about
me and my proposed interview. So when I heard that the university's
Disabled Students Program was honoring Dr. Hawking with a barbecue, I
decided to attend it in the hope of reminding him of the interview.
Miguel took me to the barbecue, which was held in the parking lot behind
the old pinkish-red mansion that houses DSP. It was a hot Thursday, the
day of Dr. Hawking's third and final lecture on the Berkeley campus. The
parking lot was crowded with people in all kinds of wheelchairs, blind
people, attendants, deaf people signing at feverish speed, the DSP staff,
and reporters from KQED-TV and National Geographic. Heat bounced off of
the three white buildings that surround the parking lot on three sides.
The last thing I wanted was to have a hard, mean, crunchy hamburger pushed
into my mouth. This being Berkeley, there was pasta salad, but the good
vegetarians of Berkeley had devoured the pasta salad, confident that the
pasta salad never said moo, never blinked large brown eyes, and never gave
birth to mewling, puking baby pasta salads.
Where was Hawking?
God knew, having a better vantage point than mine, which was in my new and
unsteady reclining wheelchair, reclined to almost flat, which put my head
about three feet above the hot asphalt.
A man in a tall psychedelic wheelchair bumped into my recliner, causing it
to tip backwards maybe an eighth of an inch. Convinced that my skull would
be cracked open like an egg and that my brains would fry sunny-side-up on
the asphalt, I screamed in falsetto panic. As my wheelchair steadied
itself, everyone looked at me.
"Are you all right?" they asked me.
"Yeah."
Now certain in the knowledge that I was having a thoroughly terrible time,
I told Miguel I wanted to leave.
"Can you see Hawking? Over there?"
He pointed and I saw him, surrounded by people. He was eating something
and looking as though he were enjoying himself in spite of wearing a tweed
suit in the Fourth of July heat.
"I'll try to get you over there to see him," Miguel said.
As Miguel knifed my wheelchair through the densely-packed crowd, I could
see the circle around Hawking break. A DSP official tested the microphone,
then said what a privilege it was to have Dr. Hawking present. She then
presented the famous disabled physicist tokens of admiration, one of them
a T-shirt that proclaimed:
I SURVIVED THE BARBECUE AT THE UC BERKELEY DISABLED STUDENTS PROGRAM APRIL
7th, 1988
Thinking that I deserved such a T-shirt more than Hawking did, even though
he wore that tweed suit, I observed the brief ceremony, which concluded
with the announcement that Dr. Hawking would autograph copies of his book
at the other end of the parking lot.
A DSP staffer began singing into the microphone as Hawking zoomed by me,
two feet to my right. I recognized his wife from her photo in Boslough's
book. I had enough cash to buy the book, so Miguel and I waited in line,
the sun glaring in my face and raising a bumper crop of skin cancer cells
on my potato-pale Irish face. While we waited, Miguel brought one of
Hawking's attendants, a tall Englishwoman with curly reddish hair, over to
talk with me. When I told her that I wanted to interview Dr. Hawking that
Saturday, she said she was terribly sorry, but they were leaving Berkeley
the next day.
Was all this for nothing?, I asked myself.
"But I can't speak for him," she said. "You should ask him yourself."
With this slight encouragement in mind, I asked Dr. Hawking whether he
could still give me an interview. Close up, he looked uncomfortable. Was
it the heat or was it that I was bugging him? I was rehearsing my
yes-i-understand speech when he said Yes. Half eleven in the lobby of my
hotel.
Once again, I was startled by his willingness to talk with me.
The red-haired attendant pressed Hawking's right thumb into an inkpad,
then into the inside cover of his book. I had his autograph..
That Saturday morning, I sat with Miguel in the lobby of the Durant Hotel,
a stately green structure which flies an enormous American flag on its
roof. Although I had never been in a hotel lobby before, I seemed to
recognize the decor and ambience--overstuffed furniture, hushed
conversation, men in suits vacuuming the carpet and polishing the brass. I
sensed the quiet, genteel boredom prized by old money. Perhaps Miguel and
I had entered one of the wormholes Hawking writes about, a rent in
time-space that leads to unexpected destinations, in this case, the
Algonquin Hotel, circa 1924. Was that Robert Benchley reading The Herald
Tribune? No, it was just a Japanese businessman flipping through The San
Francisco Chronicle.
Miguel and I looked about, checked my tape recorder, and drummed the
fingers of our minds. The two clocks in the lobby went off every fifteen
minutes, but had differing ideas of the exact time. Was one right and the
other wrong? Were they both wrong?
I was trying to remember whether relativity applied to hotel lobbies when
some men entered the lobby, one of them sitting in a tall and unmistakably
psychedelic wheelchair. One of the men was red-haired and seemed to act as
attendant to the man in the psychedelic wheelchair. The other two men, one
British, the other American, were white-haired. The red-haired man sat
atop the back of a profoundly upholstered chair, whereupon the group broke
up into two groups to provide Miguel and me with polyphonic conversation.
The white-haired American talked with the man in the psychedelic
wheelchair about the remarkable distribution of ALS, Alzheimer's, nd
Parkinson's disease on Guam, whose inhabitants come down with either
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's on the one hand, or ALS on the other. It seemed
that no one on Guam ever got ALS and one of the other diseases, and that
disorders of the nervous system were so popular on Guam because of all the
toxic dreck dumped there by the U.S. military. Through the other channel,
I heard the red-haired man talk with the Briton about the bizarre nature
of the universe as described by Dr. Hawking at one of his lectures. It
struck me that anyone's description of the universe must sound bizarre
upon a first hearing, but that Hawking's description seemed especially
bizarre, what with black holes seeming to radiate gamma rays and the big
bang not necessarily signifying any sort of Beginning. When the two
conversations fugued together in my mind, I realized that they were both
about aspects of Hawking's life.
Suddenly, I saw Hawking emerge from the elevator with the same attendant
who had talked with me at the barbecue. She walked over to tell me she was
terribly sorry, but Dr. Hawking would be meeting some people before he
could see me. Did I mind? No. It was still only 11 or 11:15, depending on
which clock you believed. Hawking disappeared down a hallway with his
attendant and a group of people who had been sitting in the lobby.
I waited nervously, trying to imagine what I would do if the interview
failed to yield me the information I would need to solve the riddle of
Stephen Hawking. I knew that I would have only half an hour with him and
that it would take him a minute or two to answer each of my questions.
When the red-haired woman came to tell me that Dr. Hawking could see me,
Miguel pushed me to the meeting as I felt a feeling of this is it, I'm
going to hit the beach at Normandy.
Stephen Hawking, sitting beside a long wooden table in a posh conference
room, was dressed in a striped T-shirt and brown pants. The walls of the
room were paneled in wood and decorated with water colors of the campus
sold by the Berkeley alumni association. As I inhaled the importance of
the room and the situation, I noticed that the roseate calm of these
paintings clashed with the confusion and clamor I had come to associate
with the same scenes in real life. After Miguel set up my tape recorder, I
asked him to leave. I was alone with Hawking and his attendant, who helped
him drink a glass of tea and occasionally asked me questions as I waited
for Hawking's answer to emerge from the voice synthesizer. He seemed
preoccupied and would occasionally gag on the tea, which made him seem
vulnerable. Telling him that I wanted to ask him personal questions in
regard to his disability, I began.
TFR: It looks like you're becoming a celebrity. Your lectures have drawn
overflow audiences. How do you feel about this?
HAWKING: It may help to sell my book, but I really want to get back to my
scientific work.
TFR: From what I've read in Boslough's biography of you and other places,
meeting Jane Wilde seems to have been an important point in your life. Can
you tell me how you were feeling, physically and emotionally, when you met
her?
HAWKING: A bit mixed up.
TFR: How did knowing her affect you?
HAWKING: I wouldn't have been able to do what I have done without her help.
TFR: Did you think women wouldn't be attracted to you after you were
diagnosed as having ALS?
HAWKING: I didn't know.
TFR: Do you ever feel frustration, rage at being disabled?
HAWKING: No.
TFR: Does your work help you to deal with these feelings?
HAWKING: Yes. I have been lucky. I don't have anything to be angry about.
When I asked him how he relates to his children and whether he disciplined
them, his attendant asked me whether I knew his children's ages.
"Twenty, seventeen, and seven," I said, relieved that I could recall this
information.
"The youngest is nine," she said. "Actually, I don't think he disciplines
them enough," she added, smiling at Hawking, who was busy typing his
answer. "But that's just my opinion."
HAWKING: I get along well with them. I'm lucky to have such nice children.
TFR: I've read that you've been to Moscow ten times, to the U.S.
twenty-five times to meet with other physicists. Do you find travel to be
tiring?
HAWKING: Yes. I travel a lot. I'm going to Israel and to Russia.
TFR: Do you find different attitudes toward disability in different countries?
HAWKING: People help wherever I go.
TFR: Do you find this book publicizing tour boring?
HAWKING: I have been meeting colleagues.
TFR: Do you read outside of the reading you have to do in physics?
HAWKING: I don't get much time to read.
TFR: Did you derive your idea of an impersonal god from Buddhism, Vedanta,
or some other tradition or have you developed your own religious ideas?
His attendant then told me that I had misunderstood what Dr. Hawking had
said at his press conference, which was that he didn't believe in a
personal god, not that he believed in an impersonal god.
HAWKING: It is better not to use the word "god" to describe what I believe
because most people use the word to mean a being with whom one can have a
personal relationship.
TFR: Do you sense a connection between how the universe operates and why
it exists?
HAWKING: I don't. If I did, I would have solved the universe.
Had I succeeded in my quest to solve Stephen W. Hawking? I felt that I had
not. His answers were brief and unrevealing. Being disabled myself, I
found it difficult to believe that he felt he did not have "anything to be
angry about." Had I asked him the wrong questions, questions he considered
to be too intrusive? Was it that the slowness of the voice synthesizer
tends to make him want to speak laconically? Or, what seems most likely,
is he just a shy man wrapped up in his work and his family? Perhaps we
demand too much of people when we ask them to turn their lives inside-out
to satisfy our raging curiosity about celebrities. The one thing I learned
was that Hawking's work succeeds in distracting him from a becoming
obsessed with his disability, just as Roosevelt's work as Governor of New
York and President of the United States rescued him from dark years of
brooding and frustration. And was I so different with my writing? Didn't
my constant work on book reviews, poems, journalism, and my novel take me
out of and beyond my wretched body? If the unification of Stephen Hawking
is ever to be achieved, it will teach us the necessity of love and work,
not only for those of us who are trapped in unworkable bodies, but for
everyone who is trapped in the stark, unyielding prison of time-space.
NOTES
1) Stephen Hawking's Universe, by John Boslough (William Morrow and
Company, 1985).
2) A Brief History of Time, by Stephen W. Hawking (Bantam Books, 1988).
Malcolm McMahon
Apr 8, 2013, 6:08:36 PM4/8/13
to
On Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:51:46 -0700, Jason wrote:
> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
>> > <
>> >
>> > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>> >
>> > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>> >
>> > to his senses.
>> >
>> >
>> As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the
>> impression
> he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
>
> http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
>
>
He's clearly a very remarkable man. When he was first diagnosed with
> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
>> > <
>> >
>> > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>> >
>> > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>> >
>> > to his senses.
>> >
>> >
>> As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the
>> impression
> he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
>
> http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
>
>
A.L.S. doctors gave him about a year to live. That was decades ago.
Mathematics seems to be good for your life expectancy.
His sense of humour appears to have survived. He made a guest appearance
on Startrek once, and has recently been seen in a humorous TV advert.
I think I may have unjammed his wheelchair once at Warwick Uni, but I
didn't know who he was back then.
Before he was reduced to the speech synthesiser he used to speak in a
very slurred voice, so that only people who knew it understood what he
was saying. Of all disabilities that must be the most frustrating. When
you can't speak clearly people take you for a simpleton.
As your account makes clear he's never been an atheist, and certain not
some kind of champion of atheism, but like most people who are that
bright tends to have an open mind.
Christopher A. Lee
Apr 8, 2013, 6:23:25 PM4/8/13
to
On Mon, 8 Apr 2013 22:08:36 +0000 (UTC), Malcolm McMahon
<mal...@theriomorph.me.uk> wrote:
>On Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:51:46 -0700, Jason wrote:
>
>> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
>> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
>>> > <
>>> >
>>> > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>>> >
>>> > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>>> > to his senses.
Nastiness and lie noted.
<mal...@theriomorph.me.uk> wrote:
>On Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:51:46 -0700, Jason wrote:
>
>> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
>> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
>>> > <
>>> >
>>> > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
>>> >
>>> > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
>>> > to his senses.
Hawking pussy-footed for a long time because he did not want to offend
either his theist care giver or theists in the audience of his popular
science books.
However his recent stuff show he is atheist.
>>> As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the
>>> impression
>> he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
>> using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
>>
>> http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
>He's clearly a very remarkable man. When he was first diagnosed with
>A.L.S. doctors gave him about a year to live. That was decades ago.
>
>Mathematics seems to be good for your life expectancy.
>
>His sense of humour appears to have survived. He made a guest appearance
>on Startrek once, and has recently been seen in a humorous TV advert.
>
>I think I may have unjammed his wheelchair once at Warwick Uni, but I
>didn't know who he was back then.
>
>Before he was reduced to the speech synthesiser he used to speak in a
>very slurred voice, so that only people who knew it understood what he
>was saying. Of all disabilities that must be the most frustrating. When
>you can't speak clearly people take you for a simpleton.
>
>As your account makes clear he's never been an atheist, and certain not
>some kind of champion of atheism, but like most people who are that
>bright tends to have an open mind.
About something for which there is no evidence and no reason even to
propose, whose only reason to be believed is childhood brainwashing?
Until theists demonstrate otherwise there is no reason even to give it
a thought, let alone "have an open mind" about it.
Jeanne Douglas
Apr 8, 2013, 9:38:15 PM4/8/13
to
In article <Jason-08041...@66-53-217-22.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com>,
--
JD
"Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive."--VP Joseph Biden
Ja...@nospam.com (Jason) wrote:
> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
> > > <
> > >
> > > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
> > >
> > > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
> > >
> > > to his senses.
> > >
> >
> > As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the impression
> he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
>
> http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
>
>
>
> The Unification of Stephen Hawking
Why did you post this?
> In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
> > > <
> > >
> > > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
> > >
> > > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
> > >
> > > to his senses.
> > >
> >
> > As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the impression
> he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
>
> http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
>
>
>
> The Unification of Stephen Hawking
--
JD
"Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive."--VP Joseph Biden
Jason
Apr 9, 2013, 12:03:00 AM4/9/13
to
In article
<hlwdjsd2-ED871B...@c-131-121-196-216.gonavy.usna.edu>, Jeanne
Because I wanted to--I had it stored on my hard drive and it seemed to
answer the question about Hawking's beliefs.
<hlwdjsd2-ED871B...@c-131-121-196-216.gonavy.usna.edu>, Jeanne
answer the question about Hawking's beliefs.
Jeanne Douglas
Apr 9, 2013, 1:46:58 AM4/9/13
to
In article <Jason-08041...@67-150-123-6.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com>,
article does the same. So why do you think anybody is interested in more
misrepresentations of Hawking's beliefs?
Ja...@nospam.com (Jason) wrote:
> In article
> <hlwdjsd2-ED871B...@c-131-121-196-216.gonavy.usna.edu>, Jeanne
> Douglas <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <Jason-08041...@66-53-217-22.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com>,
> > Ja...@nospam.com (Jason) wrote:
> >
> > > In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> > > Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
> > > > > <
> > > > >
> > > > > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
> > > > >
> > > > > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
> > > > >
> > > > > to his senses.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the impression
> > > he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> > > using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
> > >
> > > http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The Unification of Stephen Hawking
> >
> >
> > Why did you post this?
>
> Because I wanted to--I had it stored on my hard drive and it seemed to
> answer the question about Hawking's beliefs.
Since you've misrepresented his views, it's quite obvious that that
> In article
> <hlwdjsd2-ED871B...@c-131-121-196-216.gonavy.usna.edu>, Jeanne
> Douglas <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <Jason-08041...@66-53-217-22.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com>,
> > Ja...@nospam.com (Jason) wrote:
> >
> > > In article <45463f73-5ca5-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
> > > Malcolm McMahon <malcol...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Friday, 5 April 2013 18:57:52 UTC+1, Intrepid wrote:
> > > > > <
> > > > >
> > > > > STRATFORD-ON-THAMES, (Rueters) -- Stephen Hawking, the world's
> > > > >
> > > > > No. 1 atheist who has long preached there is NO God, has finally come
> > > > >
> > > > > to his senses.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > As far as I know he's never said he was an atheist. I get the impression
> > > he's more a kind of deist like Einstein, who always confused people by
> > > using the word God in a sense very different from most people do.
> > >
> > > http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/hawking.html
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The Unification of Stephen Hawking
> >
> >
> > Why did you post this?
>
> Because I wanted to--I had it stored on my hard drive and it seemed to
> answer the question about Hawking's beliefs.
article does the same. So why do you think anybody is interested in more
misrepresentations of Hawking's beliefs?
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