SAVAGE or SAVANT?

[wardytron]

I was reading Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth recently. It's all not that good, to be honest - there's 185 pages and the first monster doesn't turn up until page 133. Up until then it's all plot and characterisation. Who's interested in that? Monsters, that's what you want. Well anyway, on page 155 there was a scene where the

Comments

[ms_siobhan]

I knew there was a reason I didn't like Simon Hoggart and it wasn't just because I found him smug. He's a savage.

But of course the thought now bugging me is.....what about Lady Diane and Mother Teresa? I'm afraid protractors and angles are not my friends so I bow to your superior facial angle working out skill but please put me out of my misery.

Are they savages or savants?

[wardytron]

Both savages, on the basis of the picture below. Although I think I might be setting the qualification criteria a bit too strictly by insisting that anyone without an obtuse facial angle is a savage. I think John Merrick qualifies as a savant, but I can't think of anyone else. I haven't really thought this through.

[ms_siobhan]

Thank you kind sir for putting me out of my misery. I had an inkling they were savages but now you have proven it scientifically for me.

And I wouldn't worry about the 'not having really thought this through' - that's never stopped anybody. Not least the present and previous governments.

chin chin

[oldbloke]

You, sir, are a CHARLATAN.
It is easily demonstrated that the projected angle from a particular viewpoint varies widely from the actual angle between two lines.
We reject your monogram. Try New Scientist, they'll print any old rubbish.

[whizzerandchips]

Yeah, but who thinks in three dimensions?

[oldbloke]

Helicopter pilots?

[whizzerandchips]

Since when did Jess get her pilots license?

[whizzerandchips]

[wardytron]

Lovely stuff, whizzerandchips. Well, stuff, anyway.

[whizzerandchips]

That photo of me isn't out of focus. That's actually how I look.

[oldbloke]

It's a Heisenberg thing, I expect.

[thermaland]

As the Guardian's parliamentary sketchwriter and wine columnist for the Spectator, you might expect Simon Hoggart to be something of an intellectual.

See, this sentence implies that you believe your reader rather than Simon Hoggart to be the Guardian's parliamentary sketchwriter and wine columnist for the Spectator. Thus confirming your status as a savage.

[wardytron]

I had noticed, but still thought it was the best way to phrase that sentence, compared to eg:

As the Guardian's parliamentary sketchwriter and wine columnist for the Spectator, Simon Hoggart is someone you might expect to be something of an intellectual.

I was thinking of adding a note at the end saying "This entry contains a dangling modifier in this entry. There is a Twix for the first person to identify it." I didn't but you still won, so I owe you a Twix.

[wardytron]

Actually, I wasn't really thinking of beginning AND ending a sentence with the words "This entry," that was a mistake, because I'm a savage

[glamwhorebunni]

I suspect the Re-discovery Of Prognathism may have actually occured in 1995 not 1996- it's probably in Rushton's book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race,_Evolution_and_Behavior

[wardytron]

How disappointing that in the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings terminology the word "Mongoloid" has been replaced by "Asian Continental Ancestry Group." I mean, it's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it. Still, I suppose I'll have to get used to it - "Shut up, moleintheground, you big Asian Continental Ancestry Group."