Women are a Mystery to British Physicist Hawking

[Sparkly]

Oh for cryin' out loud.

[div class ="excerpt"]LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest mystery in the universe perplexing one of the world's best known scientists is -- women.

When New Scientist magazine asked "Brief History of Time" author Stephen Hawking what he thinks about most, the Cambridge University professor renowned for unraveling some of the most complex questions in modern physics answered: "Women. They are a complete mystery."

http://news.yahoo.com/women-mystery-british-physicist-hawking-140701868.html

[safeinOhio]

1. I can relate.

[Laelth]

2. Join the club, Mr. Hawking.

Honestly, this comes as no surprise. "Love" is the most important thing that we do, and it is quite mysterious to most of us.

-Laelth

[Brigid]

3. Yep, we're a mystery all right.

And that's just the way we like it.

[MicaelS]

11. I told a co-worker "Women should come with an instruction manual"..

She replied: "We do, you men just can't read it!"

[MH1]

43. Even if they could, when was the last time a man read an instruction manual?

j/k guys.

[MicaelS]

48. I always read mine...usually AFTER

I have screwed something up. "Oh, it was supposed to go in THAT way."

[eridani]

59. They do it right after they stop and ask someone for directions n/t

[Angleae]

58. We can't read what we can't lift.

It weighs what? 3-4 tons?

[tridim]

4. Yea, that's what Doc Brown said.

[seabeyond]

5. well, fuckin christ. how about seeing a person. not too mysterious then.

get past the fuckin games of mystery and pedestals and maybe we wont have to continually knock them down.

i am so fuckin tired of that cute little saying. so old. worn. and tired. and condescending.

[monmouth]

7. The mystery is he doesn't understand chemistry. That's basically what "love"/"lust" is

all about anyway... I failed chemistry a couple of times..

[seabeyond]

9. men love, too. that makes no sense. it is something we say about women. women glow when it is said

men chuckle when they say it.

no mystery, really.

[The Straight Story]

8. You're a mystery to me

[seabeyond]

10. ya, well. bah hahaha. not surprised

i say with love.

you, not so much of a mystery. but that is good. i can accept all of who you are with no problem. why it is so important not to feed the mystery myth.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. ...

[hifiguy]

6. If one of the greatest minds in the history of humankind

can't figure women out what chance do the rest of us stand of so doing?

[tridim]

15. Hawking is far from one of the greatest minds in history.

Most physicists agree.

He is pretty much a hack that manages to make money selling books to people who don't know better.

[zipplewrath]

25. name names

I'm not ready to call him the greatest mind, but "hack" is a tad off too. His list of accomplishments, rewards, and appointments suggest he's a tad better than a hack. Like many his age, his best years are probably behind him.

You care to name any names of "most" of these physicists.

[tridim]

51. I'll take back the "hack" label.

I used to respect him until I listend to what great minds like Leonard Susskind had to say about his theories. He was roundly ridiculed by the entire physics community for his "black hole/information loss" theory, and has since said he was wrong.

Maybe he's a victim of his own fame? It happens.

[zipplewrath]

57. Yeah, I'm surprised he lived that one down

He was way out on a limb, and not in a pretty way either. Was pretty harsh on some other folks too that were trying to tell him he was wrong. I guess they all buried the hatchets to some extent.

There are VERY few "smart people" who can wander very far outside of their specific area of expertise without quickly becoming just as average as the rest of us.

[RZM]

31. I think the consensus is that he's a bit overrated because he's well-known, but still very good

About a decade ago, 60 minutes did a piece on this. It was a little unsettling, because it was very different from the reverent treatment you usually get of Hawking. It was kind of critical. But the other physicists whom they interviewed seemed to agree that while he's not one of the greatest minds in history, he is a strong physicist.

I remember one of them saying he was maybe among the top-20 living physicists. That's still pretty good.

[tridim]

50. He has done some good work, but not for a LONG time.

Maybe "hack" was too strong of a word. He's obviously smart, just not top tier any more.

[Zalatix]

54. Top 20 sounds like top tier to me.

[VWolf]

47. I beg to differ

The Hawking Process, whereby black holes are shown to evaporate, is one of the most stunning revelations of the latter 20th century.

[Whisp]

21. that greatest mind shouldn't bother with stupid cliches.

maybe he should work on the mystery of why men have to dick measure throughout their whole lives.

[Fawke Em]

37. Good one. LOL.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Um, yeah

[redqueen]

18. Love.

Perfect response.

[dawg]

14. He's right, but ...

it isn't just men not understanding women. I think lots of women have an equally distressing time trying to understand men. And despite our reputation for being simple-minded creatures, motivated mainly by food and sex; in reality we tend to be at least as emotional and complicated as the ladies in our lives.

[seabeyond]

16. reflect what you would feel and you probably have it down to a peg what a woman is feeling.

it really is not hard. and has worked for me. with both genders. i go one step further though, i actually ASK if this is what hubby is feeling, allowing him to TELL me what he is feeling.

so it with kids, too.

and most everyone.

[dawg]

20. Well, that's the best anyone can do.

The problem is not really gender-based so much as it is the problem of dealing with other people. We tend to mythologize gender-differences. Most differences and misunderstandings between couples aren't really gender-based at all.

[seabeyond]

24. We tend to mythologize gender-differences.

exactly. my point. lets not allow myth to stand cause it does all of us harm.

[redqueen]

17. If we didnt dedicate so much time and energy

indoctrinating girls and boys to fit themselves inside the little gender boxes society has deemed acceptable, that might go a ways toward uncomplicating communication. Just an idea.

[dawg]

23. Agreed.

I do believe that there are some innate differences between the genders. But these are vastly overshadowed by what society tries to impose.

(And of course, there is a huge amount of overlap between the sexes on almost everything.)

[seabeyond]

29. i need to know the difference. i get that you clarified throughout, but

i need to know. i have asked hubby. two sons. brothers. to tell me the differences and we can yet articulate any real difference.

help me.

[dawg]

35. Well, there really isn't any way to scientifically measure for innate differences.

Society affects children at an early age, and it's impossible to separate what is innate from what has been influenced by society. All I can do is mention some things that I have observed that I think *may* be examples of innate differences.

First off, I have seen examples of little girls who gravitate toward pink "girly-girl" toys despite receiving zero encouragement from their parents to do so. Of course, this could still be socialization based on television, peers, etc. But although the mega-corporations are able to influence our tastes and choices, they do try to give the customers what they want. But this is just an anecdotal observation from a guy with no daughters. (who always wanted pink birthday cakes as a child)

Secondly, it seems to me than men and boys tend to be more physically aggressive than women and girls. I don't know if any of this is innate, but I do know that differering testosterone levels can play with a person's aggressivness.

And lastly, and most speculatively of all, it has been my impression that many of the women I know tend to be more "home" oriented than the men, while the men tend to be more acquisitive in terms of cars, boats, machinery, etc. Again, this could be all cultural, but it would not surprise me if women did not naturally tend to have more of an innate nesting instinct than men.

Like you, I tend to think that 99% of what people call evolutionary biological differences between the sexes is just bunk. But I'm not certain that 100% of differences are due only to society, either.

[Fawke Em]

38. I hate pink.

In fact, up until very recently, most girls toys weren't always adorned in pink and purple. I had a blue E-Z Bake oven, clothes in a variety of colors, a green toy box, a red chair, etc. This pink/purple on everything-girl just started in the last decade.

[dawg]

41. And I love it, which shows there is a huge overlap.

I have always thought that the variablility from person to person was far more significant than gender-based differences. There is no way to judge people based on their sex, race, orientation, etc. We're all individuals.

I do think it is a mistake, however, to assume that 100% of differences between the sexes are cultural. Our differing biology could be a factor in some of the different choices we tend to make.

[seabeyond]

44. i jsut can not figure out what the difference is. if truth were to be told

my behavior, personality, emotions all define male. whereas my husband and brother would be catagorized more toward female. now, what an insult that is to my husband. who is very masculine and the best of MAN. no less a man. nothing short of being a man. all man. but see my need to defend my husband as i type this. so strongly i want to continue.

yet i dont feel that need when saying that about me, .... just means i am more aggressive, pragmatic, dont really get emotion, ect.....

[seabeyond]

40. pink. have you walked into the girl section of a toy store? pink for breast cancer. everything

related to female is pink. everything. i had a niece that refused to wear pink. i had a conversation with little 4 yr old niece last week about pink. pink is a girls color. i dont like pink, i like green. then you are not a girl. no, i am not a girl, i am a woman. no you arent. yes i am. you are a girl too. no i am not. a kid is a girl, an adult is a woman. nah uh. uh hu.

son.... i like pink. then you are a girl. my brother likes pink. then he is a girl. my cousin (girl) does not like pink. then she is not a girl.

it is SO conditioned.

everything female is pink. not everything boy is blue.

from baby girl. she is so pretty. boy... look at him grab the finger, moving around, legs moving. she sits so quietly. look at him run. she is so pretty. he is building something. she has pretty eyes. he is so active.

i would wrestle with my boy 2, 4 and the oldest niece at four was in it. the younger at 2 wanted to be but didnt know if she was allowed. both girls played army with the boys. my boys had their gi joes. none of the kids gravited to the legos. son did clay and drew and read. both boys still read. both boys articulate. both boys can identify emotion.

when i ask the question, i get the same kinds of answers. i am still not seeing it.

but thanks... i say with a smile, i appreciate the effort.

[EFerrari]

19. Maybe he meant, it's a mystery to me why women work so hard to keep this species going because

when you get right down to it, we're pretty worthless.

lol

[RadiationTherapy]

22. Yawn. Tired of this nonsense. Here's a clue: Everyone is different.

That should help.

[Fumesucker]

26. I wonder if this might be an example of British dry humour?

It wouldn't surprise me.

[zazen]

28. he had some bet with a guy once and the prize was a "Penthouse"

He talked about it in a documentary. Even then I thought, ugh. It's part of the male establishment in academia that's finally critiqued by a decent subsection of the academy, but what we all had to grow up with. They were the knowers, the actors, the thinkers--we were the objects to be studied. Or in this case, "the mystery."

The system was gendered down to the core, and to occupy the space of authority and investigator one had to seem gendered male regardless of biology. Which is why conventionally attractive women had a hard time in the academy until very recently--no one took them "seriously." Only because they looked like the masturbatory fantasies of their professors, who joked about Penthouse.

[Fumesucker]

49. Combine that with the hostility attractive women get from many other women..

And it's not really worth it to be good looking.

[gkhouston]

55. That's what I'm thinking. n/t

[seabeyond]

56. except we hear it all the time, from men, all over. just a stupid line that men have used forever

isnt it time to call enough.

[Nye Bevan]

27. Maybe someone hacked into his computer voice and made him say this? (nt)

[Shankapotomus]

30. Maybe a monkey typed it when no one was looking? (nt)

[Eliminator]

32. Well Sheeeeeeit

I know he can't actually talk and all, but I THINK HE WAS JOKING.

[TwilightGardener]

33. Speaking only for myself as a woman, I think women are a bit more unpredictable than men

at least in terms of courtship. Looking at it from an evolutionary/animal standpoint, females drive the mating game with their whims and preferences. The males of many species are always bewildered trying to keep up with what the gals want--they all learn the same male courtship behaviors, but the females can somehow tell a difference between them. More bloody horn-ramming my competitors' heads? OK! More tail feathers and higher jumping in my courtship dance? You got it! Beyond that, though, I don't think women are mysterious, any more than men.

[seabeyond]

34. do you think it could be a lifetime of virgin/whore fed to females? nt

[TwilightGardener]

39. I'm thinking strictly in terms of male/female courtship, and what females are looking for

in a mate. What men are looking for, that's a whole different topic.

[Motown_Johnny]

36. The man's sense of humor is legendary

For instance "We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone a royalty for existence"'



I hope nobody took that seriously.

[hifiguy]

42. True, that.

Hawking appeared on Star Trek: TNG as (a hologram of) himself and has lent his "voice" to Futurama and a Pink Floyd tune, among other things. And Brits are known for a bone dry sense of humor, err, "humour."

[Blue_Tires]

45. I'll drink to that!

[Tom_Foolery]

46. And I LOVE a good mystery! n/t

[Froward69]

52. Men are easy

Food, Water, Oxygen and Sex... Shelter is only needed to convince a Woman to have sex.

[seabeyond]

53. garbage in, garbage out. generally the man looking for a woman to connect to

really lonely and wanting love says garbage like this.

[Froward69]

60. Believe what you want...

so what does attract An american Woman??? Cash and lots of it. a big house and a house boy that has a washboard stomach that wont tell the working husband anything.

Yeah I am Jaded, My marriage should have been about Love. it wasn't.

OH Sorry Dear... what ever you say. is the absolute, unequivocal fact even if you have Never ever met the subject you render all of your illustrious diagnosis upon. it's all you princess.

[seabeyond]

62. picking your mate says something about YOU. not a whole gender. self reflection goes a long way

instead of blaming 51% of the population

[Fire Walk With Me]

61. Women! Y U NO HELP US POOR POOR MEN A BIT ON THIS!

[seabeyond]

63. CAUSE YOU NEVER LISTEN... ya think? i have all kinds of helpful hints, like

throw away this stupid saying.

[Fire Walk With Me]

64. The smiley in my message should tell you that I was being silly :)