# Investor’s Business Daily idiot journalist think Stephen Hawking is American **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993 "2009-08-10T23:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/21 "2009-08-12T06:29:09Z")
> [@Julius\_Henry](#): > > Someone over at IBD has noted the error. The sentence \*\*Rune \*\*bolded is now gone. The editorial is preceeded by this note: > > I’d like to repeat that last clause — “did not live in the UK.” Does using the past tense imply that Dr. Hawking is no longer living? No, it implies that the editor doesn’t know it’s grammatically correct to place a verb in the present tense in a subordinate clause of a main clause whose own verb is in the past tense. And unless Hawking has died and nobody announced it, in this case it’s also more accurate. He’s trying to use the subjunctive, with little success. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/22 "2009-08-12T06:38:41Z")
Yeah yeah. Facts this and truth that. Your “facts” are not going to save you when Obama’s health care reform mutant dinosaurs start stomping on the hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/23 "2009-08-12T06:42:30Z")
Wait, wasn’t Godzilla Japanese? So Obama is outsourcing US health care to the Japanese? Gosh! ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/24 "2009-08-12T09:16:07Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > But, but… Cambridge is in Massachusetts! All those ivory tower types end up in one Cambridge or another, it’s not so easy to keep them straight. 😉 I used to live opposite Prof Hawking’s [house](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=52.198743,+0.110550&sll=52.198758,0.110609&sspn=0.001634,0.004705&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=52.198709,0.11058&spn=0.000817,0.002352&z=19) in Cambridge, he would trundle past our place on the way to his favourite restuarant (local curry house by the Mill Pond, as they were the only eating place nearby that could cook something spicey enough for his tastebuds to register). A friend of mine (when we were much younger) once asked Prof Hawking if he could say “Supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous” on his voice-synthesizer. Crazy times. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/25 "2009-08-12T10:16:00Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Probably yes. Almost all major American universities require students to have health insurance that covers just about anything. Really?? _is an uninsured grad student at a major American university_ ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/26 "2009-08-12T10:56:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Nope. I didn’t check for neurological disorders, but the insurance that graduate students at my US graduate school had to take the year after I left (I did receive the brochure) included only one kind of obgyn treatment: > > voluntary abortions. > > So, it didn’t quite cover “about anything,” no. ‘Pre-existing condition’ also. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/27 "2009-08-12T12:27:18Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > A friend of mine (when we were much younger) once asked Prof Hawking if he could say “Supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous” on his voice-synthesizer. This is going to bother me until I know. Did he? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/28 "2009-08-12T13:58:56Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > One might also ask how Stephen Hawking would have done if he had been American. He developed Lou Gehrig’s disease after getting his BA, and while working on his doctorate at Cambridge. Do doctoral students at prestigious American universities have health insurance that would have covered treatment of his disease? I never used mine, but I’m pretty sure it would have. It was fully paid by the chemistry department, but I never used it\* so I don’t know the details. The prescription plan was extra, and had a deductible. \*I’m remembering now that the last time I saw a physician or dentist was before I started grad school. Maybe I should do something about this. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/29 "2009-08-12T15:16:05Z")
> [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > This is going to bother me until I know. Did he? Apparently yes! This was in the mid-80s so the synth took much longer to programme than his current one. Took him most of the afternoon to programme it (in between other conversations), then called my friend back and played it to him. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/30 "2009-08-12T15:20:50Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > Apparently yes! This was in the mid-80s so the synth took much longer to programme than his current one. Took him most of the afternoon to programme it (in between other conversations), then called my friend back and played it to him. I have nothing else to add except: Stephen Hawking = 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/31 "2009-08-12T19:36:48Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > Apparently yes! This was in the mid-80s so the synth took much longer to programme than his current one. Took him most of the afternoon to programme it (in between other conversations), then called my friend back and played it to him. You know, now I think I understand the meaning of “now I can die in peace.” By the way, Hawking just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In fact I think I’ll start a separate thread about that. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/32 "2009-08-12T21:26:57Z")
Professor Hawking has a [retort](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6017878/Stephen-Hawking-I-would-not-be-alive-without-the-NHS.html) for the newspaper dweebs and others. I’d like to hear him say “stuff it” through his synthesizer. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/33 "2009-08-12T21:37:07Z")
Well, he was almost poached by the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo tlast year… another place in a country with socialized health care (unless you need to see a dentist). > [@teela\_brown](#): > > Professor Hawking has a [retort](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6017878/Stephen-Hawking-I-would-not-be-alive-without-the-NHS.html) for the newspaper dweebs and others. Of course he has a retort. He’s a scientist! No wait, that’s chemists, not physicists. 🙂 He also has a [robotic exoskeleton](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39133), at least according to one of my favourite Onion stories. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/34 "2009-08-12T22:19:55Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Well, he was almost poached by the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo tlast year… another place in a country with socialized health care (unless you need to see a dentist). Of course he has a retort. He’s a scientist! Yes, I was quite excited when I heard that, and equally disappointed when I found out he wouldn’t be coming after all. It would have been quite a feather in Waterloo’s hat. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/35 "2009-08-13T04:30:04Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Just out of curiosity, did you know he is at Cambridge? > > I thought it was widely know that he holds the same seat Isaac Newton once did (the [Lucasian Professor of Mathematics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasian_Professor_of_Mathematics)) but maybe I was mistaken. I know nothing of mathematics (what I did learn I promptly unlearned), but even I knew that. How comes people don’t know about the most famous living scientist in the world? And a journalist? Writing about him? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/36 "2009-08-13T04:42:25Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > How comes people don’t know about the most famous living scientist in the world? Because even the most famous scientist in the world still isn’t nearly as famous as Paris Hilton. Sad but true. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/37 "2009-08-13T11:46:32Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > I know nothing of mathematics (what I did learn I promptly unlearned), but even I knew that. > > How comes people don’t know about the most famous living scientist in the world? And a journalist? Writing about him? > > 😕 Because he wasn’t writing about Stephen Hawking. He was making “the abortion point” - “What if Einstein’s mother had aborted him - see abortion is bad because of the unforeseen consequences” - so he needed a person in need of massive health care who is famous and who has unarguably contributed a lot. That list is pretty short. And Hawking has the additional advantage of being able to be substituted in the argument for Einstein (who is pretty commonly used in that argument for reasons beyond me) as all physicists are swappable under the substitution principle of mathematics. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/38 "2009-08-13T12:05:15Z")
Cleverly put, **Dangerosa** , and all too true. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/39 "2009-08-13T12:28:33Z")
If Hawking can survive 40+ years on NHS, he can survive American Health Care. I knew he was British, lucasian and stuff. I don’t understand a damn thing about what he teaches, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993/40 "2009-08-13T15:16:05Z")
Giving Investor’s Business Daily the benefit of the doubt, they might have exactly measured Hawking’s impulse. In that case they could not have known his position. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investor-s-business-daily-idiot-journalist-think-stephen-hawking-is-american/505993.md?page=3)