Virtual events

CaravanSerai

Riverwalk What about Stephen Fry and Ben Miller? Entertainers but also very knowledgable and articulate on a wide range of subjects.

IMO I wouldn't say they were - I think they are both very clever but as far as I know only 'arty', for the want of a better description!

Anyway I am looking forward to what happens in the cruise when it reaches Arles. I am hoping to learn something

You may indeedy SD ?????

StarDreamer

Riverwalk

Polymath doesn't mean having a wide range of interests, and it's unusual for someone to claim this attribute - it's for others to describe someone as such.

I think it means someone who has interests in both the sciences and the arts.

I don't think that on its own it implies greatness.

Like poet, playwright, and author do not imply whether the poems, plays or writing produced has quality.

Like copyright in something is not in any way based on an assessment of merit in the quality of the work.

Well you are wrong there

StarDreamer

But is the Greek root matheos meaning information

Thus many and information.

πολυμαθής (polumathḗs, “having learnt much”), from ; πολύς (polús, “much”) + ; μάθη (máthē) (mathē, “learning”; from ; μανθάνω (manthánō), manthanō “I learn”); ...

When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath.
Exactly

Knowledge and learning - not just an interest.
You really seem to have an incredibly inflated opinion of your knowledge and learning.
Another word of Greek origin springs to mind - hubris
And hubris leads to nemesis

Riverwalk What about Stephen Fry and Ben Miller? Entertainers but also very knowledgable and articulate on a wide range of subjects.

Polymaths are so rare, in fact in recent times I can only think of the late Dr Jonathan Miller; and maybe Brian May of Queen!

But is the Greek root matheos meaning information

Thus many and information.

CaravanSerai

Yes, Riverwalk is spot on. Burton, Smeaton, Sacks, Eliot and many other reknowned writers all described others. It is considered pretentious to describe oneself as such.

> It is considered pretentious to describe oneself as such.

By whom?

MawtheMerrier

Riverwalk

Polymath doesn't mean having a wide range of interests, and it's unusual for someone to claim this attribute - it's for others to describe someone as such.

I’m glad you point this out Riverwalk
I was too gobsmacked at SD’s description of himself and claim to be a polymath
In case there is any doubt-
You can think of a polymath as a classic "Renaissance man." Imagine Leonardo da Vinci, for example, who was not only an amazing artist, but also an engineer, inventor, mathematician, and much more. When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath. The Greek word for it is polymathes, "having learned much," with poly meaning "much," and manthanein meaning "learn."

In short,

Definition of polymath
(noun ) *person of great and varied learning*

When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath.

Exactly.

Yes, Riverwalk is spot on. Burton, Smeaton, Sacks, Eliot and many other reknowned writers all described others. It is considered pretentious to describe oneself as such.

Riverwalk

Polymath doesn't mean having a wide range of interests, and it's unusual for someone to claim this attribute - it's for others to describe someone as such.

I think it means someone who has interests in both the sciences and the arts.

I don't think that on its own it implies greatness.

Like poet, playwright, and author do not imply whether the poems, plays or writing produced has quality.

Like copyright in something is not in any way based on an assessment of merit in the quality of the work.

Riverwalk

Polymath doesn't mean having a wide range of interests, and it's unusual for someone to claim this attribute - it's for others to describe someone as such.

I’m glad you point this out Riverwalk
I was too gobsmacked at SD’s description of himself and claim to be a polymath
In case there is any doubt-
You can think of a polymath as a classic "Renaissance man." Imagine Leonardo da Vinci, for example, who was not only an amazing artist, but also an engineer, inventor, mathematician, and much more. When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath. The Greek word for it is polymathes, "having learned much," with poly meaning "much," and manthanein meaning "learn."

In short,

Definition of polymath
(noun ) person of great and varied learning

Germanshepherdsmum

I have no idea what he means. Who on earth keeps an eye on viewing numbers of videos? Anyway I haven’t contributed to any increase in viewings. I found the ‘controlled’ cruise very boring. Do you ever read the room SD?

You wrote (though I'm sure we all enjoy visits to museums and other forms of culture in their place, which isn't on GN)

There is a Culture/Arts forum. Though I accept I did place the thread about the virtual cruise in Chat.

Well, it was not controlled, but it was polite, civilised and friendly. But some, though not all, people departed from that.

Interesting though, in a sort of Heisenberg effect sort of way that a comment made in this thread was pastiched in the cruise thread, by which I mean that mentioning the cruise thread in this thread had the effect of altering the cruise thread.

Would it be alright if I started another virtual cruise in the Culture/Arts forum with a title starting with Virtual cultural cruise^? Would that be better?

That would not prevent another Chat cruise being started too.

Anyway I am looking forward to what happens in the cruise when it reaches Arles. I am hoping to learn something.

Polymath doesn't mean having a wide range of interests, and it's unusual for someone to claim this attribute - it's for others to describe someone as such.

But what neither of us know is how many people were quietly enjoying the virtual cruise as it was. I know that the view figures of the videos to which I linked increased after I posted links

I don’t believe you know anything of the sort!
As for “quietly enjoying g the cruise” , on the whole, threads on GN are interactive not a monologue by somebody who does not him or herself know anything about their subject.
Rehashing links from YouTube or Google would not cut it in any schools or U3A lecture
Most people had long since jumped ship and the thread was in serious danger of being scuttled - don’t you remember asking where everybody was?
Not souvenir shopping - baled out!

I have no idea what he means. Who on earth keeps an eye on viewing numbers of videos? Anyway I haven’t contributed to any increase in viewings. I found the ‘controlled’ cruise very boring. Do you ever read the room SD?

StarDreamer

You are now stating what is not allowed as a topic on Gransnet.

Ah!

Who is?
And what isn’t “allowed” ?

You are now stating what is not allowed as a topic on Gransnet.

Ah!

But what neither of us know is how many people were quietly enjoying the virtual cruise as it was. I know that the view figures of the videos to which I linked increased after I posted links. Some of those could be from people not getting there from the link that i posted, but it did seem more than coincidence. One video that may have been there many years increased view count by one percent within a few hours of me posting a link to it.

I got told off by one woman and humiliated by the way she expressed herself, but hey ho.

What you really don't understand about GN, SD, is that those who post are not seeking to be educated. If I want further education in a topic that interests me I don't turn to GN. I doubt that any of us does. You don't share the same SOH or interests as the vast majority here. That is, quite simply, because you are an unmarried man who in all probability has never had a 'serious' girlfriend and therefore des not really understand women. That isn't criticism, its a statement of what I believe to be the fact. The virtual cruise flourished after you left because it was being driven by women with a similar SOH, looking for some fun rather than links to museums (though I'm sure we all enjoy visits to museums and other forms of culture in their place, which isn't on GN). Please try to understand what I have said and don't take it as criticism, but fact.

ixion

You may find this article of interest SD

www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20191118-what-shapes-a-polymath---and-do-we-need-them-more-than-ever

Thank you. I have now read that.

seamy or steamy. Or seedy

StarDreamer

Marsha

Did you meet anyone with a similar SOH?

It was in a free newspaper, there was always a page full, arranged in order of age. It was produced as a business activity, either free or very low cost to advertise, the money earned by people replying needing to make a telephone call to an "09 very expensive" telephone number.

As I recall, many of these ads were quite seamy and you had to read between the lines?
The days when a lady's vital statistics were added as an additional feature or - worse - when a man thought it not unreasonable to request his desired measurements.
Yuck.

CaravanSerai

Hubris is one of the great renewable resources - P. J. O'Rourke

Can it be used to produce energy?