Black hole

October 24, 2017 8:10 AM

You can now read Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis online. Or perhaps not. Though apparently even the mighty Hawkings can make a mistake.
posted by fearfulsymmetry (14 comments total)

Surely a claculated mistake.
posted by Fizz at 8:12 AM on October 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Although, to be fair, it was probably the mistake of who typed it up.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:15 AM on October 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

He probably had nothing to do with the availability apart from authorising it.
posted by Burn_IT at 8:16 AM on October 24, 2017

There is no mention of 'claculated' in the Collins English Dictionary or Cambridge Dictionary.

Pffft. I bet those crappy dictionaries don't have "snorgled" or "frimulector" either.
posted by flabdablet at 8:53 AM on October 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Claculate: to solve a mathematical or arithmetic problem by sending it over the clacks to an expert, who will then clacks the answer back to you with a turnaround time dependent on your chosen pricing tier.
posted by inconstant at 9:13 AM on October 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Having written a dissertation, I cringe when I see the two or three typos and grammatical mistakes that survived through word processing and editing. But when you're working with several hundred pages, and are author, typist, and editor, a few of these things are bound to get through.
posted by phenylphenol at 9:21 AM on October 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Way back in the bad old days, Little Pogo's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad handwriting got his English teacher to command that he could not hand in any un-typed homework. So, Pogo dutifully skipped hockey practice so he could stay after school and type up his papers on a rickety POS typewriter in the typing lab at school, and then walk home in the dark. Every typo was -10 points because "Attention to detail is VERY IMPORTANT in the REAL WORLD, Little Pogo" so, Pogo would get to the end of a page, make some silly mistake, and have to start all over from the beginning.

I tried really, really hard. But, at some point, I ran out of fucks.

I learned important lessons that year. After about 1985 or so, exactly zero people cared that I flunked 8th grade English, despite all the adults being "OMG YOU HAVE RUINED YOUR FUTURE". Also, reading books in the bedroom I was grounded to because I didn't do my English homework was a far more rewarding use of my time than putting all that effort only to fail anyway, but the idiot grownups thought that was a punishment.

It was much later that I learned what Perverse Incentives are called, despite having so much experience with them.

It's a real shame Dr. Hawking didn't learn the importance of attention to detail as I did. He surely was poorly served by his education.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:30 AM on October 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Claculated is a perfectly cromulent word.
posted by Splunge at 11:06 AM on October 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Stevie made a mistake? How adorabable.
posted by mule98J at 11:28 AM on October 24, 2017

My errors being publicly scrotomized like this is exactly why I will never release my sure to be groundbreaking PHP thesis.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:47 AM on October 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Though apparently even the mighty Hawkings can make a mistake.

I see what you did there.
posted by briank at 12:41 PM on October 24, 2017

Claculated is a perfectly cromulent word.

*cromluent
posted by augustimagination at 1:39 PM on October 24, 2017

I saw him speak once, at the Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City. I read the easy book, and his talk was grand.
posted by Oyéah at 1:43 PM on October 24, 2017

I see what you did there.

Nerdcore 4 Life
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:05 AM on October 25, 2017