Listosaurus Rex

I’m a list fiend, but even I draw the line sometimes. For example, ranking the one hundred most important people. Ever. Has there ever been a more brazen call for controversy?

Michael H. Hart is a bolder man than I, and developed this list in book form, available on Amazon, “A ranking of the most influential persons in history,” it’s subtitled. Here is the top fifteen:

1. Muhammad
2. Isaac Newton
3. Jesus
4. Buddha
5. Confucius
6. St. Paul
7. Ts’ai Lun
8. Johannes Gutenberg
9. Christopher Columbus
10. Albert Einstein

Some perusal of the Internet reveals that the biggest controversy of this top fifteen is whether Muhammad or Jesus deserves to be number one. I suppose if you’re Christian it’s hard to see anyone other than Jesus at number one because, you know, he’s the key to eternal life.

Hart argues that Jesus founded his religion, leaving only a small circle of disciples, whereas Muhammad founded a religion, spread it, was a public figure for many decades, and died with millions of followers.

Hart adds, though, that Christianity is a more widespread and influential religion than Islam, and is quick to point out that St. Paul, the main spark in the international spread of Christianity, is also in the top ten.

Isaac Newton essentially invented mechanics, the backbone of physics, and co-invented calculus. I remember learning about him in physics class and thinking to myself, “Holy crap, what did this guy not invent?” I was honestly not too shocked to see him so high.

Rounding out the top four is another important religious founder, The Buddha. At number five is philosopher Confucius, best known for developing a myriad of beliefs about morality and ethics. He was long considered the most quotable man in history until Oscar Wilde stole the title before Mark Twain finally snatched it and holds it still today.

This Hart character clearly thinks very highly of paper, as he has the inventor of paper and the inventor of the movable type at numbers seven and eight.

Christopher Columbus started the movement of colonization of the Americas, and also established the unfortunate precedent of mistreating Native Americans.

The most recent man in the top ten is Albert Einstein, who was also Time Magazine’s Man of the Century. Einstein redefined what humanity understood about the relationship between time, mass, and motion, and also redefined humanity’s stereotypes of smart people. In fact, “Einstein” is now a term that fourth grade bullies call kids who get A’s on their math tests.

If you want to see the rest of Hart’s top 100, you can check out this site, which also breaks down in more depth some of the religious issues.

This list is very thought-provoking, but it’s so political and personal that I think it’s more contrversy than it’s worth. But, hey, it could be worse. At least Paris Hilton isn’t included.

I’m not sure exactly when they released it, but here is VH1’s list of the greatest songs from the 1990s. It was originally a TV special, which I did not watch, so I do not have the full context, but they did release the list itself.

Drumroll, please. The top ten:

1. Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
2. U2 - “One”
3. Backstreet Boys - “I Want It That Way”
4. Whitney Houston - “I Will Always Love You”
5. Madonna - “Vogue”
6. Sir Mix-A-Lot - “Baby Got Back”
7. Britney Spears - “…Baby One More Time”
8. TLC - “Waterfalls”
9. R.E.M. - “Losing My Religion”
10. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U”

I definitely follow VH1’s reasoning… for two songs. Nirvana and U2: safe picks, great songs. Much has been written about how “Teen Spirit” shook up the entire music industry with its sound, lyrics, video, and attitude. And U2’s “One” is the most bittersweet song I’ve heard.

But, Backstreet Boys at number three. While that song encompasses everything that was good about the boy bands (catchy melodies, great vocals) while leaving out most of what was wrong with them, putting them at #3 is a big stretch.

The rest of the top ten is a little bit sketchy, too. I understand people accept Madonna as a very important figure in the industry, but I don’t really like “Vogue.” “Baby Got Back” is an acceptable guilty pleasure, in my opinion, but holds more camp value than anything else. Why not a Dre, Tupac, Nas, Jay-Z, or Eminem cut at that spot instead?

“…Baby One More Time” was, in all honesty, a good song. Good. Not great. Seriously, can any song which was on an album alongside a song called “E-Mail My Heart” be eligible for any sort of top ten?

Scanning the rest of the list, you definitely see some great songs, but also questionable picks. Spice Girls ahead of Oasis? Color Me Badd ahead of The Fugees? Christina Aguilera ahead of Weezer? I don’t know, man.

Overall, it’s a very interesting list with some great picks but also some duds. It seems like VH1 was using a combination of campiness and overall quality in making the picks. As the inclusion of MC Hammer proves.

One more time, the link.

I stumbled across this enormous list of The 100 Best NES Games Ever. It is quite comprehensive and excellent, featuring blurbs from several writers about each of the games. Here is their top ten:

1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Final Fantasy
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Mega Man 3
5. Mega Man 2
6. Bubble Bobble
7. Contra
8. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
9. Battletoads
10. Super Mario Bros

Kudos to them for being different from pretty much every video game site on the net and picking something besides the original Mario Bros. as their number one.

The site has a bit of a hardcore gamer spin to it, as opposed to someone like me, who’d classify himself as a “casual emulator” of NES games. The inclusion of the maddeningly hard Battletoads in the top ten is proof alone of that. But I think you have to be a bit hardcore to produce a list as extensive and detailed as theirs.

As someone who can really only list a couple dozen NES games off the top of my head, I think this list is an excellent resource at beginning to delve into the substantial library of old Nintendo gems. I plan to go scan some ROM sites tonight and check some of these games out.

Particularly cool is that they have plenty of little-heralded games up near the top with the big-name classics like Zelda, Mario, and FF. At #11 they have TMNT 2, at #17 they have something called Maniac Mansion which I’ve never heard of, at #28 a Duck Tales platformer which I never knew existed, and at #27 the generically-titled but awesome-looking robot-baseball game Base Wars. I look forward to trying all of these hidden gems out.

Funny, comprehensive, and well-done, this list is worth a look. You just might want to set aside an hour if you want to read everything they’ve written. Here’s the link again.