Tuesday, August 11, 2009

You can't make up this stuff!

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."
[How House Bill Runs Over Grandma, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, July 31, 2009]
Uh... Stephen Hawking DOES live in the U.K. - he holds Newton's old chair at Cambridge (Lucasian Professor of Mathematics)!

As it turns out, he's lived his entire life in the U.K.:
Born: 8 January 1942; Oxford, England.

After Stephen was born, the family moved back to London, where his father headed the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research.
...
In 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans in Hertfordshire where he attended St Albans School from 1950 to 1953. ...
He enrolled at University College, Oxford with the intent of studying mathematics... After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford University in 1962, he stayed to study astronomy.
He left Oxford for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology...
...
After gaining his Ph.D., Stephen became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.

Hawking was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989.
[Wikepedia entry, Stephen Hawking]
Tell me again how the U.K. healthcare system would've killed him???

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