name	Thomas Sowell
school tradition	Chicago School of Economics
color	maroon
birth date	June 30, 1930
birth place	Gastonia, North Carolina
nationality	American
institution	Hoover Institution (1980–present)UCLA (1970–1972, 1974–1980)Urban Institute (1972–1974)Brandeis University (1969–1970)Cornell University (1965–1969)
field	Economics, Education, Politics, History, Race relations, Child development
education	Harvard University (B.A.) 1958Columbia University (M.A.) 1959University of Chicago (Ph.D.) 1969
influences	Milton Friedman, George Stigler, F. A. Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter
influenced	Clarence Thomas, Milton Friedman, Steven Pinker
awards	Military Service: United States Marine Corps, Corporal, Francis Boyer Award, National Humanities Medal, Bradley Prize, getAbstract International Book Award
repec prefix	| repec_id }}

Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a conservative and libertarian perspective. He is currently a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Sowell was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of high school, and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1958 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1959. In 1968, he earned his doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago.

Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell and University of California, Los Angeles, and worked for think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980 he has worked at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of more than 30 books.

Biography

An African-American, Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. His father died shortly before he was born, and his mother, a house maid, already had four children. A great-aunt and her two grown daughters adopted Sowell and raised him. In his autobiography, ''A Personal Odyssey,'' he said his childhood encounters with white people were so limited that he did not believe blond was really a hair color. When Sowell was nine, his family moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Harlem, New York City. He attended Stuyvesant High School, the first in his family to study beyond the sixth grade. However, he was forced to drop out at age 17 because of financial difficulties and problems in his home. He worked at a number of jobs, including at a machine shop and as a delivery man for Western Union, and tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. Sowell was drafted in 1951, during the Korean War, and was assigned to the Marine Corps. Because of his experience in photography, he was assigned as a photographer, but he also trained Marines in .45 caliber pistol proficiency.

After his discharge, Sowell worked a civil service job in Washington, D.C. and attended night classes at Howard University, admitted on the basis of his General Education certificate. His high scores on the College Board exams and recommendations by two professors helped him gain admission to Harvard University, where he graduated ''magna cum laude'' in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. He received a Master of Arts from Columbia University the following year, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.

Sowell had initially chosen Columbia University to study under George Stigler (who would later receive the Nobel Prize in Economics). When he learned that Stigler had moved to the University of Chicago, he followed him there.

Sowell has taught economics at Howard University, Rutgers, Cornell, Brandeis University, Amherst College, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he holds a fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman, his mentor.

In 1987, Sowell testified in favor of federal appeals court judge Robert Bork during the hearings for Bork's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. In his testimony, Sowell said that Bork was "the most highly qualified nominee of this generation" and that judicial activism, a concept that Bork opposed, "has not been beneficial to minorities."

Sowell has stated that he was a Marxist “during the decade of my 20s"; one of his earliest professional publications was a sympathetic examination of Marxist thought vs. Marxist-Leninist practice. His experience working as a federal government intern during the summer of 1960 caused him to reject Marxian economics in favor of free market economic theory. During his work, Sowell discovered a correlation between the rise of mandated minimum wages for workers in the sugar industry of Puerto Rico and the rise of unemployment in that industry. Studying the patterns led Sowell to theorize that the government employees who administered the minimum wage law cared more about their own jobs than the plight of the poor.

Writings

Sowell is both a syndicated columnist and an academic economist.

Besides scholarly writing, Sowell has written books, articles, and syndicated columns for a general audience in such publications as ''Forbes Magazine'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', and major newspapers. He is a regular contributor to GOPUSA, a conservative web and email newsletter run by Endeavor Media Group, LLC. He primarily writes on economic subjects, generally advocating a free market approach to capitalism. Sowell, whose autobiography describes his serious study of Brady McGarry, opposes Marxism, providing a critique in his book ''Marxism: Philosophy and Economics''.

Sowell also writes on racial topics and is a critic of affirmative action and race based quotas. While often described as a black conservative, he prefers not to be labeled, and considers himself more libertarian than conservative.

In another departure from economics, Sowell wrote ''The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late'', a follow-up to his ''Late-Talking Children''. This book investigates the phenomenon of late-talking children, frequently misdiagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. He includes the research of—among others—Professor Stephen Camarata, Ph.D., of Vanderbilt University and Professor Steven Pinker, Ph.D., of Harvard University in this overview of a poorly understood developmental trait. It is a trait which he says affected many historical figures. He includes famous late-talkers such as physicists Albert Einstein, Edward Teller and Richard Feynman; mathematician Julia Robinson; and musicians Arthur Rubenstein and Clara Schumann. The book and its contributing researchers make a case for the theory that some children develop unevenly (asynchronous development) for a period in childhood due to rapid and extraordinary development in the analytical functions of the brain. This may temporarily “rob resources” from neighboring functions such as language development. The book contradicts Simon Baron-Cohen’s speculation that Einstein may have had Asperger syndrome (see also people speculated to have been autistic).

Themes of Sowell’s writing range from social policy on race, ethnic groups, education and decision-making, to classical and Marxist economics, to the problems of children perceived as having disabilities.

In ''Intelligence and Ethnicity'', Sowell argues that IQ gaps are hardly startling or unusual between, or within, ethnic groups. He notes that the roughly 15-point gap in contemporary black–white IQ scores is similar to that between the national average and the scores of particular ethnic white groups in years past.

Sowell has also written a trilogy of books on ideologies and political positions, including ''A Conflict of Visions'' where he speaks about the origins of political strife, The Vision of the Anointed, where he compares the conservative/libertarian and liberal/progressive worldviews,''The Quest for Cosmic Justice'', where, like in many of his other writings, he outlines his thesis of the need for intellectuals, politicians and leaders to fix and perfect the world in utopian, and ultimately he posits, disastrous fashions. Separate from the trilogy, but also in discussion of the subject, he wrote ''Intellectuals and Society'', where he discusses what he argues to be the blind hubris and follies of intellectuals in a variety of areas, building on his earlier work.

Sowell takes strong issue with the notion of government as a helper or savior of minorities, arguing that the historical record shows quite the opposite.

Sowell also challenges the notion that black progress is due to progressive government programs or policies, in ''The Economics and Politics of Race,'' (1983), ''Ethnic America'' (1981), ''Affirmative Action'' (2004), and other books. He claims that many problems identified with blacks in modern society are hardly unique in terms of American ethnic groups, nor in terms of a rural proletariat swept by disruption as it became urbanized, discussed in his book ''Black Rednecks and White Liberals''.

In ''Affirmative Action Around the World'' Sowell holds that affirmative action covers most of the American population, particularly women, and has long since ceased to be directed towards blacks.

Columns

Sowell has a nationally syndicated column distributed by Creators Syndicate that appears in various newspapers, as well as online on websites such as Townhall, WorldNetDaily, OneNewsNow and the ''Jewish World Review''.

Sowell comments on issues he considers to be problematic in modern-day society, which include liberal media bias; judicial activism (while staunchly defending originalism); partial birth abortion; the minimum wage; socializing health care; government undermining of familial autonomy; affirmative action; government bureaucracy; militancy in U.S. foreign policy; the U.S. war on drugs, and multiculturalism.

Sowell supports free market and pro-growth economics. In one column he criticized as socialism for the rich certain policies which he describes as benefiting the wealthy at the expense of the poor.

Sowell in a Townhall editorial, "The Bush Legacy," assessed President George W. Bush, deeming him "a mixed bag," but "an honorable man."

Sowell also favors decriminalization of all drugs.

In November, 2011, a column fiercely critical of "Obama's America" and falsely attributed to Sowell was circulated on the Internet.

Critical reception

Awards

In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 1998 he received the Sydney Hook Award from the National Association of Scholars. In 2002, Sowell was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. In 2003, he was awarded the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement. In 2004 he was given a Lysander Spooner Award for his book Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One. In 2008, getAbstract awarded his book ''Economic Facts and Fallacies'' with its International Book Award.

Controversies

Sowell has been criticized for an editorial for ''Investor's Business Daily'' asserting that President Barack Obama had no legal authority to get BP to create a $20 relief fund for the BP oil spill, which he paralleled with extra-legal actions by Adolf Hitler. This was criticized by liberal groups such as the Democratic National Committee. However, Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Representative Louie Gohmert endorsed Sowell's comparison.

Sowell was also criticized for an editorial in which he stated that the Democratic Party played the Race card, instigating ethnic divisions and separatism, and argued that a similar situation occurred between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda.

Economics

''The Economist'' magazine praised Sowell's books ''Affirmative Action Around the World'' as "terse, well argued and utterly convincing" and "crammed with striking anecdotes and statistics" and ''Economic Facts and Fallacies'': "Mr Sowell marshals his arguments with admirable clarity and authority. There is not a chapter in which he does not produce a statistic that both surprises and overturns received wisdom."

The Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen reached conclusions inconsistent with Sowell's research of price gouging.

Reviewing Sowell's 1984 book ''Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?'', University of Chicago sociologist William Julius Wilson said that Sowell did not explore "reasonable alternative explanations and hypotheses" in his critiques of affirmative action. For instance, regarding Sowell's theory that women are underrepresented in fields like law and engineering because of the heavy responsibilities of marriage such as childrearing and other household work: "A plausible alternative to Mr. Sowell's hypothesis on women's pay differentials and occupational segregation is that women are virtually excluded from many desirable positions and therefore crowd into obtainable occupations." Sowell since then has written on affirmative action in an international context to address such criticisms in two books (Preferential Policies, Affirmative Action Around the World) and has written about pay differentials and occupational segregation in ''Economic Facts and Fallacies''.

Sowell was once attacked by Patricia Roberts Harris, official at the Jimmy Carter Administration, because, according to her, being raised in a middle class family Sowell "don't know what poverty is". Sowell dismissed her position as "intellectual bankcruptcy" replying "[He] was almost 9 years old before [he] lived in a home with [hot] running water" and that he and Harris attended the same college in different conditions: while "[he] worked full time and went to school at night" Harris "was a campus social leader in an "exclusive sorority" - meaning that it was for middle-class (light-skinned) women."

Career highlights

Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, September 1980–present

Professor of Economics, UCLA, July 1974–June 1980

Visiting Professor of Economics, Amherst College, September–December 1977

Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, April–August 1977

Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, July 1976–March 1977

Project Director, The Urban Institute, August 1972–July 1974

Associate Professor of Economics, UCLA, September 1970–June 1972

Associate Professor of Economics, Brandeis University, September 1969–June 1970

Assistant Professor of Economics, Cornell University, September 1965–June 1969

Economic Analyst, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., June 1964–August 1965

Lecturer in Economics, Howard University, September 1963–June 1964

Instructor in Economics, Douglass College, Rutgers University, September 1962–June 1963

Labor Economist, U.S. Department of Labor, June 1961–August 1962

Books by Sowell

2011. 2010. 2010. 2010. 2009. 2008. 2007. 2007. 2007. 2006. 2006. 2005. 2004.

2004. ''Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy'', revised and expanded ed. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-08145-2 (1st ed. 2000)

2003. ''Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One'', ISBN 0-465-08143-6

2002. ''The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late'', ISBN 0-465-08141-X

2002. ''Controversial Essays'', ISBN 0-8179-2992-4

2002. ''A Personal Odyssey'', ISBN 0-684-86465-7

2002. ''The Quest For Cosmic Justice'', ISBN 0-684-86463-0

1998. ''Conquests and Cultures: An International History'', ISBN 0-465-01400-3

1996. ''Migrations and Cultures: A World View'', ISBN 0-465-04589-8 OCLC 41748039

1996. ''The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy''. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-08995-X

1995. ''Race and Culture: A World View''. Description & chapter previews. ISBN 0-465-06796-4

1993. ''Inside American Education'', ISBN 0-7432-5408-2

1990. ''Preferential Policies: An International Perspective'', ISBN 0-688-08599-7

1987. ''A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles''. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-06912-6

1987. ''Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays''. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-07114-7

1986. ''Education: Assumptions Versus History''. Hoover Press, ISBN 0-8179-8112-8

1985. ''Marxism: Philosophy and Economics''. Quill, ISBN 0-688-06426-4

1984. ''Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?'' William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-03113-7

1983. ''The Economics and Politics of Race''. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-01891-2

1981. ''Ethnic America: A History''. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-02074-7

1981. ''Markets and Minorities''. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-04399-2

1980. ''Knowledge and Decisions''. Basic Books.

1975. ''Race and Economics''. David McKay Company Inc, ISBN 0-679-30262-X

1972. ''Say's Law, An Historical Analysis''. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04166-0

See also

List of newspaper columnists

References

External links

Thomas Sowell’s home page

*Complete list of writings

Thomas Sowell Features at Creators Syndicate

Column archive at Townhall.com

Free Podcasts of Sowell’s recent articles

Archive of Articles by Thomas Sowell at JewishWorldReview.com

Book review of ''The Einstein Syndrome'' by Isabelle Rapin, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Snopes.com on Various articles attributed to Thomas Sowell

Articles and interviews

'Uncommon Knowledge' Interviews (2008-2011)

'The George Jarkesy Show : Sowell on Derrick Bell, Critical Race Theory and Obama Mentors (2012)

''Booknotes'' interview with Sowell on ''Preferential Policies'', June 10, 1990.

Fox News - 'In the Right Direction' interview (2005)

C-SPAN ''Q&A;'' interview with Sowell, April 17, 2005

"A Dangerous Obsession" — Part I II, III, IV, and V

"Too “Complex”?" — Part I, II, & III

"Alice in Health Care" — Part I, II, III, IV

"The 'Costs' of Medical Care" — Part I, II, III, IV

Socialism for the rich by Thomas Sowell (October 6, 2006)

“10 Questions With Thomas Sowell”, John Hawkins, ''Right Wing News''. Sowell on flat-tax vs. progressive tax, rent-control, balanced budget amendments, protectionist tariffs, poverty and welfare, profit-restriction, illegal immigration, a weak dollar vs. a strong dollar, affirmative action, and reparations.

'Uncommon Knowledge' discussion of affirmative action

Economic Fallacies -- Interview with Thomas Sowell by Bill Steigerwald

Thomas Sowell- Columns on Jewish World Review website

“Race and IQ” Detailed discussion of Race and IQ including techniques that have masked the improvement of black IQ scores.

“Choosing a College” — discusses benefits and costs including college quality, size, specialty, intellectual rigor, social, political and sexual environment of today’s campuses. Recommends hard-nosed parental analysis (including campus visits) that ignores PR fluff and focuses on the bottom line

“Affirmative Action around the World” - critical analysis of Affirmative Action and its failures worldwide.

Salon interview with Sowell

Audio interview with National Review Online

Sowell on Economic Facts and Fallacies: Audio interview

Sowell en español

Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:African American academics Category:African American social scientists Category:American columnists Category:American economics writers Category:American economists Category:American libertarians Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:Brandeis University faculty Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Hoover Institution people Category:Howard University alumni Category:Howard University faculty Category:Libertarian theorists Category:Libertarian economists Category:National Humanities Medal recipients Category:National Review people Category:People from Charlotte, North Carolina Category:People from Harlem Category:People from Palo Alto, California Category:Rutgers University faculty Category:Scholars of Marxism Category:Stuyvesant High School alumni Category:United States Marines Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Human Events people

bg:Томас Соуел da:Thomas Sowell de:Thomas Sowell es:Thomas Sowell fr:Thomas Sowell ko:토머스 소웰 nl:Thomas Sowell pl:Thomas Sowell pt:Thomas Sowell sh:Thomas Sowell sv:Thomas Sowell

birthname	Stephan Gary Wozniak
birth date	August 11, 1950
birth place	San Jose, California, U.S.
occupation	Computer scientistElectrical engineer
alma mater
networth	US$100 million (2011)
spouse
children	3
website
alias	Woz }}

Stephan Gary "Woz" Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) is an American computer engineer and programmer who founded Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Wozniak created the Apple I computer and co-created the Apple II computer in the mid-1970s, which contributed significantly to the microcomputer revolution of that era.

Nicknames

Wozniak has been referred to frequently by the nickname "Woz" or "The Woz"; "WoZ" (short for "Wheels of Zeus") is also the name of a company Wozniak founded.

Apple Computer

Origins of Apple

Wozniak met Steve Jobs when fellow Homestead High School student, Bill Fernandez, introduced them to each other. In 1970, they became friends when Jobs worked for the summer at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where Wozniak was working on a mainframe computer. According to Wozniak's autobiography, ''iWoz'', Jobs had the idea to sell a computer as a fully assembled printed circuit board. Wozniak, at first skeptical, was later convinced by Jobs that even if they were not successful they could at least say to their grandkids they had had their own company. Together they sold some of their possessions (such as Wozniak's HP scientific calculator and Jobs' Volkswagen van), raised USD $1,300, and assembled the first prototypes in Jobs' bedroom and later (when there was no space left) in Jobs' garage. Wozniak's apartment in San Jose was filled with monitors, electronic devices, and some computer games Wozniak had developed.

By 1971, one year after enrolling, Wozniak withdrew from the University of California, Berkeley and developed the computer that eventually made him famous. By himself he designed the hardware, circuit board designs, and operating system for the Apple I. With the Apple I design, he and Jobs were largely working to impress other members of the Palo Alto-based Homebrew Computer Club, a local group of electronics hobbyists very interested in computing. The Club was one of several key centers which established the home hobbyist era, essentially creating the microcomputer industry over several years. Unlike other Homebrew designs, the Apple had an easy-to-achieve video capability that immediately created buzz and drew a crowd when it was unveiled.

On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed Apple Computer. Wozniak quit his job at Hewlett-Packard and became the vice president in charge of research and development at Apple. Their first product, the Apple I computer, was similar to the Altair 8800, the first commercially available microcomputer, except it had no provision for internal expansion cards. With the addition of expansion cards, the Altair could be attached to a computer terminal and could be programmed in BASIC. The Apple I was purely a hobbyist machine, a $25 microprocessor (MOS 6502) on a single-circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM, 4K or 8K bytes of RAM and a 40-character by 24-row display controller. It lacked a case, power supply, keyboard, or display, which had to be provided by the user.

The Apple I was priced at $666.66. (Wozniak later said he had no idea about the relation between the number and the mark of the beast, and "I came up with [it] because I like repeating digits." It was $500 plus a 1/3 markup, which is actually $666.67, rounding up to the nearest penny.) Jobs and Wozniak sold their first 50 system boards to Paul Terrell, who was starting a new computer shop, called the Byte Shop, in Mountain View, California.

Airplane crash

In February 1981, Wozniak was injured in a private plane crash taking off from the Santa Cruz Sky Park. The cause of the crash was determined to be premature liftoff. He was unable to recall details of the crash and, for many weeks after being released from the hospital, did not realize he had been in a crash at all. He says he wandered around in a haze and did not report to work, thinking every day was a weekend day. He did not remember one day to the next, and needed to be told how to get to places familiar to him. After questioning his wife, he finally began to figure out what had happened, after which his memory began operating correctly again.

Employment with Apple

Wozniak did not immediately return to Apple after having recovered from the crash. Instead, he married Candice Clark and returned to UC Berkeley under the name "Rocky Clark" (Rocky Raccoon was his dog's name and Clark his wife's maiden name), finally earning his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering & computer sciences (EECS) in 1986. In May 1982 and 1983, Wozniak also sponsored two US Festivals to celebrate evolving technologies; they ended up as a technology exposition and a rock festival as a combination of music, computers, television and people.

In 1983 he returned to Apple product development, desiring no more of a role than that of an engineer and a motivational factor for the Apple workforce.

Wozniak permanently ended his full-time employment with Apple on February 6, 1987, 12 years after having created the company. He still remains an employee and receives a small token paycheck, est. to be roughly 120k per year. He is also an Apple shareholder. He also maintained connections with Steve Jobs until Jobs' death in October 2011, although in 2006 Wozniak stated that he and Jobs were not close friends.

Post-Apple career

Wozniak founded a new venture called CL 9, which developed and brought the first programmable universal remote control to market in 1987. Wozniak also taught fifth-grade students.

In 2001, Wozniak co-founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ), to create wireless GPS technology to "help everyday people find everyday things." In 2002, he joined the Board of Directors of Ripcord Networks, Inc., joining Ellen Hancock, Gil Amelio, Mike Connor, and Wheels of Zeus co-founder Alex Fielding, all Apple alumni, in a new telecommunications venture. Later the same year he joined the Board of Directors of Danger, Inc., the maker of the Hip Top (a.k.a. Side Kick from T-Mobile).

In 2006, Wheels of Zeus was closed, and Wozniak founded Acquicor Technology, a holding company for acquiring technology companies and developing them, with Apple alumni Ellen Hancock and Gil Amelio.

In September 2006, Wozniak published his autobiography, ''iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.'' It was co-authored by writer Gina Smith.

In March 2006, Wozniak attended the FIRST National Competition in Atlanta to show off Lego robots. In 2010, he attended another FIRST event, a regional event in downtown Phoenix Arizona at the Arizona State Fairgrounds.

In February 2009, Steve Wozniak joined Fusion-io, a data storage and server company, in Salt Lake City, Utah as their chief scientist.

On November 18, 2010, Steve Wozniak gave a speech at the ''Science & Technology Summit'' at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague in which he predicted that Android would be dominant over the iPhone market-wise but the iPhone would retain the quality edge.

On June 9, 2011, Wozniak joined members of Fusion-io’s management team to celebrate the company’s first day of trading on the NYSE by ringing The Opening Bell.

On October 20, 2011, Wozniak delivered a keynote presentation entitled "Today’s Science Fiction, Tomorrow’s Science Fact" at IP EXPO, a Computer expo which takes place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London.

On November 14, 2011, Steve Wozniak was the keynote speaker at "Rutgers Entrepreneurship Day" at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Philanthropy

Since leaving Apple, Wozniak has provided all the money, as well as a good amount of on-site technical support, for the technology program in his local school district. Un.U.Son. (Unite Us In Song), an organization Wozniak formed to organize the two US Festivals, is now primarily tasked with supporting his educational and philanthropic projects. In 1986, Wozniak lent his name to the ''Stephen G. Wozniak Achievement Awards'' (referred to as ''Wozzie Awards''), which he presented to six Bay Area high school and college students for their innovative use of computers in the fields of business, art and music.

Honors and awards

In 1979, Wozniak was awarded the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award. In 1985, Wozniak received the National Medal of Technology (with Steve Jobs) from US President Ronald Reagan. In December 1989, he received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied in the late sixties. Later he donated funds to create the "Woz Lab" at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1997, he was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum. Wozniak was a key contributor and benefactor to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose; the street in front of the museum has been renamed Woz Way in his honor.

In September 2000, Wozniak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 2001 he was awarded the 7th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment. The American Humanist Association awarded him the Isaac Asimov Science Award in 2011.

In December 2005, Wozniak was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Kettering University. He also received honorary degrees from North Carolina State University and Nova Southeastern University, and the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology. In May 2011, Wozniak received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Michigan State University.

He was awarded the Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity Through IT in 2011.

Steve Wozniak's Honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees

University of Colorado at Boulder — 1989

Kettering University — 2005

North Carolina State University — 2005

Nova Southeastern University — 2005

ESPOL University in Ecuador — 2008

Michigan State University — 2011

Concordia University in Montreal Canada — June 22, 2011

State Engineering University of Armenia — November 11, 2011

Patents

Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor on the following patents: US Patent No. 4,136,359 — "Microcomputer for use with video display" — for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. US Patent No. 4,210,959 — "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like" US Patent No. 4,217,604 — "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display" US Patent No. 4,278,972 — "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"

Television appearances

After seeing her stand-up performance in Saratoga, California, Wozniak began dating comedian Kathy Griffin. Together, they attended the 2007 Emmy Awards, and he subsequently made many appearances on the fourth season of her show ''Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List''. Woz is on the show as her date for the Producers Guild of America award show. However, on a June 19, 2008 appearance on ''The Howard Stern Show'', Griffin confirmed that they were no longer dating and decided to remain friends.

Wozniak portrays a parody of himself in the first episode of the television series ''Code Monkeys''; he plays the owner of Gameavision before selling it to help fund Apple. He later appears again in the twelfth episode when he is in Las Vegas at the annual Video Game Convention and sees Dave and Jerry. He also appears in a parody of the "Get a Mac" ads featured in the final episode of ''Code Monkeys''' second season. Wozniak is also interviewed and featured in the documentary ''Hackers Wanted'' and on BBC.

Wozniak competed on Season 8 of ''Dancing with the Stars'' in 2009 where he danced with Karina Smirnoff. Despite Wozniak and Smirnoff receiving 10 combined points from the three judges out of 30, the lowest score of the evening, he remained in the competition. He later posted on a social networking site that he felt that the vote count was not legitimate and suggested that the ''Dancing with the Stars'' judges had lied about the vote count to keep him on the show. After being briefed on the method of judging and vote counting, he retracted and apologized for his statements. Despite suffering a pulled hamstring and a fracture in his foot, Wozniak continued to compete, but was eliminated from the competition on March 31, with a score of 12 out of 30 for an Argentine Tango.

On September 30, 2010, he appeared as himself on ''The Big Bang Theory'' Season 4 Episode 2 Titled "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification". While dining in The Cheesecake Factory where Penny works and is approached by a robot Sheldon, Leonard tries to explain to Penny who Steve is, but she says she knows him from ''Dancing with the Stars''.

Personal life

Wozniak's ancestry is possibly Polish on one side and German on the other, though Wozniak has said that "Either family might have come from the other country, or near the border." Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California.

He is a member of a Segway Polo team, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks. In 2006, they were challenged to a game by the newly formed New Zealand Pole Blacks (the Woz Challenge Cup); the match ended in a 2-2 tie, with the Woz Challenge Cup staying in Auckland. In 2007, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks avenged the tie by defeating the Pole Blacks 5-0 in the Woz Challenge Cup finals. The 2008 Woz Challenge Cup was held at the SegwayFesT 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 8–10, 2008 (polo events ran August 7–9). Sept 30 through October 2, 2011, Woz played Segway Polo in the Zurich Cup in Berchtesgaden, Germany. He played for the Funky Move Turtles team which placed 7th in the tournament.

His favorite video game is ''Tetris''. In the 1990s he submitted so many high scores for the game to ''Nintendo Power'' that they would no longer print his scores, so he started sending them in under the alphabetically reversed "Evets Kainzow".

He is also a member of the Freemasons. Wozniak describes his impetus for joining the Freemasons as being able to spend more time with his wife at the time, Alice. Alice belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, associated with the Masons. Wozniak has said that he quickly rose to a third degree Freemason because, whatever he does, he tries to do well. He was initiated in 1979 at Charity Lodge No. 362 in Campbell, California, now part of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 292 in Los Gatos, California.

He is married to Janet Hill. According to his ex-girlfriend Kathy Griffin, “He met someone very quickly and then they [got] engaged. I have had dinner with them, and she’s a thousand times more appropriate!”

See also

Blue box

''iWoz'' — an autobiography

''Pirates of Silicon Valley'' — A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft; Wozniak is portrayed by actor Joey Slotnick.

''Triumph of the Nerds'' — A documentary about the rise of the PC industry by Robert X. Cringely.

''Breakout''

References

External links

woz.org Wozniak's official site

"Apple Computer The Early Days A Personal Perspective" by Paul Laughton

How I Invented the Personal Computer discussion with Chris Kelley and Vintage Foster at Book Passage, September 2006

Creativity in the 21st Century conversation at the Discovery Forum 2010 at Bay Area Discovery Museum, February 2010

Interview with Steve Wozniak by Jessica Livingston

Videos

In Search of the Valley A 2006 documentary on Silicon Valley featuring Steve Wozniak

iWoz: From Computer Geek to Culture Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

Steve Wozniak interview on iWoz Book An hour long video interview by Guy Kawasaki, November, 2006

Steve Wozniak interviewed by Charlie Rose January 29, 2007

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name	Richard Dawkins
birth name	Clinton Richard Dawkins
birth date	March 26, 1941
birth place	Nairobi, Kenya Colony
nationality	British
education	MA, DPhil (Oxon)
alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
doctoral advisor	Nikolaas Tinbergen
doctoral students	Alan Grafen, Mark Ridley
occupation	Ethologist
years active	1967–present
employer	University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of Oxford
organization	Fellow of the Royal SocietyFellow of the Royal Society of Literature
known for	Gene-centered view of evolution, concept of the meme, as well as advocacy of atheism and science.
notable works	''The Selfish Gene'' (1976)''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982)''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1986)''The God Delusion'' (2006)
influences	Charles Darwin, Ronald Fisher, George C. Williams, W. D. Hamilton, Daniel Dennett, Bertrand Russell
spouse	Marian Stamp Dawkins (m. 1967–1984)Eve Barham (m. 1984–?)Lalla Ward (m. 1992–present)
children	Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984)
parents	Clinton John DawkinsJean Mary Vyvyan (née Ladner)
awards	Faraday Award (1990)Kistler Prize (2001)
website	The Richard Dawkins Foundation
footnotes	}}

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941), known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book ''The Selfish Gene'', which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term ''meme''. In 1982 he introduced an influential concept into evolutionary biology, presented in his book ''The Extended Phenotype'', that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.

Dawkins is an atheist, a vice president of the British Humanist Association, and a supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a ''blind'' watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—"a fixed false belief." As of January 2010 the English-language version has sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages.

Biography

Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His father, Clinton John Dawkins (1915–2010), returning to England in 1949, when Dawkins was eight. His father had inherited a country estate, Over Norton Park, which he turned into a commercial farm. Both his parents were interested in natural sciences; they answered Dawkins' questions in scientific terms.

Dawkins describes his childhood as "a normal Anglican upbringing". He was confirmed, and embraced Christianity until his mid-teens, at which point he concluded that the theory of evolution was a better explanation for life's complexity, and ceased believing in a god. Dawkins states: "the main residual reason why I was religious was from being so impressed with the complexity of life and feeling that it had to have a designer, and I think it was when I realised that Darwinism was a far superior explanation that pulled the rug out from under the argument of design. And that left me with nothing." Dawkins' research in this period concerned models of animal decision-making.

From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. During this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became heavily involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 taking a position as a lecturer, and in 1990, as a reader in zoology. In 1995 he was appointed Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position that had been endowed by Charles Simonyi with the express intention that the holder "be expected to make important contributions to the public understanding of some scientific field", and that its first holder should be Richard Dawkins.

Since 1970 he has been a fellow of New College. He has delivered a number of inaugural and other lectures, including the Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1989), first Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture (1990), Michael Faraday Lecture (1991), T. H. Huxley Memorial Lecture (1992), Irvine Memorial Lecture (1997), Sheldon Doyle Lecture (1999), Tinbergen Lecture (2004) and Tanner Lectures (2003). In 1991 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children. He has also served as editor of a number of journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the ''Encarta Encyclopedia'' and the ''Encyclopedia of Evolution''. He is a senior editor of the Council for Secular Humanism's ''Free Inquiry'' magazine, for which he also writes a column. He has been a member of the editorial board of ''Skeptic'' magazine since its foundation.

He has sat on judging panels for awards as diverse as the Royal Society's Faraday Award and the British Academy Television Awards, and has been president of the Biological Sciences section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004 Balliol College, Oxford instituted the Dawkins Prize, awarded for "outstanding research into the ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare and survival may be endangered by human activities". In September 2008, he retired from his professorship, announcing plans to "write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in 'anti-scientific' fairytales."

Personal life

On 19 August 1967, Dawkins married fellow ethologist Marian Stamp in Annestown, County Waterford, Ireland; they divorced in 1984. Later that same year, on 1 June, he married Eve Barham (19 August 1951–28 February 1999) in Oxford. They had a daughter, Juliet Emma Dawkins (born 1984, Oxford). Dawkins and Barham also divorced and she later died of cancer. In 1992 he married actress Lalla Ward in Kensington and Chelsea, London. Dawkins met her through their mutual friend Douglas Adams, who had worked with her on the BBC's ''Doctor Who''.

Work

Evolutionary biology

In his scientific works, Dawkins is best known for his popularisation of the gene-centred view of evolution. This view is most clearly set out in his books ''The Selfish Gene'' (1976), where he notes that "all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities", and ''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982), in which he describes natural selection as "the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other". In his role as an ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he advocates the idea that the gene is the principal unit of selection in evolution.

Dawkins has consistently been sceptical about non-adaptive processes in evolution (such as spandrels, described by Gould and Lewontin) and about selection at levels "above" that of the gene. He is particularly sceptical about the practical possibility or importance of group selection as a basis for understanding altruism. This behaviour appears at first to be an evolutionary paradox, since helping others costs precious resources and decreases one's own fitness. Previously, many had interpreted this as an aspect of group selection: individuals were doing what was best for the survival of the population or species as a whole, and not specifically for themselves. British evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton had used the gene-centred view to explain altruism in terms of inclusive fitness and kin selection − that individuals behave altruistically toward their close relatives, who share many of their own genes. Similarly, Robert Trivers, thinking in terms of the gene-centred model, developed the theory of reciprocal altruism, whereby one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation. Dawkins popularised these ideas in ''The Selfish Gene'', and developed them in his own work.

He has also been strongly critical of the Gaia philosophy theory of the independent scientist James Lovelock.

Critics of Dawkins' approach suggest that taking the gene as the unit of ''selection'' − of a single event in which an individual either succeeds or fails to reproduce − is misleading, but that the gene could be better described as a unit of ''evolution'' − of the long-term changes in allele frequencies in a population. In ''The Selfish Gene'', Dawkins explains that he is using George C. Williams' definition of the gene as "that which segregates and recombines with appreciable frequency." Another common objection is that genes cannot survive alone, but must cooperate to build an individual, and therefore cannot be an independent "unit". In ''The Extended Phenotype'', Dawkins suggests that because of genetic recombination and sexual reproduction, from an individual gene's viewpoint all other genes are part of the environment to which it is adapted.

Advocates for higher levels of selection such as Richard Lewontin, David Sloan Wilson, and Elliot Sober suggest that there are many phenomena (including altruism) that gene-based selection cannot satisfactorily explain. The philosopher Mary Midgley, with whom Dawkins clashed in print concerning ''The Selfish Gene'', has criticised gene selection, memetics and sociobiology as being excessively reductionist and suggests that the popularity of Dawkins' work is due to factors in the Zeitgeist such as the increased individualism of the Thatcher/Reagan decades.

In a set of controversies over the mechanisms and interpretation of evolution (the so-called 'Darwin Wars'), one faction was often named after Dawkins and its rival after the American palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould, reflecting the pre-eminence of each as a populariser of pertinent ideas. In particular, Dawkins and Gould have been prominent commentators in the controversy over sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, with Dawkins generally approving and Gould generally being critical. A typical example of Dawkins' position was his scathing review of ''Not in Our Genes'' by Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin and Richard C. Lewontin. Two other thinkers on the subject often considered to be allied to Dawkins are Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett; Dennett has promoted a gene-centred view of evolution and defended reductionism in biology. Despite their academic disagreements, Dawkins and Gould did not have a hostile personal relationship, and Dawkins dedicated a large portion of his 2003 book ''A Devil's Chaplain'' posthumously to Gould, who had died the previous year.

Dawkins' book ''The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution'' expounds the evidence for biological evolution. All of his previous works dealing with evolution had assumed its truth, and not explicitly provided the evidence to this effect. Dawkins felt that this represented a gap in his oeuvre, and decided to write the book to coincide with Darwin's bicentennial year.

Meme

Dawkins coined the word ''meme'' (the behavioural equivalent of a gene) as a way to encourage readers to think about how Darwinian principles might be extended beyond the realm of genes. Indeed, it was intended as an extension of his "replicators" argument, but it took on a life of its own in the hands of other authors such as Daniel Dennett and Susan Blackmore. These popularisations then led to the emergence of the field of memetics, from which he has distanced himself.

Dawkins' ''memes'' refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator of a certain idea or a complex of ideas. He hypothesised that people could view many cultural entities as capable of such replication, generally through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient (although not perfect) copiers of information and behaviour. Memes are not always copied perfectly, and might indeed become refined, combined or otherwise modified with other ideas, resulting in new memes, which may themselves prove more, or less, efficient replicators than their predecessors, thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of cultural evolution, analogous to the theory of biological evolution based on genes.

Although Dawkins invented the specific term ''meme'' independently, he has not claimed that the idea itself was entirely novel, and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past. For instance, John Laurent has suggested that the term may have derived from the work of the little-known German biologist Richard Semon. In 1904 Semon published ''Die Mneme'' (which appeared in English in 1924 as ''The Mneme''). This book discussed the cultural transmission of experiences, with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent also found the term ''mneme'' used in Maurice Maeterlinck's ''The Life of the White Ant'' (1926), and has highlighted the similarities to Dawkins' concept. Author James Gleick describes Dawkins’ concept of the meme as "his most famous memorable invention, far more influential than his selfish genes or his later proselytizing against religiosity".

Criticism of creationism

Dawkins is a prominent critic of creationism (the religious belief that humanity, life and the universe were created by a deity, without recourse to evolution). He has described the Young Earth creationist view that the Earth is only a few thousand years old as "a preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood", and his 1986 book, ''The Blind Watchmaker'', contains a sustained critique of the argument from design, an important creationist argument. In the book, Dawkins argued against the watchmaker analogy made famous by the 18th-century English theologian William Paley in his book ''Natural Theology''. Paley argued that, just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence merely by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Dawkins shares the view generally held by scientists that natural selection is sufficient to explain the apparent functionality and non-random complexity of the biological world, and can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, albeit as an automatic, nonintelligent, ''blind'' watchmaker.

thumb|left|Dawkins at the 34th annual conference of American Atheists, 2008In 1986 Dawkins participated in an Oxford Union debate, in which he and English biologist John Maynard Smith debated Young Earth creationist A. E. Wilder-Smith and Edgar Andrews, president of the Biblical Creation Society. In general, however, Dawkins has followed the advice of his late colleague Stephen Jay Gould and refused to participate in formal debates with creationists because "what they seek is the oxygen of respectability", and doing so would "give them this oxygen by the mere act of ''engaging'' with them at all". He suggests that creationists "don't mind being beaten in an argument. What matters is that we give them recognition by bothering to argue with them in public."

In a December 2004 interview with American journalist Bill Moyers, Dawkins said that "among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know." When Moyers questioned him on the use of the word ''theory'', Dawkins stated that "evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening." He added that "it is rather like a detective coming on a murder after the scene... the detective hasn't actually seen the murder take place, of course. But what you do see is a massive clue... Huge quantities of circumstantial evidence. It might as well be spelled out in words of English."

Dawkins has ardently opposed the inclusion of intelligent design in science education, describing it as "not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one". He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler", a reference to English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. He has been a strong critic of the British organisation Truth in Science, which promotes the teaching of creationism in state schools, and he plans—through the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science—to subsidise the delivery of books, DVDs and pamphlets to schools, in order to counteract what he has described as an "educational scandal".

Advocacy of atheism

Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and a prominent critic of religion. In an interview with Thomas Bass for a book published in 1994 he described himself as a "fairly militant atheist". In 1996, when asked if he would prefer to be known as a scientist or a militant atheist, he replied "Bertrand Russell called himself the Passionate Sceptic. It's aiming high, but I'll shoot for that." Dawkins is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a vice-president of the British Humanist Association (since 1996), a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In 2003 he became a signatory of the humanist manifesto ''Humanism and Its Aspirations'', published by the American Humanist Association. As a result of his advocacy of atheism, Dawkins has sometimes been described as a vocal, militant rationalist, and as "the UK's Chief Atheist".

Dawkins believes that his own atheism is the logical extension of his understanding of evolution and that religion is largely incompatible with science. In his 1986 book ''The Blind Watchmaker'', Dawkins wrote:

{{blockquote| An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. }}

In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term ''faith-sufferer'' originated), he suggested that memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. According to Dawkins, faith − belief that is not based on evidence − is one of the world's great evils. He claims it to be analogous to the smallpox virus, though more difficult to eradicate. Dawkins is well known for his contempt for religious extremism, from Islamist terrorism to Christian fundamentalism; but he has also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists, from biologists Kenneth Miller and Francis Collins to theologians Alister McGrath and Richard Harries. Dawkins has stated that his opposition to religion is twofold, claiming it to be both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence. However, he describes himself as a "cultural Christian", and proposed the slogan "Atheists for Jesus".

Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, when asked how the world might have changed, Dawkins responded:

{{blockquote| Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful! }}

Dawkins has especially risen to prominence in contemporary public debates relating science and religion since the publication of his 2006 book ''The God Delusion'', which has achieved greater sales figures worldwide than any of his other works to date. Its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural zeitgeist, central to a recent rise in the popularity of atheistic literature. ''The God Delusion'' was praised by among others the Nobel laureates Sir Harold Kroto and James D. Watson and by psychologist Steven Pinker. In the book, Dawkins suggested that atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind. He sees education and consciousness-raising as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination. These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term ''Bright'' as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a naturalistic worldview. Dawkins notes that feminists have succeeded in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she". Similarly, he suggests, a phrase such as "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should be considered just as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child": children should not be classified based on their parents' ideological beliefs. According to Dawkins, there is no such thing as a Christian child or a Muslim child, as children have about as much capacity to make the decision to become Christians or Muslims as they do to become Marxists. Critics have said that the programme gave too much time to marginal figures and extremists, and that Dawkins' confrontational style did not help his cause and exhibited similarities with the approaches of religious fundamentalists more than with the approaches of the dispassionate, analytic approach of 'hard' science; Dawkins rejected these claims, citing the number of moderate religious broadcasts in everyday media as providing a suitable balance to the extremists in the programmes. He further remarked that someone who is deemed an "extremist" in a religiously moderate country may well be considered "mainstream" in a religiously conservative one. The unedited recordings of Dawkins' conversations with Alister McGrath and Richard Harries, including material unused in the broadcast version, have been made available online by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Dawkins' work has been controversial, and a number of Christian thinkers have responded to it. For example, Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of ''The Dawkins Delusion'' and ''Dawkins' God'') maintains that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?", and − in the paperback edition of ''The God Delusion'' − he refers to the American biologist PZ Myers, who has satirised this line of argument as "The Courtier's Reply". Dawkins had an extended debate with McGrath at the 2007 ''Sunday Times'' Literary Festival.

Dawkins argues that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other". He disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's principle of nonoverlapping magisteria. In an interview with ''Time'' magazine, Dawkins said:

I think that Gould's separate compartments was a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp. But it's a very empty idea. There are plenty of places where religion does not keep off the scientific turf. Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

Astrophysicist Martin Rees, who has described himself as an unbeliever who identifies with Christianity from a cultural perspective, has suggested that Dawkins' attack on mainstream religion is unhelpful. Regarding Rees' claim in his book ''Our Cosmic Habitat'' that "such questions lie beyond science", Dawkins asks "what expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?" Elsewhere, Dawkins has written that "there's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic, and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority or revelation." He has said that the publication of ''The God Delusion'' is "probably the culmination" of his campaign against religion.

In 2007 Dawkins founded the Out Campaign to encourage atheists worldwide to declare their stance publicly and proudly. Inspired by the gay rights movement, Dawkins hopes that atheists' identifying of themselves as such, and thereby increasing public awareness of how many people hold these views, will reduce the negative opinion of atheism among the religious majority.

In September 2008, following a complaint by Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar, a court in Turkey blocked access to Dawkins' website ''richarddawkins.net''. The court decision was made due to "insult to personality". As of 8 July 2011, ''richarddawkins.net'' is no longer blocked in Turkey.

In October 2008, Dawkins officially supported the UK's first atheist advertising initiative, the Atheist Bus Campaign. Created by Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine and administered by the British Humanist Association the campaign aimed to raise funds to place atheist adverts on buses in the London area, and Dawkins pledged to match the amount raised by atheists, up to a maximum of £5,500. However, the campaign was an unprecedented success, raising over £100,000 in its first four days, and generating global press coverage. The campaign, started in January 2009, features adverts across the UK with the slogan: "''There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.''" Dawkins said that "this campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think—and thinking is anathema to religion."

In 2010 Dawkins supported legal efforts to charge Pope Benedict XVI with crimes against humanity. Dawkins and fellow anti-religion campaigner Christopher Hitchens were believed to have explored the option of attempting to have the Pope arrested under the same legal principle that saw Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested during a visit to Britain in 1998. Dawkins has given support to the idea of a "free thinking" school which he calls "Think for Yourself Academy". The school would not "indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion" but it would teach children to "ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded".

On 15 September 2010, Dawkins, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''The Guardian'', stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the United Kingdom, while acknowledging his right to tour the UK as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Richard Dawkins Foundation

In 2006 Dawkins founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS), a non-profit organisation. The foundation is in developmental phase. It has been granted charitable status in the United Kingdom and the United States. RDFRS plans to finance research on the psychology of belief and religion, finance scientific education programs and materials, and publicise and support secular charitable organisations. The foundation also offers humanist, rationalist and scientific materials and information through its website.

Dawkins has said the "trend toward theocratic thinking in the United States is a danger not only for America but for the entire world." Connected to this concern, Dawkins invited Sean Faircloth to serve as opening speaker on Dawkins' 2011 US book tour. Faircloth is author of the book ''Attack of the Theocrats, How the Religious Right Harms Us All and What We Can Do About It''. The Richard Dawkins Foundation (United States branch) later hired Faircloth, who has ten years experience as a state legislator, as Director of Strategy and Policy.

Other fields

In his role as professor for public understanding of science, Dawkins has been a critic of pseudoscience and alternative medicine. His 1998 book ''Unweaving the Rainbow'' takes John Keats' accusation that, by explaining the rainbow, Isaac Newton had diminished its beauty, and argues for the opposite conclusion. He suggests that deep space, the billions of years of life's evolution, and the microscopic workings of biology and heredity contain more beauty and wonder than do "myths" and "pseudoscience". Dawkins wrote a foreword to John Diamond's posthumously published ''Snake Oil'', a book devoted to debunking alternative medicine, in which he asserted that alternative medicine was harmful, if only because it distracted patients from more successful conventional treatments and gave people false hopes. Dawkins states that "there is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."

Dawkins has expressed concern about the growth of the planet's human population and about the matter of overpopulation. In ''The Selfish Gene'', he briefly mentions population growth, giving the example of Latin America, whose population, at the time the book was written, was doubling every 40 years. He is critical of Roman Catholic attitudes to family planning and population control, stating that leaders who forbid contraception and "express a preference for 'natural' methods of population limitation" will get just such a method in the form of starvation.

As a supporter of the ''Great Ape Project'' – a movement to extend certain moral and legal rights to all great apes – Dawkins contributed the article "Gaps in the Mind" to the ''Great Ape Project'' book edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer. In this essay, he criticises contemporary society's moral attitudes as being based on a "discontinuous, speciesist imperative".

Dawkins also regularly comments in newspapers and weblogs on contemporary political questions; his opinions include opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the British nuclear deterrent and the actions of US President George W. Bush. Several such articles were included in ''A Devil's Chaplain'', an anthology of writings about science, religion and politics. He is also a supporter of the Republic campaign to replace the British monarchy with a democratically elected president. Dawkins has described himself as a Labour voter in the 1970s and voter for the Liberal Democrats since the party's creation. In 2009 he spoke at the party's conference in opposition to blasphemy laws, alternative medicine and faith schools. In the UK general election of 2010, Dawkins officially endorsed the Liberal Democrats, in support of their campaign for electoral reform and for their "refusal to pander to 'faith'."

In the 2007 TV documentary ''The Enemies of Reason'', Dawkins discusses what he sees as the dangers of abandoning critical thought and rationale based upon scientific evidence. He specifically cites astrology, spiritualism, dowsing, alternative faiths, alternative medicine and homoeopathy. He also discusses how the Internet can be used to spread religious hatred and conspiracy theories with scant attention to evidence-based reasoning.

Continuing a long-standing partnership with Channel 4, Dawkins participated in a five-part television series ''Genius of Britain'', along with fellow scientists Stephen Hawking, James Dyson, Paul Nurse, and Jim Al-Khalili. The five-episode series was broadcast in June 2010. The series focussed on major British scientific achievements throughout history.

Dawkins presented a More4 documentary entitled ''Faith School Menace?'' in which he argued for "us to reconsider the consequences of faith education, which... bamboozles parents and indoctrinates and divides children."

In 1998 Dawkins expressed his appreciation for two books, famous for their criticism of postmodernism in US universities, in departments like literary studies, anthropology and other cultural studies; the two books are ''Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science'' (by Gross and Levitt) and ''Intellectual Impostures'' (by Sokal and Bricmont), both related to the Sokal affair hoax. In the same occasion Dawkins also criticised Cambridge University for awarding philosopher Jacques Derrida an honorary doctorate.

In 2011 Dawkins joined the professoriate of the New College of the Humanities, a new private university in London established by A. C. Grayling, which is scheduled to open in September 2012.

Awards and recognition

Dawkins was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford in 1989. He holds honorary doctorates in science from the University of Huddersfield, University of Westminster, Durham University, the University of Hull, the University of Antwerp, and the University of Oslo, and honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, Open University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Valencia. He also holds honorary doctorates of letters from the University of St Andrews and the Australian National University (HonLittD, 1996), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997 and the Royal Society in 2001. He is one of the patrons of the Oxford University Scientific Society.

In 1987 Dawkins received a Royal Society of Literature award and a ''Los Angeles Times'' Literary Prize for his book, ''The Blind Watchmaker''. In the same year, he received a ''Sci. Tech'' Prize for Best Television Documentary Science Programme of the Year, for the BBC ''Horizon'' episode ''The Blind Watchmaker''.

His other awards have included the Zoological Society of London Silver Medal (1989), Finlay innovation award (1990), the Michael Faraday Award (1990), the Nakayama Prize (1994), the American Humanist Association's Humanist of the Year Award (1996), the fifth International Cosmos Prize (1997), the Kistler Prize (2001), the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (2001), the Bicentennial Kelvin Medal of The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (2002) and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest (2009).

Dawkins topped ''Prospect'' magazine's 2004 list of the top 100 public British intellectuals, as decided by the readers, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up. He has been short-listed as a candidate in their 2008 follow-up poll. In 2005 the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded him its Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his "concise and accessible presentation of scientific knowledge". He won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2006 and the Galaxy British Book Awards Author of the Year Award for 2007. In the same year, he was listed by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, and he was ranked 20th in ''The Daily Telegraph'''s 2007 list of 100 greatest living geniuses. He was awarded the Deschner Award, named after German anti-clerical author Karlheinz Deschner.

Since 2003, the Atheist Alliance International has awarded a prize during its annual conference, honouring an outstanding atheist whose work has done most to raise public awareness of atheism during that year. It is known as the Richard Dawkins Award, in honour of Dawkins' own work.

In February 2010 he was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers.

Media

Selected publications

Documentary films

''Nice Guys Finish First'' (1986)

''The Blind Watchmaker'' (1987)

''Growing Up in the Universe'' (1991)

''Break the Science Barrier'' (1996)

''The Root of All Evil?'' (2006)

''The Enemies of Reason'' (2007)

''The Genius of Charles Darwin'' (2008)

''Faith School Menace?'' (2010)

Other appearances

''Doctor Who'': "The Stolen Earth" (2008) – as himself

''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'' (2008) – as himself

''The Purpose of Purpose'' (2009) – Lecture tour among American universities

''Beautiful Minds'' (April 2012) – BBC4 documentary

Notes

b. The debate ended with the motion "That the doctrine of creation is more valid than the theory of evolution" being defeated by 198 votes to 115.

References

External links

General

Official website

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Video

National Geographic Interviews – A series of video interviews with National Geographic Channel with Richard Dawkins on Darwin, Evolution and God.

Video interview with Riz Khan for Al Jazeera English

Video interview at Big Think

Selected writings

Viruses of the Mind (1993) – Religion as a mental virus.

The Real Romance in the Stars (1995) – A critical view of astrology.

The Emptiness of Theology at RDFRS.(1998) – A critical view of theology.

Snake Oil and Holy Water (1999) – suggests that there is no convergence occurring between science and theism.

What Use is Religion? (2004) – suggests that religion may have no survival value other than to itself.

Race and Creation (2004) – On race, its usage and a theory of how it evolved.

The giant tortoise's tale, The turtle's tale and The lava lizard's tale (2005) – A series of three articles written after a visit to the Galápagos Islands.

Dawkins' ''Huffington Post'' articles

Audio

2011 Interview on io9's Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast

Richard Dawkins on RadioLIVE's Weekend Variety Wireless – Richard Dawkins appears live on New Zealand's Radio Live, taking calls from the audience.

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century biologists Category:21st-century biologists Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Atheism activists Category:British atheists Category:British republicans Category:Critics of religions Category:English atheists Category:English biologists Category:English humanists Category:English sceptics Category:English science writers Category:Ethologists Category:Evolutionary biologists Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Gifford Lecturers Category:New College of the Humanities Category:People educated at Oundle School Category:People from Nairobi Category:Presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic Category:Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty

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name	Thom Yorke
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Edward Yorke
Alias	Tchock, Tchocky, Dr. Tchock, Zachariah Wildwood
birth date	October 07, 1968
Birth place	Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
genre	Alternative rock, electronic music
occupation	Musician
years active	1985—present
label	XL
associated acts	Radiohead, Atoms for Peace }}

Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' sessions). In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, ''The Eraser''.

Yorke has been cited among the most influential figures in the music industry; in 2002, ''Q Magazine'' named Yorke the 6th most powerful figure in music, and Radiohead were ranked #73 in ''Rolling Stone's'' "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2005. Yorke has also been cited among the greatest singers in popular music; in 2005, a poll organised by ''Blender'' and MTV2 saw Yorke voted the 18th greatest singer of all time, and in 2008, he was ranked 66th in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list.

Early life

Yorke was born on 7 October 1968, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. At birth, his left eye was fixed shut; the doctors determined that the eye was paralyzed and that the condition was permanent. Yorke's parents took him to an eye specialist, who suggested a muscle graft. Yorke underwent five eye operations before he was six years old. Yorke's father, a chemical equipment salesman, was hired by a firm in Scotland shortly after his son's birth and the family lived there until Yorke was seven. During this time Yorke had to wear a patch over his eye. He has stated that the last surgery was "botched", giving him a drooping eyelid.

Yorke's family moved frequently; Yorke would move from school to school, where classmates teased him because of his eye. The family finally settled in Oxfordshire in 1978. He attended the all boys public school Abingdon where he met future band members Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood and Colin's younger brother, Jonny Greenwood. Yorke and his friends formed a band named ''On A Friday'', as Friday was the only day on which the members were allowed to rehearse. Yorke, in this early line up, played guitar and provided vocals, and was already developing his songwriting and lyrical skills. Yorke, speaking about music's influence on him as a schoolboy, said, "School was bearable for me because the music department was separate from the rest of the school. It had pianos in tiny booths, and I used to spend a lot of time hanging around there after school."

After leaving school, Yorke postponed going to university for a year. During that time he worked in a few jobs and was involved in a car accident that made him wary of any kind of mechanized transport. Yorke left Oxford to study at the University of Exeter in late 1988, which as a result put ''On a Friday'' on hiatus aside from holiday break rehearsals. While at Exeter, Yorke worked as a DJ at Guild nights in the Lemon Grove and played briefly with the band Headless Chickens. Yorke also met Rachel Owen, whom he began dating.

Career

Radiohead

On A Friday resumed activity in 1991 as the members were finishing their degree courses. Now relocated to Oxford, they signed to Parlophone and changed their name to ''Radiohead''. Around this time, Yorke said he "hit the self-destruct button pretty quickly"; he would drink heavily, which resulted in him randomly cutting his hair off and being too drunk to perform onstage.

Radiohead first gained notice with the worldwide hit single "Creep", which later appeared on the band's 1993 debut album ''Pablo Honey''. Yorke admitted later that the success had enlarged his ego; he tried to project himself as a rock star, which included bleaching his hair and wearing extensions. He said, "When I got back to Oxford I was unbearable . . . [A]s soon as you get any success you disappear up your own arse and lost it forever."

By the time of their second album, ''The Bends'' (1995), the band, through frequent touring and greater attention to detail in the recording studio, had picked up a large cult fan base and had begun to receive wider critical acclaim. After the album's release, the American group R.E.M. picked Radiohead as its opening act for the European leg of their tour. Whilst on tour Yorke and R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe became close friends; in particular, Stipe gave him advice on how to deal with the demands of being in a rock band. During the production of the band's third album, ''OK Computer'' (1997), all five members had differing opinions and equal production roles, with Yorke having "the loudest voice", according to guitarist Ed O'Brien. After the album was finished, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood contributed to the ''Velvet Goldmine'' soundtrack along with other musicians under the moniker ''Venus in Furs''. Upon release, ''OK Computer'' was heralded as a landmark album by nearly every publication that reviewed it, establishing Radiohead as one of the leading alternative rock acts of the 1990s. But Yorke was ambivalent about this success. Some of these concerns were voiced in the documentary film ''Meeting People Is Easy'', which focused on the period. Yorke has explained in various interviews that he dislikes the "mythology" within the rock genre, and hates the media's obsession with celebrities.

Yorke and the band adopted a more radical approach on 2000's ''Kid A'' and 2001's ''Amnesiac'', processing vocals, obscuring lyrics, and departing from rock for a more varied musical landscape including electronic, jazz and avant-garde classical influences. Expanding Radiohead's sales whilst earning acclaim for experimentation, the albums also divided fans and critics. In 2003, Radiohead released their sixth album, ''Hail to the Thief'', a blend of rock and electronica that Yorke described as a reaction to the events of the early 2000s and newfound fears for his children's future, though he denied political intent. The band has continued to tour, and in 2005 they undertook recording sessions for a seventh album, ''In Rainbows'', released as a digital DRM-free download in October 2007. In 2011, The King of Limbs, the 8th studio album by Radiohead, was released.

Solo work

Yorke released his solo album ''The Eraser'' in 2006. Produced by Nigel Godrich and featuring cover art by Stanley Donwood, it was released on the independent label XL Recordings. Yorke described the album as "more beats and electronics" and denied that it meant he was leaving Radiohead, saying, "I want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah blah... this was all done with their blessing." ''The Eraser'' reached number 3 in the UK in its first week and number 2 in the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as number 9 on the Irish charts. The album was on the prestigious Mercury Prize shortlist and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

Yorke rarely plays as a solo act, having never embarked on a solo tour. He has sometimes played short acoustic sets of Radiohead songs in the band's webcasts and television appearances, and occasionally on his own at rallies. In 2006, he performed stripped-down versions of several songs from ''The Eraser'' ("Analyse", "The Clock", "Skip Divided" and "Cymbal Rush") on radio and TV programmes, and since then he has played and sung "Cymbal Rush" as an encore at some Radiohead concerts. In July 2009, Yorke played a rare solo performance at the Latitude Festival in England.

On September 21, 2009, Yorke released a new double-A side single, "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses / The Hollow Earth". It was later announced that he has established an unnamed band with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joey Waronker of R.E.M., Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark and producer Nigel Godrich. They played two sold out shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on October 4 and 5, 2009. Two days before, Yorke also played a "warm-up" show at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. On February 25, 2010, Yorke officially gave the band the name Atoms for Peace

Collaborations

Apart from his own solo work, Yorke has collaborated with several artists. He sang backing vocals on PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning 2000 album ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea'' and duetted with Harvey on one of its songs, "This Mess We're In". In the same year, he also appeared on Björk's soundtrack album ''Selmasongs'', singing "I've Seen It All" with her. The Oscar-nominated song was written for ''Dancer in the Dark'', a film starring Björk, and Yorke's part is sung in the film by an actor; due to time constraints Björk performed it alone at the 2001 Oscars. The two worked together again in 2008 on a charity single named "Náttúra".

Yorke also sang covers of the Roxy Music songs "2HB", "Ladytron" and "Bitter-Sweet" for the 1998 film ''Velvet Goldmine'', as part of Venus in Furs. The band existed solely for the film's soundtrack and also consisted of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. Yorke was duplicating the original vocals of Bryan Ferry. Two other cover songs were performed by Venus in Furs, with vocals by an actor in the film. Yorke never appeared on screen.

Yorke's other collaborations include the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", which he sang and co-wrote with DJ Shadow and which closes ''Psyence Fiction'', the debut album by the group UNKLE; "El President", a 1998 duet with Isabel Monteiro of the band Drugstore, which was also released as a single, and vocals on the 2010 track "...And The World Laughs with You" by experimental musician and producer Flying Lotus of Warp Records. Thom paired up with his brother Andy in 2009 to record the track "All for the Best" for inclusion on the 2009 compilation CD ''Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy''. He has also collaborated on several tracks with the electronic music group Modeselektor, providing vocals on the 2007 track "The White Flash" from the album ''Happy Birthday'', as well as 2011 tracks "Shipwreck" and "This" from the album ''Monkeytown'', in addition to production contributions on the album's b-side "Dull Hull". Yorke has also contributed music and remix/production skills in collaboration with various electronic artists including Burial, Four Tet, as well as hip-hop artists such as MF DOOM.

Yorke has also collaborated with Stanley Donwood on a picture book titled ''Dead Children Playing''.

Atoms for Peace

On February 25, 2010 Yorke revealed the name of his new band: "Atoms for Peace", and announced a series of U.S. tour dates. Yorke first introduced the band late in 2009, with a series of concerts in Los Angeles. It includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, Beck, R.E.M., all-round session drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco of the musical collective Forro in the Dark and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on keyboards and treatments. When the band officially debuted in Los Angeles last October, it was billed with question marks due to it being unnamed. In a note on Radiohead's web site, Yorke wrote; "It has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name. it seemed bleedin' obvious." Atoms for Peace is a track on Yorke's 2006 solo album, ''The Eraser'', its title taken in turn by the Eisenhower speech of the same name. The band toured briefly, playing eight dates across the USA including the three-day Coachella music festival in Indio, California on April 18, 2010. Thom Yorke has also confirmed rumours that the band were recording material together, and has announced that an album is nearing completion, tentatively scheduled for release in 2012.

Personal life

Yorke currently lives in Oxford with his girlfriend, Rachel Owen. They have two children, son Noah, born in 2001, and daughter Agnes, born 2004. Owen studied fine art printmaking at Exeter and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence. She completed a PhD at the University of London researching the illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy.

His only brother, Andy, is ex-vocalist of the band Unbelievable Truth.

Yorke is very active in creating public awareness for cultural and political issues. In 2005, Yorke became a spokesman for Friends of the Earth and their campaign to reduce carbon emissions, The Big Ask. He often pays tribute to his children whilst performing live; during songs at the 2003 Glastonbury Festival, he played with a photo of Noah resting on the top of the piano and at the 2006 Bonnaroo Music Festival, he used guitar picks that were marked with Agnes' fingerprints.

Musical approach

Vocal characteristics

As a singer, Yorke is recognisable by his distinctive tenor voice, vibrato, frequent use of falsetto and ability to reach, and sustain notes over a wide vocal range. In 1994, the band watched Jeff Buckley in concert; Yorke later said the concert had a direct effect on his vocal delivery on "Fake Plastic Trees". However, Yorke has said, "It annoys me how pretty my voice is... how polite it can sound when perhaps what I'm singing is deeply acidic." He has often adopted other styles of singing, such as an aggressive shouting style in the middle section of "Paranoid Android" and a semi-spoken style for 2003's "Myxomatosis" and "A Wolf at the Door".

Musicianship

Aside from vocal duties and writing lyrics, Yorke's musical contributions to Radiohead include guitar, both acoustic and electric (usually rhythm parts, with band member Jonny Greenwood handling lead), and piano (including Rhodes piano, especially on ''Kid A''). He also plays bass guitar on occasion (the bass line for "The National Anthem" was recorded by him) as well as drums; during the 2006 and 2008 tours he performed percussion on stage in tandem with drummer Phil Selway on the track "Bangers + Mash".

Yorke, unlike the other members of Radiohead, has never learned how to read music. He said, "If someone lays the notes on a page in front of me, it's meaningless... because to me you can't express the rhythms properly like that. It's a very ineffective way of doing it, so I've never really bothered picking it up."

Since ''Kid A'', Radiohead, and in particular Yorke, have incorporated many elements of electronic music into their work. As a result, Yorke has taken an increased role in programming beats and samples and has been credited with playing "laptop" on recent albums. On a radio show in 2003 to publicise the release of ''Hail to the Thief'', Yorke remarked that he would rather make a record just with a computer than with only an acoustic guitar. His solo effort ''The Eraser'' featured piano, bass and guitar, but was built primarily around electronics.

In interviews Yorke has cited a variety of personal musical heroes and influences, including jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus, Neil Young, Miracle Legion, singer Scott Walker, electronic acts Aphex Twin and Autechre, and Krautrock band Can. Talking Heads, Queen, Joy Division, Magazine, Elvis Costello, The Smiths and Sonic Youth were early influences on Radiohead and Yorke. In 2004, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Yorke mentioned to the crowd, "When I was in college, the Pixies and R.E.M. changed my life", and he has often mentioned both bands as influential examples.

Activism

Yorke has been outspoken on various contemporary political and social issues. Radiohead had read ''No Logo'' by Naomi Klein during the ''Kid A'' sessions ("No Logo" was also briefly considered as the album title) and all the members were reportedly heavily influenced by it, though Yorke said it "didn't teach him anything he didn't already know". Yorke's activism in support of fair trade practices, with an anti-WTO and anti-globalisation stance, garnered significant attention in the early 2000s. Yorke had previously referenced maquiladoras in the title of a Radiohead B-side in 1995, and decried the International Monetary Fund in 1997's "Electioneering". Yorke is also a professed fan of Noam Chomsky's political writings, and is a vegan.

Yorke is also notable as a political activist on behalf of other causes, including human rights and anti-war movements such as Jubilee 2000, Amnesty International and CND, and Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign. Radiohead played at the Free Tibet concert in both 1998 and 1999, and at an Amnesty International concert in 1998. In 2005, Yorke performed at an all-night vigil for the Trade Justice Movement. In 2006, Jonny Greenwood and Yorke performed a special benefit concert for Friends of the Earth. Yorke made headlines the same year for refusing Prime Minister Tony Blair's request to meet with him to discuss climate change, declaring Blair had "no environmental credentials". Yorke has subsequently been critical of his own energy use. He has said the music industry's use of air transport is dangerous and unsustainable, and that he would consider not touring if new carbon emissions standards do not force the situation to improve. Radiohead commissioned a study by the group ''Best Foot Forward'' which the band claims helped them choose venues and transport methods that will greatly reduce the carbon expended on their 2008 tour. The band also made use of a new low-energy LED lighting system and encouraged festivals to offer reusable plastics.

In December 2009, Yorke gained access to the COP 15 climate change talks in Copenhagen, posing as a member of the media. In the same year he lent his support to the 10:10 project, a movement encouraging people to take positive action on climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.

Relationship with celebrities and the media

Yorke has had an uneasy relationship with other celebrities and the media. Following Radiohead's 1993 ''Pablo Honey'' tour of America, Yorke became disenchanted at being "right at the sharp end of the sexy, sassy, MTV eye-candy lifestyle" he felt he was helping to sell to the world. The 1998 documentary film ''Meeting People is Easy'' portrays Yorke's disaffection with the music industry and press during the 1997-8 "Against Demons" world tour.

A number of celebrities have been upset by Yorke's alleged rudeness. In 2001, Kelly Jones, the lead singer of the Welsh band Stereophonics, referred to Thom Yorke as a "miserable twat" (a comment he later retracted). In 2002, Jack Black claimed to have approached Yorke to congratulate him on his solo show at the Bridge School benefit concert in San Francisco, only for Yorke to ignore him and walk away. Referring to the incident, Black stated in an interview: "I heard later that he's famously cold, and it wasn't just me that he despises, but the whole world." After completing a trek of Kilimanjaro in 2009, Ronan Keating was asked by an interviewer which celebrity he would most like to throw off a mountain. Keating named Yorke, and referred to him as a "muppet", stating that Yorke was once rude to him. In the same year, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West also complained about Yorke's alleged rudeness. In 2010, it was reported that Yorke would be covering Peter Gabriel's song "Wallflower", from Gabriel's fourth solo album ''Peter Gabriel 4 (Security)'', with Gabriel claiming, "Thom wanted to do a version of Wallflower, which I'm very curious to hear. I think that was an important track for him when he was 14." However, it was subsequently reported that Yorke had withdrawn from the project and hadn't informed Gabriel why.

Discography

''The Eraser'' (2006)

References

Randall, Mac. ''Exit Music: The Radiohead Story''. Delta, 2000. ISBN 0-385-33393-5

Notes

External links

The Eraser: Official website for Yorke's solo album release

Thom Yorke, Going Solo: Interview with Yorke, from NPR's "Fresh Air" radio program—July 2006

Category:1968 births Category:English activists Category:English environmentalists Category:Anti-globalization activists Category:English male singers Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English tenors Category:English vegans Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Wellingborough Category:Radiohead members Category:Alumni of the University of Exeter Category:Music in Oxford Category:People educated at Abingdon School Category:Rhythm guitarists

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Bernard L. Krause (born December 8, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American musician, author, soundscape recordist and bio-acoustician, who coined the term biophony and helped define the structure of soundscape ecology. Krause holds a Ph.D. in bioacoustics from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati.

Biography

Bernie Krause was born in 1938. Somewhat of a musical prodigy, by age 3-1/2 he studied violin and by age 4 classical composition. He performed on a variety of stringed instruments (cello, bass, viola, harp) but fell in love with the guitar. He was disappointed when in 1955 not a single music school to which he applied would accept him with guitar as his primary instrument. Krause went on to work as a studio guitarist on jazz sessions and, occasionally, on early Motown sessions. He also worked as a recording engineer and producer in Ann Arbor while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. He joined The Weavers in 1963, replacing Pete Seeger and stayed with them until they disbanded a year later.

Electronic Musician

After the breakup of The Weavers in 1964, Krause moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to study electronic music at Mills College, a time when avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pauline Oliveros lectured and performed there. It was coincidentally also the beginnings of the synthesizer, with Don Buchla and Robert Moog experimenting with putting electronic circuits together into all-purpose modular musical instruments. During this time Krause met Paul Beaver and formed Beaver & Krause. They played Moog synthesizer on the Monkees recording, "Star Collector" (1967), one of the first pop recordings to feature synthesizer. In 1968 they released ''The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music'' which was part instructional and part a demonstration of the capabilities of this new instrument. They went on to perform on hundreds of sessions for some of the biggest names in music, including The Byrds, The Doors, Stevie Wonder and George Harrison. In November 1968 Krause was asked by Moog to demonstrate the synthesizer for Harrison, who was visiting California. An unauthorized recording of Krause's concept and performance became the basis of "No Time Or Space", one side on Harrison's ''Electronic Sound'' album released the following year.

Beaver & Krause also provided synthesizer and/or natural soundscapes for dozens of Hollywood films including Rosemary's Baby, Apocalypse Now, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Performance, Love Story, and Doctor Doolittle. Because of their extensive studio work in Hollywood, New York, and London, the duo are credited with helping to introduce the synthesizer to pop music and film.

Between 1967 and 1972, Beaver & Krause released five albums together, effectively defining the beginning of both the New Age music and Electronica musical movements.

After Beaver's death in 1975, Krause found himself more interested in soundscapes than synthesizers. At the age of 40 he returned to school and completed a doctoral degree in Creative Arts with an internship in bio-acoustics.

Soundscape Pioneer

Beaver & Krause's album ''In A Wild Sanctuary'', recorded in 1968 and '69, had been the first to incorporate natural soundscapes as an integral component of the orchestration, and to address the theme of ecology (coincidentally it was also the first album to be encoded in quadraphonic sound and surround sound).

Since the completion of his degree, Krause has concentrated on recording and archiving pristine sound environments from around the world. These recordings are commissioned as works of art and science by museums in many countries for their dioramas and sound installations, as ambient tracks for numerous feature films, and as over 50 downloadable field recording albums from the world's rare habitats. The Krause Natural Soundscape Collection now consists of more than 4,000 hours of recordings of over 15,000 species, marine and terrestrial. Sadly, it is now estimated that over half of these habitats have been destroyed or so compromised by human intervention that Krause's recordings are all that is left of their original diversity.

In Fall of 1985 Krause and a colleague, Diana Reiss, helped lure Humphrey the Whale, a migrating humpback who had wandered into Sacramento River Delta and apparently got lost, back to the Pacific Ocean. They used recordings of humpbacks feeding, recorded by two graduate students from the University of Hawaii .

Krause's 1988 CD album, ''Gorillas in the Mix'' (Rykodisc), is composed entirely from samples of animal sounds, played from sampling keyboards.

In 2007, Krause demonstrated at the O'Reilly Media Where 2.0 Conference a KML layer to Google Earth and Google Maps that makes it possible to listen to the soundscapes from all over the world. He plans to make part of his sounds collection available via this add-on and is currently seeking an academic home for his archive and related soundscape programs.

Dr. Krause and his wife, Katherine, live in California.

Discography

1967 Beaver & Krause - ''The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music'' (Nonesuch Records) (Revised and repackaged with new material by Bernie Krause in 1980)

1968 Beaver & Krause - ''Ragnarok - Electronic Funk'' (Limelight Records)

1970 Beaver & Krause - ''In a Wild Sanctuary'' (Warner Bros. Records)

1971 Beaver & Krause - ''Gandharva'' (featuring Mike Bloomfield, Ray Brown, Gerry Mulligan, Gail Laughton, Ronnie Montrose, Howard Roberts, Bud Shank and others) (Warner Bros. Records)

1972 Beaver & Krause - ''All Good Men'' (Warner Bros. Records)

1975 Bernie Krause - ''Citadels of Mystery'' (Takoma Records/Chrysalis Records)

1986 Bernie Krause - ''Equator'' (The Nature Company)

1987 Bernie Krause - ''Nature'' (The Nature Company)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Distant Thunder'' (The Nature Company)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Mountain Stream'' (The Nature Company)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Gentle Ocean'' (The Nature Company)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Jungle Shoes/Fish Wrap'' (CD Single, Rykodisc)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Morning Songbirds'' (The Nature Company)

1988 Bernie Krause - ''Sounds of a Summer's Evening'' (The Nature Company)

1989 Bernie Krause - ''Tropical Jungle'' (The Nature Company)

1989 Bernie Krause - ''Gorilla'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1988 Bernie Krause & Human Remains - ''Gorillas in the Mix'' (Rykodisc)

1990 Bernie Krause - ''Natural Voices/African Song Cycle'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1990 Bernie Krause - ''Green Meadow Stream'' (North Sound)

1990 Bernie Krause - ''Woodland Journey'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1990 Bernie Krause - ''Dawn at Trout Lake'' (North Sound)

1990 Bernie Krause & Philip Aaberg - ''Meridian'' (The Nature Company)

1990 Bernie Krause - ''Amazon Days Amazon Nights'' (North Sound)

1991 Bernie Krause - ''Ocean Wonders'' (North Sound)

1991 Bernie Krause - ''Tropical Thunder: A Rainstorm in Borneo'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1991 Ruth Happel with Bernie Krause - ''Loons of Echo Pond'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1991 Bernie Krause, Bob Dorough, Janis Lawrence & Jeff Kohler - ''Wild Times at the Water Hole'' (Creatures 'n' Kids)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''Mata Atlantica: A Rare Brazilian Rain Forest'' (North Sound)

1994 Bernie Krause & Ruth Happel - ''Desert Solitudes'' (North Sound)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''Ocean Dreams'' (North Sound)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''Midsummer Nights'' (North Sound)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''Nature's Lullabyes: Ocean/Rain/Stream'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''African Adventures'' (North Sound)

1994 Bernie Krause & Philip Aaberg - ''A Wild Christmas'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

1994 Bernie Krause - ''Whales, Wolves & Eagles of Glacier Bay'' (North Sound)

1995 Bernie Krause & Louis Sarno - '' Bayaka'' (Ellipsis Arts)

1995 Bernie Krause & Rodney Franklin - ''Rhythms of Africa'' (Miramar Records)

1995 Bernie Krause & Rodney Franklin - ''Ocean Odyssey'' (Miramar Records)

1995 Bernie Krause & Rodney Franklin - ''Rain Forest Dreams'' (Miramar Records)

1998 Bernie Krause - ''Kalimantaan: Heaven Before Time'' (Miramar Records)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''African Safari: Zimbabwe'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Alpine Meadow'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Autumn Day in Yellowstone'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Carolina Woods'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Costa Rica: Hidden Treasures'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Galapagos'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause & Lang Elliott - ''Prairie Winds'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause & Jack Hines - ''Sequoia High Country'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Sonoma Valley Sunrise'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Spring in Corkscrew Swamp'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Sumatra Days, Sumatra Nights'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2002 Bernie Krause - ''Winds Across the Tundra'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

2006 Bernie Krause, Kevin Colver & Martin Stewart - ''Voice of the Arctic Refuge'' (Wild Sanctuary Communications)

Bibliography

''Notes From the Wild: The Nature Recording Expeditions of Bernie Krause'' with companion CD (Ellipsis Arts, 1996, ISBN 1-559613-858)

''Into A Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music & Natural Sound'' with companion CD (Heyday Books, 1998, ISBN 1-890771-11-2)

''Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World'' with companion CD (Wilderness Press, 2002, ISBN 0-89997-296-9)

"Anatomy of a Soundscape: Evolving Perspectives," J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 56, No. 1/2, 2008 January/February

"Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape," BioScience, Mar, 2011, Vol. 61, No. 3

''The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places,'' Little Brown, due for publication in March 2012 (ISBN 0-316086-878).

References

External links

Bernie Krause biography at ''Wild Sanctuary''

Google Earth

Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:The Weavers members Category:Folk musicians from Michigan Category:American electronic musicians Category:Union Institute & University alumni

et:Bernie Krause fr:Bernie Krause