Mario Kart's write up to go into the threads where my team will be voted on. I may not be able to repost in tomorrow's thread at the beginning so I am replying here and sending a PM to Tim to post with or under the two teams getting voted on. TIA
Mario Kart's Final Team
Leaders -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (post #5479) (16.20)
- FDR saw a country through one of the worst wars and worst times in the history of man to lead his country forward into a new era of power. From the ashes of WWII a lone country emerged as the world's superpower and have not relented since. FDR changed the focus of America from a country to a world leader.
Military -
Sun Tzu (post #45) (1.01)
- One of the two leading war theorists the world has ever known. I picked Sun Tzu due to his longevity of influence in the world. While he may not be attributed to many wars due to documentation, his influence in the Eastern hemisphere has been huge throughout the last ~2500 years.
The Art of War, the book attributed to him, is still used today in war studies as well as modern business practices, sporting events, strategy games, and even reality television.
Scientist -
Dmitri Mendeleev (post #4660) (13.01)
- a modern chemist and inventor. He is given credit for creating the modern Periodic Table which enabled him and future chemists to test and theorize, correctly, other elements and their properties.
Inventor -
Guglielmo Marconi (post #5479) (17.01)
- Marconi is given credit for the invention of the radio. While it is true there were other communication methods on a broad scale, the radio gave the possibility of mass communication from towns, to villages, to individual homes. A new wave of mass media, entertainment, and news was a new medium for the common person.
Discoverer/Explorer -
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (post #1281) (2.20)
- Carpine is not a well known explorer but his accomplishments should be. He was the first to chronicle his adventures into the great Mongol Empire and report what happened. His travels on land opened up Europe to the Mongols and paved the way for future explorations as the wealth gained from Carpine's notes.
Humanitarian/Saint/Martyr -
Henry Dunant (post #5205) (15.01)
- Dunant has been credited for the origination of The Red Cross. The organization knows no race, color, creed or religion and has helped countless lives since its origination. Not only has it helped in the past but it will continue to help for many years to come.
Novelist/Short stories -
J. R. R. Tolkien (post #3003)(6.20)
- Tolkien wrote the popular 20th century novel
The Lord of The Rings. This piece of literature, along with other titles in the same world he created have been read throughout the world in countless countries. The series spawned a new wave of literature in the fantasy realm which has carried over into many movies, books, art that we see today.
Playwrights/Poets -
Geoffrey Chaucer (post #1295) (3.01)
- Chaucer is known for his frame narrative titled,
The Canterbury Tales. Even more importantly about his work,
Tales created a bridge from Latin to Old English. What this did was essentially move modern literature away from the Latin language, as the prominent language, and gave rise to the English word as the dominant language. What followed is the popularity of the language much of the world speaks today instead of, possibly, Latin. Carpe Diem.
Villain -
Ho Chi Minh (post #3916) (10.20)
- Minh is a bad man who may not have killed the amount of people that others have be responsible for but he did kill the minds, spirits, and hearts of, probably, just as many. He is responsible for thousands, if not millions, of exiles from their home country. Many people around the world have no home as Minh's policies turned Vietnam and its neighbors into a war zone for much of the 20th century.
Athlete -
Alexander Karelin (post #6396) (20.20)
- The Russian Bear was a dominant force in his sport of Greco Roman Wrestling. One of the oldest forms of sport, The Russian Bear, posted three consecutive gold medals in the Olympics (88, 92, 96). He lost his bid for a fourth in 2000 in an upset by the score of 0-1. That was the only point given up by Karelin in more than six years of competition. The 2000 loss also ended a streak lasting 13 years of never losing a match.
Composer -
Antonio Vivaldi (post #3403) (9.01)
- known for his
The Four Seasons , which is a violin concerti, Vivaidi spent his time writing other concerti's, sonatas, operas and sinfonias'. He specialized, in theory, with the violin but used other stringed instruments to speak his music.
Musicians/Performers -
Franz Liszt (post #6396) (21.01)
- Who is Franz Liszt? He is known as the greatest pianist to ever live. He is credited with performing music while playing the piano by showcasing bodily expressions as well as emotion with his movements that had never been seen before in the arts. Liszt paved the way for showmanship while playing music and opened the door for expression where expression was never before seen.
Painter -
Claude Monet (post #2236) (4.20)
- Monet is a popular 20th century painter who helped create the Impressionist movement. Monet's focus on the creation of art rather than the finished product opened doors to reflect on the process of creation and use of color to liven up art instead of focusing on clear, concise images. The art Monet created impresses on people how people want it to impress on them. Instead of telling the viewer how the art is, the viewer tells what the art is.
Artist/Non-Painter -
Auguste Rodin (post #2248) (5.01)
- best known for his work
The Thinker, Rodin moved sculpting further than any artist before him. How? He brought realism into his sculptures. A person's emotion, real features were brought out by Rodin in his work. Past sculptors gave a mythological shape to their people... an ideal of what art, people are. Rodin showed that people are, in fact, the art that is powerful and not some imaginary image of what art is. Another concept Rodin brought to the table is that he wanted his work shown, copied, and recreated.
Philosopher -
Hypatia of Alexandria (post #) (22.20)
- I chose Hypatia because she is the first notable woman in math and also played a role in early philosophy and astronomy. She may be best known for her death in which may have been brought upon by her beliefs. She encouraged logical and mathematical study while she defended science against religion.
Religious Figure -
Pope Gregory XIII (post #3371) (8.20)
- Who is Pope Gregory XIII? He helped promote the arts and sciences into the church as Pope for starters. But, he is also the creator of the Gregorian Calendar which used science to help devise it. The Gregorian Calendar is what most of the world uses to know what day it is, what year it is, commonly, and if we did not have this system, we may not get paid on the 1st and 15th of each month... or however your paycheck comes.
Celebrity -
Lucille Ball (post #6051) (19.01)
- arguably the first lady of comedy and television. In her time, Lucille Ball was known around the world, if they had televisions, and was watched like no other program at that time. With the extension of interviews, other shows, and her public life, people felt like they knew Lucille or rather Lucy and were a part of her life. The world knew her almost like family as she captivated the television screen like no other... because there were few others to do so.
Intellectual -
John Maynard Keynes (post #3003) (7.01)
- you spend money, you make money, you want money, you lose money. The importance of money and our modern economic system with its faults and riches is the responsibility of Keynes. Any economics class talks about him and everybody around the world has been affected by the policies this man has made popular.
Rebel -
Guy Fawkes (post #5205) (14.20)
- Remember, remember the 5th of November. The world we live in would be a much much different world had Parliament blown up on the 5th of November. Instead, we live in the world where we know Guy Fawkes as a dud, much like his explosive. What could have been? BOOM... did not go the dynamite.
Wildcards -
Gavrilo Princip (post #3916) (11.01)
- Princip was the spark that lit the fire. What fire? The fire that began WWI by assassinating Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. His one bullet that hit Ferdinand began a war that included Europe and later America. The result was a weakening Germany, a loss of power by Austria-Hungary, and the Treaty of Versailles. This gave power to Hitler and the Nazi's which began WWII, the Holocaust, the Atomic Bomb and later the Cold War. Would the world have had a war without Princip's bullet? Maybe, but much like the butterfly flapping its wings, that one bullet gave us the world we know today. A similar war, without that bullet, may have, probably would have had, other consequences.
Wildcards -
Edwin Hubble (post #6051) (18.20)
- The Milky Way is the only galaxy... ever. That was common thought before Hubble made his theory which later becamse known as Hubble's law. Other than a beautiful near-sighted telescope, Hubble gave way to thoughts and ideas of our universe that are widely accepted today.
Wildcards -
Jean Piaget (post #4660) (12.20)
- a modern scientist who did not study the Earth, or space, or plants or trees. No, he studied humans and not in a psychotic, deranged kind of way. He studied humans to better understand who we are, how we are, how we learn, how we know what we know, who is who and what is what. Piaget and his theories helped give rise to new curriculum in schools (around the world) and has given us ways to think, know, and learn more efficiently than before.