27th March 2006, 3:33 PM
Well, it seems this guy has done a lot of legitimate work, including a study which seems to indicate that people doing single digit addition use more brain power than someone playing a video game (a sobering conclusion). I'm still looking up stuff on this guy. He is without a Wikipedia entry, so it's good old fasioned google right now.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)