Who is nicolaus copernicus?

He invented Copper. And Nickle.

He’s the guy who first proposed (in the 1500s) heliocentrism, i.e., the notion that the sun—not the earth—was the center of the solar system, around which all the planets including Earth revolve.

More info at Wikipedia

@gbms: It looks like @gasman is doing your project and doing it well. An
A for gasman. You are under house arrest. (Look it up.)

Wouldn’t it be way easier to search Google than come here and hope you get a real answer? I would think it ‘d be easier to open a book than to sit around waiting for someone to possibly answer a question.

But I liked @Sueanne_Tremendous answer.

@mrentropy: @Sueanne Tremendous is nickel and diming poor @gbms.

Probably because @Sueanne_Tremendous only spent a quarter of the time researching the answer as @gbms took to write the question.

I gave @gbms a one-line answer and a link to (literally) the world’s most general reference work. I don’t call that ‘doing a project’ for somebody. We’re here to help, even if the questioner is pathetically clueless about how to help him/herself.

@gasman I know. I got the same thing when I pointed somebody to a Wiki article. But that would essentially have been the same thing I would’ve have given my own kids if they thought they were going to rope me into doing their project for them.

@gasman: Check the new guidelines about homework. How hard is it to type N Copernicus in a search engine? Perhaps we can teach him how to to be clueful.

So we just say, “Go to Google or Wikipedia and type xxxxx.” That’s easy enough.

I think the part that bothers me most is the question is “Who is…” not “Who was…”

So who the hell is that guy anyway?

He’s a neighbor of mine.

I think the guidelines about homework are less clear now than they used to be. They say “we’re not here to do your homework for you” and they also say that answers like “just Google it” aren’t allowed.

What we don’t have is guidance on what to do when a question is so black and white that the only way to answer it IS (as here) either to do the homework or to invite the questioner to look it up himself. How is posting a direct link to the answer any less an instance of doing their homework than just posting the answer?

This pair of guidelines dictates specific behavior without getting at a useful statement of principle.

I guess the only thing to do is not answer and flag the question.

Copernicus was mentioned in the news today, see Poland: Church reburies Copernicus with honours. Better late than never.

I have to give the Church credit for gracious acknowledgment of its fallibility.

There was a woman at church once who looked like Nicolaus. Eight-year-old that I was, I told her as much.
Eight-year-old that I was, she was amused, not offended.