2013 Top Ten of Polemic for People

Ryan Stig

Ryan Stig is an Australian professional rugby league footballer. He plays for the Limoux Grizzlies in the Elite One Championship as a five-eighth and halfback. He previously played for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League

Jack Devlin (Australian politician)

John Joseph "Jack" Devlin was an Australian politician. Born at Violet Town, Victoria, he was educated at state schools before becoming a farmer. He served on Violet Town Shire Council from 1927 to 1957, and as President for some of that time. In 1946, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator for Victoria. He died in 1957; Charles Sandford was appointed to replace him

Patricia Bath

Patricia Era Bath was an American ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic. She invented an improved device for laser cataract surgery. Her invention was called Laserphaco Probe, which she patented in 1986. She also became the first woman member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American person to serve as a resident in

Wives of Henry VIII

In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort wedded to Henry between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, King Henry VIII of England had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. However, he was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six

Brad Lloyd

Brad Lloyd is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1990s

Women in ancient Rome

Freeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives), but could not vote or hold political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by Roman historians. But while Roman women held no direct political power, those from wealthy or powerful families could and did exert influence through private negotiations. Exceptional women who left an undeniable mark on history include Lucretia and Claudia Quinta, whose stories took on mythic significance; fierce Republican-era

Abdulaziz Hamsal

Abdulaziz Hamsal is a full back or winger who currently plays for Mudhar. He is known for being the shortest football player in the video game series FIFA

Harry Hammond Hess

Harry Hammond Hess was an American geologist and a United States Navy officer in World War II who is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the unifying theory of plate tectonics. He is best known for his theories on sea floor spreading, specifically work on relationships between island arcs, seafloor gravity anomalies, and serpentinized peridotite, suggesting that the convection of the Earth's mantle was the driving force behind this process

Sydney Carton

Sydney Carton is a central character in Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities. He is a shrewd young Englishman educated at Shrewsbury School, and sometime junior to his fellow barrister Stryver. Carton is portrayed as a brilliant but depressed and cynical drunkard who is full of self-loathing because of what he sees as his wasted life. He feels a deep unrequited love for Lucie Manette, who nevertheless inspires him to try to be a better person. Near the end of the novel, Carton manages to change

Joe Zdeb

Joseph Edmund Zdeb is a former professional baseball outfielder. He played all or part of three seasons in Major League Baseball with the Kansas City Royals from 1977 to 1979, primarily as a left fielder