Intellects vast, cool and sexy

If you weren't put off by the slightly silly questions on More4 News's feature about the Prospect/Foreign Policy top 100 global public intellectuals poll last night (which consisted largely of a reporter asking Prospect editor David Goodhart why we'd left off "influential" people like Jeremy Clarkson and Osama bin Laden; you can see the report by following a link on this page), then please take the opportunity to vote for your top five here if you haven't done so already.

Voting has been brisk in the first week—around 7,000 ballots cast—and while voting patterns so far bear a fair resemblance to the results from the 2005 poll, there are a few surprises (as well as a few obvious national vote-rigging campaigns).

More4 News was mildly sniffy about Prospect's intellectuals wheeze, comparing it to FHM's top 100 sexiest women reader's poll. And insofar as both publications have asked their readers to express a preference on a matter that their choice of reading material suggests they may have strong feelings about, the programme was right. The obvious next step, not suggested by the report, is for the two magazines to combine forces to find out who the world's top 100 sexiest intellectuals are. This time, I imagine Chomsky might find the competition a bit tougher. Do feel free to leave your suggestions below.