I've been contemplating on this years' list all day and I must say that I'm quite happy with it. Don't mind all the sourpusses here who start moaning and droning just for the sake of it.
The most ridiculous remark was that they should have made the list more interesting by including Ruby Muhammad. Ruby... who?! Oh yeah! The obscure (allbeit ancient) lady that has done nothing notorious in her life - apart from being a Halibut - that was on the DL 2007 and incited more protests than the whole Nation of Islam since the 1960's. That's not the kind of debate you want on the forum, do you?
Why would people like Maura Tierney or Robin Williams make DL more 'interesting'? Because there's NO way they're going to die for the next fifty years or so?! Stephen Hawking is nothing more than a brilliant mind in a lifeless corpse that breaths, eats and talks mechanically. That's unfair competition, me thinks, the other candidates have to outlive the year all by themselves (or not, hopefully).
And finally: I very much doubt that the selection committee passed over any candidate because they were mentioned in a poll or in a thread on the forum. Why would they? They're probably selfconceited smart-asses, but so are most of us here.