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Erdős–Bacon Number
A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one's Erdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one's Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, which reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment. To have a defined Erdős–Bacon number, it is necessary to have both appeared in a film and co-authored an academic paper, although this in and of itself is not sufficient as ones co-authors must have a known chain leading to Paul Erdős, and one's film must have actors eventually leading to Kevin Bacon. Academic scientists Mathematician Daniel Kleitman has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3. He co-authored papers with Erdős and has a Bacon number of 2 via Minnie Driver in ''Good Will Hunting''; Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erdős Number
The Erdős number () describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual has collaborated with a large and broad number of peers. Overview Paul Erdős (1913–1996) was an influential Hungarian mathematician who in the latter part of his life spent a great deal of time writing papers with a large number of colleagues, working on solutions to outstanding mathematical problems. He published more papers during his lifetime (at least 1,525) than any other mathematician in history. (Leonhard Euler published more total pages of mathematics but fewer separate papers: about 800.) Erdős spent a large portion of his later life living out of a suitcase, visiting over 500 collaborators around the world. The idea of the Erdős number was originally created by the mathematician's friends as a tribute to his enormous ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 4 October 1998) was a British actor, photographer and film director. He began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in ''How Green Was My Valley'' (1941), '' My Friend Flicka'' (1943) and ''Lassie Come Home'' (1943). As an adult, McDowall appeared most frequently as a character actor on radio, stage, film, and television. For portraying Octavian in the historical drama ''Cleopatra'' (1963), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He played Cornelius and Caesar in the original ''Planet of the Apes'' film series, as well as Galen in the spin-off television series. Other notable films included '' The Longest Day'' (1962), ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965), '' That Darn Cat!'' (1965), '' Inside Daisy Clover'' (1965), ''Bedknobs and Broomsticks'' (1971), '' The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972), '' Funny Lady'' (1975), ''The Black Hole'' (1979), ''Class of 1984'' (1982), ''Fright Nigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jordan Ellenberg
Jordan Stuart Ellenberg (born October 30, 1971) is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research involves arithmetic geometry. He is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction writing. Early life Ellenberg was born in Potomac, Maryland. He was a child prodigy who taught himself to read at the age of two by watching ''Sesame Street''. His mother discovered his ability one day while she was driving on the Capital Beltway when her toddler informed her: "The sign says ' Bethesda is to the right.'" In second grade, he helped his teenage babysitter with her math homework. By fourth grade, he was participating in high school competitions (such as the American Regions Mathematics League) as a member of the Montgomery County math team. And by eighth grade, he had started college-level work. He was part of the Johns Hopkins University Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth longitudinal cohort. He scored a perfec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect.Extract of page 14 Initially an assistant professor at [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Picture (1989 Film)
''The Big Picture'' is 1989 American comedy film starring Kevin Bacon and directed by Christopher Guest in his directorial debut. Plot Film student and aspiring writer/director Nick Chapman, an Ohio native, finds himself the winner of a prestigious student film contest in LA. Overnight, Hollywood VIPs want to make deals with Nick. He settles on a quirky agent (Martin Short) to represent him, and signs a deal with a major film studio to make his dream movie. Nick finds the Hollywood studio "process" distasteful, and is forced to make many creative compromises like adding a pop music soundtrack and aging down the middle-aged characters to college-age. He strikes a deal and uses his newfound money and fame to lease a flashy sportscar and make new Hollywood friends. Nick blows off a lunch meeting with his film school friend Emmet (Michael McKean) and distances himself from his girlfriend, Susan (Emily Longstreth). A new studio head decides to cancel his film project and Nick is left ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Python Live (Mostly)
''Monty Python Live (Mostly)'' (also billed as ''Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go'') was a variety show by the Monty Python comedy group at The O2 in London in July 2014. Planned as a single performance for 1 July, it was expanded to 10 shows due to the high demand for tickets. It was their first live performance together in 16 years, the second without member Graham Chapman (who died in 1989) and the last with Terry Jones (died 2020). The final date was broadcast in cinemas around the world on 20 July. Prior to this Eric Idle stated, “It is a world event and that’s really quite exciting. It means we’re actually going to say goodbye publicly on one show. Nobody ever has the chance to do that. The Beatles didn’t get a last good night.” Overview In 2013, the Pythons lost a legal case to Mark Forstater, the producer of their second film, ''Holy Grail'', over royalties for its musical adaptation ''Spamalot''. They owed a combined £800,000 ($994,600) in lega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on ''The Frost Report''. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include '' Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975), ''Life of Brian'' (1979) and ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth co-wrote the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'', in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. In 2000 the show topped the British Film Inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Tang (actor)
Tony Tang is a Hong Kong-born Canadian engineer and city councillor. He was elected as part of the Vision Vancouver slate in 2011. He was defeated in his bid for re-election in the November 15, 2014 civic election, placing 16th in the race for 10 council positions with 49,414 votes. Life and career A native of Hong Kong, Tang immigrated to Canada in 1969 and worked in the home construction sector for more than 22 years. He holds a master's degree in engineering from the University of British Columbia, and studied art through the Alberta College of Art. An engineer by profession, he is able to speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently and was a board member of the Shaughnessy Heights Property Owners' Association for five years between 2001 and 2006. He was the chair of the Vancouver board of variance. In September 2009 he was accused by Ray Tomlin, a member of the Vancouver Board of Variance who subsequently fired after the making the allegation, of violating the Vancouver Charter by hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-Clock
''Anti-Clock'' is a 1979 science fiction film written and directed by Jane Arden (director), Jane Arden and co-directed by Jack Bond (director), Jack Bond. In the film, dreams are imaged in computerized video. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour with black and white sequences. It opened the 1979 London Film Festival, but was never picked up for British distribution: its only other public British screening was at the National Film Theatre in 1983 as a tribute to Jane Arden, who committed suicide at the end of the previous year. However, it had a modest theatrical release in the US, where it received considerable critical acclaim. Famed scientist Richard Feynman appears in the form of stock footage from his Messenger lectures on "The Character of Physical Law", and is credited as "The Physicist". ''Anti-Clock'', which relates closely in places to Jane Arden (director), Jane Arden's book ''You Don't Know What You Want, Do You ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Alamos Laboratory
The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Robert Oppenheimer was its first director, serving from 1943 to December 1945, when he was succeeded by Norris Bradbury. In order to enable scientists to freely discuss their work while preserving security, the laboratory was located in a remote part of New Mexico. The wartime laboratory occupied buildings that had once been part of the Los Alamos Ranch School. The development effort initially concentrated on a gun-type fission weapon using plutonium called Thin Man. In April 1944, the Los Alamos Laboratory determined that the rate of spontaneous fission in plutonium bred in a nuclear reactor was too great due to the presence of plutonium-240 and would cause a predetonation, a nuclear chain reaction before the core was fully assembled. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District as its first headquarters were in Manhattan; the placename gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (equivalent to about $ billion in ). Over 90 percent of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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