I was at a dinner event in New Zealand, started talking to this old guy about random topics, and as it turns out... he has an Erdös number of 1. I was definitely a bit floored as he started to describe what they worked on (in person at one point), especially as most of what he spoke of went right over my head. It was a pretty neat and random thing to experience.
As for a "Bacon Number"... I'm giving myself a 1. I actually have a plate of bacon sitting right next to me, and that's the bacon that matters the most.
EDIT: As per jerf (good catch!), I can confirm that I am not actually bacon. I changed my "bacon number" above from 0 to 1.
> Well, yes, but it's not an interesting piece of trivia. Like the Erdös numbers.
Yes, true, but by not being actually interesting as the Erdös numbers are, this makes it ... interesting. Sort of like the least interesting number, which ... oh, I'm sure you follow. :)
using the MathSciNet reference database. Unfortuately, it is only accessible to MathSciNet subscribers, so basically on all university campuses or libraries.
IMDB, which started in the days of Usenet, was founded on user contributions. In today's parlance, it's built from user generated content (UGC).
It would be surprising to see any suit to enforce the licensing restrictions on a database built from user contributions like IMDB actually go to trial.
We might come away with some interesting answers to the questions of what licensing terms on such databases are truly enforceable (as opposed to mere intimidation).
What happened to that Craigslist lawsuit? How is that progressing?
Weird, Adolf Hitler is meant to have a Bacon number of 3, but he doesn't return anything on Google. From the Wikipedia page:
Adolf Hitler was in Ewige Jude, Der (1940) with Curt Bois
Curt Bois was in Great Sinner, The (1949) with Kenneth Tobey
Kenneth Tobey was in Hero at Large (1980) with Kevin Bacon
I wonder what the cutoff for notability is. It seems to work for big names but not bit part players. Oracle Of Bacon works with all of imdb, but I guess google can't use that resource...
I'm thinking they're using something like wikipedia movie entries as the source. Something that just lists topline cast. As some other threads mention, cameos from even well-known types may not be factored in.
Hm, it seems like basically any actor you can think of off the top of your head has a Bacon number of 2 (or less). I guess that makes sense. Anyone have some interesting examples of 4+ bacon numbers??
It's got to be hard to get there if all of the connections are mapped -- I'm a 3. (I worked briefly with Giancarlo Giannini to prep him for his role in the awful Mimic, since I was shining shoes for a living at the time and the producers were willing to give me $200/hr to show him how to hold a brush; Giannini was in Hannibal with Julianne Moore; Moore was in Crazy, Stupid Love with Bacon.)
Justin Bieber (4) - admittedly an edge case, but a popular candidate without close ties (yet). It also includes the "classical baby i ' m grown up now the poetry show" link, with which I wasn't previously familiar.
For the curious, confused, or uninitiated, this whole phenomenon is almost certainly based on the coincidence that "separation" and "Kevin Bacon" sound similar, combined with the well-known phrase "six degrees of separation" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation). Thus, "six degrees of Kevin Bacon".
Try foreign and old actors, e.g. Mazzaropi (famous Brazilian comedian from the 1950'-70's), Google computes a bacon number 5... but The Oracle of Bacon returns 3, they have a bigger database.
Me too. I had to go to foreign child actors. Found a 4 with Kåre Hedebrant who played the kid, Oscar, in "Let the Right One In" (The original swedish version of Let Me In)
Edit: However, oracle of bacon says he's only a 3...
Not using IMDB sometimes leads to incorrect results. For "Louis de Funès", Google finds a Bacon number of 3:
Louis de Funès and Terry-Thomas appeared in Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!.
Terry-Thomas and Tom Aldredge appeared in The Mouse on the Moon.
Tom Aldredge and Kevin Bacon appeared in Taking Chance.
The Oracle finds 2:
Louis de Funès
was in
Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973)
with
Janet Brandt
was in
Queens Logic (1991)
with
Kevin Bacon
What would be the most intuitive way to define negative Bacon numbers? If we take this suggestion for negative Erdos numbers (http://infactorium.blogspot.com/2009/01/negative-erdos-numbe...), then this would be people who turned down an offer to star in a movie with Bacon. There must be many people in this category.
I have an Erdös number of the first kind of 2, and an Erdös number of the second kind of at most 3. I'm working on my Bacon number. So far I've appeared on television with: Carol Vorderman, Gareth Jones, Angela Rippon, Fred Dineage, and several others that I need to track down, but are even less well known.
My challenge is working out who I have been with that might have been in a film.
It's flawed. Google claims a Bacon number of > 1 for Johnny Carson, Rosie O'Donnell and Jay Leno, but he sat for interviews on their talk shows. Also, the results for some musicians include recorded-footage appearances in movies where they had no interaction with the cast.
Still seems to be just a rather clear distinction between being in a movie or not being in a movie, regardless of significance of the part or role played. To me this doesn't seem like a flaw.
What this tells me is that someone in the Google PR department had an idea, and a bunch of really smart people actually were resourced to work on it. While at the same time, my search results for useful queries have more spam than ever.
Apparently I have a Bacon Number of 4. I dated a girl who was an extra in "Footloose" (2011 remake), with Dennis Quaid, who was in "The Right Stuff" with Fred Ward, who was in "Tremors" with Mr. Bacon.
I do too, through actually appearing on film, even.
Ok, videotape. I was in a videotaped school play with someone who according to Oracle of Bacon has a Bacon number of 3. (Google doesn't work since he's pretty obscure, Oracle of Bacon uses all of IMDB I guess.)
Now I just need to find out if I can get an Erdos number out of any of my advisors.
I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.