Fast Fat and Out of Control Attention people who teach intro physics: attached please find the contents of your Monday lecture, courtesy the 1884 New York Times editorial board.

"The time is coming, however, when fat men will rival in speed the fastest bicycle, and light men will be utterly unable to compete with them."

The article is scanned in, and so it begins on the lower part of the left side, and continues at the top 

posted by mrflip in Science at 11:44AM CST - 2 comments

The Erdős-Bacon number quantifies how close a person is professionally to both Kevin Bacon AND Paul Erdős. If you're like me you might be thinking "Who even has a defined number?" and if so you're not appreciating the size of the network effect. It's not just professional nerds like Brian Greene or Carl Sagan but also professional actors-who-are-also-nerds like Danica McKellar and Natalie Portman.

I post this because it's interesting but also I know a lot of you nerds out there and I bet none of you have looked up whether you have a defined Erdős number. Surely someone in this group was an author with an author with an author..... 

posted by natedogg in Nerdliness at 04:22PM CST - 29 comments