chickenfeet

There's a meme doing the rounds where one is supposed to list 'famous' people one has met. I thought about this for a while (actually while walking up 45 floors worth of stairs). I came to the conclusion that I really don't have a good working definition for 'famous'. At one end it's obvious. Barack Obama is famous. We could all agree on that. We could probably all agree that someone like Omar Sharif or Pele counts as famous. But then there is a huge grey area. Shane Warne is famous but probably only in the eyes of those who follow cricket. Is an Archbishop of Canterbury famous by definition or only if they do something memorable like get murdered? How about Cabinet Ministers? Belgian Cabinet Ministers? Persons in art and entertainment? I could real off a score of 'famous' opera singers and half of you wouldn't recognise more than one or two. I'm sure you could do the same to me with pop singers or SFF writers, let alone that guy who played the 27th Doctor or who was Buffy's sidekick in Season 17.

I was going to do a poll but I couldn't even frame the questions.

The meme also has a 'two degrees of separation' component. To me that's just plain silly as the list would be endless. After all, one only has to know one person who has sat in the Commons for 20 years to pretty much claim every MP for that period plus who knows what else. (Assuming MPs are famous!). My "two degrees" list would include every professional rugby player in the British Isles and New Zealand plus Robert Mugabe, the Pope, Nelson Mandela and the entire World Cup winning Brazilian football squads of 1958 and 1962.

From nanila

1. If you were to write a book, what subject would you choose?

I've asked myself that more than once. I think the best answer I've ever come up with (and it maybe the lemur who came up with it) would be a history of ships' cats. It could be of some historical interest and, being about cats, would be bound to sell well.

2. What did you do on your last visit to the UK?

It was a very brief visit piggy backed on a wedding in Ireland. We spent a two or three days at my parents and did central southern touristy things like Stonehenge and Salisbury cathedral. Also the Royal Signals museum at Blandford Forum and the naval dockyard in Plymouth. I think we spent a couple of days in London too.

3. String theory: mathematically elegant but physically pointless, or potentially the unifying theory of the particles and forces?

I'm ninety percent sure it's the former. It's just been too long without a real, verifiable prediction (that doesn't depend on parameter fudging). My gut feel tells me that the answer to the ultimate question doesn't lie in any theory that assumes a smooth and uniform spacetime. I suspect that spacetime is quantized at some level and theory needs to recognize that.

4. What is your favourite theorem?

I'm going to say Cantor's theorem because it's a fine example of the sort of mathematical argument that comes more and more to resemble the flight of the Oozelum Bird the more one thinks about it. And that's what makes maths fun.

5. Should rugby have cheerleaders?

It is does in, for example, the Super 14. In cold rainy countries I think cheerleaders are a bit pointless.

Usual rules. if you want five questions, ask.