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Does This Make A2 More or Less Overrated?

Someone in Ann Arbor is auctioning off an Erdös number of 5 (via Notional Slurry.) We’re not sure what to say about that, other than that it could make for some great spam subject lines if this Erdös-number-lowering craze ever catches on (”embarRRwasEd about yr HUGE eRd0s numb3r?”)

9 Responses to “Does This Make A2 More or Less Overrated?”


  1. well, this will certainly kick off a red-hot roller coaster of a thread I daresay. Seatbelts fastened. :)

    posted by Laura on April 21st, 2004 at 7:17 pm

  2. Heck I got mine lowered and I feel great!

    posted by Rustboy on April 21st, 2004 at 8:00 pm

  3. Hmm…Erdo’s envy? As if the geek quotient around here is not high enough.

    posted by Engineer Guy on April 21st, 2004 at 8:05 pm

  4. Well, from Mark Newman’s CV (just as one convenient source), it looks like the auctioneer is one of Simon M. Fraser, Kim Sneppen and William A. Tozier. A quick check of the umich directory doesn’t show any of them as being at Michigan, though.

    And that’s absolutely as much nerd-hunting as I intend to do here.

    posted by Murph on April 21st, 2004 at 9:42 pm

  5. Well, the auctioner offers a “Tozier number of 1.” When I posted this, I thought the auctioner was Mark Newman, for some reason.

    posted by ann arbor is overrated on April 21st, 2004 at 9:47 pm

  6. But, but … everyone who knows about Erdös numbers is going to know about this auction, and its outcome. Certainly enough details are posted that the identities wouldn’t be any secret to those in the field. Wouldn’t that kind of devalue the snob appeal of having this Erdös number?

    posted by Larry Kestenbaum on April 22nd, 2004 at 6:48 pm

  7. Hmmm, I must have missed the part about a Tozier number of 1. Which, of course, makes it pretty obvious who the auctioneer is.

    posted by Murph on April 23rd, 2004 at 10:23 am

  8. It couldn’t have been Newman anyway, because that would’ve put you at Erdos 4, and not 5 as the auction promises.

    But I’m not sure why there’s any confusion at all, as Tozier talks about the auction and posts auction hit statistics in his blog? Or am I being too literal again…

    posted by Alex on April 23rd, 2004 at 12:25 pm

  9. Isn’t a number of 5 relatively unimpressive anyway?

    posted by snickerdoodle on April 23rd, 2004 at 5:00 pm