duckznutz

I dont know if this has been touched on before in the forum (I will be surprised if it hasnt) . . but there is a theory that every one of us is only five handshakes away from the guy at the top. You know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone etc . . . and no-one is more than 5 connections away from the president (or anyone else for that matter!).

lurkette

My thesis advisor (former Sierra Club pres) -> Al Gore -> George W. Bush (I'm assuming Al Gore could get me there - if not, I'm sure there are only 1-2 steps between him and GWB.

I read somewhere that the "6 degrees of separation" thing was a little exaggerated - that it's actually somewhere between 6 and 30. Anyone seen the data?

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Zargix

What about people without hands

bermuDa

/me runs to wash my hands

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TIO

Me > My friend in Young Labour > Bob Hawke > John Howard > Dubya.

There it is, and I'm not even American!

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Strewth

Heavy

Me>Oliver North>President (surely he did at some point)

dragon2fire

me>my great uncle>pres cater>dubya

as a side note i am realted to pres cater if very distanly

chavos

I've seen a proof that it should only take 6 handshakes to get from one individual to any other person on earth. Someone in your own nation should be easily 5.

Shadowman

Well I heard the 6 degrees of seperation thing too. Everyone here in Perth say its more like 3 degrees of seperation, everyone seems to know each other!

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Macheath

Me>Simon Crean>John Howard>Dubya

Kadath

I thought I was okay, then I saw dragon2fire's...
Me>Grandfather>Carter>Dubya.
SHIT!

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supersix2

my Dad (works for nestle) > former corparte chef for nestle > White House Pastry Chef Roland Messier > George W. Bush

apetaster

Me -> My old boss (guarded Nixon) -> Dickie -> GHWB -> GWB

Flippy

me -> a friend -> his aunt -> bill gates -> (i'm assuming) GWB

duckznutz

me > one of my Clients > The Queen > (I assume - GWB)

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asquint

me>SGT Sara>Don Rumsfeld>GWB

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warrrreagl

I can go four steps from me to Beethoven. My piano instructor in college was an old man named Livermore. His instructor was a guy in Europe who studied with Liszt. And Liszt studied with Beethoven.

Ta-da!

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duckznutz

i can see this thread ending up with 5 steps to Adam & Eve!

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GrumpyCoder

me > My CIO > my Dept. Director > Oregon Gov. Kulongoski >Bush

Sen

Me > My former boss (a US Senator) > GWB
Me > The other Senator from my State > GWB
Me > My Congressman > GWB
Me > Any number of friends on staff on Capitol Hill > Their boss > GWB

I was also at a fundraiser for GWB in 2000 in which he was shaking hands, but he didn't make it to my table. DAMNIT!

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Raisins31

Me -> My Boss (Admissions Director)->University President -> GWB

One of my college roomates is directly related to Tom Hanks. I am six degress from Kevin Bacon!

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BonesCPA

me - Dir. of Homeland Security - GWB.


We have the middleman a couple of times, anyone have no buffers.

(Lifted from IMDB)
Senator Pat Geary: Mr. Cici, was there always a buffer involved?
Willi Cici: A what?
Senator Pat Geary: A buffer. Someone in between you and your possible superiors who passed on to you the actual order to kill someone.
Willi Cici: Oh yeah, a buffer. The family had a lot of buffers!

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XenuHubbard

Me > My uncle > Mats Hulth > Goran Persson > GWB.

And I'm Swedish.

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luckynumber

I don't know exactly what you mean... five handshakes away from being related to the president? or just meeting him?

I had the [dis]pleasure of meeting Dubbya a few years back, while he was still the Govenor of Texas. soo.... i dunno if that counts... i guess you could count this...

me --> my (blood) aunt --> her husband --> his father (a lobbyist/major republican fund donor, met dubbya at a dinner) --> W

dunkelhelmut

I've actually shaken the President's hand once, so that counts as one handshake, right?

Seriously,
Me -> College of Computing Dean -> Wayne Clough (Georgia Tech President) - > GWB

Stiltzkin

Me > Mr. Sears (psychology teacher) > Ms. Remijio > Al Gore > Dubya

Crazy

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89transam

Sure why not

Me>Freind>Freinds buddy(secret service agent) > his boss > GWB

dogma13554u

me>Bill Clinton> . . . . damn, I don't even want to think about where that hand has been

joecool333

Me->myfriend->Dick G -> da man himself (of course he's not really da man in my book anymore)

ishkeb

This game is sometimes played with Kevin Bacon, and when someone brought this up to me, I said, "No way, I know for a fact that no one I know has any relation to Kevin Bacon." To which another guy in the room immediately responded, "I've met him." It really is a small world.

Also, there was an article a while ago (maybe posted on Fark) that outlined how everyone in the entire world was RELATED, if only you traced back a few generations. I'll see if I can dig it up, but not tonight, I'm too tired.

zenmaster10665

6 degrees is more likely than 30, if you think about it....

Let's say that you "know" 20 people (conservative estimate unless you really are a geek )

Well, assuming that every other person also knows 20 people...again, conservative estimate...the numbers grow exponentially for each degree of separation...

i.e.

Me -> 20 people = 20^1 = 20 total people

My friend knows 20 people who might know the person:

Friend -> 20 people => 20^2 = 400 total people

That person knows 20 people who *might* know the person:

Person w -> 20 people => 20 ^ 3 = 8000 total people

I think you can see where I am going with this...

Person x -> 20 people => 20 ^ 4 = 160,000 total people

person y -> 20 people => 20 ^ 5 = 3.2 million total people

person z -> 20 people => 20 ^ 6 = 640 million total people (including Dubya)


30 degrees of separation is possible, however, it would have to be a whole lot of lonely, antisocial people

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duckznutz

Even a geek knows 20 people! make it 100 at least. My mobile phone has 270 names in it for a start.
Using 100 gets your numbers up a LOT quicker!

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Where your talents and the needs of the world cross . . there lies your vocation.

jbm1x

hmm interesting stuff

me > my friend (training for fbi) > someone in fbi > his boss> dubya

not sure but it makes sense thinking about it, gonna see what other ones i can find

maxero

"Kevin Bacon was in Footloose with Dianne Weist,
who was in The Birdcage with Gene Hackman,
who was in The Firm with Holly Hunter,
who was in Copycat with Sigourney Weaver,
who was in Alien with the Alien."

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cough

Jakejake

Me -> Local MP -> Tony Blair -> GWB

Subform

Me>My mom>GWB ???

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duckznutz

from kevin Bacon to an Alien? wow
Are you saying that you, maxero, is Kevin Bacon . . and GWB is an alien? this is newsworthy!

nostalgic1

me > my uncle (the head doctor of the trauma unit of the hospital of washington dc) > GWB.

my uncle was also the guy that saved five out of the seven guys that they received from the pentagon on 9/11.

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dy156

Okay, none of you probably know me in real life, but all these stories are true. Not quite on the philosophical topic, but thought I should add this to the discussion.

me->GWBush at Governor's Christmas party in Austin-I was set up with sister of a friend of mine's date. The sisters' father was, I guess, a big shot, and that's why we got to go.

me->Clinton at state of the Union -the one where he held up a card and said that every American would have one and have access to health care-I was a congressional page at the very back and I just had a long arm I guess. My parents back home saw me on ABC.

me->Poppa Bush at Republican convention in 1992 when I worked at the convention center as a summer job.

Guess I've just been in the right place at the right time.
Just call me Forest Gump

human

This is kinda funny, so I had to think about it for a while, got this now though :
Me->Dad->Edward Lawson->Jean Chretien->GWB