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Geek Stars From Atkinson to Zappa
Ian Lamont writes "You probably remember reading about Brian May getting a PhD in Astrophysics, but may not know about the many other celebrities from the music, TV, and film worlds who have studied science and technology in college and grad school, or are simply serious gearheads who like gadgets, games, and other geek pastimes. Computerworld has identified about 50 celebrities who fit the bill, including Dan Grimaldi (Patsy Parisi, The Sopranos) who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in math, a master's in operations research and a Ph.D. in data processing; Rowan Atkinson, who has a master's in electrical engineering from Queen's College, Oxford; and Todd Rundgren, who developed an early paint program called Utopia. Other folks on the list: Dr. Demento, Montel Williams, Natalie Portman, Curt Schilling, and Huey Lewis."
Have you seen the arrow?
Is mentioning Natalie Portman in a Slashdot story a good idea?
I was considering karma whoring and making a Natalie Portman joke early on in a discussion, almost guaranteeing a +5 Funny...
But I decided to actually read the story. According to the article, and also Wikipedia, shes a Psyc student, published a couple papers. Seriously, thats enough to make the geek list? Am I in a dillusioned world that of the thousands of "stars" out there, there aren't many with more geek cred than this?
Oh and I will karma whore... here's the link to the full article print link:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9043739
Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics :-)
What no mention of Asia Carrera? Mensa, gamer, pornstar
In his book "The Real Frank Zappa" released in 1989 Zappa explains his plan for the future of music distribution. He says that consumers arn't that interested in CDs or vinyl and explains how you could use the cable tv or telephone system to digitally transmit music (and cover art, etc) into peoples homes on a subscription basis. This was back in 1989, long before your interweb thing took off.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
His real last name isn't Dolby, it's Robertson.
When he spoke at the BDC, it was about his high-tech startup, which developed a new audio format.
He got sued by the Dolby corporation; according to Wikipedia, the settlement allows him to use their trademark only when in the context of "Thomas ".
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Actually what is interesting is that very few of the people on this list ever publicly talk about their education or interests. We live in an age when kids are losing interest in science in technology and chasing the celebrity dream of fame and fortune. Many of these people could be good roll models to encourage kids back into science, technology and engineering.
Also, Masi Oka has a double in Math and CS, and worked at ILM. I don't care what you say: Hiro Nakamura is a real geek. He still consults for ILM for Petes sake!
I can't let this go past without bringing up Erdos-Bacon numbers.
Natalie Portman has one of the better scores (Erdos 5 + Bacon 2 = 7). She did not (so far as I know) use her fame in her primary field (acting) to get preferential treatment in the other (science/maths.) There are scientists with a lower total, but I think they've all got an acting part on strength of their science fame (e.g. Stephen Hawking.)
According to Wikipedia, a few people have lower Erdos-Bacon numbers which appear to be 'clean', but I haven't heard of them before: Kiralee Hayashi (3+3), Danica McKellar (4+2), Barney Pell (3+2), John Platt (3+3), Karl Schaffer (3+2), Brian Wandell (3+2), Wendelin Werner (3+3).
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
There's Elvis Costello - former computer programmer who chucked it all for Rock 'N Roll...
(He kept the geek look but lost the career!)
Peter Gabriel is quite the computer nerd...
Joe Walsh of the Eagles - he's got a Ham Radio license...
And Jeff Foxworthy used to work for IBM, but I'm not sure how nerdy he was.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Quoth Wikipedia:
The "Bachelor of Science" (BSc) is a relatively recent invention by modern universities. "Modern" in this context means "Not already 600 years old when those Romantic trendies re-wrote the dictionary". Certainly the University of Oxford (est. 1069 give or take a few decades) doesn't have any truck with this sort of newspeak and awards BA for everything.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
This comes directly from her bio: http://www.asiacarrera.com/bio.html
Geeky Academic Stuff - NJ spelling champ, National Mathematics League, Spanish National Honor Society, placed in National Geography, Language Arts, and Mathematics Olympiads.
Geeky Other Stuff - Played classical piano at Carnegie Hall at 13 & 14 (Ernesto Lecuona's 'Malaguena' and Bach's 13th Invention), taught Colloquial English at Tsuruga College in Japan at 16
Education - Attended performing arts high school (emphasis on instrumental music and visual arts), National Merit Scholarship Winner (for 1440 on SAT's), and Garden State Scholar (for nerdly grades). Attended Rutgers University on full academic scholarship, with a double-major in Business and Japanese.
Although he doesn't have the best voice. He did write a slew of hits, Bobby Mcgee and Help me Make it through the night. Was one of the highway men.
1. Rhodes Scholar.
2. Military Helicopter Pilot.
3. Assigned as a professor at West Point but resigned his commission.
4. Golden Gloves boxer.
A true geek in the Heinlein sense. Smart and tough.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Danny Kaye once said that in order to do something funny you have to be able to do it well.
If you think about it, anybody who is bad at something might do something funny by accident, but a pro has to get up on stage or on camera and be funny on cue. Kaye taught himself to sing, dance and fence tolerably well. Maybe not well enough to be a singing and dancing star or that you'd put your money on him in a duel, but well enough to be able to execute his idea of what might be funny accurately enough to make people laugh on purpose.
There are lots of people in the world who can be funny opportunistically, but there is an incredible amount of craft even in something as deceptively simple as stand up comedy. What could be more natural than telling a funny story? Practically anything, if that means you have to tell that story five or more days a week, several times a night, to a paying audience that really wants your act to be over so they can see the guy they came to see. Sometimes if you see a comedian on TV who is funny, then look up his website, he'll have posted an earlier version of the exact same routine. Frank Caliendo's Bush impression comes to mind. If you look at the early videos of his routine, they are undeniably funny, but not as funny as the version he did on Letterman. That's unnatural. Most people who tell the same joke over and over again get less and less funny, but a skilled comedian is funny even if you've seen his routine a dozen times.
I think that a mania for craft is an often overlooked element of geekdom. It certainly isn't your schooling that makes you a geek; it isn't an interest in science or math. You've got to be obsessed with doing things that other people can't. Lots of guys work on cars; quite a few are good at it. But the one who spends years trying to redesign his car is a geek, no matter what other trappings his intellectual life sports. Likewise being able to work a math problem that most people can't is not necessarily geeky. Having strongly held opinions about the best way to approach certain kinds of math problems is quintessentially geeky.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Dexter Holland, lead singer of the the band "The Offspring" has a Bachelor's degree in Biology and a Master's degree in Molecular Biology, both from the University of Southern California. He is also a PhD candidate in Molecular Biology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Holland
"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
Having a PhD does not, of course, preclude nerdiness, but it doesn't guarantee it, either. My old boss Charlie (now retired in Florida) had a PhD and was, in fact, a true geek. OTOH, the fellow now in the next office from mine has a PhD but is dumb as a box of rocks, and has no geek qualifications whatever aside from being a fat dork who wears glasses. It doesn't take a high IQ to obtain a PhD, just stubbornness and a good work ethic. It does require a three digit IQ to be a nerd.
The #1 all time famous nerd was Niel Armstrong, who was an engineer who famously said "I am and always will be a pocket protector wearing nerd". He accomplished the ultimate in nerdiness, being the first man to step foot on another world. That was a nerd's wet dream come true!
-mcgrew
(Linked text is titled "Growing Up With Computers" from 2005, in it is mention of Niel's most famous act of nerdiness. Another of my useless but on-topic scribblings is a two year old blagh titled What is a nerd?)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Definitely geekier than your average psych paper.
And it appears that her other paper, on which she was first author while in high school, was actually in chemistry:
A Simple Method To Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar
Though it's actually in a chemistry education journal, and appears to maybe have something to do with doing demonstrations in chemistry classrooms.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.