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Six Degrees of Wikipedia

Posted by kdawson on from the finding-the-center dept.

An anonymous reader notes that someone has applied the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to the articles in Wikipedia. Instead of the relation being "in the same film," he used "is linked to by." From the blog post: "We'll call the 'Kevin Bacon number' from one article to another the 'distance' between them. It's then possible to work out the 'closeness' of an article in Wikipedia as its average distance to any other article. I wanted to find the centre of Wikipedia, that is, the article that is closest to all other articles (has minimum [distance])."

23 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. I know the center by plover · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's pretty obvious, and has a Bacon number of 1.0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

    --
    John
    1. Re:I know the center by smitty97 · · Score: 5, Funny
      no, this is it:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Bacon

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      mod me funny
    2. Re:I know the center by Eudial · · Score: 5, Funny

      The point with wikipedia is being omitted altogether. In wikipedia, there is just one degree of separation.

      (1) See an article.
      (2) See another unrelated article.
      (3) Edit articles 1 and 2 to link to each other.

      Complexity O(1). You could write a (very unpopular) bot that links all wikipedia articles.

      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    3. Re:I know the center by saskboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or be even more of a smartass, and write a bot that links all Wikipedia articles to Kevin Bacon's!

      --
      Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
    4. Re:I know the center by JordanL · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find it incredibly ammusing that Bukkake is only three clicks away from The Roman Catholic Church...

      By way of the Japanese Language evidentally.

      http://www.netsoc.tcd.ie/~mu/cgi-bin/shortpath.cgi?from=bukkake&to=catholic+church

      --
      FanFictionRecs.net
    5. Re:I know the center by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find it incredibly amusing that that was one of the first connections you looked for...

  2. And now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know that Kurt Vonnegut is apparently the only link between Douglas Adams and Adolph Hitler.

    Cool stats though.

  3. Billy Jean King is the center! by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that the one Michael Jackson sings about?

    three clicks to to hell:

    slashdot
    slashdot effect
    Larry Niven
    Hell

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  4. Yes, I read XKCD by orkysoft · · Score: 5, Funny

    This seems to be the obligatory XKCD.com link.

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    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  5. you can do better than that by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    the idea is to find redundant connections between sir francis bacon and kevin bacon: socially, in film, genetically, and via wikipedia links

    this sort of alternate connection generation is known as a double bacon whopper with cheese

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  6. Fun games to play with your friends by snuf23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Our personal favorite for Wikipedia is "Six degrees of anal sex". You'd be amazed how few steps it takes to go from Rush Limbaugh to butt piracy.

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    Sometimes my arms bend back.
  7. Here's proof that number 2 is almost evil. by Escogido · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shortest path from Microsoft to Evil

    Microsoft
    ASCII
    2 (number)
    Evil

    3 clicks needed

    Too bored to make a good pun out of this so please someone else do.

    1. Re:Here's proof that number 2 is almost evil. by Jorgandar · · Score: 5, Funny

      How many clicks to profit?

      e.g.

      1. Kevin bacon
      2. ?
      3. profit!

    2. Re:Here's proof that number 2 is almost evil. by Spikeles · · Score: 4, Funny
      Normally i don't post to myself, but these are just too funny:

      Shortest path from You to Natalie Portman

      1. You
      2. Darth Vader
      3. Natalie Portman
      2 clicks needed

      Shortest path from Natalie Portman to Hot Grits

      1. Natalie Portman
      2. Connecticut
      3. African American
      4. Grits
      5. You
      2 clicks needed
      and finally

      Shortest path from Natalie Portman to Bed

      1. Natalie Portman
      2. Arabic language
      3. Bilabial consonant
      4. Bed
      --
      I don't need to test my programs.. I have an error correcting modem.
  8. Re:Erdos number, please! by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    Surely the analogy should be to Erdos numbers [oakland.edu], not Kevin Bacon. -- Erdos numbers just don't have the same crackling sound to them.
    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  9. Re:This is news? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Funny

    Small world phenomena in general aren't very interesting, but the specific results are. Your comment is like having an election and saying "big deal, I knew somebody would win!"

  10. Re:Where All... by borizz · · Score: 5, Funny

    My SQL is very rusty
    Yes, and removing the space between My and SQL doesn't really help much either...
  11. It All Depends Who Wrote the Article by STrinity · · Score: 4, Funny

    [[There]] are [[some]] [[Cmdr Taco|idiots]] who [[bracket]] [[every]] other [[word]].

    --
    Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
  12. Re:Why wouldn't there be disjoint partitions? by Migrant+Programmer · · Score: 4, Funny

    That page links to them..

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    Bitchslapped. Neat.
  13. shortest path by joelpt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shortest path from disney to fuck

    The Walt Disney Company
    Motion Picture Association of America film rating system
    Fuck

    2 clicks needed

  14. Re:Excellent... by Sancho · · Score: 5, Funny

    As someone else pointed out, the largest number is 3.

    Edit page -> Insert link to old page and hit Save -> View this page.

  15. time-like Bacon distance by xPsi · · Score: 5, Funny
    Wikipedia articles actually linking to Kevin Bacon should be made "time-like" and given a negative sign in the metric tensor when calculating article "distances" in this exercise.


    No, I don't know why I'm advocating this.

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    i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
  16. Sex and the Slashdot by guruevi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scary:

    From Slashdot to Girl, 3 clicks
    From Slashdot to Sex, 2 clicks
    From Slashdot to Microsoft, 1 click

    Interesting, from Slashdot to your basement (4 clicks), you actually go through Apple, Inc.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com