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on March 7, 2009 | hide | past | favorite



First, it's Grigori (Григорий) or "Grisha" for short. Secondly, there's quite a few mathematicians that have that look. I remember a funny story one of my professors told me about Campus Security not allowing him into a building because they thought he was a homeless person trying to get some food, before another professor called out his name and explained that he was, in fact, an eminent professor in the Math department.

That said, I sometime feel this way when I run into a professor on the BART or something. "Doesn't anybody realize they're in the presence of a genius?"


Wow, that reminds me of a lesson in humility I got once. I was doing math undergrad. The professors used to let a few of us smart-ass types hang out in their math department lounge where the order of the day was playing chess and Go, exchanging attempts at witticism, and avoiding work. One day I noticed a stranger, a shabbily-dressed little old man, hobbling around the room. I distinctly remember thinking: "What is that old guy doing in here? He obviously doesn't belong here. He looks like a bum!"

It was Erdös.


Does this mean that we all now have Erdös numbers of 2?


Only if gruseom published a paper with him, and we have all published papers with gruseom.


I think a little respect for a private man is needed here.



It's not tabloid junk if it's a famous mathematician?


But it's HACKER tabloid junk.

Surely it will appear on these pages again when xkcd makes a cartoon of it.


It's interesting, characteristically Russian tabloid junk. I find it hard to imagine an equivalent thing here.


"English Russia just because something cool happens daily on 1/6 of the Earth surface"

I like this tagline. It's catchy, true, slightly misleading.




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