so it turns out, after some googling, that I have an erdos number of 4 (erdos - hoffman - karp - etzioni - me). but having never been in a movie, I don't have a finite bacon number or, therefore, a finite erdos-bacon number. much to my admiration, however, both natalie portman and danica mckellar (along with a handful of nerdy scientists and bertrand russell) have finite erdos-bacon numbers. that's something you can admire.

According to this Detroit News article (tip: Autoblog), Honda (they're Japanese, remember) are turning to Gwen Stefani (not Japanese) for advice on how to make their cars more "J-cool" to young people. I guess it makes sense -- no one would argue that Honda knows more about style than Gwen Stefani -- but it's kind of weird on its face. Does Honda really want Gwen's cheesy Americanized version of Harajuku cool to be the face of Honda in America? And is this going to result in an Acura that looks like little Bo Peep? On the other hand, Honda could use a little flash lately.