Appendix: The Derivations
Kevin Bacon’s Bacon-Sabbath Number:
Jon Bon Jovi appeared on the Bacon Brothers’ album Forosco, and also appeared on Alice Cooper’s album Trash. Alice is linked to Sabbath through collaborator Eric Singer, who has played for Sabbath.
Steven Seagal
He has a bacon number of 2 – Robert Harvey was in "The Patriot" (1998) with Seagal, and also was in "Rails & Tires" (2007) with Kevin Bacon
Sabbath number: Stevie Wonder appears on his album "Songs from the Crystal Cave" with a harmonica solo (they must've backed up the money truck). Stevie's Sabbath number is 5 according to the Sabbath Number website. He's worked with Miles Davis, who worked with Anton Fig, who worked with Ace Frehley of Kiss, who worked with Eric Singer, who has played for Sabbath.
Steven Seagal -> Miles Davis -> Anton Fig -> Ace Frehley -> Eric Singer -> Sabbath
The Author’s Braggodocio in claiming Erdos Number 5:
In the interest of maintaining my anonymity, I’d rather not outline this, but for those friends of mine who think I’m full of shit, I will point out that I have two paths to Erdos from my one weak little neuroscience publication, one through Francis Crick (who late in his life worked in neuroscience), the other through the mathematician Bard Ermentrout. My path to Dr. Ermentrout is shorter (one coauthor in common), and he’s just three steps from Erdos.
Brian Cox:
Bacon Number: The Oracle has this particular Brian Cox listed as “Brian Cox (XX)” to distinguish from the other 19+ guys of the same name in entertainment.
Brian May
For the seven-author chain from Brian May to Erdos, please visit Ross Churchley's blog, where he lays out the links. Which he found by hand, by the way. Which is a giant pain in the ass, as I'm sure you appreciate. Why, I ask in a trembling voice with tears streaming down my face, is there an automated web portal for searching Kevin Bacon numbers, but nothing of the sort for Erdos numbers? Isn’t there some bored computer geek out there who could hook together the important science journals with a search engine? There is a search tool that handles Erdos-number connections among math journals only, but unfortunately for us, Dr. May is an astrophysicist not a mathematician. But that shouldn’t be a problem – tons people outside of math have non-infinite Erdos numbers, even me. So, computer-geek-with-lots-of-free-time, get to work on a search engine that spans all science journals!
Natalie Portman:
Sabbath Number.
In 2009 Natalie featured in the song, Natalie's Rap, on the debut Album Incredibad by 'The Lonely Island'. On this same album, a song titled 'Jizz In My Pants' featured Justin Timber Lake.
Justing Timber lake performed a duet with Janet Jackson at the superbowl, and Janet's brother, Micheal, who she has sung several duets with, performed with the Beatle Paul McCartney.
Paul's fellow Band member John Lennon performed a song Vinny Appice,giving a sabbath Value of seven.