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1. Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Dec-2022 15:09:09 UTC Robert McNees

   Mathematician John Conway was born #OTD in 1937. He made broad and profound contributions across all of mathematics, but he is maybe best known by the general public for his "game of life" cellular automaton. Conway passed away in 2020, from COVID-19.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Dec-2022 15:12:26 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     From this lovely remembrance of John Conway I learned that, by virtue of once shaking Conway’s hand after a seminar, I myself am only four handshakes removed from Napoleon.
     https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-conway-solved-mathematical-problems-with-his-bare-hands-20200420/

   • Ben Evans (kittylyst@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Dec-2022 19:31:46 UTC Ben Evans

     in reply to

     @mcnees This is one of my particular favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4

   • The Geoff (_thegeoff@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 18:53:41 UTC The Geoff

     in reply to

     @mcnees Huh! Guessing Conway shook hands with Donald Knuth at some point? So I'm five away...
     (Do we now all need to calculate our Erdős-Bacon-Sabbath-Napoleon numbers?)

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 19:21:35 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • The Geoff

     @_thegeoff Conway <- Bertrand Russell <- Lord John Russell <- Napoleon