Tuesday, April 30, 2013

3154







In March 2000, a leftover piece of French toast, half-eaten Justin Timberlake of N*SYNC was sold on a website. The entire group of N*SYNC was on the Z-Morning Zoo, some sort of TV show, on March 9th. On the show, Justin only ate one bite of his French toast! The seller said that the buyer would get Justin's half-eaten French toast, the fork he used, and the plate...complete with extra syrup! After a total of 40 bids and not even two days on the internet, the French toast was sold for a total of $3,154 dollars.

Monday, April 29, 2013

3470

Here is an ad for the Ralph Lauren collection at Saks Fifth Avenue.

 
How much does this outfit cost? 

shirt = $425
belt = $350
jeans = $395
boots = $850
handbag = $1450

total = $3470

Sunday, April 28, 2013

- 3 million

Average time, in millions of years, between mass extinctions on Earth: 62

Millions of years since Earth's last mass extinction: 65

Saturday, April 27, 2013

124,627

The number of hairs on his body, counted by Stanley, a character in Stream of Consciousness, when the "Stream" network goes bonkers trying to get as much data as possible.

Outer Limits (second edition, running 1995-2002)
Episode 6 of Season 3
Stream of Consciousness

To view the episode:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2220819225/

Info on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_Consciousness_(The_Outer_Limits) 



(posted by Don)

Friday, April 26, 2013

555 95472

555 95472, usually referred to as "5", is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He debuted in 1963, and continued to appear on and off in the strip until 1981. "5" has spiky hair and sometimes wears a shirt with the number five on it. 95472 is the family's "last name", or more specifically their ZIP code. In reality, it is the ZIP code for Sebastopol, California, where Charles M. Schulz was living at the time the character was introduced. "5" has to keep telling his teacher that the accent is on the 4 in his surname. Snoopy is confused as to whether the boy's name is spelled 5 or as the Roman numeral V.

As "5" once explained to Charlie Brown, his father, morose and hysterical over the preponderance of numbers in people's lives, had changed all of his family's names to numbers. Asked by Lucy if it was Mr. 95472's way of protesting, "5" replied that this was actually his father's way of "giving in." "5" also has two sisters named "3" and "4". ("Nice feminine names," in Charlie Brown's sarcastic assessment.) It can be assumed that their parents are named "1" and "2".

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

70

A "weird number" is a number that is less than the sum of its proper factor, yet is not equal to the sum of any subset of them.

70 is the smallest weird number. 

Its proper factors are 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 35.  The sum of these is 74.  But you can not add up a subset of these numbers to get 70.

(Amy)

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

1985



Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husband's a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned twenty four
Only been with one man
What happened to her plan?

She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake her ass
On the hood of Whitesnake’s car
Her yellow SUV is now the enemy
Looks at her average life
And nothing has been alright since

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 1985

She’s seen all the classics
She knows every line
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink
Even Saint Elmo’s Fire
She rocked out to Wham
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Thought she’d get a hand
On a member of Duran Duran

Where’s the mini-skirt made of snake skin
And who’s the other guy that's singing in Van Halen
When did reality become T.V.
Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows
on the radio was

Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 1985

She hates time make it stop
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
And when did Ozzy become an actor?
Please make this stop
Stop!
And bring back

Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 1985

Monday, April 22, 2013

27

27 is the smallest 2-digit number in which the sum of digits is equal to the sum of prime factors:

27 = 3 x 3 x 3 and 2 + 7 = 3 + 3 + 3

Sunday, April 21, 2013

6000

Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 Sugihara Chiune?, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives


On a personal note, one of these was my friend's father.

For more information:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

Saturday, April 20, 2013

3

Camels have three eyelids.

Due to the swirling sand in the desert, camels use their third eyelid to act like a windshield wiper for their eyes.
 
 

Friday, April 19, 2013

8,503,985

There is a scene in Erin Brockovich where her neighbor asks for her number.







George: Give me your number, huh?  I'll call you proper and ask you out and everything.
Erin: You want my number?
George: I do, yeah.  I want your number.
Erin: What number do you want, George?.
George: How many numbers you got?
Erin: Oh, I got numbers comin' outta my ears. For instance: ten.
George: Ten?
Erin: Yeah. That's how many months old my baby girl is.
George: You got a little girl?
Erin: Yeah. Yeah, sexy, huh? How 'bout this for a number? Six. That's how old my other daughter is, eight is the age of my son, two is how many times I've been married -- and divorced; sixteen is the number of dollars I have in my bank account. 850-3943. That's my phone number, and with all the numbers I gave you, I'm guessing zero is the number of times you're gonna call it.

(I left out a few irrelevant lines)


I was trying to find the video from  the movie, but all I found was a bunch of videos of the dialogue being acted out by other people.  So here is one of them.




Thursday, April 18, 2013

1/2

I took an informal survey of acquaintances to see how much pastrami you should have if you are throwing a dinner party.  The general opinion seems to be half a pound per person.  (Although I agree with Jim's answer that the person's weight should be the upper bound.)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

119


119 is the most money you can have in coins and not be able to change $1.  (3 quarters, 4 dimes, 4 pennies.  Other arrangements are also possible.)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

1.3

58 year old Peter Fowler holds the world record for drinking 1 liter of beer in just 1.3 seconds.

Monday, April 15, 2013

47 million

47 million is the estimated number of Americans that rush to get their taxes filed at the last minute.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

17,600

Between 2002 and 2010, according to the March BJU International (formerly British Journal of Urology), an estimated 17,600 patients came to U.S. hospital emergency rooms reporting genital injuries from trouser zippers (presumably by accident, but researchers took no position on that). Seven authors (six from University of California, San Francisco) took credit for the report, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant, and found that "zip" wounds were only about one-fifth of emergency penile injuries.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

7

A mouse, a human, and a giraffe each have 7 vertabrae in their neck.

Friday, April 12, 2013

2000

2,000th Member of Lost Tribe Returns Home





Israel marked an aliyah (immigration) milestone Thursday with the arrival of the 2,000th member of the Bnei Menashe community. Eighteen-year-old Mirna Singsit arrived in Israel along with 53 other members of the community, including her parents and three siblings.

The Bnei Menashe live in the Manipur state in northeastern India. They claim descent from the Biblical tribe of Menashe, one of the ten “lost tribes” exiled when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel.

The community is now returning to Israel under the auspices of the Shavei Israel organization, a group that encourages communities of “lost Jews” around the world, including descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism.

Shavei Israel director Michael Freund gave Singsit a certificate naming her the 2,000th arrival. Singsit told him that her arrival in Israel is the fulfillment of a life-long dream.

“It’s hard to express in words how excited and happy I am right now,” she said. “This isn’t just my dream from the day I was born, it’s been my community’s dream for thousands of years, and now it’s finally coming true.”

She plans to complete a degree in political science that she began in India, and then work as a teacher. Her family will start its life in Israel in an absorption center, but Singsit says she hopes to someday move to Jerusalem, “the holiest place on earth.”

The arrival of the 54 new immigrants was “unforgettable,” Freund said. “After 2,700 years, the tribe of Menashe is coming home,” he declared.

The government allowed immigration from Manipur to resume last October after a five-year freeze. Since then 275 members of the Bnei Manashe community have come to Israel as new citizens. The latest arrivals will live in an absorption center in Givat Haviva, and are then expected to move to Akko and Migdal Haemek in northern Israel.

(copied from Ariz Sheva website)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

You figure out the number!

Try this without a calculator or computer:


log (1/2) + log (2/3) + log (3/4) + log (4/5) + log (5/6) + log (6/7) + . . . + log (999/1000)


(answer will be posted tomorrow in the comments)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

9

An analysis of the regime's significant dates shows a dynasty of Kims obsessed with the number nine.

Watch out on 10 April 13   [  10/4/13   and 1 + 0 + 4 + 1 + 3 = 9  ]


North Korea is a notoriously secret society, led by an equally secretive dynasty of Kims. But as hostilities with the west over the country's nuclear programme escalate, revelations from deep within the regime might shed some light on what is guiding its leaders' actions.

Apparently it's the number nine.

It all started at the time of Korea's liberation from Japanese occupation, when there were eight shamans representing the eight provinces of Korea. Out of these, the strongest shaman was thought to be the one from Pyongan-do. He is said to have told Kim Il-sung that the destiny of his bloodline was aligned with the ninth number, which is considered auspicious in east Asia.

Perhaps it was because of this that Kim Il-sung declared the founding date of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be 9 September. Although there were five provinces at the time, he increased the number to nine. The Supreme Guard Command, Kim's personal bodyguard corps, was named Unit 963 (double nine is an especially lucky combination).

The Kims have their own food chain, also using the number nine. Throughout North Korea you will find so-called No 9 farms and No 9 work details, specially assigned by the central party's financial administration department. Their produce is used to feed the Kims, and these meals are called No 9 products.

The second Kim is said to have repeatedly stressed the fact that his birthday fell on 16 February (1+6+2=9). He decreed that the numberplates of his vehicles should read 2.16; and then, so as to disguise his personal vehicles, assigned this as a common numberplate for all of North Korea's inner elite.

Kim Jong-il was appointed to the highest military post on 24 December (2+4+1+2=9). His appointment as party secretary, which effectively formalised his powers, was made three years and three months after the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

Applying this to recent North Korean history, we note that Kim Jong-il gave his son, Kim Jong-un, his first public role as general of the Korean People's Army on 27 September 2010 (2+7=9, plus the 9th month, equals double nine). On 11 April (20)12 (1+1+4+1+2=9) Kim Jong-un was appointed first secretary of the Workers' party. Then on 18 July 2012, he was appointed to the rank of marshal.

When North Korea makes international news with an impending rocket launch or nuclear test, outside analysts often cite recent birthdays of the Kims, or other state anniversaries, as influencing the choice of date. But a closer look suggests it has more to do with the number nine.

The country's first nuclear test took place on 9 October 2006. The second long-range rocket launch was on 5 April 2009 (5+4=9 and nine of 2009, double nine). The next one was successfully launched on 12 December 2012 (1+2+1+2+1+2=9). There was a nuclear test on 12 February (20)13 (1+2+2+1+3=9). A recent North Korean propaganda video released on YouTube, in which the east coast of the US is consumed in a "sea of fire", features a rocket labelled No 9.

So, it all adds up. Three generations of the Kim family fixated on nines. On Friday the North Koreans announced that they could not protect foreign diplomats after 10 April (20)13.


[This article cut-and-pasted from some UK news website except for the parts in brackets.]

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

8000

A disabled man who suffers from panic attacks was stranded on the "Ït's A Small World" ride at Disneyland, when the ride broke.  He was stuck on the ride for half an hour while he had to urinate and the song played continuously.  He sued, and was awarded $8,000.

Monday, April 8, 2013

A number no one is quite sure of, but is over 6,000

Chiune Sugihara was the Japanese ambassador to Lithuania beginning in 1939.  In 1940, Jews began to come to him for visas to Japan to get out of Europe.  Japan told him he may NOT write a visa for anyone unless that had a visa to another country to go to after Japan.  He ignored these, and wrote as many visas as he could.  Estimates are that he saved over 6,000 lives, including my friend's father.





Wikipedia entry:  Chiune_Sugihara


Article from the Jewish Virtual Library:  Holocaust/sugihara.html

Sunday, April 7, 2013

100

15-year-old rape-survivor sentenced to be whipped 100 times in public in Maldives

The girl's stepfather is accused of raping her for years and murdering the baby she bore. Now the court says she must be flogged for “sex outside marriage”!



article:  maldives-teen-100-lashes

Saturday, April 6, 2013

1037

How fast do you have to drive to always stay in the sun?  1037 mph.


(at least according to Greg on Dharma and Greg)

Friday, April 5, 2013

-50

Today is the -50 th anniversary of the first meeting between a Human and a Vulcan.




The First Contact took place on the evening of April 5, 2063, when a Vulcan survey ship, the T'Plana-Hath, having detected the warp signature of the Phoenix, touched down in Bozeman, central Montana, where they met with the Phoenix's designer and pilot, Zefram Cochrane. This event is generally referred to as the defining moment in Human history, eventually paving the way for a unified world government and, later, the United Federation of Planets. The event also became an annual holiday called First Contact Day.  (source:  Some article)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

62

The world's longest traffic jam took place in Bejing, China. It was 62 miles long, stretching from Beijing to Inner Mongolia, and lasted 11 days. !!


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

220

220 is the smallest amicable number.

The proper factors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55, 110.  They add up to 284.

The proper factors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71, 142.  They add up to 220.

This makes 220 and 284 an amicable pair.  Each one is an amicable number.

Other amicable pairs include 1184 and 1210, 2620 and 2924, 5020 and 5564, 6232 and 6368, 10744 and 10856, 12285 and 14595, 17296 and 18416, 63020 and 76084.

There are 4316 pairs less than 2.01x10^11.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Monday, April 1, 2013

102

The record for the most Peeps eaten in thirty minutes is 102, eaten by Dennis Gross.