h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not lock gates, sorry! Moving in the wrong direction, now.

I'm off now, but keep thinking!

Icy

Hey, things suddenly got busy in here!

Are they modes of transportation?

such as vans or something

Hello Whale Good to see you.

I've thought as far as level crossings and I'm sure that's not right either

it's quite the tricky one indeed, trin, it certainly seems vehicular in nature, I wonder if they are found on the Motorway, you know like those signs, oh wait no, those signs don't look anything like a hand-bag or a rattle. damn!

Not public transport means no buses and trains, I presume, but not public infrastructure?

Same place as bridges... ships, barges... tunnels? What about cable cars? Monorails? Hey, could be those. Cable cars or monorails.

Please register a guess above.

moveable bridges, maybe?

Rattle may be to do with swing bridge, while Handbag may be to with lifting bridge.

Something to do with the mechanism?

I'm off to play with the Tyne then - they have the road bridge, the rail bridge, the transporter bridge etc; is that where the swing bridge is too?

Hmmmmmmmm!! absolutely zilch there about handbags or rattles

'twas only a thought.

I have clue anymore than anybody.

Enough of this - I'm going to award it to the winner - OLS Whale, for posting 6624.

Yes, they are motorway signs - matrix signs to be precise.

You won't find it on Google - I read it in a local newspaper article, when an engineer was describing the new signs going up along the M4, but this was years ago, and I've seen them all over the UK now.

Here are some picture links...

1. The 'rattle': http://www.aardvark-technical-services.co.uk/images/sce/motorway_sign_home.jpg

2. The 'handbag': http://www.colas.co.uk/image_thumbnailer.aspx?i=upload-images/MS4250.jpg&w=200

So, well done, OLS Whale! and it's over to you...

Brilliant! I haven't seen any 'handbags' in my neck of the woods; but the rattle certainly (and it does look like an old wooden football rattle to me).

Huzzah!

The joys of a stab in the dark!

hmmmmmmmmmm, what to ask...

...shuffles off to read a book, hoping to find something devastatingly puzzling...

It won't have to be devastating to puzzle me!

I'm sure my definition of devastating in puzzle terms is very similar to yours, then. That last one had me completely stumped, it did! I never suspected that my guess would be accurate!

Anyhooooo

Where would you find two numbers, 155 digits in length, each factorable [is this even a word?] by itself and one only.

Yeah, two whopping huge prime numbers, just to clarify.

I need more books.

Ooh, I think I may be able to answer that one, but I should let someone else have a go...

Damn, that's pretty quick, although then again this is the internet.

Just noticed the other quiz thread, that hasn't had a new question since september '04. Master B to the ockey, as it were.

Does it have anything to do with radio frequencies?

nope, well, maybe, but not the answer I'm looking for, I am, unfortunately, no expert on common uses for prime numbers!

Go on, Icy! What's your answer? I hate it when quiz threads die!
I reckon this one's had long enough

Are they on Voyager to show we have intelligent life to whoever picks up our space debris?