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

42 digits!

Actor John Cazale had a brief acting career, just 6 years. During those years appeared in 5 films; The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. All 5 of these films were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. After his death from lung cancer in 1978, archival footage of John Cazale was used in The Godfather Part III, also nominated for Best Picture.

Follow-up on my last post here: The smallest number palindromic of 16 digits in two different integer bases is decimal 530386561769238496 -- A49232022023294A in base 13 and 1327D169961D7231 in base 15. Assuming one exists, the smallest number palindromic of 18 digits in two different bases has smaller base of 18-digit palindromicity at least 20. [The problem for an odd number of digits is much easier.]

Hmmm. Guess I should have used lower case.

Ah, well, it looks like I quit just short in my search for a 2-fold 18-palindrome a while back. Decimal 73012066376764835227425 is an 18-digit palindrome in bases 20 and 22. The smallest, if my earlier program wasn't faulty, and I've no reason to suspect it was. The base-20 and -22 representations: 5B830BA7227AB038B5 and 1258I9FJ77JF9I8521.

Probably correct, but it's a hasty declaration. My programming hasn't rule out smaller numbers yet, just bases under 20.

Well, on 3rd thought, since the smallest 18-digit base-23 number is bigger than this, the number is obviously the smallest of the kind.

A scuttling of turtles.

Heh... A few days ago I heard someone on the radio point out the "interesting fact" that a group of cats is called a "clowder" and I instantly thought to myself, "No, they're called a bunch of cats", like nearly every other group of animals.

There's a pun in there somewhere, on catsup.

"'Sup?"

"Cats."

Blunt table knives were invented by Cardinal Richelieu in 1637 as he was disgusted at men picking their teeth with the daggers previously used at the table. The idea caught on and in 1669 Louis XIV banned all pointed knives in France.

I'd heard about the pointed knives, but I don't think I knew of Cardinal Richelieu's connection before.


This morning I learned that the women's undergarment company, Platex (known officially as the International Latex Corporation), designed and built the Apollo spacesuits.

When I searched for more info, I learned about the intrigue and conflict behind the story.

http://www.wired.com/2011/02/pl_spacesuits_showdown/

The pH scale was developed by Dr. Søren Sørensen (1868-1939), working for Carlsberg laboratories as a tool in his research on amino acids, proteins and enzymes... to improve the beer brewing process.

Can't stand beer, despite living for three years in Australia, I loathe and despise it. No one has ever used that fact in public before. So it qualifies.

It's widely known that The Monkees’ records outsold both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in the years 1966 to 1967, at somewhere around 35 million records.

This factoid was invented by Mike Nesmith while being interviewed by a reporter in Australia. Before the interview, Nesmith told the reporter that he was interested in the veracity of the press. He told the interviewer that he was going to lie to him. The reporter was a bit surprised, perplexed, and troubled by this statement and asked how would he know if he was being told the truth or lies, and Nesmith replied, "you won't". It was during that interview that Nesmith made up the 35 million records and how that was more than the Beatles and the Stones combined. He was... well a bit pleased when he read that same figure and comparison in the New York Times months later. That it's still a "well known fact" should make everyone doubt what they "know".


Source, Gilbert Godfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast wherein Mike Nesmith says that he may have been lying the whole time.

Man, that's what the sixties was all about. I miss that era, when telling lies was just a game and didn't result in death, economic disaster, and pregnancy.

So is that story about Mike Nesmith's mother inventing post-it notes (or something like that) also an invention of his?

Actually, she invented Liquid Paper, aka Tipped. No, he did not make that one up.