The Number 23

[ratzz]

Hey all,

Its a long time since I've been here, and now I'm posting something completely random!

Just finished watching the pretty poor film "The Number 23" with Jim Carrey, and had a quick look into this number 23 phenomenon - knew there'd be some nutter on the Internet who'd done loads of research about this (and I wasn't disappointed!), thought I'd share my findings ...

Have a read about the number 23: http://afgen.com/numbr23b.html - sometimes called 23 Enigma
You may also like to read the 'Law of Fives': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism - or the religion of Discordianism

Here's hoping that my next post will be 'on topic', but it's a good read with a beer and an open mind!

TTFN!

[danny_galaga]

yeah, i saw this at the cinema. it had promise, but something major let it down. ive forgotten now. maybe the ending was particularly lame or something...

[SavannahLion]

I hate that numbers ---smurf-poop---. I got into it for fun for a while back in high school. I quit when I realized it was consuming all of my time and effort. I never bothered to consider 23 as a movie going option. It got tossed into the same pile as the Cable Guy and I forgot all about it.

What makes the whole thing absolutely asinine is that too few people realize that a majority of the time, anybody can pull some random number out of their ass and make damn near anything fit their conspiracy or whatever they want to call it. Ever see this one about Bill Gates III?

Take the ASCII dec code for each letter in his name:
BILL GATES III
translates to:
66 73 76 76 71 65 84 69 83 1 1 1
Which equates to 666.

Any sane person would point out that the dec ASCII code to III actually translates to 73, 73, 73 and that Bill Gates doesn't actually spell his name in all caps, and his real name is actually William Henry Gates III, but morons tend to argue around this point. So um... let's pick a random number out of ---my bottom---... my clock says 9:26.
Bill Gates III
66 105 108 108 71 97 116 101 73 1 1 1
Add them all up you get 848 (note my use of proper lower case there).
Gates was born in 1955, the year of the Sheep (or Goat, Ram, whatever).
The ending time for the goat is 2:59
2 + 5 + 9 is 16. Subtract 16 from 848 and you get 832. (side note, add 8+3+2 and you get 13).
The Altair 8800 is what Gates worked on with Allen before starting MS.
8 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 16
16 * 2 = 32. Two is the number of partners (Gates and Allen).
832 / 32 = 26. The number I picked out of ---my bottom---... err off my clock.

The whole numbers thing is just one big ---smurfing--- joke. People in the know like to drag those who don't on insane mental joyrides. I guarantee you there's a bunch of fat cats chewing on big brown ---Deutsche Frankfurters--- sitting around a fire place laughing at the sort of ---Cleveland steamer--- they like to throw out there.

I used to write that kind of ---Cleveland steamer--- into my code just to have laughs with anybody debugging my code down the line.

PS, that numbers game I put together up there only took me about ten or fifteen minutes. Would've been a little quicker if I didn't have to change a diaper in the middle of it.

[danny_galaga]

 

you dont actually have to take numerology or whatever it is seriously. was a thriller with some promise. after all, one of my favourite movies of all time is 'the flight of the phoenix' starring james stewart. i dont let the fact that the survivors would have been dead in one day ruin the fantasy of building a new airplane out of a wrecked one in the middle of the sahara...

[RayB]

Danny, I don't think Savanah posted all that to discredit the MOVIE, but more to discredit taking the numbers crap out there too seriously. ie, Ratzz said: "it's a good read with a beer and an open mind!" (emphasis mine)

What are Deutsche Frankfurters ?

[Ummon]

Hey, ratzz, check out The Illuminatus! More fun. Of course, numbers and such are much more like incantations in that.

[Level42]

Nonsense !

Everybody knows that the answer to all and everything is:

42

[AtomSmasher]

If you want a good number theory movie, then go rent Pi.

[SithMaster]

All you need to know is that 24 is the highest number.

[danny_galaga]

Danny, I don't think Savanah posted all that to discredit the MOVIE, but more to discredit taking the numbers crap out there too seriously. ie, Ratzz said: "it's a good read with a beer and an open mind!" (emphasis mine)

What are Deutsche Frankfurters ?

oops. sorry, savannah! christmas time makes me even more argumentive than usual 

[ratzz]

WOW - Fantastic reply Savanah  - my brain doesn't work that quickly, especially at this time of year!

[shardian]

The only numbers that matter:
4 8 15 16 23 42


Oh and for some cruel reason, I have had the license plate of the van in the Keanu Reeves stinker "Chain Reaction" ingrained on my brain. CQ493!!!! I hate Keanu Reeves for doing that to me!!!

[RayB]

A far more 'fascinating phenomenon' I've observed in movies/tv/radio is the number 14.  I read a crackpot claim over 15 years ago that claimed 14 'sounded pleasant' and was a reasonable, understandable number that didn't have any dozen or unlucky connotations (12 & 13) to clunk up a story.  Maybe I'm just imaging things but it's a number you hear frequently in entertainment.

No, you're right. It is the key to ultimate power. I should know, it's my birth day. And 14 is 7+7 and 7 is a lucky number. Guess what? 7 is also my birth month (I feel my power increasing with every keystroke!). There's also a 7 in my birth year! 

7/14 is Bastille day in France. Guess what, I have French ancestors!! 

Stuff always seems to happen on 7-14. Check out that list! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_14

14 divided by lucky 7 is 2. I have 2 eyes, two arms, two legs and two balls. WOW!


You know what other numbers always stand out to me? 242, 64, and sys 64738
 

[ratzz]

A far more 'fascinating phenomenon' I've observed in movies/tv/radio is the number 14.  I read a crackpot claim over 15 years ago that claimed 14 'sounded pleasant' and was a reasonable, understandable number that didn't have any dozen or unlucky connotations (12 & 13) to clunk up a story.  Maybe I'm just imaging things but it's a number you hear frequently in entertainment.

No, you're right. It is the key to ultimate power. I should know, it's my birth day. And 14 is 7+7 and 7 is a lucky number. Guess what? 7 is also my birth month (I feel my power increasing with every keystroke!). There's also a 7 in my birth year! 

7/14 is Bastille day in France. Guess what, I have French ancestors!! 

Stuff always seems to happen on 7-14. Check out that list! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_14

14 divided by lucky 7 is 2. I have 2 eyes, two arms, two legs and two balls. WOW!


You know what other numbers always stand out to me? 242, 64, and sys 64738
 

You see, things are getting strange. 14th July is my wifes birthday too - and being the thread starter, its come full circle to being ... err ... well nothing really!

[SavannahLion]

oops. sorry, savannah! christmas time makes me even more argumentive than usual 

It's all good, I was just coming over the worst flu I've had in a long time. Praying at  feet of the porcelain goddess was my Christmas gift. 

I might’ve confused things a bit when I razzed on the movie that way. The movie could’ve been about color coordination and I probably still would not have seen it. I’ve been disappointed with any of Carrey’s “serious” roles since Cable Guy.

WOW - Fantastic reply Savanah  - my brain doesn't work that quickly, especially at this time of year!

Heh, thanks. It’s not too hard when you realize the numbers you pick out don’t actually have to mean anything, they just have to mean something to someone else. I was still kind of getting over the flu, otherwise, I would've taken more care not to use 16 twice (which I think is a no no with the nuts). As it stands, it leaves it open for further interpretation to anyone else. Goat == Satan, 13, the unlucky hour, etc etc.

[danny_galaga]

11:11 is where it's at...

[Ummon]

Pshaw. All this mention of seven, and everyone missed the big one. It's divine.

I think Carey was good in Man on the Moon.

[protokatie]

I was going to do an inane example of numerology (Involving 14th of July, the 13 stripes on the US flag and Canada day (14-13 = 1 the first of July) but decided against it. So instead:

I have known some people who were really into numerology and "practical magick" (spelt with a K so you know it is real...). When I got into a logical discussion about it (aka me pointing out that such things as calendars are arbitrary) they would reply that basic mathematics was just as arbitrary. Their "proof" of this would be in the form of "What exactly is One?". Now this question "could work" as one is meaningless unless it is related to something else (such as One Apple, or One percent of the GDP), but when I explained how quantification worked, they said that my view would be in the same level of what I thought to be arbitrary. Even after explaining to them that a date on a calendar is something arbitrary and isnt numerically or even logically related to any real event, they would say that my apple or percent of gross domestic product was also arbitrary. I guess when someone really believes in something, there will be no way to change their minds; even if it is the most basic of logic.

[Blanka]

What are Deutsche Frankfurters ?

Its German Wurst, in this case a replacement for the Man's Klokkenspiel I guess. Thought I opted out for "Andre Rouvoet" replacements in the posts. Now I see the cleaveland steamer stuff again. Is everyone set to "profanity friendly mode" today because of the ZUNE 2009 bug?

[Ummon]

I guess when someone really believes in something, there will be no way to change their minds; even if it is the most basic of logic.

It doesn't help when you have well-meaning folk, say like those who did the math episodes of Schoolhouse Rock, doing TV shows where they talk about a base-12 system without calling it that and obviously not understanding it, because they have to make up two names and symbols for 'ten' and 'eleven', and still say 'twelve' is really TEN.

[protokatie]

I guess when someone really believes in something, there will be no way to change their minds; even if it is the most basic of logic.

It doesn't help when you have well-meaning folk, say like those who did the math episodes of Schoolhouse Rock, doing TV shows where they talk about a base-12 system without calling it that and obviously not understanding it, because they have to make up two names and symbols for 'ten' and 'eleven', and still say 'twelve' is really TEN.

Well, 10 IS twelve... In base twelve that is...

Yeah, I hear ya tho.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

I can count to 15! 

[RayB]

When I got into a logical discussion about it (aka me pointing out that such things as calendars are arbitrary) they would reply that basic mathematics was just as arbitrary. Their "proof" of this would be in the form of "What exactly is One?". Now this question "could work" as one is meaningless unless it is related to something else (such as One Apple, or One percent of the GDP), but when I explained how quantification worked, they said that my view would be in the same level of what I thought to be arbitrary. Even after explaining to them that a date on a calendar is something arbitrary and isnt numerically or even logically related to any real event, they would say that my apple or percent of gross domestic product was also arbitrary. I guess when someone really believes in something, there will be no way to change their minds; even if it is the most basic of logic.

Well if you think about it, they invalidated their own point of view by saying math is also arbitrary. (It's not the same, but their own argument invalidates numerology).

[Necro]

Nonsense !

Everybody knows that the answer to all and everything is:

42

What's 7 times 6!