Herewith a load of bollocks for your edification:

The number 42

Elvis Presley died at 42.
The angle at which lights reflects off water to create a rainbow is 42 degrees.
The city of Jerusalem covers an area of 42 square miles.
The Torah (the holy book of Judaism) is broken into columns each of which always has exactly 42 lines.
Fox Mulder (the X-files) lived in apartment number 42.
There are 42 decks on the Enterprise NCC1701-D (The Next Generation ship)
Bill Clinton is the 42nd U.S. President.
A Wonderbra consists of 42 individual parts.
There are 42 Oreo cookies in a 1 pound package.
"The beast was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies, and it was given authority to act for 42 months. --Revelation 13:5
In Romeo and Juliet - Juliet sleeps for 42 hours.
The right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.
The number of dots on a pair of dice - 42.
Dogs have a total of 42 teeth over their lifetimes.
The world record jump by a kangaroo is 42 feet.
There were 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ.
The natural vibration frequency of human DNA: 42

Now, the only person you'd think could read anything meaningful into that is the Editor in Chief of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But you'd be wrong!

What I'd like to know is how someone struck DNA with a tuning fork! I asked my dog about the teeth thing, and she laughed at me. Was it stales who measured the kangaroo's jump? Was it a legal jump or did its hind foot cross the base plate? Was the umpire Australian? How long is the left arm of the Statue of Liberty?

Faugh!

I was about 12 years old, sitting in our living room back in Lakeside, Virginia, and I wondered when I would die.

Sitting there, I went mystic: I let the forces of the universe penetrate my brain so that I would know when I would die.

And from the universe came the number : 42

And that is the truth. From the age of 12 till I was 42 I fully expected to die when I was 42.

And I am here to state that, at 52, my mystical connections with the universe are completely unreliable.

Best regards,
WordWrecked

Perhaps the number 42 indicated how many years it would be until you die, Wordwind, which would give you two years. I know, I'm morbid. But it shows how numbers can easily be manipulated to serve a certain purpose.

A German film called "23" talks about the 'Illuminator' and the number 23 as being key to the universe (human chromosones, M. Jordan's team number and so on). In the film, based on a true story by the way , the hero eventually falls into complete paranoia while secretly computer hacking for the Russian government. A classy film which I recommend to most. Another film that deals with this topic is of course, Pi. This film I would not necessarily recommend to the faint-hearted, but is a mature look at the use and significance of mathematics. This time the key is a 232 digit integer which can explain the maddening complexity of Pi found within a fundamental and simple form - the circle. The film is, imho, one of the most outstanding from the last decade. The director's newer work, 'A Requiem for a Dream' delves into the subject of addiction, and shows such superficial bubble-gum drug commentary like 'Traffic' up for what it really is.

Yeah, Bell'youth, mebbe in two years...mebbe in 2042!

The manipulation of numbers really is interesting...and people can be so easily brainwashed into believing the supposed significance of numbers.

Are any of the numbers 1 through 9 "bad" numbers? For the numerologists, aren't all these numbers gifted in some way?


42 is 24 backwards...and 24 is 2 times 12... and we have 12 months in a year... and once around the sun is a kind of gratifying completion, optimistically speaking...

42 must be some kind of backwards symbol of a complete cycle..run twice, but backwards. Think about that little morsel of inside-out brain turning for a while if you want to consider Mad Hatter significances...

Best regards,
WordWarped

I fully expected to die when I was 42.

And I trust you bore it with fortitude.

I was about 12 years old, sitting in our living room back in Lakeside, Virginia, and I wondered when I would die.
Sitting there, I went mystic: I let the forces of the universe penetrate my brain so that I would know when I would die.
And from the universe came the number : 42

Back then, doubleyou, you weren't quite like others,
are you?

[ribbon][trophy][applause]

MaxQ: What do you get if multiply six by nine?

Um, I get 54. Why? What do *you* get?

LATER EDIT: Never mind. My goober-in-residence explained to me what I was missing about your clever comment. <Sigh>

Never mind. My goober-in-residence explained to me what I was missing about your clever comment. <Sigh>

I don't have a goober-in-residence to help me here.

42? Nuts!

The Sacred 37
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays
Richard Nixon was the 37th president, and his 37th nationally televised speech was his resignation speech
the Korean war lasted 37 months
to calculate the temperature degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds and add 37
the annual rainfall in Lafayette, IN is 37 inches
chimpanzees eat 37 kinds of fruit
human body temperature in Celsius is 37
Hannibal had 37 elephants

37 to the second power equals 1369, which contains two numbers with various kinds of significance
since 37 time 3 equals 111, it is also true that 37 times 6 equals 222, and 37 times 18 equals 666!


http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/

The director's newer work, 'A Requiem for a Dream' delves into the subject of addiction

Wow, I just saw that movie last night, and I can confidently say that it's the most disturbing film I've ever seen. It's excellently made, but the subject matter is terrifying. High school health classes would be much more effective in preventing drug use if they showed this to the students. Too bad it's rated NC-17.

I'm not sure if I want to see Pi now.

JazzO ~

Don't worry about Pi. It's mild by comparison. Requiem for a Dream haunts me - Pi merely jolted me. Great, worthwhile movies both.

42? Nuts!
The Sacred 37.

Consider The Sacred 46.

Here is the King James Version of the 46th Psalm. You get a very interesting name by combining the 46th word from the beginning with 46th word from the end omitting the final, untranslated "selah". [I've added a / every tenth word, to facilitate your counting.]

Scholars have no evidence the named gentleman named worked on this translation -- but he was 46 years old at the start of the year in which this translation was published.

Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help / in trouble.
2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth / be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the / midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and / be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. / Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the / bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the / chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I / am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I / will be exalted in the earth.
11 The LORD of hosts / is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

There is a page "More than you ever wanted to know about the Number 42"...but it seems to be unavailable right now (to see what's being missed search the same title with the Number 17). Anyway, here's something intriguing I found:

From the modern viewpoint, Alhirra subsequently diminishes the
attractiveness of his thought by then introducing his pet obsessions -
cryptozoology and numerology. He believed that the overseers of this vast
computation (the "Archons" or "Sysadmins", in occult jargon), although
originating in another dimension ("the spaces between"), had incarnated in
a form visible to us - as *mice*. (Hence the book's title.) He believed
that their centre of operations was "an alien city in a cold land to the
north" - presumably the Antarctic. Alhirra had several visions of this
city from space, perhaps while scrying (these visions later formed the basis
of the "Piri Reis" map); he described the city's physical environment, and
its flora and fauna, in considerable detail, and it is for this reason that
the NecroMicon is also sometimes known as "The Penguin Opus".

Alhirra also attached great significance to the number 42, suggesting
that this number somehow lay at the heart of the planetary entelechy, but
never explaining why. It is a frequent observation that 42 is twice 21,
the number of characters in John-D's Enochian alphabet, but otherwise no
one know what "Bill" meant by this. Colin Low has written that Alhirra's
scrying technique involved the use of "an incense composed of olibanum,
storax, dictamnus, opium and hashish", and it has been surmised that the
NecroMicon was not meant to be understood except by individuals who had
ingested certain rare psychedelic plants. (For more on this line of
thought, see ethnopharmacologist Terence McKenna's article on the Voynich
manuscript in Issue #7 of "Gnosis" magazine, and the scene in Wilson and
Shea's "Illuminatus!" in which Weishaupt attempts to fathom the NecroMicon.)

Alhirra himself may have been unhinged by his exploration of
consciousness. He is said to have written that to free oneself from "the
click of the mouse" (an unclear phrase, apparently referring to the means
of their alleged control) one must become "like that cat, dwelling in the
midpoint between Something and Nothing, which is neither alive nor dead."
Perhaps this is similar to the sentiment that one should be "in the world,
but not of it." In any case, Alhirra is said to have met his end while
standing on a chair, literally frightened to death by his invisible
persecutors; his last words were, "Ia! Cthulhu ack-phffftagn..."

Interesting that you started this thread, Capk!

[the url's way too long, search NecroMicron, you'll find it]

This is the 16,100th post in Miscellany. I wonder what the prize is. A subscription to a numerology newsletter, I'll bet.

Hey! Connie! You said this was the 17,000th post, and while I was searching the url you went and changed it! So, evidently, you are destined for this award, upon reaching that noble number of 17-- more than you ever wanted to know about it! (keep working on those other 900 posts!) Congratulations!

http://www.vinc17.org/d17_eng.html

Sorry WO'N, it was late and I misadded. I had been hoping nobody had witnessed my error.
Two down, 898 to go.

Yeahbut®, Connie...did you realize your last post was the 17th reply to this thread? Really. Maybe you just better take a look at that 17 site after all!

[Rod Serling now signing off from The Twilight Zone]

A German film called "23" talks about the 'Illuminator' and the number 23 as being key

The Illuminati! trilogy makes much the same point about the number 23. (couldn't be a connection could there?) They helpfully point out you can do the same with any number as I think we have amply illustrated here.

And what about 55? There's got to be significance in 55. Your hands, side by side...or anywhere else! You've got "5" and "5"....

Or your feet... Five by five again.

There are three hisses when you say "fifty-five," however, and that's probably not a good sign...

Oh, forget it,
OrB~

Question: How did 666 become the devil's number?

[I know, ICLIU. But perhaps others can provide more information.]

My gawd, guys, we're discovering all the mysteries of the universe right here.

http://www.skepdic.com/lawofnumbers.html
http://www.skepdic.com/numology.html

From WO'N's site:
According to The Book of the Balance by Gâbir ibn Hayyân, an alchemist and a soufi, the shape (sura) of every thing in the world is 17; 17 is the very basis of the theory of the Balance and must be regarded as the canon of the equilibrium of every thing.
Well, now I know why, in my mind, I will always be 17.

Also from the same site:
From the ancient times, the Chi'ist mystics had venerated the number 17; this veneration has its origins in the ancient Pythagorean speculations lying on the letters in the Greek alphabet... 17 represented the number of those who would rise from the dead and each one of those people was to receive one of the 17 letters of the alphabet, making up the highest name of God, which is certainly related to the blade of the Star, arcanum 17 in the Tarot game whose symbolism evokes mutation, rebirth, and which Dr Allendy considers to be Karmic Liberation.

And lastly:
To the ancient Greeks, 17 represents the number of consonants in the alphabet, with 9 silent consonants and 8 semi-vowels or semi-consonants. These numbers were also tightly linked with musical theory and the harmony of the spheres.

I fully expected to die when I turned 42.
How did it feel to turn 43, Wordwind?

from the 17 site Also found this particularly intriguing:

In Au bonheur des mots, by Claude Gagnière, ed. Robert Laffont, p 206:

The Italians fear the 17's, because 17 is written XVII in Roman numerals, which is the anagram of VIXI, which means "I lived", i.e. "I am dead". In Italy, buildings do not have a 17th floor, hotels do not have a room 17, and Alitalia planes do not have a seat 17 [neither do Air Inter planes and British Airways Concordes]. When Renault marketed its R17 and wanted to export it to Italy, it had to be renamed "Renault 177". Napoleon Bonaparte, who was more Italian than French in his education, refused to give the signal for his coup on "vendredi 17 brumaire" and postponed it until the following day.

Is that so, emanuela? Are you out there?

So, Connie, maybe you'll wanna change that to forever 16...or 18!

Mebee that's what I want on my tombstone.

Got this on email, post-post-Sept. 11 weirdnesses....An interesting addition to the discussion of the significance (or lack thereof) of certain numbers:

If you read the email going around about the number "11" for the past few weeks, you will love David's response to it. I don't know who Dave is, but his response is appropriate. Make sure you read beyond the 'Original Letter'!

Original Letter:
The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1 = 11.
September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
After September 11th there are 111 days left to the end of the year.
119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran. 1 + 1 + 9 = 11.
Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11.
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11.
I Have More.......
State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union.
New York City - 11 Letters.
Afghanistan - 11 Letters.
The Pentagon - 11 Letters.
Ramzi Yousef - 11 Letters (convicted of orchestrating the attack at the WTC in 1993).
Flight 11 - 92 on board - 9 + 2 = 11.
Flight 77 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11.

Dave's response:
Oh my God!
How worried should I be?
There are 11 letters in the name "David Pawson!"
I'm going into hiding NOW.
See you in a few weeks.
Wait a sec ... just realized "YOU CAN'T HIDE" also has 11 letters!
What am I gonna do?
Help me!!!
The terrorists are after me!
ME!
I can't believe it!
Oh crap, there must be someplace on the planet Earth I could hide!
But no ..."PLANET EARTH" has 11 letters, too!
Maybe Nostradamus can help me.
But dare I trust him?
There are 11 letters in "NOSTRADAMUS."
I know, the Red Cross can help.
No they can't... 11 letters in "THE RED CROSS," can't trust them.
I would rely on self defense, but "SELF DEFENSE" has 11 letters in it, too!
Can someone help?
Anyone?
If so, send me email.
No, don't... "SEND ME EMAIL" has 11 letters....
Will this never end?
I'm going insane!
"GOING INSANE???"
Eleven letters!!
Nooooooooooo!!!!!!
I guess I'll die alone, even though "I'LL DIE ALONE" has 11
letters.....

Oh my God, I just realized that America is doomed!
Our Independence Day is July 4th ... 7/4 ... 7+4=11!
~ Dave
PS. "IT'S BULLSHIT" has 11 letters also.

Question: How did 666 become the devil's number?

Easy. It is written...

Revelations 13:11 " And I beheld another beast coming up out of earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon"

Several verses later...

And here is wisdom. Let him that have understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man
and his number is six hundred threescore and six.

Given this edict by the Book of Revelations you can understand why Christians would like to tie this number (666) to -the man, -the beast, -the Antichrist, -the False Messiah.

"Pi" "A Requiem for a Dream"

I feel like I am in a twilite zone episode BY. I just saw A Requiem on Friday and Pi late this afternoon when I got home.

I agree they are both really good films but you are definitely right, not for the faint-hearted. I am still troubled by the young woman’s descent and degradation.

Great skepdic link Jazz. I have an aunt who goes into a frenzy whenever she reads that type of "proof is in the numbers" trash. She then specifically looks for all ocurrances just to prove it is right.

Numbers can be manipulated to mean you want. Here's an example.

The next time somebody is tsk-tsking at you buying a lottery ticket by stating the time-worn astronomical chances of winning proof..."you've got one chance in seven million to win the lotto" you can tell them they're wrong. The chances are really 50/50. You either win or you don't - two options only...voila 50/50.

now don't all start sending me information on the law of averages...I am married to a CA/CPA and he has taken great pleasure in going over the lot with me. I was just showing how people interpret and mold numbers to get the results they desire

how people interpret and mold numbers to get the results they desire
Not just numbers: one who wants a particular result strongly enough will turn anything in that direction. In aphorism: If a child has a hammer, everything he sees is a nail.

"Pi" "A Requiem for a Dream"

OT alert
REALLY good movies - how great to find some likeminded people here. I remember being particularly disappointed with "Traffic" because it failed to grab me by the viscera and start churning, as "Requiem" had done -- I like it when watching a movie is more than just sitting back and looking at it!

A Haiku had 17 syllables.

And not to be forgettin' the grandest 17 of all!...March 17th!