2 - ... connected to Huckleberry Finn !

Q - What connects the classic book Huckleberry Finn to the number 2? Read on ...

The Number 2 is almost as prominent in the world as number 1.
Take the human body which has 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, and 2 ears for starters. And there are just 2 sexes, male and female (the mind boggles but wouldn't it be interesting if there was 3 or 4).

Some families have 'twins' which happens about 1 in every 100 pregnancies.

And we are told we have 2 sides to our brain - left and right

How many of each animal species did Moses brink on the ark?
Did you say 2 before thinking about the question? It's an old trick question as it wasn't Moses but Noah who rounded up 2 of each animal for his the ark.

In sport a score of 2 is not that common but it does arise in rugby with 2 points for the conversion of a try. And of course you can get a 2 in golf as a score on a hole or maybe as a result i.e 2 under for the round.

Can you name any hit songs that had 2 in the title? Here's a few...

• Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye
• Two Becomes One - The Spice Girls
• Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
• Two Hearts Beat as One - U2   (two's all round for this one )
• Just The Two of Us - Will Smith
• 2 4 6 8 Motorway - Tom Robinson
• and this one ...

Words can often be paired in twos - as opposites .... like North and South, East and West, Yes and No, Far and Near, Black and White, Up and Down , In and Out, Day and Night, Back and Forward, Hot and Cold,  .... it's endless ...

And on the subject of words many of the most used words in the english language have just two letters (although funnily two itself has three letters).... to...is....an....at....on....in...or...up...me...oh...my...


So back to our opening question about Huckleberry Finn. The answer is in the authors name, Mark Twain. The bold Mark was actually born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he worked as a pilot on the boats on the mighty Mississippi. In boat language at the time a 'fathom' was a measure of water depth (= 6 feet). 2 Fathoms(12 feet) was called a twain ( which was an old english word for 2) and the shout 'mark twain' was often called by the crew (and often by Samuel) as they navigated the river. When Samuel started writing he adopted 'Mark Twain' as his pen name 

10 - Lionel Messi - Probably The Best .....

Q - what age was Lionel Messi when he signed for Barcelona? 13, 15, 17 or 19. Read on ...

He Wears No 10 for Barcelona and on Saturday next will be one of the "Barca" superstars playing in the 2011 Champions League Final against another team of superstars, "The Red Devils", Manchester United. But the little Argentinian, Messi, is likely to be the most celebrated and idolised player on the pitch.

Some Facts on Lionel Messi

23 - His age (born 24 June 1987)

11 - His age when he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency

13 - his age when he was signed by Barcelona and moved with his entire family from Argentina to Spain and Barcelona agreed to pay the medical costs of treating his growth deficiency

5'-7" - His height today (1.69m)

16 - age he debuted with Barcelona (friendly)

17 - age for debut in the Spanish league, La Liga

52 - the number of goals Messi has scored in the 2010/11 season from 50 matches in all competitions.

47 - the number of goal she scored in previous season - 2009/10 (53 matches)

38 - and goals in the season befor that 2008/09 (51 matches) - so each year the tally is going up

9+1 - in his first season (2004/05) he played 9 games and scored 1 goal

1883 - the year his grandfathre emigrated from Italy to Arentina

10 - Messi started wearing the no. 10 club jersey in 2008 when the previous 'owner', Ronaldinho, left

250 - Messi has a 250 million euro buy-out clause in his most recent contract.

No. 1 - He is ranked the number 1 player in the world by FIFA. In 2007 he was rated 2nd behind Kaka, in 2008 2nd behind Christiano Ronaldo and the in 2009 he was the winner and again in 2010. He was the first Argentinian to win the award.

24 - What A Difference A Day Makes

The International Date Line - If you want a group conversation that will lead to confusion just bring up the topic of the International Date Line (IDL) and see who understands it or who can explain it.

Q - Take a look at the image above - If it's 6.00 pm Sunday in Samoa what time is it in New Zealand?

In fact a better starter question is what day is it in New Zealand - is it Saturday, Sunday or Monday? Read on ....

If you cross over the IDL from east to west (Samoa to Fiji say) do you gain a day or lose a day?  

Here we go. Lets' look at time zones around the world
New Zealand - Say 5 pm Monday afternoon in New Zealand.
London - New Zealand is 11 hours ahead of London GMT so it's 6 am on Monday morning in London (or Dublin).

New York - At that moment in New York (another 5 hours) it's just 1 am Monday morning

Los Angeles - It's another 3 hours earlier in Los Angeles means it is 10 pm on Sunday night there.

Samoa - it's another 4 hours earlier again in Samoa so that leaves the time there at 6 pm on Sunday night

So what this is telling us is that Samoa and other territories to the right of the IDL are treated as being in the American Time Zone and as we travel around the world from East to West (from New Zealand to Europe to the USA) the time gets earlier and earlier - across different time zones making up 23 hours in total. So, we see that at 5pm Monday in New Zealand it is 6pm Sunday in Samoa. 

Therefore, in time zone terms crossing the IDL from East to West usually means jumping a day forward - in theory if the journey takes an hour  you can leave Samoa at 6pm Sunday and it will be 6pm Monday when you get to your destination 1 hour later.

On the other hand if you leave New Zealand at 6pm on Monday and fly east in the direction of Samoa then 1 hour later it will be just 6pm on Sunday - you've gone back a day in time !!

Could you fly fast around the world and go backwards or forwards more than 1 day? Nope, as every time you do the circuit and cross the IDL the day you have gained (or lost depending on which direction you are travelling) resets.

And now that you know all this guess what? Samoa has just made a decision to move the IDL to the other side and from 29 Dec 2011 it will now be in New Zealand / Australia time and not US time. It is doing this for good economic reasons as NZ and Aussie are it's main trading partners. With the time as it currently is it means that when it's Friday in Samoa it's Saturday in NZ and when its Sunday in Samoa it's Monday in NZ - not ideal for regular weekday business trading.
Today 6pm Sunday in Samoa = 3 pm Monday in Sydney. After the change 3 pm Monday in Sydney = 6pm Monday in Samoa. At least the days of the week are lined up an that makes more sense if you live in Samoa !! But the change over itself will mean that Samoans will lose 1 full day in their calendar. Now, where did it go ???

125 - Years of Coca Cola

 

Q - What's the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero ? Read on ...

Have you seen the Coke 125 ad on TV? Hard to miss really.

• Yes, Coca Cola is celebrating it's 125th anniversary having its first sales on May 8th 1886, in Jacobs Pharmacy, Atlanta, Georgia - costing 5c a glass.
• It was developed by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, who actually died 2 years after his Coca Cola drink went on sale.
• Pre 1886 the drink was developed as a 'wine' with alcohol but with the enforcement of prohibition in the USA Pemberton looked at the possibilities for a non-alcoholic version of the drink
• In its early days it sold about 9 drinks per day but 125 years later it sells 1.7 billion drinks each day
• The drink, also in the early days, contained cocaine (from the coca leaf) and had claims of medicinal properties and cures for certain ailments (with cocaine, maybe it did !!!). Today the concentrate does not have any cocaine but does have extract from cocaine-free coca leaf.
• The flavouring and 'caffeine' source for Coca-Cola is Kola nuts
• Coca-Cola claim to have introduced the modern day image of Santa Claus, in a1931 campaign. It's a debatable claim !

11 - Memories of Sesame Street

Q - Remember Sesame Street ? Who was Berts pal?  Read on ...
.

In the year of 2011 it seems appropriate to have a look at where the number 11 features and it pops up in a wonderful variety of places.

• Do you follow soccer, hockey or American football? Well they all have 11 players. Rugby on the other hand is 15 players but did you know a standard size 5 rugby ball is 11" long?

• The first spacecraft to land on the moon in 1969 was Apollo 11 and the command module is still on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

• 11-11-11 : World War 1 ended at 11 a.m on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

• We all know that Everest is the highest point on earth but few can name the deepest part in our oceans. It is called Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific ocean near Japan. It is 11km deep (Everest is 8.85km high by comparison)
• Speaking of oceans what about the movie Oceans 11? Oceans being the name of the character played by George Clooney by the way and nothing to to do with the high seas.

• Speaking of movies
  

The Internet - 20 years young carries 294 Billion emails per day

Q - Which Pop star is the most followed person on Twitter and how many followers ( to the nearest million will do)? Have a guess before reading on.

We take the internet so much for granted now that it seems like it's been around for ever but it's just 20 years old. The commonly accepted view is that the internet was born in August 1991 and is accredited to one Tim Berners Lee. A heck of a lot has happened since then.

20 is likely to be the only small number you will come across when seeking out data about the internet as every other statistic is in millions or billions.

Have a look at this for 2010 ... (it may already be out of date)

There are a variety of data sources quoting web and internet usage statistics. They don't always tally and difficult to be sure who is quoting the most accurate figures but from a combination of different sources in circulation for 2010 the following are some of the big numbers being bandied around (and who are we to argue) ....

255 Million = the number of websites online at Dec 2010

294 Billion = yes 'billion' - the staggering number of emails sent across the internet and networks every day

262 Billion = the outrageous number of those daily emails that were spam (89%)

21 Million = Number of new websites in 2010

1.97 Billion = number of interent users worldwide (June 2010) - likely to be well over 2bn now as users are

                      growing at about 14% per anuum

12 - Earth, Moon and Stars

Q - According to the Christmas Carol what did my true love give to me on the 12th day?  Read on..

12....
....Now there's a number with an endless list ..... it arises in all avenues of everyday life... in religion, law, time, movies, technology ... it mainfests itself everywhere...our lives are, in fact, governed by the number 12
Consider:

12 to start with ....

• 12 Hours in the day
• 12 Months in a Year
• 12 Signs of the Zodiac
• 12 Inches in a foot
• 12 Units make a dozen
• 12 People on a jury
• 12 Days of Christmas
• 12 Tribes of Israel
• 12 Apostles
• 12 Sons of Jacob (in the Bible)
• 12 Olympian Gods in Greek mythology who resided on Mount Olympus
• 12 The number of function (F) keys on a computer keyboard

...12 to end ...

5, 7, 501 - A brand new number !!!

Channel No.5 - the biggest selling and most well known perfume brand ever. No.5 dates back to 1920 when "Coco" Channel was tasked with selecting a new fragrance. She had a major affinity with the number 5 and when presented with a selection of 10 glass vials, each with a different fragrance, she choose vial 5 simply because it was her favourite number. She had a habit of presenting her new fashion collections on the 5th day of May (the 5th month) and in keeping with that proposed the the new pefume be also named No. 5. There is a bottle of Channel No.5 sold every 30 seconds.

7 UP . The name of the 'inventor' of 7Up doesn't roll off the tongue easily - Charles Leiper Grigg. Back in the 1920's, this American, worked on developing  soft drinks and flavours for a number of different companies. He developed a drink called 'Howdy' and setup his own company and continued to try and test with a lot of focus on 'lemon and lime flavours'. He eventually came up with "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas" in 1929. But that name didn't have a very good sales ring to it an the story goes that the 7 UP name was selected after having had 6 unsuccesful suggestions and he just settled on the next one up - 7. Another suggestion is that the bottle was 7oz in size and the bubbles went up. Or that it has 7 flavours (their slogan from 2008). It's all a bit of legend really as the real origin of the name is not really known.
The 7Up company was sold in 1978 to Philip Morris, merged with Dr. Pepper in 1988 and then bought over by Cadbury Schweppes in 1995

Levi 501's - We have all had a pair at some stage of the most famous jeans in the world. The brand started way back around 1873 and interestingly were 'invented' not by the man in the brand, Levi Strauss, but by a customer of his  Jacob Davis. Jacob came up with the idea of putting rivets in working trousers to prevent easy ripping. He didn't have the money to pay the patent but Levi Strauss did. They became partners but somehow the Levi name dominated.
Where did the 501 come from? Well, it was nothing more than a lot number allocated to consignments - not a clever branding idea or any clever reference to the jeans themsleves. Somehow it stuck !

0 and 1 - Bits and Bytes

Q - How many bits in a byte ? Read on ..

Computers look like they understand numbers and letters as we know them and type them in but that is not the way computers work. Instead every character it sees is coverted into a combination of just 2 numbers and they are 0 and 1. Some of you may recall from your school days that expressing numbers in just 0 and 1 only is binary code (bi=2).

Our number system uses the 10 numbers 0-9 and is known in maths terms as the decimal system.  Binary, by comparison, uses just 2 numbers 0 and 1 and every number and letter as we know it can be expressed in 0's and 1's. This works perfectly in computers because at their core computers work by a series electronic signals or pulses and only understand 2 instructions - 'on' and 'off'.  Off = 0 and On =1. That's taken some of the mystery out of it !

Without getting into the mathematics of creating binary number let's just look at how the numbers 0-10 look like, expressed in computer binary code:
 

No	In Binary
0	00000000
1	00000001
2	00000010
3	00000011
4	00000100
5	00000101
6	00000110
7	00000111
8	00001000
9	00001001
10	00001010

Likewise for letters - A is expressed as 01000001 for example (see more ) . If you would like to see how a computer sees your name just type it in this text to binary convertor

18 - Voting to Golf to Horses, Pete Wingfield (?) and Vinnie Jones

Q - What's the age of majority in the Isle of Man ? 14, 16, 18 or 21? Read on ....

At 18 we are regarded as being on the threshold of adulthood and is the voting age in many countries - USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, in fact almost all European and Western countries. It is the 'age of majority' that also means we can serve on a jury, open our own bank account, buy alcohol and 'officially' view movies rated 18+. But despite being able to vote at 18 it doesn't automatically follow that one can stand for election - that can be 21 in many countries.
Not all countries have 18 as the 'age of majority'. It is as low as 14 in Albania, American Samoa and The Isle of Man while it is at a high of 21 in some Middle East states like UAE, Egypt and Bahrain as well as Cameroon and Singapore.

A golf course has 18 holes

Australian Rules Football Teams have 18 players

In horseracing the name of a horse cannot exceed 18 letters. Yes there are rules and regulations about the naming of race horses - more

In music there are a number of songs with 18 in the title or lyrics. In 1975 Pete Wingfield had a 'one hit wonder' in the UK and USA with a song called "18 With A Bullet". Just to show that nothing is what it seems the 18 in the title refers to a music chart position and bullet was a term used at the time to describe a song that was selling well and rising up the charts.  Not a classic song but here it is ...

The song did make a return in 1998 when it featured on the soundtrack of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels starring the footballer turned actor Vinnie Jones. The film coincidentally was rated 18+