Big Weird Numbers (from Small Things) That Amuse Me

One of my random new year resolutions I will disclose is that I'm trying to smarten up mathematically again, and to regain some comfort with doing hard core ciphers: learning and getting reacquainted with stuff like calculus, matrices, statistics, and the like; plus trying to find some practical use and application for such arithmetical methods in my own life. Right now though, it is all impractical, yet interesting and impressive (to me anyway). I thought about simple objects and puzzles around my home; they didn't involve high tech things either. I did some recreational computations (with the help of the Wolfram Alpha app) and found research results to get some of these wild figures . . .

1. 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 ( ≈ 6.67 x10²¹) : The number of possible valid complete solutions there are for a 9 x 9 Sudoku grid. That's about 16.67 billion times the highest estimate of the number
   of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Some lucky bastard mathematician out there also got some grant money to prove that the absolute minimum number of clue digits needed to solve one is 17.
   
2. 20,822,964,865,671,167 ( ≈ 2.08 x 10¹⁶) : The total number of  all unique sets of counter bead position configurations on my 2 bead upper deck/5 bead lower deck/13 column standard Chinese suan pan (abacus). That's 18 possible bead configurations (a base of 18, represented from numbers 0 to 17) for each of the 13 columns, representing the exponential powers from 0  to 12. That then is {(17 x 18⁰) + (17 x 18¹) + (17 x 18²) . . .  + (17 x 18¹²)}, leading to a maximum total up to the aforementioned number in the heading converted to decimal/base 10 scientific notation form. Meaning, if I flicked a bead (or beads) at one interval per second to tally all possible counter bead configurations on this abacus, it would take approximately 660.7 million years to do it. It seems crazy on such a little frame with only a total of 91 counting beads, but that's the math talking. If the figure for the placements on an 81 spot Sudoku grid is as high as it is, why not this lesser figure for the 91 counter abacus? If I'm wrong about this calculation, I won't mind being corrected. It seems too strange and mind-blowing to be right.

   

   It reads 2017 in base 10. Happy New Year!

3.  43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ( ≈  4.33 x 10¹⁹): The number of possible of configurations a Rubik's Cube can have. Amazingly, it has been calculated (by supercomputers) that the cube can be solved, with the proper programmed algorithms, from any one of these configurations in 20 moves or less. The last time I tried, it took me about 32 minutes to solve it . . . most definitely not in the same league as a Cray supercomputer.
4. 1 in 6,227,020,800 (or 13!): the chance of taking a full suit of 13 playing cards, shuffling them, and then turning them over, one by one, and having them turn up in exact ranking order from ace to king (A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K). In contrast, I learned that the chance of winning the jackpot for Lotto 6/49 is roughly 1 in 14 million, and 1 in 28.6 million for the Lotto Max*.
5. 6.53 x 10⁹⁰⁹⁰⁵²: The number of 9 word sentences (a fairly average length of sentence) that can be composed out of randomly selected words from the language with the largest vocabulary in the world: English. From the sentences, "A, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a." to "We will never run out of things to say!", to "Big Weird Numbers (from Small Things) that Amuse Me.", to written onomatopoeia to denote sleeping,  "Zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz"**. _, inclusive. There's nothing around materially or temporally as an example to bring that number into comparison for adequate comprehension for the mind, since there are only an estimated 1 x 10⁸⁰ atoms in the entire universe, and its age is only about 4.3 x 10³⁵ in attoseconds***(super small time increments) since the Big Bang. Sure, a grand majority of them would be nonsensical, like "Shiver melon herring quickly kind zipper handy aardvark nipple". Like the random shit in English scrawled on teenagers' T-shirts in the Harajuku fashion district in Tokyo. If a password of nine random words like that were used, I would think that the world would be long vanished into oblivion before it could be hacked. Thankfully, we have few rules of grammar, syntax, context, articles, pronouns, prepositions, verbal tenses and conjugations, gerunds, participles, etc., to set limits and boundaries to things that would statistically and numerically whittle down that figure a lot. Even so, what is left is still more than what would have been, or will be, ever said by humans, past, present, and presumably the future. There's still lots of nonsense that comes from it, but we manage pull a few out that are real gems, and not from the cold dry probabilities of it, but from what's in the spirit of us as human beings. This fact brings to light a quote from Einstein: "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge". He think he got it bang on right . . . and with only seven words too.

*- This is someone else's findings, not mine. Actually, for Lotto Max, the chance of winning on a single line of 7 numbers is roughly in the neighbourhood of 1 in 85.8 million, but you are given three lines, so divide those chances by 3, so 28.6 million. That's a little more optimistic!
**-An edit. Initially I thought that Zyzygy was the alphabetically last defined word that I could think of, but it was a misspelling of the word syzygy: an alignment of celestial bodies in a gravitational system.
***- 1x 10¹⁸ attoseconds = 1 second. Very few things or motions in the physical universe exist that can be timed within ten attoseconds, but who knows what will happen in the future as using measurements such as these become realities as advances in research and development of nanotechnology and quantum computing come about. 

Ending 2016/Beginning 2017

I did what I could to make the final day of 2016 be an additional day that didn't suck balls, as I already summed up, so eloquently, in a previous entry about the rest of the year. The only good thing that happened during the weeks off work, being not able to fully function physically or participate socially while being injured, is the fact that I've had time for myself to do lots of navel-gazing for some more important life questions. Some made me very grateful, while others made me quite regretful. They are too private to list and post here. A great dump of snow finally arrived yesterday, and I'm not keen on traveling anywhere to be in some crowded place with strangers, despite the free transit service for the evening. Being at home in peace to ruminate and contemplate for the rest of the evening is fine enough for me.

Beginning a review and a rant about how abominable the state of 2016 was would be pointless. I can't find any heart to use in chronicling any of it. It can be simply summed up with the facts that too many good people passed away, more amoral and genuinely rotten people gained more power and have become emboldened, irresponsible, and abusive with it; my state of health went backward instead of forward with some pain, impairment, and suffering, and the news has not just been a stream, but an inundation of one disaster after another. Any good that appeared throughout the year was greatly overshadowed by a lot of evil and disasters.

So, with mindfulness, and some attempt to not let things become any worse, here is how I transitioned between the last hours of the last day of the wretched year, 2016, and the first few hours of 2017 . . .

Last Five Purchases of 2016:

• Groceries/foodstuffs (including a variety 12 pack of lagers and ales)*
• A haircut
• A lottery ticket ($20.00 richer from it)
• Service for my Nordic skis to be refinished/waxed properly
• A Virtual Reality headset - because, after this year's news, actual reality is apparently something I want to be less of a part of. It wasn't bought today, but it seemed significant.

Last Five Activities of 2016:

• Physiotherapy exercises
• Housecleaning, bookkeeping, decluttering and trashing stuff
• Fixing and refitting a shelving unit insert (thanks again, Mom and Dad)
• Nordic skiing - thankfully, my arm isn't buggered up from doing it, followed by a long cozy nap with the pooch and I by the fireplace, lit with the tinder of torn up 2016 calendars
• Drinking and snacking between IIHF hockey games (watching the fucking USA team beat Canada - another 2016 disaster), watching TV shows (historical and science documentaries mostly) and reading my chosen book (see below)

First Five Activities of 2017:

• Writing this entry
• Reading my past entries for the year
• Thinking about the people I miss most
• A sipping and savouring some fine Scotch (see below)
• Opening my first resolution envelope (January 2017) . . . too personal to post.

Last Meal of 2016/First Meal of 2017 (a huge deli snack platter to graze on, including):

• Rice Crackers
• Brie Cheese
• Liver and Herb Pâté
• Calamari Ring Ceviche**
• Cocktail Shrimp marinated in seasoned Lemon Oil**
• Smoked Oysters**
• Medley Mix of Cocktail Olives
• Celery Sticks
• Virgin Caesars** (this might surprise and shock some of you, but believe it or not, there are actually some cocktails I do prefer to drink without the alcohol)*** 

Scotch of the Year for 2017***: Twelve year old Aberfeldy, single malt. Definitely a lust element of Lists, Lusts, and Lost Precious Thoughts. Heavily endowed with a heathery floral aroma, entwined with a less-like-caramel and more-like-honey note in its sweetness, and a slight wafting of a secondary ester that's kind of reminiscent of banana. There is a slightly almond characteristic in the body of the base malt in the liquor as the other notes dissipate. There's no discernable smokiness, like some other Scotches have. Superb, delightful, and smoooooooth.

Last Project of 2016/First Project of 2017: Formulating my own Gin Infusion Recipe*** - the ingredients used are:

• Neutral spirit alcohol
• Juniper berries (dried)
• Jasmine blossoms (dried)
• Lemon peel
• Coriander seed
• Six more botanicals that I'm keeping a secret (if it turns out good, it will be my signature blend; if it turns out bad, it wouldn't be worth sharing anyway.) P.S. No matter what the outcome, I certainly won't be calling it "Victory Gin" (see below).

Last Book of 2016/First Book of 2017: A re-read of Nineteen Eighty Four, by George Orwell. It should be a prerequisite read for those who are so gullible and mistakenly/carelessly making and spreading fake news on social media, inciting fear-mongering with baseless conspiracy theories, picking out some unseen enemy to blame for [their] current troubles, and who blindly side with any political authority with a "might is right" (fascist) agenda that preaches isolationism, farcical economic bullshit, war for the sake of peace , and production for the sake of all of that, whilst at the same time cheapening and destroying the welfare of both human beings and the environment. As I re-read this with a more literary mind than I had the last time I read it ten years ago, I find more and more layers of meaning to this satire, which, sadly, is becoming more and more reflective, cautionary, and frighteningly truthful about the times we are living in now, and possibly approaching in the times ahead, as free speech and right to assemble is getting attacked more and more often, and technology is making us become more and more estranged from each other. If I was ever put in the role of an English teacher again, this book would definitely be in the curriculum, because I realize now that there is a whole generation of people who were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and never witnessed or experienced the posturing and fear of total domination by of totalitarian governments like the Soviet Union, or generally blissfully ignorant or the mechanisms of entities like the KGB or the Stasi, who like Thought Police, surveilled and invaded every element of people's lives. That era is completely out of the collective consciousness and historical memory of the Millennials, and that's what I believe the currant establishments are counting on, so this generation can be more easily controlled, as they are trying to bring privacy to extinction, and afflicting more corporate control through propaganda memes, and advertising. That's why I believe that this book needs to reach them most of all. It's a book that I would hope would challenge people to think and question motives beyond a three word slogan, than mindlessly complying to it, whatever it is. It's a reminder of how governments suppress and oppress with words, and language itself is twisted, corrupted, and perverted to obfuscate and hide more insidious measures and actions, like the real life examples of "right to work" in the anti-labour movements, or the term "transformational change"**** in the health care system in this province. It's a read for anyone living under a government who is expounding and touting how great and prosperous we all are, while at the same time is cutting and selling off services, hiking up fees and taxes, and clawing back wages as measures of austerity, putting us closer to enslavement to debt. I can only read about 10 - 15 pages at each sitting because there is so much more to digest of it now that I have more of it revealed to me with a mindset of a more engaged Unionist. Sorry for turning this into a long book review, but 1984 is a pivotal and profound piece of literature of the science fiction/alternative history/political satire genres that is still very relevant today.

Five Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2017:

• Our Nation's 150th Birthday, there's going to be a good time had around here somewhere
• The Possible Decriminalization/Legalization of Marijuana in Canada - not for an excuse to get high (I really am not interested in that; it's not my thing), but to lay stronger inroads for a hemp economy, for commercial/industrial purposes and switching to fibres, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and oils that veer away from using toxic petrochemicals, and that will do more to protect the environment, along with maximizing diversity of production usage per hectare of arable land.
• Getting healed up enough to get the full use of my arm back
• A possible trip I'm planning to Eastern Canada
• Being able to commit to even 10% of the wild things and projects I've set out for myself in 2017 that I've randomly and secretly assigned for myself for each month of this year

Happy Year 2017, everyone. Let the adventure begin . . .

*- Beer is simply a liquefied form of bread, derived from generally the same basic ingredients of yeast, grain and water; a potable version of the staff of life. Therefore, according to my judgement, it's an item I categorize to be included along with groceries/foodstuffs
**- It seems I've rendered this place a veritable zone of death for anyone with a severe seafood/shellfish allergy.
***- Even though I'm experimenting with spirit infusions, I've actually cut down a lot on drinking hard liquor. I've substituted quantity for quality. I've made it my tradition now to have one glass of single malt Scotch on the first day of each month for the year, New Year's Day inclusive. I never really fancied Scotch for a long while, because the first time I ever sampled it, I was offered some cheap and absolutely gross and terrible blended crap. Distillers who blend Scotch should all be hanged. I got to recently starting to love it after trying a single malt (10 year old Talisker at the time). After testing and exploring every note and nuance of that, I found it to be a fabulously delectable libation that gave a sensation that could only be best described as a some sort of sensual simultaneous orgasm shared together between the nose and the tongue. The 750 mL bottle of single malt during 2016 was 10 year old Auchentoshen . . . almost as sublime. I'll stop prattling on about drink-lore now.
**** - The term "transformational change" in itself goes to show how stupid the people are who dreamt up this ridiculous tautology. The word "transformational" already indicates that there is already a process of change happening, so why include the word "change" after it? I wish George Carlin was still alive to be all over this one.