Sunday, January 4, 2009

23 Facts

Twenty three is the lowest prime that consists of consecutive digits.

The number has been the subject of two films: the 1998 German movie, 23, and The Number 23, starring Jim Carrey.

John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who was the subject of the film, A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, was obsessed with 23. His breakdown began when he claimed that a photograph of Pope John XXIII was in fact him. Nash published 23 scientific articles.

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 - 1+8+5+9 = 23.

The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8.15am - 8+15= 23.

23rdians are a group of people who subscribe to the mystical power of 23.

The Chinese believe numbers convey sexuality - evens for feminine and odds for masculine. They consider prime numbers to be the most masculine, conferring special status on 23 which is made up of two consecutive prime numbers and the only even prime number - two.

In the disaster movie, Airport, the bomber has seat 23.

The number of crosses on Calvary at the end of the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian, is 23.

In Die Hard With A Vengeance, a train derails in subway station 23.

The lead characters in the Coen brothers' film The Big Lebowski always used Lane 23 at the bowling alley.

In the television series Lost, one of the combination of six numbers that haunt the characters and they have to input to a computer to avoid an unknown fate is 23.

The terrorist attacks on America on 11 September 2001 have been held up as one of the most portentous examples of the disturbing power of 23. The figures in the date (9+11+2+0+0+1) add up to 23.

Few hold 23 in more esteem than the followers of Discordianism, a self-declared religion based on the premise that discord and chaos are the building blocks of life. For Discordianists, 23 is the Holy Number and a tribute to the goddess Eris.

Michael Jordan, the American basketball player, wore the number throughout his career.

Best known is former England captain David Beckham, who swapped his number seven Manchester United jersey for number 23 when he joined Real Madrid.

Manchester City have not assigned the squad number 23 to any player since 2003 after the last incumbent, Marc Vivien Foe, collapsed and died while playing for the Cameroon on 26 June 2003.

Marcus Trescothick, the England cricket players, wears number 23 and was Australian bowler Shane Warne's 600th test wicket. Warne also wears 23.

Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the start of human life.

The most detailed account of the assassination of Julius Caesar, written by Nicolaus of Damascus, claims numerous enemies stabbed the Roman emperor 23 times.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford Upon Avon on 23 April 1564. He died 52 years later on his birthday, 23 April 1616.

Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 and died in 1994 - 1+9+6+7= 23, 1+9+9+4 = 23.

In the science fantasy saga, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca sneak into detention block AA23 to rescue Princess Leia. The rescue attempt is botched and Leia escapes only by dodging Stormtroopers' laserfire. A police robot called 23 is included in Star Wars director George Lucas' first film, THX 1138.

The Knights Templar, the order of soldier monks who eventually fell foul of the Vatican and have been the subject of conspiracy theories about the Holy Grail, had 23 Grand Masters.

The first morse code transmission - "What hath God wrought?" - was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23. In telegraphers code 23 means "break the line".

The Birthday Paradox states that a group of 23 randomly-selected people is the smallest number where there will be a probability higher than 50 per cent that two people will share the same birthday.

"W" is the 23rd letter of the Latin alphabet. It has two points down and three points up.

White supremacists use 23 to represent "W" as a mark of racial superiority.

The average human physical biorhythm is 23 days.

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