Good Job, Brain! - 272: By The Numbers

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

It's time to be odd because we can't even. Quizzes and facts about data and numbers! Chris runs us through a series of unfortunate events (and an unfortunate name) that led to the worst baseball team and the worst baseball records of all time. Numbered song quiz, and get ready for 2024's Cicadapocalypse because these noisy beans are about to bust out in trillions. And it's prime time with Colin as he introduces us to the hobby of catching prime number Pokémons, and we meet The Most Metal Number. For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, snazzy, snappy snoops, snorkeling for snarge. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. Today's show is episode 207D2, 272, and 172. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your Never Odd or Even Taco Cats, Dog Gods, kayaking in civic race cars with a man, a plan, a canal, Panama. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris.

272. We're in our palindrome era. I get it. I just got the connection, the palindrome. You're just like, what are these random words? Yeah. Yeah, well, I knew there were palindromes, but I was 272. 272. We're going to start the show with a bit of a listener news. Listener and fan Robin

alerted me that if you go to the Dinerlingo Wikipedia page, the first source that they cite is us. Chew K. Felton C. Nelson D. Coler C. Good job, Brain. The book. Excellent. Nice. Bad time to reveal that I made all of that up. I was going to say, that was one of yours. That was your segment, right, right. Oh, wow, there's a lot. There's a lot of good diner. You want to talk about diner lingo a little bit?

I mean, we obviously, we talked about it on the show. Hold on, let me type in, Diner Lingo into my internet browser and go to Wikipedia so I can read about myself. The idea is, like, if you go to a diner in the United States of America, and you order a hamburger, and the waitress, obviously, is named Flo. when the cook is smoking a cigarette that these ashing out into the onto the grill. You know what I mean? Like it obviously would make sense if she were to call back and say a hamburger.

But instead of that, they will call back and say some, you know, some silly pun or essentially like nickname for it. And I guess kind of the idea is that like the customers are all talking about food names, but a noisy diner only the waitress is using, you know, the diner lingo. So the chef knows that they're hearing it from the way. So anyway, it's like, it's stuff like Adam's ale is water, bad breath is onion. A burger well done is a hockey puck. So give me a hockey puck with bad breath. It's a well done burger with onions, which sounds delicious. You're looking for a hot blonde with sand.

What is that? That's a coffee, cream, and sugar because it's a hot cup of Joe, but it's blonde because the cream and the sand in it. You know, and anyway, there's a whole list of. all of these great, you know, diner lingo on Wikipedia. And yes, they cited our book. That's fantastic. And Wikipedia being what it is.

Somebody may hear this episode and go and delete that citation. Let me take a screenshot of it right now. I would screenshot it for posterity. I still think of you when I hear a diner lingo, Chris, from that segment. I remember reading about it on Uncle John's Baxter. bathroom reader, which were a series of Collins like, yep, yep, I poop all I read too. Basically, it was a series of like, it was these thick books and the idea is you take this and put it in the bathroom because before smartphones, when you were in the bathroom, doing number two, you had something to do to occupy your time. And once you had finished, you know, folding origami cranes out of toilet paper, you would need something to read and some people would have magazines in the bathroom.

and you take Uncle John's bathroom meter you put it in there and it essentially contained a whole bunch of just different art. It was like Wikipedia. Right. It was like out of order Wikipedia. It's a bunch of articles on different trivia, topics, interesting facts and things like that. Short, short segments.

Oh no, they broke them up by length. Like how long are you going to be here? And that was very, very popular until the smartphone. I definitely remember dropping the kids off at the pool, reading about Diner Lingo.

That's where I got interested in it. So this has been your TMI corner with Chris Kohler. I learned about Diner Lingo because there was an American magazine for kids called 321 Contact. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's the show. I have a subscription. I love 3 to 1 contact.

And so at the end of the 321 Contact issue magazine, they have a spread of code for basic. Programming language. Like basic. Yeah, basic. And you can code games and they would just give you the code and you'd be like, oh, try yourself. And one of them was for matching diner lingo. Oh.

Like purple cow, brown cow, you know, for like a Coke float. That's how I learned about diner lingo was from this very specific vertical of nostalgia. All right. Well, without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz. Hot shot. I got two random Trivial Pursuit cards 1990-19-19-90 and

Genus 4. Here we go. Get your barnyard buzzers ready. Listeners join in. We'll do Genus Blue Wedge for people and places. What hot spring state would you be in if you were

gigging for frogs in Toad suck? Toad suck is a Place name, pick C, big S. So let me read that. All right. Take it from the top. Okay.

What hot spring state would you be in if you were gigging for frogs in toad sunk? Hot Spring State. Wow. What is gigging frogs? Colin. I'm just going to, I don't know, I'm getting a southern vibe from this one. Yes. I'm going to say Arkansas.

It is. Arkansas. Wow. Wow. Tote suck Arkansas. Toad suck Arkansas. Next question. Pink Wedge, Arts and Entertainment. What two words did James Brown utter when he was asked to define cool? Huh. Chris. James Brown. Yeah, good guess. Good guess. Nice. Is that it? Yes. Okay. All right. Great. Great. Wow. Good to Dutch. The more I thought of it as a joke and then I'm like, Like, probably the right answer. Yeah. Yep. All right. Yellow Wedge. What battle site was the start of Fidipides' historic 25-mile run to Athens?

Oh. Colin. That is Marathon, yes? Marathon. Yes. Origin of marathon. Uh, science and nature, what North American desert must you visit to see the stately saguaro cactus?

Oh. Um, that. Those are the classic cactus. Oh, really? No one can see me. Yeah, yeah. I'm just like putting my arms up. I'm a cactus.

No. Okay, yes, uh, Colin. Is that the Mojave? No, Chris. Gensurate's in America. No. It is the Sonoran, Sonoran Desert Southwest. I do not know about that.

Yep. Green Wedge for sports and leisure. What team? Team Cy Young Award winners include Mike Kuehler, Mike Flanagan, and Steve Stone. Oh, man. Let me say that again. What team's Cy Young Award winners include Mike Kuehler, Mike Flanagan, and Steve Stone? These are all pitchers.

You know, this is the team that Chris names all the time when he doesn't know. this is the team that I name all the time I have no idea do I do that New York Yankees No what there's a team that I always name What I don't know It's the Baltimore Orioles

Oh Yes Do I do that? Yeah that's your random baseball team Fantastic All right last question on this card Biled card What fraction of all paper money

printed in the U.S. are dollar bills. Oh, oh, oh. Multiple choice, or no? Interesting. It's a lot because they have to keep making them, basically, but it's like, what's in circulation is kind of different. I have no idea what they would... It's a basic fraction, I would say.

Oh, yeah, sure, sure, sure. One half. Two-thirds. Two-thirds. Two-thirds. Okay. All right. Next card, here we go.

1990. Bring it on. Pink Wedge, what band was obliged to to remove a song penned by Charles Manson from its album, The Spaghetti Incident? Oh, Colin. Wasn't that Guns and Roses? Guns and roses. I don't remember that. I don't remember the Manson song. Yeah. Okay, I knew that Charles Manson was like, you know, before, right, the murders, was like hanging out with musicians and stuff like that. But the Guns and Roses, they would have known that he was a murderer.

They're just like, wait, Charlie did what? Yellow Edge, here we go. What box car sized instrument was lifted into orbit in 1990 by the shuttle discovery? Whoa, Colin. That must be the Hubble Space Telescope? Yes, it is. I thought it was a musical instrument. Oh, that's, of course, the space tuba, Karen.

I was like, oh, what instrument is famous enough to go to space? It's space viola. Purple Wedge. What network broadcast its Gary Shandling show reruns a month after they've debuted on Showtime? Oh, funny. I mean, because I was going to say like, oh, yeah, that was on, I thought it was on HBO. That's what I thought was on HBO. Yeah, yeah, but no, I guess a network broadcast it later, and I,

I don't know what that is. Go for it. Was that very early Fox Network? It is very early. Interesting. Maybe you guys are thinking of Larry Sanders. That was definitely HBO. Okay, yes.

Right, right, right. All right. Orange Wedge, what luxury vehicle was launched with Zen like ads showing rocks and trees, but no car? Oh, 1990. Luxury vehicle. Okay, so this was around the time that, like, the major Japanese manufacturing started rolling out the high-end brands. All right.

So it's going to be one of three, I think. It's... Okay. All right. So, like, who was first? I'll say... Uh, infinity. Infinity with an eye.

By Nissan. Yeah, yeah. Infinity with the eye. At the end. Eye at the end, not... Green Wedge. What musical did Pink Floyd resurrect for a historic Potsdammer Plots concert

for over 200,000 fans? Colin. That is the wall. It is the wall. Yes, with the famous wall having come down. Yes, just a year prior, right? Blue Wedge, last question on this card. What 19-year-old became the youngest man to win the U.S. Open Tennis title in 1990?

Ooh. Youngest man. Chris. Andre Agassie. no Colin Pete Sampras Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras So 90s So 90s Oh my gosh All right Good job brains Woo So all season long

I've just had this I've had this story That I really wanted to research And talk about Because a friend of mine mentioned this to me In conversation He brought this up

And I'm like I'm sorry what And he sort of vaguely explained what this was And I thought to myself my God, this is a good job brain segment, but we weren't recording, and then we got back in, and it was like, I have to suggest the topic that will let me shoehorn this weird story in, but it's still generalized enough. We decided to talk about things in and around stats or

numbers or data, if you will, in that way. So this week, we're doing it by the numbers. Okay, I'm just going to jump into it. I've waited all season. All right. We are going to talk about sports. What? I know. I want to talk about the worst baseball team ever.

Oh. Which, of course, was my little league team from 1988. I was sitting in the dugout having to ask what the score was. You know, I really had no idea. No, just kidding. Because that would be very funny, but not really very trivia. I mean, the worst MLB team ever, okay? Worst team Major League Baseball.

During their 1899 season, let's the year 1899. Wow. And remember, there was only a National League. There was no American League yet. But they were a National League team. During their 1899 season, this team, had a record of 20 wins to 134 losses. This is horrendous.

This is, to this day, it is the worst win-loss record in a single season. I have not told you the best part. The name of this team was the Cleveland Spiders, which is like exactly what you would title a movie about the worst team in baseball. So the Cleveland spiders, they got their name because one of the executive staff on the team in the team management

noted that their uniforms were a black and gray color scheme and that also many of the players on the team were like gangly, spindly, you know, all skinny guys. And he's like, well, I should just call him the spiders. So they did. They called him the Cleveland Spiders.

Now, the funny thing is, the Cleveland Spiders were not always the worst team in baseball. In fact, in the year 1890, they had signed a pitcher whose name was Cy Young. Oh, my God. You might remember from earlier in the show that the Cy Young Award is the award they give to really good pitchers. So you might think, was Cy Young a very good pitcher? Yes. Was he a very good pitcher when he played for the Cleveland Spider? Yes.

In fact, two years after he joined in 1892, the Cleveland Spiders went to the World Series. All right. Spiders on the rise. What existed of the World Series at that point, which was two National League teams playing against each other. And in the 1892, what passed for a World Series, they played. against another marvelously named baseball team, the Boston Bean Eaters.

Excellent. Which I do not feel I have to explain that one. It all sounds made up. It all sounds made up. And the Boston Bean Eaters defeated the Cleveland Spiders in the 1892

sort of a world series. Brief aside, the Boston Bean Eaters are now known as, What? Colin? It's got to be. It's got to be the Red Sox. Red Sox. No, it's not the Red Sox. Boston Bean Eaters are now known as the Atlanta Braves.

I was going to say the Braves because I knew that it was going to be my second guess. Yeah. Because they trade the franchise is like traded cities, right? Exactly. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Yep.

So the Boston Bean Eaters are now actually known as the Atlanta Braves. Anyway, you used to be known as the Boston Bean Eaters. We can all say much better name. So what about the spiders? Well, led by the tremendous pitching of one Sai Young, the team did quite well for itself over the next few seasons in the 1890s. In fact, things were just going great up until the 1890 season, where they had the worst record in baseball that stands to this day. What happened? Did Say Young leave? Did he kill a guy?

No. Oh, the Cleveland Spiders were owned by a pair of brothers named Frank and Stanley Robeson. Okay? So these guys own the Cleveland Spiders. And they had such success owning a baseball team that they thought, what if we owned two baseball teams? Let's buy another baseball team. So they bought a baseball team called the St. Louis Browns over in St. Louis. And then they had an idea.

We have one baseball team. We have two baseball teams. We've got two pretty good baseball teams. But it's like Cy Young is over here and there's some other good guys over here. Why don't we have one really, really good baseball team? So they took all the best players on the Cleveland spiders, including Sy Young, and they moved them to St. Louis. So shady. And they took all the worst players from the St. Louis Browns, and they moved from the Cleveland Spiders.

And then just to emphasize what they had done, again, I am not making up the name of this team. They took the St. Louis Browns, and they renamed them the St. Louis Perfectos. So the same guy owns, the same brothers own the Cleveland Spiders and the St. Louis perfectos all the good players on this team all the bad players on that team and the st. Louis perfectos did okay oh of the they didn't even work of the 12 national league teams okay perfectos came in fifth they were the fifth place team out of 12 so you know they were in the top half they had a better record but like they didn't win the world series yeah yeah yeah the winning team as we just go down this parade of incredible team names the winning team uh that year okay in the

1899 series was named again not even kidding you the brooklyn superbas which is you got the perfectos and you got the superbas it's like how did that happen that happened because the brooklyn team had been renamed the Superbas that year because its owners had done the same scam. They also owned the Baltimore Orioles and they had moved all the Orioles best players to Brooklyn

and renamed the team the Superbas. And so then, of course, the poor Cleveland, so the Cleveland spiders at this point, I mean, ha ha, it's funny, it's all the worst players. Well, their home games were so badly attended that the other National League teams refused to even play them. Because they, because the way that they got paid

was that they got a cut of the ticket sales and the concessions of the game. And it wasn't even enough to make it sense for them to even go there. So the Cleveland spiders ended up having to play a majority. majority of their games out on the road, which puts you at a disadvantage. Brutal. It shouldn't actually matter because they lost most of their home games, too. Yeah. They had a, they had a 20, I believe a 24 game losing streak at one point.

And of course, if you're living in Cleveland, your hometown baseball team, you've been rooting for all this time. It's been very good. It's now like the complete joke of baseball. It's not even anything. A local Cleveland sports writer named Elmer Bates wrote a list of reasons, wrote a list of reasons why it was good, actually, to be a Cleveland Spider's fan. One, there is everything to hope for and nothing to fear. Two, defeats do not disturb one's sleep.

Three, an occasional victory is a surprise into delight. Four, there is no danger of any club passing you. And five, you are not asked 50 times a day, what was the score? People take it for granted that you lost. After the 1890 season, the utter stomping in which the Cleveland Spiders finished utterly last, the National League eliminated four teams, including the Cleveland Spiders, and also the similarly now bankrupt Baltimore Orioles who would eventually

that team would sort of make a comeback in the American but they were first in National League team meanwhile as for the St. Louis perfectos after one season they did decide to rename the team they named them after the striking red color of the new uniforms and they are now known as the St. Louis Cardinals you're not named after the bird

They're not named after the bird. They're named after when they, when they created the super team of the St. Louis perfectos, they gave them dashing red uniforms and they all card, they called them the Cardinals as sort of a nickname. And that's what they ended up renaming the team. Interesting. And a few years later, to wrap up this story, the National League did quickly outlaw the practice of so-called syndicate ownership, which is right of a majority controlling stake in more than one. major league baseball team, they do not allow this anymore for this exact. Wow. Yep. So the lesson is

it is always good to be the first person who thinks up the scam before somebody else thinks to outlaw. Yes, yes. What's the record again? The record is 20 wins, 134 losses. Wow. Very unlikely, you know, to ever be beaten. Yeah. Right. And in fact, they're there, there. their record of, I forget the exact number, which is great considering the title of this podcast, but their record of away games that they lost is actually probably never going, it's a can't be beaten because they don't even, they're not even, the teams aren't even allowed to play that many away games anymore, they just, they were in that situation because they literally couldn't play any home games anymore because attendance had dropped down to like, like less than like 200 people

game just just just horrendous yeah oh i feel i feel bad for the uh those poor souls yeah on those last those last days and they're looking around going like oh does this mean we're the bad players yeah there's a great a great reddit thread where someone's like you know what i'm gonna rename accurately the baseball teams according to what animal is the most abundant in that state right so you know the St. Louis Cardinals well no we should name St. Louis after

an animal that is you know that there's a lot of in St. Louis. So after some research he debuted the list and it was it was like the San Francisco ants the San Diego ants their New York ants

the Washington ants Did an ant write this? Do you remember playing video games? I used to do this where like maybe I'm playing both teams or have separate teams and I would load up one team with all the really, really good characters. All right. Well, here I have a very quick quiz, super lightning round. Get your buzzers ready.

I'm going to name a song that has a number of the title. and you give me the artist. All right. All right. Super fast. Here we go. Yeah. All right.

A thousand miles. Oh. Chris. The Proclaimers. No. No. Oh. Oh, no.

That's 500 miles. I just went through the same thought process. A thousand miles. The Proclaimers. The Proclaimers. It's a thousand miles. Oh, oh, is it. Oh, man.

It is Vanessa Carlton. Oh. I knew as a female singer, I was never going to pull that out, though. All right. Edge of 17. Stevie Nix. Song 2. Colin.

Is that blur? Blur. I'm going to be, parentheses, 500 miles. Please, Chris. Proclaimers. I got five on it. Ooh. Oh.

Loonis. Loonis. Loon. Oh, man. You hear this a lot around like Warriors games. Right. Right. Right.

Two tickets to paradise. Colin. Eddie money. Correct. Take five. Uh. Colin. Dave Brubbeck.

Correct. To become one. Oh, oh, um And to become one Uh Colin That's the spice girls Correct

Nice Three times a lady Uh Not buckwheat No no no That's all I can think about What's the God

Chris Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat No Lionel Richie Right or The Commodores Yes the Commodores Yes, the Commodores.

Ooh, good distinction. Good distinction. Ents, Tass. Fittalismated. All right. Ain't too proud to beg. The two are number twos. Ain't too proud to beg.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yes. Ain't too proud to beg. Is that TLC? TLC. It took me a moment to retrieve that one. If I had a million dollars. Oh.

Colin. Bear naked ladies? Bear naked ladies. All right. Mumbo number five. Chris? Lou Bega. Lou Bega.

Nice. Ninety-nine red balloons. Oh. Chris. Nina. Yes, Nina. Nina. All right.

7-Eleven. Mm. That is Beyoncé. Oh. Oh. Two princes. Oh. Chris.

Spin Doctors. Correct. Oh, man. 3 a.m. A number in the band as well. Oh. 3 a. Okay.

I said, baby. Yeah, you can sing it. It's 3 a.m. I'm still lonely. Oh. Uh, uh, uh, matchbox 20. Correct. 99 problems.

Oh. Colin? Jay-Z. All right. We're going back for this one. Knock three times. Oh. This is a Chris Kohler, please.

It is, it is, but I... Knock three times. Right, right, right. I don't know. Tony, Orlando. And Dawn. And Dawn. Let's not shortchange Dawn.

I think I knew and Dawn. Okay, this is a number related one, because There's the number in the word. Skater boy. It's true. It's true. It's like seven. Avril Avril Avivine.

Yes. 3,05. Hmm. Hmm. That is Childish Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover. Summer of 69.

Oh. Colin. Brian Adams. Brian Adams. All right. Last one. This is a you know it. don't um love potion number nine oh you hear it yeah yeah yeah yeah love potion number nine

do artists for this chris i was gonna i was gonna i was gonna like no they're like one hit wonders i was gonna say yeah yeah yeah i was gonna say bobby darren but it's not bobby no it's uh not the clovers or the searchers oh oh yeah all right potion number nine all right good job wow okay So I was searching for a four-leaf clover, but instead I found a love potion number nine instead of a four-leaf clover. I was searching for it. That's good. So I'm trying to, yeah, yeah, it's not bad. Yeah, I did, listen, I did a lot of karaoke with Germans in Japan in the year, like in the year like 2000, 2001.

so there weren't really a lot of foreign language songs at the karaoke place, and one of them was 99 left balloons. My sister had that single. Like 45? She had it on 45, exactly. We have the German version and the English version on the other side. She did. She did.

Man, she just would play that thing over and over and over. Well, I mean, when you just got that one single, what you got the one single, yeah. Yeah. All right, let's take a quick break, and we'll be right back. Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday.

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You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth puzzles. Smart trivia. Good job, brain. And we're back, Colin. What's your? number? It is prime time, you guys. Let's talk about prime numbers. Let's talk about prime numbers. Are we going to overlap? I don't know. Now, we've talked about, are we really? Are we really? Let's find out. Now, we have touched on prime numbers on the show before from a couple of different angles. Would one of you care to provide a definition here? What makes a number prime when I say a number prime? Yes, sure, Colin. It gets your house in two days. Oh, gets your house in two. Jesus.

It's ruined the whole thing. Anyway, a prime number. It is only divisible by one and itself. Exactly. That's right. So, for example, some of the easiest prims to list. Just to name a few. Just to name a few. I'll give you, in order here, some primes below 50.

Two. Yep, yep. Three, solid, solid number three, right. Yep. Five. Five's out there. Seven. Seven, yeah. Eleven. Yeah, forget 11. Thirteen. A good one. Right. And you're noticing a pattern here, of course, which is that, except for number two, these are all odd numbers. Right. Right. So these numbers, again, divisible in whole amounts by themselves and one, nothing else.

Now, one of the characteristics of prime numbers is as they get bigger, the gaps between them get larger. And one of the reasons that prime numbers have become so foundational to modern internet traffic is because without prime numbers, we would not have modern encryption, without prime numbers, we would not have modern digital cryptography because, in a very, very simple way of putting it, it is extremely, extremely, extremely hard to predict when the next prime number is going to come when you're listing a sequence. So, and I'm glossing over a lot here, you can multiply prime number. numbers together to get an extremely large number and it is very very hard to reverse factor that

go back the other way it's like once they morphed that's right venom and edd brock it's really hard to separate them there is as of today there is no pattern or formula that we know of that can predict prime numbers like it really just comes down to trial and error check your work have other people check your work. Obviously, computers and, you know, advanced adding machines have made verifying prime numbers easier and computers have made finding them a little bit easier, but there's no discernible pattern to them. And I love this, I love this element of prime numbers, just kind of this mystery angle to it. I'm going to share with you guys some of the fun families of prime numbers that exist. So one type of prime is a palind

So as you might deduce, it is a prime number where the numbers themselves form a palindrome reads the same way forward and backward. Now, the single digit ones are trivially palindromic, right? So two, three, five. Even 11, right, is kind of trivially palindromic. But then it starts to get a little more interesting once you get up over 100. So for example, 101 is a palindromic prime, 101, 181. 353. You get the idea and on and on and on. So palindromic primes. There's another category of prime called Absolute Prime. This one was really cool to me. So this is a prime number that is prime no matter how you arrange the digits. Okay. So for example, 199 is prime. 919 also prime. 991 also prime. So there's a family of absolute friends. Man, someone had a lot of time. I know.

Look, Karen, mathematicians as a group over the past millennia. There may be no group of humans that has dedicated more time to their craft. Recreational math, man. That's what they did. Can you imagine that one person who kind of figured this out or found out, like, oh, my God, this is so cool. I'm so glad you asked. I appreciate the energy.

Yep. And then he told his wife and she's like, please, please stop talking about this. You need to go find other people to talk about this with because this is not. Plateau primes. Whoa.

Okay, which may also be palindromic primes, have the same set of interior numbers with smaller numbers on the end. Okay? So, 181, 181 is a plateau prime. We get into some bigger ones here. 1-7771 is another example of a plateau prime. Snowball primes.

This one is great. This is a prime number, even if you don't finish writing all the digits out. So here's an example. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, sure. 739-39-1-33 you could chop off digits and it would still be prime do you guys know what an emirp is emirp oh yes I do yeah what is it may have covered this on the show before you could probably figure it out it's like it's reversed it's a prime number forwards yeah yeah you got it that's right at emirp is a prime forward and backward so for instance

389, 983 are both prime numbers. This is like academic Pokemon. Do you know what I mean? Right. This is like, oh, I've captured this one. This one is a e-merp. Much like Pokemon, Karen, you can also tell that people have a lot of fun naming these as well. So there are holy.

I was like, oh, it's snake backwards. I'm pretty understood. He cans the Pokemon. There are holy primes, H-O-L-E-Y primes, which are primes made up of digits that have holes in them, meaning 0-6, 8, 9. You got it. There are knotty, naughty primes, which are primes predominantly with zeros, knots in them. Yes. You have to imagine just the nerdiest possible.

a field of dad jokes, yeah. All right, now we're getting to some fun naming here. All right, twin primes. Okay, twin primes, I will just tell you what they are. Are pairs of prime numbers separated by only two, okay? A gap of two. So stick with the lower examples here. Three and five are twin primes, five and seven.

I know one. Let me adjust my pocket protector quickly here. It's the 107 and 109. Very nice. Very nice. And they don't know. Like, are there infinitely many twin primes? We don't know. We don't know. Obviously, it's a lot easier to verify when you're looking at, you know, 3, 5, 11, 13. Then there are, moving on from twin primes, there are cousin primes. So these are pairs of prime numbers separated by only a gap of four, four in order. So three and seven. Four integers. Four integers. You got it. That's right.

How many are there? 17. Well, it goes on and on and on. 13 and 17. 13 and 17, 19 and 23, 37 and 41, 43 and 47. Oh, wow. Sexy primes. Sexy primes are prime pairs separated by a gap of six.

No. No, no, no. If you are sitting there. And you are playing with prime numbers and you decide that any of those prime numbers are something that should be called sexy. That is how you know if you've been staring at the prime numbers too long. And in just the nerdiest possible punning way, they are called sexy primes. It's a play on the Latin root for six. Oh, I get it.

Sex, exactly. Yes, you've got it. That's right. so 11 again we'll stick with 11 11 shows up in a lot of these sets right so 5 and 11 is a sexy prime pair also 11 and 17 what what does that get us to it just you know what it just gets you list okay yeah exactly it allows you to make a list like once you have like I've got my I've got my definition now let me proceed to enumerate every possible pair that fits this that's right all right let's take let's take There's some of these groupings now.

All right. So we talked about the palindromic primes. Okay. This is where it gets into some of the really interesting stuff that I had never heard of before. Have you, have you guys heard of a beastly prime? A beastly prime. Just, just take a wild guess here. Yeah.

What could, what could that, what could be the numerological joke or PUD or reference? Oh, 666. Yes, Karen, you've got it. it. A beastly prime has 666 in it. Now, specifically, there are palindromic beastly primes. Okay. And non-palindromic. But we'll stick with the fun one. So a palindromic, beastly prime, for example, 7-00-6666707. Palindromic and beastly. In the course of reading about beastly primes, palindromic primes. I came across the mother load here, and this is

what I just had to share with you guys. All right, there is a number called Belfigors Prime. B-E-L-P-H-E-G-O-R, Belfigor's Prime. Now, this is a palindromic Prime, and it is a beastly prime. It is

named after Belfigur, a demon, one of the seven princes of hell, by some tellings, because it has 666 in the middle and on either side of the 666 are 13 zeros

so Belfagor's Prime is number 1 13 zeros 666 666 13 more zeros and then the number one That's metal. That is pretty metal indeed it is pretty metal and even more

metal Karen the symbol of Belfigors Prime is an upset side down letter pie. Like, it's just, they're just going, like, trying to make it just seem as metal and hardcore number as possible. I, okay. All right.

You know what? I've been convinced I will join, uh, your cult. Uh, your cult sounds cool. The number itself is 31 digits. So 13 backwards. Yeah. There's, there's all kinds of stuff going on. Yes, exactly.

This, this, this, this, this palindromic prime was discovered by, uh, mathematician, Harvey Dubner, and the name was coined by author and mathematician Clifford Pickover. Again, just to have the opportunity to name something like this. When? Let's see, when? The earliest reference that I can find here goes back to 2016 to this prime being named Belfigor's Prime. Yeah, so it has not been with us all that long.

It's younger than good job, brave. Yeah. one, 13 zeros, 666, 13 zeros, 1. Number one, you got it. The 13 really, like, takes it over the edge. It does. It's like, it's fun to look at. They kind of stumbled upon this one.

You're like, oh, yeah, this one's getting a special name. Beastly, palindromic prime number, Belfigors Prime. Well, I'm surprised you can just assign any orientation of Greek letters to numbers. Do you know what I mean? Sort of like naming phobias or collections. I think there's a little bit of wiggle room for the first person to kind of come out. Yeah, this is not necessarily a formal scientific, you know, notation here. Kind of like Google, you know, like a one with 100 zeros.

Like Google's not really a formal name, but it kind of, they named it early on. So it's kind of just sort of, you know, stuck. Colin, I asked you earlier, okay, so what? identify what's sexy and what's beastly like now what and so I want to talk about something that's happening this year no doubt you have heard that this year 2024 is the super cicada year people have dubbed it as cicat apocalypse uh in america in in america okay not one but two broods of cicadas will emerge by the trillions from the ground starting this spring, affecting parts of the Midwest, parts of East Coast.

And you might also know that cicadas have a pretty odd life cycle. So they spend most of their time. They're called nymphs, kind of like teen, I guess teenager cicadas, adolescent cicadas. So they spend most of their time as nymphs living underground for years, years and years and years. They feed off of like tree root juice. That's how they survive. And when the time is right, they'll all develop and bust out from the ground in trillions all at the same time. And they just only have a few weeks left to fly around, mate, lay eggs, and then they die.

That is their life cycle. They lay their eggs on trees. And then when the newborns hatch, they actually fall into the ground. and the newborns bury themselves back underground and the whole cycle starts over. Incredible. So different varieties of cicadas spend different amounts of time underground.

So for this year's cicada apocalypse, we're dealing specifically with two different species, one that has a 13-year life cycle and one that has a 17-year life cycle. 13 and 17 may seem random, Maybe now that I'm following Colin segment, maybe not that random anymore, you might notice that they're both prime numbers. Prime numbers, again, not divisible by any other numbers wholly except for one in itself, right? So, okay, let's consider who are cicadas predators?

We got, we got birds, we got wasps, we got other bunch of animals. birds and wasps have shorter life cycles than the cicada, like two years, three years, four years, life cycle. Which means every two years, three years, every four years, different predators and generations of those predators will come out to hunt. So say, if the cicada brood comes out every six years, then the cicadas will coincide with the life cycles of the two-year predators and the three-year predators.

Right? Because it's the year six. Yes. Right. And that's bad because then they're going to eat the cicada kids. Right. If the cicada brood comes out every eight years, then they will overlap with the life cycle of the two-year predator and the four-year predator. And so forth. If they have a 12-year cycle, that's the worst.

Then they're going to overlap three-year, four-year, even six-year. So in order to avoid getting eaten when the young cicadas come out for, from the ground like delicious nuggets, Cicadas developed a prime number year life cycle because it is to their advantage to have a life cycle that is completely off-kilter with the life cycles of predators. The fewest, the fewest cohorts of predators, right? The fewest overlaps is the best. Incredible.

That's like so genius. Now, survival is about avoiding predators. predators, but it is also about having resources. So this year, Cicada Apocalypse, we have 13, 17. They're different species of cicadas. So not only each species of cicadas have adapted to prime number year life cycle to avoid predators, each species adapted to having a different prime number year cycle so that they themselves won't overlap.

Because if the two different species have the same life cycle, they're going to compete. It's going to be confusing. They're not the same species. And so that's not good, which means the only time 13 and 17 will coincide is when 13 times 17. Wow. Every 221 years. Wow. Lucky for us, this is one of those years.

that's incredible yeah i was in dc Washington dc one year after a a cicada cycle so i guess it was just one just one broods yeah yeah one of the broods and i could not i was i was warned ahead of time but i could not believe how many little dead cicada shells were everywhere trees power lines sidewalks like you were crunching on them when you were stepping on the sidewalk. And they're loud. They're so loud. That really is incredible that nature.

Yeah. Just that's all those different broods, species can kind of find their own niche, too. Or they just, I mean, just over however many, you know, years it is, just, just sort of just shakes out like that. So we got a total solar eclipse and the potato apocalypse in one year. Yes. Oh, wow. What else you got 2024? I don't know.

I don't know. It doesn't sound good. I think we all need to join this prime number cult right now. I'm going to go bury myself in the backyard. I'll see you all in 13 years. Yeah, exactly. I think Belfagor's prime might be our only ticket out of this mess. So, yeah.

Did archaeologists discover Noah's Ark? Is the rapture coming as soon as the Euphrates river dries up? Does the Bible condemn abortion? Don't you wish you had a trustworthy academic resource to help make sense? of all of this. Well, I'm Dan Beecher, and he's award-winning Bible scholar and TikTok sensation, Dr. Dan McClellan, and we want to invite you to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where our mission is to increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and also to

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Wherever you subscribe to awesome shows. All right, Colin, you got our last numbers-related segment, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, it's numbers-related. Sure, sure, yeah. I can guarantee that, sort of. I've been sitting on this one for a few weeks, trying to find the right angle to work it into our show. I knew I had to get in the show somehow.

By gosh, I have the opportunity tonight here. If you are in government, say city, county, state, government, you know, you have a lot of numbers that are important to you. But at the end of the day, there is often one number that rules them all. I'm talking about tax numbers because that's how you get your sweet, sweet income. So if you'll bear with me here broadly, I have a story about tax and tax income and how it applies to one of our favorite topics, sandwiches. It is. It is my favorite. Yeah, it is. I think one of our earliest bonding moments, Karen, we started working together with discovering our shared love of a good, solid turkey sandwich. On Dutch crunch.

If you have been on the internet for any reasonable amount of time, it's a good. the last, let's say, 15 years, there is a good chance. You have seen people debating one of the questionably important issues of our time, which is, is a hot dog a sandwich? That's right. Yeah. Now, I am totally uninterested in whether you personally think a hot dog is or is not a sandwich. But I am very interested in hearing the reasoning that people come up with to justify why a hot dog is or is not a sandwich. If you are in government, however, sometimes you need to codify certain things as they relate to taxes. I discovered a fantastic document, and I will give credit here to author Michelle Debchak. She is a writer for Mental Floss, one of their long-term writers.

She had an article called Five Ways to Define a Sandwich, According to the Law. and I stumbled across this article what I was reading about hot dog sandwiches, etc. Contained in her article, she had a link to a wonderful document which I'm going to read to you now. This is Tax Bulletin ST835 from the New York

State Department of Taxation and Finance. The short title of this document is sandwiches. To be very serious about it, you know, one of the many responsibilities of Departments of Taxation Finance is setting tax rates and rules around restaurants, food service, and when you do that, you have to get really down to the nitty-gritty-gritty and find, well, what do you mean exactly by a sandwich? So thank you to the state of New York. Here we go. Introduction. You can find this document on tax.n.com. I am not making any of this up. Introduction. Sandwiches. are generally subject to sales tax.

This bulletin explains what is considered a sandwich for sales tax purposes. Of course! Jumping ahead a little bit. What is considered a sandwich? Again, reading verbatim from the document here. Sandwiches include cold and hot sandwiches

of every kind that are prepared and ready to be eaten, whether made on bread, on bagels, on rolls, in pitas, in wraps, or otherwise, and regardless of the filling or number of layers. Okay.

A sandwich can be as simple as a buttered bagel or roll or as elaborate as a six-foot toasted submarine sandwich. This is all state of New York. Yes, pros here for you. All right. So they're counting a bagel with butter. I am going to tell you exactly what they count because they enumerate.

They have a list. Some examples of taxable. Sandwiches include common sandwiches, such as BLTs, in parentheses, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. Right, yeah, yes, yeah. Club sandwiches, cold cut sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salad-type sandwiches, e.g. chicken, egg, ham, and tuna. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bagel Sandwiches, Paranthases, served buttered or with spreads or otherwise as a sandwich. Okay. All right. Now, here's where the list might start getting a little controversial.

All right. Now, again, this is direct your hate mail to state of New York. Burritos. Our sandwich? New York considers a burrito a sandwich. I mean, we're way beyond hot dog here. Cheese steak sandwiches.

Okay. Crescent sandwiches. Fish fry sandwiches. Flatbread. sandwiches. Breakfast sandwiches. Like, don't think you're dodging the tax like what the scrambled eggs in there. Yeah. Right. Right. A euro is a sandwich. Okay. All right. Okay. I can see that. Yeah. Hamburgers on buns, comma, rolls, comma, et cetera. Heroes, hoagies, torpedoes, grinders, submarines, and other such sandwiches. They're not going to let you skate or dodge by, oh, well, I call them a grinder.

Wigra, that's right, that's right. Yeah. Hot dogs and sausages on buns, rolls, et cetera. So unambiguously, a hot dog is a sandwich as far as the state of New York is concerned. Melt sandwiches. Oh, okay. Oh, that was what I was saying. I was going to get around it.

No, don't think. Oh, well, there's no top. I use a knife and a fork. Yeah, sorry, sorry, buddy, yeah. Panini sandwiches, Rubin sandwiches. I don't know why. the Rubin of all is singled out here. But Ruben sandwiches and finally, raps and PETA sandwiches are considered sandwiches.

That, as far as the state of New York is concerned, settles it. If your example is on this list of a sandwich. Now, notable absences from this list. Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah. Tacos are not on this list. Tacos not considered. Barrio, yes. It's considered a sandwich.

That's right. That's right. And now you might ask, well, what about an ice cream sandwich? Ah, no, ice cream sandwich is covered under another tax regime. Yes, we can get into the candy and confection area. We can get into the sweet treats area. But yes, not a sandwich, not a sandwich. So I was just delighted and tickled to find this official document settling once and for all.

So, you know, at least if you were a resident of the great state of New York, If you find yourself in a is a hot dog, a sandwich argument, you can hop on your phone and pull up this document and say, yes, at least as far as my tax dollars are concerned, a hot dog is a sandwich. I just assume all foods are taxable. There is a whole other, as I say, there is a set of tax regulations around beverages. There is a set of tax regulations around candy. Groceries, generally speaking, like your groceries are not taxed. But as soon as it's like, prepare, ready to eat food, then it gets tax. I see, I see.

And so they have to, so there's a sandwich list, but there's probably other lists also. So, like, there's probably a list that involves corn dogs so that you, like, buy a corn dog off the street. You got to pay tax on that. They have, right, different rules for street cards versus sit-down restaurants. Yeah, yeah, extremely, extremely fine-grained rules. Now I live in Seattle. The birthplace of Costco. Here, when you get your hot dog, your Costco hot dog at the end and you have the fountain drinks, I don't know if it's the same in California.

Maybe you guys can tell me, the soda fountain drinks are all diet. Diet or no sugar, like sparkling water. Oh, really? Because there is a sugar beverage tax. Oh, yes. Of course. Well, that's the, I mean, that's the intended effect of the sugared beverage tax, right, to get people to consume or sell fewer sugared beverages. So in that sense, it is having the desired effect.

Yeah. Well, that's our show. Thank you all for joining me. And thank you listeners for listening and hope you learned stuff about sexy primes and also about cicadas. You can find us on all major podcast apps and on our website, goodjabrain.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People, Mysteries at Midnight, and Pulse of the Planet.

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