issue 64

Fortean Mysteries SIG recent history issue 64 Newsletter of the Fortean Mysteries SIG of American Mensa

only 200,000 millicents per 3 issues Published irregularly since Undecember 1658 AC

Here's some new ideas we've come across in, and come up with inspired by, our

alphamagic: [Lee Sallow] magic squares related alphanumerically so that the

Beattily-formed numbers: transcendental numbers formed from unit positions of

Beatty sequences, the complimentary pair generated by rounded multiples of any

irrational number, k, between 1 and 2: [nk] and rounded multiples of it divided by itself minus one, [nk/(k-1)], e.g., [no/] = 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, ... and

[no//(o/-1)] = [no/2] = 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18, ..., giving the transcendentals:

Bells: [Eric Temple Bell] integers which are coefficients of Maclaurin expansion of

(ee)x, most easily formed with Bell triangle by adding numbers to left and above the left:

every third Bell is even; they number the ways a number with distinct prime factors

b-est number: ["T is ...": Aronsonians:: "B est ...":?] number generated by the Latin

five'ses: series generated Aronsonian-like by the sentence, "Five's the number of letters in the first word of this sentence, three in the second, six in the third, ...": 5, 3, 6, 2, 7, 2, 3, 5, 4, 2, ...

Folkman's number: [Jon Folkman in posthumous paper on graph theory] 2 squared 2209 times, over (10^10)^122

four-ises: series generated Aronsonian-like by the sentence, "Four is the number of letters in the first word of this sentence, two in the second, three in the third, ...": 4, 2, 3, 6, 2, 7, 2, 3, 5, 4, 2, ...

gammagon: [delta, hedron: deltahedron::gamma, gon:?] polygon make from gamma-like right angles, not nesesarily the only ones, includes square, L trisquare, fat stellated pentagon, ...

Hakens: [Wolfgang Haken, who wondered if pi was one] numbers with perfect square rounded decimal multiple(s), such as 4, 3.6, 3.61, 3.24, 2.89, 2.56, 2.5, 2.25, 1.96, 1.69, 1.6, 1.44, 1.21 .81, .64, .49, etc.

luckylesses: number without 1, 3, 7, 9 (lucky digits), e.g., luckyless pi: 0.4526558323846...

n-ests: ["T is ...": Aronsonians:: "N est ...":?] numbers generated by the Latin

sentence, "N est prima quinta, octava, quarta decima ab ultimum, tertia decima, ...

non-s-ain'ts: number series complementary to s-ain'ts: 1, 9, 31, 36, ...

nugon: [delta, polyhedron: deltahedron::nu, polygon:?] polygon formed from nu-like

perfectly-formed number: number formed from unit digits of perfect numbers, which may be 0.6868... , transcendental if there is no odd perfect, 17/25, if not

p-ests: ["T is ...": Aronsonians:: "P est ...":?] number generated by the Latin

sentence, "P est prima, quinta, ... ab ultimum littera in hic sententiam.", 1, 5,...

pfibonaccis: [portmanteau from "palindromic fibonaccis"] fibonacci numbers generated by f(n+2) = f(n+1) + f(n) where f(0) = f(1) = 1 and that read the same

Psmiths: [portmanteau from "palindromic Smiths", Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse] smith numbers, i.e, integers whose digits sum to the sum of their factors', and that reads the same forward and backward: 4, 55, ...

repunits: [Samuel Yates] integers with all ones, Rn = [10n/9]: 1; 11; 111; 1,111; ...

sigmagon: [delta, polyhedron:deltahedron ::sigma, polygon] polygon formed from the sigma-like half-hourglass with 2 45-degree and 1 90-degree angles

Smiths: [from Harold Smith's phone number 493-7775] integers whose digits sum to the sum of their factors': 4, 22, 27, 58, 85, ...

t-ests: ["T is ...": Aronsonians:: "B est ...":?] number generated by the Latin

sentence, "T est prima, quarta, quarta decima, vicesima, ... vicesima, undevicesima, septima, quarta ab ultimum littera in hic sententiam.", 1, 4, 14, 20, ..., n-20, n-19,

unrationals: numbers able to transform a rational number into an irrational one or vice versa, such as, p/q - [(p/q)2]^(1/2)= 3/2 - 2^(1/2), 5/3 - 2^(1/2), 7/3 - 3^(1/2), 8/3 - 3^(1/2), 7/4 - 3^(1/2), 5/2 - 5^(1/2), ...; p^(1/2) -[(pq^2)^(1/2)]/q = 2^(1/2) - 4/3, 2^(1/2) - 5/4, 3^(1/2) - 3/2, 3^(1/2) - 5/3, 5^(1/2) - 11/5

the "aphoristicon" of manicurist Fon Ling with 1,048,576 nailclippings' readings, the inspiration for fortune cookies;

Ayuh Speaks by Jimmie Ray Coles, with messages from A.D. 2222, such as "Falling

Marcelino de Sautuola's translation of the first writing, Magdalenian cave

petroglyph at Altamira, telling of the execution of the first writers, analysed in

How to Think Good by F. W. Wietz, transl. by Bubba Wilson, on his nonsystem of supraliminal intuitive reasoning;

My Wildest Trip wherein Martin M. Ballou describes the 7-foot-tall hollow earth dwellers, the Skaelings;

Personality: The Metab Factor by Bernard Fresh which proposed classifying

people according to their MQ, metabolizing quotient, based on their high or low

The Flute Theif or Mesa Verde Codex which tells how Chingara stole men's sacred flute and played so sweetly all were transformed into People of the Air.

In Anguished English by Richard Lederer we learn of such fantastic news stories as:

"Police discover crack in Australia", "Tuna biting off Washington coast", "Traffic dead rise slowly", "Collegians are turning to vegetables", "Milk drinkers are turning to powder", "Caribean islands drift to left", "Local man has longest horns in Texas", "Dealers will hear car talk Friday noon", "Enraged cow injures farmer with ax", "Two Soviet ships collide, one dies"

We see that "Strange Universe" is off the air here. The last show we saw did present the criticism of the alleged crop circle formation video.

Now however in addition to "Could It Be A Miracle" there's also "Miracles", but

like it sponsored by the so-called psychics. Their sources are as undiscriminating as

ours, including a redramatization of Rod Serling's in the 1961 "Twilight Zone" story, "A Hundred Yards over the Rim".