Prison is for Other People

I don't think so

Those misunderstood financial titans, Madoff and Stanford (Porlock passim), probably didn't enjoy Christmas much this year. Bernie discovered that if you put a sociopath and a psychopath in an enclosed space, it's usually the former that gets the kicking, whilst ex-Sir Allen drummed up tear jerking letters from his family to the court, in an attempt to find a more conducive environment than the downtown Houston Federal Detention Center in which to study seven million documents with "Guilty" written on them.
Victor Scarano, a Houston psychiatrist and lawyer who offers detailed bio-psycho-social-spiritual evaluations, examined Stanford in jail, and concluded “If the present set of circumstances persist, Mr. Stanford's spiraling downhill course will continue to the point where he will suffer further serious physical disorders and, more likely than not, a complete nervous breakdown.”

What does getting soaked feel like?

Bernie's battering, although in itself a widespread prison tradition, is yet another example of individual personal violence being dealt on the rich, odious and famous.

Berlesconi and the Pope, the shoe'd Shrub, John Prescott with an English egg: Rise up The Oppressed, The Exploited and The Downtrodden, and smack the Devil in his eye!

Ratzinger Rushed Off his Feet

From the Belfast Telegraph just now,(slightly edited)

A woman jumped barriers and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI at Christmas Eve Mass, a Vatican spokesman has said.

The sudden commotion in St Peter's Basilica happened as the pontiff walked down the main aisle to begin the traditional ceremony. As the procession made its way towards the altar, gasps rang out through the public and a commotion could be seen among a group of clergymen.
The procession came to a halt and bodyguards rushed to the trouble spot and filled the "demented woman" (they're everywhere) full of bullets.
The Pope appeared unhurt and continued calmly on his way to start the Mass.



Earlier, it was decided that The Midnight Mass become the Ten O'clock Mass in order to:
a) give the Sacred Father more sleep before opening his presents

b) help him clear his head of the recurring nightmares before Absolving Himself of Guilt

c) allow his Cardinals extra time out on the piss

Answers, before the Interregnum, to: pbenedictxvi@vatican.va

Meanwhile in Ireland, it was business as usual

Aaah, to be 18 again.........

Workers' Playtime

Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Man

Numbers, Big Numbers.

A googolplex is the number 10^googol, which can also be written as the number 1 followed by a googol of zeros (i.e., 10¹⁰⁰ zeros).

1 googolplex

= 10^googol

= 10^(10100)

= 10^{10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}

Writing it in numerals would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than there is in the known universe.

An average book of 60 cubic inches can be printed with 5 x 10⁵ '0's (5 characters per word, 10 words per line, 25 lines per page, 400 pages), or 8.3 × 10³ '0's per cubic inch. The observable universe contains 6 × 10⁸³ cubic inches (1.3 × π × (14 × 10⁹ light year in inches)³).

This implies that if the universe is stuffed with paper printed with '0's, it could contain only 5.3 × 10⁸⁷ '0's, far short of a googol of '0's. In fact there are only about 2.5 × 10⁸⁹ elementary particles in the observable universe so even if you could write a zero on each elementary particle, you would still have to make the universe's mass about a trillion times larger to complete the number.

The time it would take to write such a number also renders the task impossible: if a person writes two digits per second, it would take around about 1.51 × 10⁹² years, which is 1.1 × 10⁸² times the age of the universe, to write a googolplex.

That's pretty fucking big, but a bright chap called Graham has an even bigger one named after him, notated here as G.

The number of arrows in each layer, starting at the top layer, is specified by the value of the next layer below it; that is,

G is calculated in 64 steps: the first step is to calculate g₁ with four up-arrows between 3's; the second step is to calculate g₂ with g₁ up-arrows between 3's; the third step is to calculate g₃ with g₂ up-arrows between 3's; and so on, until finally calculating G = g₆₄ with g₆₃ up-arrows between 3's.

(3^^^3 = 3^^(3^^3) is 3^^7,625,597,484,987 = 3^(7,625,597,484,987^7,625,597,484,987), which makes a tower of exponents 7,625,597,484,987 layers high.)

Even n, the mere number of towers in this formula for g₁, is far greater than the number of Planck volumes (roughly 10^185 of them) into which one can imagine subdividing the observable universe. And after this first term, there are still another 63 terms in the g sequence before Graham's number G = g₆₄ is reached.

That's really fucking big, but size isn't everything. It's not perfect, unlike these few examples of the Perfect Number, starting with our humble 6 (no-one knows how many more there are):

6, 28, 496, 8128, 33550336, 8589869056, 137438691328, 2305843008139952128,2658455991569831744654692615953842176,191561942608236107294793378084303638130997321548169216,13164036458569648337239753460458722910223472318386943117783728128,14474011154664524427946373126085988481573677491474835889066354349131199152128,23562723457267347065789548996709904988477547858392600710143027597506337283178622239730365539602600561360255566462503270175052892578043215543382498428777152427010394496918664028644534128033831439790236838624033171435922356643219703101720713163527487298747400647801939587165936401087419375649057918549492160555646976,141053783706712069063207958086063189881486743514715667838838675999954867742652380114104193329037690251561950568709829327164087724366370087116731268159313652487450652439805877296207297446723295166658228846926807786652870188920867879451478364569313922060370695064736073572378695176473055266826253284886383715072974324463835300053138429460296575143368065570759537328128, 54162526284365847412654465374391316140856490539031695784603920818387206994158534859198999921056719921919057390080263646159280013827605439746262788903057303445505827028395139475207769044924431494861729435113126280837904930462740681717960465867348720992572190569465545299629919823431031092624244463547789635441481391719816441605586788092147886677321398756661624714551726964302217554281784254817319611951659855553573937788923405146222324506715979193757372820860878214322052227584537552897476256179395176624426314480313446935085203657584798247536021172880403783048602873621259313789994900336673941503747224966984028240806042108690077670395259231894666273615212775603535764707952250173858305171028603021234896647851363949928904973292145107505979911456221519899345764984291328.

And then, of course, you've got infinity a.k.a. Aleph Null. Sort of.

It can't be annotated but Albert Einstein, who knew a thing or two about numbers, said

"Only two things are infinite, the Universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

What are you afraid of?

Let's start with A:

Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing.
Acarophobia- Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching.
Acerophobia- Fear of sourness.
Achluophobia- Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia- Fear of noise.
Acrophobia- Fear of heights.
Aerophobia- Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances.
Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places.
Aeronausiphobia- Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness.
Agateophobia- Fear of insanity.
Agliophobia- Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place.
Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse.
Agrizoophobia- Fear of wild animals.
Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Ailurophobia- Fear of cats.
Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease.
Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.
Algophobia- Fear of pain.
Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
Altophobia- Fear of heights.
Amathophobia- Fear of dust.
Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia- Fear of walking.
Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia.
Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched.
Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.
Ancraophobia- Fear of wind. (Anemophobia)
Androphobia- Fear of men.
Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind.(Ancraophobia)
Anginophobia- Fear of angina, choking or narrowness.
Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture, etc.
Angrophobia - Fear of anger or of becoming angry.
Ankylophobia- Fear of immobility of a joint.
Anthrophobia or Anthophobia- Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia- Fear of people or society.
Antlophobia- Fear of floods.
Anuptaphobia- Fear of staying single.
Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity.
Aphenphosmphobia- Fear of being touched. (Haphephobia)
Apiphobia- Fear of bees.
Apotemnophobia- Fear of persons with amputations.
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia- Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia- Fear of numbers.
Arrhenphobia- Fear of men.
Arsonphobia- Fear of fire.
Asthenophobia- Fear of fainting or weakness.
Astraphobia or Astrapophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning.(Ceraunophobia, Keraunophobia)
Astrophobia- Fear of stars or celestial space.
Asymmetriphobia- Fear of asymmetrical things.
Ataxiophobia- Fear of ataxia. (muscular incoordination)
Ataxophobia- Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia- Fear of imperfection.
Atephobia- Fear of ruin or ruins.
Athazagoraphobia- Fear of being forgotton or ignored or forgetting.
Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions.
Atychiphobia- Fear of failure.
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.
Aurophobia- Fear of gold.
Auroraphobia- Fear of Northern lights.
Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor.
Automatonophobia- Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues - anything that falsly represents a sentient being.
Automysophobia- Fear of being dirty.
Autophobia- Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Aviophobia or Aviatophobia- Fear of flying.

Hobbes, the cleverest Englishman ever, said:

"My Mother gave birth to twins; myself and fear."