May 14 is the 135th day of the year, there are 231 days left

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Tis Prickle-Prickle, Discord 61, 3184 YOLD for the discordians amongst us

Today's number is 14

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14 is
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14 is the product of 2 primes, 7 and 2

Alrighty. If 14 = 7 x 2, then x/14 = x/(7x2). As we learned in last Monday's Open Thread, fractions of the form x/7 where x is a whole number not a multiple of 7 or 999,999 have an interesting property. For any even numerator x, x/14 will factor down to (x/2)/7, so even fractions of the form x/14 have the same interesting property. Interestingly enough, heh, for odd numerators, x/14 has a variant of that property.

Briefly, the fractional part of x/7 is the number sequence 142857 repeated endlessly in that order from a varying but determinable starting point within that series. Thus 1/7 = 0.142857142857..., 2/7 = 0.2857142857..., 3/7 = 0.42857142857..., etc. 2/14 = 1/7 = 0.142857, etc. When x/14 has an odd numerator, the 142857 repeat kicks in, but not necessarily in mid series as it does with x/7. Instead, 1/14, for example = 0.071428571... and 3/14 = 0.214285714..., 5/14 = 0.357142857... etc.

14 is the atomic number of silicon

There are 14 days in a fortnight. I suspect that there are also 14 nights in a fortnight.

Cambrian animals of the genus Hallucinogenia (wikiCommons picture) had 14 legs.

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Title 14 of the US Code is COAST GUARD

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14 BCE
was the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Lentulus.
Claudia Pulchra was born. She became the 3rd wife of Publius Quinctilius Varus. (Yep, that Varus again.)
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14 CE was the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Appuleius.
On August 19, Caesar Augustus died. He was succeeded by Tiberius on September 18. He was also declared to be a god, but I don't know the date. Being a god was easier then - just die with a lot of fans. Augustus' grandson, Postumus Agrippa, was slain by his own guards on August 20, but that isn't why he was named Posthumus. -

On this day in:

1607 -- Jamestown, Virginia was established
1787 -- A Constitutional Convention was convened to write a new US Constitution
1796 -- The first smallpox inoculation.
1800 -- The U.S. Government began the move from Philly to DC
1804 -- Lewis and Clark left Camp Dubois and headed up the MIssiippi
1878 -- The last US witchcraft trial started
1925 -- Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway was published
1948 -- Israel was declared an independent state
1955 -- The Warsaw Pact mutual defense treaty was signed
1961 -- The Freedom Riders bus was fire-bombed and the protesters were beaten by a mob.
1973 -- Skylab was launched

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Born this day in:

1574 -- Francesco Rasi, singer, songwriter, and theorbo player
1727 -- Thomas Gainsborough, painter
1868 -- Magnus Hirschfeld, physician, sexologist, and advocate for sexual minorities
1885 -- Otto Klemperer, composer and conductor
1897 -- Sidney Bechtet, sax and clarinet player, composer
1925 -- Patrice Munsel, coloratura soprano and actress
1925 -- Al Porcino, trumpet player
1928 -- Will J."Dub" Jones, singer
1936 -- Bobby Darin, singer, songwriter, and actor
1939 -- Troy Shondell, singer and songwriter
1943 -- Jack Bruce, singer, songwriter, and bass player
1943 -- Derek Leckenby, guitarist
1944 -- Gene Cornish, guitarist
1951 -- Jay Beckenstein, saxophonist
1952 -- David Byrne, Talking Head
1960 -- Alec Dankworth, bassist and composer
1979 -- Dan Auerbach, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

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Died this day in:

1847 -- Fanny Mendelssohn, pianist and composer
1912 -- August Strindberg, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist
1935 -- Magnus Hirschfeld, physician, sexologist, and advocate for sexual minorities
1936 -- Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, field marshal, commanded T E Lawrence
1943 -- Henri La Fontaine, pacifist, womens' rights activist
1959 -- Sidney Bechet, saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer
1976 -- Keith Relf, singer, songwriter, and harmonica player
1998 -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, journalist, environmentalist, women's rights and civil rights activist.
1998 -- Frank Sinatra, singer and actor
2005 -- Jimmy Martin, musician, singer
2006 -- Lew Anderson, clown and saxophonist
2015 -- B.B. King, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and legend

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:

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Sidney Bechtet

Patrice Munsel

Dub Jones

Bobby Darin

Jack Bruce

Keith Relf

Frank Sinatra

Jimmy Martin

B.B. King

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picture: hallucinogenia

It's an open thread, so do your thing