34 (thirty four)

34 (thirty-four) is the natural number following 33 and preceding 35.

34 is the ninth distinct semiprime and has four divisors including unity and itself.

34 is the ninth Fibonacci number and a companion Pell number. Since it is an odd-indexed Fibonacci number, 34 is a Markov number, appearing in solutions with other Fibonacci numbers, such as (1, 13, 34), (1, 34, 89), etc.

34 is the magic constant of a 4 by 4 normal magic square.

34 is a heptagonal number. It has the aliquot sum, 20, in the following descending sequence 34,20,22,14,10,8,7,1. and it is the 6th composite member of the 7-aliquot tree. There is no solution to the equation φ(x) = 34, making 34 a nontotient. Nor is there a solution to the equation x - φ(x) = 34, making 34 a noncototient.

34 is the atomic number of selenium.

Messier object M34 is a magnitude 6.0 open cluster in the constellation Perseus.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 34 is a peculiar galaxy in the constellation Cetus.

34 is the Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on 1917 BC August and ended on 384 BC February. The duration of Saros series 34 was 1532.5 years, and it contained 86 solar eclipses.

34 is the Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on 1633 BC May and ended on 335 BC June. The duration of Saros series 34 was 1298.1 years, and it contained 73 lunar eclipses.

The jersey number 34 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats or other key figures:
Nolan Ryan of the The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers
Kirby Puckett of the The Minnesota Twins
Rollie Fingers of the Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers.
Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets
Walter Payton of the The Chicago Bears
Earl Campbell of the The Houston Oilers

34 is also:
The traffic code of Istanbul, Turkey
A song by the Dave Matthews Band
In the title of the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street, remade in 1994
The number of the French department Hérault
The code for international direct-dial phone calls to Spain

i was in sydney for 21 hours

I caught up with 2 lovely ladies I met in Berlin.
I hunted for a horse statue in the Botanical Gardens my Dad told me he slept under one night in his wayward youth. I found one but don't know if it was THE one.
I looked at the sparkling water and skinny terrace houses and giant motorboats of Sydney and as usual thought 'I should visit properly sometime soon.'
I went to the beautiful wedding of two beautiful people and ate and drank and danced and was moved by the ceremony and the speeches and all the joy and love.
An eight year old kid ruled the dance floor all night, not in a cute kiddy way but in a kind of supernaturally possessed by the groove way that had people staring and commenting and congratulating him as the night drew to a close. I wonder if he will keep it up or will get awkward and shy about it as he grows up.

My new special power

Last week, buses and trams consistently failed to see me. Slamming their doors and pulling away just as I was about to step inside, or simply sailing past me as I waited at the stop. Repeatedly.

I can't help wondering if this is a natural progression, a symptom of how things are going, in general, between me and the cosmos. I have been a magnet for catastrophe and failure of late: I imagine them creating a kind of signal-scrambling haze around me, the more they accumulate. Possibly I am actually becoming invisible.

If you happen to spot me on the street, please let me know.

and then my heart EXPLODED

mysterioso

"Future analysis with new technology may shed more light on the mystery of the moving rocks at the Racetrack Playa of Death Valley; however no matter how much is determined about the moving rocks, their beauty and magic will always be impressive and mysterious to those who travel the treacherous gravel roads to visit the incredible dried lake bed."

experimenta

Utopia Now looks like fun... I must go back and see it without champagne goggles on and so many hobnobbing people in front of the art. That was nice in its own way, of course, and there were showbags with little jars of chutney in them! and a view of a very full river after the big storm.

I met the maker of a work called International Dance Party I had already enjoyed at the kunstlerhaus bethanien in Berlin and I was bummed that I wasn't there earlier to see him and a French artist secretly swap name-tags to get interviewed by the ABC about their works. But I did catch them afterwards discussing in admiring terms the interviews they had given as each other (complete with an explanation for the journalist as to why a German artist had a French accent).

I didn't get to check out the exhibition version of You Were In My Dream by clever Van Sowerwine and Isobel Knowles but will be sure to when I go back.

Also wondering whether to try to catch Momoyo Torimitsu's robot businessman crawling along Collins Street this evening.

rain rain

Stacks of rain made the ceiling leak, even though there is another apartment above ours. Right above the bed, the dripping soaked through the mattress before I came in and found it.

Broken roof, to add to the list of broken things.