The Binary Code In Canada's Gov-Gen Coat of Arms

Lev13than writes "Dr. David Johnston, formerly the president of the University of Waterloo, was installed as Canada's new Governor-General on Friday. As de facto head of state and the Queen's representative in Canada he is required to design a personal coat of arms. One modern detail has attracted particular attention - a 33-digit palindromic binary stream at the base. Efforts to decode the meaning of the number using ASCII, Morse, grouping by 3/11 and other theories has so far come up empty (right now it's a toss up between random, the phone number 683-077-0643 and Morse code for 'send help - trapped in a coat of arms factory.') Is 110010111001001010100100111010011 the combination to his luggage, or just a random stream of digits?"

Comments

Random?

[Sockatume]

I think it's safe to assume that it's an aesthetically pleasing bit of random binary to symbolically carry the message that he's in with technology, in much the same way one might tattoo some bitching runes onto one's arm to convey how one is incredibly down with the druids.

Re:Random?

[symbolset]

I put the answer already in the first sumbission. I don't know why the second sumbmission was picked.

It's a black and white binary image, three rasters of 11 pixels. Combined it makes a scrollwork that can tile horizontally. It's ornamental. It's an italic mirrored N and a /.

Can't we just ask?

[kikito]

I mean, the guy that designed this is still alive, isn't he?

Re:Can't we just ask?

[mayberry42]

yeah, but where's the fun in that? :)

Re:Can't we just ask?

[Anonymous Coward]

He already told us the answer:

The wavy band inscribed with zeros and ones represents a flow of information, digital communication and modern media.

Re:Can't we just ask?

[The_mad_linguist]

Yes, but it's traditional to offer him a barometer.

Not necessarily binary

[AliasMarlowe]

110010111001001010100100111010011 is 33 successive digits of pi (in decimal/binary/ternary/etc.). Cunningly, he did not choose the first 33 digits, of course.

Re:Not necessarily binary

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither the 33 last. I can tell because I just checked it.

Posted as AC for obvious reasons.

Tough one

[nfk]

If he were from New Zealand I would say it's a binary solo, but being from Canada I'm not sure.

The number is a Palindromic Prime in base 2.

[Anonymous Coward]

This number is a prime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindromic_prime in base 2.
In decimal it is: 6830770643

Re:The number is a Palindromic Prime in base 2.

[maxwell demon]

Well, 33 itself is also a binary-palindromic number (although not prime): 100001
And of course, 33 is a palindrome in base 10, too.

Moreover note that the sum of the binary digits (which equals the number of ones) is 17, which is also prime, and in binary is written 10001, so this is again a binary-palindromic prime, and the binary digit-sum here is 2, which again is a prime (although not binary-palindromic).

This sounds like a job for...

[bhunachchicken]

... Robert Langdon!!! I'm sure that buried somewhere in that seemingly random sequence of 1s and 0s is a code that will shake the very foundations of the human race and expose a truth that has long been hidden!

I can already hear Dan Brown feverishly scratching away at his notepad, as he begins researching and stringing together a load geographically accurate, but ultimately randomly contrived pile of nonsense for his next magnum opus, "The Canada Complex"

Re:The numbers are wrong (wild guess)

[Anonymous Coward]

That OTAN is NATO backwards is incidental, mirroring is not the reason for it. The reason is that France succeeded in demanding French as an official Nato language. OTAN = Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord.

There is no use for mirrored writing on airplanes, they fly too fast for your cars rear-view mirror, and planes that do have rear view mirror wouldn't wait 'till the bogey is a couple of yards behind them to find out who he is.

Re:The numbers are wrong (wild guess)

[Gobelet]

NATO aircrafts have OTAN printed on it because the two official languages used in NATO are English and French. OTAN means Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord.

Re:Can get even worse

[Moraelin]

CRYMPH is Welsh, surely?

It has a vowel too many to be Welsh ;)

Re:The numbers are wrong (wild guess)

[ThePromenader]

Canadian planes should have 'NATOTAN' written on them to please the speakers of both languages ('NATO' 'stylishly' mirrored around the 'O'). Of course, for the Japanese, that acronym would read 'achieving a darker skin tone by slathering yourself in fermented beans'.

Re:Can get even worse

[Phydaux]

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/
A blog that collects and translates (if possible) the tattoos of mostly Chinese/Japanese/Gibberish characters on people who aren't sure what they really mean.

Some of them aren't that bad, but others make you want to cringe.

Re:Possibly you're right

[vslashg]

I've actually seen phtotos of a guy who thought he had some bitching Viking runes tatooed, and they were horribly mispelled (I will not divulge the nature of the error...

That's okay, the mere fact that you have an interesting anecdote adds volumes to this conversation. No need to share it, that would just be overkill.

Re:Possibly you're right

[rjstanford]

Then you get the generation gap. I remember walking through Dresden a few years ago when I saw a young girl (14 or so) wearing a cute shirt, also with a rabbit on it, with "Squirmy Fuck Bunny" in poofy letters. I'm pretty sure that she knew what it meant but that her older, conservative looking mom had no idea.