Great post Freak Man. It sounds like paying attention to lots of small details has returned big audio dividends for you.

IMO, this is what the hi fi bug is all about. Very cool.

http://www.audiotweaks.com/collection_ascend.htm

Have you read Jonathan Scull's series, "Fine Tunes?"
http://www.stereophile.com/finetunes/

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Thanks for the positive replies, lots of exciting reading material there!

Keep up the good work, even the things like freezing that most might be too embassassed to try much less report...

Lots of overlap!

I'd be curious to see if you notice a difference between the foam pads under your speakers vs. Blu Tack.

If you were so inclined, you could also consider a second marble slab, making a sandwich with a compressible 'middle' to make a sort of constrained layer damper.

As for freezing, I bet you could just leave the heat off for a few days while you're on a winter trip and treat the whole system!

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Lots of overlap!

I'd be curious to see if you notice a difference between the foam pads under your speakers vs. Blu Tack.

If you were so inclined, you could also consider a second marble slab, making a sandwich with a compressible 'middle' to make a sort of constrained layer damper.

As for freezing, I bet you could just leave the heat off for a few days while you're on a winter trip and treat the whole system!

I have thought of trying Bitumen plates (a rubber/lead mix for damping resonances in cars) under the speakers, and why not give BluTack a try as well? If and when I do, I will most certainly report the results here. I also am a strong believer in sandwich constructions, and maybe I'll give that a try as well. The cable freezing had to be tried while I did cable testing, and I don't give a rat's a** what people may think of me regarding that. The idea of freezing the whole system doesn't really appeal to me, but thanks for the "idea"

A word of caution, you can try lots of different tweaks, including freezing cables, but never, ever try the photos in the freezer tweak if you're concerned with people's reactions the slightest little bit.

Hey Geoff, pick up (rent, whatever) the film 'Intacto', for a different (but the same) take on that.

The reason power cords work is very simple.

In a standard linear power supply, there will be times (120x per second, to be precise and for about 50% of the time) when the AC voltage passing through is being modulated/altered by the transformer..and the amplifier is attempting to pull energy from the capacitor bank, the fuse system is attempting to have transients of modulated current/voltage pulled through it, the AC power switch, the wiring for all of that and the AC receptacle..and the rectifier circuitry.

So, when this is happening, the amplifier's output transistor 'power rails' (which are modulated by the output transistors) are directly connected to the whole mentioned pathway, even the AC power receptacle on the wall.

Electrically speaking, that entire pathway and everything up to and including your AC power panel for the house..electrically speaking..all that may as well be actually INSIDE the amplifier for 'electrically speaking', in effect, they.... ACTUALLY ARE. So it's like some sort of long, unwanted and improperly laid out and improperly built 'speaker cable'..for this long line of components..actually will have modulated current and voltage passed through it. It will be modulated by the drain or valve called the 'output transistors'.

The greatest effect it will have is on the modulation of micro detail and micro transients. Due to the way we hear and the ear works...this will create what humans will perceive as a fairly notable colouration, one that is stronger to the ear/brain combination than most who don't consider this, would think.

It is, of course, more capable of being noted in the sonic presentation in the specific audio equipment that is well built, and built to the kind of audiophile standards of design and execution where all the I's are dotted and the t's are crossed, meaning the designer knew and knows this and took care to optimize all aspects of possible power supply modulation in the given item.

In a solid state amplifier, think of the output transistors as the fulcrum/'valve control', and the speakers as the one end of the see-saw..and everything, 'power rail wise', on the back of the transistor..as the other end of the see-saw.

thus, as the mass of the speakers is being modulated (up and down on it's end of the see-saw) by this gate/fulcrum called the 'output transistors'..the mass (the speakers) and how it can be moved about on/by the other end (the amplifier power supply and associated connectivity to the AC power), well it should be plain(easy) to understand that the one end of the see-saw being a 'control'(power supply end) on the fine motion of the other end of the see-saw (speaker end) will make itself known in the movements of that speaker end.

Just another way of looking at it, and hope that helps a bit with the visualizations of how this whole thing works.

To further clarify, think of the fulcrum on this see-saw modulating the movement of the speakers on the one end and each time it uses energy to move the speakers on one end, it pulls that energy from the other end of the see-saw.

The energy storage end of the see-saw is constantly being refilled, but during the moment of being refilled, it is directly connected to the entire AC wall circuit and thus due to the wall circuit being modulated by the complex AC transient drain of the speaker end..and thus it's complex AC electrical parameters (which are highly dependent on it's physical design) become part of the output of the system.

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Lol, Geoff... There ARE actually limits to what I'd publish, even though I don't care what people think about me

I tried the photos in the freezer tweak some time ago and have demo'd it at the show in Vegas. It is one of the most amazing tweaks both in terms of what it does for the sound as well as being one of the more, uh, outrageous tweaks. Scandalous!

I don't mind publishing results of the photos in the freezer tweak too much myself as I'm already in hot water. What are they going to do to me?

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Lol, Geoff... There ARE actually limits to what I'd publish, even though I don't care what people think about me

I tried the photos in the freezer tweak some time ago and have demo'd it at the show in Vegas. It is one of the most amazing tweaks both in terms of what it does for the sound as well as being one of the more, uh, outrageous tweaks. Scandalous!

I don't mind publishing results of the photos in the freezer tweak too much myself as I'm already in hot water. What are they going to do to me?

A one-way ticket to the psychic ward?

Uh, oh, I forgot about that one.

Mr. DaDa, id love to see/hear more about the photos in the freezer tweak. my curiosity is definitely aroused.

IIRC, two or three years ago, Jeff Wong (in New York) put some pics of Buddha and his buddy (in Las Vegas) in his freezer.

Perhaps they can give us an update?

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Today I went and bought two little woollen carpets that I hung on the doors just adjacent to my speakers.

This will help, but you may want to buy a couple of real acoustic panels as these will work much better.

GIK is now in Europe. It's 242 panel is inexpensive and effective. I hope shipping is not expensive for you.

GIK Europe

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Mr. DaDa, id love to see/hear more about the photos in the freezer tweak. my curiosity is definitely aroused.

Photos in the Freezer Tweak Instructions

1. Obtain two photos of yourself, separated chronologically. For example, one photo can be recent and the other photo taken 5 years ago. Another example is one photo from two years ago and the other from when you were a youngster. Photos can be black and white or color.

2. Obtain two clear sandwich size ziplock bags.

3. Place each photo in a separate ziplock bag.

4. Using any red pen, write the following 3 messages on both sides of both ziplock bags:

a. Your name, First initial + Last name > O.K. (writen as you would sign a check, not printed); if I were to write it, it would look like this:

G. Kait > O.K.

b. 'x26'x don't forget the little ' in front of the x's

c. 'x = PRESENT TIME (note lower case 'x and upper case PRESENT TIME)

5. Do not place photos in freezer yet. First listen to one or two favorite tracks to get a good idea of what they sound like on your system at that particular time.

6. Place the two photos in bags in the freezer. You do not have to wait until they freeze to listen again.

7. Listen to the same tracks again. If you have any trouble hearing the effect on the sound with the photos in the freezer or if you want to check and make sure you're not hearing things, remove the photos from the freezer and listen to the tracks again. The sound will revert back to "normal" when the photos are not in the freezer.

Cheers,
Geoff Kait, Machina Dynamica

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Lol, Geoff... There ARE actually limits to what I'd publish, even though I don't care what people think about me

I tried the photos in the freezer tweak some time ago and have demo'd it at the show in Vegas. It is one of the most amazing tweaks both in terms of what it does for the sound as well as being one of the more, uh, outrageous tweaks. Scandalous!

I don't mind publishing results of the photos in the freezer tweak too much myself as I'm already in hot water. What are they going to do to me?

A one-way ticket to the psychic ward?

Uh, oh, I forgot about that one.

Look what they did to Wilhelm Reich. The problem with Reich was that he was not crazy, he was exactly right or close enough to right that the black ops people (who had just got their ball rolling at that time) wanted him either dead, gone, declared crazy, discredited, and all his historical points altered, and as much as possible of his findings and works gathered together and burned/destroyed. They did everything in their power to completely erase his presence and to discredit anything that came after.

Reich was playing with the 'carrier waves' in a resonance state in the same way that the HAARP works, and the same waves that Kosyrev found.

So they did all of that - to him.

It was US Major General Stubblebine who said (I paraphrase),'The average man has no idea of the incredible and immense level of power available to, and actually within him".

This same man said that chemtrails are 100% real, and that 9/11 WAS indeed a complete lie.

Look at the man's CV:He is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stubblebine

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Lol, Geoff... There ARE actually limits to what I'd publish, even though I don't care what people think about me

I tried the photos in the freezer tweak some time ago and have demo'd it at the show in Vegas. It is one of the most amazing tweaks both in terms of what it does for the sound as well as being one of the more, uh, outrageous tweaks. Scandalous!

I don't mind publishing results of the photos in the freezer tweak too much myself as I'm already in hot water. What are they going to do to me?

A one-way ticket to the psychic ward?

Uh, oh, I forgot about that one.

Look what they did to Wilhelm Reich. The problem with Reich was that he was not crazy, he was exactly right or close enough to right that the black ops people (who had just got their ball rolling at that time) wanted him either dead, gone, declared crazy, discredited, and all his historical points altered, and as much as possible of his findings and works gathered together and burned/destroyed. They did everything in their power to completely erase his presence and to discredit anything that came after.

Reich was playing with the 'carrier waves' in a resonance state in the same way that the HAARP works, and the same waves that Kosyrev found.

So they did all of that - to him.

It was US Major General Stubblebine who said (I paraphrase),'The average man has no idea of the incredible and immense level of power available to, and actually within him".

This same man said that chemtrails are 100% real, and that 9/11 WAS indeed a complete lie.

Look at the man's CV:He is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stubblebine

That's weird, I worked for BDM and Space Applications Corporation at the same time he did.

Uh, oh.....

Hey, wasn't he the guy in Men Who Stare at Goats was always trying to walk through walls?

As one might expect, the 'Men who stare at goats' is a bit of purposely created disinfo that is supposed to sneak into the general public mental space and establish itself, over time, as some sort of factual thing. In the same way, people (the general public) will take, over time, the 'titanic' film as some sort of version of 'history'.

In the same way the circus midget, James Randi, with the credentials of a spoilt turd (scientifically or professionally speaking), was brought in to discredit Hal Puthoff, a man who did and is still doing Remote viewing and psychic research for the US military. Hal has done, now, nearly 40 years of research on this subject for the military, which is about 39+ years too long for it to be a 'validity test-check' on the psychic issue.

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As one might expect, the 'Men who stare at goats' is a bit of purposely created disinfo that is supposed to sneak into the general public mental space and establish itself, over time, as some sort of factual thing. In the same way, people (the general public) will take, over time, the 'titanic' film as some sort of version of 'history'.

Hmmmm...possibly so.

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Mr. DaDa, id love to see/hear more about the photos in the freezer tweak. my curiosity is definitely aroused.

Photos in the Freezer Tweak Instructions

1. Obtain two photos of yourself, separated chronologically. For example, one photo can be recent and the other photo taken 5 years ago. Another example is one photo from two years ago and the other from when you were a youngster. Photos can be black and white or color.

2. Obtain two clear sandwich size ziplock bags.

3. Place each photo in a separate ziplock bag.

4. Using any red pen, write the following 3 messages on both sides of both ziplock bags:

a. Your name, First initial + Last name > O.K. (writen as you would sign a check, not printed); if I were to write it, it would look like this:

G. Kait > O.K.

b. 'x26'x don't forget the little ' in front of the x's

c. 'x = PRESENT TIME (note lower case 'x and upper case PRESENT TIME)

5. Do not place photos in freezer yet. First listen to one or two favorite tracks to get a good idea of what they sound like on your system at that particular time.

6. Place the two photos in bags in the freezer. You do not have to wait until they freeze to listen again.

7. Listen to the same tracks again. If you have any trouble hearing the effect on the sound with the photos in the freezer or if you want to check and make sure you're not hearing things, remove the photos from the freezer and listen to the tracks again. The sound will revert back to "normal" when the photos are not in the freezer.

Cheers,
Geoff Kait, Machina Dynamica

that is interesting and very, very strange.

what is the purpose of the x26x and x=present time??

how does this work? i mean, what mechanism does it act on?

not being snide, genuinely curious.

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Today I went and bought two little woollen carpets that I hung on the doors just adjacent to my speakers.

This will help, but you may want to buy a couple of real acoustic panels as these will work much better.

GIK is now in Europe. It's 242 panel is inexpensive and effective. I hope shipping is not expensive for you.

GIK Europe

Bookmarked! Thanks

Freako(weird calling you that, id love to have your "real" name sometime.. i think the whole "handle" thing is a bit silly*(i am guilty too, i just dont know how to delete this accuont and sign up with my real one)

be sure , before you order anything... shoot Glenn Kuras an email with photos of your room, dimensions, etc. he is VERY helpful and nice. He consulted me on my recording studio and home. great guy. so yeah, take some pics and shoot them to him..with a detailed script describing the problems you are having..

glenn.k@gikacoustics.com

tell him Teddy sent you.

-teddy

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Mr. DaDa, id love to see/hear more about the photos in the freezer tweak. my curiosity is definitely aroused.

Photos in the Freezer Tweak Instructions

1. Obtain two photos of yourself, separated chronologically. For example, one photo can be recent and the other photo taken 5 years ago. Another example is one photo from two years ago and the other from when you were a youngster. Photos can be black and white or color.

2. Obtain two clear sandwich size ziplock bags.

3. Place each photo in a separate ziplock bag.

4. Using any red pen, write the following 3 messages on both sides of both ziplock bags:

a. Your name, First initial + Last name > O.K. (writen as you would sign a check, not printed); if I were to write it, it would look like this:

G. Kait > O.K.

b. 'x26'x don't forget the little ' in front of the x's

c. 'x = PRESENT TIME (note lower case 'x and upper case PRESENT TIME)

5. Do not place photos in freezer yet. First listen to one or two favorite tracks to get a good idea of what they sound like on your system at that particular time.

6. Place the two photos in bags in the freezer. You do not have to wait until they freeze to listen again.

7. Listen to the same tracks again. If you have any trouble hearing the effect on the sound with the photos in the freezer or if you want to check and make sure you're not hearing things, remove the photos from the freezer and listen to the tracks again. The sound will revert back to "normal" when the photos are not in the freezer.

Cheers,
Geoff Kait, Machina Dynamica

that is interesting and very, very strange.

what is the purpose of the x26x and x=present time??

how does this work? i mean, what mechanism does it act on?

not being snide, genuinely curious.

I take you at your word, sir. You have never been snide or snippy in the past that I can recall.

The photos in the freezer tweak demonstrates the power of the written word, the power of photographs, the mysterious nature of things we take for granted like the freezer, as well as the power of the mind, esp. the subconscious mind, how it interacts with its surroundings - not only via the usual senses of sight, hearing, touch, etc. - but via what we should probably call extra sensory perception. Or mind matter interaction.

The photos in the freezer tweak also shows that our senses of hearing and vision are subject to the whims of things that are in No Way related to the audio system. That is the big surprise. He-llooooo!

What's a person to do if the photos in the freezer tweak goes farther than upgrading speakers or amps?

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My real name is Keld Herbst. Don't you find that a bit weirder than Freako?

Well . . . maybe just as weird.

Teddy is correct (as usual), Glenn is great. GIK readily responds to emails also.

Even just a couple of panels will make a wonderful improvement.

Lots of picturesque 'diffusors' you got there!

Depending on which hat you wear on a given day, you could be altering the sound of your room!

Cheers!

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[

What's a person to do if the photos in the freezer tweak goes farther than upgrading speakers or amps?

yeah, thanks...but what is the purpose of the values "present time" and "x26"?

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Thx Elk - I have checked the prices at GIK Europe. They are INSANE!!! I think I can live with my room for a while

well, maybe so...but room treatment(traditional room treatment) is one of those things that I consider necessary to maximize the potential of one's listening room.

you can build them yourself too..plenty of "recipes" online.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5930

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=956c57065cb2edbb271e03d80af4ddf5

what I would do , if I were you, is to just stack mineral/rockwool floor to ceiling in that corner, or to get some Owens-Corning 703 and stack it.

Freako:

Hi. Welcome to our humble little village. Here, you will find a vast diversity of opinions. But regardless of the fact that we don't always agree on this or that, we all respect each other, and we all get along with each other. (Except for certain sons of bitches that I won't mention by name, but THEY know who they are....). Listen, I totally understand the concern you may have of not publishing certain tweaks here. I personally think that people who stick photos in their freezer are freaks of nature, and probably born with a mental birth defect. (cough KAITT cough). You were really starting to get me worried when you talked about putting cables in your freezer, man. You were >this< close to getting a very serious "what's wrong with you??" from me. But it's a good thing you didn't hear any difference after you did that. If you had admitted to hearing differences, I would have no choice but to question your mental status, and put up a new Stereophile poll calling for a vote on your sanity, and having you forcibly ejected if the consensus was "insane tweako freako".

Even if I were crazy enough to do this, and I couldn't possibly imagine the circumstances that would allow it, I would never admit to anyone publically, that I have experimented with sticking photos in my freezer. That's just beyond the pale. I don't even want to think of what that would do to my standing in the community. I don't mind saying though, that I have cheerfully adhered specific photos to my hard disk and CD burner, to improve my computer sound.

This of course is nothing unusual, so it's a perfectly legitimate tweak. Most audiophiles adhere photos of themselves, their loved ones or small furry animals to their hifi equipment, because they know it will improve their sound. I don't normally care for tweaks because that tends to be the domain of the obsessive compulsives and the hopelessly addicted. I mean if it ain't broke, why fix it, right? But I do practice this one religiously, because it is based on sound scientific principles and common sense, that I can at least recognize as being credible. Which is something about how the soul inside the photograph gets sucked up by the soul-receptors that are automatically incorporated into your loudspeaker, amp or other audio component, at the factory. We pay for this technology with every component we purchase, so we might as well use it, right?

Anyway, knowing that this is a widely practiced audio tweak among us audio afficianados, I feel perfectly safe in both employing this idea, and talking about it. I don't mind making fun of people who engage in "weird tweaks". I can do that, because I know I'm safe and untouchable, practicing only "normal" tweaks. ie. speaker positioning, room treatment, or scotchtaping photos on the back of my loudspeaker terminals. Here at the Stereophile (tm) forums, we always and exclusively practice safe tweaking.

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Look what they did to Wilhelm Reich. The problem with Reich was that he was not crazy, he was exactly right or close enough to right that the black ops people (who had just got their ball rolling at that time) wanted him either dead, gone, declared crazy, discredited, and all his historical points altered, and as much as possible of his findings and works gathered together and burned/destroyed. They did everything in their power to completely erase his presence and to discredit anything that came after.

Reich was playing with the 'carrier waves' in a resonance state in the same way that the HAARP works, and the same waves that Kosyrev found.

So they did all of that - to him.

This is one of those rare moments when I'm not trying to speed my mouse wheel to try to get past another one of your conspiracy rants. Instead, I'm the guy waving people back and shouting "Hey, step aside folks. The man needs room to rant!". By that, I mean I totally believe your rant about Wilhelm Reich. Of couse, your typical cement-headed skeptic (tm) on the net will try to use Reich as an example of someone who was proven to be a wingnut, in order to assasinate the credibility of someone else. As if there wasn't even any controversy about whether Wilhelm Reich was a mastermind or a crackpot. The ignorance of pathological skeptics on the audio forums who mention Reich is revealed in their use of him as a weapon against a so-called "believer". Because from all I've seen, they don't even know that the facts support the entire idea of a government conspiracy against Reich. I don't know the whole story, and you're teaching me part of it. But I know enough to know that his research papers were systematically destroyed by the feds on totally bogus charges, and he was thrown in prison, where he died there. While his Orgon Institute (and others that carry his work) still stand today, who knows how more advanced our knowledge of science would be, had he been allowed to continue his "heretical" work. I can't help but think one cure for cancer may have died with him.

BTW, something about all this tells me you've already seen "Collapse"....

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yeah, thanks...but what is the purpose of the values "present time" and "x26"?

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Didn't anyone ever tell you that when you explain the trick it's no fun anymore?

By the way, you're not stalking me by any chance, are you?

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Thx Elk - I have checked the prices at GIK Europe. They are INSANE!!!

Sorry to hear this.

In the US they are one of the most reasonably priced available. I hoped this would also be true for you.

ncdrawl is correct; the room is your most influential component.

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yeah, thanks...but what is the purpose of the values "present time" and "x26"?

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Didn't anyone ever tell you that when you explain the trick it's no fun anymore?

I can live with this.

So what's the answer?

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Republican or democrat?

Republicrat. I prefer to hedge my bets, so I always vote for BOTH parties. That way, I never lose, because I know one of them is going to win.

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I don't mind saying though, that I have cheerfully adhered specific photos to my hard disk and CD burner, to improve my computer sound.

I am sure it works, lol

Well yeah, of course it works. I wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

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yeah, thanks...but what is the purpose of the values "present time" and "x26"?

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Didn't anyone ever tell you that when you explain the trick it's no fun anymore?

I can live with this.

So what's the answer?

Let's take a look at the number 26. Why is the number 26 used in the expression 'x26'x' and not 3, 8, 11, 25 or some other number. Or the symbol for infinity or an imaginary number? The number 26 is not even a prime number, a square of a number (although it's close), a cube of a number (although it's close) or a Fibonacci number.

"Take to heart the most satisfying explanation." - old audiophile expression

[edit] In mathematics

* Pierre de Fermat proved that 26 is the only single number between a square (25 = 52) and a cube (27 = 33).[citation needed]

* A rhombicuboctahedron has twenty-six sides.

* When a 3x3x3 cube is made of twenty-seven unit cubes, twenty-six of them are visible parts of the exterior layer of cubes.
[edit]

* In base ten, 26 is the smallest number that is not a palindrome to have a square(26^2=676) which is a palindrome.

* Twenty-six is the number of known five-digit prime quadruplets, the first of which is {13001, 13003, 13007, 13009}[1].

[edit] In science

* The atomic number of iron

* The number of spacetime dimensions in bosonic string theory.

[edit] Astronomy

* Messier object M26, a magnitude 9.5 open cluster in the constellation Scutum

* The New General Catalogue object NGC 26, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus

[edit] In religion

* 26 is the gematric number of the true name of god

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Let's take a look at the number 26.

You could have saved time and just linked to the Wikipedia entry.

Do you have a real answer?

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Let's take a look at the number 26.

You could have saved time and just linked to the Wikipedia entry.

Do you have a real answer?

Why are naysayers often so snippy and demanding. Tis a puzzlement....

I already pointed out explaining a trick spoils the fun. You wouldn't want me to spoil your fun, would you?

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I already pointed out explaining a trick spoils the fun. You wouldn't want me to spoil your fun, would you?

As already answered, yes.

Time to put up.

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I already pointed out explaining a trick spoils the fun. You wouldn't want me to spoil your fun, would you?

As already answered, yes.

Time to put up.

Once again I cave under pressure...

The Reveal

But why 26?

And what happens if I write > really good, instead of the bland > O.K.?