Ready for Prime Time: According to sciencenews.org, the largest known prime number, having nearly 13 million digits, was recently discovered by a team of UCLA mathematicians, using a network of 75 computers. This was not just some theoretical exercise, since that discovery won the team a $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. $150,000 awaits the discoverer of the first 100 million-digit prime.
25 Years Ago in TV Guide: The "TV Q&A" page of the Nov. 5, 1983, issue answered reader questions about the cable system with the largest number of channels (Dallas' QUBE system, with 76), how many times videotape could be reused (100 or so), and why the year of release of films is usually shown in Roman numerals ("the industry doesn't want us yokels to know how stale the movies are").
The first major world city to greet the New Year every January 1st is located in:
A) Russia
B) Japan
C) New Zealand
D) Indonesia
Previous answer: Receiving 921 votes in the 1996 New Hampshire Democratic primary, comedian Pat Paulsen finished in second place to President Bill Clinton's 76,754 votes.
TRIVIA FANS: Send the trivia questions you've always wanted answered, or original TriviaBits ideas of your own, with your full name and hometown, to Stan Newman at StanTrivia@aol.com or on a postcard to P.O.
Box 69, Massapequa Park, NY 11762.