Go to Google (or any other search engine) and enter "There are x", where x is any arbitrary or weird number. It helps if you pick your number such that you wouldn't expect there were precisely x of anything. You will then be taken on a weird ride through life, the universe and everything, and discover coincidences that are simply mind-boggling. 'Weirnums' is just short-hand for 'weird numbers', obviously.

For example, what are there exactly 409 of in the world? It's impossible to guess, and that's the point. Go on, try.

As it happens, there are 409 bridges connecting the 118 islands of Venice, and 409 households in Lockwood, Missouri. Why should the number of households in Lockwood equal the number of bridges in Venice? Who knows? Perhaps we should consult a numerologist to find out!

How about 227? Go on, try and guess.

Turns out there are precisely 227 "rules for the male monastics in the Theravadin tradition", and also "227 kinds of Tibetan drugs collected in Zang Yao Biao Zhun (Standard for Tibet Drugs)". Who knew?

I find the numbers themselves weird and fascinating (in an utter-and-complete-trivia sort of way) and also the coincidences. Part of the fun is finding truly weird matching pairs - the weirder the better.

What about 331?

Well, there are exactly 331 baronies in Ireland, and 331 ports and wharves for ships (over 10,00 tons) in the Heilongjiang province. Why should this be? What strange underlying fabric of the universe are we unearthing here?

You can combine this game wth Googlewhacking. What number x can you type into Google, using the phrase "There are x", and only get a single hit? What is the lowest such number? Or the highest? The answers are yet to be discovered.

A few more to get you started.

Try 3209. Surely there can't be exactly 3,209 of anything? But yes... there are 3209 active funeral directors and embalmers in the State of Tennessee, and 3,209 car parking spaces at Vodafone's offices in Newbury.

Try 5016. What can there be exactly 5106 of in the world? Google tells us there are 5,016 active licensed physical therapists in the Colorado, and 5016 households in Grass Valley, California.

What about 10,783? I loved this one... there are or were "10,783 officially accepted objections to the proposed incinerator in Newhaven", 10,783 people living in Snyder, Texas, and 10,783 applications available for download from the 'download.lv' website.

653. There are 653 'firearm dealers and pawnbrokers' in North Dakota, 653 rooms in the  InterContinental Hotel Seoul, in Korea, and 653 freemason's lodges in Ontario.

You can also dress these weirnums up in quiz form. For example, four out of these five statements are true: There are 575

* billionaires in the world
* Indian territories in Brazil
* species of conifers
* references in the Bible to singing and songs
* plants slaughtering swine according to the US Dept of Agriculture

Click here for the answer.

Have fun with Google Weirnums. You can copy and forward this page to anyone you want, and you are encouraged to do so, but you must preserve the attribution to www.ianrowland.com or to "http://www.ianrowland.com/TheVault/GoogleWeirnums.html".