For mathematical reasons which I explain below, I have looked up
the expression “The writing on the wall” in the Wikipedia. It
is, of course, illustrated there by Rembrandt‘s ‘Belshazzar’s
Feast‘, and, which nowadays sounds very topical, by a stanza
from Jonathan Swift‘s “The Run Upon The Bankers”: A baited
banker thus desponds, From his own hand foresees his fall, They
have his soul, who have his bonds; ‘Tis like the writing on the
wall. The full text can be found at http://www.online-
literature.com/swift/3501/ ; it is accompanied by a footnote
from Dublin Edition of 1734: This poem was printed some years
ago, and it should seem, by the late failure of two bankers, to
be somewhat prophetic. It was therefore thought fit to be
reprinted. And now back to mathematics: I have looked up Mene,
Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin because I need an English word which
characterises a collection of objects (think about a warehouse)
in which objects of every kind are counted and their number is
known and recorded. Inventoried? I need