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What is it? Is it zebra?

0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0

Hint 1:

Zebras are black with white stripes.

John
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  • for the lazy: it's 112 characters (16 x 7) – Rob Audenaerde Mar 29 '16 at 12:11
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    I found this, but I can't connect the binary string to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZEBRA_%28computer%29 – Wayne_Yux Mar 29 '16 at 12:18
  • It can be also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(programming_language), but I haven't found a relation yet – Alessandro Mar 29 '16 at 12:33
  • It can't be a zebra. It must be a unicorn. – Raystafarian Mar 29 '16 at 13:28
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    Does it have a tail? – Khale_Kitha Mar 29 '16 at 13:58
  • That is not known, all I know is zebras have stripes – John Mar 29 '16 at 14:04
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    I disagree. Zebras are white with black stripes. – Ian MacDonald Mar 29 '16 at 14:39
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    @IanMacDonald I thought they were green with white and black stripes covering them all – Alessandro Mar 29 '16 at 14:40
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    @IanMacDonald off-topic, but a valid proposition. You are incorrect, embryological evidence shows that the animal's background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions: Prothero D.R, Schoch R. M (2003). Horns, Tusks, and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0801871351. – John Mar 29 '16 at 14:43
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    i have the suspicion that it might be some kind of barcode. that consists of black and white stripes, as zebras, and has a straightforward conversion to binary representation – elias Mar 29 '16 at 17:14
  • No, it's just a horse. There aren't any zebras around here. (for the uninitiated, old joke about panicking: hear hoofbeats and think zebra instead of horse) – Carl Witthoft Mar 29 '16 at 17:58

2 Answers2

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No, it's not a Zebra. It's a zebra shark.

I was pursuing the way of the barcode already, but thanks to @elias comment, it became crystal clear that the 1 and 0 were to be composed in a barcode.

First attempt:

I put together the 1 as black stripes and 0 as white stripes but it didn't work. http://www.onlinebarcodereader.com/ (and a bunch of other online barcode readers didn't read anything)

Second attempt:

barcode I tried viceversa and voilà. Reading it using http://www.onlinebarcodereader.com/ we get the word (not yet meaningful) Zebedee. Link to the fiddle used to prepare the barcode: https://jsfiddle.net/cfk43z5v/1/

Now, with the help of Google:

After digging into the Bible character Zebedee, a simple googling of "zebedee zebra" led me to the extraordinary zebra shark (bbc and national geographic) that had a virgin birth. Now, I can't believe I'm on a wrong way and that this is just a coincidence. I think that's a zebra shark!! Edit: as the OP pointed out below, the same google search leads to the zebra Zebedee. So I must say that it's also an actual zebra!!

Alessandro
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  • Well done! I left the very last googling part as a exercise to all, there are a lot of linked zebra articles (including a race-zebra with the same name) – John Mar 30 '16 at 07:49
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No, it is not a Zebra.

Decimal to Hexadecimal:
0010110111100010011101010011011110110111100101001101111011110110010100110111101001101111000101001110011100010100
becomes:

7fffffffffffffff (16 characters)

Hex-color codes are usually 6 characters (from 0 to F), but in some programming languages (like Android) it uses two additional Hex-characters for transparency, where FF is 100% visible.
So:

7fffff(ff) = Light-blue ffffff(ff) = White;

And I've never seen a light-blue & white Zebra.

Kevin Cruijssen
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    How did you convert that binary to that hex? Every tool I tried gave me something like 2DE27537B794DE00000000000000 – Alessandro Mar 29 '16 at 09:33
  • @AlessandroNiciforo Ah, you're completely right.. I just played with this binary converter. I think I miss-clicked by accident to be honest, since I thought I selected Binary to Hexadecimal.. Instead, I've used Decimal to Hexadecimal which gave me 7fffffffffffffff. – Kevin Cruijssen Mar 29 '16 at 09:39
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    Your calculator hit its limit, converting original number as binary to hex gives: 2de27537b794def6537a6f14e714, converting original number as decimal to hex gives: 44e0a4d72d6cccd9fa08e7e7fc97b152121f469d4174f567b377ad158fdcd96c063926337c2b281c54a3ac41674 – John Mar 29 '16 at 09:55
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    @JJChivers That's pretty bad.. (That's what I get for using some cheap-ass tool online instead of writing a converter myself.. :p) Ah well, I leave my answer instead of deleting it, since it was plausible.. and it might also give some hints to others regarding possible strategies. – Kevin Cruijssen Mar 29 '16 at 10:00