but would it contain itself ?

Obviously. It'd be one of the tables known to Harvard. Just leave enough room for the ones to be discovered.

This'd make a nice lyric. If only "Harvard" rhymed with "discovered".

With the right accent, they rhyme.

Every discovered table would contain items known to the state of California to be oncogenic.

> one of the tables known to Harvard

This has the cadence of a reference, but Google didn't help me. Am I missing something?

It's from The Elements, by Tom Lehrer (the final lyric of the song).

https://youtu.be/qyNkrlwKs7c

Thank you!

you're suggesting a periodic table of all periodic tables that do not contain themselves. sounds doable.

If it is a periodic table of all periodic tables then yes it would contain itself. Obviously.

If it was a periodic table of all periodic tables except those that contain itself then it would only contain itself if it does not contain itself, I mean it would not contain itself if it does contain itself, I mean, goddam it Bertrand Russell, how did you find me here? I signed up to Hacker News hoping to escape you once and for all!

-Gottlob Frege

oh! <3