(1) In what sense do you mean "Python can't handle large numbers"?

    time python -c 'print (5**(5**5))*(3**(3**3))' \
    | python -c 'import sys; print hex(int(sys.stdin.read()))'  \
    | wc -c
        1829

    real	0m0.091s
    user	0m0.149s
    sys	0m0.027s