So it's the end of the world today...

The world seems to have come down with a case of hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia - a fear of the number 666. If anyone is going to do anything nutty, today would be the day they'd do it. It's the number of the beast and today's date. The coverage is great, a true space filler for the silly season, with words like: 'doomsayers', 'spooks' and 'beast'.

In truth this date occurs every century, and Puritans thought it would occur in 1666 - which coincided with the Great Fire of London. I'm not superstitious (was born on a Black Friday). Sure, I’m not going to give birth on this date and call my child Damien, but I didn't take the day off work to pray and wait for the rapture. (although it was tempting to stage a Slay Off: www.nationaldayofslayer.org)

Some factoids about 666 you may not have known:

* Amsterdam - Some 2,000 Dutch Christians, most of them Protestants, engaged in a prayer marathon Tuesday to counter the devil on a day marked by the number 666 and seen as propitious for evil.
* Texas - Reports are coming in from around the world of expectant mothers going to great lengths not to have their babies on 6 June. "I refuse to give birth on that date," Texan Bethany Morian told the Seattle Times. "I'll cross my legs and watch the clock."
* Right-wing America - Ann Coulter, the woman who called for the forcible conversion of all Muslims to Christianity and said of the environment: "God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.”' has chosen this date to release her book titled "Godless".
* US again (of course) - Online gaming site BetUS.com is posting 10-to-1 odds on the world ending in three days.
* Counting alphabetically, the Hebrew number equivalent for 'w' is 6, and "www" is, of course, the preface for almost every web address.
* The first Apple computer, Apple I, had an official list price of $666.
* My favourite: "The Farmer's Almanac forecast for June warns of a grave threat unrelated to biblical prophecy or blockbuster movies. 'The threat comes not from strange and distant lands or from tumultuous peoples who wish us harm,' the almanac's authors write, 'but from another unlikely quarter: squirrels.'"

Fear of 666:

* When the microchip giant Intel introduced the 666Mhz processor in 1999, they called it the Pentium III 667 rather than risk association with the Devil's number.
* The US highways agency also removed all signs for Route 666 in 2003 and changed them to the far less portentuous 491.
* When South Korea first sent troops to Iraq, they added seven to the original contingent so 673 men went to help George Bush's crusade instead of 666.

In fact, I thought the beast had risen last night. For Aussies this is going to sound bizarre - almost exotic - but i was woken up by foxes prowling in the garden. Urban red foxes have this creepy mating sound like human's screaming.



Enjoy some Iron Maiden to celebrate the day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBi1eWoXhv4