One of the funniest cartoons I've ever seen was in the Chicago Reader many years ago. It went something like this.
A couple of young parents are looking in on the room where their evil baby is lying in the crib. The mom says to the dad, "Do you think he's really evil?"
The dad says, "He's pretty evil."
"Do you think he's the devil?"
"I'll look behind his ear."
They both walk over to the crib and look down at the baby. The dad pulls his ear back slightly. He looks up at the mom and says,
"Well, they might be 9's . . ."
666 is also an absolute mode (in UNIX and related systems) you wouldn't want to change your personal files' permissions to.
Typing chmod 666 fubar.txt at the prompt would make the file fubar.txt readable to and writable by everyone.
see chmod
In some early manuscripts of the book of Revelation, the number of the beast is 616 instead of 666. Moreover, despite the attempts of Aleister Crowley and the like to promote the idea of 777 as a significant number, St John of Patmos would have used something like the Roman numeral system, and not Arabic numerals, and so the 'one-less' property does not apply. Therefore the motivation for the number is either gematria on the name of Nero (the 'n' in the rendering 'Neron Caesar' has the value 50 - the difference between 616 and 666) or else the panalphabetic nature of its Roman-numeral representation: DCLXVI. Obviously 1666 would have been even better for this, but that would have been harder to tie to the gematria.
Rev.13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six - 666
A "score" equates to 20, therefore "threescore" is 60. Six hundred plus threescore plus six is therefore the number six hundred and sixty six.
The number 666 indicates that the letters in the Greek form of the name of the Antichrist will add up to 666. There is a slim possibility that his name will equal 666 in the Hebrew language since the Antichrist will be Jewish. The numeric system does not work in English or in languages other than Greek or Hebrew, so it is useless to calculate the values of names in these modern languages. (Grant R. Jeffrey, Prince of Darkness, 1994, pp. 275, 277)
Revelation also alludes to the fact that mankind will "wear the mark of the devil", and this has been taken as meaning a barcode or microscopic chip under the skin on the hand or forehead. Whilst this is not far removed from fiction today, there is still much scepticism over what form this will take, and how it relates to the number 666. Some say not to take the number literally, and that 666 refers to 6, 3 times. For example, a six digit number, starting with a 6, and printed in a 6pt font. Others do take it literally, and state that it will most probably be something like your Social Security Number, and this will start with the number 666 - although this doesn't quite work for countries that don't have a Social Security Number.
While people argue the meaning of the number, the possibilities of mankind being enslaved by wearing this mark, we plod on with our existence, knowing full well that there is not much we can do about it. Suffice to say, if somebody walks up to you with a laser tattoo device, or a syringe with a microscopic chip, don't let them near your hands or forehead.
I recently became aware of its existence when I walked into my local ghetto Met Foods and started looking at the cold stuffage, which is kept behind a counter. A big dude comes up behind me and asks me if I need help. I ask for Robitussin, and instead of immediately going behind the counter and getting me what I asked for, he looks at me, takes a step back, and says, "You look like you fell on your face."
Considering I had the flu of doom, I didn't appreciate this comment and started getting all demonic on him. "I don't want to talk right now. Can I just have the fucking Robitussin? I'm really fucking sick," I snapped, near tears. A register girl gave me a dirty look.
He goes behind the counter, and while telling me of his own recent bout of the death flu gives me the three different Robi's I wanted to compare, and then hands me another box. "Try this," he said. And with that, he walked away.
I turned over simply designed box and read the ingredients: Acetaminophen, DXM, and Pseudoephedrine...hmmm...more what I needed than the combinations of Robi had in them. And it was cheaper, too!
I deliberated for a long while, and decided on the strange bottle. I had the net to do research with when I got home, and I needed feel miraculously better in order to go to work the next day, so I put my health in the devil's hands, or so I started to joke. Get home, do quick research, take a dose. It's surprisingly liquidy, not excessively goopy, and doesn't taste half bad (Though, next time I'm sick I'm going to try Buckley's, just for the sheer intrigue).
Some time later, a little loopy, I take stock. Pain is gone, I can breathe through my nose, still can't entirely breathe because my lung capacity is fer sux since I'm now a smoker, but it's all good. It worked, at the very least.
The company's website maintains that the name is innocent in origin and came from a prescription number for its original medication, a treatment for malaria, developed by the founder in 1880.
As a mocking yet seemingly pro-666 website (http://www.deuceofclubs.com/write/666.htm) taunts, this is something to take when you have a "Hell of a cough." I'd have to agree.
For more information on 666 products, check out their website at http://www.monticellocompanies.com
A simpler explanation is offered in FL Bauer's "Decrypted Secrets - Methods and maximis in cryptology" IBSN: 3-540-66871-3
However, polyphonic ciphers were used in the ancient civilisations betwen the Nile and the Euphrates. As the letters of the alphabet also served as number symbols, it was a popular pastime to add up the values of the symbols representing a secret word (gematria). In this way the isopsephon 666 mentioned in the Aplocalypse (Rev. 13.18) has been taken to represent the Emperor Nero (Fig 20). There are said to be people who refuse to accept a car registration involving the "number of the beast" 666.
The figure referred to (Fig 20) is difficult to reproduce here in text, however I will do my best...
Nun Vav Resh Nun Resh Samex Koph 50 6 200 50 200 60 100 N O Re N Ra Sæ C
1 Kings 10:14 Now the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Of course everyone is free to draw their own conclusions.
These people died in 666:
665 - 666 - 667 7th century
An auspicious day soon dawns in mankind's history Tuesday the sixth of June 2006 rendered into numbers 6\6\6 this symbolic set of numbers has dark meaning for us mostly the mark of the devil in a religious and biblical sense but on this day a coincidence will reveal itself to us our numbers will have swollen to 6.66 billion children,women and men who arranged this coincidence? is it coincidence or design? the answer may reveal itself as we gaze around our world for amongst her other skills God is a maths whiz most inspired
This is the ultimate in vacant voyeurism, the pleasure of staring at people doing exactly what you're doing, only smaller.
- New York Times travel and entertainment editor William Grimes, on the view of the rooftop dining area at the Peninsula Hotel from "The Top of The Sixes" restaurant on the 39th floor of the 666 Fifth Avenue Building
Heading westbound on New York City's 53rd Street, or southbound on Fifth Avenue, one could clearly see the enormous red numbers "666" displayed on top of The Tishman Building for the 45 years following its completion in 1957. In 2002, the "666" was taken down and replaced with the logo of the Citicorp bank, "Citi."
What sets this glass and steel "box" style office building apart from others is that for many years the ground floor was actually pedestrian- and visitor-friendly. This was far ahead of its time. Only in recent years have New York's zoning codes encouraged or mandated the use of open public spaces in building lots.
The building's facade of embossed aluminum panels is considered by some to be dull. In the context of the style of its day, however, the texture of the facade is typically contemporary, when compared to the stark minimalism of its peers, The Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue, for example. Most modernists of the day eschewed the decoration that the Carson and Lundin architectural firm gave 666 Fifth.
Sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed the distinctive "Sea of Clouds" ceiling in the lobby's elevator bank areas, the dramatic black-and-white floors in the same area, and a waterfall planted with greenery in front of the elevator banks. Until a renovation filled the street level with retail space in 1998, the public could move about the open-air ground floor space in front of the lobby freely, in two wide spaces that pierced deep into the building. The lobby's interior contains objects from the Tishman-Speyer collection of modern art. The developers and owners of the building, Tishman-Speyer, own a vast collection of prime commercial real estate worldwide, including, in New York, The Chrysler Center and The former Pan Am building, now the Metlife Tower.
The building was for many years the home of the Stouffer Restaurant Corporation's flagship "Top of The Sixes" restaurant. The view from the restaurant's 39th-floor windows was spectacular, facing only north. Notable presences are the Trump Tower and the whimsical "Chippendale" decoration atop Philip Johnson's AT&T tower. Sadly, the venerable restaurant is now a private cigar-oriented club, the Grand Havana Room, which boasts private cigar lockers for members in one of the largest humidor rooms in the world, a bar, restaurant, and a screening room. The Grand Havana Room replaced the Stouffer restaurant in 1997. The view from the pricey (in 1997, $3,000 down and $300 a month, plus food and beverages) members-only establishment is extended to the east and south, where the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral and the towers of Rockefeller Center can be seen. (Trivia: Tishman-Speyer also is owner of Rockefeller Center).
How peculiar that the enormous red-lit "666" existed for years amid buildings whose builders chose to call their 13th floors "14." And no, 666 Fifth Avenue (technically) has no 13th floor, either.
SOURCES:
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