09/09/09

[liberal N proud]

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated – while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic
Modern numerologists — who operate outside the realm of real science — believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus , numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32735942/ns/technology_and_science-science/?GT1=43001

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Number 9. Number 9. Number 9" - The Beatles

From wikipedia

"Revolution 9" played an important part in the infamous "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory. Most notably, the repeated "number nine" played backwards can be heard as "Turn me on, dead man."

[liberal N proud]

2. Incidentally, Beatles Remastered is released today

I am sure that is not by accident.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/entity/store/B000APTK6K?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=1GBSRPKAG5EYVCJVFG47&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=484404071&pf_rd_i=the%20beatles

[SpiralHawk]

3. OMG!

[Berry Cool]

9. AND Beatles Rock Band!

[LLStarks]

4. Today is my 22nd birthday. nt

[liberal N proud]

5. Happy birthday

[leveymg]

6. If we get past 9/9/9 9:09.09 without a problem, I'll feel a lot better.

[SpiralHawk]

8. That's only six 9s

To get to the precise point where IT happens, you must extend into deci-milliseconds, or maybe even deci-milli-nano-seconds or whatever...

[liberal N proud]

10. 6's and 9's

[brendan120678]

13. Looks like we're safe. On the East Coast at least. (nt)

[Christa]

7. K & R nt

[Peace Patriot]

11. Interesting topic--Pythagoras.

He was said to have given lectures in two places at once, and had a "golden leg." Was he a time traveler or what? Got his wounded leg replaced on Arcturus, did he? Or maybe at the Mayo Clinic. Then took the Pythagorean Theorum back in time, to save humanity from being brute beasts.

Carl Sagan slandered the Pythagoreans as "too mystical." It's a point on which I differ with Sagan--much as I loved the guy for "Cosmos" and for "The Cold and the Dark" (warning that even a limited exchange of nuclear weapons will end all life on earth). (--we're doing it by burning coal and gasoline, and logging forests, instead--I don't think Sagan knew about "global warming").

Because science was born from mysticism--which wasn't "mystical" gobble-de-gook then, but rather was the pursuit, by the most creative, curious, intelligent and ethical human beings, trying to connect themselves and others to the Great Universe. "Religion" (philosophy, ethics, belief in Perfection) and "Science" (figuring out the rules and principles of the material world) were one and the same endeavor. Sagan--who himself became quite "mystical" at times--failed to credit the connection. Science was born of Religion (the desire to understand our place in the Universe). And they must--they simply must--come back together. For, by separating them, and proceeding to manipulate the material world WITHOUT ETHICS, we are destroying the Planet that gave us birth, and--despite all of NASA's efforts--we have nowhere else to go.

And please don't get me wrong. I am not on the fascist side of this political controversy ("evolution" vs "intelligent design," or related issues). I don't know how Science and Religion can reunited, without losing the integrity of Science. I just know that they began as ONE endeavor; we eventually sorted them out; and now we need to, somehow, bring them back together, to save Life itself--the only life we know of, for sure.

If Pythagoras were alive today, he would be Al Gore. Just joking. He would be at odds--at very great odds--with the "powers that be," as he was in his lifetime, way back then. He fought kings and tyrants who wanted to use the brilliant insights of the Pythagoreans for war and oppression. He got persecuted and banned, and had to run for his life. What was driving him? Why didn't he sell himself and his brilliant mind to the highest bidder, humanity be damned? Science to him was Religion. It was sacred. It was special. It required that you be a good person. It called you to higher consciousness. It was not the mere manipulation of matter, and understanding physical laws or mathematics. It was God. It was Perfection. It was a matter requiring the highest ethics--peacefulness, compassion, generosity, and trying to educate and raise others up.

We of the Scientific Age need to stop disdaining the beliefs of those who gave birth to Science. And we need to find out how Pythagoras did teleconferencing back in the 6th century BC, and what his leg was really made of. Ha!

:rofl:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. we survived here on the eastern seaboard! n/t

[brendan120678]

14. While not "single digits," there's still three more years of this...

October 10, 2010 (10/10/10)
November 11, 2011 (11/11/11)
December 12, 2012 (12/12/12)

Then we'll have the long wait until January 1, 2101. I'll be 122 years old.

[liberal N proud]

15. So 12/12/12 is where they get the end is near

The end of the repeating numbers.

12/12/12 :scared:

12/12 is my younger brothers birthday. Could he be the... I dare not say LOL.

[Hepburn]

16. What about....

...10/10/10?

:shrug:

[liberal N proud]

17. The article was speaking of single-digit dates

I guess they needed something to make the day special.