Yoda House for Humans

"A Low Impact Woodland Home"

I saw this house on boingboing.com & think it's pretty wild. Truly a home fit for a 900 year-old Jedi master! It would be awesome to have either a house that's organic like this or modern yet 'green'.


This home would probably do in a pinch, though:

Altruistic Apes

This painting depicts the Buddha while living in the deep forest,
where no people were around who could support him by offering food.
The monkey then gave the Buddha some honey.

It shouldn't be a surprise that life with complex cognitive and social structures could exhibit behavior similar to ours. The more people observe other creatures, the more we realize the depth of life's processes.

Monkeys and other simian are the closest forms of life to ourselves, therefore many of their social processes are similar to ours. Altruism, or the idea of compassion, has been considered a uniquely human trait. However, it should be expected to be seen in living things that form social networks and produce the cognitive feedback that we call emotion.
Monkey Buddhism is alive and well among our fellow primates -

Science News:
"Ape Aid: Chimps Share Altruistic Capacity with People"

PLoS Biology:
"Spontaneous Altruism by Chimpanzees and Young Children"

Of course, just like people, sentient creatures are also prone to what we consider negative characteristics such as violence and aggression. Just as there is a Monkey Buddha, there must be a Monkey Devil to explain this madness -

USA Today:
"Birthday Party Turns Bloody When Chimps Attack"

"Wired for War?
Killer Chimps Fuel Debate on How War Began"

Japan Builds New Bullet Train

Count this under the many things that America should be spending it's money and manpower on:

Gizmondo.com:
"Japan's Type N700 Bullet Train
Almost Half as Fast as an Airplane"

These type of infrastructure & public works should be government projects that employ citizens and benefit citizens. This train goes up to 185 miles per hour, has free internet, and would be a wonderful thing to have going my way between Philly, Atlantic City, & NY.

Bong Hits for Jesus - The Game

I heard something about the recent Supreme Court ruling about a kid who was suspended from school for having a sign during a field trip that said "Bong Hits for Jesus".

In our land of mere mortals, free speech obviously doesn't really mean free. It's a great ideal, but impossible as long as we are still communicating through simian grunts and our egos can be disturbed. The only language that even should be questionable among adults is that which is intended to direct physical danger to a person or property.

I have no problem with warning labels or specified viewing hours for objectionable material. Schools and their administrators need to keep some kind of order. This court decision is not really all that outrageous, because under our country's draconian drug laws, the flower Cannabis has been considered a dangerous drug since the 30's. Therefore, (if you want to be considered a dork) you could argue that the principal is obligated to punish a student who, at a school function, is promoting illegal drug use. Personally, I think it's ridiculous & funny, but I also don't think it's completely defensible behavior.

Free speech or obscene language... brilliant satire or offensive pro-drug slur?
You'll never know... without "Bong Hits for Jesus: The Game":



In the words of Jon Stewart...
"And now, your moment of Zen":
Guardian UK: "Jesus 'Healed Using Cannabis'"

Monkey Buddha Birthday

I just realized, looking at the archive links down the side of the page, that The Monkey Buddha blog is 2 years old! It seems much longer since I made the first post, about the Da Vinci's Challenge game I created. Time flies when you're flinging knowledge around like monkey poop!!!

Blogger is a great creative tool, and I can only hope that Google or the whole internet isn't hit by some cataclysm that destroys the work of millions of people. That would suck. Ok, enough doom & gloom...

Since The Monkey Buddha is a virtual entity,
the best way to celebrate is with a virtual monkey cake... Enjoy!

Mmmm, those are some tasty-looking pixels!

Top 3 Reasons I'm Not Getting an iPhone

There are only 3 reasons that I'm not getting the iPhone, which is a revolutionary piece of technology. I would be a filthy liar if I said I didn't really, really want one.
However, to keep myself from an expensive impulse buy, I'm telling myself....

3. I'd rather have a better version w/ initial bugs worked out.

2. $500

1. I don't want to switch my carrier to AT&T

I will probably wait until my current phone contract is up & see what the deal is. Apple is going to have to get on board with other carriers eventually. If Verizon & Apple sign a deal in the near future, I may well end up at least $500 poorer.

Iraqi Archaeological Playing Cards

The only thing as appalling as the widespread destruction of innocent life caused by our occupation of Iraq is the loss of precious art & artifacts. The looting of the Baghdad museum waaaay back in 2003 was one of the first things that convinced me that the strategy in Iraq was actually not to bring Democracy, but Destruction.

We were never there to save anyone or help the people in the Cradle of Civilization, we went in there to divide and decimate it. It was obvious to people with clear vision 4 years ago, and it should be obvious now to any idiot with a little hindsight. Our vital military and national resources have been misused in a disgraceful way that has only profited oil companies and military contractors. The Neocon ideology that has ruled the White House considers American troops to be mere political pawns in an international chess game, instead of what they are - citizens fighting for the good of their nation.

The U.S. government has recently issued our soldiers playing cards depicting Iraqi archaeological treasures and info on how to protect them. If this isn't a case of 'too little, too late', I don't know what is.

Salon.com: "The End of Civilization"

Impeach, Then Convict

This diary from DailyKos provides an example of how people of all political stripes are finally coming to their senses and realizing that the Bush/Cheney White House is a lair of villains:

"Bush should be tried as a war criminal after impeachment, says former Reagan official."

It's depressing that there is even still a debate whether Bush & Dick should be impeached. The reality is that they should be subject to much more severe consequences. The idea of these madmen slipping out of office in 2008 to retire to Paraguay (or wherever fascists go to hide) is almost as disgusting as the idea of them being in charge of the U.S. government in the first place.

Of course, there's the possibility that the insanity of Bush Inc. (a subsidiary of Halliburton) is necessary in some cosmic way. Perhaps we need to witness the depths of human depravity before we can grow and transform as a global culture into something that transcends such destructive paradigms.... or maybe they are just a bunch of a-holes.

Monkey Crotch Playground

It's hard to offend a Monkey Buddha,
but this is just obscene on so many levels...

Mayan Art Links

I've found some cool sites about the art one of the most fascinating ancient cultures - the Maya, of what is now Yucatan Mexico and the surrounding region. Although they suffered from the same tendency to institutionalized violence as any other large & imperial society, they were also creators of written language, art, and science that was pretty sophisticated. However, the Mayan style was so unique, creative, and alien that I wonder how much of it was influenced by Teonanácatl, the ancient sacrament known as 'The Flesh of the Gods'.

This link has zoomable images of sculpture & carving:
National Gallery of Art: Courtly Art of the Mayans

The link to A Masterpiece Revealed on the following page has an awesome interactive tour of a 2,000 year old mural uncovered in San Bartolo, Guatemala. It is a great feature that really helps give context & meaning to art that can be initially very confusing to look at for someone unfamiliar with the style.
NOVA scienceNOW: Maya

Here are some pages from Mesa Community College website that are very informative and have further links to explore:
K'ul Ahaw - Divine Lords and Shamans of the Forests
Main Mayan Studies Page

Microsoft: Photosynth Demo &... iPod Design?

Even though this is Photosynth technology that has probably been stolen by The Great Satan, Microsoft, it is pretty interesting. It seems a little clunky, though. The demos I've seen of touchscreen technology make me much more giddy.

Speaking of Microsoft, there is a video spoof on how it would re-design and utterly destroy the brilliance of the iPod & its packaging. As a designer who is all about Apple, I find this spoof to be hysterical:

Rome Reborn

Virginia.edu: Rome Reborn

The art and technology of computer visualization is changing our whole human experience. Human consciousness is going to have to transcend itself simply to keep up with the tidal wave of visual and virtual information being produced around the globe.

One thing I really enjoy is reconstructions or visualizations of ancient architecture, art, & tech. The "Engineering an Empire" series is great because of the detail and accuracy produced. I saw that there is a project called 'Rome Reborn' by the University of Virginia that maps the layout and architecture of ancient Rome. The great thing about this work is that it will be built upon. The level of detail will improve, life such as plants, pets, and citizens added, more realistic shading, etc.

I've always dreamed of a system in which a pair of glasses could be worn that impose a virtual historical representation of the place you are at. So if you were in Rome, a super detailed version of the ancient version of the city would appear in the shades and allow you to be immersed in the environment. Perhaps the tiny, powerful, & networked computer of the near future could even impose ancient 3D representations of the actual people around you into the image, to prevent you from bumping into someone!

It's encouraging to see such amazing work being done that fuses boundaries between art, history, technology, and archeology.

Wired.com: 'Rome Reborn' Model Pushes Frontiers of 3-D Simulation

BBC.com: Ancient Rome Brought Back to Life

Mike Gravel - Rock

The first I heard about Democratic Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel was from my parents. I didn't see the first Democratic debate, & my Dad was saying something about "this crazy old guy". In my family, 'crazy' is not necessarily a bad term, so I had to see who they were talking about. Even tough I'd throw him in to replace Bush or Cheney any day, this video convinced me... I'd much rather have a quirky Zen master in charge of things than an obnoxious cowboy-wannabe.

Diamond-Encrusted Platinum Skull

No, it's not the severed & skinned head of Paris Hilton...
...it's what is being called the most expensive piece of contemporary art. With a multi-faceted name, "For the Love of God" by Damien Hirst is a platinum cast of an 18th century skull. It has been covered with 8,601 flawless diamonds to create a thought-provoking work of stunning contrasts;

macabre vs. glitzy
impermanence vs. durability
biological carbon vs. crystallized carbon
worthlessness vs. pricelessness

Links:
BoingBoing.com, Financial Times,

Of course, this mere decoration is powerless compared to the unfathomable cosmic powers of the Mayan Crystal Skulls! ...or is it?

Will Ferrel "George Bush on Global Warming"

Will Ferrel once again proves that he does the best impersonation of our deranged 'leader'. All his related videos on the Youtube page are comedy gold, too.

click to watch"Commander in Chief of the World"

The Sopranos Finale

I have watched the Sopranos on and off since it began and think it is a pretty awesome show. Like most people, I didn't know what the hell was going at first when the screen just cut to black as Tony looked up at the diner door his daughter was coming in. The more I think about this choice for an ending, the more I appreciate it... because it's making me think.

At first me & my brother got up and walked around, wondering out loud what we just saw. It might not be how I would have thought to end the show, but there is a great Zen aesthetic to the approach. The sharp cut in the scene hit millions of people in the head like a Shaolin Master's cane. Some people just rubbed their head & said "Stupid!" Many, however, have fulfilled the creator's intention by pondering and participating in the dialog that extends to our own lives and imaginations. The Sopranos is a powerful show and the greatest effect of the story is to make people analyze their own minds and motivations.

The buildup in the last scene gave the viewer an overwhelming sense of the paranoia and anxiety that would be experienced by someone in Tony's position. It made the abrupt end all the more startling. In a show where the superficial are obsessed with who gets whacked in the most creative way, the creator has given a very real and direct lesson about death. It won't come at a convenient time when we have put all our loose ends and problems away. As the use of the band 'Journey' indicates, it's the quality of and perceptions created in each life's journey that determine how the ending goes for the individual.

So kudos to Zen Monkey Buddhist master David Chase for revealing the empty nature of reality to the masses, who have filled it with their collective consciousness.

"Hey, take that Zen crap
an' shove it up your ass!"

American Idiots

This video would be depressing if it weren't so funny. Probably my favorite comment was from the old guy who claimed that "Al Qaeda is a wing of the Masonic Order."

This guy pictured below had another great line which illustrates why people can't even understand the Middle East situation, no less figure out a solution:

click to watch

"Ok, I'm a little mixed up
over the Palestinians and the Israelis...
which one's throwin' the rocks?"

It's amazing how little of an understanding some people have of the world we live in. I'm not going to be a hater and say all Americans are stupid, since I'm an American and consider myself very wise for a mere mortal primate.

I will say that the myth of American Superiority in ALL Things is very exaggerated almost to the point of national delusion. Especially under the administrations of criminals and fools like 'Saint' Reagan and Bush, Inc., our country's infrastructure & democratic ideals have been continually eroded to the point we are now, teetering on the edge of catastrophe. Instead of an prosperous & noble power, our country is becoming a stumbling, crooked monster.

There are plenty of 33 percenters featured, who are morons based soley on the fact that they respect & trust the Criminally Insane War Monkey.

Super Hero Dating Quiz

Which mutant or super-powered being are you most compatible with? Now you'll now with the Superhero Dating Quiz! Make sure you specify whether you are looking for a super female or super male. My super-match is the sexy red-clad daughter of arch-villain Magneto: The Scarlet Witch.

"Scarlet Witch has altered the probabilities
and has given you a chance to date her.
If you're into chaos, magic, and tight corsets,
she's the girl for you.
Just be careful, you might find yourself in an alternate reality...
or dead if your date goes poorly."

About.com: Fun Games to Play With Your Kids

I came across this About.com article featuring 6 games that are fun to play with the whole family. One of them is my creation, "DaVinci's Challenge"...

About.com:
"Fun Games to Play With Your Kids"

Here's a link to other articles featuring 'Da Vinci's Challenge' games on About.com.

Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg

The Monkey Buddha treasures all things of the Monkey Realm.
Therefore, these striking photos of Monkey Portraits have to be shared and commended. Some of these images of our fellow furry life-forms are pretty hair-raising, stupid pun intended.

On her website, The Manipulator, Jill Greenberg also has portraits of other subject matter, including the only TV host that I watch every single day, the great Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

The Vader Project

I caught some of the Legacy of Star Wars programming on the History Channel this past weekend, so I've had The Greatest Movies Ever Made on my mind. Then, I came across this interesting artistic experiment using the unforgettable armored breath mask of my favorite character, Darth Vader.

StarWars.com:
"Underground Artists Take on the Sith in
The Vader Project"

I think there is a really funky mix of interpretations, some I like more than others, but they are all interesting and/or amusing.

Here are a couple of my favorite mind-benders:

(Click on the pictures for the photo set on Flickr)

Morphing Female Portraits

I think this is pretty cool... an almost psychedelic video of 500 years worth of female portraiture continuously melding into one another. It's a dynamic study of the timeless and ephemeral nature of the beauty of women and the classic art that tries to recreate it. While you stare at this, it becomes eerily alive and almost like an amorphous female deity with schizophrenia.

click for video

beinArt Surreal Art Collective

beinArt.org is an awesome online gallery of some of the work from contemporary surrealist artists. There is a ton of work on here, and it is all wonderfully surreal. There are some artists I'm familiar with, like the great Alex Grey, Mark Ryden, and my long-time favorite H.R. Giger, the designer of 'Aliens'.

BEINART SURREAL ART COLLECTIVE

Lucid Dreaming

I remember dreams pretty regularly, and most of of my dreams are generally realistic settings & situations. There have been several times, though, where I have experienced a very convincing ability to fly. I still remember the dream where I first did it very clearly... even though it was years ago.

I was at my parent's house and there was extended family there. An uncle of mine who was a Jeopardy! champ in real life instructed me on how to rise and control myself in the air. I remember feeling like I was learning to ride a bicycle again. Finally, I began to hover and circle the main rooms of the house before going outside and circling the entire house. It was exciting, but not scary - just like taking off for the first time on 2 wheels. I met the treeline and flew high enough to see the immediate area.

There have been times since where I've dreamed of reaching the upper atmosphere and having clouds below me. The realism of the experience is mind-blowing, but familiar at the same time. The times I remember flying in my dreams, I have always been aware of the dream state and understood it to be what the waking experience is also - a production of the mind.

Damn Interesting.com: 'Silent Lucidity'
Damn Interesting article with links

Sol Invictus, The Invincible Sun

Now that the weather here in Dirty Jersey is finally starting to brighten up, that immense nuclear maelstrom in the sky has been on my mind.

Illustration by Martin Kornmesser

I watch the HD digital cable channels over my parents house & the programming is awesome. Tonight I was watching a Sunrise Earth special about the Sun and its affect on man's livelihood & mythology. Right after that I put on the Digging For the Truth episode about Macchu Picchu, the Peruvian royal estate and temple complex of the Sun-revering Inca.

Deus Sol Invictus, "The Invincible Divine Sun" is the source of the elements that create our world, and the sustainer of life that has thrived within it. It's awesome and incomprehensibe nature inspired the ancient precursors to modern religious existence. The Sun is both creator and destroyer, defying such ultimately meaningless labels. The damage a major solar flare or storm could cause to communications, navigation, and possibly all electromagnetic technology is a humbling thought, to say the least. It would make what I'm writing now and trillions of human creative and productive efforts completely useless. I wouldn't recommend trying to feed human hearts to the Sun God, Ahau-kin, so I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed...

NOAA: "11-Year Solar Storm Cycle Will Start in March"

Mystery of the Maya Astronomy


The graphic below is my sun tattoo that I designed in college. This was before I really began to try learning about the mythologies of the world and the astro-religious worldviews of ancient cultures. I'm fortunate to have chosen a tattoo that I appreciate more as time goes on. Looking at it now, I never noticed how much the Chinese symbol resembles a face! Since it's on my chest, I usually see it upside-down.

Silicon Simulations

The most powerful use of computers is as a tool to enhance the human imagination, whether it be imagining artistic or scientific concepts. These silicon extensions of the brain are allowing us to visualize processes and ideas that are impossible to understand otherwise.

This is a video that briefly describes some of the many uses for the processing & visualization power of computers.

Seed Magazine: "Science in Silico"

One of the projects featured is the Millenium Simulation, which I discussed in a post about the fractal nature of reality: Universal Mind.

Numbers

"What's Special About This Number?"

I'm not really fond of practical math, but the concept of numbers & calculating value is a cognititve ability that has fascinated people since the beginning of counted time. The list in the link above names a "special" feature about each number from 0 through 9999. I'm sure the more you love math, the more special they are.

I've read a couple books on the Divine Ratio aka Phi aka 1.618...
It's one of those things if you think about too much, your brain will overload.

Albrecht Dürer's Magic Square

Letterman's Top 10 Bush Moments

(Seen on Crooks & Liars.com)Some of George W's signature moments were used to make this Top 10 List for the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Although this list is funny, they also had comedian Rich Little, who from the clips I saw, was pretty bad. He was doing a Sw

Still, it's almost impossible to top the classic performance by Stephen Colbert in 2006. It takes balls to stand in front of the illegitimate President of the United States and drop sarcasm bombs all over the place. That was when Colbert proved he's on equal standing with that other Comedy Central late-night great - Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

The Wonder of Water

As someone of the fish sign, Pisces, I have a strong identification with the water element and all its associations. Click on the image above for an awesome Flickr gallery of water photography. I'm endlessly fascinated with the appearance and nature of the life-giving substance.

Livescience.com:
"The New Mystery of Water"

Paul Neave: Flash Website

This website has some cool Flash content. The Flash Earth alone, which is a fast bare-bones version of Google Maps, is worth checking out.

Neave.com

Joe Rogan on Space, The Grand Canyon, & UFO's

I saw this opening bit by Fear Factor host Joe Rogan on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" & got a real kick out of it. He uploaded the video to share and enlighten:

click for video

Panspermia: Life from the Heavens?

Scientific American:

"Did Life Come from Another World?"

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel about meteors (also known as shooting stars), pieces of cosmic debris that can range from the size of a speck of dust to the size of a boulder.

The show touched on a theory that I have heard before called "Panspermia." Essentially, the theory is that microbial life can survive and be transported through space on meteoroids. Certain bacteria and fungus spores have been proven tough enough to survive the vacuum & temperature extremes of outer space.

As they were discussing this, they showed a video of a meteor approaching Earth, and I saw a fascinating fractal visual relationship to microscopic images of human fertilization that I've seen.

Another physical explanation for the generation of life is the primal energy of lightning fusing molecules into complex forms that result in rudimentary, yet energetic and self-replicating processes known as life.

The similarity of form between all 3 destructively creative events is evident in their profound simplicity, the merging of the two most basic forms recognized by human consiousness... the line and circle:

I remember a different show I was watching about early Christianity, and on an ancient stone wall they had drawn a Vesica Piscis in the form of the 'Jesus Fish' and a Cross. I realized that Christianity had two of the most powerful symbols known to man. Here again, symbolically, are the merging of the basic forms of the circle and the line, which are the essence of our mind's visual organization:

Template for the Flower of Life,
the metaphor for the self-replicating nature of living things,
containing the secret of the 'Jesus Fish' in red.
(click)

America: 33% Brain Dead

A survey on internet use in the United States confirms my theory,

originally based on the approval rating of The War Monkey,
that about 1/3 of the current American population
is functionally retarded.

Proof positive in this CNN article:
"Survey: Many Americans see Little Point to Web"

"A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access
and do not plan to get it,
with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives,
according to a survey released Friday."


America's "33 Percenters":
Super-Patriotic?... or Super-F*cking-Crazy?

Death Star Attack an Inside Job?

With all the conspiracy theories regarding 9/11 being debated,
it was inevitable that questions would be raised about another event that occurred under questionable circumstances...

"Uncomfortable Questions:
Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job?"

I thought this was really funny and some of the points show how obvious absurdities even slip into a story with such well thought out continuity as Star Wars.

My favorite question regarded the "Magic Missile Theory":

6) Nerf-Herders defy the laws of physics?
...How did the missile make a right angle turn after entering the exhaust port? How could a missile shot in the vacuum of space–that would tend to keep going in the same direction as it was released, according to the laws of physics–be *sucked* into an *exhaust* pipe? "Exhaust" means to exhale or blow out... Wouldn’t the missiles have been blown awry of their target rather than sucked in? If it had been an intake pipe, then the “bending” path of the missiles could be plausible. Why have these discrepancies never been investigated, let alone explained?

There is some pretty damning visual evidence, as well...

Ferrofluid Motion Sculptures

I wonder if this is the beginning of the T1000 Terminator...

This is a cool video of liquid metal being subjected to magnetic fields, creating dazzling forms with fluid motion. The artist's webpage gives a more detailed explanation of these "Morpho Towers."

Now if they can form a Silver Surfer type character with this process, then I'll really be impressed.

click to watch

Unintentionally Funny Comics

This is an entertaining rundown of 15 comic book panels that aren't supposed to be funny.

"Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels"

Speaking of silly Superman comics, Superdickery.com is a great collection of ridiculous comic book panels & covers, concentrating on those that prove that 'Superman is a dick'. This is a wacky cover featuring Batman's pet ape saving the day. You can't beat a monkey in a bat suit.

Ah Pook,The Destroyer, Is Here

(click to watch)
"When I become Death,
Death is the seed from which I grow."

(transcript)

Description from Zed Gallery:

"In the scattered remains of a burnt out cosmos, the last god, "AH POOK" debates with his alter ego the trembling balance between life and death. An animated stream of consciousness in Burroughs’s idiosyncratically mesmeric voice breaks delivers us a requiem for the carcasses of Armageddon, nihilistic ramblings of ‘the last god’ searching for meaning in his universe, and finally a bitter manifesto of enlightenment, and liberation."

This is a very strange animated narration that works on a level that really defies rational understanding. It is like a dark Zen riddle that causes you to look into the very nature of Life, Death, the Cosmos, and the Human Experience. It is a puzzle that cannot be solved, only pondered.

We are usually so busy dealing with the trivialities of primitive human existence such as war, relationships, politics, and entertainment, that the huge questions and dangers staring us in our collective face often end up going unnoticed. This video, for me, touches on that base instinct that our relatively fragile world could be obliterated at any moment. Ah Puch, the God of Death, is always here, but without it, the World of Life could not exist.

Fractal Foods

Fractals = Complex shapes which look the same at a wide variety of scale factors.

Fractals are one of my favorite topics because it is a unique synthesis of art & science which trancends the qualities we normally look for in those disciplines. This post "Fractals for Food" has a nice collection of pictures of fractal geometry in natural forms.

I can't believe that this particular cauliflower, Chou Romanesco, even exists! It looks like it was made with a computer program.

Click for bigger image:

More Fractal Photos

MadTV: The i-Rack

This skit is a pretty brilliant & funny take on a "new Apple product" called the 'i-Rack'.

I particularly enjoyed it since it mashed-up 2 topics I'm passionate about: the ingenuity of Apple, Inc. with the insanity of George W. Bush & the Iraq War.

Click to watch (& laugh):

UPC Barcodes: Mark of the Beast?!?

"God-fearing Villagers Snub 'Satanic' Bar Codes"

"Satanic bar codes?!?"Although it might sound wacky, there is actually some truth to what these villagers are saying...
Every standard barcode has the bar pattern for the number "6" in the front, middle, and end of every sequence, as place-holders. Therefore... every single barcode used in commerce contains the infamous "Mark of the Beast": 666. Fun stuff, huh?

See the example below, showing the bar pattern for '6' (blue) and it's appearance as placeholders (in red).
Click on the graphic for a website that explains it further:

Even though I generally don't take the Bible (& especially Revelations) literally, this is one of those things that is hard to believe is just a coincidence. If anything, it seems that the people in the grocery industry that created the UPC system were very cynical or just not paying attention to the consequences of their system.

The problem is, all of the biblical-minded people worried about the "End Times," the Anti-Christ, and the Beast do not realize that it is already too late. We carry items with marks needed to purchase goods in the belly of the 'Beast', which is the devouring monster of global capitalism. We are are part of the 'System' and therefore slaves to it, no matter how much we try to deny it or pretend that we have some degree of freedom.

With such technologies as RFID chips and mind-reading devices on the way, there is a real possibility that things will get even more complicated before long.