The idea of doing a post on the fact that today is June 6, 2006, and that somehow has religious significance made my head hurt due to its absolute silliness, and my colleagues suggested that I list six reasons why this is the case. Feel free to contribute your own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. But first, a quick rundown of the news articles: here is a BBC article on what I guess is a legitimate news event and another on that wonderful little Michigan town dubbed "Hell" and its celebrations. And Tim Townsend of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took a look at a wide range of issues.

With that, here are the reasons 666 stories hurt my head:

1. 666 is just a number. It is the sum of the squares of the first seven prime numbers, if you were interested.
2. People commonly associate 666 with the "Number of the Beast" mentioned in Revelation 13:17-18. The text does not mention June 6, 2006. The current calendar was not used when Revelation was written. I also doubt they abbreviated their dates the way we do.
3. Some people believe the "Number of the Beast" is actually 616. Nevertheless, there is still no significance to 6/6/06.
4. If you are going to do articles on people doing things to make 6/6/06 significant, please do articles on why people are visiting the slots on 7/7/07. Wait, that's dumb, don't do that. While I'm at it, reporters writing on this should do an article on my favorite day of the year, November 11, and talk about how I enjoy watching my digital clock show all ones at 11:11 a.m.
5. In Unix a file permission of 666 grants all users read and write permissions on the file. Apple's first computer, the Apple I, was priced at $666.66. I think Apple computers are great. So are iPods.
6. In Chinese, 666 sounds similar to the word meaning "Things going smoothly." People pay extra in China to get 666 in their cell-phone digits.

All reporters writing about the significance of 6/6/06 must include and ask questions relating to these six reasons for me to do a follow-up post. They must also get serious answers from those making the news because there are more important things to write about in this world. But if questions like that are asked, reporters will realize the silliness of 6/6/06 stories and my head will stop hurting.