Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the
beast, for it is a human number, its number is 5,878,155.
A while ago, some pranksters decided to set up a web site that's sole purpose
was to the scare the hell out of certain people who spend all of their time
awaiting the arrival of the anti-Christ. Their web site proclaimed how they
had developed a product that could be implanted under a person's skin, that
would enable them and their financial institution to be able to conduct
cashless financial transactions.
Eventually, the merry hoaxters 'fessed up, and exposed their prank, and
everything was hunky dory... or was it?
Most Pigdog readers are familiar with the US Patent Office, a department of the
government not noted for its outrageous sense of humor. On March 2, 1999,
Thomas W. Heeter was awarded a patent for his invention that would be "a
method presented for facilitating sales transactions by electronic media. A bar
code or a design is tattooed on an individual. Before the sales transaction can
be consummated, the tattoo is scanned with a scanner."
Regardless of your theological beliefs (or lack thereof), this is some scary
shit. One has to wonder who is using this... or getting ready to.
