Kent Hovind, Numerologist. Also, Ravens

It sounds as though Kent Hovind is bored out of his skull in prison. His latest posting, written in the form of a conversation between himself and a self-centered, self-quoting dick of a god, he points out that the Bible can be massaged into yielding various numerical coincidences, as well as the amusing tidbit that 13+53+33 = 153. I suppose that’s a more constructive use of his time than counting ceiling tiles.

He also gives God a line about “one of the greediest birds on earth, the raven”. On the principle that if Hovind says that says that 2+2=4, you should double-check before believing it, I ran a quick Google search and ran across this article at New Scientist. Evidently, if a young raven runs across a carcass in winter, it’ll emit a loud cry that attracts other ravens who join in the feast.

Of course, there’s no such thing as perfect altruism in biology. It turns out that older, mated ravens can defend their territory against ravens who might poach on their food. Younger ravens, on the other hand, don’t have a mate to help them, so they’re at a disadvantage compared to the married ones. So when they call out, what they’re really saying is “help me defend this food against anyone who might try to take it away, and in return, I’ll share with you.”

Mark Your Calendars: Nuclear War

TheHouse of Yahweh has announced that nuclear war will start on Sep. 12, 2006.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sjf4ELVeX8]

It’s not clear to me how they came up with this date, so allow me to speculate irresponsibly: the number of the beast is 666. 6 = 5 + 1, and Sep. 12, 2006 is five years and one day after the 9/11 attacks.

Furthermore, 7 is a number often associated with God and goodness: there are 7 days in a week, 7 planets known to the ancients, Joshua destroyed Jericho by marching around it for 7 days, and 7 times on the 7th day, etc.

Now note that Sep. 12 is 7 days before Talk Like A Pirate Day. Coincidence? I think not!