9-9-9 - And the World did not end...

Today's date - the ninth day of the ninth month in the ninth year of the century - has inspired and frightened various people in equal measures.

In Chinese numerology the number 9 represents 'long life', so its triple appearance on the calendar has led a large amount of couples in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore to get married on this lucky day.

In Britain and the USA, where 999 is the emergency telephone number, there have also been many weddings - involving at least one partner who works for one of the emergency services - today. A particular increase in people who wanted to tie the knot for life has been reported from the Scottish border town of Gretna Green, where traditionally marriages can be conducted by a blacksmith.
Even though there are no longer special laws in Scotland that made Gretna Green the place where run-away couples would go to get married in the past, especially when the bride was too young to get married in England or when there was a feud between the lovers' families, the place still attracts many couples who wish to have their wedding in the old smithy.

On the other hand, many suspicious and pessimistic people were in fear of today, as for them 999 is "the number of the beast" and represents 'the devil' and the end of the world. Even in our modern times there are still millions of highly superstitious individuals on this planet, and certain religious groups and sects fuel such superstition further with their own scaremongering.

This brain-washing and incitement of fear is dangerous and destructive. It leads to depression, suicides and even to acts of crime and violence. But fortunately there have - so far - been no news reports of irrational mass-hysteria on this day from anywhere. And although the date is still 09-09-09 in much of the Western hemisphere of the globe, I do hope it will stay this way.

As the day draws to a close in my part of the planet, I am glad to say that we had a very nice and sunny day here today, with nothing special happening, despite the special date.
And - of course - the world did not end today either. This is only going to happen when our star - the Sun - will reach the end of its life in about four million years from now. Until then we should try to make the best of our lives, day by day, regardless of superstitions and numerology.

The Emerald Islander

1000th British Visitor

The independent automatic tracking system Flagcounter has just registered the 1000th individual visitor from the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (UK).

Though the number of British tourists visiting Ireland is down now significantly - due to 'credit crunch', economic crisis and the more than 20% drop in value (and spending power) of the Pound Sterling to the value of the Euro - I am pleased to see that our neighbours to the East and North are still visiting this humble weblog as frequently as usual.
And you are of course as welcome as always, regardless of crisis and 'credit crunch'.

Since I began writing this weblog nearly 14 months ago, UK visitors have been constantly the third-largest group of readers, with a current share of 12% of individual visitors*.

The largest amount of individual visitors - currently 41.7% - come from the USA, which has been in the lead from day one, followed by readers from Ireland, which make up currently 19%. Given the fact that the Republic of Ireland has only about 4.2 million inhabitants (compared with over 300 million in the USA), the share of 1/5 shows that our own people take a fair interest in what I have to say.

More surprising I find the fact that positions 4 and 5 in the ranking of individual visitors are held by Malaysia (currently 9.9%) and Singapore (currently 4.6%).
Although I visited these two countries in South-East Asia regularly when I was based in Hong Kong and Thailand, this is a long time ago and I don't usually write about that part of the world on this weblog. The interest of these Asian readers in Ireland and my writing is appreciated even more and they are most welcome. I read Asian weblogs myself and think that knowing more of and about each other can only improve the state of the world and the spreading of new ideas in the interest of global peace and prosperity.

Very recently the system also registered my first ever readers in Uruguay and Venezuela, and I can only hope that my Views from the Emerald Isle will find even more interest everywhere in future. Everyone is welcome here, regardless who they are and where they are based.

At present the various tracking systems I use here have registered visitors from 113 different countries - from Afghanistan to Vietnam - plus 58 computers registered by the EU organisation.
There were also 763 'hits' whose identity and nationality could not be identified by the tracking systems and thus are listed as 'unknown origin'. Maybe some of them come from various intelligence agencies like the American NSA and CIA, or the Russian FSB (the successor of the KGB), who have the technical capacity to hide their IP addresses and surf the web frequently.
Well, who ever they are, they are welcome to this weblog, and I hope they will find it worth their while to come here and read what I have to say.

The Emerald Islander

* Every single computer in the world has an individual IP address (or registration number). This unique IP address is the basis for counting individual visitors. Repeat visits by the same reader, or someone else using the same computer, are not counted. They are however registered in the overall statistic by a separate system that counts the number of 'hits' the weblog receives from any visitors.