LOL, More Y2K madness
Could this be our lucky day? Or will 10/10/10 prove to be the date that our computer systems grind to a halt By FIONA MACRAE
If you have ever fancied flutter on the races or are about to ask a friend a favour, Sunday could be just the day to test your good fortune.
As the tenth day, of the tenth month, of the tenth year, it is being hailed as one of the luckiest of the century.
Numerologists claim that the row of 'perfect tens' symbolises not just a once in a 100 years quirk of the calendar, but a 'powerful moment of rebirth'. However, the date has also sparked fears a computer virus could be released causing technological havoc.
Register offices are opening specially to conduct Sunday weddings and according to some estimates 31, 050 couples will marry - 10 times as many as on an average Sunday.
Other couples have planned to have their babies delivered by Caesarean that day, in the hope that some of the day's luck rubs off on their newborn.
Chichester Registry Office, in West Sussex, is opening for its first time on a Sunday, in response to popular demand, while Manchester registrars are gearing up to perform six weddings.
Brides-to-be include Ngaryan Li, 28, of Wigan, who will marry fiance Steven Higham, 26, in Manchester on 10/10/10.
Miss Li said: 'I am of Chinese origin and it's seen as a very good date. It means the perfect day.'
Many Las Vegas hotels are offering special 10.10.10 wedding packages and in China, the most popular ceremony slots, which fall between 10am and 10.10am, were snapped up months ago.
Others have the good fortune to celebrate their 10th birthday on the trinumeral - a date in which the day, month and year align.
Identical twins Elodie and Asha Lunniss, of Leigh-on-Sea, near Southend in Essex, will enjoy a trip to Pizza Express, followed by a visit to London to see the musical Wicked.
Also turning 10 tomorrow is Bethany Page, of Penrhyndeudraeth, near Porthmadog, North Wales.
She was born at 10pm after a 10-hour labour.
Her mother Lisa Birks, 34, said: 'If given the choice, we always pick the number 10, no matter what.
'Whether it's for a bonus ball or something similar, it's become our lucky number.'
Elsewhere in the world, mothers-to-be have scheduled their C-sections for tomorrow - a move that will make their child's birthday extra easy to remember.
In Dubai, one hospital has allowed ten women to choose the date for their Caesarean births.
More than 31,000 romantic couples are to get hitched this Sunday as the unique date proves to be the hottest day for a wedding this year.
Sonia Ducie, author of Numerology: Your Personal Guide For Life, said the number 10 has powerful properties - made all the more potent by repetition.
She said: 'Ten is the number for wisdom, because it contains the essence of all the numbers of one to nine within it.
'And the number one, which features three times in tomorrow’s date, is all about focus, new direction, raw energy and rebirth.
'It’s the perfect day to decide to go for a job interview because having all these number ones behind you will help achieve your goal.'
Matt Parker, the maths outreach co-ordinator at Queen Mary’s College, University of London, has been fascinated by dates ever since he went on a school trip on a certain date 21 years ago.
He said: 'I can remember where I was at 45 minutes past 11pm on July 6, 1989 – in other words at 23.45 6.7.89.
'It was very exciting. I remember stopping at that precise moment. In fact, it inspired me to be mathematician.
'We have an almost innate thirst for order. We love patterns and our brains are hard-wired to search for them.'
He believes that humans evolved this skill to help tame an otherwise dangerous and unpredictable world.
Early man quickly learned that particular crops grow well when their seeds are planted at a certain time of year.
'So our whole civilisation was built up on being able to spot patterns and then realising that we can use them to our advantage.'
The number 10 has religious significance, from the ten commandments to the ten plagues. While, in modern life, a size 10 is often seen as the perfect figure.
But no everyone believes tomorrow will be lucky, with the internet awash with fears that a computer virus could strike.
IT experts, however, say, that 10.10.10 is no more risky than any other day.
And, of course, claims made about other similar dates have failed to come to fruition.
Perhaps most importantly, the world failed to end on September 9th of last year, or 9.9.9, despite some interpretations of Nostradamus's predictions claiming it would.
And despite all the hype at the end of 1999, the millennium bug proved to be a damp squib.
Unfortunately for the superstitious, the next will be 10.10.10 won't be for 100 years.
So if you’re looking to strike it lucky, take the opportunity tomorrow to change your life - even if it is only putting a tenner on a horse called We Have A Dream to win the 2.35 at Goodwood.
Otherwise you’ll have to wait until the 10th of October 2110, when few of us are likely to still be around.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318877/Could-lucky-day-Or-10-10-10-prove-date-systems-grind-halt.html
Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:33 pm
