List of All Articles with Tag 'an'

Since Instagram’s text-based alternative to Twitter, Threads, rolled out last week, a handful of memes and conspiracy theories have surfaced around the app’s unusual ‘at symbol’-like logo – from the inaccurate suggestion it was predicted by The Simpsons (it wasn’t), and now, to claims it’s actually linked to the devil (it isn’t). The baseless theory - seemingly backed by Twitter owner Elon Musk himself, if his public tweet likes are anything to go by – suggests the swirly icon secretly contains the number ‘666’, often referred to as “the number of the beast” and considered a link to the Antichrist. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Claiming they “can’t stop seeing it”, one Twitter user asked: “Does anyone else think the Threads logo just looks like 666? The first 6 is forward and white, then the second one is smaller and backwards, and the third one is the black space inside.” “How to put 666 ‘the number of the beast’ into a logo,” wrote another, in a tweet liked by Musk. Several other accounts have branded Threads “satanic” over the supposed link. In fact, the baseless claim became so popular that Instagram boss Adam Mosseri shared a thread on Friday explaining the real meaning behind the logo. “The Threads logo, in Instagram Sans, is inspired by the @ sign, which stands for someone’s username, the individual, and voice. “It’s a single unbroken line, inspired by the loop seen in the app when a thread is started,” he wrote. When one user commented that it “would have been entertaining” if Mosseri jokingly confirmed the conspiracy to be true, the exec replied: “It was tempting, but I feel like that kind of sass would just blow up in my face.” Sensible. Of course, this is just one fact which dispels this conspiracy theory as nonsense and baseless, but one lesser-known bit of historical trivia also exposes just how outlandish the claim is. All the way back in 2005, it was reported that a newly discovered fragment of the oldest version of the New Testament – the second part of the Bible – from the third century gave a different number entirely for the number of the beast. Found in historic dumps near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, the text from the Book of Revelation indicates it’s not 666 which is the fiendish number we should all be fearing, but the far less aesthetically pleasing 616. Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, said: “This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people’s names. “Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula.” This is in contrast to the far more popular 666, which is understood to have referred to Emperor Nero. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI China's passenger vehicle sales fell in June, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on

ZURICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 10, 2023--

By Matteo Allievi (Reuters) -European shares recovered from early losses on Monday, as gains in oil and insurance stocks offset

LONDON Top cryptocurrency bitcoin could reach $50,000 this year and $120,000 by the end of 2024 Standard Chartered

SHANGHAI China's IPO applications slumped by a third in the first half of 2023, as earnings volatility, a

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 10, 2023--

Polish guards describe their concerns over Russia's Wagner group and the threat of unpredictability.

Harry Maguire has taken action over the summer to try and win back his place at Manchester United.

BERLIN Investor morale in the euro zone sank more than expected in July, hitting a low not seen

Nato, the West's defensive alliance, is drawing up plans to combat Russia if it attacks a member.

SHANGHAI General Motors Co on Monday cut the starting price for the Cadillac Lyriq in China by almost