Numbers guy

Published 12:01 am Saturday, May 21, 2011

Numbers guy

OK, so this Harold Camping guy says Armageddon will begin at 6 p.m. local time today. The 89-year-old preacher and radio broadcaster says he arrived at this prediction via a simple calculation: 4,990 + 2,011 – 1 = 7,000.

Who knew that all you need predict the end of

the world is third-grade arithmetic? Or that the exact date of the End Times can be predicted by a careful reading of your kid’s copy of “Let’s Have Fun With Math”?

(Those of us puzzled by Camping and his followers might consult another textbook: “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.”)

The Buzz boldly offers a prediction of our own: Pondering an unraptured world on Sunday morning, Camping will discover significance in another number: 7,734, punched into his H-P calculator, which is then turned upside down.

Arrrr: Johnny Depp says he’s game to play Jack Sparrow in a fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, unless the franchise gets derailed by poor box office returns or Judgment Day.

At 47, Depp isn’t getting any younger. In fact, the producers might as well give the role to the man who inspired it: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff