SFGate - The Last Days of Privacy
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Within the next four months, a major Bay Area supermarket chain plans to introduce a payment system that uses biometric fingerprint authentication to verify customers' identities. Under this system, shoppers in checkout lines won't need to use cash, checks, debit cards or credit cards. Instead, they can place their fingers on scanners that read fingerprints, and once the device links to their bank or credit card accounts, they can buy groceries, get cash back and do everything else shoppers do.

This report is about a biometric payment technology called Pay By Touch and it also discusses ID theft and the trade-off between privacy and convenience. While this system is not the Biblical "mark of the beast" (Rev 13:16-18) it is a reflection of the wider trend in making payments and identity verification more secure.

Financial Times - US monitors global financial transfers
The Financial Times (UK) reports, "Tens of thousands of electronic searches have been conducted under a secret US programme to monitor global financial transfers for signs of terrorist activity, the official in charge of the programme has told the Financial Times."

Comment: This is a trend that is certain to continue. There must be a capability to monitor financial transactions and impose transparency on governments as well as individuals.

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression.
- Justice William O. Douglas

News.com - Facing biometrics' limits
CNET reports, "It may be championed as the highest level of security, but biometrics isn't ready for wide deployment as a consumer application, a new report says. According to Financial Insights, a subsidiary of research company IDC, biometric deployment will grow significantly over the coming years, but its upward climb will be limited for use within a bank's internal security network."

Yahoo News - China walks out of encryption meeting
AP reports, "An international dispute over a wireless computing standard took a bitter turn this past week with the Chinese delegation walking out of a global meeting to discuss the technology. [...] At stake is a leg-up in technology research and billions of dollars in licensing fees and component sales for laptops, mobile phones, handheld computers and other wireless devices that connect to wireless networks around the world, including hotels, coffee shops and universities."

Yahoo News - Banking on credit cards at the ballpark
AP reports, "The Texas Rangers hope to boost hot dog and beer sales this summer not only with a better team but with an innovation at the concession stands — swipe-free credit-card terminals."

Yahoo News - Curiosity, humor surround June 6, 2006
AP reports, "There's a devilishly odd nexus of theology, mathematics and commercialism on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year."

Comment: This news report is noteworthy because it contains a helpful primer on the history and interpretations of the Biblical "mark of the beast." There is much that the report leaves out, so here are a few questions you may wish to consider in your study of this important prophecy: Who imposes the mark of the beast? What happens to people who do not accept the mark of the beast? What happens to people who do accept the mark?