Old Wives' Tales
Radio & TV
Toxin du jour
Claim: Significance can be found in numbers relating to the
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2001]
Origins: It is but human nature to search for patterns even where none exist. We attempt to impose a gestalt on randomness because chaos is difficult to comprehend, hence our fascination with recurrent themes. We feel something of great import is going on if a particular number comes up time and again, and we are unsettled by it.
And yet, it's all randomness. That is not to say that at times any number plucked from the air will not appear more often than is the norm because such clumpings are only an expected part of the process of random distribution. Even though a flipped coin comes up heads five hundred times out of a thousand, it does not follow that each 'head' occurrence is immediately followed by a
And in the example cited at the head of this page, the repeated occurrence of 11 isn't even really an amazing string of multiple random occurrences but rather a contrived and manufactured method of producing a desired result. One simply chooses only the elements that fit the intended pattern and ignores the rest (e.g., many of the other significant phrases associated with the 9/11 attacks on America, such as "World Trade Center," "American Airlines," "United Airlines," or "Washington, D.C." aren't spelled using eleven letters, so they aren't included), manipulates the elements however necessary (e.g., the digits in "9/11" are added to produce a result of eleven, but the digits in "111" are left alone because the result of a similar addition would be three, not eleven), and glosses over inconvenient details (e.g., neither Iraq nor Iran has 119 as its telephone
Another way of looking at the seemingly impressive array of elevens showcased in the widely circulated
Date of the attack: 11/9; 11 - 9 = 2Or, as Internet wag Dave Pawson expressed it:
Date of the attack: September 11 = 1 + 1 = 2
Year of the attack: 2001 = 2 + (0*0*1) = 2 + 0 = 2
September 11th is the 254th day of the year:
Telephone country code for Afghanistan: 93
World Trade Center: 2 towers
World Trade Center attacked by: 2 airplanes
Each airplane: 2 wings
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11: 1 + 1 = 2
New York = 2 words
The Pentagon = 2 words
Ramzi Yousef = 2 words
Oh my God! How worried should I be? There areLast updated: 11 December 2005
Wait a sec ... just realized "YOU CAN'T HIDE" also has
Oh crap, there must be someplace on the planet Earth I could hide! But no ..."PLANET EARTH" has
Maybe Nostradamus can help me. But dare I trust him? There are
I know, the Red Cross can help. No they can't...
I would rely on self defense, but "SELF DEFENSE" has
Anyone? If so, send me email. No, don't... "SEND ME EMAIL" has
Will this never end? I'm going insane! "GOING INSANE???" Eleven letters!!
Nooooooooooo!!!!!! I guess I'll die alone, even though "I'LL DIE ALONE" has
Oh my God, I just realized that America is doomed! Our Independence Day is July 4th ... 7/4 ... 7+4=11!
PS. "IT'S BULLSHIT" has
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