-FANTASTIC WTC FOLKTALES-
Sept. 19, 2001
URBAN MYTHS SPREAD AFTER U.S. ATTACKS
NEW YORK, NY — Did you hear about the police officer who miraculously "surfed" debris down a collapsing World Trade Center tower? How about Satan's face revealed in smoke billowing from the doomed buildings? Spread by word of mouth and e-mail, a lot of dubious and outright false information has popped up since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." I think that people fall for this stuff because people are trying to make sense of these disasters — the idea that there's some idea or plan to these wrenching events," said Kevin Christopher of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal near Buffalo. Some of the tales that have circulated are the instant bits of folklore sometimes referred to as urban legends.One story describes a Port Authority officer caught high up in Trade Center tower as it collapsed, surviving by riding the debris all the way down.In one version of the story, he was on the 82nd floor and broke both his legs. Frank Pita, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said Tuesday the report is unconfirmed and the agency suspects it is not true.E-mails about Nostradamus, the 16th century French soothsayer credited by some with predicting Hitler's ascent and the French Revolution, now credit him with foreseeing the Trade Center attack. A version of one cited quatrain reads in part: "The third big war will begin when the big city is burning." And another reads: 'In the city of york there will be a great collapse.''Critics say Nostradamus wrote his predictions so vaguely that it is easy to retrofit facts to the prediction after an event. As for the quoted quatrains, Barbara Mikkelson, who with her husband runs the Urban Legends Reference Pages, said Nostradamus didn't write either one.
Another e-mail circulating sees the number 11 as significant. It notes that the attack occurred on Sept. 11. The first plane to strike the towers was Flight 11. Sept. 11 is the 254th day of the year and 2+5+4=11. Also, the towers resembled a big 11 before they were felled. Then there's the face in the smoke. Some have claimed the profile of a face can be made out in dark smoke above the Trade Center in an Associated Press photograph taken last week. This has been called "the face of Satan" on some Internet postings.Sceptics say the face is no different from someone seeing images in clouds — they are seeing patterns where there is randomness. Vin Alabiso, an AP vice president and the news cooperative's executive photo editor, has said that the photo was untouched and that the AP has a strict policy that prohibits the alteration of the content of a photo in any way.
FORGERY? WTC ANGEL? FLYING REPTILE? THUNDERBIRD?
SEVEN ELEVEN IT'S NOT!
Legend: Significance can be found in numbers relating to the September 11 terrorist attack on New York City.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1 = 11 September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11
After September 11th there are 111 days left to the end of the year.
119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran. 1 + 1 + 9 = 11 Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11 But ....There's More.......
State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union New York City - 11 Letters
Afghanistan - 11 Letters
The Pentagon - 11 Letters
Ramzi Yousef - 11 Letters (convicted of orchestrating the attack on the WTC in 1993)
Flight 11 - 92 on board - 9 + 2 = 11
Flight 77 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11
[Note: The telephone country code of 119 is used for neither Iran nor Iraq -- Iran's country code is 98, Iraq's is 964, and 119 is invalid. Also, American Airlines Flight 77 carried 64 people (58 passengers and 6 crew members), not 65; hijacked United Flight 175 had 65 people on board. ] 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 impossible 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 'tails' -- inevitably during a run of a thousand trials, there will be moments wherein the 'tails' tally varies significantly from the 'heads' count. Clumping can and does occur, and random numbers seemingly appear more often at various moments in time. Over the long run, of course, everything evens out. But at the moment when 13 comes up four times in a row on a roulette wheel, or 11 seems to jump off the page at one, it all seems so very eerie. There is nothing inherently portentious about the number 11. Other numbers such as 13, 7, 4, and 3 are strongly tied to a number of supersitions, both good and bad. But 11 is as innocuous a number as there could be. Another way of looking at the seemingly impressive array of 11s showcased in the widely circulated e-mail is:
Date of the attack: 11/9 11 - 9 = 2
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: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11 = 1 + 1 = 2
Telephone country code for Afghanistan: 93 9 * 3 = 27 93 - 27 = 56 = 5 + 6 = 11 = 1 + 1 = 2
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
Here the same event is shaken out to produce an equally impressive array of 2s, proving once again that patterns can be found in anything.
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