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Mystery Tiles From Around the World
puppetman writes "The Kansas City Star has an interesting story about Toynbee Tiles.
They show up embedded in streets, and can be found in the US (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Aberdeen, Edgewood, Washington, etc), Chile, Argentina and Brazil. They are made of "epoxy or super hard plastic that's actually inlaid in the asphalt itself."
The tiles invariably state, "Toynbee Ideas in Kubrick's 2001 Resurrect Dead On Planet Jupiter".
Sometimes there are secondary tiles that request people make more while others are of a more paranoid slant.
Toynbee was a religious historian who believed that "well-being of a civilization depends on its ability to respond successfully to challenges, human and environmental". There is even a Ray Bradbury book, The Toynbee Convector.
Toynbee.net has a link to a Usenet posting where someone ask's Kubrick's daughter if the man himself knew of the tiles.
To date, the origin of the tiles are a mystery. Any /.'ers able to provide the location of additional tiles, or perhaps clues for solving the mystery?"
For those who want to deny any and all knowlege about these so called "tiles"
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Hemos, why'd you pass it through as "Space"? OK, so there's a 2001 reference, so wouldn't "Movies" make more sense?
Given the serious slashdotting the cites sites have experienced, "Quickies" is right out. And were they accessible, they'd probably be mildly amusing, so perhaps "Entertainment" or "It's Funny. Laugh" should be the way to go. With so many links, you could've set it to "Links" or any number of other categories which aren't used anymore.
But space?
Well, completely pretending I didn't even read your second paragraph, I think the reason you don't have toilets in cities is because they've been getting on with bars charging a drink for the toilets for 300 years or so just fine. It seems weird once the government starts building rest areas on the highways, but cities have been holding bladders for ransom for as long as they've been around. Maybe drugs and bombs factor in on the negative whenever they bring up installing a few, but I think it's more important that there's just no critical need. If you get to pick between hiring a new cop or building a bathroom, I think you go with the cop. The wildlife'll make the sidewalk smell like piss anyway.
> you act like your disgust is normal.
I'll have to keep that line in mind for the next time I accidentally let one rip in an elevator. "Dry heaves? Bah! You act like your disgust is normal!"