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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?"

2 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. Yes I fnord have seen fnord some things by JohnQPublic · · Score: 0, Troll

    Once fnord you begin to fnord actively fnord notice visual fnord clues they fnord show up everywhere fnord. It's fnord sort of like fnord what happens when fnord you buy fnord a new car. All of fnord a sudden you fnord notice that fnord lots of people are fnord driving the same fnord car, more than fnord you ever noticed fnord before.

  2. Re:Kubrick promised us the Monolith... by cheese_wallet · · Score: 0, Troll

    No offense, but the fact that someone would suggest that the little yellow line on televised football games and touch-tone phones make up for the lack of commercial space flight is a good sign of exactly how lame the 21st century is turning out to be.

    Maybe you should get off your lazy ass and start doing something instead of waiting around for everyone else to do it for you.