"TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOViE '2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER"

hot_pastrami · 09-08-2003, 03:20 PM

A recent article on Slashdot got me reading about the mysterious Toynbee tiles. I love this kind of shit. Tiles like the one pictured below have been mysteriously appearing, embedded in the asphalt surface of public roads, for years:

They are made of an unknown, very hard substance, and there are several variations of the text. Some have footnotes as strange as the message itself, such as "Murder every journalist, I beg you," and "Submit. Obey."

In 1992 a chap in Philidelphia by the name of Bill O'Neill starting noticing the tiles and asking around about them, but nobody knew anything. So, he created a website devoted to the mysterious tiles, and learned that it is not just a local phenomenon. Similar tiles have appeared in many US cities, including Washington DC, Pittsburgh, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, and many more. Some have even shown up in South America; in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

Somehow, someone is managing to embed these tiles into public roads without being spotted. They are installed in a way that would require some specialized equipment and some length of time, but no one has ever claimed to have spotted an installation in progress.

The tiles all mention Toynbee, a religious historian born in England in 1889. Some of the tiles mention Kubrick, the fimmaker responsible for 2001: A Space Oddysey, which was a movie that made implications that a man was reborn on a mission to Jupiter, not exactly resurrected. Kubrick's and Toynbee's works don't really seem to intersect anywhere, so it is an odd coupling.

The most tantalizing clue as to the source of these tiles was a 1983 newspaper interview with a social worker from Philidelphia, a man named James Morasco, who claimed that Jupiter could be colonized by bringing Earth's dead people there to have them resurrected. When writing an article on the tiles in 2001, one reporter stumbed upon the original article, found the link intruiging, and tried to call the man. A woman who answered said Mr. Morasco coldn't come to the phone because a mysterious ailment had required that he have his voicebox removed. Another reporter writing another story in 2003 tried to call the man and was told that he had died the previous March at age 88, but that he had known nothing about the tiles:

"My husband doesn't know anything about that. Besides he died in March. But he didn't know anything about it."

Very interesting. Particularly fitting is the last line of the original 1983 article on James Morasco:

"You may be hearing more from Morasco. And then again, you may not."

Elspode · 09-08-2003, 04:30 PM

Curiously, I posted this same topic over in Internet yesterday, after reading an article in our local rag...

http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3917

Great minds, and all that crap...

hot_pastrami · 09-08-2003, 05:51 PM

Oops, I made a rerun. Sorry all.

xoxoxoBruce · 09-08-2003, 09:06 PM

Good picture though, Pas.

Elspode · 09-08-2003, 10:46 PM

I'm not complaining...I was hoping people would check it out and perhaps relate their own opinions or experiences with these oddities.

e unibus plurum · 09-15-2003, 01:35 PM

The ghost of
Dr. Bronner

?

wolf · 09-16-2003, 01:41 AM

Yeah, but it's really good soap! (even if he was crazy)

Just always remember, though ... Dilute, Dilute, Dilute, okay!

(that is a man who takes cleanliness is next to godliness to an EXTREME!)

elSicomoro · 09-25-2003, 09:08 PM

I saw one of these in person for the first time today--at 13th and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia. I would have tried to get a better look at it, but it's in the middle of a busy street and it was the afternoon rush hour.

From what I did see of it, it looked like the one Alan posted. I don't remember the colors, but I do remember the words. And it appeared to be made out of the paint used by street crews.

Strange thing though...I wonder how many people are actually responsible for these. Is it one or two people...or is it one or two people followed by a bunch of copycats?

hot_pastrami · 09-26-2003, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore
I would have tried to get a better look at it, but it's in the middle of a busy street and it was the afternoon rush hour.

Nothing that a couple construction cones and a handsome flourescent orange vest couldn't take care of!

What I want is to claim one of the tiles when the road it's embedded in is due for some work. It would make a highly interesting home decoration, especially with some of the surrounding asphalt still attached. Spiffy.

Beestie · 09-26-2003, 09:30 PM

I lived at 22nd and Walnut for a year or so.

I find this whole episode very disturbing.

I mean, of all the planets - why Jupiter? Why??? What does this man know and when did he know it???

Seems like Saturn would be a much better place seeing as how Jupiter doesn't really have an actual physical surface and all.

This whole Toynbee thing reminds me of that dreadful movie with the dude in the Omen (Sam somethin' or other) where a space ship lost in the vicinity of Uranus mysteriously reappears decades later with scary stuff inside.

And as far as the mystery substance these tiles are made of - I have to think its CERAMIC but that's just a wild freakin' guess.

hot_pastrami · 09-26-2003, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Beestie
Seems like Saturn would be a much better place seeing as how Jupiter doesn't really have an actual physical surface and all.

Actually, Saturn is gaseous too. All the planets beyond Mars, except Pluto, are gaseous.

Quote:

Originally posted by Beestie
And as far as the mystery substance these tiles are made of - I have to think its CERAMIC but that's just a wild freakin' guess.

Many who have had the opportunity to examine the tiles think that they are made out of linoleum or something like it. But that's still only a guess.

wolf · 09-27-2003, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Beestie

This whole Toynbee thing reminds me of that dreadful movie with the dude in the Omen (Sam somethin' or other) where a space ship lost in the vicinity of Uranus mysteriously reappears decades later with scary stuff inside.

I believe that would be "Event Horizon." BrianR and I went to see it in a theatre, lo these many years ago ...

Beestie · 10-01-2003, 10:19 AM

I think I may have been misinterpreting the TOYNBEE message.

All along, I figured "resurrect dead people on planet Jupiter" meant take all the people on earth who have died and bring them back to life on Jupiter. As a side note - what a rude freakin' awakening that would be - one minute you are staring up at your loving family and the next minute, you are caught up in a 6,000 mile wide 5,000 year-old, 800mph methane tornado. Whoa.

Anyway, I just realized that there might be a second way to read it: "resurrect dead people on planet Jupiter" might mean to bring back to life the dead people who are already ON Jupiter. Now that raises a whole nuther series of questions that I will have to think about for a while

elSicomoro · 04-28-2004, 11:39 PM

I found two more in Philadelphia:

--the right hand lane of NB I-95 near the Girard Ave. exit
--the right hand lane of WB I-676 just past the Ben Franklin Pkwy. exit

How the FUCK did they get these onto two of the busiest highways in the area? These highways are busy 24-7!

glatt · 04-29-2004, 08:13 AM

OK.

I confess. I put them there after I graduated from college in '89.
I didn't have a job, and had all this left over material from my grandfather's contractor business. It's this sheet plastic/rubber that you heat up and stick to the road. Used for lines in parking lots, etc. You are supposed to embed those little reflective glass beads in it, but I didn't have any of those. I pulled the quote together from a dream I had about the book 2001, which I had just finished reading. Don't ask me about Toynbee. I don't want to go there. I had a lot of crazy ideas back then.

You will find my work (What's left of it) in D.C., Philly, and New York. I've heard of other copy cats, but they weren't mine.

I have a job now, and a real life, so I've abandoned them.

I was trying to become the next Cool "Disco" Dan, but didn't sign my work. So it never really caught on.

Application was easy. I had use of my grandfather's contractor's van. He had the orange cones, and the torches for heating up the material to make it stick. I was visiting friends in Philly and New York, and did those when I visited them. They can confirm my story. We did it together. I did DC myself.

09-08-2003, 03:20 PM	#1
hot_pastrami I am meaty Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 1,119	"TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOViE '2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER" A recent article on Slashdot got me reading about the mysterious Toynbee tiles. I love this kind of shit. Tiles like the one pictured below have been mysteriously appearing, embedded in the asphalt surface of public roads, for years: They are made of an unknown, very hard substance, and there are several variations of the text. Some have footnotes as strange as the message itself, such as "Murder every journalist, I beg you," and "Submit. Obey." In 1992 a chap in Philidelphia by the name of Bill O'Neill starting noticing the tiles and asking around about them, but nobody knew anything. So, he created a website devoted to the mysterious tiles, and learned that it is not just a local phenomenon. Similar tiles have appeared in many US cities, including Washington DC, Pittsburgh, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, and many more. Some have even shown up in South America; in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Somehow, someone is managing to embed these tiles into public roads without being spotted. They are installed in a way that would require some specialized equipment and some length of time, but no one has ever claimed to have spotted an installation in progress. The tiles all mention Toynbee, a religious historian born in England in 1889. Some of the tiles mention Kubrick, the fimmaker responsible for 2001: A Space Oddysey, which was a movie that made implications that a man was reborn on a mission to Jupiter, not exactly resurrected. Kubrick's and Toynbee's works don't really seem to intersect anywhere, so it is an odd coupling. The most tantalizing clue as to the source of these tiles was a 1983 newspaper interview with a social worker from Philidelphia, a man named James Morasco, who claimed that Jupiter could be colonized by bringing Earth's dead people there to have them resurrected. When writing an article on the tiles in 2001, one reporter stumbed upon the original article, found the link intruiging, and tried to call the man. A woman who answered said Mr. Morasco coldn't come to the phone because a mysterious ailment had required that he have his voicebox removed. Another reporter writing another story in 2003 tried to call the man and was told that he had died the previous March at age 88, but that he had known nothing about the tiles: "My husband doesn't know anything about that. Besides he died in March. But he didn't know anything about it." Very interesting. Particularly fitting is the last line of the original 1983 article on James Morasco: "You may be hearing more from Morasco. And then again, you may not." __________________ Hot Pastrami! Last edited by hot_pastrami; 09-08-2003 at 03:23 PM.

09-08-2003, 04:30 PM	#2
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	Curiously, I posted this same topic over in Internet yesterday, after reading an article in our local rag... http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3917 Great minds, and all that crap... __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog

09-08-2003, 05:51 PM	#3
hot_pastrami I am meaty Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 1,119	Oops, I made a rerun. Sorry all. __________________ Hot Pastrami!

09-08-2003, 09:06 PM	#4
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Good picture though, Pas. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

09-08-2003, 10:46 PM	#5
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	I'm not complaining...I was hoping people would check it out and perhaps relate their own opinions or experiences with these oddities. __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog

09-15-2003, 01:35 PM	#6
e unibus plurum garbage in, refuse out Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 98	The ghost of Dr. Bronner ?

09-16-2003, 01:41 AM	#7
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Yeah, but it's really good soap! (even if he was crazy) Just always remember, though ... Dilute, Dilute, Dilute, okay! (that is a man who takes cleanliness is next to godliness to an EXTREME!) __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

09-25-2003, 09:08 PM	#8
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	I saw one of these in person for the first time today--at 13th and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia. I would have tried to get a better look at it, but it's in the middle of a busy street and it was the afternoon rush hour. From what I did see of it, it looked like the one Alan posted. I don't remember the colors, but I do remember the words. And it appeared to be made out of the paint used by street crews. Strange thing though...I wonder how many people are actually responsible for these. Is it one or two people...or is it one or two people followed by a bunch of copycats?

09-26-2003, 09:30 PM	#10
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	I lived at 22nd and Walnut for a year or so. I find this whole episode very disturbing. I mean, of all the planets - why Jupiter? Why??? What does this man know and when did he know it??? Seems like Saturn would be a much better place seeing as how Jupiter doesn't really have an actual physical surface and all. This whole Toynbee thing reminds me of that dreadful movie with the dude in the Omen (Sam somethin' or other) where a space ship lost in the vicinity of Uranus mysteriously reappears decades later with scary stuff inside. And as far as the mystery substance these tiles are made of - I have to think its CERAMIC but that's just a wild freakin' guess. __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

10-01-2003, 10:19 AM	#13
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	I think I may have been misinterpreting the TOYNBEE message. All along, I figured "resurrect dead people on planet Jupiter" meant take all the people on earth who have died and bring them back to life on Jupiter. As a side note - what a rude freakin' awakening that would be - one minute you are staring up at your loving family and the next minute, you are caught up in a 6,000 mile wide 5,000 year-old, 800mph methane tornado. Whoa. Anyway, I just realized that there might be a second way to read it: "resurrect dead people on planet Jupiter" might mean to bring back to life the dead people who are already ON Jupiter. Now that raises a whole nuther series of questions that I will have to think about for a while __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

04-28-2004, 11:39 PM	#14
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	I found two more in Philadelphia: --the right hand lane of NB I-95 near the Girard Ave. exit --the right hand lane of WB I-676 just past the Ben Franklin Pkwy. exit How the FUCK did they get these onto two of the busiest highways in the area? These highways are busy 24-7!

04-29-2004, 08:13 AM	#15
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	OK. I confess. I put them there after I graduated from college in '89. I didn't have a job, and had all this left over material from my grandfather's contractor business. It's this sheet plastic/rubber that you heat up and stick to the road. Used for lines in parking lots, etc. You are supposed to embed those little reflective glass beads in it, but I didn't have any of those. I pulled the quote together from a dream I had about the book 2001, which I had just finished reading. Don't ask me about Toynbee. I don't want to go there. I had a lot of crazy ideas back then. You will find my work (What's left of it) in D.C., Philly, and New York. I've heard of other copy cats, but they weren't mine. I have a job now, and a real life, so I've abandoned them. I was trying to become the next Cool "Disco" Dan, but didn't sign my work. So it never really caught on. Application was easy. I had use of my grandfather's contractor's van. He had the orange cones, and the torches for heating up the material to make it stick. I was visiting friends in Philly and New York, and did those when I visited them. They can confirm my story. We did it together. I did DC myself.

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