Toynbee tiles
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Toynbee tiles are epoxy-based tiles found embedded in asphalt in several major cities in the United States with at least two known examples in South America as well. The tiles, about the size of a license plate, contain a somewhat mysterious inscription:
TOYNBEE IDEA IN KubricK's 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER.
The "toynbee" referred to in the text is almost certainly Arnold J. Toynbee, a famous historian. "kubrick" certainly refers to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, co-writer and director of 2001: A Space Odyssey. However the text as a whole does not appear to reference any particular idea, the concept of raising the dead is not a part of any of Toynbee's writings nor Kubrick's (although it could be weakly argued it did in the sequel to 2001, 2010: Odyssey Two, although that was not written nor directed by Kubrick). In fact any connection between either of the Toynbees and Kubrick is difficult to find.
The tiles, of which about 130 are known, appear to be the work of a single person. The majority contain text similar to that above, although a second set is often found nearby alluding to a mass conspiracy between the press (including newspaper magnate John Knight), the U.S. government, the U.S.S.R. (even in tiles seemingly made years after the Soviet Union's dissolution), and Jews. In addition the writing is of a similar style and poor quality.
The best theory to date on the tile's creator is that they are the work of James Morasco, a Philadelphia social worker, who was trying to interest the Philadelphia area newspapers on an idea similar to what is found on the tiles in the early 1980s. Morasco would have been in his 70s when most of the tiles were laid however. Mr. Morasco died in 2003.
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