Jeffrey Tobasky isn't into conspiracy theories. He doesn't care about the grassy knoll. Thinks people who claim they were abducted by UFOs are full of it and doesn't ever scan the horizon looking for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
But waiting in line at Dunkin' Donuts in Dorchester this week, he raised an eyebrow when handed a US$20 bill folded to show a bizarrely accurate image of the burning World Trade Center towers. Tobasky pursed his lips: "Damn, that's weird. I mean, that really is weird."
PHOTO: NY TIMES
The US$20 bill trick -- if that's the right word for it -- is also being done, to a lesser extent, with US$10 and US$50 bills, and has been spreading by word of mouth and over the Internet for at least a month. Whether coincidence or conspiracy, it's become something of a comment on the American psyche since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The trick goes back at least as far as a party in Melbourne, Florida, last month. Warren Dodd, who designs commercial Web sites, got together with about 20 friends on a Saturday to watch a NASCAR race on television. After a few laps, the race was rained out and Dodd walked out to the porch with a few friends. One of them pulled out a twenty, folded it lengthwise to hide the face of Andrew Jackson. Then, she folded the bill diagonally from the center point on the crease so it looked like an arrow -- or an airplane -- and there, clear as day, were the smoking Trade Center towers. Dodd turned the folded bill over and there was an image resembling the blown up Pentagon.
"I was really amazed," said Dodd, 47. "I mean, what are the odds?"
He showed a few friends and they were equally intrigued, so he decided to put it on a commercial Web site (www.allbrevard.net) to show friends out of state. After he posted it, he mentioned it on a computer user group. The next day, his site had 35,000 hits. The day after that it doubled to 70,000 and then doubled again and again, until it was getting about 250,000 hits a day. Since the posting about a month ago, the site has received more than 2 million hits, some from as far away as China and Israel. "It's gotten about the same exposure as a Super Bowl ad," Dodd said.
The responses on the site break down into three basic categories of roughly equal proportions: The people who, like Dodd and Tobasky, think the image is just a weird coincidence; those who think it's a sign that the government -- or God -- knew the attacks were coming; and those who think posting the image is sacreligious, wrong or at the very least, in bad taste. Tens of thousands also ask the question: "Who figured this out?" And thousands more have answered: "Someone with too much time on their hands."
Apocolypse now
Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates in Somerville, Massachusetts and an expert on conspiracy theories, isn't at all surprised the image has spread so far so fast.
The roots of apocalyptic thinking in America, he said, go back to the 17th century. Whenever fear mixes with uncertainty, huge numbers of Americans fall back on simple stories of good versus evil. Unrelated objects and dates -- like Y2K or the fall of the Soviet Union -- are transposed into powerful end-of-the-world symbols.
The World Trade Center image is just the latest incarnation of this phenomena, Berlet says. Secret messages have been "discovered" in US currency for decades. When the Treasury Department redesigned paper money six years ago, "The 700 Club," a cable show led by televangelist Pat Robertson, reported that the government secretly implanted bills with the numbers 666, the so-called mark of the beast, Berlet said.
The US$20 can also be folded (like an accordion) to show the word "OSAMA" or (twice over Andrew Jackson's eyes) an erupting volcano. And the words "Novus Ordo Seclorum" under the pyramid on a US$1 bill are believed by some to translate into the words "New World Order."
Jim Hagdorn at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving has heard them all and fields questions with a voice hovering between fatigue and exasperation.
"People at the Bureau take great pride in their work and are very proud of the way the White House looks on the US$20 bill," Hagedorn said last week. "We feel really bad that this is being used to highlight the tragedy."
For Berlet its mostly amusing.
"Give me enough beer and I'll show you Donald Duck being sworn in as president on the dollar," he said.
"The point is you can do this all day and you can take any denomination and come up with pretty much whatever you want."
But for every self-styled realist who perceives the image as silly, there is someone else who isn't quite sure. Just ask Darrell Andersen, who bought lunch at D'Angelo's this week, about the same time Tobasky was patronizing the Dunkin Donuts next door.
"I think the government knew the attacks were coming, no doubt," Andersen said after he was shown the bill. "I think they know a lot things they don't tell us."
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares