Via boing boing: Mysterious ‘Toynbee tiles’ with cryptic graffitti have been spotted inlaid into the asphalt of city streets in more than twenty American cities since the late ’80’s. A reporter who stumbles upon one (forgive me) at a Kansas City intersection does some investigative work on the messages, which involve historiography, the planet Jupiter, Kubrick’s ‘2001’ (his daughter says Kubrick was unaware of the phenomenon) and some nasty ideas about Jews and journalists. Speculation, but nothing probative, about what they might mean. The Kansas City Star Among other things, he discovers a web site devoted to the tiles, with a database of known sightings. I’m disappointed; they range up the Eastern seaboard but not as close to me as New England, as well as the Midwest and two South American cities. Has any FmH reader seen one? If you discover a Toynbee tile not noted in the database, the author asks that you contact him.