Signs In The Heavens: | Comet Coincidences | Planets R Lining Up 4 U & Me |
Weird Weather | LaPlata Tornado, April 28, 2002 | Tornado Over DC Sept 24 2001 |
Synchronicity | How Many Chris Ms Are There? | New 2002 |
More 9-11 | Urban Legends |  Phoenix Rising

From 2001:  Aurora Alert! | 9-1-1 | Halloween

The photo above was taken from the observation deck of a nuclear power plant on the Chesapeake Bay, after the storm moved across water.  WHAT IF the storm track had been a few miles south and the power plant had been hit?

During the first week of June 2002, a made-for-TV movie was released called "Atomic Twister" about a tornado hitting a nuclear power plant.

Coincidence or synchronicity?  You decide.

More scary tornado pictures...

But this is NOT the first time southern Maryland has been hit by tornados.
A storm with very similar characteristics followed almost exactly the same path killing 15 people,
in 1926.....

More Weather Links:
My Weather Links page.
Tornado over DC, Sept 24, 2001.

When I lived in Philadelphia in the early 1980s, I went to the public library to apply for a library card.
They told me there was already a card issued in that name, but it was a children's card.  So I was aware
as early as 1982 that there was a little boy named Chris Mastrangelo running around South Philly.

Of course that was 20 years ago, so that boy is probably grown up now.  Maybe he was the
same Chris Mastrangelo who worked for Exxon Mobil in Malvern PA exactly one year before
*I* started working for Exxon Mobil in Fairfax Virginia in 2000?

When I started my current job at the Marine Base in Quantico Virginia, I naturally had to check out
the local diners.  In Quantico town, in the heart of the base, there is a little place called the "Five Fifteen."
The waitress, Donna, saw my name tag and said "Do you have a daughter who lives in Stafford?"
WHOA! First of all, my oldest daughter is only six, even though I look old enough to have a daughter who is grown.
But the amazing thing is- everywhere I go, there are Mastrangelos.

A "Google" internet search for "Chris Mastrangelo" reveals that there are even more CHRIS Mastrangelos
than you might imagine.
 
 

I was not the student at Brown University who wrote a comic strip called "Fluble" for the school newspaper.
Actually, that Chris M graduated in May 2001- I wonder what he is doing now?

His roommate at Brown was John Leen, and so far, John is the only one to return my emails.
They lived in "Tech House" - kind of like Hill House at Penn?  More like Geek Central!
Which is probably why *I* would have fit in there- if this had all happened ten years earlier.
These guys were all math and engineering majors from the Boston area.

In 1993, there was another Chris Mastrangelo who graduated from Colby College in Maine
and went on to graduate from Boston University Law School in 1995. I found that recently
while doing a Google search that found the Colby alumni newsletter for the class of 1993.
That's especially spooky, since I grew up within walking distance of the BU campus,
and in the early nineties, another Chris Mastrangelo was hanging in my old neighborhood.
And look, I found a photo of him from 1999!

Could that be the same Chris Mastrangelo who is currently a physical education teacher at
the Galvin School in Wakefield, Massachusetts?  Probably not- if you had a law degree would you coach hockey?

There is a Christina Mastrangelo who is an assistant  professor of systems engineering at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  I was in Charlottesville in July during our summer vacation.
A recent issue of the Inside UVa online magazine says that she commutes to northern Virginia to
teach a seminar at the UVa satellite campus. which  is within 3 miles of my house.
Maybe I will run into her one of these days in Merrifield?  Maybe I already have and didn't know it?!?!

If I meet one of the other Chris Mastrangelos in real life, will the universe annihilate itself?
Or will we have to duel forever in a closed dimensional portal to prevent identical atoms
of matter and anti-matter from colliding outside the containment chamber?

Rock of Ages?
There is a Rocco Mastrangelo who graduated in May 2001 with a degree in finance from Penn State University.
According to the PSU Collegian, he started a new job in... Bethesda Maryland!
So it is entirely possible that I could run into this guy!?

But that's not even the weird part. Email me and I will send you more details! STAY TUNED!!

Pay Dirt 2002!
I found an actual photograph of one of the "others."

One of the other "Chris Mastrangelos" is in this wedding picture.  He is kneeling in the middle of the photo next to the blond woman's elbow.  I found this picture of the "Margaret and Scott Sanel" wedding taken in September 1999 on the Colby Alumni website...  Colby College Alumni Gatherings- Wedding Photos

P.S. What if?
What if you searched online and found your own obituary?!?  It's like a "Twilight Zone" episode!
Use Ctrl-F to search for "Mastrangelo."

If you fold the $20 bill a certain way, one side of the bill resembles the burning WTC towers, while the other side looks like the burning Pentagon.  This is evidently "for real..."
http://www.tuppersaussy.com/HTMFILES/Annu20.htm

This version shows the folding instructions a little clearer...
http://www.allbrevard.net/

Jackie from Chicago points out that when you fold the bill as instructed, you get something that looks a paper airplane, and one sied says "United" and the other "America" - the airlines of the planes that hit the building (OK, at least one was an "American" airlines flight).

My question is - who was the guy with the time on his hands who after a few beers at a bar started folding his $20 bills and figured this out??  BUY THAT MAN ANOTHER ROUND.

More Urban Legends
Chicago Area Apparitions

By far the funniest cartoon I have seen in a LONG time...

The "Phoenix Memo" is a TRUE story which has taken on legendary status.  It was only recently that I realized that the name referred to the city in Arizona with the FBI field office of the agent who wrote the memo.  Prior to that I had poetic visions of the Phoenix firebird rising out of the ashes of ground zero.

In retrospect, the year 2001 will be the year when it was determined that the two government agencies that were really "asleep at the wheel" were the INS and the FBI, both of which are being reorganized.  And that can only be a good thing.

Another recent development is that law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, will now have permission to monitor activities inside religious institutions, libraries, etc.  Maybe if the ruling had come sooner the FBI would have responded differently to my phone call when I practically gift-wrapped the location of the meeting place of the Muslim extremists in northern New Jersey.

The New Jersey Connection?

Comet Ikeya-Zhang was discovered February 1, 2002, and by late March was a naked eye object easily seen from most of the northern hemisphere.  While no where near as impressive as previous comets Hale-Bopp or Hyakutake, it was a very photogenic comet for astronomers with small to medium size telescopes.

On the day of the comet's closest approach to earth, the Queen Mother passed away in England.

Coincidence or synchronicity?? You decide.

Sungrazer Caught On Video From Space
In early January, 2002, periodic comet 96P/Machholz put on a dazzling show as it swung by the Sun.  On Jan. 8th, the comet was only 0.12 AU from our star -- even closer to the Sun than Mercury. During the fiery encounter sunlight warmed and melted part of the comet's icy nucleus; dusty vapors formed a long tail.  The passage near the sun was "caught on video" by teh SOHO spacecraft orbiting beyond the moon.

Links
Find Comets Online, Win Cool Prizes
Comet IZ Photo Gallery
Comet Machholz Animation.

In April and May 2002, the planets put on a beautiful display in the evening sky after sunset.  A story ran on AP linking this planetary conjunction to the alignment in 2 B.C. that may have been interpreted as the star of Bethlehem.  Many news outlets picked up the story, and local radio stations aired interviews with several prominent astronomers and planetarium directors.  At least one professional astronomer was heard on air to say that during the first week of May 2002, the planets would form a pyramid in the sky above Bethlehem as seen from the Middle East.  In fact, the triangle alignment could be seen from anywhere on earth, as shown in the picture above taken at Stonehenge in England.

During Easter/Passover week, Israeli Defense Forces invaded key cities in the West Bank after a number of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians. On April 2,  in Bethlehem, two hundred armed men sought shelter in the Church of the Nativity, traditionally considered to have been the birthplace of Jesus 2000 years ago.  The Palestinians remained barricaded inside the church for 39 days as an international coalition negotiated their withdrawal.  On the dawn of the 40th day, the gunmen emerged, some to be taken into exile, others taken to Gaza to be released.  It was May 10, 2002, the day of the closest alignment of planets.
Coincidence or synchronicity?? You decide.

As the planets came into alignment, solar flares and "Coronal Mass Ejections" (CMEs) continued on the sun, as they did during most of 2000 and 2001.  The SOHO spacecraft, orbiting one of the Lagrangian points beyond the orbit of the moon, continues to capture photos like the amazing image above on it's wide field coronagraph camera.

Links:
Astronomy Picture of the Day Calendar for May 2002
Planet Photo Gallery from Spaceweather.com
A

The thumbnails above will link to various "Astronomy Picture of the Day" selections from January to June 2002.

Incredibly Strange Coincidences 2000 | 2001 | Q1/Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | 9-11

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