This kinda puts things into a completely different perspective from most of the ones that have been circulating.
By now everyone has been hearing the death toll rise and reports of the destruction from the terrorist attacks on the US. These were deplorable acts that we will never forget. But now is a time to look at the other side of the numbers coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The sad but somewhat uplifting side that the mainstream media has not reported yet - the SURVIVAL rates and some positive news about the attacks.

*** The Buildings ***

*The World Trade Center -
The twin towers of the World Trade Center were places of employment for some 50,000 people. With the missing list of just over 5,000 people, that means 90% of the people targeted survived the attack. A 90% on a test is an 'A.'

* The Pentagon -
Some 23,000 people were the target of a third plane aimed at the Pentagon. The latest count shows that only 123 lost their lives. That is an amazing 99.5% survival rate. in addition, the plane seems to have come in too low, too early to affect a large portion of the building. On top of that, the section that was hit was the first of five sections to undergo renovations that would help protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks. It had recently completed straightening and blastproofing, saving untold lives. This attack
was sad, but a statistical failure.

*** The Planes ***

* American Airlines Flight 77 -
This Boeing 757 that was flown into the outside of the Pentagon could have carried up to 289 people, yet only 64 were aboard. Luckily 78% of the seats were empty.

* American Airlines Flight 11 -
This Boeing 767 could have had up to 351 people aboard, but only carried 92. Thankfully 74% of the seats were unfilled.

* United Airlines Flight 175 -
Another Boeing 767 that could have seated 351 people only had 65 people on board. Fortunately it was 81% empty.

* United Airlines Flight 93 -
This Boeing 757 was one of the most uplifting stories yet. The smallest flight to be hijacked with only 45 people aboard out of a possible 289 had 84% of its capacity unused. Yet these people stood up to the attackers and thwarted a fourth attempted destruction of a national landmark, saving untold numbers of lives in the process.

*** In Summary ***
Out of potentially 74,280 Americans directly targeted by these inept cowards, 93% survived or avoided the attacks. That's a higher survival rate than heart attacks, breast cancer, kidney transplants and liver transplant - all common, survivable illnesses.

The Hijacked planes were mostly empty, the Pentagon was hit at it's strongest point, the overwhelming majority of people in the World Trade Center buildings escaped, and a handful of passengers gave the ultimate sacrifice to save even more lives.

I like to look at it from an additional perspective:
Not so much that the odds are against Terrorists -just like the Poor, we also will always have the Evil among us- but that our protective angels collectively spared the almost maximum amount of people possible and still gave us this wake up call to prepare, preserve and protect.

It seems, so unfortunately, that it took this horrible event to jar us into action on that front.
Heaven only knows the death toll our preventive actions will save from happening.

I've seen the trick you mentioned (my office manager showed me yesterday) and it is actually not new (at least the NY part).

About five years ago there was a media splash about the NY turning into, respectively, a skull & crossbones and a a Star of David. This was then presented as a "grand conspiracy" against the Jews in New York (sigh).

As for the other posts about the wingdings, Nostradamus, whatever, let's face it.. people have way too much free time. The cure for superstition is education. I suggest "Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

Thanks LE,
for YOUR unique perspective.