Dr. Friendly On The End Of The World

Dr. Friendly is a non-certified medical amateur, whose advice column appears exclusively in Hidden Blog.

Dr. Friendly,

I've been seeing this on Facebook recently:

"This year we will experience 4 unusual dates.... 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 ......... NOW go figure this out.... take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus the age you will be this year and it WILL EQUAL .... 111.."

How can that last part can be so....do you have any logical explanation? Or is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Right Brained Prophet


Prophet,

That rule assumes that everyone was born in the 1900's. How many years have passed since 1900? 111. Those 111 years can be split into two parts - the years before you were born and the years after.

So a few things to note:

- The same kind of thing will be true next year. In 2012, add the last two years of your birth year to your age and you'll get 112.

- The rule actually isn't true for anyone born before 1900. If I was born in 1899, then I turn 112 this year... and 99 + 112 = 211. Fortunately the odds are pretty decent that no 112 year olds are on Facebook.

- But the rule is also false for anyone born this century. And they're too young to have a Facebook account.

It's safe to say that there's nothing supernatural here. More likely it's a ploy to draw underaged illegals into revealing themselves as Facebook frauds. Perhaps you can peruse a few Nostradamus tomes to feed your desire for the end of the world.