Love Story!!!

This is a story of Parul and Rahul. Parul, a 25-year old workaholic who is working in a software firm. Parul came to office at 9 or 10 in the morning and left at 11 or 12 at night. Even on weekends she would come down to office. She had no social life, no friends. The only people she use to be with were her project mates. But there was no assurance that she would be having her lunch or tea with them. Basically she was all a loner. There was no love life in her life and she had no time for love. All her time was devoted to work

Rahul, use to be a workaholic like Parul 2 years back. But now things had changed. He was no more workaholic but still he use to stay in office. Office had become home for him.

One night while Parul was all alone and working at the office a mail popped up in her mailbox. The name of the sender was Rahul Mehra. She had not met him, never heard about him. Just out of curiosity she checked his mail. The content of the mail was

Hi Parul,

I see you every night sitting in the office till very late. Don't you have friends? Don't you feel like talking to your roommate?
You should not sit very late in the office. this is a genuine advice from me.

Thanks,
Rahul Mehra

After reading the mail, Parul was very angry on the sender. She simply deleted the mail and said to herself "who is he to give me any advice?". She again got back to her work.

After that night, every night Rahul would keep sending her mails and Parul would simply delete them without even reading the content of the mail. But one fine night the subject line attracted her and she had to open the mail. The subject line of the mail was "Hi Gorgeous"

Hi Gorgeous,

Yes today you are looking very gorgeous in this red saree. I know you don't read my mails as you don't like the advices I give you.
So today I wont give you any advice, I will just say that I am love with you. You know you are very beautiful and if you take care of yourself many men will fall in love with you.
I am sure someday you will also fall in love with me. And then we will go out for a date.
Oh before I end the mail I must tell you that the best thing about is that smile. Or is it those intense which needs some sleep at the moment.

Take care dear.
Love you.
Rahul Mehra.

After reading the mail she was shocked. A person she had never met, never seen, never spoke to was saying that he was in love with her. She started thinking was this always in his mind. How did he get her id? Where had he seen her? Many questions like this came in her mind. Finally she thought of giving a warning and replied to his mail.

Hi Rahul,

I don't want to spoil your career but if you don't stop sending me mails I will raise an ASHI against you.

Thanks and Regards,
Parul Jain

After this mail, the mails from Rahul stopped coming in Parul's inbox. She thought that finally Rahul has got scared and wont be mailing her again.
After several nights, Parul was resting on her chair and her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes she saw Rahul's mail in her mailbox.

Hi Gorgeous,

With your closed eyes you were dreaming about me, right? Oh sorry for not sending any mails in the last few days.
I was a little busy. I am sure you would have missed me a lot.
One more thing before I forget I want to say that I am not scared of ASHI. An ASHI cant be a reason to stop loving you.

Love you.
Rahul Mehra

Parul was twisting her hair and putting them behind her ears. At that moment itself another mail came from Rahul,

Now stop playing with your hair and leave the office. it is very late.

Love.
Rahul Mehra

Parul was shocked as to how did this person know what she was doing on her desk. She got up to check whether anyone was there in her floor but could find only empty cubicles. She thought maybe he made a wild guess
and decided to leave the office. before leaving she saw another mail from Rahul.

Hi Parul,

Searching for me??? You have started falling in love with me. J

Love you.
Rahul Mehra

Parul was shocked and scared to hell. She simply switched off her machine and ran outside the office. in the next few days she would not open any mails sent by Rahul. One night a mail with subject line "Don't be scared of me" came to her mailbox. First she thought to ignore the mail then she thought lets see what has Rahul written this time.

Hi Parul,

Don't be scared of me. I can say that you are scared of me because of the way you ran out from the office the last time you read my mail.
I know few minutes back you had gone to have coffee. You are thinking how I know this because I can feel you around me.
Only once you also start feeling me you will know that I am near to you. Very near. Just sitting next to you.
I will wait for the night when you start having the same feelings for me.

Will always love you.
Rahul Mehra

Now Parul started thinking was Rahul really in love with her? What he was saying was it true? But how could he know so much about her? How could he say what she was doing and what not? Parul thought lets give a try and see whether Rahul is always in love with her or not. From that night she also started replying to his mail.

Hi Parul,

Do you feel bad if I call you gorgeous?

Love you.
Rahul Mehra

Parul's reply:

Yes Rahul. I don't like this word.
You can address me as Parul, isn't it short and simple. and I love my name a lot.

Thanks and Regards,
Parul Jain

Rahul's reply:

Point noted Parul. But when I am happy, excited I would call you with some special name at that time.

Tomorrow you have your certification so all the best for that.

Love you.
Rahul Mehra

Parul was again shocked as to how does he know about her certification. She had never told him. She replied

Rahul,

Who is the person who is giving you details about me? I had not told you about my certification how do you know it?

Thanks and regards,
Parul Jain

Rahul replied back to her

I know it because I in front of you. Cant you see me? Cant you feel me close to you?
I also know that after 3 days you have your appraisal. Now this you have not told anyone. Just your PM knows about it.
Do you think your PM will give me all these details?

Love you.
Rahul Mehra

Parul not sure of the answer. She knew her PM would not have told Rahul all this but how did Rahul know so much about her was a mystery for her. Finally she thought she will talk to her PM, Rohan.

Next day, she went to her PM's desk. "Hi Rohan. I wanted to ask you something".
Rohan:- "Sure Parul. are you having any issues?"
Parul:- "No. actually I wanted to know about a person named Rahul Mehra."
Rohan was shocked on hearing that name. PM:- "How did you come across this name. has anyone told you about him?"
Parul:- "No one has said anything to me about him. Few days back he started sending me e-mails. First I ignored but then he would give such details which I did just few minutes back. He even knows my appraisal
date."
Rohan (even more shocked):- "Are you sure you got mails from Rahul Mehra only?"
Parul:- "Yes very much. But why do you looked shock?"
Rohan:- "Because Rahul Mehra died 2 years back. He use to sit at the same place where you are sitting. How can a dead person send mails to you."
Parul was shocked. She didn't know how to react to this.
Rohan:- "If you don't believe me then you can try finding his name in the telephone directory. Maybe someone told you about him and because of work stress you started imagining that he is sending you mails."
Parul:- "I am not imagining anything. He has really send me a mail. I can show you in my mailbox."
Rohan:- "Okay Parul I believe you but still I think you should take a break and go home."

Parul was still in shock with the news she got from Rohan. She just did a search on telephone directory for a name with Rahul Mehra and page returned no records. She again checked the mail id and employee number details. She did a search many times that day by putting various combinations but the search page displayed the same message "No matches found for the given search criteria". She could not believe that someone could hack the system and send mails to her from a non-existing id. She attached the mails sent by Rahul and sent it to Rohan as a proof that she was not dreaming.

On seeing the attached mails even Rohan was in shock. He came to Parul's desk. Rohan :- "I think by mistake his id has not been deleted and someone who knows about it is playing with it."

Parul:- "But I checked the details on telephone directory there are no records available for this id."
Rohan:- "Talk to the CCD people and see what they have to say."

She called up the CCD people. They took control over her system and looked at the mail sent by Rahul Mehra. The mail was sent from the from the same computer which Parul was using. The time stamp at which the mails were sent Parul had logged in. Also there was no evidence that a remote desktop connection was made or mail was sent through web mail. Even the CCD people were clueless as to how a mail has been sent from a non-existing id and from Parul's system itself. There were no viruses or Trojans or any other kind of threats on Parul's system. Her anti-virus was up to date. The whole day was gone in finding a loophole as to how did Parul get such a mail in her mailbox. Parul was tired from the day's happening and so she decided to leave early from the office that day.

The next day when Parul came back, she saw a mail from Rahul Mehra. She didn't know whether she should delete that mail or read that mail. She was scared to open the mail. Somehow she gained some courage and opened
the mail. The context of the mail was:-

Hi Parul,

Good to see that you left the office early tonight. I know Rohan told you about my death.
I was also a workaholic like you. I would sit late in the office, even when no one was around me.
I just being at office. I had no friends, no social life. Even on weekends I would use to come to office.
I missed all the fun in my life. Even my death happened at office while I was working.
My dead body was found by the house keeping guy and the security guard at the reception.
I took a lot of work stress which my conscious mind could not bear that day. I ignored all the health problems I was having.
And finally on that night (20. 10. 07, 11:24 PM) all these reasons became responsible for my death.
Now you know why I am not scared of ASHI.
But yes if I was alive then also I wont be scared of ASHI because I have really fallen in love with you but we cant be together until your death.
Now the choice is yours whether you will kill yourself on your own or whether I need to do the honors.
Waiting for your death. Love you always.

Rahul Mehra

Some love stories have ghost in it..!

--Courtesy: Internet!

Human Brain Analysis...

Women - Multiple process
Women's brains designed to concentrate multiple task at a time.
Women can Watch a TV and Talk over phone and cook the new recipe.

Men - Single Process
Men's brain designed to concentrate only one work at a time. Men can not watch a TV and talking in phone same time. He stops the TV while Talking. He can either watch TV or talk over phone or cook.

LANGUAGE.
Women can easily learn many languages. Her brain set up. But can not find the solutions to problems Men can not easily learn languages; he can easily solve the problems.
3 year old gal has three times higher vocabulary than 3 year old boy.

ANALYTICAL SKILL
Men's brain has lot of space for handling the analytical process. So easily he can analyze and find the solution for a process.
He can design (blue print) a map of a building easily.
If a complex map is viewed by women, she can not understand it. She can not understand the details of the map easily. For her it is dump of lines in a paper.

MAP
Men can easily locate the place in a complex map. His analytical brain does this. While watching a cricket match in a stadium with full of crowd, men can leave his seat to T shop and keeps everything in his mind and comes back to his seat with out problems. He uses his analytical skills space of brain.
Women can't do this. They often lost their way to their seat.

CAR DRIVING.
While driving a car, men's analytical spaces are used in his brain. He can drive a car fastly. If he see an object at long distance, immediately his brain classifies the object (bus or van or car) direction and speed of the object and driving accordingly. Where as women take a long time to recognize the object direction/ speed. His single process mind stops the audio in the car (if any), then concentrating only on the driving.
You can often watch, while men driving the car fastly, the women sit next to him will shout, "GO SLOW" , "CARE FULL", "AAHHH", "OHH GOD.." .etc..
WOMEN ARE "THE BEST" DRIVERS

LIE
Many times, when men lie to women face to face, they got caught easily. Her super natural brain observe the facial ex-pression 70%, and the body language 20% and the words comes from mouth 10%. So he is easily caught while lieing.
Men's brain does not have this.
Women easily lie to men face to face.
So guys, While lieing to your girls, use phone, or letter or close all the lights or cover your/her face with blanket.
Don't lie face to face.

PROBLEM.
End of day, if men have lot of problems, his brain clearly classifies the problems and put into individual rooms of brain, the problems in individual room of brain and finding the solution one by one. You can see many guys looking on the sky's for a long times. If you disturb him, he gets irritated.

End of Day, if women have lot of problems, her brain can not classify the problems. she wants someone to hear that. After telling everything to a person she goes happily to bed. She does not worry abt the problem solved or not.

WANTS
Men want status, success, solutions, big process... etc Women want relationship, friends, family...etc...

UNHAPPY
If women unhappy with their relations, she can not concentrate on work.
If men unhappy with their work, he can not concentrate on the relations.

LIFE
Life is very easy to Men. One good job, one alcohol bottle is enough for him.
Women want everything in life.

SPEECH
Women use indirect languages in speech.
Geetha asked Vijay, "Vijay do you like to have a cup of coffee?"
This means, Geetha really want a cup of coffee.
In the morning......."Darling, do you think, will it be good to have an Omlette for breakfast"
Men use direct language. "Geetha, I want to have a cup of coffee, Pls stop the car when you see a coffee shop".
In the morning...."Darling, Can you please prepare an omelet for breakfast".

HANDLING EMOTION
Women talk a lot without thinking, if they are in emotion.
Men act a lot without thinking. That's why many of prisoners are men all over the world.

COMMITMENT
Men gets committed if you say he is your friend… that’s just enough.
Women suspects everything and everyone. Rarely commits even after marriage.

The Sailing Stones...of Death Valley

The sailing stones, also referred to as sliding rocks or moving rocks, are a geological phenomenon found in Racetrack Playa, Death Valley. The stones are assumed to slowly move across the surface of the playa, inferred from the long tracks behind them, without human or animal intervention. They have neither been seen nor filmed in motion and are not unique to The Racetrack. Similar rock travel patterns have been recorded in several other playas in the region but the number and length of travel grooves on The Racetrack are notable.

Racetrack stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for just three or four years. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks while those with smooth bottoms wander. Stones sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different-sized track in the stone's wake.

Description

Tracks are sometimes not rectilinear.Most of the so-called 'sailing stones' originate from an 850 foot (260 m) high hillside made of dark dolomite on the south end of the playa, but some are intrusive igneous rock from adjacent slopes (most of those being tan-colored feldspar-rich syenite). Tracks are often tens to hundreds of feet (low to high tens of meters) long, a few to 12 inches (8 to 30 cm) wide, and typically much less than an inch (2.5 cm) deep.

A balance of specific conditions are thought to be needed for stones to move:

A saturated yet non-flooded surface,
Thin layer of clay,
Very strong gusts as initiating force,
Strong sustained wind to keep stones going.

Geography.



The Racetrack Basin lies within the boundary of Death Valley National ParkWithin the basin lies an almost perfectly flat dry lake, known as the Racetrack Playa. Resting on its flat dry lakebed are pebble- to boulder-sized rocks, with masses estimated at up to 320 kilograms (Sharp and Carey, 1976)

This in itself could be explained by simple mass wasting processes, yet the position of the rocks, often hundreds of meters from a source area, and the presence of furrows in the clay playa surface leading toward the rocks suggests that the rocks are moving by traction.


Trails created by the rocks vary in length and direction. Some trails show gradual (curving) or abrupt (angular) changes in direction; most trails indicate a general south/southwest to north/northeast motion (Kirk, 1952; Sharp and Carey, 1976). Distances traveled of as much as 3.2 kilometers are inferred by the presence of distinctive lithologies far from possible areas of origin. Many rocks appear to break off dolomite cliffs at the south end of the playa, and are ultimately "deposited" where the playa meets an alluvial fan, about 2 kilometers to the north (Sharp and Carey, 1976; Messina, Stoffer and Clarke, 1997). Some trails are parallel to others that are in close proximity and generally strike from south to north, consistent with prevailing wind patterns, thereby suggesting wind as the motive force.

Actively studied for 50 years, the rocks that mysteriously move around the dried lake bed playa in Death Valley, called the Racetrack, are yet to have an unquestionable explanation for their movement.

In 1955 George M. Stanley first proposed the theory that the rocks move with the assistance of ice sheets forming after the playa surface is flooded.

There have been times when the playa is flooded with standing water up to 7 cm deep and temperatures commonly drop below freezing at the Racetrack (elevation is 3,708 feet so it has cooler temperatures than the valley floor which has the lowest elevation and the highest recorded temperature in the western hemisphere) in the winter and early spring.

In 1976 Robert Sharp and Dwight Carey diputed the ice-sheet theory. They analyzed the tracks and concluded becasuse of track characteristics and the geometries of the tracks relative to each other that ice sheets could not have been involved in forming the tracks and moving the rocks.

Believe it or not!

Of all tales of the supernatural, this one is perhaps the best documented, the most disturbing and the most difficult to explain.

The Princess of Amen-Ra lived some 1,500 yrs b4 Christ. When she died, she was laid in an ornate wooden coffin and buried deep in a vault at Luxor, on the banks of the Nile. In the late 1890s, 4 rich young Englishmen visiting the excavations at Luxor were invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned mummy case containing the remains of Princess of Amen-Ra. They drew lots. The man who won paid several thousand pounds and had the coffin taken to his hotel. A few hours later, he was seen walking out towards the desert. He never return. The next day, one of the remaining 3 men was shot by an Egyptian servant accidentally. His arm was so severely wounded it had to be amputated. The 3rd man in the foursome found on his return home that the bank holding his entire savings had failed. The 4th guy suffered a severe illness, lost his job and was reduced to selling matches in the street.

Nevertheless, the coffin reached England (causing other misfortunes along the way), where it was bought by a London businessman. After 3 of his family members had been injured in a road accident and his house damaged by fire, the businessman donated it to the British Museum. As the coffin was being unloaded from a truck in the museum courtyard, the truck suddenly went into reverse and trapped a passer-by. Then as the casket was being lifted up the stairs by 2 workmen, 1 fell and broke his leg. The other, apperently in perfect health, died unaccountably two days later.

Once the Princess was installed in the Egyptian Rm, trouble really started. Museum's night watchmen frequently heard frantic hammering and sobbing from the coffin. Other exhibits in the rm were also often hurled about at night. One watchman died on duty; causing the other watchmen wanting to quit. Cleaners refused to go near the Princess too. When a visitor derisively flicked a dustcloth at the face painted on the coffin, his child died of measles soon afterwards.

Finally, the authorities had the mummy carried down to the basement. Figuring it could not do any harm down there. Within a week, one of the helpers was seriously ill, and the supervisor of the move was found dead on his desk. By now, the papers had heard of it. A journalist photographer took a pict of the mummy case and when he developed it, the painting on the coffin was of a horrifying, human face. The photographer was said to went home then, locked his bedroom door and shot himself.

Soon afterwards, the museum sold the mummy to a private collector. After continual misfortune (and deaths), the owner banished it to the attic. A well known authority on the occult, Madame Helena Blavatsky, visited the premises. Upon entry, she was sized with a shivering fit and searched the house for the source of "an evil influence of incredible intensity". She finally came to the attic and found the mummy case. "Can you exorcise this evil spirit ?" asked the owner. "There is no such thing as exorcism . Evil remains evil forever. Nothing can be done about it. I implore you to get rid of this evil as soon as possible."

But no British museum would take the mummy; the fact that almost 20 ppl had met with misfortune, disaster or death from handling the casket, in barely 10 yrs, was now well known. Eventually, a hard-headed American archaeologist (who dismissed the happenings as quirks of circumstance), paid a handsome price for the mummy and arranged for its removal to New York. In Apr 1912, the new owner escorted its treasure aboard a sparkling, new White Star liner about to make its maiden voyage to New York. On the night of Apr 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess of Amen-Ra accompanied 1,500 passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of the ship was Titanic.

Now, click and select from the exclamation mark below and drag till the asterisk mark to read the scariest thing about this article....

!By the way, the above story was just made up. Was'nt it good. ;-) *

Theatrical superstitions

Theatrical superstitions

The Scottish play

Shakespeare's play Macbeth is said to be cursed, so actors avoid saying its name (the euphemism "The Scottish Play" is used instead). Actors also avoid even quoting the lines from Macbeth inside a theatre, particularly the Witches incantations. This is only held to while you are inside a theatre. Outside of a theatre the play can be spoken of openly. If an actor speaks the name Macbeth in a theatre, he is required to leave the theatre building, spin around three times, spit, curse, and then knock to be allowed back in. There are several possible origins for this superstition. One is the assumption that the song of the Weird Sisters is an actual spell that will bring about evil spirits.

Another is that there is more swordplay in it than most other Shakespeare plays, and the more swordplay must be rehearsed and performed, the more chances there are for someone to get injured. Yet another option is that the play is often run by theatres that are in debt and looking to increase patronage.

There is also a legend that the play itself was cursed because the first time it was ever performed, the actor playing Macbeth died shortly before or after the production (accounts vary). It is also said that the original production of the play used actual witches and witchcraft, and so the play is cursed.

Ghosts

One ghost-related superstition is that the theater should always be closed one night a week to give the ghosts a chance to perform their own plays. This is traditionally on Monday night, conveniently giving actors a day off after weekend performances.

Theaters that have stood for more than a few decades tend to have lots of associated ghost stories, more than other public buildings of similar age

One should always leave a light burning in an empty theatre. Traditionally, the light is placed downstage center. That is, closest to the audience, center stage. Several reasons are given for this, all having to do with ghosts:

The light wards off ghosts.

A theater's ghosts always want to have enough light to see. Failure to provide this may anger them, leading to pranks or other mishaps.

It prevents non-spectral personnel from having to cross the stage in the dark, falling into the orchestra pit, dying in the fall and becoming ghosts themselves.

Though it's a superstition, it does have practical value: The backstage area of a theater tends to be cluttered, so someone who enters a completely darkened space is liable to be injured while hunting for a light switch

Miscellaneous

=>No real money should be used on stage. This may derive from gamblers' superstitions about money, or it could just be a sensible precaution against theft.

=>In a similar vein, it is considered unlucky to wear real jewelry on stage, as opposed to costume jewelry.

=>It is bad luck to complete a performance of a play without an audience in attendance, so one should never say the last line of a play during rehearsals. To get around this, some production companies allow a limited number of people (usually friends, family, and reviewers) to attend the dress rehearsals.

=>A bad dress rehearsal foretells a good opening night. This is possibly sour grapes. However, it has a tendency to be true in that cast and crew are scared straight by a bad dress rehearsal and therefore fix their mistakes by opening night.

=>A company should not practice doing their bows before they feel they deserve them.

=>Gifts such as flowers should be given to actors after a show, as opposed to before.

=>Peacock Feathers should never be brought on stage, either as a costume element, prop, or part of a setpiece. Many veteran actors and directors tell stories of sets collapsing and other such events during performances with peacock feathers.

=>Some actors believe that having a Bible onstage is unlucky. Often, other books or prop books will be used with Bible covers.

=>The color blue is considered unlucky, unless countered by wearing silver. As blue dye was once very costly; a failing acting company would dye some of their garments blue in the hopes of pleasing the audience. As for the silver to counter it, one would know that the acting company was truly wealthy, so to enable actors to wear real silver.

=>The color green is also considered to be unlucky. This is said to date from the time when most performances were given out-of-doors. Wearing green would make it hard to distinguish the actor from grass/trees/bushes in the natural setting beyond the performing area.

=>It is traditional for actors to draw a mascara tree, preferrably on the belly button, before performances.

What is Superstition?

What is Superstition?

Superstition (Latin superstes, "standing over", "set above") is a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to supposedly irrational beliefs of others, and its precise meaning is therefore subjective. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings.

To medieval scholars the word was applied to and beliefs outside of or in opposition to Christianity; today it is applied to conceptions without foundation in, or in contravention of, scientific and logical knowledge.[1] The earliest English uses of the word in the modern era refer critically to Catholic practices such as censing, rosaries, and other practices that Protestants believed went beyond - or were set up above - beliefs that seemed unfounded or primitive in the light of modern knowledge.

Many extant superstitions are said to have originated during the plagues that swept through Europe. According to legend, during the time of a plague, Saint Gregory I the Great ordered that people say "God bless you" when somebody sneezed, to prevent the spread of the disease

Superstition and psychology

In 1948, behavioural psychologist B.F. Skinner published an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, in which he describes his pigeons exhibiting what appeared to be superstitious behaviour. One pigeon was making turns in its cage, another would swing its head in a pendulum motion, while others also displayed a variety of other behaviours. Because these behaviours were all done ritualistically in an attempt to receive food from a dispenser, even though the dispenser had already been programmed to release food at set time intervals regardless of the pigeons' actions, Skinner believed that the pigeons were trying to influence their feeding schedule by performing these actions. He then extended this as a proposition regarding the nature of superstitious behaviour in humans.

Skinner's theory regarding superstition being the nature of the pigeons' behaviour has been challenged by other psychologists such as Staddon and Simmelhag, who theorised an alternative explanation for the pigeons' behaviour.

Despite challenges to Skinner's interpretation of the root of his pigeons' superstitious behaviour, his conception of the reinforcement schedule has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans. Originally, in Skinner's animal research, "some pigeons responded up to 10,000 times without reinforcement when they had originally been conditioned on an intermittent reinforcement basis." Compared to the other reinforcement schedules (e.g. fixed ratio, fixed interval), these behaviours were also the most resistant to extinction. This is called the partial reinforcement effect, and this has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans.

To be more precise, this effect means that, whenever an individual performs an action expecting a reinforcement, and none seems forthcoming, it actually creates a sense of persistence within the individual. This strongly parallels superstitious behaviour in humans because the individual feels that, by continuing this action, reinforcement will happen; or that reinforcement has come at certain times in the past as a result of this action, although not all the time, but this may be one of those times.

Baseball superstition

Baseball is a sport with a long history of superstition. From the very famous Curse of the Bambino to some players' refusal to wash their clothes or bodies after a win, superstition is present in all parts of baseball. Many baseball players—batters, pitchers, and fielders alike— excuse excessive, repetitive routines prior to pitches and at bats to superstition. The desire to keep a number they have been successful with is strong in baseball. In fact anything that happens prior to something good or bad in baseball, can give birth to a new superstition. Some players rely on a level of meta-superstition: by believing in superstitions they can focus their mind to perform better. Many players and fans also believe that superstitions propagate their own fulfillment by influencing players and fans.

The Superstitious, Friday the 13th...

Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Germany, Estonia,The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and even the Philippines .

Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy it is Friday the 17th.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case

What is this Friday 13th?

Both the number thirteen and Friday have been considered unlucky:

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve recognized signs of the zodiac, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve Apostles of Jesus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.

Friday, as the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified, has been viewed both positively and negatively among Christians. The actual day of Crucifixion was the 14th day of Nissan in the Hebrew Lunar calendar which does not correspond to "Friday" in the solar calendar of Rome. The 15th day of Nissan (beginning at Sundown) is celebration of Passover.

Despite the onus on the two separated elements, there is no evidence for a link between the two before the 19th century. The earliest known reference in English occurs in a 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:

[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.

However, only in the 20th century did the superstition receive greater audience, as

Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in E. Cobham Brewer's voluminous 1898 edition of the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, though one does find entries for "Friday, an Unlucky Day" and "Thirteen Unlucky." When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the superstition's historicity or longevity.

Though the superstition developed relatively recently, much older origins are often claimed for it, most notably in the novel The Da Vinci Code (and later the film), which traced the belief to the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday October 13, 1307

Occurances:

The following months have a Friday the 13th:

















The following years have Fridays the 13th in these months:



























This sequence, here given for 2001–2028, repeats every 28 years from 1901 to 2099. The months with a Friday the 13th are determined by the Dominical letter (G, F, GF, etc.) of the year. Any month that begins on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th.

Every year has at least one and at most three Fridays the 13th, with 688 occurrences during each 400-year Gregorian cycle (146,097 days).

The longest period that can occur without a Friday the 13th is fourteen months, either from July to September the following year (e.g. in 2001/2002 and 2012/13), or from August to October in a leap year (e.g. in 2027/28).

Patterns for non leap-years:

Patterns for leap years:

Each Gregorian 400-year cycle contains 146,097 days

(365 * 400 = 146,000 normal days plus 97 leap days),
146,097 / 7 = 20,871 weeks, and 400 * 12 = 4,800 months.

Thus, each cycle contains the same pattern of days of the week (and thus the same pattern of Fridays the 13th), but no day of the month up to the 28th can occur the same number of times on each day of the week (because 4,800 is not divisible by 7).

The 13th day of the month is slightly more likely to be a Friday than any other day of the week. On average, there is a Friday the 13th once every 212.35 (212 and 241/688) days.

The distribution of the 13th day over the 4,800 months is as follows:











There were some movies about Friday the 13th....

Friday the 13th at Allmovie
Friday the 13th at the Internet Movie Database

Friday the 13th at Box Office Mojo

Friday the 13th at Rotten Tomatoes

Film page at the Camp Crystal Lake website