THE MYSTERY OF DISAPPEARANCE

A few years ago, a furious father went into Target in Minneapolis. The store has been mailing coupons to his daughter, a high school student, for items like cribs and diapers. Was Target encouraging his young daughter to procreate on the open market?

The retailer expressed its regret, but a few days later they received a letter from the father, who informed them that "a few things have been going on in my household." I didn't know about it. In August, I'm expecting a daughter. I had to apologize to you. His daughter's recent purchases of different things than usual were clearly tracked and processed by Target's internal algorithms. various vitamin supplements, as well as scent-free soaps and lotions. The system detected her actions as indicators that she might be pregnant, therefore the vouchers were given to her. They were accurate, too. Target was aware of a girl's pregnancy before her own father without being informed of it.

More than ever before, we are monitored and followed digitally nowadays. We now live in a time with round-the-clock CCTV, internet cookies, trackable debit cards, GPS-enabled phones, fingerprinting, and DNA testing. Nevertheless, more than 2,000 people go missing every year in the US alone and are never located, either dead or alive. Where do the vanished go? What caused them to vanish? What would happen if you vanished? How would you know you hadn't already vanished? Missing people are frequently the victims of unresolved or unidentified crimes.

They might have committed suicide or been in accidents, but their bodies were never discovered. Alternatively, they could be in perfect health and have simply left their old life, their old friends and family, their old debt, and their old obligations in order to begin a new life somewhere else, perhaps as someone else. How long until someone noticed if you disappeared? Well, consider it. It kind of depends on who you are, how you live, and how you vanish, I guess.

In the majority of jurisdictions, a person can be deemed inactive in absentia if no one has heard from them for five to seven years.

Guillaume Le Gentil, a French astronomer, experienced this. Thousands of people traveled far and wide in the 18th century to view the Venus transit from various points on earth. They understood that they could determine the Sun's distance from Earth more precisely than ever before by comparing their readings. Le Gentil so traveled to Pondicherry, India, in 1760 from Paris. The day of the passage, however, was spent aboard a boat at sea because he was forced to since a storm forced him off course and the British had taken over Pondicherry. This made it impossible to obtain precise measurements. The following transit would take place in 8 years. The subsequent transit, however, wouldn't occur for another 100 years. Thus, he remained. He skipped going back to Paris. He decided to wait and construct an observatory instead. 11 years after leaving, he finally made it back to Paris, where he discovered that he had been pronounced dead. His position at the Royal Academy of Sciences had been transferred to another person, his wife had remarried, and his family had stolen his possessions. By the way, he never did observe the Venus transit. The sky above him was cloudy the day it occurred.

Counters and population counts are simply estimates. genuine people in their genuine life are the ones who can best explain individuals. However, that isn't always the case. In her Ringwood, Hampshire, apartment, Janet Veal passed away nine years ago. Her pet cats devoured significant sections of her body before she was found many weeks later. And seven years ago, Joyce Carol Vincent's body, or at least her skeleton, was discovered on her sofa in Wood Green. Despite having been dead for at least three years, nobody ever went to check on her. She still had the television on. And four days after Timothy McVeigh blew an Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people, a severed left leg was discovered in the wreckage. Nobody knew whose it was. No one else had been reported missing, and the legs of every other victim had been located. The leg belonged to a Lakesha Levy who had already been buried with both of her legs, according to DNA testing. So they uncovered her body. She had been interred with another person's left leg. Although the legs were switched, DNA testing on the unknown leg was not possible due to her body's embalming. Nobody has any idea of who the leg belongs to this day. Unknown is who the 169th victim was. Some conspiracy theorists contend that Timothy McVeigh, who was close enough to the explosion to be fully destroyed, save for one leg, may not have been the actual bomber and that the limb may have belonged to someone else.

Whatever the case, it does demonstrate that it is possible for someone to vanish without anyone ever enquiring as to where they went. Even when they are not, sometimes people are reported as missing or dead. Premature death notices are frequent. One is already on file for a lot of living people. The media—television, newspapers, magazines—needs a complete account as soon as possible when a renowned person passes away. They therefore prepare them beforehand, keep them locked up, and simply need to fill in the dates and circumstances of the death. It makes sense, but when they leak before the person is dead, it's awkward. In 2003, draft obituaries for people who were still alive were accessible on CNN's website. Although it's embarrassing, the individual reading their own obituary gets the chance to experience something that the majority of us never get to do. Check out how people will remember you after you are gone.

nventor of dynamite was Alfred Nobel. He amassed wealth by producing and peddling guns and cannons, which are lethal weapons. When his brother Ludvig passed away in 1888, numerous publications incorrectly printed obituaries for Alfred Nobel instead of reporting the true cause of death. They didn't strike me as flattering. A French newspaper proclaimed, "The merchant of death is dead." As Nobel read these obituaries, he felt terrible about what his legacy would presumably be. When he did pass away, he donated practically all of his wealth to the promotion of humanity. His invention was the Nobel Prize.

Not so fortunate was Marcus Garvey. According to the legend, after suffering a stroke, newspapers published obituaries that were published too soon and were scathing of the deceased, stating that he passed away penniless, alone himself, and without friends. While reading his own obituary, Garvey experienced another stroke and passed away because he was shocked by how poorly people remembered him.

Five Taylor University students perished in a horrific vehicle accident in April 2006. While still alive, the other student was in a coma. Her name was given as Laura van Ryn. Whitney Cerak, another buddy, wasn't as fortunate. She was identified as dead. A thousand people showed up for her funeral, but as Laura recovered over the following days, she started communicating. When asked her name, Laura responded, "My name is Whitney." They shared a similar appearance. It turned out that the person they had buried was Laura. Whitney later wed in the same church where her burial had taken place earlier in life. What if you've already vanished without knowing?

How frequently hospitals exchange babies by accident during birth is unknown. We don't all go out and obtain maternity and paternity tests for fun, so there isn't a lot of information on the topic. However, modern hospital procedures make it unlikely to occur. However, it does occur. DNA tests used to settle child support disputes frequently lead to its discovery. Or, as in the case of the 35-year-old woman in the Canary Islands, it's because you look exactly like her and she is your long-lost twin who has been estranged from you since birth in 2001 when you're shopping there. The sister you grew up with, who you initially believed to be your twin, is actually a biological stranger.

What if one is missing but no one in authority is aware of it? The unreported missing lead such a life. Unlawfully present individuals, individuals cut off from friends and relatives, individuals for whom a missing person report has never been filed, and children of mothers who are homeless. These persons are missing but also what is referred to as missing lost.

About 50,000 reported missing children are listed in the FBI's National Crime Information Database, but Outpost For Hope claims that there are more than a million children in America who are missing and nobody is aware of it. Going missing on your own initiative is not illegal. If you are an adult, it is not against the law to disappear even if you have obligations to fulfill, such as contracts or debts. You are entitled to disappear. However, do you think that nobody would miss you? That is absurd and unreliable. Statistics would indicate the opposite.

One of the most impactful articles I've ever read was written by David Wong. There is a wealth of knowledge available. Infobesity is a term that describes it. It takes a lifetime to even experience some of it. It's simple to assume that everyone is aware of everything you know. More than 100 million people are born each year, but not one of them is aware that they are made of atoms or that black holes are amazing when they are born. They require someone to explain and demonstrate things to them. How many jokes are spoken to you every day and every week? How many jokes are spoken to you each year? Here's a fun idea.

David Wong proposed a concept that was approximative in nature yet precise in its core by taking into account average life expectancy and the typical amount of jokes a person hears annually. The chances are good that the funniest jokes you will ever hear will be ones you haven't even heard before if you are under the age of 38. And if you are over 38, chances are you already know a joke that, to more people than you could possibly meet, may be the best joke they will ever hear.