Monday, June 7, 2021

Was the "Ma" Just a Coincidence?

As a former computer programmer, I remember the classic old programmer's saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Following the spirit of such a saying, I still use the same old Samsung cell phone I used ages ago. I have never used a smartphone. 

One of the strange little quirks of such old phones is the phenomenon we may call "phantom dialing" or "phantom typing."  I don't know whether smartphones have some technology that prevents this, but if you leave an old cell phone in your pocket, and walk around, you may see some screen showing characters you never typed. This may be caused by your movements causing accidental button presses. In some cases, your phone may even dial someone you had no intention of dialing, which we may call "phantom dialing."

This morning I was looking for my old cell phone, and found it in the pocket of some jeans I had worn outside yesterday. I saw that the phone had on it the screen below, showing characters I never intentionally typed. 



I was struck by the beginning of these characters. "Ma" is a word Americans commonly use to refer to their mother. I was puzzled by the period character that followed the "Ma." I know of no way to produce that character using my cell phone. 

The screen of the cell phone is shown below:



You see a little dot character on the right side of the "jkl" button, but pressing that little dot character does not cause a period character to appear below the "Contacts" line shown in the first photo above. I know of no way to cause my phone to display what is shown in the top photo. There's probably some way to get that "Ma.g" line to appear, but it presumably requires a very unlikely combination of button presses that would be most unlikely to occur by chance. 

It may reasonably be wondered whether this line beginning with "Ma" was caused by coincidental accidental button presses while the phone was in my pocket, or whether we see some paranormal manifestation.  My mother and four of my grandparents are deceased. In some mathematical or programming contexts, a raised period or period is used to signify a combination of two things or a "dot product." "Ma.g" could conceivably refer to a mother and grandparent. 

I noticed one other spooky thing this morning. Yesterday I received a school bell I ordered, one that can make a momentary ringing sound if you click its center. At 9:01 this morning (with no TV, radio or Internet device on nearby) I listened to hear whether the bell might ring at exactly that minute, which was the same time that my electric power had most mysteriously failed (for a few minutes)  a month ago (as described here). I did hear what sounded like a faint clink sound coming from the direction of the bell, at exactly 9:01 AM, the only minute that I listened for such a sound.  But it sounded faint, just as if some faint pressure had momentarily been applied to the bell. 


Anyone who thinks it is imposssible that a little button like the one shown above could be pressed by some invisible force should study my video here, which shows my camera taking about 300 photos by itself, in 13 separate bursts, just as if the shutter button had been invisibly pressed 300 times. 

Postscript: The next day immediately after waking up and rising I noticed that a heavy plant (weighing more than 10 pounds) in my home had been mysteriously moved about 18 inches.  I saw a big ring on the floor indicating the plant's previous location.  The photo below shows the plant as I found it, and the ring I refer to. Also, I found on the floor a clump of wire two meters from the closet where I keep it. There is a possible natural explanation for these two anomalies: I could be a sleepwalker who moves things when I sleep-walk.  But such an explanation seems very far-fetched. 

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