When Microsoft introduced its new pictorial fonts, Webdings & Wingdings in 1992 they were to start a conspiracy theory that was to reached its peak following the attack on the World trade centre in New York City in 2001.

It was noticed shortly after the fonts release that if one was to type uppercase "NYC" the acronym of New York City into Microsoft Word and then covert the text into "Webdings"a positive messaged emerged:

NYC = NYC

The symbols of an eye , a heart and a cityscape, were similar to bumper stickers of the time and expressed the theme " I Love New York ".However if one did the same but this time coveted the text to "Wingdings"an altogether darker message is seen.

NYC = NYC

The symbols of a skull and crossbones , a star of David and the thumbs up sign were taken by some to mean "Death to Jews is OK". This sparked accusations that Microsoft had deliberately inserted racist thought into the new fonts. Microsoft's response to this was as follows:

"We can certainly understand how people would respond with some shock to this apparent issue. We did too when it first came up nine years ago and we investigated it thoroughly in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League. The conclusion was that the sequence in the Wingdings character set is coincidental and that there was no malicious intent. In fact, it impacted several software companies at the time and continues to do so. Unfortunately, there was not an easy way to fix the problem. We understand that this requires explanation.
At the simplest level, Wingdings and Webdings are much like an alphabet of characters and provide thousands of potential combinations from which a person could choose. Changing the character set would create an impact of unknown scale on existing data and code using the affected font. Again, using the example of the alphabet, what would happen to existing documents and applications if we switched around a handful of letters? The likely result is that we would create significant issues for people, cause some unintended humorous moments and several offensive ones. For that reason Wingdings has been left unaltered since its inception. "

The matter seemed to die down, but was to return again in 1999 in the build up to the new century. This time Microsoft were accused of having prior knowledge to future events ,confirmed by typing the word " MILLENIUM" and converting it to "Wingdings:

MILLENIUM = MILLENIUM

What were we to make of this collection of symbols Bombs , Death , Misery ,the pointing finger ? Whatever it meant it certainly isn't a positive message for the future.

Once again the murmuring died down until September, 11, 2001 with the attack on America. Within days emails began to circulate that one of the planes which hit the twin towers had a tail code of Q33NY.Again by using the Wingdings conversion this is what appears:

Q33NY = Q33NY

Fortunately the image of a plane going towards two objects turned out to be a hoax,as neither plane had the Q33NY code attached to them.Undetered the conspiracy theorist bagan to look for a meaning to Q33 because the sybolism is so profound.So far suggestions have ranged from the Q33 being a reference to chapter 33 (known as a 'Surah') in the Qur'an -- the Islamic holy text.Surah 33, deals with Allah's punishment of the Unbelievers.

Since the events of 911 and the subsequent war on Iraq ,it would seem that lots of people are looking for hidden messages in these strange fonts .See what sense you can make out of the following : First in the Wingdings font

Note the blood and the cross of Christ pointing to happiness as opposed to the miserable faces of Islam !

OSAMA BIN LADEN = OSAMA BIN LADEN

The following is in Webdings font

GEORGE BUSH = GEORGE BUSH

The Texan cactus ? A shouting megaphone ? A group of houses? and at the end only a solitary house remains? ???

If you would like to crack some codes for youself, you can convert your text into the Webdings and Wingdings fonts on line courtesy of kessler-design.com

CONVERT TO WEBDINGS .......................CONVERT TO WINGDINGS

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