DC: tCotSA-Responses

[LETTER] From tCotSA today (3/22/07)

Percoboist@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:16:29 +0000

I'm sorry I disappeared from this forum for a while, I was swamped with finals. Thank goodness for summer break.

Good job everyone on hunting for clues. I went to the library three times with only the first four clues and basically wasted a lot of time and made people stare.

I do not have the folio page (or pages?), but I'll make a run to the Zimmerman Library and check the book in question as soon as possible. I might be able to go tomorrow.

Sorry again for going AWOL.

Edit: Never mind, I see someone else has it, but I'm glad you guys were able to get the folio pages.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:25:26 +0000

My strip was the same as RedHatty's ( I'll check the size when I get home to be sure ), heres the link in case anyone is interested. It's about 8 1/2" x 1 3/4".

Just so there's no confusion the strips came with the tan letter , not the wood and cloth.

And, thank you wyzalf, for that more reliable translation :) .

Edit: added dimensions.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:26:24 +0000

This is only a thought on the new translations we have just received, but I can see that it might fit in with DC.

Luke 21:8 (The Widow's Gift) reads:

And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

[provided the KJV version, as this has been previously used, but other versions include the actual phrase "The time is near"]

And BTW, big welcome and thank you to Wyzalf for joining us in the city and providing the translations, respectively.

Brum

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:35:20 +0000

Hi All,

Was reading over at the Deus City wiki when I stumbled upon this puzzle. Since I live in Holland and I am a native dutch speaker, I noticed that the translation was not 100% correct.

detijdisdichtbijdetijdnuis

In fact these are 2 different sentences.

1. De tijd is dichtbij
2. De tijd nu is

The first sentence means

The time is near. or The time is close by.

The second sentence is NOT well structured dutch. The last 2 words need to be the other way around. So a proper sentence would be :

De tijd is nu

Which means :

The time is now

There is another possibility that it is one sentence

De tijd is dicht bij de tijd nu is.
(notice dichtbij vs. dicht bij which has a different meaning). Also here the last two words should be reversed.

This sentence means :

The time is closed with the time now is. Which honestly doesn't make much sense to me

I hope this helps a little.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:02:46 +0000

I had received one - it was translucent, not transparent here's the pic

For other sizes, visit my flickr

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 02:42:07 +0000

Johnny - do you have a pic of the transparent sheet with the writing on it?

Also - and sorry for not checking who, but someone else mentioned receiving a transparent sheet with writing on it.

Do these both have the same message on them, and are they the same size?

This might just be way out there - but are you sure you both didn't get pre-sale samples of the new "Clearscreens" shipped to you? If it is anything like my .... errrrr .... old retro tv that I finally got round to replacing recently .... you may need to hit it with a hammer a few times to turn the damn thing on!!!!

Brum

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 13 May 2007 01:31:42 +0000

Great, thanks Johnny!

[LETTER] From tCotSA today (3/22/07)

Percoboist@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:20:33 +0000

Just received a clue via email from Ethan.

Hello! Yes, this has been a strange time for many of us. I'm glad to hear that you are doing okay.

I have some very important information that I am excited to be able to pass on to you. It is regarding the search for the Folio page in the Southwest:

Weeks ago I was able to have a brief meeting with one of my contacts from within the Committee. While I was talking with her I was able to catch a glimpse of a page full of short statements. I believed that they were clues to the location of the dead drop of the folio page from someone known as Safe Hands A. Well, I recently talked with someone from your group and we cross-checked what we knew about the location of the drop. I was able to pass on two additional bits of info.

Last night I had the honor of meeting directly with someone else from high up in the Committee. I cannot be specific, but it was a humbling experience and I am still excited from it. While I talked with her I mentioned this list of statements and what I had passed on to your group. She ran a quick check and was able to clarify something: when I saw the page, I misread it! The page was folded upon itself and what I read as one statement was actually two!

So, now I can clear things up. Thanks to the unusual flexibility and inspiring rationality of this Committee member, I can now say with confidence that this what was really written upon that list of clues:

Much more than an overture occurred during the birth year of the holder.

The holder wears eighttwoone emsixfourtwopas.

I hope that helps. I apologize for getting it wrong the first time, but last night I saw the page again and I have to say that given the condition of the paper, my mistake was somewhat understandable.

Please pass this on to your teammates. I imagine it will be helpful to your search.

_E

I received that e-mail too, I just haven't been around, so I just saw it. I guess my post isn't really necesary anymore, other than to note that this information is very important, and Ethan wanted to be sure it got out.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:50:08 +0000

I made a seperate folder in photobucket for tCotSA, so I guess the links got messed up.

Package Front
Package Back
Cloth Duct
Shingle Front
Shingle Back
Shingle Overlay
Cloth Solve Confirmation Letter

Those should work, thanks for pointing it out WolfHawk, and let me know if I'm missing anything.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:14:53 +0000

None of Jonny Cons image links work for me any more. Anyone else having this problem?

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:06:44 +0000

Hi All,

Got back from my short break a little earlier, and although I have not caught up properly yet, thought I would post a thought.

Have been doing a load of reading about various cipher methods, and came across Transpostional Ciphers. Link to one explanation is:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cryptography/Transposition_ciphers

However, this site:
http://mcgrathlab.urmc.rochester.edu/Mike/CryptClass/TranspositionalCiphers.htm
made it easier for me to see that this is a possibility for decoding the message.

I have to admit that I have not tried applying this, as the links to the images seem to be broken (??), and I did not save copies when I had the chance.

There are a couple of reasons and variations, why I thought this could be the method:

1) People have mentioned limited successes with the braille, so each side of the shingle could be half a message which needs piecing back together.
(Second Link - Suzie and her cooties!)
2) The transparent sheets may form a grille, and the dots point out which letters are to be used to read the message.

That's all I'm doing for tonight, been travelling most of the day and am now shattered. Will try and catch up with everything else over the weekend.

Brum

(BTW - The above assumes that we have found no other use for transparent sheets, I'm sure someone will point it out if we have!!)

[LETTER] From tCotSA today (3/22/07)

Percoboist@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:39:48 +0000

Ok Percoboist, now you know where to look!

[LETTER] From tCotSA today (3/22/07)

Percoboist@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:37:32 +0000

Just received a clue via email from Ethan.

Hello! Yes, this has been a strange time for many of us. I'm glad to hear that you are doing okay.

I have some very important information that I am excited to be able to pass on to you. It is regarding the search for the Folio page in the Southwest:

Weeks ago I was able to have a brief meeting with one of my contacts from within the Committee. While I was talking with her I was able to catch a glimpse of a page full of short statements. I believed that they were clues to the location of the dead drop of the folio page from someone known as Safe Hands A. Well, I recently talked with someone from your group and we cross-checked what we knew about the location of the drop. I was able to pass on two additional bits of info.

Last night I had the honor of meeting directly with someone else from high up in the Committee. I cannot be specific, but it was a humbling experience and I am still excited from it. While I talked with her I mentioned this list of statements and what I had passed on to your group. She ran a quick check and was able to clarify something: when I saw the page, I misread it! The page was folded upon itself and what I read as one statement was actually two!

So, now I can clear things up. Thanks to the unusual flexibility and inspiring rationality of this Committee member, I can now say with confidence that this what was really written upon that list of clues:

Much more than an overture occurred during the birth year of the holder.

The holder wears eighttwoone emsixfourtwopas.

I hope that helps. I apologize for getting it wrong the first time, but last night I saw the page again and I have to say that given the condition of the paper, my mistake was somewhat understandable.

Please pass this on to your teammates. I imagine it will be helpful to your search.

_E

The second one is obviously barcode information: 821 M642pas is John Milton's "Paradise Lost", on the 3rd floor of the Zimmerman Library. This particular copy was translated in 1812, so we have a match. It's the version translated by Juan Escoiquez, found here . This is a three volume set, so it's probably in the last book.

And sorry UnImportantHero, but the mail was only sent 30 minutes ago so the information came in too late to help you. Just goes to show the PMs watch the forums well.

So the poisoner angel was talking about Satan (uh, Paradise Lost) and the sixfourtwopas was an excerpt of the Dewey system.

[LETTER] From tCotSA today (3/22/07)

Percoboist@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:55:00 +0000

So I am actually in the Zimmerman Library right now, but I am having some difficulty with the search. The Nag Hammadi thing is pretty vague as far as checking references go since they have a bunch of different copies and none of them consist of twelve separate volumes, only single books consisting of multiple texts like the Bible does. I leafed through a few of them already and have not found it and - also - one of their copies seems to have been checked out of the library.

This is going to be tough. Ha.

Edited to Add: I just checked every copy of the Nag Hammadi in the library (BT1390 reference number) all except the ONE copy that has been checked out. The books are in fact kept in the northern corner of the west wing on the second floor but no page slipped in any of them. I had high hopes when I saw the book "Fragments of a Forgotten Faith" as well but it was not there either. I am going to go talk with the Reference people about this though and after that do a scan of each floor's northwest corner. Other than that, there is really nothing that I can do here. HOPEFULLY Percoboist has not gotten to it and just not said anything yet. My doggy is getting antsy and wants to be back on the road.

Edited to Add Again: I got nothing. I am giving the books one more sweep and then declaring my search a wash. It will be up to Percoboist then if Percoboist has not already acquired the page.

Edited to Add Yet Again: Well that is it. I give up. Percoboist, it is all yours. It is probably for the best anyway since I had my own plans for that particular folio page. I feel pretty defeated but the search only took me four hours off my course so it is not really that big of a deal. In any case it is time for me to get on the road out to Phoenix and then off to Los Angeles where I will be settling for at least a year or two, hopefully. Good luck everyone.

[PUZZLE]Wood and Cloth

JohnnyCon7@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 06 May 2007 20:28:05 +0000

Well, Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development was referenced in an earlier puzzle (well, techinally later puzzle, but it was solved first) here

Oh, and I've got a mean box of recipes - any requests?