View topic - Interesting comments from Steinitz puzzle forum

unforum
a.r.g.b.b

Welcome!

New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.

Website Restoration Project

This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.

Announcements

This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.

This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.

Our Esteemed Contributors

The time now is Wed Nov 13, 2024 1:16 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)

View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum

Calendar

Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Legend of the Sacred Urns

Interesting comments from Steinitz puzzle forum

Page 1 of 1 [12 Posts]

Author

Message

Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

Interesting comments from Steinitz puzzle forum

I've been trying to make some sense of the stuff at the other forum and because it seems to be so disorganized over there, I thought I'd repost some of the more intriguing bits I've found. Most of this stuff comes from a very clever soul named puzzlemesharp.

maybe it's worth noting that Peter is obsessed with color (while Mike is obsessed with sound).
1. Peter's blog says "more to see." Mike's entries say "more to hear." Natalie's say "more detail."
2. Peter talks about N's raspberry kissed lips, jade skirt, sunset orange car, canary yellow, azure,
cerulean... man knows his color words. Yet his tat is B/W because he's not yet sure how color plays
in. This seems interesting?
-- Karla

Puzzlemesharp comments:

ABOUT COLOR
For instance, yellow is a color formed by red, green and blue projections in a TV. I suspect "Check your local yellow pages" on the Steinitz Towing site is a suggestion to examine most carefully any pages in the blogs that contain yellow images.

Natalie's Oct. 11 entry prominently features a yellow image (the "canary-yellow" pin in Oakland, CA).
Note that both Natalie's and Peter's blog entries for Sept. 22 specifically refer both to sunflowers and to Peter's tatoo, which is to be in "black and white." Note also that Natalie's blog on that date refers to her own tatoo to be put "in a special place, visible only to those with whom I'm most intimate." I think
it's time to go after these images, examining most particularly any pages with yellow or perhaps with hidden messages (see "steganography"). At least the text content of these pages deserves careful scrutiny.

One other reference to yellow, gold, etc. is the Golden Mean, or Phi, that has been referenced here. A chambered nautilus is one of the most famous examples of the Golden Mean in nature--and one appears in Natalie's blog. The Golden Mean is based on the Fibbonaci number sequence, which the Maya used to calculate solar eclipses and their long count calendar, scheduled to terminate in December 2012...

Note also the role of yellow in the Kenzo Minami art exhibit.

Another possible "yellow" reference in the puzzle: Steinitz's Sun-God compared to the "Sun-King" of France was Louis XIV, "heritor not only to the throne of his country but also, supposedly, to the powers of the mythological sun god Apollo." He used the Great Cipher, not broken for over a hundred
years.

Time is an important element in the puzzle, and apparent clock images feature prominently in the art exhibit too. With these references to time and the sun, maybe Tizenti's post on Oct. 28 makes some sense?

I have examined some of Natalie's randomly-generated icons on her blog archives; that is where I saw the images I referenced in my previous post above (animal in uniform, French Constitution 1791). I still want to know how (if?) they are relevant. Anyone else see these and have notions?

And finally, just for fun (?), I give you Dagobert's Revenge. Almost too many leads to process here (and very recent post dates; can we run a trace on who has registered this site?). Note particularly the sections on Rennes-le-Chateau and Dagobert II... Is the Third Urn indeed our Holy Grail?

ABOUT TIME
I haven't heard anyone mention yet that Steinitz is said to have died at 8:12 p.m. That would be 2012 in military time. Steinitz believed that "the next major paradigm shift in human development would take place in the year 2012"...

Other references to time: Oddly sequenced countdowns on moretosee.com site. Peter's 10/26 blog titled "Lost Time." it is pointed out to us from the first "more to see" clip that he does not wear a watch (although he is in the pool...) His clock has stopped. There is an hourglass on the table in the library. Message floating in Natalie's bath reads "Geneva or Bust" even though she is already in Geneva--as if she is living backwards. Her blog could almost be read from back to front rather than
front to back. And the Steinitz-Bardeleben chess match did not end with a checkmate, but when Bardeleben left the hall and the chess clock ran out of time....

And why do so many of Peter's other blog entries have to do with day, night and time? "Midnight Snack," "Timeless," "Nocturnal Surprise," "Night of the Sun," "Night Light," "Be Here Now," "Is This
a Dream?", "Insomnia," "Day Tripping," "Halcyon Days." Is this meant to be as clear as night and
day?

We have been ignoring clues in plain sight. For instance, can someone please tell me what a deer--or is it a kangaroo--is doing in what appears to be a military uniform!?!? Or what the
French interim Constitution of 1791 has to do with this puzzle!? 'Cause both images, along with others, are randomly
generated in Natalie's blog...

ON POE
Natalie blogs on October 3 that she found a bookmark of the Dancing Men�in an anthology of Edgar Allan Poe's works�at which point it seemed to her like Keen was "spying" on her.

Earlier (???!) in her August 17 entry, Natalie blogs that Peter asked her to pick up a book for him: "a dull treatise on computer programming."

POE is a computer programming language that "spends most of its time waiting. For what you ask?
Well, for any number of things. Incoming socket connections, console input, and internal timers can all trigger events."

Edgar Allan Poe wrote the short story MS. Found in a Bottle�which is exactly what Natalie found in the bath at the hotel. The message on the wall near her bath was "How to Construct a Poem." Poe's essay The Philosophy of Composition describes "how to construct a poem" by working backwards
from the end with the overall effect in mind. He was educated at the Manor House School in England (1816). He always wore black and was buried on Oct. 8�the same date as "The Crash" on the website. The manner of his death was unusual, in keeping with Steinitz' albums. (Poe also wrote the
Case of the Purloined Letter, in which something sought was hidden in plain sight�)

Poe loved ciphers, acrostics and hidden messages. As we have seen elsewhere, his Gold Bug uses a skull and a scarab along with a coded message to advance the plot. In 1846 Poe wrote "Valentine," a poem that spelled out the name "Frances Sargent Osgood" in the first letter of the first line, the second
letter of the second line, etc. He also wrote a poem called "An Enigma" doing the same thing with the name of "Sarah Anna Lewis"; such wordplay is a type of acrostic. Bubbles, as in Natalie's bath, appear prominently in this poem. (Enigma was the term for the Nazi code and machine in WWII,
broken by British cryptographers working in Bletchley Park near Ampthill.) He also wrote a poem entitled "To Isadore" (Steinitz' university?).

Poe also wrote an article called Maelzel's Chess Player referring to the mystery of the chess-playing "Turk" that was capable of playing and beating humans and "solving" complicated chess
puzzles�such as the Knight's Tour.

Poe also wrote a poem called "Silence" (Mike's tooth?), with the first few lines reading:
"There are some qualities�some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of that twin entity which springs
From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade."

See also Poe's possible relation to the Beale Cipher�the first three data points of which correspond to the three numbers of the .WAV files from Mike's tooth.

"It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma�which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve."

DELI TAGS
The two deli tags in the second commercial seem to read "1080" and "1920" respectively.

In 1080 in Falkirk, England, the army of Robert, son of William the Conqueror, was defeated.
(William of Normandy became the "Conqueror" when he invaded England in 1066--and won the Battle of Hastings...)

In c.1920, Falkirk hosted the first television broadcast ever--able to transmit only in shades of gray.

THE PHONE NUMBER
The soundbites can be captured and saved as .WAV files. If you take the one that has a "38" in the title, you can upload the sound file to this site where a tool available will extract the telephone dual-tones to a separate sound file. If you play this new file of just the phone number, you get a string
of much cleaner tones.

Proceeding to analyze this tone string, the same site returns a string of 86622398668662239866 which would be the single number 866-223-9866 repeated twice.

This is the toll-free number for the answering machine for Steinitz Skulls, and is worth calling for more
of the chessboard letters... (I'll leave that fun part to you.)

"Enhanced sound is the answer"?

SPECTROCRANIOMETER
It is curious too that one possible anagram of the letters around the Steinitz Press logo is:
Clue past dental radio RH SSE
Eerily similar to the blotter message, no?
So--shall we look on the right-hand side, to the south-south-east of the "dental radio"?

and

Not sure, but here are a couple of intriguing options:
hidden hue RH Rosetta stone
(or HR instead, of course, if that makes more sense)
hear hidden tooth tuner SSE
(if directions are meaningful; consider the magnet...)

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 1:30 pm

Wrestler160
Boot

Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 13
Location: texas

go team puzzlemesharp!

*golf clap* That's pretty convincing evidence, don't you think? I'm gonna take another look at the things he pointed out.

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 2:48 pm

Varin
I Have No Life

Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be

Other color references from one of the commercials:

Quote:

truer color is the key

The orange towels mentioned in Natalie's blog are shown. They say PDP (Plasma Display Panel) and LCD (Liquid Crystal Dispaly).

_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:11 am

Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

Red Herrings

I finally got my act together to do the hex thing on the other forum: http://forums.steinitzpuzzlers.com/index.php?showtopic=41&st=0

Marlene posted:
506C6561736520646F6E277420706F7374206120
6465636F6465642076657273696F6E206F662074
686973206D6573736167652E20506C6561736520
6F6E6C7920726573706F6E6420696E2073696D69
6C61726C7920636F646564206D65737361676573
20696E2074686973207468726561642E20596F75
20686176652066616E73206F6E2074686520696E
7369646520627574207765206861766520746F20
6265206361726566756C20696E2074616C6B696E
672E205472757374204D6F7265746F7365656D61
6E2C2068652077696C6C206E6576657220737465
657220796F752077726F6E672E204B6565702069
6E206D696E6420746861742077686174206C6F6F
6B73206C696B652061207265642068657272696E
67206D69676874206E6F742062652E2057652772
6520676C616420796F75206C696B6520616E6167
72616D732E20554E544F203132205448494E204D
414E41544545204E4554532100

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Please don't post a decoded version of this message. Please only respond in similarly coded messages in this thread. You have fans on the inside but we have to be careful in talking. Trust Moretoseeman, he will never steer you wrong. Keep in mind that what looks like a red herring might not be. We're glad you like anagrams. UNTO 12 THIN M ANATEE NETS!

Wasn't there a Mad Magazine thing somewhere that said Red Herring? Maybe it isn't. Here: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=98134#98134

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 3:23 pm
Last edited by Tien_Le on Mon Nov 01, 2004 9:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

Varin
I Have No Life

Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

UNTO 12 THIN M ANATEE NETS

anagrams to

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

NAME THAT TUNE IN 12 NOTES

_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 3:31 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

you mean

what T-L solved

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

on that forum thread, our posts have to be in hex??

I hope spacely doesn't get any ideas...

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 8:52 pm

Varin
I Have No Life

Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be

we can solve this now!

From what this thread says, it looks like all the clues needed to find the urns are possibly out there. The PM seems to be implying so anyway.

_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:50 am

Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

Re: we can solve this now!

Varin wrote:

From what this thread says, it looks like all the clues needed to find the urns are possibly out there. The PM seems to be implying so anyway.

O...kay. That thread is clear as mud. For some reason when I clicked on Historian's program link, this was what was in the field:

Quote:

I agree. When it comes right down to it the only clues we can safely say are real are: Heigh-Ho! I'm the Greater Space Cadet - on Steinitz's skull - unsolved - known only to Mike. Hideous Nerd Threatens Hot - on Steinitz's blotter - unsolved- known only to Peter OHPS LUNSHUK! OHPS LUNSHUK! - on well hidden menu - solved but not understood - known only to Natalie. LA DNA OK - in old jars - solved, but there are allot of places by that name - known by both Mike and Peter. These can reasonably be assumed to come from Steinitz himself...the remaining clues are tainted by not being primary sources. But then again, if Xavier can plant the menu he can plant anything.... If I were a thinking man, I'd say that the first three are more important than the last. If for no other reason than they are the only clues that are known only to one person (other than us of course).

That doesn't look like a solve, so I'm guessing that the wrong message gets posted to it. Even still, I think those comments make more sense than the attempts to solve Marlene's 'puzzle'.

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:57 pm

Caterpillar
Unfictologist

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 1887
Location: cem's otherbody

Re: we can solve this now!

Tien_Le wrote:

Even still, I think those comments make more sense than the attempts to solve Marlene's 'puzzle'.

I didn't work it out, but I think the first number is the post# and the others are the words used?

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:31 am

Varin
I Have No Life

Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be

Here's the "Clues so far" list on the Puzzlers board.

_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 2:16 pm

Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

Varin wrote:

Here's the "Clues so far" list on the Puzzlers board.

Oh yeah, I was going to post that link the other day, then totally spaced it out. Thanks.

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 2:28 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

so I started a list

I am creating a similar list on the wiki guide. Feel free to edit, comment or post. Each clue will be linked to a page that describes where it was from and, the solve, if it has been solved. I know that not all the solves are posted on the in-game forum

http://deaddrop.us/wiki/index.php/Clues_so_far

_________________
I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:44 pm

Display posts from previous: Sort by:

Page 1 of 1 [12 Posts]

Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Legend of the Sacred Urns

Jump to:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum