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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: Puzzles
[PUZZLE] PerplexCity Sentinel - Futures Section
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DrumMajor
Boot


Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 54
Location: Colorado Springs

 		[PUZZLE] PerplexCity Sentinel - Futures Section
Everybody seems in agreement that there are clues in the futures. So I'm making it a puzzle thread.


EDIT - Topic clarity - SG
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:12 pm
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songofthephoenix
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Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 84
Location: Sydney

 		Perplexcity Sentinel - the 28th March 2005:

Quote:
Futures
By Madame Bianca, for the week of March 28.
The Eagle (March 11 - April 10)
Floundering? Out of options? Do what I do when trouble hits: Sushi! Have an eel and cucumber roll; it brings you luck.

The Spider (April 11 - May 10)
The Archer has you in her sights. Should your subdolous ways slip, she'll snarl. Scarper.

The Wave (May 11 - June 10)
Shuffle your way to heaven at your weekly card game. Bet big. Triangles are go.

The Archer (June 11 - July 10)
The fruits of your labor are sour. Taking up arms is never suggested, though it is often appropriate. Just don't forget to take backup.

The Half-filled Jug (July 11 - August 10)
Great minds think alike, so get together with a like mind this week. Let two halves make a sphere.

The Dragon (August 11 - September 10)
Your fiery nature ignites a skirmish against a rival team. Funnel your energies into something positive, and stop it. You know, before someone loses an eye.

The Three Balls (September 11 - October 10)
You seem to be in a bit of a bawdy phase. Doesn't seem like a lasting turn. The slightest overstepping of your boundaries will turn you prim again.

The Dice (October 11 - November 10)
Missing a piece of your interpersonal jigsaw is even worse than misplacing your key. This is a good week to take out a personal ad. Go on, it's only your pride.

The Maze (November 11 - December 10)
Unexpected ventures haven't turned out well for you. It's time to get back to basics. Traditional values are on the rise.

The Apple-Thief (December 11 - January 10)
I think that you shall never be as smart as those who know base three.

The Hand (January 11 - February 10)
Your newfound spirit of independence has opened many portals. Pay no heed to those who would direct your course; use your own internal compass.

The Baby (February 11 - March 10)
You are as beautiful as a flower. Why do you let this ugly-minded person make you dinner? (Eel and cucumber rolls can be lucky for all signs, really. Yum.)

And remember, it's not how you play the game, it's how the game plays you, kiddo.


PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:15 pm
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drizjr
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Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700
Quote:
MADAME BIANCA'S FUTURE
The Perplex City Sentinel is now the only newspaper or magazine in the city that publishes Futures, a fact that is no doubt connected with its frankly shoddy and unscientific reporting. Exactly how the Sentinel can justify writing this ridiculous mumbo-jumbo is beyond belief! Any newspaper with an 'intelligent opinion' would surely be aware of Avancore's study demonstrating that the predictive power of Futures is no better than chance. He found 40 futures fans and presented half with their 'real' futures and half with fake futures predicting the complete opposite. Both groups claimed their futures were 99% accurate!

As for the notion that the gravity of other planets could affect us here, a trivial calculation shows that the Ascendancy Point exerts far more gravitational influence on us than any planet! Are we to expect the Sentinel to factor the Point in to 'Madame Bianca's' predictions, or will you follow the rest of the rational thinkers of the city and remove Futures from your newspaper?

Arrian Hampden, University of Perplex City

As posted by others in the General/Updates section, this letter appearing in 'The Sentinel' may be a nudge as to what to do with the Futures.

I find this line "expect the Sentinel to factor the Point in to 'Madame Bianca's' predictions" intriguing.

Particularly "Point in to"... notice that it's not 'into' but two words instead?
The words in and to appear in Point, and the P is in caps.

I can't help but think that Ascendancy Point might mean something dominant in each Future...the longest word? the overriding message? the words with caps?

I've been playing with the longest word from each Future (afterall, eels and cucumbers are long Smile )

floundering
subdolous
triangles
appropriate
together
something
overstepping
interpersonal
traditional
(The Apple-Thief has 5 five letter words. ugh)
independence
ugly-minded

There are words within many of them..under in floundering; sub, angle, prop, get, met, step, person, depend, mind
Just some observations.Dunno .

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:16 am
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POTUS
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Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 277
Location: The shores of the great lake Erie

 		I think we do ourselves a disservice when we do not include the Chinese Zodiac as well. It contains a Dragon character. I think the PMs want to instill the concept of astrological movement and underlying maths.

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar

From the Los Angeles School District webiste
In traditional China, dating methods were cyclical, cyclical meaning something that is repeated time after time according to a pattern. A popular folk method which reflected this cyclical method of recording years are the Twelve Animal Signs.

Read the first four or five paragraphs of this page on The Chinese Zodiac to see what I mean. I think we need to figure out what the heavenly objects are, how the are moving, and when/where they will be in syzygy, or at an Ascendancy Point.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:30 am
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idxfossil
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Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Indiana, USA

 		So I've been looking at this site about constellations, and something hit me. I haven't seen this brought up on the forums yet.

Could the future for each sign be directing us to another sign, thus giving us an order to the signs that might yield some code?

Here's some examples:
Quote:
The Eagle (March 11 - April 10)
Floundering? Out of options? Do what I do when trouble hits: Sushi! Have an eel and cucumber roll; it brings you luck.

... it brings you luck = The Dice
Quote:
The Spider (April 11 - May 10)
The Archer has you in her sights. Should your subdolous ways slip, she'll snarl. Scarper.

The Archer... = maybe the Archer, too obvious tho.
Quote:
The Wave (May 11 - June 10)
Shuffle your way to heaven at your weekly card game. Bet big. Triangles are go.

Triangles are go. = The Three Balls (Look here)
Quote:
The Archer (June 11 - July 10)
The fruits of your labor are sour. Taking up arms is never suggested, though it is often appropriate. Just don't forget to take backup.

The fruits of your labor... = The Apple-Thief
Quote:
The Dragon (August 11 - September 10)
Your fiery nature ignites a skirmish against a rival team. Funnel your energies into something positive, and stop it. You know, before someone loses an eye.

... before someone loses an eye. = The Archer
Quote:
The Maze (November 11 - December 10)
Unexpected ventures haven't turned out well for you. It's time to get back to basics. Traditional values are on the rise.

... back to basics. = The Baby?
Quote:
The Apple-Thief (December 11 - January 10)
I think that you shall never be as smart as those who know base three.

... base three. = Also could be The Three Balls. Maybe The Wave, thinking of those Zener (ESP) cards...
Quote:
The Dice (October 11 - November 10)
Missing a piece of your interpersonal jigsaw is even worse than misplacing your key. This is a good week to take out a personal ad. Go on, it's only your pride.

Missing a piece... = The Half-filled Jug
Quote:
The Hand (January 11 - February 10)
Your newfound spirit of independence has opened many portals. Pay no heed to those who would direct your course; use your own internal compass.

... spirit of independence... = The Eagle (yay, America)
Quote:
The Baby (February 11 - March 10)
You are as beautiful as a flower. Why do you let this ugly-minded person make you dinner? (Eel and cucumber rolls can be lucky for all signs, really. Yum.)

(Eel and cucumber rolls...) = awkward reference to The Eagle, maybe?
Quote:
The Three Balls (September 11 - October 10)
You seem to be in a bit of a bawdy phase. Doesn't seem like a lasting turn. The slightest overstepping of your boundaries will turn you prim again.

... lasting turn. = The Maze?
... your boundaries... = The Spider?
Quote:
The Half-filled Jug (July 11 - August 10)
Great minds think alike, so get together with a like mind this week. Let two halves make a sphere.

I've got nothing on this. I could stretch two halves or like mind to indicate The Dice, or The Hand.

Of course, there may be a sign that none of the others point to (specifying a beginning), and a sign that doesn't point to any of the others (specifying the end).

Could this be possible?

idxfossil

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:17 am
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skuldchan
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 3
Location: California

 		I like idxfossil's idea, but I think I may be able to revise a few guesses:

Quote:
The Wave (May 11 - June 10)
Shuffle your way to heaven at your weekly card game. Bet big. Triangles are go.

Triangles are go. = The Three Balls (Look here)

It's possible that this may also clue "The Hand" with the mention of card games. Maybe each Future is cluing two signs, instead of just one?

Quote:

The Spider (April 11 - May 10)
The Archer has you in her sights. Should your subdolous ways slip, she'll snarl. Scarper.


Instead of the obvious "Archer" clue, 'subdolous' and 'snarl' both seem to point to the Dragon to me.

I'm also wondering if the entry for The Baby is supposed to point to the beginning, since it clues the sushi rolls mentioned in The Eagle, which is the beginning.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:03 pm
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Kelis
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 		What the heck is a Scarper? I tried to do a define: scarper on google and it came up with a definition of run. Which, coincidentally, would point to the apple thief.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:26 pm
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Demontague
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Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Posts: 54
Kelis wrote:
What the heck is a Scarper? I tried to do a define: scarper on google and it came up with a definition of run. Which, coincidentally, would point to the apple thief.


Yep, that's the correct definition. It's just a colloquial term, maybe chiefly british? In fact it may even be cockney rhyming slang, though i haven't a clue what it rhymes with.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:48 pm
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<PSH>
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 		http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=Scarper&x=0&y=0
Main Entry: scar·per
Pronunciation: 'skär-p&r
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: probably ultimately from Italian scappare, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin excappare -- more at ESCAPE
British : FLEE, RUN AWAY; broadly : LEAVE, DEPART

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:59 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		scarper -picking nits
http://www.thornton-cleveleys.co.uk/cockney.htm

shows
Scarpa/ scarper as rhyming with "to run off"

which I guess give an indication of the "Cockney" pronunciation of "scarper" or is it the pronunciation of "off"
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:54 pm
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tanner
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 		scarper is a very standard english word -- i use it regularly -- i often run away Smile

thats all it means - run away quickly
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:56 pm
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thebruce
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 		my mother's scottish and my dad's british, and I remember my mother often said in various context 'scarper' when I was a kid, when running around and such... so ya, I'll back that definition, for what it's worth Razz
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:45 pm
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Hakukaze
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Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 12

 		SPEC
I like this idea of the signs relating to each other, there does seem to be a pattern of relations. I'm wondering what output we would get from getting the right order? Would we take the corresponding digit for each month and string them in order? That would give us a 15 digit string. (9 month of one digit + 3 month of 2 digit.) Any idea what we could do with that? None of the numbers we have dealt with until now were 15 digits long. Im still no expert in cryptology (Though I'm doing my homework at [/url] http://www.antilles.k12.vi.us/math/cryptotut/home.htm [url] but I don't see how the resulting string could be ASCII or Hex. (letters start at 65 and HEX needs letter, plus one would be limited to the numbers associated to the months...) The first letter of the signs would not help us either as we can easily figure out all the anagrams for that anyway... Any ideas?

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:49 pm
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revelling
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Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Posts: 12

 		ways to look at the futures
I thought that the futures was a great place to hide a puzzle. particularlly a crypto puzzle. But not a computer based crypto.

[semi-irrelavent background]
Do you remember when you were a kid and you tried to hide messages in letters? You know, this word and that word spread out in some way gave the message. The correct words would be deifined in some way (could be a one time pad with line and word numbers, could be a mechanical device, ie another piece of paper with holes cut in it). Well anyway the problem was gettting the words that you wanted to form the message into the right places. Using sentences that are not in good english would have made it a lot easier to get the right words in the right places.... just like the futures.
[/semi-irrelavent background]

So I tried looking for meaning in the futures. There is no particular formatting associated witht he text, it would just be displayed at whatever spacing the webpage allowed it to. So I exported the text and put it into excel and lined everything up, looking for sentences written vertically and on 1:1 slopes though the text. I tried using the first 24 digit number as some kind of key to tell me which words were the important ones (didn't get far with this as I did really see how it might work).

These produced no useful hidden meaning. But I think that I have only scratched the surface of this type of analysis.

I still think that there is something here but I don't know what it is. Any suggestions on other ways to try the manipulate the text to give the hypothetical message?
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So what does a four-dimensional object with a three-dimensional continuous surface look like anyway.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:06 pm
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revelling
Boot

Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Posts: 12

 		on a different wavelength I tried to see actual meaning in the text as it is. Just like all those sad people who actually check there horoscope each day week whatever (no offense)

crap I only just noticed that the futures have updated. In the old ones there were some that I thought might have been direct communication.

"Ask her and she will come". Email Dinah and set up a meeting: no response so far.

"Remember it's only a game "

And there was one about getting off your butt and solving problems.

sounded like a prod from sente if you ask me
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So what does a four-dimensional object with a three-dimensional continuous surface look like anyway.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:12 pm
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