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[oliverkeers13]

Yeah, that's definitely a "D" making it "Combed".
Just done some research into "Combed Thunderclap"
(the following all refer to Borges' book) It was a book in The Library Of Babel, a library of infinite size, with infinite hexagonal rooms. The Books were full of random characters, but they all made sense. "The Combed Thunderclap" was one of the more coherent books that he saw, but none was entirely senseless.

[duckiemonster]

Full text of Borges' work is here http://www.dxarts.washington.edu/coupe/wk5/babel.pdf

[meat_paste_dave]

Sorry if I'm not the first to point this out, but I think its more likely to be _under_ something (possibly Clapham common?). I don't have any of the new cards yet (waiting for the firebox to deliver my wave 3 only packs), so I can only go on the posts/scanned images.

Meat_paste

[cassandra]

heh, perhaps PXC is Tlon(-esque).

Now my head hurts.

[.X_x.]

I read the Tower of Babel link. They werent full of random charaters exactly
, he mentions that the books contain no instances of complete nonsense.

The books represent everything. Which sits conveniently everywhere. The Library. Just like each atom is like the one next to it. the same components make up each book.

When he mentions "The Combed Thunderclap" he puts forth that it could be understood, if you could figure out the language, the cryptology, etc. Implying that each book could be in code or another language. But more so, that it could be describing the book itself, and nothing else.

The ending conclusion of this was that the library was useless. It may have the potential of all the knowledge known or will be known. But its so vast and repeated in so many inconsistant ways that the information itself was unaccessable. One could read books forever and still never learn anything significant.

Its an odd parody of life. To be born only a few feet from where you die. With all the knowledge to ever exist at your fingertips and still unable to ever really know the fundamental truth about life. Or even really bring out of it any more than was there to begin with.


As to what the "The Combed Thunderclap" means.

"I STOLE THE CUBE HELP ME" -Combed Thunderclap

It might be a code name, It may imply that the message is encoded and what we THINK we are reading isnt right. It may be an anagram.
Or it might be more complicated. Like a word substitution. Or a acutal
encryption of some kind.

[.X_x.]

One last though, The only thing that really stood out about the babel story was the numbers.

He describes the sides of the room(6), 4 with shelves, two for hallways, the shelves(5 per side), the books on each shelf(35) and the pages on each book(410). 40 lines per page, each line about 80 letters. seems very specific. Perhaps this will play a part.
4 x 5 x 35 x 410 x 40 x 80... 918,400,000 letters per Hexagon.

also the letters in each book and on the bindings is limited to 22 letters, space, comma and period.

Might be important for a meta puzzle at some point. assuming this is the direction they want us to go.

[Curlytek]

When I first looked at this, I thought "comb earth under clap". With a few letters intentionally left out to make it a bit more difficult to decipher.

[Dranioth]

[GasparLewis]

I see:

I stole the cube. Help me comb E(ar)th under c...

Everyone sees "thunder" and just all jump off the same bridge.
Silly rabbits.

EDIT: Ollie has a point; there's no way it's "Earth under..." like I said.

But, that doesn't necessarily mean "thunder" is the word all the same.
That might still give us:

E_TH UNDER C____...

The "help me combed thunder..." segment just flips tense in the sentence; it may fit, but it doesn't make any sense. That's why I'm thinking other combinations.

[oliverkeers13]

yes, but there isn't enough room between the E and the TH for two letters, so it can't be earth. I seem to recall someone stating that there could be letters missing. This is a ridiculous idea, why would you write a message with letters missing? (and don't say encryption, as they're a clever bunch and it'd be much more secure than that). Now because of the nature of Muscae Volitantes, I can't make out the letter on it properly, and because there are no letters printed on 007 (woo) I can't tell what the letter it. I do know that the letter's bottom right curves upwards like the bottom right of a capital D or O (from 419 Scam), and that the top right curves (at least partially) down and to the right, like a D or an O. There doesn't appear to be a crosspiece making a G, the letter doesn't bend inwards making a B, it COULD be a C, but the top of the 419 letter extends off the card, so it's unlikely, It isn't a Q as there isn't a diagonal downstroke, it probably isn't an S as there's no diagonal visible on 419, and it exits to the top of the card, it isn't a U as there's a curve in Muscae.
It isn't anything like an A or an R, I can confirm that it is neither of these two letters.

[echidna]

[Dranioth]

[echidna]

[Milkman]

Combed Thunderclap

[Ashin]

http://tisue.net/pcp/

hmmmm..... Combed Thunderclap? Syzygy?