unforum

[Rand0m]

This might help for anyone confused on the UK and Ireland.

[manleym]

[Rand0m]

It depends a bit on the map projection - I thought the Marshall Islands at first too. Certainly the theory I was pursuing at the time would have been helped if it was. But the Robinson map projection puts the Micronesian capital there. As the objectors to the Micronesia theory point out, the smudge bears no resemblance in shape to either island-group, which makes visual recognition impossible. Instead, I took bearings from Japan, New Caledonia, Somalia and Laos to the smudge on a blow-up of the card, plotted them on the CIA World Factbook political map, and they hit Palikir. Good enough for me.

[dps05]

Maybe it was watching the DaVinci Code last night but looking at the card this morning my thoughts were of a religious nature...

Tried

[Hobbess]

As mentioned a wee bit earlier the spreadsheet is here this has all 29 on not including Micronesia and the map which has everything but French Guyana which was a later edition.

I have a slightly updated version at home, so later on I will edit that post and re-upload with a few added lists. Made the adding phone codes easy peasy but also good for sorting by population or so on if you want to see any patterns in starting letters, either native or English.

Although we have understandbly been shying away from anagrams I really think we have exhausted the link type theory. As Random says anything that links a few doesn't include some of the countries on the cards and key countries for that link are obviously missing. Also the spread of the countries really doesn't bode well for links. Any language developments happened in clumps, same as colonial type groupings and so on.

Thinking along the lines that this is a black and that some other blacks were very easy we should go with our first thoughts. These were either an anagram of certain letters or the language link. As the language link seems to be null and void, the anagram seems the way to go!

Discuss...

[Rand0m]

Another consideration is that *most* of the cards with no written question on have operated the same way: first find the information on the card that's relevant, then use it to find a solution. This holds for the red 'Between the Lines' up to blacks like 'Three' and 'Confounding Cube' (even 'Headrush', sort of - you don't just type in the symbol). I haven't done enough silvers to be sure the pattern holds there, but I get the impression it does. Only in one blue - can't remember its name, the one with the small balls - is the answer simply the hidden information.

That would suggest just finding a link between the countries on this card isn't enough - we then need to do something with that info. For example if it's metal resources, as has been explored earlier, then just answering 'metal' or 'mining' or 'nickel' won't do it - we'd need to list all the resources and work out what's been made with them - a compound, the Pahlavi Crown, a commercially-available product - for example.

[Hunting4Treasure]

[Rand0m]

[Lilian]

just tried to get an anagram from all the capital citys first letter not a chance easypeasy just came up with words you can make from them

[Lilian]

sorry random you are wrong about the irish flag look here http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/geography/unionjack5.html

[Rand0m]

[Hunting4Treasure]

Well, if I never solve this card, at least I'm learning a lot about the UK!

[Lilian]

i agree totally

[jonthefay]

[SPEC...]

I've been pondering this card this weekend with some gusto!

Two things I've concluded:

1. That the connection between the countries marked is very unlikely to be historic of any kind (at least, assuming that there are no false negatives - no unmarked countries that share the same property).

2. That the connection is therefore linguistic of some kind. The countries were chosen based on the answer, not the other way around.

I think Von's clue suggests that a native language is involved - either the native languages of the marked countries, or we're looking for a language.

So I've been trying to work out other things that might be hinted at by the title and the hint. Which gives us either the name of a country, the name of a language, something to do with motherhood, or something more broadly based on origns (not neccesarily connected to the specific countries marked).

If it is an anagram: 29 letters (or maybe 30) is probably quite a lot for either a country name (there are some exceptions - but they don't match what we have) or a language name.

[beglee]

[QUICK HISTORY LESSON]
I dont want to come off as a crazy Republican here, but, as an Irishman, i get a bit worked up when people say Rep Ireland is part of the UK. But, obviously if they just dont know it isnt part (and it hasnt been for over 80 years) thats fine, and ill gladly re-educate them

Also, its true that the Irish flag makes up the red diagonals of the UK flag, but its an old flag, the cross of St Patrick (and was considered a British invention at the time). The flag you know today, the Irish tricolor (green, white & orange), only came into existence towards the end of the 19th century, and was adopted by rebellions and the Irish revolution, and became Ireland's national flag in the early 1920s when Ireland became a free state.
[/HISTORY LESSON]

Anyway, let's get back to the solving. As per my last post, i found a list of countries by their literacy rates here on wikipedia, with a nice coloured map showing literacy rates of the world as well (which looks like it uses the same projection as the card).

Hobbess, you might want to add a list of literacy rates to your spreadsheet if you feel like it. Right, time for lunch, im starving!