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[WF][Trailhead] Whitechapel Foundation: Open Cases
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petunia
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Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 616
Location: MS
yellowcard wrote:
I got 67mm to 42mm on the copy I printed off, which is 1.595238. Its not exactly 5:3, but maybe it's close enough for our situation.


Hmm, I got 71mm to 43mm. Odd. I measured more than once, I think at different points, but it's probably worth a recheck all around. My triangle didn't come out at 30-60-90, though I was using the y-axis for the hypotenuse I think.

I didn't mean to suggest that the triangle will be equilateral, with all three points a league away from each other. First, the "path" doesn't necessarily mean as the crow flies - it does make me think of traveling along the arc of a circle though. So maybe the arc length between points 1 and 2 could be a league. Anyway, the compass trick can still give us the maximum area we'd need to look in. Second, I don't think the text indicates that all the points are a league away from each other, just the first two. It could turn out that way, but not necessarily. (Of course it would look cool if we ended up with an equilateral triangle centered over those concentric streets.)

About the third point, "the rule prepares the place", what rule? Mathematical, alchemical, other?

If our job is to stop the ritual from being completed, I think we have to assume that this was the first step. If it was the second, I don't see how we can hope to get enough info from what we have to predict the third point.

Ethan wrote:
** You could definitely plot a triangle from the three points (unless they are on a straight line, that is). And it does sound like the second ritual is a league from the first. The question is how would you determine the location of the third point? Even if they were in a straight line, how would you know how to plot them in relation to the first place?


Maybe it's cuz I'm tired, but I'm suddenly wondering why he's bringing up the possibility of the three points being in a straight line. I didn't even think of that. (Simson line, anyone?)

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:26 am
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 428
petunia wrote:


About the third point, "the rule prepares the place", what rule? Mathematical, alchemical, other?

If our job is to stop the ritual from being completed, I think we have to assume that this was the first step. If it was the second, I don't see how we can hope to get enough info from what we have to predict the third point.


The line about "the rule prepares..." may refer back to "5 to 3." Which may not actually mean 2:55, since that glow was noticed at 11:30 P.M.

Our job may be to stop the ritual, but it could just as well have to do with dealing with the consequences after it's completed. Maybe there's a counter-spell to find and perform. Wouldn't that make for a nifty video for InQuest to film? (I hope Djinn has some money to spend on special effects.)

I think he brought up the straight line because the email he replied to mentioned the different possibilities for the locations' relationships. Straight line, triangle tangent to a circle, same point, etc.

ETA: Ethan's personal blog
Quote:
The Morton Salt girl just handed me…
Posted on December 13, 2007 by ethangrant

…her umbrella.

Cripes! Two days of too much driving, too many brown cows, and two-ton catfish (yeah, that's what I was doing in Chattanooga). Then I come back to the possibility of OC:0702 leaping from the library to the streets of Seniorville, USA. We'll see where that leads, but now it's time to catchup on the shut-eye I did not get over the past couple days. Wanted to brain dump some of the thoughts I had about OC:0701 while I was driving, but that'll have to wait till I'm awake.

T.C. & Scotty; Thanks, great time. Now go get a job. Or two.


PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:38 am
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		Sandra
We need to compile a list of questions to ask Sandra when Ethan talks to her next.
_________________
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:13 am
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casablanca
Boot

Joined: 01 Dec 2007
Posts: 39

 		Re: Sandra
surfzoned wrote:
We need to compile a list of questions to ask Sandra when Ethan talks to her next.


Some of these have already been mentioned, but I'd like to know:

* A good description of the shape of the piece of metal

* As close to an exact location as possible

* If she knows if anything strange has happened in that area in the past

* If anything else strange has happened since Sunday night

* If she has gone back to the site and if there was anything there

That's all I can think of right now. Coffee

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:09 am
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Coffeebean
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Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 626

 		Would it have been mentioned in her local newspaper?

(or a 'fake' newspaper, like freewebs?)

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:22 pm
Last edited by Coffeebean on Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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WolfHawk
Entrenched


Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis
petunia wrote:
The line about "the rule prepares..." may refer back to "5 to 3." Which may not actually mean 2:55, since that glow was noticed at 11:30 P.M.

I am almost 100% sure the 5 to 3 rule is the golden ratio or golden mean. There is a LOT of mythology connected to it. It isn't just the math.

It is the basis for sacred geometry. it occurs repeatedly in nature, the Greeks considered it the perfect balance, the pentagram incorporates it, it is used extensively by artists, architects, musicians etc.

Vedic (Hindu) mythology also discusses following the golden path in our journey through life. It is a means by which we balance ourselves.
_________________
Having abandoned my search for the truth I am now looking for a good fantasy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be the headlight of an oncoming train.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:27 pm
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WolfHawk
Entrenched


Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis

 		Here is the initial sighting with a three-mile ring, and a five-mile ring . If we are dealing with the golden ratio the next ritual will appear at a point on this ring. The third will appear somewhere on the remaining ring.
WhtChplRitF.jpg
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WhtChplRitF.jpg
_________________
Having abandoned my search for the truth I am now looking for a good fantasy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be the headlight of an oncoming train.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:35 pm
Last edited by WolfHawk on Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:22 am; edited 3 times in total
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petunia
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Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 616
Location: MS

 		I'm confused, WolfHawk, why a 5-mile ring? If we're dealing with a league, then the maximum distance from the first point would be about 3 miles. The ratio is 5:3, not the actual distance.

I just emailed Ethan, after getting a reply from him when I commented on OC0702 about a typo in the deciphered text... there are a couple of points in there I meant to bring up in here first but kept forgetting, I hope that's ok.

Quote:
Hi Ethan,

We're pretty much still batting ideas back and forth - no big decisions lately on what things mean. Casablanca had a starter list of things to inquire about with Sandra (stuff in parentheses is added by me):

* A good description of the shape of the piece of metal (and its size and orientation: lying flat in the street, or standing or propped upright somehow? facing which direction?)
* As close to an exact location as possible
* If she knows if anything strange has happened in that area in the past
* If anything else strange has happened since Sunday night
* If she has gone back to the site and if there was anything there

As to the triangle thing, there was a little confusion as I did not mean to suggest an *equilateral* triangle (although I admit, that would be cool). I don't think the text indicates that all the points are a league away from each other, just the first two. It could turn out that way, but not necessarily.

"In all the greater must point true" could mean that the hypotenuse (the longest, or greatest, side) of the right triangle would point north ("true"). Just a hunch of course.

The "5 to 3" rule does seem more and more to indicate an approximation of the golden ratio, which might be used to predict the location of the third point from the first two.

What "the path" means is still up for grabs, though I think it'd be nice if it meant the path along the circumference of a circle. Sandra was driving down a street with such a path, after all.

As for who did it: I highly doubt it was one of us (the uC). Simply put, none of us are seriously into that sort of thing, as far as I'm aware, as much as we may like our X-Files reruns. My feeling is that this message was left for us by someone involved with the ritual, or someone who knows the people who are, and wants to get your attention for some reason... maybe just to show off, or perhaps to stop it from being completed.

Now for the really important question. What is a Brown Cow, and do I want one? Smile

petunia

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ethan Grant <ethan>
> Dear Petunia,
>
> Thank you, I'll let Frank know about that so he can correct it on the site. Were there any other updates since your group's last assessment of the text?
>
> Regards,
>
> Ethan Grant

> ===================================
>
> *petunia* wrote:
>
> FYI, I think there is a typo in line 9 of the deciphered text… should be "night" instead of "might." Smile


PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:32 pm
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WolfHawk
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Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis
petunia wrote:
I'm confused, WolfHawk, why a 5-mile ring? If we're dealing with a league, then the maximum distance from the first point would be about 3 miles. The ratio is 5:3, not the actual distance.

DOH. That's what I get for trying to think at work! Embarassed

Fixed
_________________
Having abandoned my search for the truth I am now looking for a good fantasy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be the headlight of an oncoming train.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:58 pm
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casablanca
Boot

Joined: 01 Dec 2007
Posts: 39

 		New from Ethan's journal
Most recent post from Ethan on his personal journal.

SPEC: I'd say that somewhere in Ethan's brainstorming there is a clue.

Quote:
Delirium…
Posted on December 15, 2007 by ethangrant

…just about covers it. Between the not-too-much sleep, the spooky rituals, the leviathan catfish, the Kentucky space jelly, the mysterious letters, and the 8, count them 8, shopping days until Christmas…well, things start to seem a little "unreal".

Since the "mysterious letters" hold a little more weight than most of the others (in my opinion, anyway), thought it might help my overloaded brain to make a couple notes on the internal conversation I had with myself the other day somewhere outside Ft. Oglethorpe.

I still think there is a clue in there somewhere. It may not be big and it may not be obvious (to a sane person, that is), but I can't help feeling that IF the intent is to get our attention and IF the purpose is to impart some freakin' sort of message, then the sender must want someone to know what that message is. So I went back to MSG1, which I think we were supposed to receive first, and I just started free-associating the things on that page that might mean something (since those X's don't mean much of anything, other than looking like a poem - but which one!).

The X's: big, little, capital, upper case, lower case, "x marks the spot", triple x, x-rated, porn, variable, unknown, algebra, Mr. X, X-files,

The Number Sign: numbers, pound, pound sign, hash, ascii something 23, telephones, sharp, tic-tac-toe, X's & O's

"The # was not a #.": The number was not a number? (nothing else fits. does the period matter?)

The . (period): period, dot, full stop, final, end, no more, that's final, no more discussion, period piece,

The 1: one, line, stroke, pipe, single, solitary, alone, won, 2 point, straight, 1 dimension, one and only, one way

The Circle: circle, round, circumference, loop, ring, enclosed, around, set, within, perfect, orbit, radius, diameter, circle back, circle the wagons

This made a lot more sense among the monuments. Oh well, I guess I'll just let it peculate. Oh, just remembered, for those poor souls who've asked because they know not…


Those last three dots are followed by an image of a box of Mayfield Brown Cow ice cream bars.

Also noticed that this one is titled "Delirium" and that the post from December 10th was titled "Morpheus". Is Ethan a Sandman fan or is this something useful?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:15 pm
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		 Sandman
Our PM has at least read and might possibly be a fan of both Neil Gaiman, who did the Sandman series and many other great works, and William Gibson, who created the cyberpunk genre.

They are also fans of most literature about fantasy, occult or alternate social views from the last few centuries, both European and International works. In general they are well read individuals making it hard to rule almost anything out of their field of play.

Has anyone checked the Blog title references against poems N. Gaiman might have written? That could be the obscure clue we are actually being given.

META- the current Blog post is clue one of a string of clues that will most likely follow revealing progressively more of just how to go about solving the puzzle. It's best if we can solve it quickly with as few clues as possible. However, our PMs are not cruel and so they will most likely provide further clues until it is solved. (this is assuming they follow the same unspoken rules they set for the last ARG they did.)
_________________
"CypherMonkey: A person required to do many hours of cryptology for free at the cost of MANY braincells."

PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:04 pm
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casablanca
Boot

Joined: 01 Dec 2007
Posts: 39

 		Star Jelly?
Since Ethan mentioned it twice - and I had no idea what he was talking about - I looked around for what Space Jelly might be. Realized pretty quickly that apparently Ethan is the only person that calls it Space Jelly instead of Star Jelly (assuming he's talking about the same thing Confused Shocked ), although I found a link that referred to them as Space Blobs.

Whatever you call it, it sounds pretty gross. Didn't see anything obvious that could relate to the two cases, other than some wording that sounds kind of generically Lovecraftian (i.e. Rot of the Stars).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_jelly

So Ethan's been checking on some sightings of jelly in Kentucky? Cute. Rolling Eyes

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:12 am
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		odd request
After visiting 3 books stores and still not being able to find a copy of "The History of the Necronomicon" by H.P. Lovecraft I'm asking you guys and gals if you might have a copy lying around. I remember reading it years ago, 7 to be exact, and I think there are some descriptions of rituals involving paths, leagues, etc in it.
I think the poem we are searching for may be in that book or there might some insight in it that will shed light on what we're dealing with concerning Sandra.
_________________
"CypherMonkey: A person required to do many hours of cryptology for free at the cost of MANY braincells."

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:54 am
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yellowcard
Veteran


Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 95
petunia wrote:
Hmm, I got 71mm to 43mm. Odd. I measured more than once, I think at different points, but it's probably worth a recheck all around. My triangle didn't come out at 30-60-90, though I was using the y-axis for the hypotenuse I think.


I had to be very picky about exactly where I measured because there were two lines available on each radius, probably due to the artist using a straightedge to get the red lines on the sheet. I don't have that sheet of paper anymore so I can't see what I did, but as I recall, the y-axis line could have been measured a little longer if done the other way I considered doing it.

(Warning: somewhat deep math-stuff ahead. Certain brains may 'splode while thinking too hard.)

I drew my triangle by dropping a line segment from the end of the 2:00 radius to the x-axis, parallel with the y-axis and thus perpendicular to the x-axis. I called my handdrawn line segment a, the x-axis line segment from the center point (point O) to the point it meets my segment point b, and the 2:00 radius segment c.

In a 30-60-90 triangle, the hypotenuse will be twice the length of the shortest side (2a=c), and mine worked out quite nicely. Again, I've destroyed my work, so I don't have the exact numbers on-hand.

WolfHawk wrote:
I am almost 100% sure the 5 to 3 rule is the golden ratio or golden mean. There is a LOT of mythology connected to it. It isn't just the math.

It is the basis for sacred geometry. it occurs repeatedly in nature, the Greeks considered it the perfect balance, the pentagram incorporates it, it is used extensively by artists, architects, musicians etc.


The Golden Ratio is [/drumroll] ... 1.6180339887, which is very close to 5:3.

Given Petunia's slightly higher ratio, I'd say the Golden Ratio is what the artist intended, unless he/she got very lucky. Without a doubt, though, the two lines are at a 60 degree angle and was very intentional.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:21 am
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badaim68
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Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 38
Location: Sussex, UK

 		Place of Power
I did think that perhaps the ritual witnessed was the second one and that the first one "at a place of power" could have taken place at Progress Energy Park, the ballpark that used to be known as Florida Power Park (and where the Devil Rays play!)..but it's more than three miles from the witness site.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:26 pm
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