Puzzles

Pictures and ideas related to The contents of Johan's desk will be covered in a separate article.

108XJ
On December 13, one of Vladimir's FB statuses read,


 * Within time, we learn sayings and proverbs.

His next status read,


 * W.J.Neatby, 1895: adage, aphorism, apophthegm, axiom, byword, catch phrase, dictum, epigram, folk wisdom, maxim, moral, motto, platitude, precept, repartee, text, truism, witticism

He then made the following 2 comments on this status:


 * Grenewic
 * 108XJ

What is the meaning of these 2 comments? He is not known for unintentional bad spelling, so what is up with the spelling of Greenwich, and what is the meaning of 108XJ?

ainmal-sulutit sutlucco
This phrase appeared in Vanessa's last Dec. 13 blog post; she mentioned it being scribbled on one of the items in her uncle's desk. As this item has since been scanned, see discussion of this phrase on the page dealing with the contents of Johan's desk.

John Jeffreys
The following status updates were seen on Vlad's FB:


 * Who to trust? Saying this earlier at 11:28 then Employment 20 past noon. (at 4:05 pm his time Dec. 14 -- may not be part of this set)
 * 1753: John Jefferys rolls the dice (at 17:53 his time Dec. 14)
 * 1755 starts moving on (at 17:55 his time)
 * 1759: H4 the piece is perfect (at 17:58 his time)

It was actually John Harrison that developed the H4 "watch"--a watch that calculated not time, but longitude (I think). However, John Jeffreys had influence. See http://www.midgham.com/html/john_jeffreys.html.

While I am not sure, I don't believe this is the same John Jeffreys that Wikipedia says was "the first game designer to whom a game design can be definitively ascribed," although it is possible as the game mentioned by the article was published in 1759. This may be why Vlad refers to Jeffreys as rolling the dice, although the article mentions that "Rather than using dice, players used a teetotum, a multi-sided top, with a number on each side, players moving the number of spaces indicated by the uppermost side when the top falls. (Dice were considered gambling instruments, and not appropriate in Christian households.)"

A namesake, John R. F. Jeffreys, worked on decoding messages encoded by the Germans' Enigma Machine during WWII. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R.F._Jeffreys. This has relevance as in this game there are many References to a German bombing raid.

The periods puzzle and 111 obsession
On Dec. 14, Vladimir sent a FB friend request to Telos/James containing some of the info from James' FB profile, but with changes made to the punctuation:


 * Give people hell ..., any punctuation... and single letter abbreviations for full words.
 * Lots of periods there. Where are they mostly found?

James responded,


 * They're from my 'About Me' section. No secret there. It's open to the public :)

and got a further clue from Vladimir in response:


 * Silly boy. Science not your thing then.

In a separate conversation, Vlad also said this to James:


 * and curioser. you shold read more thogh. No 12 year olds here, despite the spelling.

When asked for some help figuring out what he was getting at, Vlad gave James a link to an entry giving various definitions of "period" in an online dictionary, at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/period.

In a later message, he also included the letters "xv" on their own at the end. At first, some thought this was pointing at the element phosphorus, since it has atomic number 15, but it was actually pointing at definition 15 in the linked online dictionary article, which in turn was trying to tell us to look at the row (period) in the periodic table corresponding to the number of periods in Vlad's friend request of James (7).

Later still, Vlad tried a different tactic, saying, "One of the first few perfect totient numbers belongs to Nelson. And not by coincidence." He also posted to James' FB wall:


 * O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide,


 * The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,


 * That did not better for my life provide


 * Than public means which public manners breeds.

James found out that Nelson's number is 111. He also noticed that the sentence mentioning spelling lacked 3 "u"s, and that UUU in chemistry is Unununium, which was a temporary name for Roentgenium. The atomic number of Roentgenium is also 111. Dawn noticed at that point that Vlad had changed his FB status at some point to, "Röntgen sleeps now. As does his name sake, and all for u. With more pieces in play, more game is revealed. Red to move..." Röntgen is the name of the physicist for whom the element was named.

The poetic lines Vlad had posted to James' wall are from Shakespeare's Sonnet 111.

The description box on Vlad's FB profile says simply, "Astronomia : 111 ."

In a discussion with Telos, Vlad said,
 * There are phases of opportunity that I can seize - will explain another time. Needless to say, 1.11 has not been chosen at random...


 * Hence discussion with references to certain books.

A binary error message - SOLVED
On December 15, Vanessa wrote a blog post:

i hate computers. or rather my scanner, the software it comes with mucked up the machine. Worked last night until 11:10 this morning when an error message came up and a small popup [i think thats what they're called?]

PLEASE ENTER CODE:

the error message was weird. Tried turning it off and on but won't work. keeps coming back with all the 0s and 1s. hopefully someone can help!

01010011 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01100111 01101110 01101001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101100 01101100 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110011 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001010 01000011 01000011 00100000 00110001 00111001 00111001 00111001

thanks

V

The time at which the computer stopped working, 11:10, is noteworthy as it contains the 111 number that Vladimir is obsessed with.

Dawn translated the binary:


 * Sister. If you are reading this then the computer has recognised a new input device. Please be careful with all the data on this computer as if it falls into wrong hands. Our mother will let you pass. JCC 1999�

Amandel suggested that the JCC was "Prolly Johan Christian Cardui, V's uncle, sent this msg to his sister Annabell Cardui. As her DOD is 11 Dec 1999 V's mother may have never seen it."

Telos figured out that the bit around "let you pass" was telling us that we needed to look for a password to put into the PLEASE ENTER CODE popup, and Amandel reasoned this must refer to Cynthia Phanes Cardui or her DOB (29 Jul 1923), as she was the mother of Johan Christian Cardui and Annabell Cardui.

In a post on her blog, V said,
 * Well I put my mums full name in and. Nothing happened. Then something claire said about computerz and spaces and how you take them away for when doing passwordz and stuff. so i tried: CYNTHIAPHANES and it worked!

565 or 568? Wich is which?
In Vlad's "Hierarchy" FB photo album there is one photo each of Jim's "board" and James' "board."

Some of Vlad's comments on both "boards":
 * This system has some shortcomings. For instance, three minor pieces (nine points) are often slightly stronger than two rooks (ten points) or a queen (nine points)
 * But what value does one life have?

His next comment on Jim's "board" is:
 * And the value of 568? Up to the king and queen to decide.

...but his comment on James' "board" is instead:
 * And the value of 565? Up to the king and queen to decide.

Telos suggested these numbers may have to do with chess problems...see links: and.

Vladimir has also asked or stated, "Wich is which?" on occasion.

In a conversation with Bixy/Beka on Dec. 17, Vlad seemed to give this a Schrödinger's Cat type of twist: Vladimir Do you always stick to your decisions in life or do you ever change your mind... What if both were possible? 8:59pm Beka Interesting thought. I tend to not regret the choices I make. 9:00pmVladimir Not talking about regret. Many people think about changing the line. I am talking about splitting it, seeing both. 9:02pmBeka Still. I think playing both sides of a decision might prove a bit... more complicated than one would expect. But that's just me. I'm a pretty straight-forward woman. 9:03pmVladimir Time to stretch your limits then my dear. You will be a rook then, orthogonal when the time comes?

Another conversation with Telos also seemed to support the idea of being able to be in two places/states of being at once.

In a still later conversation with Telos, on Dec. 19, Vlad had this to say:

Rest has come. Rest will come again. When you answer my question then I will tell you the next step. And do not ask me what the question is James. You have the answers. Now start asking the correct questions to yourself to give me the answers.a/b/c? Why? Where? ... when... and, most importantly, 568 or 565 souls?

After dreamerblue figured out some connections between some pictures and Moonlight Sonata, and commenting that it was a relaxing piece, Vlad commented,
 * M.S. is not always a relaxing peace. Apt you have noticed it is a funeral lament amongst other things... What a way for 568 to die...

Amandel was able to figure out that the German air-raid referred to throughout the game was the Coventry Blitz. That was a series of air-raids, actually, but the most severe run--code-named Operation Mondscheinsonate (Moonlight Sonata) by the Germans--took place on November 14, 1940 and killed 568 civilians. For more info, see References to a German bombing raid.

The Timon of Athens Cover
 Vladimir posted this to his Facebook Wall on Dec. 18. Amanda Logan noted of the original image, "It's a design by Wyndham Lewis, created 1912, published 1913." However, the image is reflected, and, as Vlad noted in a comment, "The centre is offset." 

Queens alone, Puzzle 1 - SOLVED
A quote was found in Vlad's "Queens alone" FB album (which only the queens can see):

Eliot talks of her: If you shut me here, I will move the very woods and rocks to pity. Her name frees the king to move.

Dawn reports, "Of course, it's from Timon. [not Ovid's Metamorphoses? --Dreamerblue 17:18, December 30, 2009 (UTC)] We tried the name Philomelia as the password with nothing. Then we tried my real name and it didn't work. S"

Another approach was suggested by Bixy: "Maybe try something to do with TS Eliot's "The Waste Land"? http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html In The Waste Land, her name is spelled "Philomel" - try that?"

"Philomel" turned out to be the correct password to allow the kings to open the password-protected files they had been sent.

The Kings' Encrypted E-mail - SOLVED
Once the queens gave the kings the password to open the file, they found the following:

  "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. "Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak. "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? "I never know what you are thinking. Think." My chess moves. Please play them out. 49 72 65 6e 62 62 72 20 76 62 20 62 72 6f 6e 2e 20 56 2c 20 71 66 6a 6e 69 6e 61 2c 20 72 7a 20 65 66 63 2e 0d 0a 56 65 20 74 66 65 63 72 74 63 76 65 70 20 66 63 71 6e 61 62 20 66 64 63 62 76 75 6e 20 66 6f 20 49 72 65 6e 62 62 72 e2 80 99 62 20 6f 72 7a 76 79 6c 20 56 20 71 72 69 6e 20 73 61 66 64 70 71 63 20 63 71 6e 20 72 63 63 6e 65 63 76 66 65 20 63 66 20 7a 6c 20 75 66 66 61 20 66 6f 20 63 71 6e 20 67 6e 66 67 79 6e 20 56 20 6a 66 61 78 6e 75 20 6f 66 61 20 66 65 74 6e 2e 20 43 71 6e 62 6e 20 74 72 61 6e 20 65 66 63 20 6f 66 61 20 63 71 6e 20 37 32 63 71 20 2e 37 20 6a 66 61 78 20 7a 64 62 76 74 20 72 65 75 20 63 71 64 62 20 56 20 72 7a 20 73 66 64 65 75 20 63 66 20 62 6e 74 64 61 6e 20 65 6e 6a 20 62 64 61 61 66 64 65 75 62 2e 20 43 71 6e 20 62 65 66 6a 2c 20 56 20 71 72 75 20 63 71 66 64 70 71 63 2c 20 6a 66 64 79 75 20 71 66 79 75 20 63 71 6e 7a 20 66 6f 6f 2e 20 56 63 20 71 72 75 20 63 71 6e 20 61 6e 69 6e 61 62 6e 20 6e 6f 6f 6e 74 63 2e 0d 0a 43 71 6e 20 79 66 66 78 76 65 70 20 70 79 72 62 62 20 76 62 20 65 66 6a 20 75 61 72 6a 76 65 70 20 63 71 66 62 6e 20 63 66 20 7a 6e 20 63 71 72 63 20 56 20 71 72 69 6e 20 62 66 64 70 71 63 20 6f 66 61 20 72 20 79 66 65 70 20 63 76 7a 6e 2e 20 0d 0a 43 71 6e 20 41 6e 75 20 48 64 6e 6e 65 20 71 72 62 20 65 66 63 20 73 6e 6e 65 20 74 61 6e 72 63 6e 75 20 6a 71 76 74 71 20 7a 6e 72 65 62 20 63 71 6e 20 6a 66 79 6f 20 76 65 20 62 71 6e 6e 67 e2 80 99 62 20 74 79 66 63 71 76 65 70 20 7a 72 6c 20 6c 6e 63 20 65 66 63 20 73 76 63 6e 20 62 66 20 71 72 61 75 2e 20 56 20 72 7a 20 62 66 61 61 6c 20 6f 66 61 20 73 6e 76 65 70 20 62 66 20 74 61 6c 67 63 76 74 20 72 65 75 20 72 79 66 66 6f 2e 20 43 71 76 62 20 6a 76 79 79 20 74 71 72 65 70 6e 2c 20 73 64 63 20 71 66 6a 20 62 66 66 65 20 75 6e 67 6e 65 75 62 20 66 65 20 70 6e 63 63 76 65 70 20 62 66 7a 6e 20 75 76 62 63 72 65 74 6e 20 6f 61 66 7a 20 7a 6c 20 74 64 61 61 6e 65 63 20 67 79 72 74 6e 2e 0d 0a 4c 66 64 61 20 6f 61 76 6e 65 75 2c 0d 0a 49 79 72 75 76 7a 76 61 2e 0d 0a

 When copied from Word and pasted into Wordpad, the full image could be seen, revealing a portion that could not be seen in the original.

Dawn discovered that the first 4 lines come from T. S. Eliot's "A Game of Chess," part of The Waste Land.

Amandel figured out what the "chess moves" translate to: "Vanessa is safe. I, however, am not. In contacting others outside of Vanessa???s family I have brought the attention to my door of the people I worked for once. These care not for the 72th .7 work music and thus I am bound to secure new surrounds. The snow, I had thought, would hold them off. It had the reverse effect. The looking glass is now drawing those to me that I have sought for a long time. The Red Queen has not been created which means the wolf in sheep???s clothing may yet not bite so hard. I am sorry for being so cryptic and aloof. This will change, but how soon depends on getting some distance from my current place. Your friend, Vladimir."

As to how she did this, she said, "the solve ... was Hex into ascii and then run thru' any good letter substitution site or tool. I use Decrypto 8.5".

The piece of music referred to is Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, otherwise known as "Moonlight Sonata." This piece of music is referred to in other ways throughout the game.



Knights alone, Part 1 - SOLVED?
Two pictures were posted to the Knights alone group:  The caption read, "David: ii [Buddleia]"

We were able to identify this as a variety of butterfly bush known as the Black Knight.

 The caption read, "Sit back and listen".

We were eventually able to identify this as a photo of Lake Lucerne. Music critic Ludwig Rellstab compared the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's so-called (incorrectly named) "Moonlight Sonata" to moonlight shining on this lake. Ludwig Rellstab was also the name of a German chess master. Wikipedia notes of this piece of music, "It is actually music of funereal lamentation, set deliberately by Beethoven in the lamenting key of C-sharp minor."



Rooks, part 1
The title of the rooks' photo album is Corvus frugilegus (species:Rook). Comment: "What happens between these 4 walls.."

 No caption. The bird is a rook.

 Caption:

Board? 896 8

Amandel suggests this refers to Chess Problem #896 where it seems mate is in 7. She also reports that the image is a lithograph by M. C. Escher

 Caption: Notes of worth

Note that this image is the same one posted later as "Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill," though it was posted right-side up in that case.

Amandel reports:


 * Identified the specific musical notes which are likely the squares' number and direction of Black's next move. However, that portrait is upside down so I defer to my king (Telos) to assess the board.


 * Also, Am guessing and giggling that the score is a movement from Beethoven's Duet With Two Obligato Eyeglasses For Viola And Violoncello. If so, Vlad has a wicked  sense of humor.



Pawns (On foot, On Throne), Part 1
 Caption: 1 of 8, 2 of 16

The butterfly is a soldier butterfly. The caption refers to the 8 pawns (soldiers) that are on each side of a chess board.

 Caption: VEJ167

Sarah was able to find the image at http://www.victorianelegance.com/sig4.html ; it is a piece of Sarah Coventry vintage jewellery.

Amandel discovered that the German air-raid being referred to throughout the game was in fact the Coventry Blitz. See References to a German bombing raid.

The caption, VEJ167, is the piece's item number on that site. The image in Vlad's album is rotated counterclockwise compared to the original.

It is thought that this image is also meant as a compliment to Sarah Tallon / theclaw, as she is one of the pawns.

<br style="clear: both" /> Caption: Piece together. <br style="clear: both" />

Drink me - posted on pawn board on December 29 2009

Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill - SOLVED
Vlad posted the following as a Facebook note, with the title "Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill":

<br style="clear: both" />

<br style="clear: both" /> 12 : 2 I'll name it in one B! Playing with the pieces due to boredom. Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill

theclaw suggested that "Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill" was an anagram, but could not turn up anything that seemed to be related from any anagram generator.

It was eventually discovered that the picture is of music critic Ludwig Rellstab (April 13, 1799–November 27, 1860), who compared the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's so-called (incorrectly named) "Moonlight Sonata" to moonlight shining on this lake. Ludwig Rellstab was also the name of a German chess master (22 November 1904 – 14 February 1983). Wikipedia notes of this piece of music, "It is actually music of funereal lamentation, set deliberately by Beethoven in the lamenting key of C-sharp minor."

The full name of the music critic was Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab, which is a perfect anagram of Girls Hindered With A Cherubic Frill.

Dropped, Raised, J.J. Abrams
On Dec. 20, Vlad posted on Rêveuse Bleue's FB Wall:
 * Dropped

then, 4 minutes later:
 * Raised.
 * J.J. Abrams would appeciate.

Knights alone, Part 2 - SOLVED?
<br style="clear: both" /> Posted Dec. 20 by Vladimir.

Caption:
 * 35 escaped possibly. Or was it 32?
 * Damn multiples...

The text is the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

Dawn says, "When you flip the image, it looks like a continuation of the poem, starting with stanza 3."

Amandel was able to figure out what is written in the upper-right corner:
 * Farringford=home of Tennyson (of the Light Brigade)
 * Freshwater=a district in the...
 * Isle of Wright

<br style="clear: both" />

NGBHIETNTSANSHTEUHSEADHNGTEIS - SOLVED
On Dec. 20, Vlad changed his FB status to "NGBHIETNTSANSHTEUHSEADHNGTEIS". Eventually, the solution to this was almost given to Jim in a chat: using a "pendulum" method, start in the middle & take a letter at a time from each side, working outwards, until you get "The sun has set and the night begins."

OOO, zero, etc.
In a chat with Vladimir Dec. 16, Jim Sawyer noticed that Vlad intentionally left out 3 Os (OOO).

<br style="clear: both" /> Vlad posted this Dec. 29.

Caption: It has moved from the first to the seconds, yet the players are still at 0.

Comment by Vlad on it: Are 0 and o/O the same? '-Wich is this?

Later comment, after Rêveuse Bleue posted a couple thoughts:
 * Where is the picture from RB?

[RB are just the initials for Rêveuse Bleue.]

<br style="clear: both" />

amat mictoria curam
On Dec. 23, Vlad auto-posted a message somehow:


 * VSIRIN AUTOMATED SERVICE: ONE QUESTION RECEIVED FROM J.SAWYER. ONE QUESTION AWAITING FROM D.ELLISON. RELAY IN OPERATION. 4d 41 52 55 43 20 41 49 52 4f 54 43 49 4d 20 54 41 4d 41

The hex was translated by theclaw to MARUC AIROTCIM TAMA, or amat mictoria curam backwards. Amandel says, "(AMAT MIC TORIA CURAM) is sorta latin, S/He Loves 1099 Worries of Toria (Roman girl's name meaning 'victory")

Knights alone, part 3
The knights received a Facebook message from Vladimir:


 * Subject: Ship in a


 * 73 116 32 119 97 115 32 97 108 108 32 118 101 114 121 32 119 101 108 108 32 116 Rg 32 115 97 121 32 96 68 114 105 110 107 32 109 101 44 39 32 98 117 116 32 116 104 101 32 119 105 115 101 32 108 105 116 116 108 101 32 65 108 105 99 101 32 119 97 115 32 110 Rg 116 32 103 Rg 105 110 103 32 116 Rg 32 100 Rg 32 116 104 97 116 32 105 110 32 97 32 104 117 114 114 121 46 32 96 78 Rg 44 32 73 39 108 108 32 108 Rg Rg 107 32 102 105 114 115 116 44 39 32 115 104 101 32 115 97 105 100 44 32 96 97 110 100 32 115 101 101 32 119 104 101 116 104 101 114 32 105 116 39 115 32 109 97 114 107 101 100 32 34 112 Rg 105 115 Rg 110 34 32 Rg 114 32 110 Rg 116 39 59 32 102 Rg 114 32 115 104 101 32 104 97 100 32 114 101 97 100 32 115 101 118 101 114 97 108 32 110 105 99 101 32 108 105 116 116 108 101 32 104 105 115 116 Rg 114 105 101 115 32 97 98 Rg 117 116 32 99 104 105 108 100 114 101 110 32 119 104 Rg 32 104 97 100 32 103 Rg 116 32 98 117 114 110 116 44 32 97 110 100 32 101 97 116 101 110 32 117 112 32 98 121 32 119 105 108 100 32 98 101 97 115 116 115 32 97 110 100 32 Rg 116 104 101 114 32 117 110 112 108 101 97 115 97 110 116 32 116 104 105 110 103 115 44 32 97 108 108 32 98 101 99 97 117 115 101 32 116 104 101 121 32 119 Rg 117 108 100 32 110 Rg 116 32 114 101 109 101 109 98 101 114 32 116 104 101 32 115 105 109 112 108 101 32 114 117 108 101 115 32 116 104 101 105 114 32 102 114 105 101 110 100 115 32 104 97 100 32 116 97 117 103 104 116 32 116 104 101 109 58 32 115 117 99 104 32 97 115 44 32 116 104 97 116 32 97 32 114 101 100 45 104 Rg 116 32 112 Rg 107 101 114 32 119 105 108 108 32 98 117 114 110 32 121 Rg 117 32 105 102 32 121 Rg 117 32 104 Rg 108 100 32 105 116 32 116 Rg Rg 32 108 Rg 110 103 59 32 97 110 100 32 116 104 97 116 32 105 102 32 121 Rg 117 32 99 117 116 32 121 Rg 117 114 32 102 105 110 103 101 114 32 118 101 114 121 32 100 101 101 112 108 121 32 119 105 116 104 32 97 32 107 110 105 102 101 44 32 105 116 32 117 115 117 97 108 108 121 32 98 108 101 101 100 115 59 32 97 110 100 32 115 104 101 32 104 97 100 32 110 101 118 101 114 32 102 Rg 114 103 Rg 116 116 101 110 32 116 104 97 116 44 32 105 102 32 121 Rg 117 32 100 114 105 110 107 32 109 117 99 104 32 102 114 Rg 109 32 97 32 98 Rg 116 116 108 101 32 109 97 114 107 101 100 32 96 112 Rg 105 115 Rg 110 44 39 32 105 116 32 105 115 32 97 108 109 Rg 115 116 32 99 101 114 116 97 105 110 32 116 Rg 32 100 105 115 97 103 114 101 101 32 119 105 116 104 32 121 Rg 117 44 32 115 Rg Rg 110 101 114 32 Rg 114 32 108 97 116 101 114 46 32

Amandel was able to figure it out: THX and it's decimal with all the "O's" gone (Dec:111...Vlad's fav nbr.).

Translation:
 * It was all very well t say `Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was nt ging t d that in a hurry. `N, I'll lk first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "pisn" r nt'; fr she had read several nice little histries abut children wh had gt burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and ther unpleasant things, all because they wuld nt remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-ht pker will burn yu if yu hld it t lng; and that if yu cut yur finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never frgtten that, if yu drink much frm a bttle marked `pisn,' it is almst certain t disagree with yu, sner r later.

The subject of the message ("Ship in a") as well as the passage both point to the word "bottle."

Kings and Bishops, part 2
Telos reports:
 * In the Kings and Bishops album, there is a picture of a picture (taken from Ebay, I think, due to the watermark.) that says I <3 Celia. If you didn't read the messages between Vlad and I ... Celia is another name for the Patron Saint of Music. With the Beethoven references, I think there may be a connection.

Rooks, part 2
<br style="clear: both" /> Caption: Sinople

Amandel notes,
 * With the b/w inverted Alice has no eyes. Now she is in the dark, totally blind. She can't "look first..and see whether it's marked 'poison' or not". Seems quite dangerous and not at all a "Simple" situation.

<br style="clear: both" /> For comparison, here is the original image that appears in Alice in Wonderland.

<br style="clear: both" />

The defining scientist
<br style="clear: both" /> Posted to Vlad's wall.

<br style="clear: both" />Caption:


 * U O A O O I O U
 * O N O O O O M E T O O
 * U O A O I D O S O
 * I O N O O I O U T O O

Comments he posted on this picture:


 * The defining scientist, a great role model to us all.
 * "Any two bodies of equal size and figure but of different materials will have their natural velocities in the same proportion as their weights where by their natural velocities he means the velocities with which they naturally fall downwards "
 * "The Consilience of Inductions takes place when an Induction, obtained from one class of facts, coincides with an Induction obtained from another different class. Thus Consilience is a test of the truth of the Theory in which it occurs."
 * As I tried to tell you, but as he puts much, much better...

The man in the picture is William Whewell; according to Wikipedia, he was the one who came up with the word "scientist." It is not clear why Vladimir thinks Whewall is a great role model, though.

The first quote is from Whewall's work "On the philosophy of discovery: chapters historical and critical."

The second quote from Whewall is found right in the Wikipedia article about consilience, and is a quote from his "The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences." The idea behind consilience is that discoveries made in one area of knowledge help further knowledge in other areas, because all knowledge is connected. In some ways, chemistry is really just physics, for example. In turn, molecular biology is really just chemistry. The Wikipedia article on consilience points out that psychology is then basically an application of biology, and social sciences are applications of psychology.

Interestingly, Whewall also wrote award-winning poetry and also had an interest in architecture, so his interests were not limited to only one area of knowledge, either.

This could be partly a nudge not to ignore anything, even things seemingly unrelated...the butterflies and the chess and the Alice in Wonderland references and and and...making progress in figuring out one thing will help us figure out things in other areas.

However, none of this explains the caption.

Amandel suggests that the caption should be solved by using |Whewall's three steps of induction, and that we should examine the 4 given lines and determine what patterns are found within them. "Then, our goal is to create a 5th line by making conclusions based on all the observable patterns (inc. math)." She provided a link to some examples: