Thursday 7 November 2013

Eotvos Wheel Code

So we have an Eotvos Wheel, but what do we do with it ?

Good question, Jen and Eric discuss this early on in the book on page 3 -


It is then mentioned again on page 270



This isn't a discussion of the Eotvos Wheel website, but I wouldn't be surprised if the site is linked in some way as it seems too much of a coincidence not to be.

In the first reference Jen says the Eotvos Wheel is the key to solving puzzles in Coriolis. Eric replies that she will have to play around to find the reference latitudes.

Interesting that only Latitude is mentioned, does this mean that it is only a fixed point on the Outer East West wheel that we need to find ?

Also each code line has up to 5 letters, but as you can see in the table below a few have one or two dots.

One final point the inner ring has 194 marks on it and the outer ring has 374, Not 360, so something in degrees may not be what we are searching for

So there are a couple of possibilities for code references to look for -

N or S value and E or W Value + Letter position (1 - 5) e.g. 45W 72N 3 Would give us the letter P

We could just look for the Latitude as Eric mentions, a N or S value e.g. 72N 3, however this gives us a problem, in that we don't know where to put the inner wheel in relation to the outer.

Alternatively we always use 0 on the inner wheel e.g. 45W 4 would give us G

The chances of N S E W being used clearly are probably quite slim so we may need to substitute other values for those.

Any thoughts or theories are more than welcome to try and resolve mystery of the wheel.

Below is a table with all the codes from the wheel and the position on the outer dial using the 0 position on the inner dial.

As you can see there is only one word that makes any sort of sense - SIOUX - and there are two positions on the wheel where the East and West values are the same - 59 and 111

It might help as a reference but I might as easily hinder if we concentrate too much on the values and not the code.

Dir Value L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
W 3   E R N L H
E 5   . C F J .
W 10   L O N O E
E 13   I C R A M
W 17   B F K A R
E 20   . U S S A
W 24   B E J F .
E 27   S E D U E
W 29   E V B E O
E 34   R E T . .
W 38   C B R U Z
E 42   V F I L T
W 45   K . O G .
E 51   X G L D Y
W 52   E H G Y D
E 59   P U A L K
W 59   R N B F H
W 66   W Y . G E
E 67   L . H . .
W 73   C G E U Z
E 75   O R . O S
W 80   M D J Q P
E 83   O M I V E
W 89   H O E I T
E 90   . S W A J
W 96   X B T U P
E 97   F . D . V
W 103   Q L R . .
E 104   P P O L A
W 111   I Y B W U
E 111   V O L S A
E 118   D T T O R
W 119   H B C I W
E 125   S P B T S
W 128   V T N E N
E 132   G P M R Q
W 136   V B X R O
E 139   V J P M A
W 144   . Q M R H
E 147   . . L S H
W 152   D E I O .
E 154   G O O K L
W 159   V B X R O
E 161   P O M O S
W 167   Z T R E J
E 168   A U G L O
W 175   S I O U X
E 176   L G . . Z
W 183   . M O P A
E 184   V X Q B Y

98 comments:

  1. Just a thought, but since Eric and Jen wind up in Prague, might those coordinates be something? 50.0833° N, 14.4167° E, so roughly 50N and 14E or 15E?

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    1. Interesting thought. I'm only a third of the way into the book, so perhaps this is revealed later, but why are the postcards from Brazil? Why was the Lençois postcard the first clue? How do Prague and Brazil figure into the wheel?

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    2. I've only skimmed, but Eric goes to Brazil to meet FXC. The postcards are from him to Jen. I don't think there's necessarily any link between Prague and Brazil, other than that FXC is in Brazil and Eric and Jen eventually go to Prague for some reason (I didn't gather that in my skimming).

      And the postcard was probably just a piece of marketing, to show that the book was going to include ephemera. I wouldn't put too much stock in its being used.

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  2. Awesome! Thanks for starting the Eotvos wheel page. One thought about the SIOUX reference: apparently there were Sioux code-talkers in WWII - see sd4history.com
    No idea if this is relevant.

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    1. This site (about Native American code talkers during both world wars) codetalkers
      indicates that the codes were simple substitutions using Native words to represent individual letters in English. Probably a red herring.

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    2. We will be posting more on coordinates soon!

      Make no assumptions re: ephemera. Jen and Eric shared several books and the Ewheels during their search for Straka and suspect coded messages within postcards and letters.

      We have noticed SIOUX as being the only word and could point to substitution cipher or starting point.

      Let us know anything that strikes you as interesting or odd as you read. Hope you are enjoying the book.

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    3. I'm not saying that we shouldn't mine the postcard for clues/code. I'm just saying that the choice of the publishing company to reveal one of the postcards earlier in the year shouldn't be given any special consideration as the "first clue," since it was likely just something to grab the attention of the audience at the Book Bloggers convention where it was revealed (that is to say, it is very clearly something that stands out in the market of traditional books and ebooks).

      Another way of saying it is that the clues dropped by the publishing company *about* the book itself shouldn't be confused for the clues *within* the book.

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  3. I just updated the post as I realised there are 194 markings on the inner wheel and 374 on the outer, so it isn't quite as simple as a compass.

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    1. That's 4 + 14 = 18 members of Straka, described on S. ship. All having permanent longitude on wheel? Does that even work? Just a thought.

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  5. Here's my in-progress thinking, shared so the rest of the class can help out or disprove my guess:

    My base assumption is that the puzzle is playing fair inside the world of the book, at least for a first layer. That is, when Jen and Eric discuss the wheel on page 3, it's because they're expecting to decode something that's already extant, not use it as a way to decode future events as they occur.

    So when I saw the note on page 73 "1st of the few concrete geographic references in the book", that leads me to wonder if that isn't a path to using the Eotvos wheel (or at least one way to do so.)

    Looking up the latitude and longitudes of the cities mentioned on that page via Wikipedia, I used them to find corresponding slots on the wheel:

    * Marseille: 43d17'N 5d22'E --> MDJQP
    * Odessa: 46d28'N 30d44'E --> RNBFH
    * Boston: 42d21'N 71d3'W --> DEIO.

    Those look to me to be rows in a Playfair cipher, similar to the one they decoded in Chapter 1. I'm looking for more real-world references in the text, then I'll try to combine them to form one or more Playfair boxes...and then find the keyword to decipher them, which may be the trickier part.

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    1. Agreed. Try underlines, circled or squared words, page 73, finally, brutal.

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  6. Though about the letter positions and the fact that it is an Eotvos wheel- Pg 3 Fn where wheel is first brought up talks about effect being more "closer to the equator." And the margin note talks about reference "latitudes" . What if letter used on wheel depends on latitude being used? Maybe the latitudes are have 5 brackets, and the letter 1 through 5 depends on the latitude bracket. Maybe those are the reference latitude points we have to "play around with".

    There are actually 14 extra degrees on each of the circles- the inner should be 180 and the outer should be 360. So is the number 14 important to understand the wheel?

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    1. For instance- 90 degrees of latitude divided by 5 (letter positions) might be: 0 to 18, 19 to 36, 37 to 54, 55 to 62 and 63 to 90. Five brackets- choose the letter position according to the bracket.

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    2. Went through the footnotes- and there are about 19 place names there that can be used to give letters through Lat/longitude. Will try that later.

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    3. The letters don't seem to be making words- so next thought is perhaps a rail cipher with 14 rails.

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  7. Just one other thing- the page 270 Fn says that Straka has expanded the Eotvus effect to include Time. Maybe that has to do with the extra degrees on the Wheel?

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    1. If you also notice on page 270 there is a footnote 9 and 10 - 19 ? Could be significant

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    2. If the other ideas above work out about how to use the wheel with latitude brackets, then I think maybe Eotvos was mentioned again to point out in the notes below in red and purple- and then emphasized in the later black cross out of "I think"- that FXC used a wheel. To say we should be looking for data in what she had written- not Straka- so in the footnotes, since we know she wrote those for sure.

      Then, if it is a rail fence cipher- makes sense to include the # of rails within the wheel itself- key to decoding. So the 14 extra.

      But 9 & 10 always seem to mean something!

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    3. .Have tried the Santorini men locations in the wheel with rail ciipher- and bracketing according to latitude- does not work at all. 14 rails too many for # of letters, and no words appearing. So, wondering if running cipher with the book as key might work. Would need to know where to start in book to decipher if so for the footnote locations. Santorini men blog might have key text on blog site. Brackets for letter location according to latitude might still work.

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    4. Think the "dots" on the wheel letter rows are spaces in the message, by the way.

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    5. I read the FXC bit differently -- "I feel like FXC did" meaning "I feel the same way FXC did" -- scared, hunted, tired, unsure etc. And then "I think we both do" as in, we both feel that way, and then when someone crosses it out later, meaning "we're both in love" or something like it. But it's confusing, that's for sure. It's the "I think we both do" -- if Jen thought FXC had the wheel, she could just say she agreed. Small point, I suppose.

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  9. Just random thoughts and loose connections. On p.285 Eric mentions that FXC was listening to Carmina Burana and that Straka loved it. Carmina Burana the contata (based on the medieval manuscripts of the same name) is likely most well known for "O Fortuna" - also a poem in the collection.
    Contata
    Medieval collection
    O Fortuna

    Associated with this is the Wheel of Fortune - no, not the game show :)
    Wheel of Fortune

    In addition, Eric mentions that VMS had traveled under the alias "S. Fortunus" before. Fortunus <==> Fortuna?

    Not sure if any of that is useful, it just all resonated with me combining Straka, fortune/fate, music and a wheel.

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    1. I've had so many random thoughts and loose connections. After my musical mode debacle that pretty much went nowhere, I decided I should probably avoid spewing it all here.

      Thanks for posting this!

      I recognized the Latin root "fortuna" meaning fortune / fate in Fortunus, but hadn't realized there was a poem titles "O. Fortunus" that is part of the Carmina Burana.

      Since FXC mentions that she was listening to it, I'd thought she was referring to the Cantata Carmina Burana -- a 24 movement cantata created by German composer Carl Orff based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana.

      The first and last movements are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" (Fortune, Empress of the World) & start with the very well known "O Fortuna".

      Part III is called "Cour d'amours" (Court of Love).

      Orff's O Fortuna has been used frequently in TV & film -- I think most of us have heard at least part of it:

      30 sec clip - Orff's O Fortuna

      Carmina Burana - O Fortuna - Andre Rieu

      Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture


      So...another rabbit hole with musical references. I have no idea where to go with this either.



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    2. A little late to the game.

      Perhaps this is related to the Interlude cipher? In music theory, "O Fortuna" is usually analyzed in the mixolydian mode, which was one of the modes Straka was considering for the "land ho!" whistle, according to FXC, Interlude, fn 5.

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  10. GUYS- the total # of degrees on the wheel is the same as the number of pages in SoT! Let's think!

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    1. 374 markings on the outer wheel + 97 each way on the inner = 471

      The number of pages starting from the title page to the last blank page opposite the last printed page = 14 + 457 = 471

      The question is do we start clockwise on the outer wheel from the 0 point so all E numbers are as printed and all W numbers count up not down + the inner wheel value from N or S as it is given.

      If the value is 1 - 14 it is from the start of the book, if the value is greater than 14 then you have to take 14 off the value to get the printed page number.

      e.g. Santorini - 36N 25E : 36+25 = 61 - 14 = Page 47 (Yes I know a J J Number !)

      Still missing a piece of the puzzle though as what do we do with the letters on the wheel ?

      Although there is a footnote on this page that we could use, I've tried a few more and there are not usable footnotes on all coordinate combos we have.

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    2. Very cool but that might just be incidental. I don't see how to use page #'s as versions of LAT/LONG.

      And the Wheel was supposed to have initially been used to decode clues from Coriolis. But then I guess Coriolis could also have been 471 pages -- FXC is a crafty lady.

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    3. May be nothing- but then-since FXC put together SoT- including extra forward pages never put in the books before- she could have made SoT to match page count of Coriolis. Jen mentions on pg xiv that Coriolis has poss code phrase "unwavering from first to last" on page 464- so we know there are that many in it anyway.

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    4. We also can assume, I think, that the extra degrees have nothing to do with locations- as they are for no place on earth- except maybe where the SoT is sailing! They have to be there for some reason-so code must include them.

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    5. Zort-if the wheel does reference pages for some reason-there may need to be some other way/ways to figure out the number. Wouldn't the highest number we could get by just adding up be 90 + 180 + 28 =298? And that would be using 28 degrees from both wheels.

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  11. On page 262 I think Eric is trying to tell us to use the coordinates for the places on the barrels on page 449, but I can't figure out what to do with the letters that I get from it? Rail cipher isn't it and I've tried a few running ciphers that don't work? Footnote 10 on page 270, FXC mentions the eotvos syndrome (and possibly cipher) has been extended to include time, so possibly a much more complicated cipher? I give up for today.

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  12. Hi all! Okay, I think I have this one figured out. Needless to say: SPOILERS if you still want to decode it on your own.

    Everything I've found linking to the eotvos wheel has to do with the footnotes in chapter 10. Notice that the words spinning compass and locate are italicized in footnote 1.

    Each of the footnotes in the chapter contains a location in the real world; match up the latitude and longitude of that location on the wheel and you get a sequence of 5 letters of each (I took the closest one if it looked like it was in between the two):

    1 ???
    2 - Biabou, St. Vincent - 13 N, 61 W - HOEIT
    3 - Portland, Or - 45 N, 123 W - AUGLO
    4 - Thunkar, Bhutan - 27 N, 91 E - VFILT
    5 - Santiago, Spain - 33 S, 70 W - ERNLH
    6 - Calais, France - 51 N, 0 E - XBTUP (??)
    7 - Morondava, Madagascar - 20 S, 44 E - OMIVE
    8 - Havana, Cuba - 23 N, 82 W - VTNEN
    9 - ???
    10 - New York City - 44 N, 73 W - DEIO*

    The Calais one doesn't seem to fit with the rest (with the random X) so I threw that one out. Reading down the columns from leftmost to rightmost gives us the string

    _HAVE_OV_D_OUFR_MT_E_EGIN_IN_I _ILLL_VE_O_TOTH_EN_*

    At this point I had enough of the code to guess at what should be in the missing pieces. It looks like we have the word "love" in there twice if we pick out LONOE for footnote 6. Then we can make "loved" in the first column and "the end" for EHGYD for 9. Finally IYBWU brings it all together to make

    I HAVE LOVED YOU FROM THE BEGINNING AND I WILL LOVE YOU TO THE END

    What's bothering me now is how to get the three pieces that I just filled in. I think the first one might be the location of the Vevoda estate as it is the only place that is mentioned. I guess you could somehow use the hand drawn map in chapter 9 (added by FXC) to match up the coastline near France or something; I haven't had any luck. Calais gives the wrong position on the the wheel all-together. And footnote 9 is just cryptic. Anyone have any ideas on how to get these other three? Been really stuck there.

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    1. Very nice! Good eye to see the words with the letters missing.

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    2. Very cool! It is interesting that the missing code, LONOE, derives from 10 West, 0 North on the wheel. These coordinates map to a big expanse of nothing in the South Atlantic. That is odd...

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    3. Um, it also derives from every other pairing of coordinates on the wheel when you make those letters show up in the window, you realize.

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    4. OMG, what was I thinking? This is why you should never drive the Eötvös wheel drunk...

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    5. Ha ha ha that's a t-shirt quality statement!

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    6. I think the Location in Fn.9 is Sofia (I only have the german version of the book but this code is same like in englisch. the text in Fn.9 is: "... Der Dialog zwischen Viktor und SOFIA in Buch zwei von Coriolis...".) The Corrdinates of Sofia are 42°N, 23°E which gives EHGYD.... But when you turn the upper part of the wheel (the one with North and South) just a little clockwise, you'll get EHGYD. So maybe ist just a inaccuracy when they were searching for the matching locations for the code...

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    8. The missing referent for the first FN is the author's name - Bergen, a city Norway. At 60N 5E it give IYBWU as desired.

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  13. I noticed that the coastline on the 20th April postcard is similar to the hand drawn map. Note the 2 Islands near the house. Could this be vevodas estate!!? Note how the picture ties in with the ch10 story? Does this help with the code or anything else?

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    1. Hi, Terence, nice catch. Yes, I agree that the postcard and the map are related. I believe Chapter 10 cipher solves this mystery, ciphers from FX to VMS. Eric figured it out and used same style to send Jen a message via the wheel he gave her.

      Which has me looking into Miguel Gomez Medina vintage postcards. Also, The title for the other 1920s card "Rio De Janeiro, The Avenue Of Palms In The Botanical Garden, Brazil, 00-10s" Nice reproductions!

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    2. Hi MJ-the postcard and the map DO look alike-but I got it into my head that E&J are in Prague when they talk about the location being maybe a days train ride away. Looked at margin notes to see why:

      pg 378- Jen-"God, it's cold in this place."
      pg 402- the map & Jen-"should go look for ourselves. It's not that far away. Maybe a day by train?"
      pg 417 Jen-"You didn't tell me it would be this COLD. If Covarrubias had been Straka, we could be in the Caribbean."
      pg 422 Eric- "I love you in Prague in a drafty apartment..."
      pg 445-Jen talks about Eric being in Uppsala (Sweden I think), and that he is coming back tomorrow.
      pg 447 Jen- "It's freezing in here."
      pg 454-J&E margins that show they are writing in one room and going in to see each others notes. It is cold.

      There's no indication that they go to Brazil anywhere- and with the constant complaints about being cold-and not in the Caribbean-seems like they are staying in Europe- mostly in the Prague apartment. So if they are there, and the map show's V's (Bouchards) place a day away-seems like it would be maybe south down on the Mediterranean.

      What do you think?

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    3. It's not a message from the margin, it's from the the book, FX to VMS. Inserts into text, pictures and words are possible FXs. She just had to make it fit the storyline.

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    4. At least that's what I think, haven't proven. Close.

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    5. Ah- OK-assuming Jen may be wrong. Don't know where she got her info- so why not?

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    6. Saw you and Ob mention chapter 7. Possible to find ciphertext on wheel with place names in 7 , and do running cipher with FXC obit as Key? Or chiphertext some other way?

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    7. Hmm- Obit is from 1964- so that might work for a J&E messg, but not FX and VMS from 1949. Trying to find some text to be key for wheel letters from pg 262 locations. Messg from VMS to FX maybe?

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    8. I got from pg 262-
      Danzig-HOEIT
      Tangier- CGUEZ
      LA- *MOPA
      Tripoli- K*OG*
      Salonika- RNBFH

      It looks like "silver" should be the repeated word to start from- but I have tried and get nothing. Anyone doing this?

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    9. Ob says she has the solution to Chapter 7 and will send my way. Once I have it, I'll update the "Footnote" tab. That leaves Chapter 9. Is there any indication of a cipher there? Negative Space - the opposites. Footnote references to strikethroughs and handwritten corrections (which we see E & J use, possibly code), indicating change of one's mind, which line belongs to which voice. VMS would know what he wrote and easily see where she added or subtracted information. She refers to "the line" as originally typed by VMS as "more archeological than editorial." That either a reference digging back through time. The footnote references the Portuguese "Voce nao esta seguro, a male voice says. Ninguem e, a female voice says." translation? "You do not secure this." and "Nobody and" (maybe there is better translation). Flipped the other way and the opposite? The door is locked, for all. ? If the cipher is via editorial changes, then we could look to italicized or inserted texted. There is two insertions, the map (I believe of Brazil) and the plaque "Teller of Tales."

      Well, those are my thoughts. I but the plaque through a number of ciphers, got nothing. The map and postcard are related. Let me know if you see anything else.

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    10. See Eric's note: "CF Barrel markings in Ch. 10" Several of us are working on this independently, and we need to all get together somehow. The question for me was combining all the inserted city, dates throughout the book into one list. or are they to be cipher in order on the page which they are mentioned. If time is important, are they to be arranged by date? Hang on to your notes, and I'll see if there is someway to get it all together in a post.

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    11. Oh- I see- you think the Ch 7 cities go with the Ch 10 barrels- as per Eric's pencil note. Arranged by date sounds likely.

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    12. A few quick things:

      -The Pictorial Brazil postcard you're talking about exists (in real life). I'll post a couple links later.

      JT -- I agree, Jen & Eric seem to be in Prague as their story ends. And Jen thinks Vevoda's estate is within a day by train (but yeah,she could be wrong). And yes, FXC inserted the map in a place where it would fit the story. So if we are matching the map coastline to the postcard, then it's a map FXC placed so that VMS could find HER. Not the Vevoda estate.

      The translations you have for the Portuguese is a little off:
      Voce nao esta seguro = You are not safe.
      Ninguem e = Nobody is (alternatively - No one is)

      I'm not sure this means anything, but 4 of the 6 locations on p262 all have LAT coords that are within 6 degrees of each other.

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    13. Oops, hit post too soon.

      Negative Space, in art terms, is the space that is between and around the subjects in the piece. Here's an example - Dirty Harry by Olly Moss

      So to try to extrapolate to cipher ideas, possibly what's left when everything else is crossed out? Negative like the negative for a picture (taken on film). Or maybe more literally, negative numbers. Still no idea where to go with that...

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    14. Miguel Gomez Medina -- Pictorial Brazil postcard:

      Pic - FRONT

      Pic - BACK

      EBay listing the pics came from

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    15. Nice find, I always look through e-bay listings for postcards, as there seem to be about every type you can think of on there !

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  14. Hi, The Fourth!
    I was going back through all of the footnotes and noticed the same thing last night. I had the same issue as you with Calais and of course FN9 so I ended up brute forcing it to some extent as well.

    A couple minor differences though.

    First, the plaintext I found was:
    I HAVE LOVED YOU FROM THE BEGINNING. I WILL LOVE YOU TO THE END.
    There's no "AND" in between.

    For FN1, I noticed Norman Bergan doesn't exist (well not a philosopher anyway, there is a Norman Bergan musician/vocalist but that's not relevant). So I used Bergan, Norway -- 60.3894° N, 5.33° E
    Which gave me I Y B W U on the Wheel.

    As far as Calais goes, I'm not really sure if it's meant to be some other kind of hint/clue, or is simply an error. There is a Calais, Vermont - 44.36° N, 72.46° W - which doesn't give us the letters we need. But 44° N, 73° E does, which makes me think this one was an error since that's not the antipode either.

    As far as FN9, I agree, the crytpic footnote is cryptic. But thisay be the one we need to use "backwards" to locate possible coordinates for Vevoda's estate. The letter string we're looking for is E H G Y D

    Well done.

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    1. > There's no "AND" in between.

      Oops! Typing got away from me. Nice catches with the other ones!

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    2. I'm not sure if I'm reading the wheel correctly, but the letters EHGYD seem to line up with coordinates of 0 degrees North, 52 degrees West. Those are coordinates for a spot in Brazil, near the Amazon delta. There's a town called Santana nearby too.

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  15. OK, scratch what I posted above about working location 9 "backward" to try to locate Vevoda's estate.

    FN9 mentions "Viktor and Sofia".

    There is a Sofia, Bulgaria - 42.70° N, 23.33° E . It's very close, coordinate wise. I actually get the column immediately to the left (counterclockwise) so it's off a bit. But I think that's meant to be it.

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  16. Nicely done! Just wish I was finished with the book already so I could have helped on that. Next time I'll just skip ahead!

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    1. I believe there's quiet a lot of decoding yet to do. Keep reading.

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  18. The Fourth and OB- great job getting that message from the wheel! I admit though that I am surprised it works using whole lines at a time. As Zort said-that limits it- and in this case limits it to a few messages that were programmed into it when it was made. It can only trigger those messages with the book info- it can't decode new ones that people might want to send.

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    1. So in the case of FXC's message to VMS in SoT, she either used and old wheel that he would have had with old messages already on it, or she made up a new wheel with new messages and published it with SoT I guess. That would invite people to look for codes in the book though, and I don' know why she would want people to do that if she was trying to convince them Straka was dead, to protect him.

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    2. But, anyway- it's a book and a game- so- on to rummage some more!

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    3. Well, he did visit her.... don't you think it was talked about, her message? I'm trying to solve using this wheel, may not work.

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  19. The website whoisstraka.com has coordinates hidden in its HTML.
    35° 46.865', -5° 48.797
    Those are the consulate of France in Tanger, Morocco.
    VFILT in the wheel ?

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    1. BTW, the source code also provide with the PGP key for communating with "him".






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    2. The image also contains (save image, open as layers in GIMP) :
      Half of the images are "S"s
      "6483KHz"
      Rorscharch blots
      "Safety in numbers won't keep you dry"
      "Seek shelter from the storm"

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    3. 6483KHz is an English language number station.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJECpb4FYk
      Has someone noted what is said in that video (don't have sound at work)

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    4. NBCEBIRLEBIRLBHEARBHEAREPVAREPVA000000000

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    5. Actually, this is not what I hear. I understand you copy/pasted from the comments below? Here's what I get (carriage returns are pauses)

      NGGBC
      EBIRL
      EBIRL
      BHEAR
      BHEAR
      EQVAR
      EQVAR
      00000
      00000

      Delete
    6. Don't know much about ciphers, but this was part of the message in the source code:
      UTrzg2s/k3NAeLeAgiNBpeJeA+8u07vicl
      +qxHE5nOqCBa9FQWdbG3TODGqtqXsX2/+x
      GMLEaHNSgJBACj/iAYUns73fI6vVk00UBJ
      yi1WwXHKy9LvxO9OONzvo0EjCP
      Is this perhaps the PGP for contacting "whoisstraka"?

      (The coordinates, as mentioned above, are also very strange.)

      Delete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The "Purported Yarmouth Santorini Man" from eotvoswheel site turns up on the following site selling holidays to the Canary Islands!
    http://www.reisespione.de/user/77

    Something or nothing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately the original photo is taken from a stock photograph site so it is probably nothing.

      We should probably remember the name Holger Kleinert just in case though :-)

      Delete
  22. Correction...Chapter 9 begins after pg 374.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  24. So, for one, I'm only a chapter in, so take that into account...

    Couple things... You said "One final (,) point the inner ring has 194 marks on it and the outer ring has 374, Not 360, so something in degrees may not be what we are searching for" it has 195 and 375 marks. You forgot to take into account that the 90 and 180 show up twice, so you have 15 extra in each, not 14.

    (not sure if this is where this goes) So, I did some simple math with things on the book. The dewy decimal sticker on the book lists Straka as STR. Take the numbers that correlate to their spot in the alphabet, you come up with 57. (This is me stretching a bit) 5 and 7 are both prime. 5+7=12. 1 and 2 are prime. 1+2=3. 3 is prime (3 also shows up a bit in the book(so far) (page three is where wheel is introduced where the #3 is stuck in the middle of what was being written, normally, the writing avoids the type in the book. The kids throwing rocks are in sets of three.)). PRIME meridian is 0 longitude, where the window is on the eotvos wheel.
    Did some research, When the prime meridian loc. was being decided, in 1884, out of 25 countries, 22 voted for it to be where it is now. San Domingo voted nay and France and Brazil abstained. The observatory where the prime meridian is moved location (slightly) and that changed the 0 point(slightly). Also, the earths crust moving is moving the observatory where the prime meridian started at. Enough to account for the extra 15 degrees, maybe? Also, until 1911 (that is when Straka released first book) France used their own meridian (is that enough of a space to call for the 15 extra degrees?). Time zones. 10 minutes = 2.5 gegrees. 15 extra degrees on the eotvos wheel, or 1 extra hour.
    SOT is the 19th book. The letter s is the 19th letter in the alphabet. 19 is prime. 19 is the 9th prime #(9's and 3's show up again). Turn N/S0 to E19 , S19 lines up (just about, and considering the extra degrees, being exact isn't easy) with W19. Code: (dot)USSA
    Take # representation of letters EOTVOS: 96. 9+6=15. 15 degrees extra...

    Well, that is all I have for now.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Chapter 9 —Birds of Negative Space.

    1. Invert the map page 402.
    Instead of montains drawings, a bunch of flying bird is appearing.

    2. Birds are forming three groups, separated by rivers:
    - 6 birds
    - 15 birds
    - a single bird.

    3. Clue page 388, end of footnote:
    "A decision more archeological than editorial". Cf Painted Cave code: Page, Line, Word. So 6-15-1
    But where? It should be somewhere FXC wrote herself.

    4. When looking at foreword section VI (I wondered why FXC numbered her foreword parts) line 15 (p. XIV), she wrote: [it is there] THAT it shall end".
    Moreover this last paragraph is heavily annoted by Jen/Eric. Jen talk about a "signal phrase", followed by this end: "It is in the fondest regions of my heart ... it is there that it shall end."

    5. The handdraw map p.401 may be related to the area of Marau (Brazil) and this single bird location might be roughly Camamu harbor place.
    The next code is the Eötvos wheel and the missing place coordinates are also those of Marau/Camamu. Eric postcard from Brazil was also posted on 21-4-12 from here, when he found Filomela.

    6. Those two line in Portugese p.388 are saying: —Você não está seguro —Ninguém é.
    - You are not safe. (man)
    - Nobody is. (woman)
    Filomela explains in FN1, that who is talking to whom might be inverted.

    Finally, it looks like she is asking Straka to go here, to a safer place, and next code deliver the coordinates and the love message.
    This might be a simple explanation of this code.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for all the info, going to take a little while to digest it all :-)

      Delete
    2. Think about Jen note right below FN1: "Maybe it's been right there in front of us. The title. The image".
      This image is the map in Chapter 9 (supposed Vevoda's castle). Title: Birds of the Negative Space: those mountains in negative space (inverted, they are not mountains anymore, but birds).

      Then, counting those birds, between the rivers, gives 6-15-1, which point to a single word in "archeological" code (Painted Cave); FXC used this word in FN1. But it can not be one single word, more likely a full sentence or even a paragraph and must have been written by Filomela.

      Consequently, 6-15 is what I'll look for (eventually 1-15 as the groups can be read the other way as 1-15-6).
      Filomela wrote those Footnotes... and the Foreword. She added those chapter titles and a few other elements (like the map). Beside, this clue can't be in SoT main text as both French and US edition are using the very same code and map, so such a code won't work due to different page-making and text length.

      From this point, there was a few possibilties with footnotes (like chapter 6, FN15, etc.)... but, she has numbered the Foreword in 6 parts and it would point at the very end of the last one (title VI), which part was also heavily annoted by Jen & Eric...

      Delete
  26. I haven't delved into the code wheel at all but I assumed Jen and Eric might be using it to decide their new drop sites for the book, leaving ciphers in the phrases T hey underline for each other. Apologies for a theory without proof but if I find and I'll post here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Megan and welcome. Dorst did say that not all the messages in the book were deciphered, but I strongly encourage you to poke around here and follow your gut. You may find something the rest of us missed.

      Delete


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