Something is odd in the PopSci archives
Posted 04.24.2012 at 11:59 am
61 Comments
Found Tucked into the December 1928 Issue
Could it contain a password?
The complete back issues of this magazine—all 1,680 of them—are stored in a walk-in closet in our New York offices. We don’t often visit the place. It’s musty and locked, and only one person keeps a key. But to put together our May issue on the Future of Flight, which arrives the same month that Edward L. Youmans founded Popular Science Monthly in 1872, we spent many hours there. During our sojourn, things took a turn for the strange.
We were tracing the history of aviation through the pages of PopSci when we found, in our December 1928 issue, a note. It appeared to be a list of other issues—all flight-related. It had a Web address, too. And it was written on modern PopSci stationery. We visited the URL and discovered an encrypted page within our online archives. We asked our IT department to access it. They couldn’t. But while they were trying to hack in, they discovered that others had visited, and recently; there had been a spike in traffic.
Was whomever was going there the same person—or people—who broke into our closet? What does the note mean? Who wrote it? And to what purpose? Could it help us get into the encrypted archive?
Please help us piece this together. We've scanned and posted the note (above) and the covers of the issues it seems to list. Can you make any sense of it? Sure, it might just be some practical joke. But something tells us it isn’t.
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If I were able to search the archives sorted by volume, it would make my life so much easier. Any chance you can post links to those volumes on the note?
This is silly. What's the prize for this game?
The future is near, all in the clear.
The first part was SUPER EASY... the second part just seems flipping impossible to figure out... I'm in the encrypted archive, with the hidden information viewable, but I can't figure what to do NEXT!
Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978
"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC
I got oerra for the second part.
aerrs???
Gallon
Speed ?
Sea Gull
Rascal
Making the blanks A E P R C....
The only one I'm not sure about is Speed it fits, the reason I picked it was there is an article in that issue that studies terminal velocity.
The hints for the rest along with the cover gallery/archive were pretty simple. Not sure where you would go to enter this password though, maybe I'll try FTP -ing in.
G(a)llon
S(e)a Gull
A(r)tic
(R)as(c)al
My guess is the password is aerrc.
Threw my results in an anagram generator and came back with:
Crape
Pacer
Recap
Caper
Nothing that seems to fit.
The password is clear. Enjoy the second part, it's much harder.
" the future is near , all in the stars." think about it what else makes sense
This is what I found.
G(a)llon [super easy to find in the contents]
J(e)w fish [in reference to "strange creature"] S(e)a gull [in reference to p.44]
R(a)dio [fits five letter count and seen on cover as New Ideas under the aviation deal]
(R)as(c)al [name of the orange missile on the cover]
aearc but others are saying something about the password being clear so i'm missing something on the "pilots' new ideas in what to measure" thing.
Finally got it! Don't spoil it though, let everyone else figure it out on their own. Once you finish deciphering all the notes, you will get something. Then you must wait until Popsci continues with whatever this is.
g(a)llon
s(e)a gull
g(l)obe
(r)as(c)al
password is clear
Subscribers to the mag got the jump on this weeks ago. You know what they say about loose lips...
Dang I can't flipping decipher the note and now I'm stuck.
My guess would be to start from the beginning and work your way down the list:
archive/seven stars
seven stars - A song by Air and will appear on the soundtrack of colored version film "Le Voyage Dans La Lune". The song features vocals from Victoria Legrand (Beach House).
The beginning of the song "How long will it take you to reach the stars?"
Le Voyage Dans La Lune - A trip to the moon written in 1902 a French black-and-white silent science fiction film It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon
Ron Bennett
Clear, Theseus, and Cormorant.
That should get you on your way and give you an idea of how to find the answers if you can find them on your own.
Also you may want to look at "The future is near" a song by
Jonas Brothers
Ron Bennett
Archived issues taking forever to load. I imagine lots of people are trying to solve this puzzle.
Forum post by centrist77 on Godlikeproductions forum has all the solutions to this puzzle.
Interesting game, but too time consuming for me :-) Thanks PopSci!
Hint - In May's issue of PopSci they released an encrypted note found in the archives of their latest issues. Has anyone figured the message out. If you have would you be willing to share the information?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120413183234AArboWf
Ron Bennett
never mind disregard my last post i got the password it is so clear. some people i wonder?????
Interesting little mystery this was. Took a lot of searching through archived articles and brain power to get to the end. Could of had a better ending, but overall it was fun.
G(a)llon
S(e)a gull
G(l)obe
(R)as(c)al
Letters: aelrc
Answer:
The future is near, all in the clear.
The answer is clear.
It's a quote from Sam Walton, the guy who founded Walmart.
It's a weird little puzzle.
Okay, as of now, the first step is accomplished.
So how about that second one? Hacker's challenge?
I think the quote "the future is near, all in the clear" may have been used as a reference to an article or articles on the popular science website. I'm not sure though. Since the future is clear, it could be meaning that Popular Science has articles that make the future clear...Don't know where to go from here.
This guy cracked the whole thing already though..
www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1846045/pg2
DISREGARD MY LAST COMMENT!
I realized it is unfair to some people who actually want to figure it out on there own. My apologies.
Oh, never mind my last comment. Has nothing to do with anything and is wrong. Well, maybe something to do with the archives, but...never mind. Just don't pay attention my last comment.
Though it doesn't seem to be slowing anyone down, the first clue on the found note is wrong. It lists the issue as Vol 223, No. 6, but it is really Vol 221, No. 6 (December 1982)
IT'S ON THE COVERS.
gAllon
sEa_gull
eArth
(_)__(_)__ don't know yet
AEA_._
The "seven stars" reminds me of the Great sci-fi series Stargate, where the 7th symbol was the key to making the Stargate work. THE FUTURE IS NEAR, ALL IN THE STARS. well something to think about.
Thank you for CLEARing that up...I had
gAllon
sEa gull
aRtic
RasCal
AEREC
what the password reveals:
REDACTED
Here's some of the search words
REDACTED
from all of your comments(and I read them all) I have found clear makes the most sense. though I do not know how to enter its abrinamhmyup123 in his comment said he got past the first step but also mentioned a "hackers challenge." I would love to know from all of the geniuses of popsci that have already, GOTTEN PAST THE FIRST STEP, and also the ones that have possibly gotten past the second is that do you need to be able to hack to get through this mystery, because I can't. If there are those that would be kind enough to tell me what happens after the second, third or even the fourth step that would be really great.
contact me at ryan.kennethx.jensen@gmail.com
The password is.. Pleiades
my roomate's aunt makes $83/hr on the laptop. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay was $8682 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site...NuttyRich.com
Hehe.. I saw the codes on the net on Google by searching. Found out everything!
i don't think we should tell popular science what it is yet i want too find out more i to saw everything.
I'll only show the codes if everybody wants to see them post a comment answering and i'll think about it.
theseus
I know the answer just don't know what it means and how someone got it. I can't make sense of the archive. Pass = angel
Also The pass is clear
And Theseus
And cormorant
I have it all figured out. The final answer is....
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
Anyone know what the fourth number alludes to?
8.1931.30.4
2.1892.545.4
3.1892.650.4
12.1910.603.2
4.1902.521.2
4.1997.12.15/(easy rider)
6.1915.581.3
2.2006.49.2
8.2004.4.1
11.1940.193.1
8.2004.4.3
Mo/Yr/Pg/??
NVM, It seems like headers are inconsistently used in the word order. Or maybe I was writing it down wrong ;D
This is getting really hard with those ciphers on level 7-8, anyone got 8?
the first password, which you enter in the search bar in the archive, is clear. the second which you enter in the same place is Theseus. i don't know the third.
orion
the word is heart
so... did PopSci get through?
Hi!
I have a question to all of you scientists. I drink brewed coffee but beside throwing the grounds away, are there any uses, agricultural/industrial, for used-up coffee grounds?
Could they be used in some type of insulation or road repair? Anything?
Very intricate!
For those who haven't already found this:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120413183234AArboWf
I wonder whats next...
This is the message in the restricted achive:
From: WSW
To: 7S_main
Due to cell organization of Daedalus I have access only to publishing arm. It is therefore difficult to be certain, but it is clear Daedaleans are closing in on operability. Most components are complete and there is increasing cross-chatter with other cells.
As to the intended outcome of the project, I have reason to suspect the Hypermusic.67 was not canceled; other skunkworks may have been scratched off government books but research not actually discontinued. Interference is implicated all the way back to NOLO operators.
Refs to studies on Perseus, Condor, Strato, and a fourth; name unknown? Please proceed!
PS. Appreciated the hint about using the archive's word frequency explorer. Makes it much easier to scan for covers and dated issues.
The future is near, all in the Reach ?
Lets try REACH
The word is clear but all you need 2 to is on the website on the note type it in and in the search bar type in the word clear and you then get to exzamine the file and the SW is the man who started the Walmart Chain but died of cancer but all the clues in the letter lead to a peice of deep space that contians a protein substance that might be able to cure all cancers and illness's and if you don't belive me just type in the keywords on the file.
PS sorry about the spelling and if you need me to contact just respond to this post
We were tracing the history of aviation through the pages of PopSci when we found, in our December 1928 issue, a note. It appeared to be a list of other issues—all flight-related. It had a Web address, too. And it was written on modern PopSci stationery.www.thaicartrick.com