[PUZZLE] 11-5-06 "Tip of the Iceburg"

[sphinx]

AHHH GPS!

WTG!

[taiya]

I just found this reference to Rashi 13-27. It seems to be from the Torah, but I can't find the exact quote yet:

Rashi (13:27) explains that every lie needs a bit of truth to make it believable

The quote is from this page:

http://www.torah.org/learning/olas-shab ... varim.html

[Killthesmiley]

So after a few hours of sleep I thought I'd put all my thoughts together.

First of all, good job everyone, I only did the easy part. And no matter how much she complains, it's obvious Op was begging us to finish this right away. She even helped there at the end, I mean she practically spelled it out. She called attention to the GPS thing yesterday, and today pulled the 3 letter key completely out of the blue (all we knew was KEYIS3)

A recap (for Amanita hehe):

Tachyon updates her profile: cmFzaGktMTMtMjcucmVkaXJlY3RtZS 5uZXQ=
which decodes base64 --> ascii: rashi-13-27.redirectme.net
which redirects to: http://merced.craigslist.org/x/mis/230355115.html

A few decoding hints in this page:
- Image description (when you roll over it): LOCKLOOSER=LOOK CLOSER. img src=84656772897978 (dec --> ascii) is TACHYON, same as before

- DEGGAB/ELBUOD reversed is DOUBLE BAGGED a hint that there's double encoding. This will be evident in a bit. Font colors on DEGGAB/ELBUOD is 4c5543 4b5923 (hex --> ascii) = LUCKY#

The rest of the html source code includes a lot of unused font color tags. Cleaning it up:

562050 424859 514127 47204a 4e5647 205342 45204c 42482e 205542 435220
4c4248 205442 472047 555220 434e50 584e54 522e0d 0a0d0a 514220 5a4c20
414247 524620 5a4e58 522046 524146 523f20 475542 465220 504241 415250
475642 414620 4e4552 204755 522047 564320 425320 475552 205650 524f52
45542e 204755 525952 5a4e20 564620 312042 53203f 0d0a0d 0a4552 3a205a
524646 4e5452 203220 434e46 46204e 594241 542e20 455251 564552 504720 504e41 4e4e41

hex --> ascii reveals:
V PBHYQA'G JNVG SBE LBH. UBCR LBH TBG GUR CNPXNTR. QB ZL ABGRF ZNXR FRAFR? GUBFR PBAARPGVBAF NER GUR GVC BS GUR VPRORET. GURYRZN VF 1 BS ? ER: ZRFFNTR 2 CNFF NYBAT. ERQVERPG PNANNA

This is good! It confirms we are in the right path because it's not random, they're all capital letters. (If you take random hex numbers and try hex --> ascii it would be stuff like Sftt¼hÜöÕÛ¦uåóÝ)

So this is clearly a cypher (you know, like in the newspaper puzzles where each letter represents a different letter from the alphabet).

A well known and easy cypher is to swap the first half of the alphabet with the second half, like this:

ABCDEFGHIJKLM
NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

so A=N, B=O, C=P, etc.

This is known as ROT13 because it's equivalent to shifting each letter 13 places (remember LUCKY#).

Apply this to the message and you get:
I COULDN'T WAIT FOR YOU. HOPE YOU GOT THE PACKAGE. DO MY NOTES MAKE SENSE? THOSE CONNECTIONS ARE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. THELEMA IS 1 OF ? RE: MESSAGE 2 PASS ALONG. REDIRECT CANAAN

There's some obscure clues about her notes and Thelema, but the last part is clear. You know the drill:

canaan.redirectme.net --> http://modesto.craigslist.org/x/mis/230363173.html

html source reveals:
img src="MESSAGE" alt="NTFKTVYIGQCGCWGC AGTVLNTQNPNKQWK CGTIGNXEOIAYCGZ AAQTLNTQPJKZHLUEL XPUQXFMHGSTGTT"

(I've added spaces to help with readability and navigation)

Below that is A/O, with color tags 4b4559 495333 (hex --> ascii) =KEYIS3

Here's where we got stuck for a couple of hours, but Op came to the rescue with her histrionics "I don't want anyone figuring out the 3 letter key!" (Thanks Ap!!)

And what was the other small thing that made her go all silly like that? The video filename from the drop GoodPurityStatus. Put both together and you have the key: GPS. (Thanks Katz!)

Now we just needed to decide on which cypher applied. Well, it turned out to be one called Vigenere that shifts each letter of the message a variable number based on the key. So, if the key is GPS,
G means shift the 1st letter of the message 6 places (A to G shift is 6)
P means shift the 2nd letter of the message by 15 (A to P shift is 15)
S means shift the 2nd letter of the message by 18 (A to S shift is 18)
and start again with G for the 4th letter, P for the 5th, etc.

In short, with a GPS key we would shift by 6, 15, 18, 6, 15, 18, 6, 15, and so on for each letter of our message. This results in:

HE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAVE BEEN ON TO HIM IT IS NOT LIKE THEY JUST STOP TRACKING SOMEONE

(I've places the spaces in the right places)

And there you have it! (Thanks prep him!)

Putting it all together:

I COULDN'T WAIT FOR YOU. HOPE YOU GOT THE PACKAGE. DO MY NOTES MAKE SENSE? THOSE CONNECTIONS ARE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. THELEMA IS 1 OF ? RE: MESSAGE 2 PASS ALONG. HE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAVE BEEN ON TO HIM IT IS NOT LIKE THEY JUST STOP TRACKING SOMEONE

It's almost too obvious that HE is Daniel, shown in the video with the file name GoodPurityStatus=GPS so that's how they're tracking him. But how, really? Did they plant a GPS device in him somehow? Maybe his cell phone? I don't know.

But the message to pass along is the Book of Law with those page references. Notice how here she says "RE: MESSAGE 2(TO) PASS ALONG" meaning "regarding THAT message, here's why I think it's important." It's clearly a warning for him to try to prevent Bree from doing the ceremony.

A few more details:

Tachyon's trip: LA (1st drop), Bakersfield (craiglist), Santa Nella (2nd drop), Merced (craiglist), Sonoma (craiglist). Clearly going north, or is she? I guess she could be posting in those craiglists from anywhere. But the 2 drops do point north.

Is she Jewish? rachav (rahab), rashi, canaan

Could she be a Mossad operative?


GOOD PURITY STATUS anagrams to OP TRUSTS YOU ID TAG

Remember the 1st drop video filename 544147.avi (hexto ascii) was TAG. In the original YT post of that video there was the odd tag Tachyon, and that's how we were supposed to find her (although someone found her much earlier). So now, this anagram suggests we identify a tag in Danielbeast's video "Where Are They Going?".

The tags are LG15 lonelygirl15 daniel danielbeast helper doctor bree. The one that stands out is 'doctor'. What could this mean? Daniel thought Bree had a doctor appointment. We also learned from her "How My Parents Met" video: "When my dad was 23 he got a fellowship to study medicine at the University of Oxford."

Ok that's all I got for now. Sorry for the long post and the bit of speculation at the end.

Good job everyone, and thanks again Op!

DEAGOL THE STOOR

THIS is what I get for going to midnight madness at the mall and deciding to ignore the forums and hang out with friends!
Damn me and my pitifull attemps of having a life!


THis is great work! I would have NEVER come up with all of that!

edit: OH NO SOUND IS GONE ON MY COMPUTER!!!! WTF!!!!!NOOOOOOO

[katz31]

"And what was the other small thing that made her go all silly like that? The video filename from the drop GoodPurityStatus. Put both together and you have the key: GPS. (Thanks Katz!) "

As much as I would love to take credit for this, I don't think it was me. At least, I don't remember it. And I wasn't online most of the weekend. (Or is there another Katz? hmmmm....)

[taiya]

I'm sorry that I missed everything just by going to sleep last night I woke up in the morning and everything was solved! Good job!

I'm thinking thought that now that one message has been deciphered and it's been determined that it's recipient is Daniel, has anyone passed the message on to him? Maybe through youtube? I'm tempted to do it, but I feel that those who figured it out should probably be the ones to contact him.

[Ziola]

Great job last night!!! This is what I get for getting some sleep...I miss out on everything!

[evaB]

That was great work, guys! I'm not sure I'm clear on the message that's supposed to get to Daniel, though... he already knows he's being tracked, doesn't he?

[weetziebat05]

WOW!!! I miss out on hte fun thanks to alcohol... but hey, I drunk-dialed that VM so, it wasn't all bad rofl...

Great job guys! You're all awesome!

[ladron121]

Putting it all together:

I COULDN'T WAIT FOR YOU. HOPE YOU GOT THE PACKAGE. DO MY NOTES MAKE SENSE? THOSE CONNECTIONS ARE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. THELEMA IS 1 OF ? RE: MESSAGE 2 PASS ALONG. HE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAVE BEEN ON TO HIM IT IS NOT LIKE THEY JUST STOP TRACKING SOMEONE

It's almost too obvious that HE is Daniel, shown in the video with the file name GoodPurityStatus=GPS so that's how they're tracking him. But how, really? Did they plant a GPS device in him somehow? Maybe his cell phone? I don't know.

Since the msg came from Tachyon, and was meant for "brother", then that means the info only helps them. Last night was not our finest hour:

Op sent out all those "drunk" msg last night after we had obviously stopped trying to decode anything. We were too busy arguing with Greystoke and the like. Also, in an email she sent me:
http://lonelygirl15.com/forum/viewtopic ... &start=105
she say that the msg she sent her brother communicates the nature of the drop. Did we ever look at that?

I mean, in character, we just passed along the information that we worked so hard to locate and recover. I, personally, don't see any other way it could have went down, except it could have been done faster.

That's just one man and his HUGE hat's opinion...

[cassieisabeyotch]

Op sent out all those "drunk" msg last night after we had obviously stopped trying to decode anything.

Ummm...say again? Op sent out drunk messages? Tell me these are documented somewhere...

[horcruxes]

I'm thinking thought that now that one message has been deciphered and it's been determined that it's recipient is Daniel, has anyone passed the message on to him? Maybe through youtube? I'm tempted to do it, but I feel that those who figured it out should probably be the ones to contact him.

i don't think we should message daniel at all...
it may not even be him.

[Luv2Luvem]

i don't think we should message daniel at all...

Since the msg came from Tachyon, and was meant for "brother", then that means the info only helps them.

Agreed

[covedweller]

I'm thinking thought that now that one message has been deciphered and it's been determined that it's recipient is Daniel, has anyone passed the message on to him? Maybe through youtube? I'm tempted to do it, but I feel that those who figured it out should probably be the ones to contact him.

i don't think we should message daniel at all...
it may not even be him.

Tachyon's brother and Daniel are the only males who come to mind.

Who else could she mean by "him?"

The video had to do with Daniel, the initials GPS, the "he has to know how long they've been tracking him" etc.

and the message was for Tachyon's brother to pass along. so it wasn't for her brother. who else could it be?

[covedweller]

regarding the "Counting Blue Cars" post, I had this thought which I will repost here:

the song lyrics in the Craigslist post:

"He walks with a purpose
In his sneakers
Down the street he had
Many questions like children often do...
He said, "Tell me all your thoughts on God?"
And tell me am I very far?"

the song lyrics give context to the QUESTION her BROTHER is asking!

her note in the Craigslist ad leads to the ANSWER. which is her asking if he got her notes and the Book of Law, saying that it is only the tip of the iceberg and Thelema is 1 OF ?.

so through those notes in the Book of law, she is starting off telling him all her thoughts on God/religion/The Order/OpAphid, and saying the other text in the ad says that there is a lot more to tell and that Thelema is only ONE PART OF AN UNKNOWN PUZZLE!

am i totally baked, or does anyone else get that?

[Ziola]

regarding the "Counting Blue Cars" post, I had this thought which I will repost here:

the song lyrics in the Craigslist post:

"He walks with a purpose
In his sneakers
Down the street he had
Many questions like children often do...
He said, "Tell me all your thoughts on God?"
And tell me am I very far?"

the song lyrics give context to the QUESTION her BROTHER is asking!

her note in the Craigslist ad leads to the ANSWER. which is her asking if he got her notes and the Book of Law, saying that it is only the tip of the iceberg and Thelema is 1 OF ?.

so through those notes in the Book of law, she is starting off telling him all her thoughts on God/religion/The Order/OpAphid, and saying the other text in the ad says that there is a lot more to tell and that Thelema is only ONE PART OF AN UNKNOWN PUZZLE!

am i totally baked, or does anyone else get that?

You could be totally baked, but I get what your saying. And I'm not baked, so it does make sense