Tree of Providence

While Roses are lovely this time of year, Emeralds are awfully sweet as well. Congrats USC for beating Boston College!

Imagine you’re a part of a soccer team. Your coaches have decided to make your games a little more fun and have set up a series of semi-random bonuses to people who complete the tasks set out each week. Because of the type of player you are, you either don’t have the ability or inclination to complete these tasks (and thus be rewarded for the week). But that’s okay, because, overall, you consider yourself to be a team player and it is more important to you for your team to work together and get a win rather than get an individual reward yourself.

This goes on for several months, and although at times you might be slightly jealous, you never really feel left out because you’re becoming quite the player on the team. Your teammates notice it and your coaches have quietly given you kudos on the work that you’ve done. The fact that you haven’t won an individual prize doesn’t mean much since you never actively tried to win one.

Finally, the season comes to a close and the coaches have announced that they are going to be having a final award ceremony, where more prizes will be given out, including some for the most valuable players. You become pretty excited at this because you know, your teammates know, and your coaches know that you are one of the best players on the team. Although you hadn’t expected any sort of reward at the beginning of the season, you can’t help to feel like now it’s your turn and that you’ll finally get something tangible for your efforts.

The night of the award ceremony comes. The coaches announce a lot of names for rewards. You notice a lot of the people already won one or more of the weekly rewards, but that’s okay because they still played the entire season and deserved a final reward for sticking it out. Then the time comes for the MVP award. You’re so excited because you’ve seen some of the kickass gifts the others have received tonight and you figure you have to be getting something like that. You and three other people are called up to the stage. Your names are announced. The coaches thank you for a job well done. Then they give you a pat on the back and send you back down to your seats empty handed. Thanks for playing and goodnight everyone.

You leave feeling extremely upset and insulted.

Read the rest of “An Open Letter to the IHC” »

Corruption Theory has gone into hiding. His identity has been compromised and he’s trying to protect the life that he has left. Before he left though, he sent Soren Ulfert a link to a puzzle that shows proof that the IHC lottery is a fraud. For some reason, it’s being hosted on Charlie Frost’s website instead of Corruption Theory’s website, but I’ve stopped questioning these odd details.

The puzzle is fairly easy – it’s just a jigsaw puzzle, although as you get more pieces connected, more colors get added into the rest of the pieces, so that helps out a bit. Personally I don’t think it’s the slam dunk proof that Corruption Theory says it is, but what do I know. He does say that he is mailing packages to people that he trusts with additional evidence. After solving all those stupid book ciphers, I had better get a package.

I guess everyone was watching the baseball game last night, because there still is no decode as of this morning. Luckily the encoder must have gotten just as sick as I was about counting out really long numbers as this one was pretty easy to do just by sight. Still too many mistakes though.

Re: Project Naaczaal

Status Briefing, October 27

Negotiations on the site for full-scale construction have completed. More information regarding the site selected will be available on an as-needed basis for teams involved in shipping and construction only.

Complete evacuation instructions will be available to all qualified staff members once our transportation plan is complete. We are assessing how to propagate this information as securely as possible and will report when analysis is complete.

All staff, please note that this overview is Eyes Only and should be deleted after reading.

Good thing Corruption Theory was able to get to Miami or had a better contact in the area than I did, because I’m not sure how else we would have gotten the files otherwise. Whoever encoded this must have had more time to work, because I only count about 8 mistakes this time. Of course, one of those mistakes I can’t quite make out what it’s supposed to be saying, so I guess that’s a negative.

Update: Ha! It turns out there were a lot more than 8 mistakes in this message. The code we got from Corruption Theory was missing a whole sentence fragment. Sorta wonder how he managed to solve the code with a huge chunk missing from it. I’ve added the missing bit in italics (and fixed that earlier typo I couldn’t figure out).

Re: Project Naaczaal

Status Briefing, October 25

We are sending out a new geological report that underlines the urgency of the project and confirms the necessity of our ambitious timeline for construction. This new data indicates there is no room for the project timeline for to slip. Team leads that do not meet scheduled milestones may face severe consequences, up to and including loss of red [sic] passes.

All staff, please note that this overview is Eyes Only and should be deleted after reading.

Re: Project Naaczaal

Status Briefing, October 20

We have encountered some significant challenges regarding site location, and we are bringing our allies to table to negotiate on our behalf. We are examining a number of fallback options, but do not believe this will present a serious impediment to our schedule.

Our effort to preserve cultural artifacts is proceeding on track, but we foresee some obstacles on the horizon.

Due to our recent funding situation, we are cutting the budget for over-the-table acquisition and relying more on covert methods and persuasion.

I may not be able to obtain every item desired, but we are confident that we will reach an acceptable percentage.

All staff, please note that this overview is Eyes Only and should be deleted after reading.

Read the rest of “Project Naaczaal – San Francisco Decode” »

Weird. Wonder why the Project Naaczaal peeps have switched over to a hex based system. Maybe because the members got sick of parsing numbers with ROTs? I dunno. At least now we have the password to Aerospace Robotics Corp to go along with the username from before: safehaven2012

RE: Project Naaczaal
Status Briefing, October 14

As per previous notice, due to a critical breach we are performing an immediate Level 3 security sweep. As a result, your access information for our secure file system has been changed.

your new password for the system is:Bs,w!ws+4.

for security purposes, your username has been sent under separate cover. if you have not received it, please inform HQ immediately.

All staff, please note that this overview is Eyes Only and should be deleted after reading.

Update: Wow, you can’t stay logged in very long to the Project Naaczaal site. When you get in, you can download seven different PDFs.

Username: safehaven2012
Password: Bs,w!ws+4.
[Please note that the ending period is part of the password.]

• Naaczaal-249-01.pdf nczl_admin 8/22/09
• Naaczaal-249-03.pdf nczl_admin 9/12/09
• Naaczaal-259-19.pdf nczl_admin 9/24/09
• Naaczaal-264-17.pdf nczl_admin 10/3/09
• IHC-Safe-Haven-1.pdf BLP 9/8/09
• IHC-Safe-Haven-2.pdf BLP 10/9/09
• IHC-Safe-Haven-3.pdf BLP 1/9/09

At least I’m getting better at this. I wonder if my decoding skills will get me a ride on whatever kinda spaceship this is.

RE: PROJECT NAACZAAL

STATUS BRIEFING OCTOBER SEVEN

ATTACHED IS THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE NAACZAAL CONSTRUCTION TIMELINE. THIS REVISION ACCOUNTS FOR DELAYS IN PROGRESS ALREADY ENCOUNTERED. FUTURE DELAYS MAY CAUSE THIS TIMELINE TO UNDERGO MORE CHANGES, AND MAY IMPACT THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT.

THIRD QUARTER 2009: LOCATION OF PRINCIPAL CONSTRUCTION SITE LAUNCH TOWER AND DOCK CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY.

SECOND QUARTER 2010: BUILD OUT OF LAUNCH TOWERS AND DOCKS COMPLETED. BEGIN FULL SCALE CONSTRUCTION.

FOURTH QUARTER 2010: SKELETAL STRUCTURE COMPLETED.

FIRST QUARTER 2011: PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND HULL COMPLETE.

THIRD QUARTER 2011: INITIAL TESTING PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND HULL.

FOURTH QUARTER 2011: PENDING LEVELS SHOULD BE AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AND ALL NECESSARY MATERIALS ACQUIRED AND SHIPPED TO CONSTRUCTION SITE

FIRST QUARTER 2012: INTERIOR ELECTRICAL AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS COMPLETE.

SECOND QUARTER 2012: INTERIOR FINISHING WORK AND CLEANUP COMPLETE.

THIRD QUARTER 2012: BEGIN PROCEDURES TO PROVISION NAACZAAL CRAFT ADEQUATELY.

FOURTH QUARTER 2012: BOARDING AND LAUNCH.

ALL STAFF, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS OVERVIEW IS EYES ONLY AND SHOULD BE DELETED AFTER READING.

Couple things of note after I’ve had the time to look at the plans.

1: There are some weird artifacts showing up in some of the image files. I don’t know if they were corrupted on certain thumbdrives or on the upload or if there is actual hidden data, but some little bit is corrupted somewhere.

2: There are little bits of odd background shading (for lack of a better word) in some of the images. You can see it as light grey marks on the Mesh Opening Edge and as black triangles on the Opening Elevation. I tried flipping the images based on the center lines, but nothing really jumped out at me. But it seems odd.

3: The newest set of plans almost seems to be part of a movie set rather than an actual working spaceship. Are the IHC building movie sets to fool us into thinking that they have space habitations for us? Or what’s going on?

Holy crap this is annoying. Can I just say how much I hate parsing numbers. That and keeping track of which ROT number I’m on. Now I understand why they do this. The Project Naaczaal people want the solve to be so annoying that you just give up before you complete it.

Except I’m on to them and am solving it out of spite.

I’m also up against the clock because I know others are solving it and I would have had this done sooner if I hadn’t been roped into talking online to some rather silly people tonight. So I’m publishing this early and will fix my missing words as I get to them. Update: Woo! Done!

RE: PROJECT NAACZAAL

STATUS BRIEFING, OCTOBER SECOND

WE ARE ACTIVELY SEEKING A LOCATION NOW FOR FULL SCALE CONSTRUCTION.

REQUIREMENTS INCLUDE:

1. SECURITY IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE. LOCAL GOVERNMENT MUST BE ABLE TO CONTROL INFORMATION INTO AND OUT OF THE INSTALLATION.

2. A REMOTE LOCATION IS DESIRABLE FOR THE SAME REASONS.

3. A SKILLED AND HIGHLY TECHNICAL LABOR FORCE MUST BE AVAILABLE, EITHER ON SITE OR WILLING TO LOCATE. THIS LABOR POOL MUST BE OF SOME SIZE.

4. GEOLOGICAL STABILITY IN THE FIRST PHASES OF CRISIS MUST BE HIGH TO ALLOW TIME FOR EVALUATION PROCEDURES TO COMPLETE.

5. THE INSTALLATION MUST BE SUFFICIENTLY LARGE UP ALLOW FULL SCALE CONSTRUCTION TO TAKE PLACE. WE ARE NARROWING OUR CHOICES DOWN AND NEGOTIATING WITH POTENTIAL HOSTS AT THIS TIME. EXPECT A FINAL DECISION BY THE END OF THE MONTH.

ALL STAFF PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS OVERVIEW IS EYES ONLY AND SHOULD BE DELETED AFTER READING.

Read the rest of “Project Naaczaal – Los Angeles Decode” »

Note to self: If I’m ever running a top secret conspiracy and I want to make sure that outside individuals can’t possibly stumble onto what I’m doing, don’t use a simple substitution that is obscured by the fact that you’re using numbers without spaces.

Luckily for Corruption Theory and anyone else who is trying to find out what Project Naaczaal is, an encrypted note was recovered that has shed a little more light on this mysterious project. Not enough to know what is is or who is running it, but still it’s a start.

RE: Project Naaczaal

Status briefing, Sept Twenty-Two

We are now concluding feasibility studies and preliminary research for Project Naaczaal. Analysis indicates a high probability of success, and small-scale prototyping has begun. As of now we are several weeks behind schedule, but are working to collect data, resources and technologies that would accelerate the project by thirty percent.

Cost analysis shows that internal resources on hand are still insufficient. All available resources have been reassigned to Naaczaal where possible.

We are continuing with existing funding strategies as per the previous funding methods report and anticipate full funding levels will be reached by 3-10 2011, if not significantly sooner.

All staff, please note that this overview is eyes only and should be deleted after reading.

The method for the solve is behind the cut.

Read the rest of “Project Naaczaal Decode” »