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Typo Found in Kryptos CIA Sculpture

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that's-a-big-oops dept.

SimuAndy writes "Elonka Dunin, game developer at Simutronics and author/editor of the new book, 'The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms', reports that what everyone had thought was the answer to part 2 of the CIA's encrypted Kryptos sculpture, wasn't. Sculptor Sanborn announced this week that everyone had gotten it wrong, because of a mistake on the art piece. For more info, check out the Wired story, or the Kryptos Group announcement."

7 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Translation: Frist psot by JPriest · · Score: 5, Informative

    Above is ROT-13 (rotate 13 places) for the text Frist psot.

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    Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
  2. Re:How was this wrong? by TigerNut · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's wrong because the sculpture encodes four puzzles. The solutions to the first three parts are required to solve the fourth part.

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    Less is more.

  3. Already done... by XenonOfArcticus · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://kryptos.arcticus.com/

    Please, don't everybody click on it at once, it's only a P100 webserver on DSL. Use a cache if it dies:

    http://kryptos.arcticus.com.nyud.net:8090/

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    -- There is no truth. There is only Perception. To Percieve is to Exist.
  4. Re:How was this wrong? by monoqlith · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Wired article says that the first three parts of the puzzle contain clues to solve the fourth and final part. So, while they decrypted the message correctly, the mistake that was made has prevented them from figuring out how to decrpt the entire message correctly. So, yeah, it was the artist's mistake, but it was an incorrect decryption because it doesn't provide any meaningful clues about the fourth part of the puzzle.

  5. Re:Location? by Kredal · · Score: 3, Informative

    That location is at CIA headquarters, about 150 yards south of the actual sculpture. So.. was that the original intended spot for the sculpture, and it was moved, or is there something hidden that close (in layer two?) that would help solve the next section?

    Only time will tell.

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  6. Re:Location? by gfolkert · · Score: 4, Informative

    The location 38.9518N, 77.1456W It is in the CIA Complex located in Northern Fairfax County Virginia. Right by the Langley Fork Park and Near the GW Park along the Potomac.

    Out in the CIA yard

    As if nobody can use Google anymore...

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    greg, REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
  7. This is big news by TubeSteak · · Score: 2, Informative
    IIRC, some journalist/cryptologist/someone sweet talked the CIA into letting them onto the grounds. They did a pencil impression of the sculpture and then they got to wander around.

    The reason they went wandering around was to try and make sense of this piece of section two:
    Does Langley know about this? They should: it's buried out there somewhere. x Who knows the exact location? Only WW. This was his last message: x Thirty-eight degrees fifty-seven minutes six point five seconds North, seventy-seven degrees eight minutes forty-four seconds West. ID by rows."
    If the text was actually supposed to say "... forty-four seconds west. x Layer Two". then that should change their interpretation of whatever they saw on the CIA grounds.

    Someone much nerdier than I analyzed the coordinates, but all this was done under the previous understanding of what Section 2 said.
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