] For some little girls, it's a favorite doll; for others, it's a
] dress-up set. But when Elonka Dunin of St. Charles, Missouri,
] was little, her favorite toys were puzzles.

Let's hear it for geek girls! :)

Elonka in 'Woman's World' magazine

] The revolving wheel cryptographic principle that
] underlies CSP-488 was invented by Leo Battista Alberti
] during the fifteenth century. Centuries later, Thomas
] Jefferson re-invented a "Wheel Cipher" that was
] practically identical in principle, then followed by
] Major Bazeries around 1901 and Colonel Parker Hitt in
] 1914. All independently conceived of a device employing
] the same principle.

I keep wondering if something like this is going to be the key to decrypting Kryptos ...

Cipher Device: CSP-488

Looks like the Opportunity had its own code to be solved, which is different from the one that Spirit had . . .

Mars Code #2

On this site is a picture of the DVD on Mars (literally, a self-portrait taken from its current location on Mars). On the DVD is a code challenge.

The Mars DVD Code

This is an alleged summary of a report by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Oak Island, the "Money Pit" that's on my "Famous Unsolved Codes" page. The language of the report seems to be fairly professional, but without more verification, I can't give it a whole lot more weight than any of the other legends about the island.

Still, it's interesting reading . . .

Oak Island: the Woods Hole Institute Report

] An American official said part of the concern over the
] London-Dulles flights was driven by intercepted
] communications that contained phrases believed to refer
] to British Airways Flight 223, the London-Dulles flight
] that has been the focus of the heaviest American and
] British security. Last Wednesday, Flight 223 was escorted
] to Dulles by American fighter planes, and flights on
] Thursday and Friday were canceled.

This sounds plausible. For September 11th, Atta and Binalshibh and the others used codephrases for their targets. The Pentagon was "the Faculty of Fine Arts." The WTC was "the Faculty of Town Planning." Another interrogated Al Qaeda member who was looking into plans to destroy a bridge, said that he was instructed to use the word "gas stations" when reporting back about the gas cutters that he was trying to obtain.

I'd be very curious to learn more about this story . . .

More Al Qaeda Codephrases?

] James Sanborn n'en était pas à son coup d'essai, puisqu'il avait
] créé en 1990 une sculpture pour l'entrée du bâtiment principal de
] la CIA. Intitulée "Kryptos", cette oeuvre attend toujours d'être
] entièrement décryptée.

A Kryptos page that I ran across, which is all in French, which brings the number of different languages writing about Kryptos & the Cyrillic Projector to three (the other language is Russian).

I also got a kick out of the artwork at the top of this page, which is in an old Civil War cipher. I used to write messages in that cipher on my desk in high school math class. The real trip was when someone wrote back! :)

Les sculptures de James Sanborn

This is a list of codes used by Western Union in the 1850s. Some people who are radio-savvy will still use numbers from this chart for modern slang. For example saying, "73" means "Best Regards" and "88" means "Love and Kisses."

Western Union '92 Code' Chart

A new page for my ever-growing Kryptos website . . .

Kryptos FAQ

] The USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS) is a free
] mathematics competition open to all United States high
] school students. Students may enter the competition at
] any time of the academic year.

Want a job at NSA?

USA Mathematical Talent Search