Subject: ackanomic digest V3 #294
From: [email-masked] (ackanomic digest)
To: [email-masked]

ackanomic digest      Tuesday, September 1 1998      Volume 03 : Number 294

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 05:12:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: CFJ 651 (FALSE)

Weishaupt has judged this one FALSE.

Call for Judgement 651 - August 31, 1998
Subject: Debunking and One-Time Changes
Initiator: Mr. Tambourine Man (sent 31 Aug, 1998 07:53 Acka)
Judge: Weishaupt (selected 31 Aug, 1998 11:37 Acka)
Judgement: FALSE

Statement:
Proposal 3471 created a new rule.

Initiator's Reasoning:
P3471 did not contain a list of one-time changes to the rules and hence
should have been adopted as a new rule.

breadbox's Bronze Torch Reasoning:

This, I believe, is definitely untrue. Proposal 3471 indeed contained
a list of a single one-time change to the game state. The fact that
that change was meaningless does not change this. Consider the
relevant text of Rule 104:

  If the proposal consisted of a list of one-time effects, such as
  changes to the rules, then those effects shall be applied, one at a
  time, in the order in which they appear in the proposal. (Ambiguous,
  retroactive, and/or meaningless effects are ignored.)

The parenthetical clause makes it clear that a meaningless effect is
still treated as an effect, for the purposes of this rule.

Judge's Reasoning:

My reasoning is stated more succinctly than I could state it by breadbox.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 06:53:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: acka: or is it me?

>I'm not quite back off vacation yet (if indeed I am on vacation) because I'm
>just catching up with my backlog of mail. I think I'm on vacation, but I just
>tried to check the player page and it's stuck halfway through /dev/joe's entry
>because of a missing > on a tag.

Of course, it may just be my browser that's playing up. I suppose this message
ought to be for K2's attention anyway, rather than to the list. Sorry.

Yrs

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 07:04:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: acka: it's me

>Of course, it may just be my browser that's playing up. I suppose this message
>ought to be for K2's attention anyway, rather than to the list. Sorry.

Just remembered, there's one reason why I posted the message about the player
list publicly -- it's because I don't know what caste I am. Can anyone help me?

Yrs

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 09:25:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: acka: only me

I hereby change my status to Voting

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 09:55:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Frederic Mc Coy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: acka: only me

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:

> I hereby change my status to Voting
> 
> Ethelred
> 
> 
> 

Hrm, my email program cuts off your name in my inbox as  "I am the Water
Boa"  Anyway, breadbox at least seems to think you were already a voting
player.

Vynd

[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:02:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: acka: it's me

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>>Of course, it may just be my browser that's playing up. I suppose this message
>>ought to be for K2's attention anyway, rather than to the list. Sorry.
>
>Just remembered, there's one reason why I posted the message about the player
>list publicly -- it's because I don't know what caste I am. Can anyone help me?

You are religious caste Ethelred.

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:06:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jonathan David Amery <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:

 The P/E page shows
 Me to be on vacation
 Which is false (I think).

 If it is not then
 I become Active from now
 Because I should be.

 I find treasure thaty
 is two-two-six with a map:
 "Found by player that

 Wild Card says has found
 it", which I do so do now.
 Because I want to .

 And thus I remain
 wearing a Silly Agenda Hat.
 Wild Card now and ever.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:08:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: acka: only me

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>I hereby change my status to Voting

Welcome back.

- --TJ

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:11:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: acka: only me

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, John Frederic Mc Coy wrote:
>On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>
>> I hereby change my status to Voting
>
>Hrm, my email program cuts off your name in my inbox as  "I am the Water
>Boa"  Anyway, breadbox at least seems to think you were already a voting
>player.

He had been on Vacation (a different player state) since 08/14.
By 'changing state' to voting, that removes him (I believe) from vacation.

- --TJ, not the cop.

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:12:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Michael Pizolato" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Oars (rufus)

Studge wrote:
:On 8/30/98 JT wrote:
:>Rufus has found the Great Oars of Ackanomic this week.
:
:In defiance of the river gods, those who enforce conservation laws,
:potential problems associated with Gaol, and general common sense I
:proclaim my intent to become a Daring Adventurer by rafting down the
:Ackanomian River.
:
:I've got the raft.
:Rufus must come along with the Oars.
:And two others must bring... Courage In The Face Of Adversity!!

In anticipation of the Thrill of becoming a Daring Adventurer, I offer to
join the Rafting Expotition.

Piz

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:16:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, Jonathan David Amery wrote:
> The P/E page shows
> Me to be on vacation
> Which is false (I think).
>
> If it is not then
> I become Active from now
> Because I should be.

You are not on vacation according to the registrar's page :) (nor were you
at the time you posted this :)

> I find treasure thaty
> is two-two-six with a map:
> "Found by player that
>
> Wild Card says has found
> it", which I do so do now.
> Because I want to .

Does this not get you the Chartruese Goose?

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:18:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Thrall

Proposal, Player -> Overlord
P3484, breadbox -> Alfvaen
P3485, Tin Observer -> Mr. Tambourine Man

Alfvaen 3, K 2, Slakko, Mr. Tambourine Man, Niccolo Flychuck 1, 
all others 0.

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Year PhD(Pure Maths), CUDipSoc, CUSFS, CUSTS, CURS etc
Ackanomic - Web-Harfer, CotC, ChessUmpire, Map-Harfer, Senator

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 11:25:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Treasure burial

I create a trinket worth A$1 named 'Petals Enhance the Rose' with the
following description as delimited by ROSE
ROSE
Petals Enhance the Rose.
The name is somewhat important.
All answers are even.

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|     ||o    ||o    ||     ||o    |
|  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||     |   = 16
|     ||    o||    o||     ||    o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|     ||o   o||o   o||o    ||o    |
|  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||     ||     |   = 24
|     ||o   o||o   o||    o||    o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|o    ||o   o||o   o||o   o||     |
|     ||o   o||     ||  o  ||  o  |   = 8
|    o||o   o||o   o||o   o||     |
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|o    ||o    ||o   o||o   o||o   o|
|  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||o   o||  o  |   = 48
|    o||    o||o   o||o   o||o   o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|o   o||     ||o   o||o   o||o   o|
|     ||  o  ||o   o||o   o||     |  = 0
|o   o||     ||o   o||o   o||o   o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
ROSE

I create a trinket named 'Initiate of the Modified Rose' with a value of A$150
and the following description delimited by INITIATE
INITIATE
I have completed the challenge of Petals Enhance the Rose.
INITIATE

I bury the above 2 trinkets as a treasure and reveal the following map.

This treasure will be found by the first person to publicly quote the
puzzle below and fill in the correct answers.  If any puzzle answer is wrong
the entire answer is wrong.   A player may publically offer the player with
the RL name of JT Traub A$10, and ask to recieve another roll along with
it's answer.  The roll given will not match any of the ones on the puzzle
or on the 'Petals Enhance the Rose' trinket.  A player may purchase as
many additional rolls as they wish.  I will note here and now, that this is
the entire map, in full and unencoded.  Playing a map shard will not help.

Now, the puzzle:

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|     ||o    ||o   o||     ||     |
|  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||  o  ||  o  |  == ??
|     ||    o||o   o||     ||     |
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|o    ||o    ||o   o||o    ||o   o|
|  o  ||     ||     ||  o  ||     |  == ??
|    o||    o||o   o||    o||o   o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|o   o||o   o||o    ||o   o||o    |
|  o  ||     ||     ||  o  ||     |  == ??
|o   o||o   o||    o||o   o||    o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|     ||o   o||o    ||o   o||o    |
|  o  ||     ||     ||  o  ||     |  == ??
|     ||o   o||    o||o   o||    o|
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+
|     ||o    ||o   o||o    ||     |
|  o  ||  o  ||o   o||     ||  o  |  == ??
|     ||    o||o   o||    o||     |
+-----++-----++-----++-----++-----+

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 12:20:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure burial

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, JT wrote:

> I create a trinket worth A$1 named 'Petals Enhance the Rose' with the
> following description as delimited by ROSE
> ROSE
> Petals Enhance the Rose.
> The name is somewhat important.
> All answers are even.

I strongly disapprove of a puzzle where the initial setup admits an
infinite number of answers, only one of which is right.

5 equations, 6 unknowns?  Come on.

I'll pay you A$10 for another roll.
- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Year PhD(Pure Maths), CUDipSoc, CUSFS, CUSTS, CURS etc
Ackanomic - Web-Harfer, CotC, ChessUmpire, Map-Harfer, Senator

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 12:20:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Potato (Studge)

Studge has found the Magic Potato
Fortunato has thus found the Tuba.

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 12:38:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Swingpoints for 31st August

Weight Swingpoints:

8: Niccolo Flychuck
7: /dev/joe
6: Slakko
5: JT
4: Rex Mundi

Party Swingpoints:
Vulcan

1: ThinMan
1: Vynd

FairPlay Swingpoints:

2: rufus
2: Slakko

So, for this week
Niccolo gains 8 as does Slakko.  /dev/joe gains 7, JT 5, Rex 4, rufus 2,
and ThinMan and Vynd 1.

Totals: ask your local Financier.

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Year PhD(Pure Maths), CUDipSoc, CUSFS, CUSTS, CURS etc
Ackanomic - Web-Harfer, CotC, ChessUmpire, Map-Harfer, Senator

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 15:10:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: ACK issue 10

                   Ackanomic Cyclopedia of Knowledge
Volume 1 issue 10                                        September 1, 1998
==========================================================================

Jukkasjarvi Treasure Extravaganza
- ---------------------------------
by /dev/joe

At Jan 28, 1997, 00:30 EST, Malenkai wrote:

The Map to the Golden Frog's location was carved on the Runestone of
Jukkasjarvi by the Ancients.  Fortunately, this Runestone has just
been discovered.  Unfortunately, those oafs at the Frobozz
Archaeologicial Company botched the excavation, and it was shattered
into 24 pieces, plus some other meaningless fragments.  I was only
able to recover the top piece, with some of the runes obliterated:

The first player to post the valid translated text of the Runestone
of Jukkasjarvi (Translation) shall find the Treasure of Jukkasjarvi.
A Translation is valid if and only if it meets all of the following
conditions:

1) It is in a public message.

2) It contains a numbered list of at least * items from the following
list, (or rea*on**l* para**ras*s ** the te**), ******e* ** ** ***
********* **** *** ** ***** ********.  **l ***h sect**ns mus* ** *rue
wi*h respect t* *** pla*er ******g the list.  Whi** [...]

========================================
Possible translation of (2) above:

2) It contains a numbered list of at least 9 items from the following
list, (or reasonable paraphrases of the text), ******e* ** ** ***
********* **** *** ** ***** ********.  All such sections must be true
with respect to the player ?posting? the list.  Whi** [...]

========================================
More speculative translation of (2) above:

2) It contains a numbered list of at least 9 items from the following
list, (or reasonable paraphrases of the text), arranged as on the
runestone **** *** ** ***** fragment.  All such sections must be true
with respect to the player posting the list.  Whi** [...]

========================================
Here is the untranslated text of all 23 fragments of the
Runestone of Jukkasjarvi:

1. K jcxg uwdokvvgf c rtqrqucn vjcv eqpvckpu cv ngcuv 30 yqtfu, dwv
eqpvckpu pq xgtdu.

2. 49 20 68 61 76 65 20 6D 61 64 65 20 61 20 67 75 65
   73 73 20 61 74 20 74 68 65 20 4D 61 63 68 69 6E 65
   20 74 68 61 74 20 67 6F 65 73 20 2A 70 69 6E 67 2A
   20 74 72 75 74 68 2C 20 61 6E 64 20 74 68 61 74 0A
   67 75 65 73 73 20 63 6F 6E 74 61 69 6E 73 20 74 68
   65 20 77 6F 72 64 20 27 63 68 61 72 74 72 65 75 73
   65 27 20 61 73 20 70 61 72 74 20 6F 66 20 74 68 65
   20 74 72 75 74 68 2E

3. I have purchased a party chess piece other than a pawn.

4. I have a number of processing chips which is prime and greater than
10.

[note, the phrase "processing chips" was changed to "trinkets" by P2367,
which repealed processing chips.]

5. I was the first to complete task number 1.

6. I have taken a form of snowgod's cure, except I have replaced
17 pills of one color with 14 of another.

7. I have correctly stated the length of the Brass Monkey's chain,
it is <X> meter(s).

8. I have verbatim posted a piece of this puzzle in a public message, other
than this one.

9. I have correctly named a type of fish on another stone, it is <X>.

10. I have correctly stated the name of the island, it is <X>.

11. I have stated 3 words, one of which contains 5 consecutive vowels,
one which contains 5 consecutive consonants, and one of which contains
6 different vowels in alphabetical order.  The words are <a>, <b>, and
<c>.  Moreover, I have used one of these words in a proposal, proposal
<x>.

12. 1 + 2 + 10 + 20 + 33 = 960.  [sorry, this one is rather nasty :)]

13. I have legally chewed the Gumball and then have visited a Tower and then
have vexed, annoyed, and harrassed the Brass Monkey, and then have tried
to impeach a member of the Senate.

14.  The Fat Lady and the Brass Monkey were hanging at the Tower of
Bandwidth one day.  The Monkey said to the Fat Lady, "I'll bet
you an Amber Banana that you cannot guess the age of my three brothers,
who all happen to be celebrating birthdays today".
    "I'm hungry", said the Fat Lady, "bet I can.".
    "Ok", said the Monkey to the Fat Lady, "start singing when you know,
here are your clues:

    The sum of their ages is 13.
    The product of their ages is the same as your age.
    My eldest brother's age divides evenly into the sum of his
weight and the number of times I have climed the Tower of Futility."

    "I know them!", shrieked the Fat Lady, in a shrill, off key voice.
"Pay up my Banana!  ... You don't have anything else to munch on, do ya,
Potatoes, Gumballs ..."

    I have correctly stated the age of the Brass Monkey's three brothers.
They are: <A>, <B>, <C>.

15. 2X 3Y 3B 2Z 2C 3Q 13 3H 3Y 3V 3T 13 2V 3K 32 27 3E
    3J 13 40 3V 13 40 3J 2C 13 2W 3F 42 2C 3U 13 2F 3K
    2K 3Q 2W 1J

16. 1Y 2X 1U 27 32 2P 2R 1V 2X 0W 21 37 0W 38 20 2T 0W
    2T 2E 21 30 0W 38 2F 2X 32 1A

17. I am a red herring, but perhaps you can sell or trade me.

18. Only a fool would use programs when solving a difficult encryption.

19. Some clues are false but look true yet a false clue has elements
of truth and thus its falsity is false, thus this clue is false,
making it true.  Some clues are worded just to confuse you, but
know that a false clue will invalidate you.  Clue two is false too,
but they depend on each other.  Its ok to have done a false clue,
but don't you admit to it too.  The number of other bogus clues is the
same as the number of Hills, although at least one of the bogus ones
may vex you with elements of truth.  This clue is bogus.

20. This clue is of little value.  However, parts of this treasure
involve doing unusual game actions.  Perhaps you could throw some gizz
into the system by doing random weird game actions, or you could learn
by watching the actions of other players.

As a pointer, if you are going to do a weird action as part of this
treasure hunt, do it in conjunction with a couple of other weird actions
that have nothing to do with the hunt, that way people won't pick up
on the correct one so easily.  You cannot get hurt by doing a wrong
action unless you *claim* to have done it as part of the Runestone.
That mistake was made by /dev/joe when searching for the Map of Jara.
As I write this, that hunt as not been completed, so I do not know if
it actually hurt him or not.

Also, all correct things on the submission list start with "I", followed
by a verb.  I say this because there are some meta clues in here.
One tip, its possible that the answer to one of the clues does not
lie on a piece of the Runestone.

How many do you need?  Well, you should know the upper bound already.
The minimum?  Suffice it to say that the solution to that question
lies buried in the solution to the Quorum Crisis.  Good Luck!

21. I have found a Buried Treasure worth at least A$257.

22. You cannot win unless you make an important translation in your
final translation post.

23. The Brass Monkey's chain is passed over a pulley.  It has a weight
on one end and the Brass Monkey hanging on the other.  There is the
same length of chain on either side and equilibrium is maintained.
The chain weighs 250 grams per meter.  The age of the monkey and
the age of the monkey's mother together total four years.  The
weight of the monkey is as many kilograms as the monkey's mother
is years old.  The monkey's mother is twice as old as the monkey
was when the monkey's mother was half as old as the monkey will
be when the monkey is three times as old as the monkey's mother
was when the monkey's mother was three times as old as the monkey.
The weight of the chain and the weight at the end was half as much
again as the difference in weight between the weight of the weight
and the weight and the weight of the monkey.

========================================
Fragment commentary:

1. This is an off-by-2 code, it reads:  I have submitted a proposal that
contains at least 30 words, but contains no verbs.
My proposal 1744 was the first; later on there were a couple more.

2. This decodes (straight ASCII) to:
I have made a guess at the Machine that goes *ping* truth, and that
guess contains the word 'chartreuse' as part of the truth.

3. Not hard to do.

4. Not hard to do (with trinkets filled in for processing chips)

5. If "task number 1" = "task on fragment number 1" then I did it first.

6. Snowgod's cure (or one of them, the one which occurred most recently
before this treasure was buried - January 2, 1997) was to submit a proposal
in the form of a haiku which has some real effect on the game.  Snowgod
attempted to do so with proposal 1647.  A haiku has 17 syllables, so this
seems to be asking the player to submit a 14 syllable proposal, but what of
the colors?

7. See fragment #23 -- the length is 5 meters.

8. Also not hard to do.

9. At first I considered that the stone possibly could be something
other than a runestone fragment, but then I found the "herring" on #17.

10. I think the island is Saaramaa from one of Malenkai's other treasures,
more commonly spelled Saaremaa or Sarema.  (It is in Estonia.)

11. 5 consecutive vowels: commonest word is queueing
5 consecutive consonants: commonest is strengths
6 vowels in alpha order: facetiously
I used queueing in proposal 1742.

12. This one *is* really nasty, as Malenkai said.  The 960 I believe
refers to Proposal 960, by Kelly Martin, which is titled "Official Monkey"
and reads "The hanuman langur (Presbytis entellus) is hereby made the
Official Monkey of Ackanomic. No Player may vex, annoy, or harrass any
langur which he might encounter during his travels."  I had the bright
idea to try the other numbers as a "book code" (i.e., as word indices in
the proposal text) but there are not even 33 words.  However, fragment 13
seems to refer to this proposal also (with the vex, annoy, or harass bit)
and the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 20th, and 33rd words of that fragment are "I have
visited the Senate."

13. I tried to do all those things; not sure if some of them were legal
actions or not, though.  This is probably bogus, and is just a reference
text for fragment 12.

14. There was much discussion of this a while back on one of the mailing
lists.  This is actually an old puzzle; the answer is 9, 2, and 2.  The
basis for the answer is that out of all the possible products for three
ages adding to 13, only 36 can be made two different ways: 11x1x1=11,
10x2x1=20, 9x3x1=27, 9x2x2=36, 8x4x1=32, 8x3x2=48, 7x5x1=35, 7x4x2=56,
7x3x3=63, 6x6x1=36, 6x5x2=60, 6x4x3=72, 5x5x3=75, 5x4x4=80.  For any
product besides 36, the clue about the product would have given away
the answer.  The third clue is (supposed) to clarify that there is
just one eldest brother.  In P3218, Malenkai wrote that the Fat Lady is 29,
not 36 years old, to be written into rule text for a rule 960, the number
from the end of fragment 12.  Since they are all celebrating birthdays
today, the ages are all integers, so it seems impossible for 29 to be her
age for this puzzle.  Presuambly it is just a hint for the encoding of
fragment 15.

15. First, having decoded fragment 16 already, suppose this is also
ASCII encoded in some manner.  Guess that space (32) is 13, so we appear
to be in base 29.  That makes 40 = 116 = t and 3V = 111 = o assuming the
letter digits are in order but some are skipped.  Guess the next word is
the (thE because of the low number), now fill in other T-Z entries.
Now we see 3B is a (97), 3Q is l (108), 3H is f (102), 3F is e (101),
the last character 1J is a period (46), so 3J is 104 (h),
and the sequence of digits is 01234.....BC..FH.J...QTUVWXYZ
Fill in forced letters: 01234.....BCDEFHIJ...QTUVWXYZ; 3E is d (100),
now we see 27 is 65 (A) and 3K is i (105) so 2K is 76 (L):

2X 3Y 3B 2Z 2C 3Q 13
T  r  a  V  E  l   = 84 114 97 86 69 108 32
3H 3Y 3V 3T 13
f  r  o  m    = 102 114 111 109 32
2V 3K 32 27 3E 3J 13
R  i  Y  A  d  h    = 82 105 89 65 100 104 32
40 3V 13
t  o     = 116 111 32
40 3J 2C 13
t  h  E     = 116 104 69 32
2W 3F 42 2C 3U 13
S  e  v  E  n    = 83 101 118 69 110 32
2F 3K 2K 3Q 2W 1J
H  i  L  l  S  . = 72 105 76 108 85 46

Final answer: TraVEl from RiYAdh to thE SevEn HiLlS.
with a set of numerals that looks like: 01234567..BCDEFHIJK..QTUVWXYZ
(The .'s are still not fully determined.)

The "seven hills" is a hint as to the "number of hills" on #19, if you
didn't already figure it is Rome's seven hills.

16. Try base 36 (0 = 0, 9 = 9, A = 10, B = 11, Z = 35, 10 = 36, etc.):

70 105 66 79 110 97 99 67 105 32 73 115 32 116 72 101 32
101 86 73 108 32 116 87 105 110 46

This is ascii:  FiBOnacCi Is tHe eVIl tWin.

No idea what this means, or where there is anything fibonacci-ish in nature.
The odd capitalization on these two fragments may have been purely to throw
off players trying to decode this, but if it has some secondary meaning,
I have not figured it out.

17. Bogus, but gives answer for #9.

18. Refers to #15, I suppose.

19. The first sentence tells us that this is a bogus fragment (as far as
being included in the translation).  The second sentence tells us that
including any bogus fragments in a translation invalidates it.  The
third sentence tells us fragment 2 is bogus.  The fourth sentence, I
believe, says that trying to complete the requirements of a bogus
fragment does not prevent you from finding the treasure unless you claim
to be doing those things as part of the Jukkasjarvi treasure hunt.
The fifth sentence tells us there are 7 more bogus clues (in addition to
the ones already singled out as bogus -- #2 and #19), and that at least
one of the bogus ones looks sort-of true.  The last sentence reiterates
that this fragment is bogus.

20. This fragment is my basis for my interpretation of the fourth sentence
of #19.  I don't think it to be unreasonable for some of the "rules" to
be stated more than once, in different ways.

The 3rd paragraph is a wonderful help in figuring out what clues are
bogus, though I already had guessed this by the time I finally saw this one.
The answer that does not lie on a piece of the runestone is Saaremaa.

I have no idea about the solution to the quorum crisis bit in the last
paragraph.

21. I think I was the first to do this, with the final treasure of Jara,
including the fine wooden chest, the shades of chorg, etc., but I think
at least one other player has found such a treasure since.  In any case,
it is easy for any two players to pull this off.

22. Unfortunately, this isn't very specific, but it does tell us that
we need to do something else.  I assume that the 'something else' is hidden
in the *** bit on the top fragment, and maybe hinted at by something, but
I have not made any progress.  You may have noticed a couple random guesses
of mine as far as what I might need to do.

23. Solution: Let B and M equal the brass monkey's age and his mother's
age; B1 and M1 the same at the first "when"; B2 and M2 at the
second "when", and B3 and M3 at the third "when".
B+M=4, M = 2*B1, B1 = B - (M - M1), M1 = B2/2, B2 = 3*M3, M3 = 3*B3.
The solution of this set of equations is B=1.5, M=2.5, B1=1.25,
B2=4.5, B3=0.5.  The monkey weighs 2.5 kg.

Then we have the chain.  Since there is the same length of chain on both
sides, the weight weighs 2.5 kg.  Letting Wc, Ww, Wm be the weight of
the chain, weight, and monkey, respectively, the last sentence says
Wc+Ww = 1.5*(Ww+Ww-Wm).  Wm = Ww = 2.5 so Wc = 1.25.
Since the chain weighs 0.25 kg/m, it is 5 meters long.

========================================
Bogus clues, considering clues on fragments #19 & #20:

6. Possibly this is the bogus fragment with "elements of truth" in that it
   starts with the correct words.  Possibly it is valid.
13. Possibly bogus.  Provides the text for fragment 12's encoding.  Also a
    candidate for the bogus fragment with elements of truth.
14. This is tricky, since the "I have ..." bit is not the first thing on
    the stone, but otherwise it looks valid.  Maybe bogus.
15. Bogus.  Tells the number of hills.
16. Bogus.  No idea what it means.
17. Bogus.  Contains the name of the fish.
18. Bogus.  Possibly refers to #15.
19. Bogus.  Much info about bogus fragments.
20. Bogus.  Much useful info.
22. Bogus.  The tip is very important, but what does it mean?
23. Bogus.  Gives the length of the chain for #7.

The problem here is that we've marked too many fragments as bogus.
If we accept 6 and 14 as not really bogus, we get the right number
of bogus clues.

I note that there are 11 fragments which should be satisfiable by anybody,
ignoring the unclear ones above -- fragments 1-4, 7-12, and 21. Fragment 5
is satisfiable only by me.

========================================
Non-bogus fragments, decoded:

1. I have submitted a proposal that contains at least 30 words, but
contains no verbs.

2. I have made a guess at the Machine that goes *ping* truth, and that
guess contains the word 'chartreuse' as part of the truth.

3. I have purchased a party chess piece other than a pawn.

4. I have a number of trinkets which is prime and greater than 10.

5. I was the first to complete task number 1. [/dev/joe only]

6. I have taken a form of snowgod's cure, except I have replaced
17 pills of one color with 14 of another. [not entirely clear]

7. I have correctly stated the length of the Brass Monkey's chain,
it is 5 meter(s).

8. I have verbatim posted a piece of this puzzle in a public message, other
than this one.

9. I have correctly named a type of fish on another stone, it is herring.

10. I have correctly stated the name of the island, it is Saaremaa.
[or Saaramaa, etc.]

11. I have stated 3 words, one of which contains 5 consecutive vowels,
one which contains 5 consecutive consonants, and one of which contains
6 different vowels in alphabetical order.  The words are queueing,
strengths, and latchstring.  Moreover, I have used one of these words
in a proposal, proposal 1742. [this last bit for /dev/joe only]

12. I have visited the Senate.

14. I have correctly stated the age of the Brass Monkey's three brothers.
They are: 9, 2, 2. [preceded by that whole puzzle; maybe bogus]

21. I have found a Buried Treasure worth at least A$257.

========================================
June 14, 1998, Malenkai made the following proposal, soon afterward retracted:

Proposal 3218
Monkey Business
saaremaa (Randy Hall)

This is a Modest proposal.

Create a new rule numbered 960 with the following text:

"
The Fat Lady is 29, not 36 years old as the ancients believed, 
but she has visited most of the in vogue empires, because
she's always on the run from her evil twin.
"

This seems to be a mishmash of clues to the encoded fragments.
The title and rule number refer to fragment 12's encoding.
The 29 and 36 refer to the bases of the encoding of fragments 15 and 16,
and 36 *does* seem to be the age of the fat lady in fragment 14; if this
is saying her age should instead be 29, I can't see what trick must be
applied to the problem to make this work.  JT suggested the ages of
the 3 brothers be 29, 1, and 1, and adding them to be 13 by adding 2+9+1+1
but this doesn't seem to fit the problem because there's no other set of
numbers that multiply to 29 and add to 13, in any way.  JT also suggested
it might be in some other base.

The last bit hints at the decoded text of fragments 15 and 16.

========================================
Malenkai's prayers for deliverance:

Malenkai customarily used alphabet-shifted text as his 'spoken in tongues'
line of his prayers for deliverance.  Here are the ones I found (mostly
just the decoded spoken-in-tongues segments are given):

February 1997:
  the map to the map has been published

This was a reference to the map of jara treasure.

March:
  "dk jqigkvcdcv jgogbqtvbk jqigkvcdquv bqtvbk jqigkvcdcv dk dquv
  jgogbqtvbk jqigk ugk dquv dcv jqigk bqtvbk dquv jgogbqtvbk jgogtgvbk"

This was not only shifted, but also in some foreign language, and it
related to Malenkai's "Euskara" treasure.  (Euskara is the Basque
word for Basque.)  Breadbox decoded it as

  "bi hogeitabat hemezortzi hogeitabost zortzi hogeitabat bi bost
  hemezortzi hogei sei bost bat hogei zortzi bost hemezortzi hemeretzi"

which he eventually figured out was all numbers in Basque, and the
numbers 1-26 corresponded to letters of the alphabet.

April:
  all i can say is that breadbox, your answer was amazing

Refers to one of breadbox's near-misses at finding the above treasure,
which he had at the time only half-decoded.

May:
  No clue for my treasure this month, except to remember the other
  clues, and a particular area of Expertese of mine.  In other news:
  Close but no cigar??

June:
Its close, but no cigar, to [Ivcfsu (this evil word must not be printed in
undecoded form in my newspaper - ed.)] Feathers (I think, anyway).
Sorry, I'm really pressed for time this month.

July:
Rest now ye ancients of Jara, for methinks, me fears,
me knows, that the Chosen One now approaches to disturb
your legacy, the one who shall claim to know the path
so long so hidden, and shall vie to frink with monkeys.

August:
Last month I reported:

Rest now ye ancients of Jara, for methinks, me fears,
me knows, that the Chosen One now approaches to disturb
your legacy, the one who shall claim to know the path
so long so hidden, and shall vie to frink with monkeys.

Now, the Chosen One still knows the path, but has stumbled on
a failure forty years from now.  The Chosen One is too greedy
for he knows not the value of what he seeks.  It is not measured
in lame Ackadollars.

Perhaps they will find the Parka then.  It has now been hidden five
fold, in the places they'd prolly never think to look.  Perhaps the
Chosen One has Chosen not to Choose.

========================================
Malenkai's hints from his newspaper:

In February 1997, in an article entitled "Golden Frog Slandered", he
wrote (again in an alphabet-shifted code):

"perhaps publicallw knowable was a better term than published"

This related to his February prayer hint, related to the Map of Jara treasure.

Malenkai also had some hints to treasures in his parade descriptions, but
these happened before the Jukkasjarvi treasure was buried, and mostly related
to the trio of Jara treasures.  Parades are archived at
http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/Nomic/Acka/entity/parade.html
and Phoebe posts are archived at
http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/Nomic/Acka/entity/phoebe.html

========================================
Map shard cards:

I used a map shard card on Malenkai for the jukkasjarvi treasure long ago,
and he merely revealed part of a fragment I hadn't seen yet.  I used one
on Mr Tambourine Man recently, and he revealed that the first * in section 2
of the top runestone fragment contains a 6.  For reference:

  2) It contains a numbered list of at least * items from the following

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 15:47:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: The Juice <[email-masked]>
Subject: Unsubsribe

Please unsubscribe me from the list... Thank you...

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 17:47:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure burial

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, Duncan Richer wrote:
>> I create a trinket worth A$1 named 'Petals Enhance the Rose' with the
>> following description as delimited by ROSE
>> ROSE
>> Petals Enhance the Rose.
>> The name is somewhat important.
>> All answers are even.
>
>I strongly disapprove of a puzzle where the initial setup admits an
>infinite number of answers, only one of which is right.

This is a misaprehension on your part.

>5 equations, 6 unknowns?  Come on.
>
>I'll pay you A$10 for another roll.

I will send this to you this evening when I am home.

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 19:15:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gabe Drummond-Cole <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure burial

>>
>>I strongly disapprove of a puzzle where the initial setup admits an
>>infinite number of answers, only one of which is right.
>
>This is a misaprehension on your part.
>
>>5 equations, 6 unknowns?  Come on.
>>
>>I'll pay you A$10 for another roll.
>
>I will send this to you this evening when I am home.
>

Are bought rolls private then?

I have purchased a party chess piece other than a pawn.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 19:21:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure burial

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, Gabe Drummond-Cole wrote:
>>>I strongly disapprove of a puzzle where the initial setup admits an
>>>infinite number of answers, only one of which is right.
>>
>>This is a misaprehension on your part.
>>
>>>5 equations, 6 unknowns?  Come on.
>>>
>>>I'll pay you A$10 for another roll.
>>
>>I will send this to you this evening when I am home.
>
>Are bought rolls private then?

Yes, but once you've bought them, you can publicize them or not at your
own discretion.

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 21:10:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mueller <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Forehead

I go to the Treasury, sneaking past the security cameras so no one knows
what I'm doing and head straight for the Prosthetic Foreheads.  I find
exactly the one I'm looking for with the following REGAL delimited
description:

REGAL
It looks just like Studge's real forehead except it says "I am mighty!" on
it in blues letters. Simultaneously it makes it's wearer look like a
regally dignified Poobah.
REGAL

While trying to sneak out, I'm confronted with The Fuzz so change my plans
and pay for the Prosthetic Forehead as normal.

Then I go home to hoard this glorious wealth.

Studge, feeling perky.

------------------------------

End of ackanomic digest V3 #294
*******************************