The intersection of linguistic analysis, code-breaking and European secret societies

[Erik_Kowal]

There is a fascinating article by Noah Shachtman in the online magazine Wired which describes how a handful of philologists and linguisticians painstakingly applied cryptographic and linguistic analysis to decode a complex 250-year-old manuscript and uncovered its significance to an 18th-century secret society of German freethinkers.

Further info from the researchers themselves can be found here.

[Edwin F Ashworth]

The qie"t bul#ldozer break-danc”es at dawn.

(The site won't take Tengwar, which is what I tried for)

Fascinating, Erik.

I wonder if he'd like to analyse the Bible's so-called heptenary design?

Oh, and have you seen the programme - Horizon, I think - revealing the incredible achievement of Tut and Flowers at Bletchley Park?

[Erik_Kowal]

I haven't, Edwin -- I've only seen the 2001 film Enigma, which adheres only loosely to the story of how the Enigma code was broken.

[Edwin F Ashworth]

Apparently, that was the easy one!

[Erik_Kowal]

Yes, the Zenigma code was altogether more metaphysical.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. yes I remember well the secret meetings of the Knights Templar of the Secret Cave of the Hairy Nose Wombat .. it didn't really take-off but we could never understand why ?? .. it was a fairly simple ritual that mirrored what a hairy nosed wombat does in real life .. he eats roots and leaves .. maybe it was the diet ?? .. or having to dig deep holes ??

High Bat WoZwom

[Erik_Kowal]

Or -- being Australian -- perhaps he eats, roots, and leaves...?

[Edwin F Ashworth]

Overheard at the Oz Centre for Deciphering: "Can you tell what it is yet?"