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First, there is this text appended to the end of image:
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TIBERIVS CLAVDIVS CAESAR says "lxxt>33m2mqkyv2gsq3q=w]O2ntk"
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Decrypt this with a Caesar cipher, and you get:
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http://i.imgur.com/m9sYK.jpg
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This image of a decoy contains the words "out" and "guess", a reference to the steganography software OutGuess:
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http://www.outguess.org/
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Decrypting the message with Outguess gives you this text:
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http://pastebin.com/aXYZzzcv
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There is a book code and a link to a Reddit page:
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http://www.reddit.com/r/a2e7j6ic78h0j/
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Of note are two images ("Welcome" and "Problems?") on the Reddit page which also contain Outguess messages:
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http://pastebin.com/sJiGQEPM
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http://pastebin.com/2xkvnPER
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The text from the Reddit page is here:
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http://pastebin.com/RcjRf6sv
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but more text continues to be added.
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Note that there is supposed to be a double space between one sentence and the next.
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The title of the Reddit page:
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a2e7j6ic78h0j7eiejd0120
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and the Mayan numbers on top (although the Mayan numerals only give the first 13 characters) are two representations of the following sequence of numbers:
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10, 2, 14, 7, 19, 6, 18, 12, 7, 8, 17, 0, 19, 7, 14, 18, 14, 19, 13, 0, 1, 2, 0
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Subtract these numbers from the text as follows:
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U - 10 = K
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k - 2 = i
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b - 14 = n
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n - 7 = g
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A full decoding is available at:
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http://pastebin.com/iiiAWyNQ
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In the book code, 1:20 means to take the 20th character from the 1st line.  There are only 69 out of 76 lines posted so far, but what we have right now is (? = character not available yet):
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Call us at us tele phone numBer two one four three nine oh nine six o???????
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The full telephone number is (214) 390-9608.  If you call this number you will hear the following from a computer-generated voice:
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"Very good.  You have done well.  There are three prime numbers associated with the original final.jpg image.  3301 is one of them.  You will have to find the other two.  Multiply all three of these numbers together and add a .com to find the next step.  Good luck.  Goodbye."
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The two other numbers are 509 and 503, the width and height of the image.  Multiplying them together gives you the number:
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In addition, you can obtain this number if you look up the PGP key from the "Welcome" message:
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http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x7A35090F&op=index
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where the User ID is listed as:
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Cicada 3301 (845145127)
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So we are led to the website:
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http://845145127.com/
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which displays a cicada and a countdown.  The cicada image also contains an OutGuess message, signed by the same key:
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http://pastebin.com/L0i40NA0
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So we are being asked to wait until:
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17:00 on Monday, 9 January 2012 UTC
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when the next clue will be posted.
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when the next clue will be posted.
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Mon. Jan. 9:
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The countdown is up and is replaced by a list of coordinates:
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Find our symbol at the location nearest you:
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52.216802,	21.018334
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48.85057059876962,	 2.406892329454422
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48.85030144151387,	 2.407538741827011
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47.664196,	 -122.313301
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47.637520,	 -122.346277
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47.622993,	 -122.312576
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37.577070,	 126.813122
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37.5196666666667,	 126.995
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36.0665472222222,	 -94.1726416666667
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33.966808,	 -117.650488
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29.909098706850486	 -89.99312818050384
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25.684702,	 -80.441289
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21.584069,	 -158.104211
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-33.90281,	 151.18421
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Copy/paste the pairs in Google maps. Is anyone close to any of these locations? Looks like you're hunting for the image of a cicada.