’) you see that we still end up at the character before. Now change the sequence to ABCDE, rinse and repeat.
No matter the length of the sequence, or where you begin, if you count the length of the sequence you will always end up on the character before you started. I don’t want to sound like a condescending numpty – after all, as you point out, I’ve never passed an IQ test – but it actually seems quite obvious when you consider that if you start at the beginning you reach the end.
But in other news, not sure about LOTE but the letter ‘A’ as an initial is not very common – in fact according to Wiki, it’s 17th most common initial in texts, and 7th if we just look at a dictionary (note: ‘E’ would be 13th and 12th respectively under this criteria) – compared to 3rd most common anywhere withn a text. On that basis it seems to appear on this page WAY too often for an acronym English text.
The same page also talks about letter frequencies in other languages – noting these frequencies don’t take into account the letter position, (so a similar change to ‘E’s prominence from first to thirteenth is possible) Portugese, (Esperanto), Turkish, Polish, icelandic, Finnish and Czech all apparently have ‘A’ as the most common letter. Of those, there is no ‘Q’ in Icelandic or Turkishh alphabets. Poles and Czechs only use it for loanwords, Finns rarely use it other than in foreign proper nouns,
So has anyone got a Portugese translation for the Rubaiyat (or for shits and giggles, an Esperanto one)?
All good, Myname .. everything understood. But now I’ve gone back to the secret message routine, based on what could be distinct signals in the code text. Being that regardless of the number of letters in the line – 9,11 or 13 – the letter A is in a constant position.
What you may not know is that I have a library of well-read espionage literature, truth and fiction, been reading it for over fifty years and throughout have marvelled at the methods used by spies of all nationalities together with the intricate schemes they used to both authenticate and disguise their messages. Some were extremely creative, but they all needed a key otherwise they could not be interpreted.
I’m liking that scenario more than a straight out cognitive test right now.
I suppose you could say that a bit of progress has been made with the Code page, at least we’ve recognised that the letter ‘A’ is the Seventh letter on Four lines. Something that the Australian military never recognised back in 1949!
Not to mention every code-breaker in the game.
I dare not walk outside the front door, Clive, bloody paparazzi are everywhere. My life will never be the same again.
Could ‘AIAQC’ mean: Adelaide is a quiet city? Just a thought
Adelaide in 1948, Clive, as we all know was a city overburdened with spies of all nationalities, suburban homes equipped with radio equipment and used as listening posts, Americans with too much money, refugees with not enough, near-sighted policeman, paranoid politicians, Atom bomb technicians, war deserters, men and women of generally unsavoury habits, SP bookmakers, sly grog shops, baccarat dens and a red under every bed.
Not to mention, a ‘Sister’ living in Glenelg with a married man who had a police record.
maybe Quaint rather than Quiet (or Questionable, Quick, Quirky, Quality etc)……1948 I think Adelaide might have been 3rd largest city in Aus.
Not sure about Adelaide being 3rd largest city in Australia in 1948, I wasn’t around at that time! It has a rather unsavoury reputation, just a feeling, that certain individuals, in high places want to maintain their positions. Perhaps the SM case has remained unsolved, because solving it would open a can of worms in the city of churches.
There was another Persian poem translated by Edward Fitzgerald that would probably have attracted the attention of some of those who read the Rubaiyat.
Salāmān and Absāl by the Persian Sufi poet Jāmī (1441-1492). This poem has a carnal theme so I expect it would have attracted some audience in buttoned down Adelaide of the 1940s. From vague memory Salāmān and Absāl was ofte