The latest news, views, research and reviews on uncracked historical ciphers...
Following on from my previous post where I gave (what I think is) an Occitan reading of the marginalia on Voynich Manuscript page f17r [ meilhor aller luce[n]t ben balsamina ], I ve been looking for good sources on Occitan marginalia. My plan for this post is to start searching for all Occitan marginalia and then focus on Read More The post Initial notes on Occitan Marginalia appeared first on…
I was reading about Hallermann–Streiff syndrome this morning, and was a little surprised by the huge gap between Aubry (who first discussed elements of it in 1893, though only partially and in the context of congenital alopecia) and Hallermann (1948) and Streiff (1950) (after both of whom the syndrome was named). And so I went Read More The post 1908 medical reference to Hallermann–Streiff…
Having just posted about Project NEPA (and now reading Alex Wellerstein s fantastic Restricted Data ), something clicked in the back of my head about Nick Redfern s source Black Widow (in his book Body Snatchers in the Desert ). According to Redfern, she claimed that [she] met a lot of the NEPA and ANP people at Oak Ridge... . Read More The post Was Nick Redfern s Black Widow actually Millicent…
I ve been trying for a while to find a reliable insider account of the early days of Project NEPA. Helpfully, I found two accounts of Project NEPA written by Lt. Col. Clyde D. Gasser, the Air Force Engineering Officer for project NEPA in Spring 1947. Incidentally, his 1990 obituary is here, and I also found Read More The post How did Project NEPA actually start? appeared first on Cipher Mysteries…
My search for scientific balloon history 1945-1949 has just taken a sharp turn to one side. I ve managed to locate a folder in the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama that has (or, at least, in 1986 had) information about some super-early scientific balloon stuff that might possibly be what Read More The post Looking for a researcher near Montgomery, AL…
[*] Well, a bit of it, anyway. Over the last weeks, my Cipher Mysteries inbox has been inundated with AI-generated theories. But and with my apologies to the genuine cipher theories that also landed there, which I promise I will get back to I ve instead been focused on the Voynich Manuscript. Or, more Read More The post Finally, I can read the Voynich Manuscript! [*] appeared first on Cipher…
As I noted last year, it s well documented that the round-ended capsule-shaped metal stratospheric gondola designed by Charles Burgess and Tex Settle (referred to as The Flying Coffin ) was approved by Rear Admiral Moffett, who died in April 1933 (on the US Navy airship USS Akron). It s also known that it was constructed in the Read More The post The Roswell capsule: was it Tex Settle s Flying…
For decades, Roswell researchers have tried to gain access to Project Mogul documents. Most famously, UFO skeptic Robert Todd submitted numerous FOIA requests during the 1980s and 1990s to try to access some of them. According to the McAndrew US Air Force report, it was Todd s efforts that ultimately led to the Project Mogul account Read More The post Where are all the Project Mogul documents?…
I keep mentioning Project NEPA here, but it s not exactly well known. So, for a bit of fun I thought I d draw out the lines connecting it with the Fallout game series Vault Boy mascot. As you might guess, this whole story arc hasn t really got a happy ending. From the Manhattan Project to the Read More The post From Project NEPA to Fallout s Vault Boy appeared first on Cipher Mysteries .
As per my last post, I ve been trying to dig up all the Project Mogul reports to get a more detailed (and less curated) look not only at how it worked, but also at how it interworked (e.g. with Project Helios, etc). These appear to be in the unhelpful state where they have been declassified Read More The post The Beginnings of Space Biology appeared first on Cipher Mysteries .