Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[novice]

Ivo Andric (Budapest – Belgrade) D343 - JEWEL - WEW
Leo Tolstoy (Helsinki – Moscow) 31 - DREAM - ED
Lincoln (Chicago – St Louis) 300-307 - SPIRIT - II
Karel Capek (Nuremberg – Prague) EX353 - RADIANCE - DAD
Copernicus (Amsterdam – Prague) CNL 457 - VOYAGER - AGR
Stendhal (Paris – Milan – Venice) EC220 - DESTINY - EE
Tosca (Vienna – Rome) EN235 - FANTASY - ANA
Hans Albers (Hamburg – Vienna) EN491 - MILLENIUM - LMM
Wolverine (Chicago – Pontiac) 350-355 - CONQUEST - NU-NUU
Salvador Dali (Barcelona – Milan) EN11273 - SOLSTICE - SSOCL
Frederic Chopin (Warsaw – Vienna) D407 - BELORUSSIYA - OS
Don Giovanni (Prague – Vienna – Venice) EN237 - REGATTA - EGA
Kalman (Munich – Budapest) EN463 - VISION - INS

Don't know if this is just random coincidence, but I'm recognizing some words here:
WE W-ED ... - DAD AGR-EE ... N U-S SO CL-OS-E GA-INS

I guess we need to identify the planes now.

[gftt*]

[Scurra]

I think the Stendahl should be 221 not 220, and the Lincoln should be 301 which would makes the clue
WE WED IS DAD AGREED AN ALUMNUS SO CLOSE GAINS
The first part definitely fits the intro text.

Meanwhile, I also note that the next bit starts Isn't Air Travel Amazing, which spells IATA? So I presume we want the airline code rather than the plane models...


p.s. for some time around the turn of the century I had a .sig file which read: The Millennium Bug - an inability to spell the word "millennium" correctly.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[gftt]

36. WC Islena
11. EE Eastern Sky Jets
37.
12. EG Japan Asia Airways
7. DA Air Georgia
18. IR Iran Air
29. SY Sun Country
8. DK Thomas Cook Scandinavia
1. AE Mandarin Airlines
9. DL Delta
2. YX Midwest Airlines???!!!
16. GY Gabon Airlines
28. RD Avianova (Italian)
13. EI Aer Lingus
14. ER Astar Air Cargo
10. DE Condor
3. AC Air Canada
23. NT Binter Canarias
4. AS Alaska Airlines
20. LT LTU
34. UH US Helicopter
22. MI SilkAir
24. NS Hebei Airlines
35. UF UM Air
30. SI Blue Islands
31. SR Swissair
26. OM Mongolian Airlines
6. CI China Airlines
21. LA LAN
27. OT Aeropelican
32. SA South African Airways
15. EC Avialeasing/SRX
17. GO ULS Airlines Cargo
5. AD Azul Brazilian
19. IE Solomon Airlines
25. NW Northwest
33. SN Brussels Airlines


OK, call in SOUTHWEST AIRLINES?

[Scurra]

(With my puzzle setters hat on) Wow, just wow. That's a really impressive feat of construction.

Back to the meta, and...

1. DRUNK TANK
2. BATED BREATH
3, BUSINESS TRAVELERS
4. LOVE ETC
5. START OVER
6.
7. CAR SEAT
8. CASH COW
9. MARS ROVER
10. FORGET PARIS
11. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

OK, so they are all "phrases" of two words where one word is one letter longer than the other. I did wonder if you could remove a letter from the longer word to leave another valid word, but that doesn't work with a few of them. And anagramming doesn't seem to go anywhere much either.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[L'lanmal]

My favorite picture from Zugzwaang: I call it "First stage test-solving"



Shortly thereafter: "No, 'resign' is incorrect"

[LordKinbote]

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES is correct.

The puzzle you're missing involved a QR code hunt around MIT campus. Its answer was VELVET ELVIS.

You have all the answers for that round now.

Which means...yay! New critic round! But...boo. I just realized you can't solve this critic meta because it requires an actual physical object handed to teams. Oh well. We'll solve the puzzles and then you can read the solution on how it worked. (Incentive to be at the MIT Mystery Hunt in person, I guess)

Meet Ben Bitdiddle.
Investigator's Report

Next puzzle: Bad Poetry by Alex Calhoun and Ashley Destra Freeman

[Suspence]

It appears the blanks can be filled with words that look like they should rhyme, but don't...

They take deep breaths to renew life’s ___
And fight with explosives, blades and fire.
But many die: this enemy can clearly think.
It transforms and kills with apparent ___
Until only two remain in a nervous ceasefire.
Exhausted, they simply wait and drink.
(This poem is the plot to The Thing)


And it will mutate before the tale is OVER.
Heed this warning and take COVER.


A wager then, to see who can swindle a mark with the better plan.
Perhaps as a cripple or a doctor, roles played with great ___.
But if they are unaware of a third rival, the Jackal will strike,
Catch them pants down, and bury their pride in a seaside ___.
(This poem is the plot to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)


Now we’ve resumed our journey.
The photog looks smart in his tie and ___.
Yet another passenger needs a gurney.
It would be better to have a ___,
(This poem is the plot to The Lady Vanishes)


Because when push comes to SHOVE
I would rather not be a government gun.
I’d rather have a treasure TROVE
Even if it meant living on the run.


And a lot of hard life lessons I’ve been TAUGHT.
I order a Sam Adams on DRAUGHT.


Knowing that while there will be no more goose liver ___,
But rather manna to sustain us, these two things do not ___.
(This poem is the plot to The Ten Commandments)


Skip past their house in the Far ___
Lest you find bodies lain ___.


Still, I acquiesce without missing a BEAT,
This labor may drown me in my own SWEAT.


Our numbers daily dwindle.
We do not have enough men.
The few left are green as a pitted OLIVE.
The 59th flies to challenge that fearful symbol
The Red Baron; I do not want deaths on my head again.
I fear none may come back ALIVE.


The police find new clues to forensically EXAMINE
And thereby deduce his daily ROUTINE,


I’m not a clever man, I kept putting my foot in my MOUTH.
But with awful manners, this weird family was quite COUTH.


We’ve wandered the American Southwest
For what seems like a YEAR.
With nary a moment of rest,
The heat of the sun is too much to BEAR.


The demo man creates a strong gust of WIND,
And the surveillance man will deliver you a pinch.
A contortionist to get out of a BIND,
Who is careful not to miss by an inch.
(This poem is the plot to Ocean's Eleven)


Now we share a victor’s ___,
And made this family again our ___.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

I tried writing the answers in ziggurat form. Not very helpful, but I may as well post the results.

[gftt*]

[gftt*]

By the way these movies all seem to be remakes. The Parent Trap is the Lohan version, Point of No Return is more likely (the "escape through a chute" thing is in its wiki description) than La Femme Nikita...

[Suspence]

Yep...The Lady Vanishes described is the later (1979) non-Hitchcock version.

And Wikipedia says this about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - "although it is not officially credited as a remake of Bedtime Story, it closely follows the plot of the 1964 film starring David Niven and Marlon Brando."
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt]

With 15 poems and 30 blanks down below, separated into two lines of 15, each poem will contribute one blank to each half. I'm guessing the first word in each poem goes in the first half, sorted by date of the original film, and the second word goes in the second half, sorted by date of the remake.

1. 1951/1982: ?/? (The Thing)
2. ?/? : over/cover
3. 1964/1988: ?/? (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
4. 1938/1979: suit?/Jesuit? (the Lady Vanishes)
5. 1990/1993: shove/trove (Point of No Return)
6. ?/?: taught/draught (is this The Departed??? doesn't feel right)
7. 1923/1956: pate/elate? (The Ten Commandments)
8. 2003/2004: (East/ abreast? (The Grudge, I think)
9. 1944/1958: beat/sweat (Rock a Bye Baby)
10. 1930/1938: olive/alive (The Dawn Patrol)
11. 1931/1951: examine/routine (M)
12. 1932/1963: mouth/uncouth (The Old Dark House)
13. ?/?: year/bear
14. 1960/2001: wind/bind (Ocean's 11)
15. 1961/1998: crown/own (The Parent Trap)

[Suspence]

Looks like #9 is Rock-A-Bye Baby - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-A-Bye_Baby_(film)

This is a loose remake of the 1944 film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_Morgan%27s_Creek
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

Looks like you already figured that out, just before I did
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt]

Line one (5/2/3/5):
23 P
30 O
31 E
32 M
38 S
44 B
51 ?
60 W
61 C
64 ?
90 S
03 E

O, T, Y still unplaced. If The Departed is correct, T goes right before the last E.

Second line (3/7/2/3)
38 A
51 R
56 E?
58 S
63 U
79 J?
82 ?
88 ?
93 T
98 O
01 B
04 A

B,C,D still unplaced; if The Departed is correct, D is at the end.

Perhaps...
POEMS BY LOW CASTE
ARE SUBJECT TO BAD

call in WASTE

[novice]

This puzzle is pretty funny to me, who's better at written than spoken english. Who knew CASTE doesn't rhyme with WASTE?

[Suspence]

Wouldn't TASTE be more likely?
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

Totaling the numbers, there are 987 letters, plus 90 spaces, for a total of 1077 characters. If you look at them as letter frequencies, there are some letters that are close to natural, but a few that are way off.

The string on the data page is 1398 characters, all 0s, 1s and 2s.

Counts:
0 - 459
1 - 458
2 - 481
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

My first thought was that the 27 possible triples of numbers might correspond to the 27 possible characters. But the counts aren't right.

Base 3 + Blowing down the house = 3 little pigs?

[Suspence]

Triplet frequency, just in case:


000 - 15
001 - 17
002 - 4
010 - 24
011 - 15
012 - 19
020 - 25
021 - 19
022 - 19
100 - 14
101 - 20
102 - 22
110 - 18
111 - 19
112 - 13
120 - 19
121 - 11
122 - 22
200 - 12
201 - 17
202 - 20
210 - 12
211 - 15
212 - 13
220 - 22
221 - 19
222 - 21
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

What if the 27 triplets correspond to the 27 characters but overlaps are possible?

eg
T = 202
H = 211
I = 111
S = 010
but THIS is encrypted as 202111010.

Not that I would know how to begin decrypting such a thing...

[Suspence]

Assuming each digit is the start of a possible triplet, here is the count:

000 - 37
001 - 52
002 - 27
010 - 70
011 - 51
012 - 63
020 - 60
021 - 54
022 - 45
100 - 40
101 - 63
102 - 73
110 - 63
111 - 42
112 - 33
120 - 52
121 - 30
122 - 61
200 - 39
201 - 69
202 - 58
210 - 43
211 - 45
212 - 47
220 - 54
221 - 52
222 - 73

So there is still no triplet that appears 90 or 87 times as the "frequencies" page suggests.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

I also used the "frequencies" as in index to the data (I noted that no "frequency" number is the same, which seems non-random) by taking the 3 digits from that position. I was hoping that each "frequency" might yield a different triplet, but no such luck:


[space] - 90 - 200
A - 23 - 201
B - 43 - 020
C - 65 - 012
D - 36 - 021
E - 71 - 010
F - 41 - 010
G - 31 - 221
H - 44 - 201
I - 32 - 211
J - 14 - 221
K - 18 - 100
L - 61 - 020
M - 55 - 022
N - 64 - 101
O - 66 - 122
P - 38 - 112
Q - 1 - 020
R - 87 - 012
S - 56 - 222
T - 48 - 220
U - 37 - 211
V - 13 - 222
W - 21 - 102
X - 2 - 200
Y - 15 - 211
Z - 5 - 002
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

I thought that maybe each "frequency" should be translated into ternary, but then I saw that [space] ends up as 10100 and only appears once in the data string.

[gftt*]

The number associated to [space] is the only one that uses the digit 9 or 0.

I have no idea what that might mean, but I thought I'd point it out.

[gftt*]

Anyone else with ideas, or should we move on?

[Scurra]

Well, I was watching a repeat of Mythbusters tonight when they used the phrase "he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down" (and you mentioned the 3 little pigs last week.)
And that jogged a faint memory, so I did some searching and came up with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffman_coding

...which is all based upon knowing the frequency of letters, which is the one thing we are specifically given.

However the methodology of this is new to me so I haven't done very much with it yet - I was holding off posting until I'd worked the "tree" out, although I'm not going to manage that tonight...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[LordKinbote]

Edit: Never mind.

[gftt*]

Sounds promising.

I worked on the tree a bit. If you construct it in the standard way, keeping all the nodes in order, things get messed up - you have N, C, and O being three leaves at level 3 all with the same stem - e.g., 220, 221, 222, or 100, 101, 102 - but the counts on the length three strings that Suspence made don't allow for any such possibility.

So maybe the tree has gotten rearranged a bit, still maintaining the minimizing properties. That is, N, C and O are still level 3 leaves, but they might have been swapped onto different branches.

Here's a list of nodes:

Length 5: Q, X, Z [must all start with same length 4 stem]
Length 4: V, J, Y, K, W and the stem for QXZ
Length 3: A, G, I, D, U, P, F, B, H, T, M, S, L, N, C, O, and two stems for the six length 4 nodes
Length 2: space, E, R, and 6 stems for the 18 length 3 nodes

[gftt*]

The other problem is that the text is too short (1398 base 3 digits) to actually contain all 1077 characters encrypted Huffman style (all need at least 2 digits, most of them 3).

[Scurra]

Can't three of them get away with a single digit?
I may, of course, have completely misunderstood something crucial...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

Here's the tree I get and the digits in binary. I used & for [space]

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

That's very cool. But wouldn't it make more sense to construct a ternary huffman tree so that each character gets a ternary representation directly?

[Suspence]

Yep, but there's no app for that

I'm still not sure that I understand this fully. I was thinking that the tree would remain the same, but I guess not.

As I think about it, it seems like each branch would have 3 outcomes (0 left, 1 middle, 2 right ?) rather than than just two (0 left, 1 right), which would completely change the tree.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

How's this:


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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

[novice]

When the tree is correct we should be able to read the ternary data directly. Maybe the frequencies are from a larger text and are just designed to help you construct the correct tree.