The pictures in the grid all resemble letters (except for the number 34)... The letters in their original configuration are:
34 W O R D M A G I C S Q U A R E
Writing the letters down in their original order gives "34 word magic square", indicating the goal is to rearrange the pictures to form a magic square where each row, column, and diagonal adds up to 34 words. Thanks to an amazing JavaScript DHTML library developed by Walter Zorn, these pictures can be moved around simply by dragging and dropping them.
The "words" in this magic square are the descriptions of each picture, which are given in the "alt" text, echoed in the status bar (on some browsers), and are also available by looking at the HTML source code. The number of words for each description is given in parentheses below:
- 34: Her inconspicuous address plaque. (4)
- W: Ms. Stair was suspected of several crimes, including arson. (9)
- O: Cannibal!? (1)
- R: A rotary hammer from her toolbox. (6)
- D: Every wastepaper basket had been emptied. Perhaps a clean freak? (10)
- M: Jessie Stair was addicted to numerous prescription painkillers, including OxyContin, Vicodin, Methadone, and Percocet. (14)
- A: Concealed weapons. (2)
- G: Despite living within walking distance from Monster Park, Ms. Stair was apparently a passionate Raiders fan. (16)
- I: Her most notorious client was also her boyfriend - 'Home Alone' actor Macaulay Culkin. (13)
- C: Narcotics was a lucrative business. These bills were found under the couch. (12)
- S: This Golden Gate painting was laced with acid. (8)
- Q: This brain diagram was ripped out of a 'Scientific American' issue. (11)
- U: Private conference room. (3)
- A: Hey, she loved to surf. (5)
- R: Before Jessie began trafficking, she studied Egyptology at Berkeley. Hieroglyphics were found in her notebook. (15)
- E: Investigators found dinosaur pens in the parlor. (7)
There are 880 possible arrangements that will result in a total of 34 words in each row, column, and diagonal. Any of these will be accepted. One possible solution is:
16 3 2 13 5 10 11 8 9 6 7 12 4 15 14 1
Which corresponds to the arrangement shown below:
Pressing the Check Solution button with a correct arrangement gives the following message:
Good work, detective!
Some things that you should know:
- Often, narcotics traffickers secretly encode clues to their whereabouts so that drug dealers can find the traffickers and buy narcotics to sell on the street. The encoding methods for these clues vary widely, but - through extensive experience - Cranea operatives have recognized many common patterns:
- Farsi
- ISBN
- Runes
- Semaphore
- The Enigma
- Letter to number correspondence (A=1,...,Z=26)
- Ethics Codes
- Torah Codes
- Telephone Country Codes
- Ethernet Codes
- R Programming Language
- Signal Flags (US Navy, etc)
- Linear B
- ASCII Code
- Cheat Codes (God Mode, No Clipping)
- Base-N where N is not equal to 10
- Zip Code
- Morse Code
- Dewey Decimal
- Hieroglyphics
- UPC Code
- Braille
- Genetic Code
- Unicode
- Wingdings
- Greek
- Quenya, Sindarin, Chakobsa, Newspeak...
- HTML Color Codes
Being familiar with these codes, having reference material on hand, or knowing someone who will look up this information for you, may prove invaluable when you are actually following the trail of a narcotics trafficker.
Of course, narcotics traffickers will certainly not use all of these codes, and might perhaps use codes that even Cranea Mission Control has not seen before... so direct your study as you see fit.
- If you complete at least 50% of the training, Cranea is willing to reimburse your team ($5 * NumberOfCurrentRobleResidentsOnTeam) for your transportation expenses. After you register for the training, if you would like to be reimbursed, send an email to cranea-recruiting@lists.stanford.edu with the name of the team member that will receive the check. You will know that you have completed at least 50% of the training because you will receive the check at that time.
Looking at the first letters of the encoding patterns on the list spells out "FIRST LETTERS", followed by a bunch of gibberish. It's fun to encode an encoding method with itself : )
Ultimately we didn't end up giving out the reimbursement checks at the halfway point (Marin County Civic Center) because we decided not to have a Cranea agent stationed there. If your team still hasn't got their reimbursement check, bug Brian Chang about it.