[Voran]

Something I just noticed again today when looking through my pdfs on the corebook.  It had been ages since I've read the fluff in the first 50 pages or so, usually jumping to making a char.  But today I'm browsing through, and then I come across page 21 (might vary in other reprints), which has a picture of what seems to be harlequin in the top, next to a bunch of scribbly text, about 5 lines worth.

Just wondering if anyone ever translated it, or was it just random scribbly means-nothing text?

[Hephaestus]

Took a bit of trial and error (since some of the symbols are used as double-letters), but here is what I got:

"In the councils of government, we must guard
 against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
 whether sought or unsought, by the military-indus-
 trial complex. The potential for the disastrous
 rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

It's part of President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address. The rest of that section of his speech is:

"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

[Tecumseh]

That's some good work, Hephaestus.

Is it just in a special font that I don't recognize? If so, which font?

[Hephaestus]

@Tecumseh

I'm not sure of the font. I just used some standard practices for cracking English-based ciphers. Look for small words that have limited possibilities, like in/on/the/at/go/to/for as a starting point. Also look for things that might be the letter "E", as it is one of the most commonly used letters in English words.

The one thing that tripped me up was that certain symbols counted for two letters (U and W, M and R IIRC).

[Tecumseh]

Well aren't you just straight out of Cryptonomicon!

Either way, good work.

[Voran]

Took a bit of trial and error (since some of the symbols are used as double-letters), but here is what I got:

"In the councils of government, we must guard
 against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
 whether sought or unsought, by the military-indus-
 trial complex. The potential for the disastrous
 rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

It's part of President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address. The rest of that section of his speech is:

"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

NICE Thanks