Everlasting nonsense
Michael Cole has a great recent post on his site concerning the flood of web traffic again generated by the interest in Corey Starliper’s debunked claim of a solution to the 340-character cipher. Michael’s indictment of shoddy journalism is spot on.
If Corey Starliper walked into your office and announced that he had cured cancer, would you write the story: “Tewksbury Native: I’ve Cured Cancer” without seeking input from a medical professional? If he walked in and claimed to have solved one of math’s currently unsolved problems, would you write the article without doing something to evaluate the validity of his claim? I hope the answer to those questions is “No.” But, for some reason, if he walks in and says he’s solved a cipher that’s remained unsolved for the last 40 years, the Tewksbury Patch has no problem publishing an article without doing anything in terms of evaluating the probability that his solution is actually correct. His solution is garbage, pure and simple. Point me to one person with real cryptographic expertise who endorses Starliper’s solution. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you cannot because I’m fairly certain one does not exist.
Those of us who have definitively shown Corey’s solution to be incorrect are often criticized for being “jealous” of him for solving the code, or for not having a solution that is better than his. What those critics fail to understand is that I would be among the first people to celebrate a real solution to any of the unsolved Zodiac ciphers, no matter who comes up with it! To be rid of another long-standing mystery would be a great relief to us all. In the meantime, there is no reason to sit back and accept unsubstantiated claims without evaluating their merit.
Thanks for this post, Dave.
You’re so right about appreciating actual solutions to any of the Zodiac Killer’s ciphers. You and I and a small number of other people have spent a substantial amount of time and effort analyzing these ciphers. To think that we would deny a real solution based on “jealousy” is just silly.
Right now, I consider it a very real possibility that the 340 will not be solved in my lifetime. While I certainly would like to solve the cipher, I really doubt that’s going to happen. If that was in the cards, I think it would have happened already – and truthfully, if I was capable of solving the cipher I suspect somebody else would have beat me to it.
Still, I’d like to know the solution for a number of reasons, not the least of which is figuring out what I missed. Where did I go wrong? I feel like I’ve considered all reasonably straight-forward approaches. I would love to know what the killer did so I could be in a position to reflect on how reasonable it was.
Of course, the people offering the types of opinions that you describe aren’t thinking about these types of things…
Dear Captain Obvious,
Isn’t it high time you moved on from “keeping us busy” with your frivolous iPhone, Android & typewriter apps and realized your stated mission to “analyze and debunk” 340 solution claims, separating “fact from fiction”?
On several occasions in the past, you have publicly posted links to a list of “Invalid 340 Solutions” that contains zero analyzing FACTS or debunking substantiation. (I have saved all the dates and screenshots even from those sites that aren’t around anymore.)
Contrary to a scientific or even common sense logical approach, in which the examiner would heed conceptual clarification, you have entitled your own list, “Discredited or inconclusive solution attempts,” with fifteen specific entries – and yet, after a year or more, you have addressed only four? Didn’t your teachers tell you to SHOW your work – you know, like when you go and publicly announce your ‘little lists’? Where’s your own “satisfactory evidence to back the claim”? Are readers to believe that these are “discredited or inconclusive” simply for the fact that master Oranchak has not had time to get around to examining them and explain himself? Waiting for the bat-cave’s blue FBI Commissioner phone to flash, are we?
Now who is the hedge betting, “hoodwinking master troll”?
It’s becoming ever more clear that your “years spent obsessing over the Zodiac cipher”—(sound The Mikado orchestra’s gong of heavy irony)—have left you suffering from your own self-perpetuating pareidolia . . . cardboard “Zodiac” signs on hot dog stands . . . Really?
Rather than proven work from any “Cipher Guru,” all we’re seeing here is the arrogant attempt to co-opt the topic of the Zodiac 340 cipher while publicly prettifying one’s own “failure and defeat.”
Tattoo You, Dave.
Hi Robert Peter Ackerman! Sorry to be too slow for you. And I understand why you might be sore about your work being lumped into a list of fruitless solutions. But perhaps you could just ask me directly to analyze your solution in more detail rather than attacking me anonymously.
I assume that this is the solution you want the world to acknowledge: http://zodiackillertruth.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5032922
So Craig Bauer cracked the Zodiac cipher between the printing of his new book Unsolved (Zodiac cipher still unsolved, probably summer 2017) and the making of the HISTORY series?