Trying to find your way around this place? Like most expositions, we offer a map: 
Here presented is the final clue in our little experiment. It being the start of a story, a novel to be precise. In fact, we're getting tingles just thinking how lovely it all comes together, and the challenge, of course, is to see whether you can break our mystery. We will present the answer soon enough - maybe next week, the week after that, or maybe because it's always one of those two weeks, we'll deliberately wait until the third.
If you have the answer, or any answer (and we've seen brilliance in those before [1,2]), please say so below in the comments. Or better yet, post something. We'll link to it, actually, we'll link to all of them. Also, if you like that sort of thing, answers will guide this novel which, to be sure, will be followed up - until we are all bored of it anyway.
By the way, the fastest, best, most complete (that is, correct) answer will prompt an interview between Ben, myself and the answeree (if there is such a word) on any scientific topic the winner chooses. Which, if it is good (really good), we'll put up at the Science Creative Quarterly.
Anyway, enough banter, here is the final clue:
Previously:
The fourth clue was a video (Quicktime required).
The first three were pictures (which can be made bigger if you click on the sidebar renditions).
(if you do compose a post, then please forward the URL to tscq@interchange.ubc.ca, subject heading: puzzle).
Comments
Whoa... I could say I know the answer, but then I could be lying. Or maybe not. Anyway, need to digest this a bit more. It is, however, an excellent start to a novel. I'm already interested.
Posted by: jenjen | July 17, 2006 2:13 PM
Wait...is that the start of an actual novel? Or a novel you have written the start of for the purposes of this Puzzle Fantastica? Or is figuring out the answer to that sort of like the whole point?
Posted by: Katherine Sharpe | July 17, 2006 3:00 PM
I posted a possible solution at my blog.
www.scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle
Posted by: Shelley Batts | July 17, 2006 3:51 PM
I think it would be fun to have a go at using the conjecture presented to help guide a novel proper. Our intent, anyway, is to do many more of these puzzles, and having a unifying theme (whether it be a novel or other things) sounds like a great idea as well as a good excuse to hone those writing chops.
Posted by: David Ng | July 17, 2006 5:24 PM
42
Elvis died at 42
The Fish is plate 42 of Haekel's book
The Cow image is from 1942 movie
In 1842, England switched from innoculation to vaccination for small pox
The bird thing is all im missing. The score on the dart board maybe?
Posted by: Jokermage | July 18, 2006 11:36 AM
DOH!!1!
Thats it 42.
Colin and Elvis also make an appearence in the Hitchhickers novels.
Someone count those birds are there 42 of em?
Posted by: Ryan S. | July 18, 2006 2:01 PM
DOH!!1!
Thats it 42.
Colin and Elvis also make an appearence in the Hitchhikers novels.
Someone count those birds are there 42 of em?
Posted by: Ryan S. | July 18, 2006 2:02 PM
Correction:
The SR-71 Blackbird was developed at Airforce Plant 42
Posted by: Jokermage | July 18, 2006 2:04 PM
Ah yes, the homage to the Hichhiker's Guide would have been nice, but alas, it is not the answer we were looking for.
Posted by: David Ng | July 18, 2006 2:15 PM
Drat, sry for the double post the internet has been erratic today. Got a 404 error thought it was gone.
SO thats not 'It', eh.
Mind sharing, cause I'm more confused than ever. Then again I'm frequently confused.What I 'got' from this last clue was a reference to some sort of parasite. Obviously you can't have the viral pox for 13 years... can you? So prolly bed bugs (Cimex lectularus). Can anyone else think of a something other kind.
Posted by: Ryan S. | July 18, 2006 2:32 PM
Ok a recap in a different perspective... maybe.
A rare cowfish Tetrosomus gibbosus
An human Homo sapiens sapiens
A domesticated cow Bos taurus
A fock of Blackbirds Terdus merula
Bed bugs? Cimex lectularus
Wow, kinda hoping something would jump out at me when I did that... I DEMAND ORDER FROM THE CHAOS!!... oh I'm ok just a little slip... *sob* why doesn't make any sense *sob*
Posted by: Ryan S. | July 18, 2006 3:12 PM
Possibilities:
1) 42 is right, but my pox reference is wrong, therefore not the correct answer.
2) Pox is totally wrong and we should focus on either Colin or the Bed for the reference.
3) You are doing this whole thing just to demonstrate confirmation bias.
Posted by: Jokermage | July 18, 2006 3:14 PM
Other possibility: Multiples of 7?
I'm starting to lean more towards the confirmation bias answer.
Posted by: Jokermage | July 18, 2006 3:19 PM
FYI
The bird movie? 21 seconds long.
"maybe next week, the week after that, or maybe because it's always one of those two weeks, we'll deliberately wait until the third." = 21 days
Seattle World's Fair: Century 21 Expo
Yeah, that's all I got for that line of thought.
Posted by: Jokermage | July 18, 2006 3:24 PM
Isn't it a cowfish?
And was that the world's fair where they had the cow with window into its stomach?
Posted by: Moo | July 18, 2006 4:23 PM
How would you even be able to check into that? You know, maybe we should be thinking more metaphorically. Like Dan Brown, since Dave did do a review of Da Vinci Code earlier. Most of those puzzles were wordplay and symbols. Maybe the solution is scientific but not necessary the logic behind it?
Posted by: sam.p | July 18, 2006 4:45 PM
I gotta say though that the 1962 answer was cool.
Posted by: sam.p | July 18, 2006 5:11 PM
ok here's another stab in the dark.
Posted by: Ryan S. | July 18, 2006 5:59 PM
Art immitating life
fish,mamals,birds,bugs,humans in paintings,movies,video,book....
Posted by: Chris | July 18, 2006 10:22 PM
Hey Ryan. Fish is Fish is a great book. Though kind of distressing for the child when read to (basically the fish almost dies), but cool nevertheless. Unfortunately, it's also not the answer.
Posted by: David Ng | July 19, 2006 11:25 PM
Some sort of sickness (ala avian flu or mad cow) that originats in people who eat some beef (that came from a cow that ate a poison fish) at the world's fair.
Posted by: bobby d | July 26, 2006 5:11 PM
Could the answer be 'Kung Pao Fish?'
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 5:12 PM
um, poissoning pigeons in the pox?
I've got nothing...
Posted by: ThePolynomial | July 26, 2006 5:17 PM
Well, the best and most obvious answer I could come up with is:
fish is to poison
cow is to disease
elvis is to fever
bird is to flu
colin is to pox
However, MY guess is that in the fashion of http://www.eon8.com/ the experiment is to take random things of vast meanings and have no mystery whatsoever to solve. The mystery is how the human mind can find links between everything.
Posted by: Aaron Rhodes | July 26, 2006 5:23 PM
Vaccine.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 5:50 PM
Sorry, still thinking. Here's another shot: flu shot
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 5:56 PM
The common thread must be something around eating. Probably eating enormous amounts. Think about it.
Clues going backwards:
5. I think, as said previously, that it must be bed bugs not pox. The "pox" are bites from the bedbugs eating him
4. Swarm of birds eating whatever it can find
3. "Cow is food machine" don't need to say more
2. Elvis is famous for eating extradinary amounts of food
1. The fish is a piranha
So maybe the common link is eating or maybe it's food
Posted by: Kerry | July 26, 2006 5:59 PM
I'd also guess vaccination. Mad cow, avian flu, world pandemic, fish virus in great lakes, and a giant space needle for vaccinating the world. But mad cow isn't a virus right? I'll tell you what virus I'd like to get....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Virus
Posted by: Davin | July 26, 2006 6:39 PM
Vozrozhdeniye Island. I say this because of the Space Needle on the Elvis movie cover, Anthrax for the cow, Colin Powell from the novel intro, and the fish that lives in the seabed grasses. Colin Powell gave a presentation on Vozrozhdeniye Island warning of anthrax contamination. Chemical and biological munitions are suspected of having been dumped on the seabed there.
Am I close?
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 6:45 PM
Just guessing, but is this something to do with the discovery of the small pox vaccine, derived from innoculation with cow pox?
According to the IMDB, the tagline for the Elvis Worlds Fair film was "Swinging higher than the space needle with the gals and the songs at the famous Worlds Fair". Is the word needle significant?
Posted by: David Worth | July 26, 2006 6:52 PM
I wonder if "It happened at World's Fair" being cross-reference to the blog has more significance than Elvis himself...
Posted by: alex | July 26, 2006 6:52 PM
Like the idea behind the experiment, so I've got to participate even if I look stupid....so here's a snowball:
I stopped looking at the content and trying to link it all up, there were just too many possibilities for me.
I looked at the packaging.
Lithograph of fish
Film still of cow
DVD of Elvis
Video clip of birds in garden
Photo image of written and printed text
Is the theme to do with the "technologies" by which the content is graphically represented? From drawing and litho to analog film to digital film to mini QT clip to electronic image of text? The sequencing may be wrong, but I remain tempted to avoid looking at what's in the package and concentrate on the packaging. Form not content.
Posted by: jp | July 26, 2006 6:56 PM
instead of many individuals offering guesses to what might be called the "full solution", wouldn't we do better to work collaboratively at tiny elements of the puzzle, establishing smaller kinds of hypotheses and testing them collectively?
in that spirit, then, here are some things i notice that might be explored further by other minds:
i suspect the sequence of the clues is, indeed, relevant. some evidence to support that claim: at http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2006/07/puzzle_fantastica_1_update_b_w.php benjamin cohen writes the following: "Some commenters have gone for an analysis of numbers. Others are seeking common patterns. Few are treating the clues as accruing, while many are picking out minor features of each clue, interpreting the 'real' clue to be a visual subset of the main clue. Some consider the clues in aggregate; others hold them separate." it's notable that in that catalog of observations, he really only identifies one thing commenters *aren't* doing--namely, treating the clues as cumulative. as a teacher, i hear teacherly instincts behind that noticing-of-the-absent. when we want our students to discover on their own and we see them failing to achieve the kind of understanding we're looking for, we tend to observe what's almost said, or almost suggested, or what only one or two students have done. it's a strategy of allowing for experiential learning without leaving students hanging. i suspect that mr. cohen might not have intended this observation to be itself a "clue," but that his teacherly practice insinuated itself here. also, the delivery of the first trio of images was very consciously named "fish-cow-elvis"--a choice that certainly emphasizes the *sequence* of the images. similarly, in the sidebar we now have the language "a fish, a cow, something to do with Elvis, a video, and the start of a novel"--again a sequence, admittedly a natural arrangement from the order the clues were originally presented in, but i still sense a *choice* being made there. finally, mr. cohen's post on boingboing (where i heard about this whole project today) uses the language "so-called final clue"--the "so-called" seems a bit unnecessary, no? why would it be there if not to further emphasize the *accrual* of clues (consciously or otherwise)?
rather obviously, i am neither a puzzler nor a scientist.
Posted by: heather | July 26, 2006 7:00 PM
Let me clarify my Vozrozhdeniye Island answer a bit: I think the answer involves the cleanup of the island and seabed agreed to by the U.S. and Uzbekistan. I know that Colin Powell was concerned about terrorists getting hold of the material left there and considered it an urgent matter to clean it up. This sort of ties in with the new clean bed in the little novel introduction. By the way, the Space Needle on the Elvis cover was a potential terrorist target in 2001.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 7:02 PM
Well, these clues lead me to The Coronavirus, of which Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is the most well-known.
How did I get there? Well it happened at the World's Fair after all. My favorite of those, although I was born much too late to attend, was the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Think of it -- the television, the zipper, urban planning, all of the optimism the future was going to hold, only to have it fade away as each of the countries left the fair to begin World War II.
Well, if you follow the map at the 1939 World's Fair from the Japan exhibit (G13) (a Japanese fish, no?) to the National Dairy Products exhibit (F12) (a cow gives milk) to the Aviation exhibit (T1) (birds do fly, especially in the motion offered by a video), it leads you right to the Corona Gate at the front of the World's Fair. Since Colin in the novel does have an animal virus, that Corona could relate to another animal virus. Hence the "corona"virus that yes can cause illness in the "colon."
Well, that's as close as someone who studied social sciences can get. Thanks for the puzzle guys!
Posted by: Joe in LA | July 26, 2006 7:02 PM
Wow. I pipe in to acknowledge the many great moves toward solving this, but to note also that the solution has not yet been found.
However, for fear that any single word I put in this post could be construed as an additional clue -- I promise it is not the case -- I won't write more here.
Posted by: Benjamin Cohen | July 26, 2006 7:48 PM
Here we go: I think the guys at the World’s Fair blog (David and Ben) want to have a barbeque. Here’s my reasoning. The first three clues, a fish, a cow and Elvis Presley’s “It Happened at the World Fair.” Then, a home movie of birds in a backyard. Lastly, a beginning of a novel about someone who had the pox. Even though it was most likely an infestation of bedbugs, this makes me think of chicken pox. So, add all this up, there will be a barbeque happening in of one of the writers’ backyards, with fish, beef, and chicken to eat.
Posted by: Mat Leonard | July 26, 2006 7:52 PM
Maybe it's a meta-puzzle and the solution is the mystery. Like women.
Posted by: Seeth | July 26, 2006 8:01 PM
Hypothesis: Each clue depicts an odd number of organisms:
Fish: 1
Cow: 1
Elvis: 7 (people on the cover)
Birds: 43 (including ones that fly into frame)
Novel: 3 (The narrator, the reader and Colin).
Could be disproved if my bird tally is off...
Posted by: Dave | July 26, 2006 8:05 PM
best i can do is: the ivory-billed woodpecker
it's apparently not "dead" (like colin in the novel, and like elvis, who may have used tetrodotoxin from the cowfish to enter a coma), and its presumed non-extinction is being "milked" by certain organizations for increased funding (perhaps like the owners of elvis' creative properties).
Posted by: bzdyelnik | July 26, 2006 8:13 PM
Ok so the numbers thing may be wrong. I too have been wondering about the cow connection. The Fish is a cowfish, the cow is, well, a cow, and Elvis sang "Milk-cow Blues Boogie". The birds could well be Cow birds, and the pox in the novel could be cowpox. I'm having a cow over this problem. :)
Posted by: Dave | July 26, 2006 8:25 PM
All I could get out of the clues was all animals on earth, with each animal represented by an image, fish-anything in the water, cows-animals on land, man-who can pretty much go anywhere, and then birds-who can go into the sky.. At first I thought it was just vertebrates, but then the novel beginning kind of threw me. Perhaps the bedbugs represent the invertebrates? Something about evolution and extinction, maybe? Or perhaps the different technologies in representing the clues is the answer? Technology leading to extinction?
Posted by: Ecila | July 26, 2006 8:27 PM
a WWII guy named colin involved with a turret plane/bomber
1 "turret"fish
2 "plane" in movie
3 cow pic from "WWII"
4 no idea my computer sucks too much to get quicktime, people mentioned birds so.... birds => birdshit => death from above => "bombs"
5 "colin"
Posted by: Adam | July 26, 2006 8:44 PM
Representation.
I could be dead wrong here -- I probably am, actually.
But even as there have been a variety of fascinating theories regarding the *content* of the various clues, what has struck me most is the breath of the approaches to representation that depict those contents, and the variety of adaptation present.
The first clue is a series of 3 images.
The first image is a JPEG adaptation of an illustration (I'm not sure what kind -- a lithograph). It appears to be a representation of a type of fish that doesn't actually exist (are there really fish with teeth?), though I could be mistaken.
The second image is a JPEG adaptation of what appears to be a mid-20th century composite photograph adapted to a poster with a text overlay. It is a representation of a cow containing a machine, with text portraying the cow as a "food factory."
The third image is a JPEG adaptation of a DVD cover and DVD (partially depicted), which is itself an adaptation of an Elvis film from (I believe) the 1960s. There are a variety off representations present.
The second clue (fourth item overall) is a QuickTime adaptation of a recorded film or video featuring birds, among other things.
The third and final clue (fifth item overall) is a GIF adaptation of text purporting to be the start of a novel. The text depicts the beginning of a story featuring a child (Colin), the pox, and "the Bed."
One candidate solution is the evolution of representational media: illustration, photograph, film, video... novel. The problem is that the novel would either be ordered first or second, depending on how you ordered it with respect to the illustration.
Another candidate inpterpretation would be simulacra: copies for which there is no original. The fish is an illustration of a non-existent type, the composite cow photo is fantastic and impossible, the film is fictional and depicts no real events or people. The problem is that the video seems to be a representation of things that exist.
Which leaves me with representation: a variety of representational media are used, and all are concrete representations -- as opposed to, for example, abstract paintings, or instrumental music, which do not function as representations of anything. This is the only solution I can devise to the puzzle that utilizes all of the clues -- though admittedly, it does so while discarding much of the *content* of those clues.
Posted by: Andrew Norris | July 26, 2006 9:42 PM
It's possible that my Vozrozhdeniye Island answers need expanding to include the drying of the Aral Sea around the island as possible evidence of global warming. That drying will eventually expose the seabed. The video seems to include a blow-up fish or pool in the yard that is deflated. A boat is sitting on the ground. Also, cows contribute to global warming via their methane emissions. The Seattle Space Needle could represent the gathering of scientists in Seattle to discuss global warming. At any rate, I think there's a connection between Space Needle, cows/methane/anthrax, the cowfish that lives in the seabed which includes seagrass and coral which are threatened by global warming, and the Colin Powell nervousness about the Aral Sea drying and exposing the old biological munitions underneath it. Perhaps the answer is global warming.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 26, 2006 9:48 PM
Toilet.
Posted by: jzb | July 26, 2006 10:09 PM
Fish
Fair
Factory
Flock
Foreword
Just a thought.
Posted by: Tim | July 26, 2006 10:10 PM
OK, OK, well then if it is not SARS, then the second attempt would be that it is -- BREAKFAST.
Take (Fish) OIL, (Cow) MILK, (Bird) EGGS, and then you (Elvis) GYRATE to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. Oh, the last clue? Well, what better excuse then breakfast to GET OUT OF BED?
Posted by: Joe in LA | July 26, 2006 10:40 PM
The answer is this: Pesticides
1. Tetrosomus gibbosus is a poisonous fish that can make humans ill.
2. "It Happened at the World's Fair" is a movie involving a cropduster (and a chubby Elvis Presley and lots of cheez).
3. Cows produce meat and milk for us using the energy they get from feed (hay, corn, etc) grown with pesticides.
4. Birds and other animals feed on small insects that have eaten vegetation treated with pesticides; the chemicals are passed along the food chain, from the creatures that eat the plants, to the animals that eat these creatures, and so on.
5. People get "sick", experiencing various adverse effects of the pesticides that make their way through the food chain to us. This is not a story about the sick people, though. It's a story about pesticides (like the bed in the final clue, this is the reason for the sickness).
Posted by: gavin | July 26, 2006 11:46 PM
I'm going with cow.
Cowfish, cow, Elvis the cow, cowbirds, cowpox.
If that's NOT it, c'est la vie ... if I go any longer I'll get a pox on. Which is bigger than a bos on.
Posted by: TJ | July 27, 2006 12:40 AM
Cowfish
Cowmilk
Cowlick
Cowbird
Cowpox
Posted by: Persaram Batra | July 27, 2006 12:42 AM
From the first three clues, I gathered the theme was Selective Breeding/Agriculture
The Fish: Haeckel�s biogenic theory for formation of race was adopted by the Nazi party in their disturbed attempt to furnish conditions for a superior master race. He spent much of his life immersed in evolutionary theory and saw connections between natural selection and artificial selection (selective breeding).
The Cow: This poster was used to indicate the potential of future agricultural promise � improved milk production � make the cow a machine.
The Movie: Elvis flew a crop duster (a way to select which plants will survive) and the backdrop was the World�s Fair (often a showcase of agricultural innovations).
The quicktime video eludes me . . . blackbirds are often a bane to a farmer�s existence for crop plants � but, that seems a stretch.
The Pox seems not to be smallpox as mentioned above, but rather Syphilis. Syphilis has a rather interesting history and was not always genital specific. It has evolved over the years to find its niche. (I played with the idea of syphilis being the theme � pulled in the cow and movie on that one too but lost the thread).
Perhaps the theme is then evolution. Evolution could be defined as changes in the gene pool of a population (microevolution). This could apply to artificial selection/selective breeding . . . and agriculture in essence is breeding the desirable stock (choosing the most desired phenotypes and in turn the most desired genotypes).
But the birds? Population? Changing frame of reference? Microevolution? Again a stretch which leads me to believe I am pushing it.
Posted by: Charlotte | July 27, 2006 12:50 AM
Fish, Cow, Food, Fat, Film, The Birds, Brother, Bed
What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Posted by: valerie | July 27, 2006 1:49 AM
I'm trying another possible direction with 'grass.'
Gary Lockwood was in 'Splendor in the Grass.' (Look at the DVD cover)
Also, from that cover, the Seattle Space Needle... Seattle has a sculpture called 'The Grass Blades.'
The cow grazes on grass.
The cowfish lives in seagrass on the sea bed.
The birds are eating in the grass.
Colin is a character in 'The Secret Garden,' which features lots of grass. He also happens to be a bedridden character who revives when in the garden.
Strange connections I think, but they are there.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 27, 2006 2:15 AM
My guess is that the puzzle is about the relation of culture to the evolution of species.
1) is a wild fish, representing nature.
2) is a domesticated animal, the cow has been genetically created through breeding by mankind.
3) represents culture - the movie of Elvis is an icon of the change from farming and domestication to modern society.
4) is the pigeon, a parasite that lives on the trash generated by people in large cities.
5) clue is pox, a virus originating from fast population growth in unsanitary conditions. (hence names like cowpox or chickenpox)
The five examples taken together are a timeline of the result of increasing population density. 1-state of nature, 2-domestic animals, 3-culture and art, 4-pest animals feed on our waste, 5-viruses spread more easily in denser cities. In other words, the effect of humans on the evolution of traits in other organisms has increased likewise with population and culture. At the current point, our culture of science allows us to generate new varieties of life at our whim!
Posted by: Cody | July 27, 2006 4:15 AM
I'm just gonna go with "Disease Transmission Vectors" and stop there.
If i am right, i'll explain my thought process in another post. If not, then i won't take any more of your time.
Posted by: Jim | July 27, 2006 8:39 AM
Just came across this via boingboing, here's an idea that popped into my head after reading this post by Mat Leonard:
"The first three clues, a fish, a cow and Elvis Presley’s “It Happened at the World Fair.” Then, a home movie of birds in a backyard. Lastly, a beginning of a novel about someone who had the pox."
I don't know about the fish and the cow yet, but if you take some elements out of the last three items as follows:
- World Fair
- home from 'home movie'
- page from 'first page of a novel',
You get World Fair homepage; a bit self-referential but ok.
The fish and cow could be represented on the map of the world fair on the home page: there's a fisheries building and an agriculture building...
Posted by: Jan de Wit | July 27, 2006 9:09 AM
Please note that some people have also posted their thoughts at a later update to this Puzzle, at this link. Their contributons may be useful (and I'm not giving anything away by noting this -- just keeping everything on the up and up).
One thing to add is that, at that link, the fish is identified by Chris as such: "definitely a type of cowfish (Tetrosomus gibbosus)." It's my understanding that the fish is also of the type Ostraciontidae.
Posted by: Benjamin Cohen | July 27, 2006 9:16 AM
Now I need to throw things on the table and see if anything clicks. I'm working on these things:
grass
green
greenhouse
greenhouse gases
global warming
seabed
grass bed
garden
methane
greener
grass is greener
grass is greener on the other side
pipe
spots
In keeping with green, gasses, and global warming idea, I come up with something along the lines perhaps of carbon sequestration under the ocean or in coal beds.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 27, 2006 11:14 AM
From my blog post:
"The puzzle is more meta than just 'What is the connection between these items', and the question is really "What is the correct answer when there is more than one valid interpretation of the data?". The answer to that is, I think, "Whatever you believe until proven wrong".
Posted by: Dave | July 27, 2006 11:46 AM
Yep, what he said:
"However, MY guess is that...the experiment is to take random things of vast meanings and have no mystery whatsoever to solve. The mystery is how the human mind can find links between everything.
Posted by: Aaron Rhodes | July 26, 2006 05:23 PM"
I'd bet on that before all these other super specific answers. Although there does seem to be an eating/pestilence kind of vibe to it all. I bet it has seomthing to do with Dow Chemical.
Or napalm.
Posted by: sue | July 27, 2006 12:08 PM
The domestication of something wild
Posted by: gary | July 27, 2006 12:17 PM
Stages of development on Earth:
1. Oceanic life (fish)
2. Land-based animals (cow)
3. Humanity (Elvis)
4. Post-humanity (birds in backyard noticeably absent of humans, birds also representing distributed intelligence or 'hivemind')
5. Survival of mind/intelligence (in the end was the Word..)
It's about the advent & development of life on earth and the transition to post-biological intelligence.
Posted by: doublelibra | July 27, 2006 1:28 PM
Cowfish, boxfish. Cow. Box. [couldn't view video] Chicken Pox/Cow Pox in Inset box.
Posted by: Didi Hylobates | July 27, 2006 1:58 PM
Addendum: after reading over some of the other posts, I've really decided that Puzzle Fantastica is The World's Fair itself. Kind of fractal-like, where the whole thing is contained in a tiny subset of the thing. like those water snake ballon things, turing itself inside out. like in the movie version of contact, inside the human eye is the whole universe.
I mean: c'mon.
1. We have the Haeckel fish thing (a guy famous for cataloging nature). a.k.a. Natureland
2. The cow and elvis movie might somehow fit into the Art/Science divide.
3. The video clip of the birds, a.k.a The Film Building.
4. The Novel excerpt, a.k.a The Book Building.
All individually imbued with enough semi-related subcontext to get us all discussing and hashing out theories. About environment and ethics and whatnot. With links to other sites, books, thoughts, people.
The cumulative effect of all of it being the experience of the World's Fair itself. By taking part in the PF as a microcosm, we are creating and living the experience that is the WF as a macrocosm. This is not a story about the people involved (as intersting as our flights of fancy might be), but The Bed where it all takes place.
Hallelujah and amen.
Posted by: sue | July 27, 2006 2:12 PM
So far, the solutions discussing the media for the clues, have been the most interesting ones (Lithograph, DVD, Photograph, QT movie, Book text). I can't help thinking that the text in the novel (discussing the fact that the "bed" is more important than the "boy") implies that the solution is in the "bed" for the clues i.e. the media.
I also think that the "correct" solution, once it presents itself, will be blindingly obvious, and will be the only thing that actually makes sense. Far too many of the current solutions seem to follow a best fit approach to the data, and the hypotheses presented only kinda-sorta work. Let us try to look for something that can be the only possible solution to the problem.
No answers so far, but hopefully somoene can jump onto this line of thinking and take it to the next level. Kinda like modern scientific research really.
Posted by: shreyas | July 27, 2006 2:19 PM
addendum #2: as they used to say in fancy grad school, the poet writes the poem in such a way as to instruct the reader HOW to read the poem. the thing itself, if well constructed, is a how-to manual of its own experience. the act of reading it teaches how to read it better.
the PF as a skeleton key to the process of the WF itself. It's a puzzle, a metaphor, and nothing at all. It's what you make it. "What we have here is a success to communicate."
Posted by: sue | July 27, 2006 2:19 PM
Collectives:
- the fish can belong to a school
- a bunch of Elvis's are known as Elvii
- a cow can belong to a herd
- the birds belong to a flock
- the bed bugs in the mattress belong to an infestation (I made the leap that the Pox was actually a misdiagnosis of bed bugs.
Posted by: Kevin Smith | July 27, 2006 3:45 PM
I've found another way to look at this thing. It does sort of connect to my greenhouse gas idea because of the
What about idol, sacred cow, christian fish, flock, and resurrection?
Idol for Elvis.
Sacred cow for, well... the cow.
Christianity for the fish.
The flock for the bird video (which has a big fish in it too)
Resurrection for Colin's miraculous recovery.
I'm probably way off here, but it's worth a look.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 27, 2006 3:49 PM
Well, then maybe the horoscope. The fish is for Pisces, The cow for Taurus, Elvis (who had a twin brother) for Gemini. I can't see the video -- are the birds ramming something, hence Taurus? Oh, of course, Colin must have the crabs, of Cancer fame...
Ai yi yi! Back to the drawing board.
Posted by: Joe in LA | July 27, 2006 5:22 PM
Unless something better occurs to me, my current working theory is "polio vaccine."
We've got lots of cow-related things: a cow, cowfish, cowbirds, cowpox. The cowpox story points to a fifth cow-related thing: vaccines, which got their name from the use of cowpox exposure to inoculate against smallpox.
The link between Elvis and vaccines is that Elvis' televised polio shot (in 1957, as far as I have been able to determine) is widely credited for popularizing polio vaccinations in the United States. Elvis received the Salk vaccine, but in 1962, the year of the Seattle Century 21 World's Fair, the Sabin vaccine was first licensed for public use. For what it's worth, Salk was also listed among the "celebrity" attendees of that particular World's Fair, the theme of which was "science."
Posted by: Gelf | July 27, 2006 5:28 PM
They are all boxes . . . will explain my logic later if this is indeed the link we are going for.
Posted by: Charlotte | July 27, 2006 8:11 PM
i think the clues integrate aspects of the worlds fair into the progression of human thought in biology, relationship to our environment, and technology (see posts by cody, sue, andrew norris, etc.)
or the role science plays in how we relate to our environment.
Posted by: jfry | July 27, 2006 10:09 PM
Wanted to point out a satellite clue that is found at the post about moles (link). The image clearly has the same "50" as depicted in the video. I think there are possibly two key points here - that is, the video is (1) of Dave's lawn or (2) something about moles(?)
Posted by: jenjen | July 27, 2006 11:04 PM
I, too, think it is COW. Cowbirds, a cow, a cowfish? 3 of 5 are money right off the bat, and it's only a small leap to cowpox. It seems to be the most obvious solution to fit 4 of 5 almost immediately.
Posted by: bobby d | July 28, 2006 10:09 AM
I'm backing up and sticking with my 'grass' theory. There's just too much grass involved in everything about this puzzle. I cannot believe it to be accidental. Gary Lockwood's 'Splendor in the Grass' role. Elvis apparently sang a lyric in the movie about 'greener grass.' The cow lives and eats in grass. The cowfish lives and eats at the grassy sea bed, sometimes called grass beds. The birds are obviously eating in the grass. Children have apparently been playing on the grass. And the novel intro parallels somehow a storyline in the novel 'The Secret Garden.' It seems very focused on the bed and its rejuvenative effect.
So I have a hunch that the grass is where this puzzle wants to take us. Things are lying in the grass all over. Splendor in the Grass, living in the grass, eating in the grass, lying in the grass. Wordsworth wrote a line in a poem about 'splendour in the grass.' He connects directly to Walt Whitman, who wrote 'Leaves of Grass.'
So I suggest that the answer lies in the grass.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 28, 2006 10:41 AM
Collectives, or collective consciousness
The first two images were undoubtedly obtained from wikimedia and historycooperative while the third is likely from IMDB. All of these sites are created and maintained by collectives.
The flock of birds is obvious.
The novel is being written by more than one author and is to be shaped by the guesses to this puzzle; another collective act.
Posted by: Mike | July 28, 2006 11:28 AM
My words: Mirror, Nexus, Klein Bottle, Self-Reflexive, World's Fair Map and Puzzle-icity Stunt.
Putting the meta-experiment aside for a moment, I don't think the puzzle is something that can be solved by seeking a internal relationship between the five clues, each of which has complex meanings of their own.
However, they do have something in common: all have direct relationships, intweavings with, one or more element of your blog, "The World's Fair."
I can put this theory forward with the initial three evidence/clues and it continues to hold true in the face of the new evidence offered by the additional two.
The fish, as earlier posters have pointed out, is drawn by Ernst Haeckel, mentioned in your 'about' section. The picture falls into "Natureland" in your map. And to a lesser extent, the Art/Nature non divide.
The Cow with robot innards, as a very early poster pointed out, refers back to "The Cow: A story." That story features a philosophical discussion on the meaning of life for robots and cows. The picture falls alternatively into the "Ethics Palace." ("A cow is a food factory"?) or "The Art/Science divide."
The Elvis movie, which has the most obvious tie with "The World's fair" of any of the clues, is also of course a film and goes into the film building ('Science in film in general'.
So far, so good. Enter the meta-experiment, which I think has been well understood by earlier posters: a live scientific experiment in how theories rise and fall to fit evidence. The readers' comments themselves, full of links to the outside web, fall cartographically into the "Website building."
The film of Dave's backyard refers to one of the website's creators. I see this as the weakest part of my solution, but maybe other readers can help. It also, obviously, could fall into the film building. Or "Natureland." Or the "about" section. It doesn't fit very well into the Art/Science divide, an exeption among the clues.
Finally the book goes into the Book Building, as a study of about writing.
The "puzzle" as a whole, as its categorizing suggests, goes into "Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive."
If this doesn't approximate an answer, I hope it's close enough to show someone else the way. If it is more or less the answer, thanks to those who posted before me.
"If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Yours,
Tock
Posted by: Tock the Dog | July 28, 2006 10:36 PM
Brief followup:
Also, it extends to things that will appear on the blog. So the video of Dave's backyard was followed by another, focusing in on the Moles.
The beginning of the novel implies a future, yet to appear.
My explanation (one post above) would be discredited if this were the only installation of the novel.
t.t.d.
Posted by: Tock | July 29, 2006 3:31 AM
In other words, the solution to the puzzle is, it's a scientific/artistic analogue of the map mapping the World's Fair Blog.
The things of the blog are in, on, all around and through, referring to, connected with, consisting of, and beyond the clues.
Posted by: Tock | July 29, 2006 3:37 AM
OK, well if none of my above answers have been identified as correct, then it is not SARS, an omelette nor the horoscope.
Stepping on the shoulders of those above who believe it centers around this blog, one more idea... How about George Ferris. He built bridges (over the fishies), railroads (to move cows to market), and of course the Ferris Wheel (first happened at the World's Fair -- see the top of this page). It picked up people to bird's eye level, and they got sick until they got up! It all fits! Yay!
Posted by: Joe in LA | July 29, 2006 11:50 PM
"Animal Husbandry" by Laura Zigman
Posted by: Keith | July 30, 2006 10:53 PM
The first of a five-part series of articles about warming and pollution problems appeared in the Los Angeles Times yesterday. I could not help but notice that the article used the expression 'a pox on the oceans' as if it were a common phrase. It also discussed toxic, primitive organisms causing problems for coral on the sea bed. As I read it, I could not help but point out to anyone who would listen that there seemed to be a connection between the article and this puzzle. I won't describe the reactions I got, but I am still leaning toward the healthy environment, grass, global warming idea.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | July 31, 2006 10:34 AM
We applaud again all of these wonderful approaches to the puzzle -- such imagination!, such enthusiasm!, such inventiveness! -- but acknowledge that the solution has yet to be found. We also ease out of this comment post (as an earlier one) before readers start to interrogate our every word.
-- BRC (and on behalf of DN)
Posted by: Benjamin Cohen | July 31, 2006 5:51 PM
Hmmmmm. Now, that is a huge set of clues in Benjamin Cohen's most recent post.
Certainly, "applause" set the birds in motion, and Haekel gave great "acknowledgment" to the fish. Now, "imagination" was required for the novel, "enthusiasm" is Elvis' trademark, and what "inventiveness" must occur to create a mechanical cow.
If he had only elaborated for only one or two more sentences, I am confident he would have led us to the only obvious solution. Drats! Why does he have to be so darn laconic, terse, and concise!!!
Now given his previous comment regarding Ostraciontidae -- which secretes ostracitoxin poisonous to other fishes and themselves -- which is also known as a "box" fish, it is obvious he is telling us that we must think outside the box. Hmmmmm.
Posted by: Joe in LA | July 31, 2006 8:16 PM
I love this horrible torture! I was so sure that a recent solution was the correct one that I completely gave up thinking about it. Now I can start tormenting myself again and I'm looking forward to it. I just wanted to say that this has been a lot of fun.
Posted by: Juliana in SF | August 1, 2006 1:08 PM
Monty Python
Posted by: rsuchNYC | August 1, 2006 3:46 PM
Maybe that's an Elvis "Cover" His most famous cover being Hound Dog maybe?
Posted by: xoxo | August 1, 2006 4:04 PM
OK, team, we have to keep trying.
I am still looking for commonalities. That may not be the best response to the clues. Perhaps, some other pattern? But, nevertheless, one more try...
I see a common connection to HONEYCOMBS, as follows:
After all, boxfishes are known for their hexagonal or honeycomb skin and skeleton patterns.
The cow ruminates with the reticulum compartment of its stomach that has a honeycomb-like lining.
Elvis had many songs referring to honeycombs -- Cross My Heart and Hope to Die ("I miss those kisses from your honeycomb, This humble bumble bee just wants to fly back home"), Cindy, Cindy ("I wrote it in a letter, carved it on a tree, Told it to a honeycomb, told it to a bee), and In Your Arms ("Just like a bee in a honeycomb, I'm gonna make myself right at home, In your arms, In your arms).
Recent studies have shown that bacterial spores, that could have caused Colin's problems, also have hexagonal, honeycomb structures.
Still can't view the bird video -- any help there? Exhibiting a hive mentality, perhaps?
Posted by: Joe in LA | August 1, 2006 6:45 PM
I'm just going to throw this out there and see what happens. I think it's about the development of biological warfare. I'm probably way off base, so I'll save my logic for someone who might actually care to ask.
Posted by: Jen F. | August 2, 2006 11:21 AM
they are all square
Posted by: Nils | August 2, 2006 11:43 AM
Is there perhaps a significance to the fact that Bed is capitalized in the final sentence? And perhaps to the choice of the name Colin for the story?
Posted by: John | August 2, 2006 12:56 PM
I think that one should be able to figure out the answer by just looking at the first three clues. I think the three pictures were given first and then the fourth and fifth (video and novel) were added later. So, if those clues are simply added clues, the first three should suffice. I think maybe I am trying to consider too many facts. I am going to try looking only at the first three, come up with an answer, then check to see if that answer has anything to do with the final clues.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | August 2, 2006 2:11 PM
I'm working on something that interests me about these clues. Why is it that the paragraphs from the novel are not simply typed into the HTML of this page? Rather, they are presented as a graphic. I've noticed that every single image, including the video, combines graphics or imagery with some form of writing, either numbers or words. The fish has an '8' on it, etc.
Words/letters/graphics. Ideogram. Pictogram.
Also, one more thing. The picture having to do with Elvis... the little picture on this page is not the same picture that comes up when you click the little picture on the sidebar. What comes up is a picture of a DVD box that is missing the little picture of Elvis's face down by his foot. The little picture is not a DVD. It is a picture of a poster.
Posted by: Alessandro Cima | August 2, 2006 5:49 PM
all the pictures seem a little different when you click on the sidebar. The cow image is darker and doesn't have the rounded edges. And the fish one maybe is the same, but becomes huge and expands beyond my screne.
and the initial post did make sure to reference both the images below and on the side.
the video and novel sidebar images don't link.
Posted by: jfry | August 2, 2006 9:29 PM
Another observation - It's also interesting how they phrase the clues:
"The clues: a fish, a cow, something to do with Elvis, a video, and the start of a novel."
The first two are the animals they show, the third is only Elvis-related, and the fourth and the fifth are just the medium.
I might be picking apart language too much, but hey, what else have I got to work with?
Posted by: jfry | August 2, 2006 9:43 PM
Ok, here's my collection of random notes. I'll try to edit out the ones that have already been discussed. (Forgive me if I end up repeating some that have been mentioned already.)
Syphilis was sometimes called "the pox."
A colin is a kind of north american quail, also known as a "bobwhite."
The name Colin means "young creature." Diminutive form of the medieval name Col or Colle, a short form of Nich