Puzzle Fantastica: this is it folks, no really, this is it...

The cow is reversed.
The birds are a black and white still
The fish is now blue
The novel is about the same?
There is a cd/record for Elvis instead of the dvd.

I'm just not getting it...

The cow is reversed = orientation doesn't matter. Also, since it is no longer the same image, any associations with the original image (WWII) are probably not part of the puzzle.

The birds are in black ad white and still (also, the two goals are still visible) = numerology is not part of the puzzle, the behaviors of the birds are not part of the puzzle (except flocking, perhaps)

The fish is now blue = Again, since it is not the original image, I would argue that its associations (its artist, Haeckel) are not part of the puzzle. However, its style, Art Nouveau, is still fair game.

The novel is about the same? - I agree

There is a cd/record for Elvis instead of the dvd = Elvis is significant; World's Fair, Seattle, 1962, and the content of the movie are not (necessarily) significant.

Anything else?

How about, "How our five senses can decieve us?"

Ok, I think there are two goals, one is to produce more food for the people, and secondly to protect endangered species. I beleive that is what the first 3 clues represent.
The last two, I'm not sure. Perhaps, through the novel use of cloneing( lots of Elvis look-alikes out there)?

The CD is actually the soundtrack to the same movie, so maybe all of that other stuff could still be significant.

Invariance to perspective... science!

I don't know...

In light of this last stuff I was thinking about the reversed cow representing a flipped burger or something and I thought the removal of colour from the birds was meant to draw attention to "black birds", but what if, after sifting through all of the clues we were provided with at the World's Fair, we simply found a novel?

What if it's all about a novel finding? Or, more specifically, what if it's all about a novel finding at the World's Fair?

Further: noticing that everything is changed EXCEPT the novel, we've had attention drawn to it, right?

Looking through the clues for a novel finding.

Here's hoping.

I feel like the media angle is the strongest one so far. We have a filmstrip, a video, a painting, a book, and a CD (or DVD). All different ways of conveying information or emotion to a viewer (or listener).

The reference to cow digestion makes me think bullsh*t, if you squint, the rust-coloured fish resembles a red herring, the Space needle on the cover of the DVD doesn't seem to have much of a point, and the video clue?

Its for the birds.

this hint has also moved to "the ethics palace" category, while before they were in Knoxville '82 and sometimes also the arts/science sections.

in this order, the human-nature-environment strand seems to still hold up. our exploitation of animals, our carving up and controlling of nature (to the exclusion of others, and with the aside about the mole, the exclusion of some animals too), the fish poisoning it's environment when threatened, and Colin being poisoned by his environment, the bed. all seem to generally relate to unhealthy relationships between (wo)man and his/her environment. I don't know much about the Elvis link, but if the new image is the soundtrack to the same movie, cropdusting still definitely fits into this, where we selectively poison plants and animals for exclusively growing our own food. if not that, maybe one of the songs has meaning?

blue suede shoes

palmitic acid is in trunkfish toxin, added to lowfat milk, used in pesticides, and vaccine research. aren't chemicals amazing? i wonder the effect of this puzzle on search counts for some really random stuff...

This is probably a stretch, but the order of the clues is suggestive of a physical hierarchy:

* Cows live above the land
* The land (lawn) is usually above sea level
* Fish generally live below sea level, and above the sea bed
* The sea bed sits above rock
* Elvis is the King of Rock

I don't think I'm ever going to get the puzzle unless I make some sort of intuitive leap. It is becoming clear what the puzzle involves. Industrial agriculture/mass production of food, it's effect on the environment, and on people's health.

The cow and the fish are both pointing to the video now, in the still frame we see many birds feeding in a fenced in area, representing farming, as well as two nets, representing fishing.

Elvis can be seen as a symbol for humanity, but also as a symbol for excess. He died too young, and his weight and poor diet were a factor. Also maybe 'Burger King'? Kind of redundant, I guess.

The novel, like the video, was an additional clue to what was already a solvable puzzle, it's reference to environment(and people of course) is the only information that is relevant to the solution, I think.

This has been moved to the ethics category as well. So, industrialized farming and fishing are bad for the environment, poisoning it, killing off species, perhaps contributing to globlal warming. The result of such mass production of food is a lot of proccessed food which is extremely unhealthy to eat, poisoning us. In spite of this massive volume of 'food production', in which more food is produced than can be consumed before it goes bad, people in the world are starving to death.

I'd say the puzzle is "How do we feed the world without destroying it?", but that's really more of a question.

I do want to note, since the image is perhaps too small to tell, that as with the others the Novel is also slightly changed from the original -- there are some new italics. But basically you have all noticed that, well, we've re-presented the clues above, more or less.

I have been unable to click on the any of the clues and make them bigger, so I can't look at the modified novel.

Actually, it was just a straight up conversion into italics. No change in text per se.

I think this refers to when a space shuttle was launched containing recordings of music and an image depicting humans, all in the hope of some kind of alien lifeform(s) discovering the package, and come knocking on our door.

- Elvis represents music (and other famous musicians and composers)
- The Birds represent messy space (stars and debris and lots and lots of space)
- The Cow represents the inside workings of a spaceship (and that

I think this refers to when a space shuttle was launched containing recordings of music and an image depicting humans, all in the hope of some kind of alien lifeform(s) discovering the package, and come knocking on our door.

- Elvis represents music (and other famous musicians and composers)
- The Birds represent messy space (stars and debris and lots and lots of space)
- The Cow represents the inside workings of a spaceship (and robots, of course)
- The Fish represents weird looking aliens
- The novel represents a description of something that might happen, as in "the plan"

(sorry for the double post)

A late Friday gander: Jake makes some good points, above. And I like jfry's observation. And I can point out, again, the other post Dave put up, which has the original clues and the second, re-presented ones, side by side.

just arrived at this, and i don't think i can contribute that meaningfuly except to say: I haven't read all the posts, but if nobody has mentioned "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenence", now's a good a time as any. at any given time there are an infinite number of potential hypotheses.

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a royal flush?
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A > Ace of Spades > the death card > the pox

K > Elvis > the king

Q > cow > the dairy queen

J > jack > a common reef fish > the Jack of Spades is one-eyed, like this fish

10 > a flock of black birds, like the flock of black spots on the 10 of Spades
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