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Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

nytimes.com

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Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#61

Post by thesmtsolver »

yndoendo wrote: post #25
tptacek wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's 79 and covered by Medicare.

There was a Standford professor that was wondering why he had void of cancer patients around 63 and 64. Turns out people wait to get on Medicare for treatment because they cannot afford it with their standard health insurance. USA would save money in the long run with Universal health care. Since people in the US wait until it gets bad before seeking treatment. This means fights cancer at stage 3 and 4 instead of 1 a…

> This is one reason foreign doctors come to the US to study and train. Modern countries with Universal Health Care treat at stage 1 and 2 with 3 and 4 being rare ... except for the USA. Need to study advance cancer and aggressive, this USA is a great place.

Is there any data supporting this? Cancer survival rates by country seems to go against your narrative.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cancer-su...

For example, for stomach cancer, US has better cancer survival rates than Canada, and most of Europe (including the Scandinavian countries)

   1. USA: 33%
   2. Canada 29%
   3. Norway, Sweden, Finland: ~25%
   4. Germany ~33%
   5. Italy 30%
US has better survival rates for lung, breast, prostate cancer than most of the world. Look at the above link.

I have relatives who are doctors from outside the country, now in the US. None of them fall under your narrative.

Logically, the data disagrees with your narrative.

The reason why they came to the US is: 1) access to best research/tech; and 2) (of course) more money, and 3) most of the Western developed world is highly restrictive when it comes to immigration for doctors compared with US

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#62

Post by tidi0x »

I see people upset about the solution being found "Through other means", but this is technically still in the spirit of the puzzle.

1. That is technically normal espionage practices, the CIA wouldn't be the CIA if they were only reliant on cryptography... (they'd be the NSA)

2. The solution to this puzzle would bring closure to at this point generations of curious people.

3. On the more technical side, it's been discussed that the potential method for decrypting K4 is more or less insolvable through normal patterns because Jim not being a cryptographer decided to use a multi stage encryption method which relies on knowing both (or multiple) keys with accuracy. The risk here with him not being a cryptographer is not realizing the how hard/impossible he might have made it.

4. I also like to believe as we culturally move through time the potential Keywords or transposition shift keys may dissolve away. For all we know he may have chosen a word that was colloquial to the 80's, CIA, Espionage...ect that has just dissolved with time.

I want to see the solution, I want to reiterate Jim was not a cryptographer and may have gone buck wild with his encryption.

Just throwing out some solution banter. I believe one layer of K4 is null cipher, but I think its screwed by a transposition of which I think the key is based off K0, or something to do with the lat-long coordinates.

Also when he says Berlin clock I think he means Kalendarplatz, this would make more sense as he is a sculpture artist who works with forces of nature.

My only other call out is he may have tied Kryptos into the north east area of the CIA, potentially linking it to the memorial gardens or the wall of the fallen officers.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#63

Post by tptacek »

meowface wrote: post #58
tptacek wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's 79 and covered by Medicare.

Clearly something is missing. Either he's lying, or Medicare won't fully cover some if his expected costs.

What do you mean? He's not sick, so far as this reporting is concerned; he's just saving against possible expenses.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#64

Post by thesmtsolver »

aspenmayer wrote: post #38
tptacek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I found their aside relevant to my interests as a fellow HN reader. The guidelines also advise against fulminating; you made your point, and I think it’s fair that theirs also stands.

Their aside is also false though. Look at my comment below the OP.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#65

Post by JackFr »

themafia wrote: post #43
janalsncm wrote: post #21

So the central controversy in the story is whether the journalist fans should share the solution with the world or keep quiet for the auction. Sanborn wants the money for medical reasons so he needs to maintain a high sale price. The two fans want to share the solution with the world. Presumably the winner of the auction will be buying a severely depreciating asset: the right to know but not disclose the solution. Th…

Make the auction include the physical piece of art itself. Then you're buying a tangible and transferable asset. I think the CIA has enough money it can endeavor to replace it. What value does a cracked puzzle even have to them?

It always bothered me because cryptography isn’t the CIA’s thing. Spies and analysis are their thing. Code breaking is the NSA

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#66

Post by hinkley »

tidi0x wrote: post #62

I see people upset about the solution being found "Through other means", but this is technically still in the spirit of the puzzle. 1. That is technically normal espionage practices, the CIA wouldn't be the CIA if they were only reliant on cryptography... (they'd be the NSA) 2. The solution to this puzzle would bring closure to at this point generations of curious people. 3. On the more technical side, it's been disc…

I always thought it was kinda stupid that this puzzle was made for the CIA instead of NSA in the first place. Some other responders sound like they agree.

And as someone else said, this is exactly the sort of solution the CIA would come up with. So it should be considered in bounds.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#68

Post by buckle8017 »

meowface wrote: post #57
Avshalom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels like the central controversy is that Sanborn has to auction anything off for medical reasons.

True. The central problem described in the article is that he has cancer and doesn't want to go bankrupt from the medical bills. I'm not a socialist and am broadly pro-capitalism, but for decades I've held a firm belief that healthcare should have a public option and people should have the ability to get high-quality medical care for $0, no matter how realistic that would be.

The simple reality is that advanced medical care is expensive.

Access to advanced medical care can either by gated by one person's wealth or by the average wealth of many people.

At the end of the day though, someone is paying and the only way to actually cost reduce is too have worse treatment.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#69

Post by dingnuts »

meowface wrote: post #57
Avshalom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels like the central controversy is that Sanborn has to auction anything off for medical reasons.

True. The central problem described in the article is that he has cancer and doesn't want to go bankrupt from the medical bills. I'm not a socialist and am broadly pro-capitalism, but for decades I've held a firm belief that healthcare should have a public option and people should have the ability to get high-quality medical care for $0, no matter how realistic that would be.

there wouldn't be any way to compete with tax pre-paid $0 point of sale health care, so there would be no option. the term "public option" is a weasel word. there would be no private option because nobody is going to choose to pay out of pocket in addition to their taxes that already pay for care.

advocate for whatever but use honest terms. you're advocating for a single payer system and there's no evading that.

Re: Solution to CIA’s Kryptos sculpture is found in Smithsonian vault

#70

Post by koolba »

meowface wrote: post #57
Avshalom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels like the central controversy is that Sanborn has to auction anything off for medical reasons.

True. The central problem described in the article is that he has cancer and doesn't want to go bankrupt from the medical bills. I'm not a socialist and am broadly pro-capitalism, but for decades I've held a firm belief that healthcare should have a public option and people should have the ability to get high-quality medical care for $0, no matter how realistic that would be.

> True. The central problem described in the article is that he has cancer and doesn't want to go bankrupt from the medical bills.

What bills? He’s 79 so he’d have been on Medicare for the past 14 years. Sure there’s the Medicare premiums, but that’s peanuts.

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