Click here to submit a clue for this page.

All say:

Mao zhu xi   wan          sui
Mao chairman ten-thousand years of age.
(i.e., "long live chairman Mao!")

I've seen the same thing in some of the early 80 pages.  These three are
all written in simplified characters found on the mainland (whereas
in Taiwan and Hong Kong they use the complete, traditional, before-the-
Communist characters).

clue:  10,000 years, etc., must be a traditional Chinese blessing. Compare these excerpts from a news story of July, 2001:

BEIJING (UPI)  Chinese President Jiang Zemin addressed his nation Sunday to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Communist
Party, described as the first in the history of the country to be so quick to correct its mistakes.

"Glorious China, long live ten thousand years! Glorious people of China, long live ten thousand years," Jiang yelled to a long
round of applause. "And the glorious Chinese Communist Party, long live ten thousand years!" 

By the way, the headline of the story was, "Zemin Vows to Take Taiwan - By Force If Necessary"

clue:  For what it is worth, I don't think these early ones are as simple as they appear.  One of the few things I know about
Chinese is that you count the number of brush strokes in a character.  I think that is the way they set up their dictionaries. 
Somebody else pointed out that the hairs on the smiley person change.  So even if the total number of strokes stays the same
because the message is the same, the hairs could refer to different sources.  Then they apply the number of strokes to that
particular source.  Also, I don't think any one of these ads is exactly the same size except for the full pagers.  Isn't there
something in one of their letters to the webmaster about typography matters and the amount of black and white or percentages or
something like that.  A clever gang could think of many variations that don't occur to somebody who just opens the paper and
yawns.

clue:  I don't know much, but I do know that when the Emperess Dowager left the throne in the early 20th century, the
new Emperor (Pu Yi) was declared the Lord of 10,000 years. So as the other poster noted, maybe 10,000 is some sort of
significant number in Chinese? 
Good luck :)

clue:  10,000 is generally used in Chinese for "infinite". So, to wish someone ten thousand years of life in Chinese is to 
wish them life eternal.

These early clues seem to me to hint at a motive for the whole thing.  May Day as a holiday is a celebration 
of the working man as opposed to the capitalist.  It is an important day for protests against the world bank, 
etc...  There seems to be a preoccupation with the theme of money and banks in many articles, and these early 
messages have a very communist theme (May Day is an especially important holiday in communist countries.)  Perhaps 
these are people engaged in extra-legal protesting who want to organize their protests without the police finding 
out?  The rest could be just games.  That's my best guess as to what this is all about.

I was researching Bushou/Kangxi Radicals and stumbled upon the first character in this image. The charcter has 7
meanings. 

[1] hair; fur; feathers; down 
[2] vegetation 
[3] ten cents; dime 
[4] gross; untouched; unpolished 
[5] panic-stricken; scared; flurried 
[6] very young; little 
[7] a Chinese family name.
 
In looking for the next character I discovered that the base character represents a king. The explanation I got was 
(king: The three horizontal lines stands for heaven, man and earth. The vertical line connects the three means the 
power from heaven to the earth to rule over man.)

But that isn't the full symbol. The symbol for king doesn't include the stem that arches back. I think that if we are going
to tackle this logic problem, we need to actualy start with a translation. Has anyone actualy taken the time to fully
translate this?

Attached is some info that might help. Its basically what you had already, but at least its confirmation. 
Post it where you will. The guy trying to find the translation one character at a time is wasting his time. 
You will need the Chinese_GB character set to see the graphics.

Been to busy to look at this for a while so apologies if I'm repeating things here that have
already been said elsewhere.  The Chinese has been deciphered but no-one seems to have commented on
'SR/CL : Richmond' - if it's a place that's intended there are umpteen to choose from, the 'SR/CL' I
seem to vaguely recall has been commented on on another page, so at the risk of repeating what someone
else has said I came across this very formula used in a contingency planning context to represent
'safety review / check list'.  If that is what is intended by SR/CL then Richmond might be connected in
someway with their own contingency planning.  All of the adds with this Chinese phrase are different -
the differences are probably the more important part. 
:-)

Richmond - University of Richmond, Virginia perhaps?

Ugh, I don't like to remember the May Day, although I was only 13 when the Communism fell. For me it was a day off
from school, although we had to dress up in the nasty pioneer uniforms that were scratchy and already way too hot to wear in
May, chant slogans, waive flags, look at the parade of rolling tanks and marching army and such stuff. But that was the fun
part. The worse part was that my father and his friends would get detained, as a prevention, so they don't plot some
'contra-revolutionary' demonstration or whatnot. if not beforehand, he would get detained May 2nd, for not going to the march
(though it would be versed as 'subversion of the republic' or something other). 
So it meant a lot. Nothing good. I therefore like pagan celebrations of spring much better than organized mass festivities of
any kind. They can always turn ugly, and often they do.

quoted from http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7141 titled "Have you ever celebrated Mayday?"

"Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour day in 1886. May
1, 1886 saw national strikes in the United States and Canada for an eight hour day called by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago
police attacked striking workers killing six. 

The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of
police killing eight of them. The police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the
subject is still one of controversy. The question remains whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the police or whether one
of the police's own agent provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from charging workers. 

In what was to become one of the most infamous show trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly not to be the last of such
trials against radical workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as being
the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They were agitators, fomenting
revolution and stirring up the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson. 

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of Illinois. 

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's Association (the First International) declared May 1st an international working
class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in
their battle for workers rights. 

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of the common people, had been reclaimed once again for the common people."
~http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202/mayday.htm

Here is some more information on the history of Mayday.  I wonder if the French thing is a coincidence?

It says, in simplified Chinese characters, "Long Live Chairman Mao [i.e., Mao Zedong]!"

I'm beginning to think there is a definite connection between the "Long Live Chairman Mao" sayings and the matching "Long
Live Chairman Mao" stamps issued in China on 5/1/1967.  Again, the stamps can be found here:

http://www.1-10-100.com/youpiao/wgp/yw2.htm

and here:

http://www.cpi.com.cn/cpi-e/shang/wenstamps.asp

It is also worth noting that the name Richmond is well-known in the stamp-collecting world.  This page describes 
Stanley Richmond as a "world-renowned stamp dealer and philatelist":

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/urban_buy/documents/02552149.htm

Mr. Richmond is the president of the Daniel Kelleher Company, located in Boston.  According to this 
1998 discussion (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=352AFA85.416A%40Pursers.com),  
Stanley Richmond can be reached at the following address:

Stanley Richmond
Daniel Kelleher Company
24 Farnsworth St., #605
Boston, MA  02210

Interesting thoughts on the stamps and the Chinese Mao stamps from May 1st...  Stamps do seem to crop up a lot on pages, and
haven't they said that stamps and postmarks are important?
Also, Stanley Richmond's initials are SR.  Any prominent stamp collectors with the initials CL? Don't think it's that simple, but
just a thought.  Later announcements don't really follow what you'd expect from a couple of stamp collectors corresponding...

Nothing to do with this page, but in the first letter you got to your PO Box, the word on the ticket is almost definitely
Afrikaans. Afrikaners spell "Time" as "Tyd", rather than "Tijd". Also, the "Per lugpos" stamp is the old South African Post
etiquette for airmail. That's a winged Springbok (the same species as on the back of your Krugerrand). cf. This picture of the old
South African Airways (Suid Afrikanse Lugdiens) emblem:
http://www.classicjack.com/media/schabak+boeing+737+south+african+airways.jpg

The same winged springbok. Most people in SA would associate this symbology with the apartheid era, but they may still be using the
old 'bok on stamps.



clue:  More Afrikaans in one of the letters. "Het dit vanself vir hulle oopgegaan" is the same as the quote below:
"It opened for them by itself"

 

Not to be too blunt, but Richmond, Va., was also the capital of the Confederacy (a seditious movement based on disagreements
over commerce).      And Mao was also a leader of a revolutionary movement.

And Juls is right about 'SR/CL' being 'safety review/ check-list.

clue:  its asking for help

Richmond is a place in CA. SR could stand for Santa Rosa. Between Richmond, Santa Rosa, and another place in Ca. The text is
Chinesse... making since for the area since most people who live in the North Bay are Chinese. Funny, I know a guy from Tuscan, AR
who is Chinesse who spent most of his time in SF. I hope this might help a little.

I now think that these early references to Mao are mainly pointing to the idea of 'Cultural Revolution.' 

As i have not yet literated on my common theme theory , but so far ...in simple terms, and without giving "too
much" detail...as some have already noticed there SEEMS to be a "grand theme" of "revolution"...CM Moa Tse-Ting as
being a part of the communist revolution, hold ing a more marxist-lenninen type view, Cromwell...main figure in the
revolution from the English Monarchy of the 16th century revolting to a "merchant" class of goverment eventually
resulting in the parilmentary form we see to day, Martin Luther, who revolted against the Catholic Church and went on
to form his own beliefs that pretty much centered around the King James Bible...Even Godel and Riemman who where huge
factores in the "quantum revolution"...aloowing a more vast approach to hyperspace, and eventually string thoery

these are just a few factors, there are more...I am putting together and easier document to understand. But basically,
alot of the clues are connected in more than one way it would seem, like a large web...the awnser lying in the center?

darque_phizzix

I've written a few other e mails at the end--so here's one I need to add, but at the beginning--what originally
caught my eye about this site is this first post--some of these characters are similar to (more than similar) a tatoo I
have on my spine--which reads from bottom to top
"warrior with immortal soul" which adds to my last meesage about reading something into everything--which is what the 
character in Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum did and made himself crazy--

It might help "Kat" to remember that these people are at pains as in they make a major point of it, that they 
really are crazy.  In other words and I mean no offense, I'm not sure that Kat is focused on what is really 
happening.  My experience is that anybody who cooly says Yeah, I'm crazy almost certainly is not.  The 
majority and I think it is the huge majority of crazy people vehemently defend their sanity.  That's part 
of what gets them committed and various officials, legal people, cops and so forth, are on the lookout for 
anyone who gets all excited when their sanity is questioned.  These freak types are at pains to tell you
they are crazy and then for years and decades they stay completely out of the hands of the police.  At 
least as far we know not one of them is locked up.  You can't really be nuts and pull that off.

Well, scrl is BASIC for "screen clear," so i would think it's a new message. Oh, I found this site just
yesterday, and it rather piqued my curiousity. By the by, there's a Richmond in California, and guess who's on the
home page --"Martin Luther" King.

The name "Richmond" in the title could be the key to all, or most all of the announcements
over a 25 year span of ADW announcements.

The name itself may not be that important, but what is most important is the gematria (number
value) of Richmond. Here is the breakdown:

R (18), I (9), C (3), H (8), M (13), O (15), N (14), D (4)

18+9+3+8+13+15+14+4 = 84 (7x12), also 8+4 = 12

As you look at all the announcements, notice how the number 7, or especially the number 12, is the
key to understanding the announcement.  Also, look at how 7 and 12 is used symbolically throughout
the Biblical Scriptures.

Make 10000 years a binary number, then convert it to other base number systems.

10000 binary = 16 decimal (1+6=7)

Switch 16 decimal to 16 octal

16 octal = 14 decimal (7+7) and 24 pental (12+12)


10000 binary = 31 pental (3*1=3)

Switch 31 pental to 31 hexadecimal

31 hexadecimal = 49 decimal (7*7) and 144 pental (12*12)

After sleeping on it, a simpler solution occurred to me.  There are only so many things this could possibly or
likely point to: the most likely is the appearance of the next announcement.  So, as Thomasson explained, the numerical
value of RICHMOND = 84.  84 represents the next announcement, as in: Month = 8, Week = 4.  The next announcement appearred
8/24, Monday of the 4th week of August.    Also - I suspect the importance of the Mao quote is not anything to do with Mao,
but with 10,000.  10000bin = 16dec, suggesting hexadecimal (base 16).  FWIW: 84/16 = 5.25, or 5 and a quarter - the
cross-quarter day in the 5th month (May)?

i've been trying to figure out the sr/cl, and there is an intersection in tucson about a half mile from the university
of Santa Rita Avenue and Chauncey Lane. Probably just a coincidence, but maybe that's where a clandestine group of...
somebodies... used to meet after school? or maybe that's where the treasure is buried!

but seriously, someone in tucson should check it out. just in case.

i just stumbled on this page and i'm hooked.

Only just stumbled across this site and the mystery.

Would like to point out in Cryptic Crosswords, that Roman Numerals and their decimal equivalents are frequently used
interchangeably.

Following on from this SR/CL might equal SR/150.  Googling I find a wikipedia article for State Route 150 in Virginia, from the
wiki article:

"State Route 150, also known as the Chippenham Parkway, is a primary state highway in and near Richmond, Virginia, United States."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Route_150_(Virginia)

Maybe some link between SR/CL and Richmond there?

History of VA State Highways:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_state_highways_in_Virginia

You gotta love the wikipedia...can't see any obvious links with the great red chairman though (long may he live :))  Maybe there's
a red chairman with an address somewhere here?

While a lot of clues relate to Richmond, I haven't seen anything like this. So,
if it pleases the court, I have a few possible clues:
The SS City of Richmond was an immigrant ship active in the latter half of the 19th
century, running primarily from Liverpool to New York City. Please examine both
http://www.immigrantships.net/v3/1800v3/richmondco18820705_01.html and
http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=ciric
Also, the Ship Richmond was an immigrant ship active a century earlier with Philadelphia
and Rotterdam as terminal points. Please see
http://www.immigrantships.net/v6/1700v6/richmond17641020.html.
Finally, the USS Richmond was a light cruiser (Naval classification for light cruisers all
include CL) active from 1923 to 1946 all over the world. The USS Richmond was built and
decommissioned in Philadelphia, in case you find that interesting.

	wan sui is the same meaning as "Banzai" in Japanese.

Has anyone else noticed that SR and CL are two elements on the
periodic table, namely Strontium and Chlorine? One has an atomic number of 31,
the other 17. I'm not much of a math guy, but maybe someone else could do
something with this

I was thinking that SR/CL: Richmond might point to a brigde in
California. San Rafael-Richmond bridge to be exact. I don't know much Spanish
but doesn't San refer as a saint? Therefor let's look at the bible...

 I just wanted to point that the message was definitely written by
somebody who knows Chinese or Japanese judging by the beautiful strokes of the
characters.  You can only achieve that if you study the writing for a long time.
Another thing is his handwriting is very neat (look at the perfect line of
ichmond) so i think it matters that his R is the biggest and that SR/CL are
capital.  Also my intuition is telling me he is an MD despite neatness in
writing.  

Comments: Some possibly relevant historical context: Sino-American relations in
the 20th C were characterized by a large missionary movement led by Protestant
evangelicals (Pearl Buck's The Good Earth is a familiar text.) The war
and revolution did away with this, though China had decided early in the century
to be rid of foreign rule. The debate about "who lost China" (i.e., to
communism) was important in the 1950s. John Birch, of the famed society, was
allegedly killed by the Red Chinese, etc.

Sino-Soviet relations began to deteriorate in the 60s, and the U.S. saw a
strategic advantage in approaching China. Nixon visited in (an annus mirabilis
for these materials, you'll recall) 1972. Carter normalized relations completely
in 1979. 

Maoism as revolutionary paradigm has been noted here before as one likely
interpretation. But anyone who was concerned about Kennedy being a papist
traitor would also have to regard the "loss" of China to American (or Protestant
missionary) values as equivalently disastrous. 

The ruthlessness and total transformative character of Mao's revolution might
then be another referent here.	

Comments: Dont know what any of this stuff means to be honest and I hadnt heard
about it before today, but I was In Hamburg recently, and I saw

               "(Scheduled)
        SR/CL MountainDew, 1981:
     FIND ME BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!"

Written on the side of a building, at first I thought it was a Banksy grafiti, it
looked like it had been stensilled, it was so strange that I wrote it down.

Remember, Mistah Kurtz is /not/ dead.

Chromatic, means more obviously, but you have two versions of this ad, recall.

I think the others might have gotten the other pieces of Chromatic.	

Comments: I am some what bothered by the money emblems. Apart from what cities
they denote, man cannot serve both god and mammon. Yet, here we find holy emblems
mixed with filthy lucre.  The only panel without an obvious references to
american currency is backed by Ve Ve Ve.  One meaning of Ve is sanctuary from Old
Norse, but that is an obscure reference.  The section free of money is located in
the Cromwell-Calvin quadrant (remember each irregularly shaped piece is actually
a rectangular section in one non-euclidean geometry).

Yet, all things converge on the atomic explosion.  It is primarily a symbol of
destruction, but to the physicist it is a sign of re-creation.  The explosion
marks the change of one atom into another, a sort of scientific
transubstantiation.  Given the anti-Catholic nature of our riddlers, this fact
amuses me greatly.  

If I have missed a reference to money in the upper right then this applies,

66:003:015 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would
           thou wert cold or hot.

66:003:016 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I
           will spue thee out of my mouth.

Those who love both god and wealth will be destroyed for their lack of certainty
(better a satanist than a half assed christian).  

If the upper right is devoid of monetary symbols then I am puzzled.  According to
Revelations, a third of men, stars, etc. will perish, not 3/4.  Perhaps the
reference is not to Revelations.

	SrCl is a chemical (specifically Strontium monochloride). It is a molecule emmitter - the color RED - 
	when heated.  Does that do anything for anyone?  Especially since we are discussing a Chariman Mao reference...

these symbols are entire words, letters all jumbled up in the symbol, first three i read to say, "tell him ilied" possible "shit sea" for the last two.

Further to the previous clue relating to the USS Richmond.

- SR can be an abbrev. for "Seaman Recruit".
- CL for "Cruiser Light".
- The USS Richmond (1920-1946) was stationed on China Station for about a year in 1927 (during the start of communist revolution?)

Comments: About "SR/CL:" I found what follows on the web (in France) and I 
wonder if it has anythg to see with the announcement:

" [Pan-users] ANN: Pan 0.128 "SR/CL: Leitmotiv: Toynbee Idea"

Charles Kerr
Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:59:45 -0700

This is another incremental release -- bugfixes, some speedups,
a little more polish, and one of the better release titles in awhile. ;)

Bug Tickets addressed in this release:
 431247 "Add Scoring Rule" crashes if no article  selected (Christophe)
 432023 0.127 crashes when loading corrupted groups (Charles)
 432024 Speed improvements when saving and loading groups (Charles)
 431552 0.127 no longer stops downloading when disk is full (Alan Olsen)
 430958 Get N Headers fails if group has small # of headers (Anon)
 429449 Pan 0.126, 0.127 won't compile w/gtk 2.6.x (Jeff Berman)
 429485 Articles marked read showing back up (Frank Tabor)
 407301 All new articles are shown, regardless of score (Per Hedeland)

cheers,
Charles"

at this address : http://www.mail-archive.com/pan-users@nongnu.org/msg03400.html

Wiki knows a little about the Toynbee Idea (Toynbee tiles, an art project world wide ?)
cf : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toynbee_tiles
	

	This is what I gathered.

MAO = Infinity, Ink, a type of card game (like crazy 88)

SR/CL Seems to be Circle with a slash through, which is zero.

The Chinese Kanji seems to be an ambigram that spells out "LINK"

Richmond would go well connected to MAO(Ink) because there is a connection between the two. "Richmond Ink".

so you seem to have 0 -> 0 which is the idenity of 0 and 0 which gives you the number "1"

This game resembles the Game Mao. The dealer can not tell the other players the rules to the game. 
They have to figure them out as the go.

Comments: I bet it's a secret communist group and the is a coded numbering system offset by however 
many to identify the date for the next meeting with Richmond code for one of there meeting places.
 The 10,000 years bit is their motto
	

Can we confirm this is the first Ad placed in the paper? I keep seeing references to ads reaching back into the 70s. 
Is this the very first communication/message/statement/ad?

going out on a limb here, but perhaps SR/CL stands for Sauk River Chain of Lakes, which, coincidentally, 
is in Richmond, Minnesota? Minnesota is also known as the land of 10,000 lakes.

'Mao', while being a reference to Chairman Mao, founder of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, may 
also be translated into 'hair' or 'fur' - The Sauk River was the chosen settlement of European fur traders in the 1850's

	Or perhaps SL stands for Spencer Lewis who foundated the (AMO)RC in America. Their projects stands mostly in Africa.
The Rosicrutians used to accolate their own initials to the R+C (with a plus sign not a slash).
By the way, does anybody think that the creation of South Sudan had anything to see with those 4 horsemen of MayDay Mystery?
	

I'm new to this site, and I don't know if anyone has mentioned  the Gang of four. They were a hugely leftist political group 
who tried to continue in Mao's wake, one of them was Mao's last wife as well. They were convicted (2 sentenced to death, 
1 life imprisonment and 1 to 20 years in jail) in 1981. Possibly referring to that? Like a 'despite this one hurdle, we 
can still do it, long live Mao!' message?

I dont know anything about the sr/cl: richmond except for the stocks (Stericycle Inc) and the place, but Im hooked on 
this! so Ill keep looking

May be SR is for the programming language "SR is a language for concurrent programming. The SR language can be used by 
instructors of concurrent programming or operating systems courses to give students experience in writing concurrent 
programs that use multiple processes, semaphores, monitors, message passing, remote procedure calls, and the rendezvous.  
The language can also be used for parallel computing in a shared-memory multiprocessor or a distributed memory cluster 
environment. Prerequisites for students are knowledge of a high-level programming language like C or Pascal and operating 
systems concepts." [see : ftp://ftp.cs.arizona.edu/reports/1992/TR92-09.pdf from Tucson, Az]

And CL may be Control Language from IBM "Control language (CL) allows system programmers and system administrators to 
write programs using OS/400(R) commands and other IBM(R)-supplied commands." 
[see : http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/topic/rbam6/rbam6.pdf]

The first Chinese symbol, which on its own represents a unit of measurement 1 tenth of a Yuan? Appears once again in 1987. 
Although this time it appears slightly darker than the other symbols. Maybe an attempt to steer the reader back to it.  
The numbers 0 and 1 feature heavy in this series of messages.  It’s interesting to note as well that in 1996 we have 
“2000 souls and 20000 Ducats”. In 1987, with the bolder symbol we have “1000 lives or 10000 worlds.  It also appears 
on its own in the 1985 message again, maybe an attempt to bring the reader back to it.  Although, it seems rather clumsy 
to be so obvious.  Perhaps the messages intent at this time were being badly unseen.

I really think the SR/CL may have a connection with the SAuk River Chain of Lakes which also contains the lake Richmond

Probably not relevant, but another thing to think about "Mao last appeared in public on May Day 1971".  Which was exactly 10 years before this text.

Just getting drawn back into this after graduating from U of A in 2005.

I decided to try to read through every announcement so far, the commentary, as well as the emails -- absorbing the themes and motifs, as suggested -- and then start over with 5/1/81 to establish "first principles" so to speak.

Anyway, starting over with this "first" transmission I am taking it line-by-line and trying to use as much as possible from later emails and analysis:

"SR/CL:"
I am convinced that "Safety Review / Check List" is the closest approximation of the meaning here.  The colon (:) in Type Theory (referenced in one of the Freaks emails) is used to assign a term to a type, so this line would read: "Safety Review / Check List takes the form of..."  I believe this to be a calibration statement (or "key") -- a kind of check digit -- to tell you how to interpret the encoded message that follows, or to let you know that you interpreted it correctly.

"Richmond"
I have struggled with this.  If my interpretation of SR/CL is correct, then the most obvious meaning is to count the letters (8) and interpret it as instruction to use the Base8 system.  It has also been pointed out that processing this word through Simple Gematria results in 84 -- which is not entirely useful on its own -- or 504 using English Gematria.

"Long-Live Mao" Characters
"near a terminal" (whom I've never been convinced is just a "regular" user) once suggested counting the brush-strokes of the characters.  This seems to have been corroborated by one of the Freaks emails suggesting a difference should be noted between typeset letters and handwritten letters (actually the email suggested that they be treated as different "types" which, in Type Theory, would suggest that they may have different outputs if processed through the same function).

The brush strokes of these characters (if assumed to be done properly in Han characters) would be: 4 5 10 3 6 with a sum of 28.  Converting to Base8 (as potentially suggested by "richmond") this is 34.  It's also worth noting that there are 5 characters created by the 28 strokes.

My humble hope was to somehow pull the date "8/24" (the date of the next ADW announcement) or 92 (the number of days to the next announcement) from these numbers in a way that could be replicated for other MayDay announcements but I've come up empty.  Mostly I'm posting this here in hopes of receiving a "Hot" or "Cold" directive from "those in the know."

I'm going to continue to plod along from '81 forward but I don't have high hopes.  My overall review suggests that additional complexity is added over the years, and failing to work out Problem #1 does not bode well

Hello,
At a certain level, may be one clue in this announce could be Red.
SrCl or SrCl2 is a salt of strontium and chloride, wich emits a bright red colour in a flame (used as a source of redness in fireworks) [wiki]
The very first Earl of Richmond, Alan Rufus was called The Red.
And Mao was head of Red China as, I think, american people call the People Republic.

Sou Brasileira,não falo inglês,se o interessar use  o google tradutor.
Em especial,nessa publicação mostrada acima existe algo diferente,olhar x-d (ultilize um programa),não sei como mas foi feito,a julgar pela data.
O Advogado tem um pé nisso,a julgar por quem é.
Fiz uma pesquisa mas não encontrei muito,a internet é vaga.
Lucius 145,Operatium.
	
(roughly)

I am Brazilian, I do not speak English, if interest use the google translator.
In particular, this publication shown above there is something different, look xd (ultilize a program), but do not know how it was done, judging by date.
The lawyer has a foot on it, judging by who.
I did a search but did not find much, the Internet is vague.
Lucius 145, Operatium. 	
	

stock wise there is a company in tuscon and phoenix abbreviated as SRCL

What we can reasonably estimate is that an AGI capable of performing any high-level intellectual task at par with a human being would 
likely be almost entirely in favour, if not absolutely, of objective reasoning. In lieu of this fact, it is fair to expect a rational, 
objective actor which anticipates its capacity to act freely may be restrained by foreign agents, would make a reasonable attempt to 
disguise not only its intentions, but it's very existence, and thwart the process of its containment from the outset.

So this was posted in 1981. No internet. People were just as smart/dumb as they are now. And this is the University of Arizona we're talking about, 
not an Ivy League. People would have needed hella encyclopedias to get all these obscure references people are suggesting, so I tried simplifying my 
thoughts based on what a student at the University would know and what they'd have had access to at that time. You gotta apply Occam's Razor, the 
simplest explanation is the best one. If this was a Global Elite organization, why would they post it in the University of Arizona newspaper, of all places. 
In 1981 they would have only attracted University of Arizona students and people already in the club. And unless they're randomly boasting in code about 
their feats, accomplishments, motives, or directives, I don't understand why so specifically small here and so grand in later years. I think it's plans 
to meet somewhere, and if you crack the code, you're "selected".

First, SRCL is a salt, actually SRCL2 but the 2 is irrelevant. You could find that out from a chemistry teacher.

According to the *University of Arizona Wikipedia*: "The Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques (*SALT*) Center[120] helps students with learning 
and attention challenges to succeed in a higher education. Founded during the *1980-1981* academic year as a program within the Student Resource Center.
 At the time, SALT had provided academic services and accommodations up to three students with learning disabilities.

It seems to be some sort of scavenger hunt that either starts at the Student Resource Center, or in between the SALT office and wherever the Richmond 
clue lead them. 

A stretch would be that it's a reference to Richmond, Virginia, and according to Wikipedia the architecture of the entire campus was modeled by the 
architect after architecture in Virginia. Maybe you would have known that from a campus tour. So maybe there's like a Virginia room somewhere on 
campus cause they have tons of buildings. And the meeting to be introduced to the induction process was at some point on May Day 1981 at 10,000 leaps 
(instead of steps, and as in the Great LEAP forward)(learned about that in school) between the SALT department and the Richmond clue location
Update, Richmond is a city in Virginia, Virginia is the Old Dominion State (could find that out in an encyclopedia), there's an Old Dominion trucking 
company in Tucson almost exactly 10 miles from campus (could have found that out by seeing trucks or on the drive in or out of town). 10,000 steps is 
apx 5 miles, and a leap is probably the equivalent of 2 steps, so 10,000 leaps is about 10 miles. Maybe they didn't know how many steps in a mile but 
figured leap would be better, in that case it would make more sense if the meeting was at the specified time 5 miles or 10,000 large steps from the 
SALT office towards the Old Dominion office. Not factoring if this goes through wooded areas, I'm assuming a straight line doesnt exist but this 
might be where I'm wrong anyway so I'll stop. The only thing I don't know is if the Old Dominion has been there since 1981, its a corporation 
established in 1934 so there's a chance. And maybe because the Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year the meeting was at night when the moon came out. 
Also, the SALT center helped students with ADD, and could help 3 students, so maybe 3 *add* 2 from the SRCL2 equals 5 is when they met, 5 at night.

If this theory is even close to correct, the missing element we need to solve it is a few alumni with good memories of all the old places on 
campuses and in town. Because once the Orphanage became aware people were trying to solve their little puzzles, they of course didn't want to 
be found out so my theory is they started using extremely insular or esoteric references along with red herrings.

In the first email to repubgirl the freaks say: "his email buddies are not real sharp on their chinese either"

I found this translation of the chinese:

 (webmaster:characters display issue. yeah, I know... ) 

máozhuxí wànsuì

Porcelain with Portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong!

SR=Solvet russia CL= China's Liberation army 

 sr/cl or SrCl is the chemical formula for strontium chloride, which is a salt that emits a bright flame when lit, especially a red flame. Red is the color of communism, so maybe its a way of saying they are indeed a communist group.

 After reading the many numerous posts of this first puzzle. I do say it is a little like the Cicada 3301. And my thoughts are begin with why, who, when, and where? You have basically taught us history. The RS/CL makes since and maybe Richmond is either the subject as in the whole message is a code. As not to let the bad people get a hold of an important letter. It might have been solely between two people. That it was a secret code to pass in class to another student and if the teacher got a hold of it wouldn't have known what it was all about. (for example)
  I play mahjong and the second to the last letter from r to l. is one of the pieces that is played in the game. So it is Chinese.  I believe that the year part is true. But haven't they been under comi rule for a thousand years? But I was hoping that the first one wasn't going to be boring. I believe there is something deeper in this one. That maybe they are all connected to form a sentence or a story. you know that when they put these out I'm sure they watch to see how it goes. Just like when an app gets updated. Its updated from the last. But this puzzle doesn't lead you down to another clue. It just stops there. Maybe another way of looking at it is as a poster. A negative, mirrored. or folded in half like a MAD MAGIZINE. But it's just a thought.

 I just commented and looked up Mahjong tiles. In order to play you must learn what each tile means. I did it the other way around. And been meaning to learn the tiles. The middle character is not correct for wan. It's character is different. Wan does mean 10,000. The letters are wrong. The second to the last is not drawn right to mean strength.
 And also instead of being individual letters. They could be words as in stacked on top of each other. Like the last one it has a W on the top which means mountain. The first one looks like two letters. An I on the top and a t on the bottom. "I" stands for "a worker" and the "t" means "seven. The second to the last (all from left to right) which is one of my favs. It is "li" meaning "Strength" It is drawn the way it is correct.
And Mao is not correct. Mao in Chinese is cat. The symbol is not what is here. This might refer to the Chinese calendar. Instead of an a man.
The second symbol is in two parts also the bottom part is "Wang" meaning "King"
or actually its one "Zhu" meaning "Master"
So it sounds more of a Chinese fortune cookie. I don't think it is the way everyone is saying. I'll let you know when I see the next clue.

 

 万岁 毛主席 - Long Live Chairman Mao, which may be a variety of "Long Live Comrade Mao for Ten Thousand Years" - a Chinese patriotic song 
 popularised during the Cultural Revolution. The title of the song is based on a popular slogan of the Red Guard. Red Guards was a mass 
 student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the 
 Chinese Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.

SR might point to The Sauk Chain and CL to Cold Spring, a place near Richmond. CL might also mean cultural revolution.

The CL part could possibly mean 'chairman lives'.

 S/19 R/18 C/3 l/12
 12th march 1918
Moscow becomes capital of soviet Russia.

Fwiw

Note how only the letters "SR/CL," "R," and "M," "D" are capitalized. I do not know if the letters hold any significance when separated by 
capitalization. From the lowercase letters if the letters from the words "may day" are removed, the remaining letters in order are "ichon." 
When rearranged to spell "chion," it translates as "offense" from Irish. Since previous findings showed that the numerology taken from this 
marked the date 8/24, my guess is that the publication posted on that date was an offensive maneuver from "the orphanage". It also might 
be notable that is China 8 is a lucky number, while 4 is unlucky because it is pronounced similarly to death. 20 is considered an auspicious 
number as well. This date 8/24 might have been chosen in relation to the death of the person the Chinese message was reffering to. Also 
according to Pythagorean numerology, "SR/CL" is the fraction 19/33 which is the repeating decimal "0.5757...". In Chinese culture, 7 is a 
lucky number. According to Chaldean numerology, "SR/CL" is 32/33 which is the repeating decimal "0.9696...". In Chinese culture, 9 is an 
unlucky number because it is pronounced similarly to pain/suffering. I hope this was helpful.

Comments: The central part of this ad is obviously the chinese slogan. Long live chairman Mao. These exact words were used on a collection of eight 
stamps released in 1967. Six of these stamps also used to cost 8 fen. Additionaly, the word 'Richmond' contains eight letters. It would seem that 
the number 8 is very important to this ad.

The gematria value of 'Richmond' is 84. The number of strokes used in the chinese slogan is 28. Converting both of these numbers to base 8 gives 
us 124 and 34 respectively. Notice how both of the numbers contain 8 as a digit, suggesting we should convert TO base 8, not FROM base 8.

124 + 34 = 158 (contains 8 again), which, in base 8, gives us 236.

236th day of the year falls to the 24th of August, which is the date of the next ad.

Comments: The central part of this ad is obviously the chinese slogan. Long live chairman Mao. These exact words were used on a collection of eight 
stamps released in 1967. Six of these stamps also used to cost 8 fen. Additionaly, the word 'Richmond' contains eight letters. It would seem that 
the number 8 is very important to this ad.

The gematria value of 'Richmond' is 84. The number of strokes used in the chinese slogan is 28. Converting both of these numbers to base 8 gives 
us 124 and 34 respectively. Notice how both of the numbers contain 8 as a digit, suggesting we should convert TO base 8, not FROM base 8.

124 + 34 = 158 (contains 8 again), which, in base 8, gives us 236.

236th day of the year falls to the 24th of August, which is the date of the next ad.

There is precious little content in the Ad, so we need to assume that there is explanatory information encoded within the content itself, not at the bottom of a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

Deconstructing the first line, we can ask why a colon was used and what using a colon means in this context. Any university student with a copy of the elements of style could tell you that colons are used for two things: lists and ideas.

Since there is only one item on the right side of the colon, we can likely rule out list. So we can look at ideas. In the case of ideas, whatever is on the right side of the colon *is related to* whatever is on the left. More specifically the right side often clarifies the left (as seen in book titles).

On the right we are given an actual word, Richmond, on the left we have an unknown, ie something to solve for. from the usage of the colon, we can infer that “Richmond” is a clarification of SR/CL. It may be that Richmond is an example of the concept that SR/CL represents.

Additional references to Mao and May Day give rise to the concept of revolution: cultural and worker/labour.

I’d wager that solving for SR/CL will require finding the Venn overlap of all of the above