01.21.02
Dave: 
The Xerox from the first letter looks like a bad attempt to calculate the
Eigenvalues of the matrix, by my own calculations (Took me forever since I
haven't done these in 4 or 5 years!) the eigenvalues are 4, 3 and -1. If
someone could translate the Hebrew it might shed some more light on was the
handwritten portion was getting at.

That's it for now. I figured from the New Year's email you received that
they we're going to send you an invitation straight out. Maybe next time.

Mike, 01.22.02

Letter 1, Page Inside - My linear algebra is a bit rusty (can't find my 
textbook) but this looks like the steps one would take to find the 
eigenvectors/value of a matrix.  I'll keep digging and if anything looks 
interesting, I'll email that to ya.

Envelope 2, Page 1 - Mutatis Mutandis = "the necessary changes having been 
made"

Letter #2 - more graph paper

The coordinates (32.231N, 110.96W) are pretty much ground zero Tucson, Az.

Dave:
The coordinate in the second letter looks like the corner of University and
Hoft on Mapquest. You can't put the full precision in their form, but I
tweaked the raw URL parameters and it came up fine. Don't know what kind of
precision Mapquest stores data at, but I think there's a place called
Gatspy's Pizza on that corner. Close to the University, but not as busy as
Frog-n-Firkin. Might be a good meeting place. One last note on the graph
paper. The coordinate shows up exactly the same on the front and the back.
What is the possibility that whoever printed this off, put the graph paper
the in wrong orientation (Face down instead of face up.) the first time?
It's happened to everyone at least once when printing on specialized paper.
It just doesn't seem necessary to have it on both the front and the back of
the paper.

Envelope #1 - random xerox things, clocks and barometers

- Page 1, an Archimedes Screw, source unknown
- Page 2 , from "The British Clockmaker" site: "This clock was made for the Bicentennial from Ben Franklin's designs for his three wheeled wall clock. The specially designed dial has one hand and is read in four segments."
- Page 4, from "The Rolling Ball Web, note picture is courtesty of the above site, The British Clockmaker
- Page 5, same link: http://www.database.com/~lemur/rbc-power.html
- Bob: Envelope 1, Page 3, is a plastic replica of a rolling ball clock. The exact photo is reproduced here. By the way, are the rolling ball clocks references to their oft-used quote, "It will be as if time were rolled into a ball."?

Envelope #2 - hell if i know

The coordinate in the second letter looks like the corner of University and
Hoft on Mapquest. You can't put the full precision in their form, but I
tweaked the raw URL parameters and it came up fine. Don't know what kind of
precision Mapquest stores data at, but I think there's a place called
Gatspy's Pizza on that corner. Close to the University, but not as busy as
Frog-n-Firkin. Might be a good meeting place. One last note on the graph
paper. The coordinate shows up exactly the same on the front and the back.
What is the possibility that whoever printed this off, put the graph paper
the in wrong orientation (Face down instead of face up.) the first time?
It's happened to everyone at least once when printing on specialized paper.
It just doesn't seem necessary to have it on both the front and the back of
the paper.

Bill:

Envelope 2, page2.  Perhaps this is an illustration from Jules Verne's
"Journey to the Center of the Earth".  See Chapter 32, "Battle of the
Elements", as the three adventurers, adrift on their single-masted raft,
encounter a storm:

"The lightning never ceases to flash for a single instant. I can see the
zigzags after a rapid dart strike the arched roof of this mightiest of
mighty vaults. If it were to give way and fall upon us! Other lightnings
plunge their forked streaks in every direction, and take the form of globes
of fire, which explode like bombshells over a beleaguered city."

The picture might be photocopied from an illustrated harcover edition, but
as far as I can tell from my research, it's out of print.

Bill - envelope 2, page 1 (mutatis mutandis) -- anyone comment on this? some kind of runic alphabet of course, but the usual suspects -- futhark, tolkien's angerthas, etc. -- don't seem to match very well. will keep looking; best of luck in the meantime....

Envelope #3 - hell if i know, part tres

- Page 2, from http://vulcan.ee.iastate.edu/~dickerson/classes/ee324example/, class examples for an electrical engineering class at Iowa State. Class name: "Communications and Digital Signal Processing". This page: "Give the frequency domain representation for a periodic discrete signal."

The Archimedian Spiral reproduced in Envelope 3, Page 4, also appears to be copied. An exact duplicate appears here on a web page that says it was last updated in January, 1997.

Hi there

I got your runes ;-) (envelope #2, page 1) That reference to the 19th century was
all I needed, Thankyou!! :-) ...

They are from Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' (really!) -
Chapter 3.  Unfortunately I don't have a copy to hand so I had to trawl the net to
check it out.  In chapter 3 the Prof has found a *coded* runic message left by one
Arne Saknussemm, a C16th Icelandic alchemist.  This is the Profs transliteration
as the website gives it:

"mm.rnlls esrevel seecIde
sgtssmf vnteief niedrke
kt,samn atrateS saodrrn
emtnaeI nvaect rrilSa
Atsaar .nvcrc ieaabs
ccrmi eevtVl frAntv
dt,iac oseibo KediiI"

Now, the message that was sent to you isn't exactly the same, changes have been
made to some of the characters (mutatis mutandis) but this is what's given under
A.  Under B. the runes give the name Arne Rasmussemm (the last rune is a double mm
according to the Prof as they discuss the message.)

The message as you have it, I'll mark the changes with asterisks, is:

mm.rnlls esrevel seecIde
sgtssmf vn*t*elef ni*e*drke
Ktsamn atrateS *sa*odrrn
emtnaeI nvaect rrilSa
At*s*aar .n*v*crc ieaabs
cc*rmi eevt*V*l fr*A*ntv
dt,iac oseibo KediiI

Changes in normal reading order:
t - their message has e
e - theirs has t
sa - theirs has 'capitalised' S and another rune which doesn't feature elsewhere,
but which could be read as v or u (since runes don't always have a set direction)
s - theirs has v
v - theirs has s
* a d has been inserted in theirs
V - doesn't appear to be 'capitalised' in theirs
A - as V

Now, it's late here and I'm pretty tired so I may have made an error here or
there, you might want to check this over, you can find the relevant passage in
Verne's novel here:

Might also be a good idea to get hold of a regular paper copy in the library or
something and check to make sure that the website has no typo's.

Be well (don't work too hard :-))

I've just had a quick look over the runic stuff again to check it and I've just
realised that the discrepancies between the runes and the transliteration are in
the original text.  The runes as they were sent to you look like they are an exact
copy from the book, chapter 2.  The text in roman characters as it's given in the
book, chapter 3 (online version) is doesn't accord with the runes.  Weird...