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HIDDEN MESSAGES by Dave Thomas SKEPTICAL ANNIVERSARIES by Tim Farley the following letters are a simple substitution cipher. If r stands for l, it will do so everywhere. solution is by trial september­1,­1972: frank searle’s photo of the sup- and error. hint: look for patterns in words; for example, the posedly two-humped was pub- scrambled phrase “JrXJ Jrq” might represent “that the.” lished in london's Daily Mail. september­9,­2002: an altercation outside a holly- PUzzLe wood hotel ended when astronaut Buzz aldrin punched moon landing denier Bart sibrel. Police declined to “f BX aBCfIGC ofCD VCsafhfCZ, charge anyone in the incident, the video of which circu- lated widely. PsC GyC ofCD CDyVI oDy BJI september­12,­1957: James Vicary claimed in a press aJysh ye fC.” conference that he had increased the sales of Coca- Cola and popcorn in a fort lee, new Jersey, movie the- —IhfCD VfCoItt ater via subliminal advertising. five years later (to the day) he admitted in an interview with Advertising Age cLUe:­z­=­y that the test was highly flawed.

PreVioUs­PUzzLe­soLUtion­(July/august­2012):­"reLigions­are­concLU- september­25,­1987: a federal court found the ameri- sions­for­Which­the­facts­of­natUre­sUPPLy­no­maJor­Premises." can Medical association had illegally attempted to —­amBrose­Bierce “contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession” in sUPer-secret­Word:­UnWorshiPaBLe the antitrust case Wilk v. AMA. the ruling was upheld (Instructions: www.nmsr.org/secretword.htm) through several appeals. october­9,­1992: a meteor with a pronounced green color was sighted throughout the northeastern united states, prompting many ufo reports. a meteorite hit a parked car in Peekskill, new york, and was recovered. Hidden Messages Puzzle Contest october­20,­1967: the often-seen “Patterson-Gimlin” Submit your solution by email to [email protected] footage of an alleged sasquatch was shot in a national or via postal mail to: Benjamin Radford The Last Laugh forest area in California. P.O. Box 3016 Corrales, NM 87048 Winner will be chosen at random from the first three correct october­23,­1892: the popular “duck-rabbit” optical il- submissions received by both email and postal mail. lusion, later popularized by psychologist Joseph Jas- trow, was first published in Fliegende Blätter, a German humor magazine. July/August 2012 Hidden Messages Puzzle Contest Winner: robert­Boles october­26,­1997: the last natural case of smallpox this­issue's­prize:­a Surly-Ramics necklace, was diagnosed in somalia. eradication of this disease courtesy of surlyramics.com via vaccination is one of the greatest successes of sci- ence-based medicine. Tim Farley is a research fellow with the Educational Foundation and created the website whatstheharm.net. GET FUZZY BY DARBY CONLEY

©2009 Darby Conley. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL UCLICK for UFS. All rights reserved. 66 Volume 36 Issue 5 |