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Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
- Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
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Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
kckluge > 01-04-2022, 07:43 PM
After a pleasant dinner earlier this week that including stimulating conversation with another long-time member of the Voynich manuscript research community I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of that vexing sphinx filling my head. I dreamt that I was looking at John Dee's scrying equipment in the British Museum. Gazing into his crystal orb I found myself standing in a mist-filled void containing a lectern with MS 408 on it. The book flipped open to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. [1], and as I examined the page the snake in the root of the left plant turned to fix me with its steely gaze, speaking as follows:
Though at first glance I seem mild snake,
T'would be a foolish error to make!
No garter snake, I! Don't void your bladder --
I am, in fact, the loathsome Adder!
While I seem brown, I fade, alack!
So know, in truth, my hue is BLACK!
Heed me well, though 'tis hard to imagine it,
For I am the glorious serpent Plantagenet!
The snake loomed larger, its jaws gaping, and I found myself falling into its ravenous maw. Waking bathed in sweat, I somehow knew I had been given the key to the Voynich manuscript.
Puzzled, I did a Google search for some sort of "black adder" or "blackadder". Buried among results for William Blackadder (executed for his role in the murder of Lord Darnley), St. Andrew Blackadder Parish Church, and every Thursday being Curry Night at The Blackadder Hotel Bar & Restaurant [1], I found references to a BBC historical drama involving a fringe theory regarding the final years of the Plantagenet dynasty [2]. A thrilling dramatization that features all the historical accuracy that viewers of _I, Claudius_ had come to expect [3] from the Beeb, it follows the adventures of the Black Adder (Prince Edmumd, younger son of Richard IV (sic!)), and his associates Baldrick and Lord Percy Percy.
I pondered on how to use this information to solve the mystery of the text, when it hit me – I could use names as cribs! Let Feely search in vain for his "ovaries"; let Brumbaugh spice his theory with "pepper" and "paprika"; with the aid of "Black Adder" and "Baldrick", I had a cunning plan. I would use the pattern of common letters in the two names to find them in the cipher text in much the same way that Champollion used the shared letters in “Ptolemy” and “Cleopatra” to make an initial break into reading Egyptian hieroglyphs [5].
Initially I lined the names up as follows, with each unique letter assigned a number:
B L A C K A D D E R
1 2 3 4 5 3 6 6 7 8
B A L D R I C K
1 3 2 6 8 9 4 5
After failing to find appropriate matches to those patterns of letters, I reconsidered my approach. S. Reddy & K. Knight say, "The similarity with devoweled scripts, especially Arabic, reinforces the hypothesis that the VMS script may be an abjad." [6]. R. Zandbergen says, "Other typical features of the ciphers in Tranchedino are...that double characters are usually represented by a single code character." [7] Since there is some debate over whether spaces in the text are word separators, I decided to remove them as well. Then I tried the following modified cribs:
B L C K D R
1 2 3 4 5 6
B L D R C K
1 2 5 6 3 4
I used the D’Imperio transcription [8] for two main reasons: 1) this is an April Fool’s joke, so why not?, and 2) if you can’t trust the NSA, who can you trust? Modifying an existing Awk [9] program I use to look at k-gram statistics, I was soon pumping out possible matches to my cribs:
BLCKDR Count BLDRCK Count
[...]
ZC94OF 53 ZCOF94 2
SC94OF 55 SCOF94 2
OEZC89 67 OE89ZC 3
OESC89 108 OE89SC 3
4OFC89 201 4O89FC 2
Faced with multiple possible matches, I looked for the most common match for BLCKDR that occurred on f43v, and lo and behold, there was SC94OF! Looking at that line in the raw transcription file:
08404B 8ZC9/9FCC89/SCC2/AN/Z9/4OQC89/SC9/4OFAR/SCX9/OFAJ-
the match for BLCKDR starts after a space, but (1) has a space in the middle between ‘9’ and ‘4’, and (2) does not have a space at the end of the word. Point (1) is worth examining as it illuminates the sort of issues that lead some to question whether spaces in the manuscript are word separators. Looking at the Herbal A “language” pages in the D’Imperio transcription, 67% of the time a ‘9’ is followed by a space (1097 occurrences); 11% of the time it is followed by the end of a line (203 occurrences). It is *never* directly followed by ‘4’ without an intervening space -- the only glyphs that follow it within a "word" more than a single-digit number of times are ‘F’ (103), ‘P’ (92), ‘8’ (52), ‘S’ (51), and ‘B’ (16) (‘Z’ just misses the cutoff at 8 occurrences).
Having successfully identified two plaintext words and determined the consonantal values of six Currier glyphs, it is now necessary to explain why further application of this key produces gibberish. This is a reef multiple previous proposed decipherments using cribs have run aground on, so I see no reason not to follow their example and double down, insisting on the patently obvious correctness of the deciphered cribs and maintaining that further study will no doubt solve the problem. Beyond the far less standardized spelling common in the late 15th century, part of the incomprehensibility may be a result of Baldrick having written portions of the manuscript. While no texts written by him survive, it is known that a Victorian-era descendant of his had such appalling spelling that he gave Mr. Ebenezer Blackadder a holiday card which managed to misspell "Christmas" so badly that it didn't include any of the actual letters in the word [10].
It might also be objected that the reign of Prince Edmund’s father, King Richard IV, (1485 to 1498) falls outside the 95% probability interval of 1404 and 1435 generated by C-14 dating of vellum samples from the manuscript [11]. As it has been scientifically established that there were heaps of unused vellum just lying around waiting for later use, I don’t see that this objection has any force.
Speculating further on the yet-undeciphered content of the manuscript, I would suggest that the so-called “Zodiac” folios are, in fact, Prince Edmund’s list of conquests – similar to that of the legendary Don Juan [12] but arranged by the zodiac sign of the lady in question rather than country of residence, with Baldrick as the Prince's Leporello. Such a large set of paramours would make him a worthy great-great-great-great-grandson of Edward III, who sired so many children that one estimate has it that the probability that a Briton born in the 1970s isn't related to Edward III is as small as 0.0000000000000000000000000001 [13]. If my hypothesis is correct, then it is as least as likely that almost all current Britons have a little bit of Prince Edmund’s DNA in them as well. (Ironically, the large number of Britons with a little bit of his DNA in them was one of the reasons cited by two of the three popes at the time in their Bulls excommunicating Prince Edmund after an unfortunate incident in a nunnery in November of 1487 [14].)
Given the confirmation this provides for the reality of the reign of Richard IV (written out of the history books for centuries by people like Alison Weir [15]), an additional avenue of research this decipherment opens up is the extent to which Henry VII was responsible for the broader fabrication of British history uncovered by A. T. Fomenko and G.V.Nosovskij. They claim "...ancient and medieval English events are to be transferred to the epoch which begins from 9-10th cc....many of these events prove to be the reflections of certain events from real Byzantine-Roman history of 9-15th cc." [16]. Thus, for instance, they claim that the English King William I (conventionally 1066-1087 C.E.) and the Byzantine Emperor Theodore I Lascaris (conventionally 1204-1222 C.E.) were, in fact, the same person. While they blame Scaliger and Petavius for this confusion, the distortions of English history pointed out by the narrator in [17] suggest Henry VII as an equally likely contributor/culprit:
”History has known many great liars: Copernicus, Goebbels, St Ralph the Liar -- but there have been none quite so vile as the Tudor king Henry VII. It was he who rewrote history to portray his predecessor Richard III as a deformed maniac who killed his nephews in the Tower. But the real truth is that Richard was a kind and thoughtful man who cherished his young wards. In particular: Richard, Duke of York, who grew into a big, strong boy. Henry also claimed he won the Battle of Bosworth Field and killed Richard III. Again, the truth is very different; for it was Richard, Duke of York, who became king after Bosworth Field, and reigned for thirteen glorious years.”
No doubt additional light will be shed on those glorious years as further progress is made deciphering the manuscript following the initial chink I have opened in its armor. If so, no doubt there will be books written about me, and songs sung about me, and the History Channel will show episodes from my life weekly at half past nine starring some great heroic actor of our age in the lead role.
Assuming, of course, that Alison Weir doesn't put out a hit on me....
References:
[1] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[2] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. respectively
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[9] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[10] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (“However, be that as it may...’A Merry Messy Christmas.’ ‘Christmas’ has an H in it, Mr. Baldrick....and an R. Also an I, and an S. Also T and M and A....and another S. Oh, and you’ve missed out the C at the beginning. Congratulations, Mr. Baldrick! Something of a triumph, I think — you must be the first person ever to spell `Christmas’ without getting any of the letters right at all.” The title card at the end reveals that Baldrick had spelled it "Kweznuz" after initially trying and crossing out "Kwelfnuve.”)
[11] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[12] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[13] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[14] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (quoting the Mother Superior of the nunnery: “And finally, you got two knights drunk and invited them to come and wrestle with you inside the nunnery in an orgy of heathen perversity?...it has the unmistakable ring of truth to it, and I must therefore tell you that this morning I have written urgently to all three popes recommending your immediate excommunication. Nevermore may you be Archbishop of Canterbury!”)
[15] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[16] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
[17] You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
davidjackson > 01-04-2022, 08:28 PM
(01-04-2022, 07:43 PM)kckluge Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(Ironically, the large number of Britons with a little bit of his DNA in them was one of the reasons cited by two of the three popes at the time in their Bulls excommunicating Prince Edmund after an unfortunate incident in a nunnery in November of 1487 [14].)
That made me laugh out loud!
Here's a tip, try running the tests with the phrase BEAN, MISTER (for our international readers who might not know about Blackadder but still need an "in" into Rowan A.
)
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RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
RobGea > 01-04-2022, 11:06 PM
Lolz and very well written. -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
tavie > 02-04-2022, 01:03 AM
I can find no flaw with your approach. -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
kckluge > 01-04-2025, 09:36 AM
Since announcing the solution of the Voynich Mss. three years ago (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), I have been deluged by literally zeros of people daily wondering what progress has been made in advancing the "Blackadder solution". I thought an update was as overdue as it was lacking in any sort of reader interest.
For those unfamiliar with the saga of the House of Blackadder, seasons two through four can be viewed for free on Tubi (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Season one, which covers the life of Edmund Blackadder during the reign of his father (the erased from history Richard IV, one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower"), can be viewed on Hulu (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
As a refresher: using "Blackadder" and "Baldrick" as cribs sharing common letters in a different order, removing vowels and doubled consonants from those words, and ignoring spaces in the Voynich text resulted in finding a reference to Blackadder in a line from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- the page with a snake eating the plant root! -- with the following letter/glyph equivalents: BLCKDR = Currier SC94OF = EVA cheyqok = Frogguy ctc94olp. The pages included in the D'Imperio transcription (the opening set of herbal folios and the "bio" section) include no less than 55 references to Blackadder and 2 references to Baldrick. Note that phonetically EVA's "cheyqok" could be interpreted as a Pseudo-Romance language phrase meaning "that pr*ck," an apt description of Edmund Blackadder.
Given that this result not only provided an opening wedge into deciphering the Voynich Mss. but also absolved Richard III of the supposed murder of his nephews and established the historical reality of the reign of Richard IV one might have expected massive news coverage, but no such luck -- the evil forces of "Big Tudor" clearly suppressed the story.
Wake up, people!
* Who played Cromwell's son in season one of _Wolf Hall_? Tom Holland!
* Who does Tom Holland play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Spider-Man!
* What do spiders weave? Webs!
* And what are webs metaphors for? DECEIT -- as in "web of lies"!
The casting of Tom Holland as Cromwell's son in _Wolf Hall_ was a clear hidden message that mainstream Tudor-era history is a web of lies! The recasting of Charlie Rowe as Cromwell's son in _Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light_ was clearly just another example of "Big Tudor" trying to suppress the truth.
Watching Koen's recent video using the claimed Turkish decipherment to illustrate common problems with supposed "solutions" (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) only deepens my surprise at the lack of interest. Consider the features Koen identifies as common issues with proposed Voynich solutions. The "Blackadder solution":
* Ignores the statistical properties of the Voynich text: check! For example, EVA 'y' (actually, Currier '9' since the analysis was done using the Currier transcription alphabet) is the 3rd most common (Currier) glyph in the Bio section and the 2nd most common glyph in the opening herbal pages, but the corresponding letter 'C' is the 13th most common consonant in Middle English;
* Cherry picks obscure words as cribs: check! ("Blackadder" and "Baldrick");
* Offers short and silly translations: check! ("Blackadder" and "Baldrick"); and
* Uses the "ignorant sage" approach to the failure of the initial matches to lead to further deciphered text: check! Having made the key breakthrough and the astonishing discovery of the connection between the text of the Voynich Mss. and the supposedly fictional Edmund Blackadder I fully expected other interested parties to extend the work.
I mean, come on, I did _everything_ wrong -- a literal smorgasbord of best worst practices (or should that be worst best practices?). Where's Koen's 40+ minute video debunking the "Blackadder solution"? Who got to you, Koen? Was it Lady Antonia Frasier? Phillipa Gregory?
One common aspect of solutions that Koen missed was "half-*ssed analysis of the imagery." On that front, three years ago I suggested that the so-called “zodiac” folios are, in fact, Prince Edmund’s list of conquests – similar to that of the legendary Don Juan but arranged by the zodiac sign of the lady in question rather than country of residence, with Baldrick as the Prince's Leporello.
Looking at the women depicted with crowns in the "zodiac" folios, it has been observed that the crown depicted in the Libra folio resembles the Holy Crown of Hungary (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Recall that Edmund Blackadder married Princess Leia of Hungary (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), although the ~6-year old Leia can't be the encounter commemorated in the Libra folio if only because she didn't actually wear the Holy Crown of Hungary.
Checking the historical record, in 1492 (the year of Blackadder's marriage to Princess Leia) the Queen of Hungary was Beatrice of Naples (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Beatrice clearly married her daughter to Edmund Blackadder to gain England's support in her conflict with her late husband's illegitimate son John (János) Corvinus. Leia would have been the (legitimate) daughter of Beatrice and the late King Matthias Corvinus, and the marriage was doubtless intended to strengthen Leia's claim as heir to the Hungarian throne over the claims of her bastard brother Janos. Janos clearly conspired with England's Henry VII to erase the reign of Richard IV from European history. While some may wonder why Beatrice was willing to make her daughter Blackadder's child bride, in fairness to her Richard IV's letter suggesting an alliance offered "the hand of my son Edgar," Richard notoriously having trouble remembering the name of his second son.
An apparent problem is that the Wiki page for Beatrice of Naples lists her date of birth as 16 Nov 1457, while Libra is the sun sign for Sept 23 to Oct 22. Despite considering possibilities including precession of the equinoxes and the drift between the solar year and the Julian calendar, I was unable to find a way to shift Nov 16 to fall within Libra (either the zodiac sign or the actual constellation the sun was in). Then I discovered that the Wiki page for Beatrice's mother Isabella of Clermont (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) lists Beatrice's date of birth as "14 September/16 November 1457." 14 Sept 1457 in the Julian calendar would be 23 Sept 1457 in the Gregorian calendar -- which would make her a Libra! So not only does the Hungarian crown in the Libra folio prove that Blackadder slept with his mother-in-law, but it also resolves the uncertainty around her date of birth. Another triumph for the "Blackadder solution"!
But what about the other two crowns? Explaining their significance requires understanding how marriage worked in England in the late 15th century. One way to become married was through so-called "precontract", which was a promise to marry followed by sex (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). The Cancer and Leo crowns obviously represent women Blackadder was precontracted to because he had promised to marry them before they made love (given that Blackadder was involved, undoubtedly disgusting, sweaty love). As least one of these liaisons appears to have produced a son -- which ties the "Blackadder solution" into the Freemasons!
The unnamed (bigamous) spouses by precontract represented by the Cancer and Leo crowns would have been Blackadder's _widows_. "Is there no help for the _widow's son_?" is a Masonic distress call; in Jacobite Masonic circles, "the widow's son" came to refer to the "Old Pretender", son of the exiled James II (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Based on the "Blackadder solution," I would suggest that the supposed Jacobite meaning of "the widow's son" was a cover story to conceal its _real_ meaning -- the line of Edmund Blackadder, the legitimate kings of England. Scottish Masonry was, in fact, a front for a secret organization devoted to restoring the Blackadder line to the throne of Scotland and England. In this connection one might mention the role of Captain William Blackadder in the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots' husband Lord Darnley (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.,
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
You'll note that the forces of "Big Tudor" suborned Tony Robinson -- who played Baldrick in the BBC series portraying the glorious reign of Richard IV -- into hosting a so-called "documentary" claiming that Richard IV's father Edward IV was illegitimate, making the descendants of his brother George, Duke of Clarence, the rightful heirs to the throne (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). The evidence does not support this claim (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) -- the House of Blackadder is clearly the legitimate Yorkist Plantagenet line.
A couple quick notes on current lines of research I'm working on to advance the "Blackadder solution":
* Re: the earlier observation that Currier '9' is the 2nd or 3rd most common glyph depending on section of the mss., while 'C' is the 13th most common consonant in Middle English -- note that 'H' is the 4th most common Middle English consonant; could this reflect the names being written phonetically as "BLaHKaDdeR" and "BaLDRiHK"?
* I have found signs of a secret order of chivalry opposed to the Masonic effort to restore the House of Blackadder. They recognized each other using the passwords "Nequam! Infamis!" (Worthless, vile, bad or wicked! Of ill fame!), their description of Blackadder. Over time this was shortened to just the initials of the words, resulting in their being known as "The Knights Who Say 'NI!'"
* While I have misplaced my notes identifying the source, I came across an interesting letter by a foreign ambassador describing a conversation he had with Richard III regarding Roger Bacon's prediction of the automobile: "...I quoted Bacon on the possibility that 'a car shall be made which will move with inestimable speed, and the motion will be without the help of any living creature.' The King mused that such an invention would be so wondrous that, proudest monarch in Christendom though he might be, after death he would gladly lie beneath the structure which stabled such marvels...." So it turns out that Richard III _wanted_ to be buried under a parking garage! A deep dive into the financial and land transactions involved in the construction of the Greyfriars Social Services car park may provide critical leads to the current membership of the hidden Masonic order protecting the House of Blackadder.
* I am currently working on a novel based on the "Blackadder solution" called _The (Duh!) Voynich Code_. It concerns a tenure-track Professor of Symbolologyism at the University of Northern South Dakota at De Smet who has an Einstein-like IQ, slate grey eyes the color of an angry sea, a jawline that could cut glass, and a torso that would make an Olympic gymnast green with envy (and he's totally not a Marty Sue, I swear!). He's suspected of murdering a librarian at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris who is found laid out like the Zodiac Man, with missing parts corresponding to the zodiac signs absent from the Voynich Mss. The prof is forced to flee and try to clear his name while simultaneously avoiding assassins sent by the agents of "Big Tudor," continually crossing paths with an obnoxious Harvard competitor who has his own problems involving Mary Magdalene.
So that's the current state of the "Blackadder solution." Take the Black(adder Yorkist) Pill, not the Red (Rose of Lancaster) Pill! Follow the breadcrumbs! Do your own research!
I'll leave y'all with a brief excerpt from the current draft of _The (Duh!) Voynich Code_. To set the scene, an assassin sent by Grilippa Phegory (author of the bestselling _Fat Tudor Bastards and the Women Who Love Them Too Much_ series of historical novels) has reported his failure to stop our protagonist. Displeased at his failure, as well as the interruption of her work on a novel chronicling the life of Lady Jane Grey's 5th cousin twice removed (Netflix already being in negotiations for the miniseries rights), she pulls a lever that dumps the unfortunate minion into a pit gradually filling with some sort of fluid:
"She tried to concentrate on the chapter she was drafting as the inevitable period of splashing, screaming, and pleading went on. An engineer had told her that a pump could be installed to move the process along faster, but the house was a listed building and she didn't want to deal with the hassle of obtaining the necessary permits. Besides, it was her stated opinion that things moved far too quickly in the modern world, and in this case she thought the slow, leisurely approach best suited to impress the full extent of her displeasure on the unfortunate minion who had incurred her wrath. Finally the level of fluid in the pit rose above the bars preventing the escape of the failed assassin, and after a brief terminal flurry of thrashing silence fell over the room. After allowing a few additional minutes to elapse she got on the intercom and called the estate's head of security.
"'Yes, my lady?' he inquired.
"'I do hope I'm not interrupting your lunch,' she said apologetically, 'but I'm rather afraid there's a turd in the punch bowl.'
"'I'll send someone to deal with it immediately,' he replied. She looked down at the limp form drifting aimlessly at the bottom of the pit and thought to herself, 'Some people just can't handle their malmsey.'" -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
oshfdk > 01-04-2025, 09:56 AM
Great work! I can give you one missing piece, if you don't mind: did you realize that if you read BLACKADDER backwards and then read the result backwards too, you'll get BLACKADDER again! Try it, it's amazing! What other proof do these people need?
By the way, is it true (I know it's not the right day to ask "is it true" questions, but still), is it true that April 1st was already celebrated in the XV century and if so, could there be a specifically jolly nymph in the MS for this day? -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
tavie > 01-04-2025, 10:37 AM
I would be happy to help with your research, on the condition that you renounce Currier and embrace the one true transcription system EVA. It's what Blackadder would have done (and the majority of the letters in "EVA" are also to be found in his name. Coincidence? I think not.) -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
kckluge > 01-04-2025, 11:10 AM
An anonymous correspondent has pointed out to me that:
a) Season one of Blackadder first aired in the summer of 1983;
b) the reading of EVA "cheyqok" as a reference to Blackadder as "che c*ck", i.e. "that pr*ck", relies on the specific phonetic values assigned to Voynich Mss. glyphs by the EVA transcription alphabet, which was created in the late 1990's,
Based on those paltry data points, my correspondent claims that this constitutes proof not only that the Voynich Mss. is a modern forgery, but is also proof that time travel is possible and will one day be created, his outlandish theory being that at some point after the invention of time travel a mischievous time traveler will go back in time to the early 1400's and purchase a supply of vellum which they will then use to forge the Voynich Mss., going back in time again to plant it in the collection of Jesuit manuscripts in which Wilfrid Voynich found it.
This is, of course, absurd. Our current understanding is that creating a time machine would require a supply of matter than has negative mass (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), and as attractive as the possibility of (for instance) food that literally weights less than nothing might be, it is unclear that matter with negative mass exists. Given the positive mass of evidence I have provided, Occam's Razor surely favors the Voynich Mss. as proof of the historical reality of Edmund Blackadder. -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
kckluge > 01-04-2025, 11:29 AM
Tavie, while I (and I suspect the late Glen Claston) will happily concede that Edmund Blackadder would have enthusiastically embraced the EVA transcription alphabet, I don't think that's the glowing recommendation you seem to think it is :-). Also, despite being the godparent of a variety of statistical analyses of the text of the Voynich Mss. (having done some of the very early quantitative work on the verbose cipher theory) I refuse to renounce Prescott Currier and all his works. Plus, I'm not sure WWBD? (What Would Blackadder Do?) is a sound life philosophy, although I'll happily go in on the merchandising of WWBD? bracelets (complete with enamel snake with synthetic ruby eyes). -
RE: Breaking Apr 1st news! MS 408 proves Blackadder actually existed!
MarcoP > 01-04-2025, 04:25 PM
For some reason, I had missed the 2022 post, I am glad the thread was revived.
One of my favorite bits, but this is all very well thought, so it's a hard choice:
Quote:He's suspected of murdering a librarian at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris who is found laid out like the Zodiac Man, with missing parts corresponding to the zodiac signs absent from the Voynich Mss.