| | Good evening. Listen up, cryptographers and anyone who likes playing the game Clue: The CIA’s most-famous unsolved puzzle is going up for auction. Quick background: Kryptos, a world-famous cryptography sculpture at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was installed in 1990 by artist Jim Sanborn with guidance from retired CIA cryptographer Ed Scheidt. It contains four coded passages. - Three have been deciphered, yielding a fragment of poetry, a deliberate misspelling of “illusion,” and an account of Howard Carter peering into Tutankhamun’s tomb.
- The final section—a 97-character passage known as K4—remains one of the world’s most famous unsolved ciphers.
Many have tried to figure it out. Sanborn told the New York Times that he’s received tens of thousands of emails over the decades from people guessing that they’ve cracked the code (they didn’t). At one point, he began charging $50 per emailed guess simply to manage the deluge of amateur solutions, and is now ready to pass the responsibility of sifting through them to someone else. The money code: On his 80th birthday this November, Sanborn will auction off the full solution to K4, along with his original notes and prototypes, for an expected price of $300,000-$500,000. P.S. Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe to The DONUT’s AM/PM updates here. |
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📜 August 22: On This Day in History |  | A patently good pitch |  Image: Wikimedia Commons/Alibaba | Each of the following events happened on August 22. Your challenge is to put them in the order in which they occurred by year, earliest to latest. Answers at the bottom! - A) William Sheppard receives the first US patent for liquid soap. However, his invention doesn’t reach the mass market until 100+ years later, when the Minnetonka corporation concocts and commercializes a modern version of the recipe.
- B) Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first MLB pitcher to register 5,000 strikeouts. He’s still the only player to have ever accomplished this feat.
- C) The NS Savannah, the world’s first atomic-powered merchant ship, arrives in Savannah, Georgia, on the first stop of its maiden voyage, which is intended to promote peaceful uses of nuclear power.
- D) Court papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court disclose DNA test results that link O.J. Simpson to the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Hint: Let Sheppard be your first guide |
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🔗 Conjoiner: A DONUT Original Word Game | | Break a leg | Today’s Conjoiner sequence is a Wicked-good time. See for yourself👇. The first clue of today’s sequence is: “If you’re going to see a play, you’re going to see ______”... |
| | Play the sequence here |
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🧩 The Puzzle Corner | | MiniToday’s mini crossword made us promise to let it do the talking. SudokuFair warning: Diamonds and wannabe tough guys have been known to ask today’s sudoku how it got so hard. So if you’re up for a challenge (or just wanna see the grid for yourself)... |
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🐐 GOATWars: A Data-Driven Process to Determine the Best | | To do in your three-time | Click to play any (or all) of the three GOATWars’ challenges below, then pick the GOAT through a series of head-to-head matchups. This data-driven process was developed to create definitive best-of-all-time lists using a more objective approach than random bloggers just publishing controversial opinions for clicks. |
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🏆 Wednesday's GOATWars Results: The Data Is Now In | | 👟 THE GREATEST COLLECTIBLE SNEAKERS OF ALL TIME - Air Jordan 1
- Air Jordan 11
- Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 (Mocha)
Explore the full list. 🫡 THE GREATEST CAPTAINS OF ALL TIME - Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek)
- Captain Han Solo (Star Wars)
- Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek)
Explore the full list. 🍿 THE GREATEST BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH PERFORMANCES OF ALL TIME - Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock
- Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Alan Turing in The Imitation Game
Explore the full list. Note: Results are as of the published time; these lists are dynamic and may change. |
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📜 Answers | | A, C, B, D - A) 1865: William Sheppard receives the first US patent for liquid soap. However, his invention doesn’t reach the mass market until 100+ years later, when the Minnetonka corporation concocts and commercializes a modern version of the recipe.
- C) 1962: The NS Savannah, the world’s first atomic-powered merchant ship, arrives in Savannah, Georgia, on the first stop of its maiden voyage, which is intended to promote peaceful uses of nuclear power.
- B) 1989: Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first MLB pitcher to register 5,000 strikeouts. He’s still the only player to have ever accomplished this feat.
- D) 1994: Court papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court disclose DNA test results that link O.J. Simpson to the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
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