... and $257 in $1 bills, not pictured here.

Delivery contents:

the box
general contents
a letter (read below)
letter contents
white page 1
white page with top folded back
arabic (?) snippet, and a soap wrapper

Hi Bryan,
I hate to be a nuisance, but could you possibly enlarge the arabic (it is arabic script btw) and set it so that it's straight
please :).  I don't fancy that we'll get anyone who speaks arabic looking at it unless we're very lucky, so I was gonna have a bash
and see what I can do - 'cept, with it being handwritten it's kinda hard to make out.
Re. the soap wrapper - bit of an odd contribution, probs it'll be something to do with the construction of the wrapping, the way
it's folded - but it may also be worth noting re the inclusion of Arabic text, that many Muslims regard Western soap products as
unclean cos animal products are used in their manufacture from non-halal slaughtered livestock and possibly the forbidden pig.

clue:  Re. the red letter, that's just about it being Easter I guess - a 'red letter day' - "The expression comes from the
long-established practice of using red ink to indicate holy days in ecclesiastical calendars. A red-letter day--literally a day
written in red letters--was a holy day, or church festival"

 Re the Australian Leatherwood soap wrapper - Leatherwood, Eucryphia lucida: "Leatherwood is a very common Tasmanian tree in
wet forests from sub-alpine to lowland situations. It belongs to the family Eucryphiaceae that is closely allied to Rosaceae and
Saxifragaceae. Four other species of Eucryphia occur in Australia, another endernic to Tasmania, E.milliganii, one in Victoria and
New South Wales coastal districts, E.moorei, and two recently discovered species from Queensland, E.wilkiei and E.jinksii" It
appears to be most notable for it's use in honey production, 70% of Tasmanian honey is produced from the nectar of its flowers.
http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/APOL34/jun04-3.html
The binomial - 'Eucryphia' means 'well-covering', 'lucida' means shining/ bright / brilliant / full of light.


Among other things, I wonder whether the number 257 is indicating the date 25/7 - the 25th July - although that's the
British (and other's, I guess) way of writing it.  I reckon maybe these communications that they send are not just for the benefit
of Bryan and us folks who look at this site - they could be communicating with each other through this stuff - I mean, if they're
using announcements in student newspapers for that, why not here also?  It would make sense of their encouragement that Brian keep
it going, and insistence to be sure not to lose any of it.

The "Leatherwood Collection" soap, if you go here:

http://www.portergroup.com.au/a1.washroom/orders/leatherwood.shtml

Costs $25.70 for a carton of 400 (15gm soap squares).

Not a coincidence, I suspect.


Curiously enough, in this New Yorker story recently posted to their site about
two mathematicians' quest for pi, there's this quote:

"I need a fifteen-forty controller. . . . No! No! No! I don't need anything
else! Just the controller! Just a naked unit! Naked! How much you charge?. . .
Two hundred and fifty-seven dollars?'

http://newyorker.com/archive/content/?050411fr_archive01

Bryan, I don't think that 'arabic snippet' is Arabic after all - I think that it's actually Urdu, which is written with a
version of the Perso-Arabic script.  

Beacon 05.26.2005

clue:  Seems Juls is correct. I spoke to several people who said it was Urdu. Will see if I can translate later.

clue:  As regards the letter and the Reference to Easter Sunday. The orphanage at least does accept the Roman calendar.
I note in a recent message to you he also suggested he would meet me in person. He does not even know who I am.
http://www.cresourcei.org/chyear.html

Don't know if this is kinda stretching things a bit but it's just something that I happened to notice.  
On the "white page 1" in the line beneath that highlighted it states that the equations for the construction 
of the 257-gon were given by Paucker in 1822.  1822 - 18:22 on the 24 hr clock would be 6.22 - 6.22 = 22nd 
June, the date of the next scheduled announcement, that of which they say "but the scheduled nature could 
only be read by the Brotherhod and the Pelagian devils"

Re. Leatherwood - I was looking at the 10 March 1993 announcement and decided to read up a little on the history of the Pima
County Courthouse building.  It seems that the second courthouse building was constructed on land purchased from a man named
Leatherwood:

"A larger Courthouse was needed.  Additional land at the northwest corner of Pennington and Court Streets was purchased from stable
owner and Sheriff Robert N. Leatherwood.  On this site a second, larger courthouse was built in 1881."

http://jp.pima.gov/Pages/history/buildings.htm

On posting this, another thought occurs - the existing courthouse is built in what is called the 'Spanish Colonial' style, yet many
of the elements of that style derive from Spain's time under Muslim rule - the dome, the 'Moorish arches', the courtyard - and here
there would seem to be a tentative connection with the Urdu.  Urdu is the language of a Muslim country, Pakistan, and it is written
with a script that derives from the Arabic which must have arrived there with the spread of Islam.  

On the March 1993 announcement, it seems that they describe the painting of the courthouse as being the 'manifest' in 'plain view,
where all the Pigs in the world can look but never see' - I guess one of the things you can see in that building is a kind of
palimpsest of conquest, with the prominent influence of Islam.  Which brings me to another thing - the Augsburg Confession -
'Confessio Augustana' June 25th 1530, which we all know and love -  was essentially an attempt to bring unity to Christendom in the
face of the threat from the Muslim Turks.  The preamble of that document states:

"Inasmuch as Your Imperial Majesty has summoned a Diet of the Empire here at Augsburg to deliberate concerning measures against the
Turk, that most atrocious, hereditary, and ancient enemy of the Christian name and religion.. etc"

So.. what does all this mean?  Good question lol. Btw, I attempted to do something with the Urdu text here - but it's utterly
hopeless, no can do. :(

	Alternative meaning of 'Pelagians'

Did you know that so-called Pelagian Sea is part of Mediterranean, between Tunisia and Italy?

the Urdu (not Arabic) text appears to be a prescription label with warnings, pretty much -

Eat only with doctor's instructions / take as prescribed
Keep out of children's reach
Only sell with doctor's prescription

It's weird because it looks written, and not like a typical pharmacy label, but I can't be sure. I don't really know what it could be linked to - hopefully someone can connect it to something else??