What If It Really Went Down In The DMs? – Cicada 3301, Numbers Stations
The guys are talking about espionage in the social media age. Spencer talks about numbers stations and their 21st century counterparts, Ryan breaks down Cicada 3301 and maybe starts a chocolate factory.
Hot Topics: Numbers stations, Cicada 3301, Web Driver Torso, The German Language Is Scary, Jimmy’s Chocolate Factory, UVB-76, I’m Sorry I Can’t Do That Dave, Shakespearean Robot Wars, SierraGolf5, and much more.
Cicada 3301
Back in 2012, a strange image popped up on 4chan. It was accompanied by the following:
“There is a message hidden in this image. Find it and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few who will make it all the way through. Good Luck. 3301”
Some people were able to decipher the message, which led to another clue, and another. Solving the puzzle required a very wide base of knowledge and access to locations all over the world. Most people believe it is a recruitment tactic for some three-letter agency. There have been subsequent puzzles each year since 2012.
Numbers Stations
Numbers stations intermittently broadcast sets of numbers, usually read by an automated voice. They started during the cold war, and continue to this day. Most people think they are used for communication between spies. The Conet Project houses the largest archive of Numbers Stations recordings. One especially weird numbers station is UVB-76. It has broadcast a buzzing sound 24 hours a day, since 1973. It also seems to be broadcast from a live microphone rather than a recording.
SierraGolf5
SierraGolf5, and similar accounts, appear to be Twitter’s version of numbers stations. The accounts tweet sequences of numbers every few minutes. Some occasionally tweet lines of poetry.
The Spooky World of Numbers Stations
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