Hmmm....

May 20, 2009 9:58 AM

Can you help me solve this picture puzzle from Roland Soong's Eastsouthwestnorth website?

Here's the link to the story: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905b.brief.htm#016"

and here's Roland's hint: "Answer: Okay, this is looks to be too hard for some people, so I'll have to offer more hints. First, divide the photo into two halves down the middle. How many people are on the left? How many people are on the right? That is the first part. By this time, you know that what you need to look for in order to find the second part of the answer. You can see it quite clearly if you take this photo and invert the colors (i.e. black into white and white into black). As I say, you have to very sharp-eyed (or paranoid) to be able to spot the message."

I've been staring at it for a few minutes and don't see anything wrong with the photo even after inverting colours.

posted by reformedjerk to grab bag (13 comments total)

All the people on the left are smiling, those on the right are frowning?

6 people on the left, 4 on the right?
posted by BadMiker at 10:16 AM on May 20

The hand holding the sign looks a bit off.
posted by jquinby at 10:21 AM on May 20

...that is, it looks to me like it belongs to the guy who's cut off on the far right edge of the photo.
posted by jquinby at 10:21 AM on May 20

IANC (I am not chinese) The flagpole is covering one of the chinese symbols, does this change the meaning of the sentence on the sign?
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:23 AM on May 20

FWIW this is a machine translation of the link on the page:

West China some newspaper publishes six FOR advertisement to pass through as follows (conformity some net friend blog): May 12 this advertisement picture sees the link. After printing nearly 300,000, prints the factory to perceive that stops India immediately and destroys. Before this in edition, date inaccurate (14th), advertisement content basic accurate. But this issue of newspaper indeed has not entered the circulation.

Could the number 21 be the wrong date?

...that is, it looks to me like it belongs to the guy who's cut off on the far right edge of the photo.

I thought so too but play with the image in photoshop (for instance convert to B&W and play with the gamma). That 'guy' is actually the coat of the woman holding the microphone.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:25 AM on May 20

Six left, four right = 6-4 = the usual Chinese shorthand for the Tiananmen massacre (六。四), enchanced by the 1989 visible on the young lad's jeans (front row, left).
posted by Abiezer at 10:25 AM on May 20 [2 favorites]

Forgot to add, 6-4 because the 4th of June, if that's not obvious.
posted by Abiezer at 10:27 AM on May 20

Wow, I think abiezer has it for sure.
posted by jquinby at 10:28 AM on May 20

... well the boy on the far left has '1989' on his pants, and is doing a V for victory sign with his hand. Could this be interpreted as a political statement in support of the Tinanmen (sp?) square protest?
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:28 AM on May 20

I think Abiezer's interpretation also fits the clue about having to be paranoid too.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 10:34 AM on May 20

Wow. I think Abiezer has it! Thanks guys!
posted by reformedjerk at 10:35 AM on May 20

6 left and 4 right. .

When I inverted it the letters NIK K stick out more than anything. Hope this helps.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 10:37 AM on May 20

Yea, Abiezer's right. Know anything beyond Roland's (and the twitter link's) description? I can't imagine the fund or ifeng.com being involved with this. Who bought the ad, I wonder.
posted by FuManchu at 11:42 AM on May 20