Tangled Web

while others have been thankfully forgotten. Early memes and hamster dances have gone the way of free a O L c d S, never to be heard from again. Today we express ourselves online with emoticons, emojis, and cartoon dogs, unfazed by encroaching flames. But one piece of the Internet of old still lingers on in our memories. In fact,

it predates the Web as we know it. Back in the mid nineteen nineties, a series of cryptic messages haunted usenet boards, kicking off an adventure with the potential to either become an epic treasure hunt or a digital dead end. Usenet was an online venue where people would share news

and messages, sort of like today's Internet. Forums. In August of nineteen ninety six, Usenet users were bombarded with hundreds of strange messages comprised of blocks of text with no clear meaning, and they all had been sent with the same subject line, Marcovian parallax denigrate Today, As the saying goes, the Internet is forever, meaning that what we share, even if we delete it remains cataloged somewhere on the web.

That wasn't the case back then. Most users believe these Marcovian parallax messages to be spammed, so they deleted them. Many were lost. Only one still remains today. It's contents are nothing but random words and names strung together without any punctuation. On first glance, the message is meaningless. For example, it starts jitterbugging McKinley, abe break Newtonian inferring call update, and then continues on for a few dozen words or so. But it didn't take long for several curious users to

start looking deeper into the messages. Their inquiries kicked off what would become known as the first true Internet mystery, a puzzle to be solved by the web's best and brightest. One theory suggested the CIA was transmitting coded information within

the text. Another believe the key would be found in the subject line Markovian you see could have been related to the Markov chain, or a mathematical system based on the probability that one state will transition to another, for example, whether a tornado will strike a particular area based on the behavior of previous tornadoes. Users toiled over possible solutions, always coming up emp But it was one particular sender

who raised a few eyebrows years later. Her name was Susan Lindauer, and she had sent one of the messages from an email address trace back to the university in Wisconsin. Lindauer had been a journalist who in two thousand four was arrested by the FBI and charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government. In other words, she was accused of being a foreign spy. At the time the parallax messages were sent, however, she was believed to be working for the CIA. After her release, she denied

any involvement in sending any of those messages. In reality, she never had anything to do with them. The truth was a lot less exciting. There was a second Susan Lindauer. She had been a student at the University of Wisconsin. While the former journalist was living in Washington, d C. Someone had used her email address in order to hide their real one. Still strange coincidence did occur in two thousand nine, when the connection between the parallax messages and

the alleged spy Lindauer were first made. The Wikipedia page for the Markovian parallax detegrade was deleted without warning. To those who trafficked in conspiracy theories and distrust of the government. That was a giant red flag which brings us to the simplest possible explanation of all, especially for anyone who has spent more than five minutes on the Internet. It

must have been done by trolls. When the messages couldn't be deciphered or decoded, it was assumed that they were a prank or a hoax, something to rile people up in the days before Twitter and Facebook, and typically after enough time has passed, someone always steps forward to like

claim to their handiwork. Gibberish messages that have endured on the Internet for a quarter century seemed like the kind of things someone would want to own up to by now, and yet no one has all this time later, and they are still as much a mystery as they were back then. So was it an early attempt to code

a chatbot or share confidential information. We may never know the truth, but somewhere one is out there still working on a solution to the Marcovian parallax detegrate, fueled by their curiosity and the compulsive urge to be the one to type first in all caps in the comments section. Ancient, not at all, but it certainly is curious. With age and experience often comes wisdom. Those who perform difficult jobs, like doctors, pilots, and teachers, developed new perspectives shaped by

their daily lives. One of the hardest jobs in the world, or at least in America, is that of President of the United States. Just look at the hair of those who have occupied the seat dark brown or black on inauguration day, only to fade to a dreary gray by the time they leave office. One president with one of the toughest times in office was Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was first elected in eighteen eighty four, but his two terms were very different from other presidents in history in that

he did not serve them consecutively. Cleveland lost his re election in eighteen eighty eight, only to win it again four years later in eighteen ninety two. He was no stranger to higher office, as he had gone from sheriff of Erie County, New York, to the mayor of Buffalo in eighteen eighty two until he became Governor of New York in eighteen eighty three. Cleveland's rise to the presidency was fast, and with it came a lot of stress.

The Democrats spent much of his first campaign fighting corruption in Washington. His opponent, James G. Blaine, was known as greedy and immoral, causing many Republicans to defect to Cleveland's side. Unfortunately, he was not free from scandal himself. Years earlier, Cleveland had been seeing a woman named Maria Helpin. The two had a child together, and after she accused him of sexual assault, he had her locked away in an institution and the child was sent to be raised by friends.

Blaine and the rest of the GOP made sure the public was well aware of just what kind of man Grover Cleveland really was. Despite this setback, the presidential hopeful clinched his winds in every swing state, beating Blaine to become the twenty second president of the United States. However, his troubles were only at the beginning. One big issue that he and his administration faced early on was a

currency crisis. A rift had been created between two bipartisan groups of Democrats and Republicans, one of which one of the U S Dollar to be backed by silver, while the other groups stood by the gold standard. Cleveland backed gold, those in the West and the South advocated for silver, which was cheaper and could help the impoverished in those areas. The conflict resulted in a stalemate, with no changes made

on either side. Cleveland also faced numerous civil rights issues during his two terms, as well as Native American land disputes, voting rights battles, labor strikes, and countless other conflicts. All this political turmoil turned the man's hair a little grayer, his heart beat a little faster, and the stress of the job took its toll on his health. In fact, he already started feeling the effects of the presidency as early as his first term. Some days, keeping his true

feelings hidden was harder than he thought. In eighteen eighty seven, an old friend from New York had come to Washington. His name was James, and he wanted to build a canal across Panama that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Two decades before the United States would embark on such a project, James needed Congress to convince Nicaragua, which controlled the area, to let him dig his canal. He moved to Washington and lobbied for months, hoping to move the

needle in his direction. During his time there, he also made sure to drop by the White House and visit his good friend Grover Cleveland. Days before he set to move back to New York, James asked Cleveland if he could bring his son, Frank with him. Cleveland agreed, and the following day, father and son walked through the doors of six hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. On their visit, they had

arrived during one of Cleveland's rougher days. The President had been locked in his office for a long while, but James and Frank waited patiently outside. When he eventually emerged, Cleveland bent down and shook five year old Frank's hand and muttered something odd. He said, my little man, I am making a strange wish for you. May you never grow up to be president of the United States. It

wasn't something anyone expected to hear that day. Frank didn't seem to pay it any mind, though he actually went on to have quite a successful career in politics later in life. And if that unusual wish muttered to him by Grover Cleveland had seemed like some kind of an agreement, well, Frank broke it and offered a new deal instead. Voters never knew him as Frank, though to them he was the thirty second President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribed for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,