Get the inside track on Fringe

Essential linkage: Ars Technica offers up a guide to the secret messages and codes of JJ Abrams' cult sci fi show Fringe.

We like a good puzzle, and we love weird science. Those two passions converge in the excellent (though spottily broadcast) Fringe, JJ Abrams' latest mythology-to-the-max television show.

The series has a complex backstory and an overarching plot redolent with conspiracies, mad science, and meddling from towering mega-corporations. But what the show also has are a lot of insider gags, hidden clues, and ongoing hints of the greater mythology at work.

Ars Technica has come up with a guide to the most compelling of these memes, from how to play Where's Baldo, to a headsup on the many repeating rectangular patterns that crop up throughout each episode. But the most compelling of these ongoing treasure hunts is the Glyph Code:

The glyph code refers to the icons shown as the show breaks to commercial. These pictures consist of a large central picture (there have been eight unique images used to date) and a pulsing yellow dot next to it. Each episode offers usually five, and occasionally six, of these images.

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The yellow dots seem to be limited to six positions: top left, top right, middle left, middle right, bottom left, and bottom right. However, not all glyphs use a top/middle/right grouping for each of the left/right mirrors. For example, the apple with the left-pointing stem uses top left, top right, and bottom left. To date no right-mirrored apples have appeared.

If you're a fan of the show the article showcases the depth of the storytelling involved in each episode, and if you're not, it'll hopefully get you to at least have a look to see what you're missing.