Nontrivial Games

I just burned through the latest updates to Cut The Rope, Where’s My Perry and Pudding Monsters, so I’m looking for a new waiting-for-the-train time-killer. This blog bills itself as “the best iPhone and iPad games for logic puzzles enthusiasts.” Already found two. 

DASH is happening, for the fifth year in a row. DASH (Different Area—Same Hunt) is a puzzle hunt event that happens simultaneously across multiple cities across the United States. The inaugural DASH in September 2009 spanned 8 cities. DASH 5 is currently being planned in 15 participating cities. Those cities are: Albuquerque; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Davis, CA; Half Moon Bay, CA; London; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; and Washington, DC. If you live in one of those, gather up a few friends and join. I’ve done it for the last two years and had an absolute blast. Damn right I’ll be doing it again this year.
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DASH is happening, for the fifth year in a row.

DASH (Different Area—Same Hunt) is a puzzle hunt event that happens simultaneously across multiple cities across the United States. The inaugural DASH in September 2009 spanned 8 cities. DASH 5 is currently being planned in 15 participating cities.

Those cities are: Albuquerque; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Davis, CA; Half Moon Bay, CA; London; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; and Washington, DC. If you live in one of those, gather up a few friends and join. I’ve done it for the last two years and had an absolute blast. Damn right I’ll be doing it again this year.

The Boat Captain Puzzle

How old is the captain, how many children has he, and how long is his boat? Given the product 32118 of the three desired numbers (integers). The length of the boat is given in feet (is several feet), the captain has both sons and daughters, he has more years than children, but he is not yet 100 years old.

From NYT’s Numberplay blog.

The Hidden Synagogue

Via atcaskstrength on Reddit:

I got this from grandfather before he died. First used by hidden Jews during the inquisition, it is shaped like a teapot, but contains many secret Judaica pieces. The Hidden Synagogue.

Click through to see the whole thing disassembled. It’s quite a thing. (Thx Ben)

Puzzle #101: Homophonic twist

(This puzzle appeared this past Sunday on NPR’s Weekend Edition puzzle segment with Will Shortz. You have until Thursday at 3pm EST to answer and try to get on the air.)

Take a common English word. Write it in capital letters. Move the first letter to the end and rotate it 90 degrees. You’ll get a new word that is pronounced exactly the same as the first word. What words are these?

Update: There are apparently two answers. One of them (the one I intended) has an interesting extra feature: if you remove that letter entirely, you’re left with a new word, one that is pronounced differently than the originals.

The 2013 USC Puzzlehunt is apparently afoot, but as to what’s going on or how you enter or what the prize is, your guess is as good as mine.
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The 2013 USC Puzzlehunt is apparently afoot, but as to what’s going on or how you enter or what the prize is, your guess is as good as mine.

Here’s a fun poker puzzle from last year’s World Puzzle Championships, as seen on Wordplay, the NYT crossword puzzle blog. You have a deck of 28 cards: 8 through ace in four suits. Arrange 25 of these cards in the five-by-five grid so that the 12 named poker hands appear in the rows, columns and diagonals. The location of some cards and suits are given.
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Here’s a fun poker puzzle from last year’s World Puzzle Championships, as seen on Wordplay, the NYT crossword puzzle blog.

You have a deck of 28 cards: 8 through ace in four suits. Arrange 25 of these cards in the five-by-five grid so that the 12 named poker hands appear in the rows, columns and diagonals. The location of some cards and suits are given.
I had no idea you could encrypt messages with amino acids. This is incredible on all fronts, and if I had thought of this tattoo design, I would have seriously considered getting it.
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I had no idea you could encrypt messages with amino acids. This is incredible on all fronts, and if I had thought of this tattoo design, I would have seriously considered getting it.

A regex crossword

From this year’s MIT Mystery Hunt. I hope the solution is as amazing as the concept.

Challenge #23: Oscar Food 2013 Time again for the annual Oscar Food Challenge, where you make the puns, and we make the food. For inspiration, here is last year’s post, with a bevy of good/terrible ideas in the comments. And here is the list of movies nominated for Best Picture: Amour Argo Beasts Of The Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Misérables Life Of Pi Lincoln Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty The full list is here. Some ideas we’ve already come up with: Hushpuppies Beets of the Southern Wild Mango Unchained Filet Miserables I Dreamed a Creampuff Gyro Dark Thirty Worchestorture sauce Esc-Argo Fattiest Stephens Torpedo Juice (from The Master) Pie of Life Post as many ideas as you have in the comments. The best ones will get posted in a follow-up — and the cream of the crop will get created in our kitchen for our party on the 24th.
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Challenge #23: Oscar Food 2013

Time again for the annual Oscar Food Challenge, where you make the puns, and we make the food. For inspiration, here is last year’s post, with a bevy of good/terrible ideas in the comments. And here is the list of movies nominated for Best Picture:

  • Amour
  • Argo
  • Beasts Of The Southern Wild
  • Django Unchained
  • Les Misérables
  • Life Of Pi
  • Lincoln
  • Silver Linings Playbook
  • Zero Dark Thirty

The full list is here. Some ideas we’ve already come up with:

  • Hushpuppies
  • Beets of the Southern Wild
  • Mango Unchained
  • Filet Miserables
  • I Dreamed a Creampuff
  • Gyro Dark Thirty
  • Worchestorture sauce
  • Esc-Argo
  • Fattiest Stephens
  • Torpedo Juice (from The Master)
  • Pie of Life

Post as many ideas as you have in the comments. The best ones will get posted in a follow-up — and the cream of the crop will get created in our kitchen for our party on the 24th.

uchicagoadmissions:

We don’t really even know how to start this post. Yesterday we received a package addressed to “Henry Walton Jones, Jr.”. We sort-of shrugged it off and put it in our bin of mail for student workers to sort and deliver to the right faculty member— we get the wrong mail a lot… When our student mail worker snapped out of his finals-tired haze and realized who Dr. Jones was, we were sort of in luck: this package wasn’t meant for a random professor in the Stat department. It is addressed to “Indiana” Jones.

…

Internet: help us out. If you’re on Reddit (we’re not) or any other nerdly social media sites where we might get information about this, feel free to post far and wide and e-mail any answers, clues, ideas, thoughts, or musings to indianajonesjournal@uchicago.edu  (yes, we did set up an email account just to deal with this thing). 

This is incredible.

Mazelog is a collection of original logic maze puzzles. Unlike conventional mazes, the route through these mazes is defined not by paths and walls, but by logical rules determining how you can move (via Mazelog - Original Logic Maze Puzzles)
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Mazelog is a collection of original logic maze puzzles. Unlike conventional mazes, the route through these mazes is defined not by paths and walls, but by logical rules determining how you can move

(via Mazelog - Original Logic Maze Puzzles)