Regruntled.com

Conceptis is launching a new puzzle.  A sample puzzle is on the left, the solution on the right.  The numbers obey the same row and column restrictions as sudoku.  The blocks have to satisfy the math clues in the upper left.  For example, 20X means that the three numbers have to satisfy A * B * C = 20.  Might be 1, 4 and 5 or 2, 2 and 5.  The interesting thing about these puzzles is that they start out with no digits filled in.

I’ve been solving Conceptis sudokus in the newspaper for some time now.  My only complaint is that they’re too easy.  The KenDokus look pretty easy too.  The 3X block has to be 1, 1 and 3 with the 3 in the corner to prevent the 1s from being in the same row or column.  The same is true of the 5X block since 5 is also prime.  So we already have four of the 1s filled in, and the row and column constraints leave only one spot for the fifth 1.  And so forth.  Too easy.  Maybe a 9-by-9 KenDoku would be more challenging.

I’m usually skeptical of attempts to market variations of a classic puzzle.  These things seem like solutions in search of a problem, or products in search of a market.  I don’t want something similar to a sudoku, but different.  I don’t want:

New!  Improved!  Now with baking soda!

I want something exactly like a sudoku, but harder.

Air Art from flip on Vimeo.

 

Radio controlled, helium for lift, fins for propulsion.

Speech	Grade level
Kennedy Inaugural Address	10.8
Reagan “Tear Down This Wall”	9.8
Lincoln “Gettysburg Address”	9.1
Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream”	8.8
Obama 2004 Democrat Convention	8.3
Obama Victory Speech “Yes, We Can”	7.4

Global Language Monitor analyzed the words in several speeches and assigned grade levels, or reading levels, to each.  There are a number of readability metrics and they pretty much agree on specific texts.  GLM gives Obama a 9.3 in the last Presidential Debate, and McCain a 7.3.

For comparison, another source gives George W. Bush a 6.7 and Al Gore a 7.6 in the 2000 debates.

To carry on the school analogy, my impression during the campaign was that Obama was speaking to the students who were headed for community college or university, while McCain was speaking to those headed for vocational training.  This made Obama an elitist who looked down on the regular folks bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles.  I don’t know who Sarah Palin was speaking to, maybe the special education kids.

Critics Rant has an online readability analyzer.  How readable is Regruntled?

OK, I think that’s fair.  In comparison, the most difficult blog I read is Overcoming Bias.  It’s also one of the most rewarding, but it’s not for everyone.  Their readability is:

Artist Michael Arcega made a map of the world out of Spam:

“Spam’s diasporic nature is symbolic of America’s ongoing influence on many nations. S-P-A-M is M-A-P-S in reverse.”

Hammacher Schlemmer’s personalized Whac-A-Mole game: $35K.

This is the Whac-A-Mole game that can be personalized to replace the standard mole heads with molded caricatures using pictures of members of your family, past managers, boyfriends/girlfriends, or any desired combination of personalities.

Letting off steam: priceless.

Hats made out of meat at…  where else?  Hats of Meat .com.

Pizza dough, tomato sauce, two cheeseburgers, fries, McNuggets, topped with mozzarella.  More pics here.  It seems that there is a general category of recursive junk food, that is junk food used as ingredients for junk food.  Another example is Deep fried hamburger.  Do people think that the two levels of junkification cancel each other out, leaving a healthy meal?  Is it like -1 times -1 equals +1?

Reader CET sends an email full of pictures of painted cats.  Snopes says the pictures are fake; they’re taken from a 2002 coffee-table book, Why Paint Cats, The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics, by Burton Silver and Hilary Busch.  According to Snopes, it’s an elaborate send-up of both art books and cat books.  The book is a sequel to the 1994 book by the same authors, Why Cats Paint, A Theory of Feline Aesthetics.

You can see some of the pictures for yourself.  This is the comment I like best:

Anything to make those horrid, conceited creatures devoid of all dignity and self respect is fine by me.

I like the pictures, but I’m glad they’re fake.  I’m not an animal rights activist; I don’t get too upset when stray cats disappear from the alley behind the Chinese restaurant.  I do think that companion animals deserve to be treated with a certain amount of respect, if not for their sakes then for ours.