Week 4 Guesses

Well, the contest is over. Here are my Week 4 answers:

Opus 40 42 03 04.17 74 01 54.77
Pratt Rock 42 18 35.14 74 25 22.25 43225.079 m 26.86
Cardiff Giant 42 42 25.62 74 55 49.33 60730.509 m 37.74
Emily's Bridge 44 26 41.11 72 40 57.98 264991.794 m 164.66
Cemetery 44 12 40.62 72 29 57.68 29783.569 m 18.51
Champ 44 28 37.07 73 13 20.76 64777.155 m 40.25
Stonehenge 42 50 27.79 71 12 18.44 243941.723 m 151.58
Desert 43 51 34.23 70 09 19.84 141576.403 m 87.97
Eartha 43 48 28.25 70 09 43.69 5764.693 m 3.58
Paper house 42 40 21.44 70 38 05.70 131836.309 m 81.92
Holy Land 41 32 54.21 73 01 48.97 234169.764 m 145.50
Luna Parc 41 15 02.44 74 47 18.77 150704.957 m 61.96


(44 02 27.76, 73 27 37.48) other Champ location :(

Week 3 Answer Posted

Clue #1: Neon Bone Yard
Meg:     36.178600, -115.135200
Correct: 36.176933, -115.135150

Clue #2: Bonnie & Clyde Death Car
Meg:     35.610269, -115.386181
Correct: 35.610467, -115.387150

Clue #3: Zzyxx Resort
Meg:     35.142778, -116.103889
Correct: 35.143480, -116.105254

Clue #4: Calico Bottle House
Meg:     34.949692, -116.864583
Correct: 34.947517, -116.865200

Clue #5: The Integratron
Meg:     34.294303, -116.403955
Correct: 34.294950, -116.404150

Clue #6: Desert Christ Park
Meg:     34.129506, -116.440231
Correct: 34.129400, -116.439367

Clue #7: Lost Resorts and Submerged Artifacts of the Salton Sea
Meg:     33.519536, -115.937764
Correct: 33.518200, -115.936083

Clue #8: Salvation Mountain
Meg:     33.254233, -115.472586
Correct: 33.254267, -115.473183

Clue #9: Hi Jolly - The Camel Drover's Desert Tomb
Meg:     33.664517, -114.236389
Correct: 33.664467, -114.236283

Clue #10: Wickenburg Jail Tree
Meg:     33.968875, -112.730033
Correct: 33.969317, -112.730267

Clue #11: Frog Boulder
Meg:     34.185458, -112.824803
Correct: 34.177150, -112.830900

Clue #12: Skull Rock
Meg:     34.343839, -112.928103
Correct: 34.247133, -112.889733

Wrap up: My position of Skull Rock was ~7 miles off so I must have made an error in one of the distances
to be off by 40 miles.

Better luck next week!

40 miles off!

No answer has yet been posted for the individual spots, but the total distance traveled was 468 miles. I got an answer between 425 and 430. I guess I was not only slow but very wrong about something. My Week 2 answers were spot on so I'm curious where I messed up.

The Google US World Championship Puzzle and Solutions are available for download along with some practice problems for which I can't find an answer. Here is the first answer to the "solutions-less" practice problems:

Sudoku Variation: 10 points (5 point bonus)

Place the digits 1 through 7 into the empty squares (one per square) so that each digit appears exactly once in each of the following 21 regions: the seven rows, the seven columns, the six colored sections, and the special set of seven gray squares.
The answer is:


The format they request has the answer: 31642752746513

Balancing Act: 15 points

Assign the values 1 through 10 to the weights in the diagram so that everything balances as shown. Each value will be used exactly once.

The format they request has the answer: 83410751269

My phone's not ringing!

I didn't have any fun with the Google Minesweeper Puzzle so don't expect any more comments about that here. Instead, I started both the Google US Puzzle Championship puzzles and the Up Your Budget promotion.

For Budget, two guys are travelling the US and stopping at strange landmarks (houses made of liquor bottles, boulders painted like rocks...) and recording a short video piece explaining the significance of the spot. Your goal is to find the total distance they trave (point to point) each week from the clues. This involves finding the things and calculating the geodesic distance between them from the longitude and lattitude.
My answers for Week 3:

Neon Bone Yard N 36 10 42.97 W 115 8 6.71

Bonnie&Clyde Car N 35 36 36.97 W 115 23 10.25 -- 41.64 mi

Zzyzx Resort N 35 08 34 W 116 06 14 -- 51.78 mi

Calico Bottle House N 34 56 58.89 W 116 51 52.50 -- 45.13 mi

Integraton N 34 17 39.49 W 116 24 14.24 -- 52.25 mi

Desert Christ Park N 34 07 46.22 W 116 26 24.83 -- 11.55 mi

Salton Sea N 33 31 10.33 W 115 56 15.95 -- 51.02 mi

Salvation Mountain N 33 15 15.24 W 115 28 21.31 -- 32.52 mi

Hi-Jolly's Tomb N 33 39 52.26 W 114 14 11.00 -- 76.80 mi

Jail Tree N 33 58 07.95 W 112 43 48.12 -- 89.16 mi

Frog Rock N 34 11 7.65 W 112 49 29.29 -- 15.89 mi

Skull Rock N 34 24 03.02 W 112 56 08.74 -- 16.15 mi

OR

Skull Rock N 34 20 37.82 W 112 55 41.17 -- 12.41 mi

The real answers will be posted soon. Since my phone *still* isn't ringing, I'm afraid that this is another big prize I won't add to my coffer for the summer.

Google Puzzle #4 and the MSN Conspiracy Game

There's been a new Google puzzle posted that is based on different versions of the popular time-waster Minesweeper. The goal is to determine the rules for each game. I'll post more about it when I've figured out more about it! You can add a new Minesweeper application to your Google Home Page if you want to continue to play the games after this puzzle expires.

I also posted better versions (you may read that as more longwinded :) ) of the MSN Conspiracy Game Solutions to www.steeplemedia.com

Google Puzzle #3

First off, I got my official notification that Eurostar wouldn't be sending me to Europe this summer, too bad.

Now for the most recent installment of Google Puzzles:

June 9th, 2006: The Google US Puzzle Championship is Saturday, June 16th. It's used to select the US Puzzle Team, but puzzle-lovers of all sorts should find something interesting in the puzzles. Here's a puzzle based on Erich Friedman's "Distance," from the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. Label 14 of the circles below with different numbers from 1 to 14, such that the distance between 1 and 2 is less than the distance between 2 and 3, and so on. Four circles should remain empty. Let's have a big "G" (for Google):


Here is my answer. I don't know if it is unique.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 9

Click on the lines, each to different nursery rhymes. What do they have in common? Circle [the incy wincy spider, the owl and the pussycat, and hickory dickory dock are the verses. The spider goes down the drain, the owl and the pussycat look for a ring, and the mouse runs up the clock, all circular?? Also the pi-chart is circular with the digits of pi used as the wedge values. The oil refinery drums are also circular.]

What starts off small and goes on forever? Pi [an irrational number]

What's the value? 3.1415 [it's picky about the number of digits--I don't know if it's randomized]

Which digit? 5 [I chose the "nth = ninth"]

Click on your last symbol, plug it in the last device and see the closing credits! Get entered to win a trip to London--maybe it's your third attempt since May also??

MSN Conspiracy Game: 8

Why an ear? Big Ear Observatory

Why wow? wow signal [A sign of extraterrestrial life was thought to be heard at the radio observatory. A lead scientist saw a strange pattern, circled it, and wrote "wow!"]

Looking for another clue, try the black light! Go to the desk, turn off the lamp, turn on the light ... and read in a strange alphanumeric script:

Who saw him die? "I" said the fly, "with my little eye, I saw him die."

Put away the light, turn on the lamp... and Anne asks what in the rhyme would hint at a constellation? bow and arrow [The poem begins, "Who killed Cock Robin?" "I," said the sparrow, "with my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin."]

Sagittarius, the archer, is shown in the upper left corner. Click to get your symbol.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 7

Open the next strange little box with the new sequence to get a new little device with even stranger symbols. Use the key to unlock the desk and find the final portfolio.


Click on the line drawing of the US. Anne asks what SOSUS is: Sound surveillance system.

Anne asks whose cover story? CIA [During the cold war under the guise of studying the magneium modules at the bottom of the sea the CIA tried to recover a sunken Soviet submarine to learn about the technology. Howad Hughes was a big player in the recovery effor.]

Connection to yachts: Jennifer [The code name was Project Jennifer]

Click on the Jennifer entry to collect the "missing" symbol.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 6

Click on the verse: Anne asks if there is a relationship to another clue: Blackbird

Take a closer look (pull out the magnifying glass) to find that the map has a numerical grid superimposed. The coordinate 4,20 is Ekaterinburg.

Does this relate to another clue? U2 [In 1960 a U2 spy plane was shote down. Also relates to the "You also" written at the bottom.]

Go to the the chess link and find where the white king is on the final move--f6. Click on the corresponding symbol in the grid to collect it.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 5

Click on the verse. Anne asks to whom the initials refer: Edgar Allan Poe

Deepest point in the ocean? Mariana Trench

Could mire be an anagram? Rime

Another rime? Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Relate the verse to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Keel [In part 5 you will find "under the keel, nine fathoms deep"]

Collect the symbol.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 4

Go to the strange box, punch in the symbols you've collected, push the center button and it will open. Meanwhile take the phone message to find the link to Hidden History.

There you'll see the entry titled "No head for numbers." The combination for the briefcase is given by the green books on the right-hand shelves of the study: Click on the briefcase and punch it in (342 for me, I think these along with the symbols might be random though the solutions are fixed.) and then press the button on the left side of the dials to get the key and another folder of puzzles.

Click on the verse, Anne asks where it's from: Dreamland

Looking for another clue about where Sundown might be? Lincoln (a county in Nevada)

Looking at a map, go south over the Nellis Air Force Range and you should find Groom Lake.

Consider the question "The aria?" and recall that Groom Lake is near the famous Area 51 (also recall that another nickname of the area is "dreamland." Click on the symbol on the right the corresponds to the 51 on the left.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 3

Click on the verse and Anne asks if it could indicate a place? London -- the crown town.

Anne remarks that the paper is burnt and asks why? Great Fire

Anne asks about the sketch. Monument [Christopher Wren constructed the monumber 350 feet from the bakery where the blaze began. It has an interesting parallel to a monolith in Cairo, but that's neither here nor there.]

Anne asks about another clue. Let's try to black light. Go back to the desk and turn off the lamp, come back to this page and turn on the black light. There is a map of London superimposed on the card suit grid. Follow directions, turn on the lamp, and click on the location of the monument: third row, third column to collect the black diamond.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 2

The picture from Alice in Wonderland shows Alice with the lion and the unicorn.

Click on the question and Anne asks to whom "fabulous monsters" refers. Lion and Unicorn.

While the two were fighting for the crown something has to do with "destiny." Stone. This little episode is an allegory of the struggle between Scotland and England. Destiny involves the stone which was used in the coronation ceremony.

Click on the grid of card suits in the spot corresponding to the stone to collect the red spade.

MSN Conspiracy Game: 1

In the study, pick up the black light and the magnifying glass. Open the book and let the game begin.

The rhyme:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
We see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

refers the Guy Fawkes who is pictured as he's being arrested int he cellar of the Parliament house in London.

If you click on the "where is he?," Anne asks who he is: Guy Fawkes.

The portcullis (grid) has some very small writing in the squares which are the same in number as the card suits. Use the magnifying glass to enlarge the grids and find the names (and pseudonyms) of several of the men involved in the plot. Anne askes which is Guy Fawkes: [John] Johnson.

The name is in the lower left corner so click on the corresponding square in the card-suit grids and collect the black spade.

Inaugural Blog Post

Welcome.

One of the more constructive things I've done in the last month is find a number of on-line puzzles to solve.

It all began with the Google/Sony Da Vinci Code Quest. In the first round, there were 24 daily puzzles beginning in mid April (just in time for end of the puzzle to coincide with the release of the movie). The puzzles varied from chess to sudoku. Each puzzle was timed and the 10000 entrants with the lowest cumulative time was sent a limited edition replica cryptex (see mine!) and was allowed to enter the finalist round where there was a battery of several puzzles to be solved in a single sitting. The winner got $150000 worth of fabulous prizes (this includes the first trip to London I did not win) and the rest of us continue to complain about how easy it was to cheat.

Next up was the Eurostar Da Vinci Code Quest. The more modest prizes still included the 5 finalists embarking upon a trip to London. These puzzles were more varied and the prize rounds (four of them) involved opening cryptexes by guessing their combinations in the fewest tries and the fastest times. The final puzzle was a 10 dial cryptex with the consonants (21 letters) on the dials---pain in the butt.

There was a bit of a lull in puzzle production so one of the Google/Sony puzzle authors decided to have daily puzzles on Google with no big prizes. They aren't quite daily puzzles (there have been 2 in the past week and a half). The first one was using the numbers 3, 3, 8 and 8 and any arithmetic operations write down an expression which equals 24. The second one, currently online, is about "Why Me Rhymes:" words which differ by only their first letter but do not rhyme like leaf and deaf. Here are the clues:

1) What is heard when your little girl is having fun
2) A disgustingly dirty sticker
3) A siesta for weirdos
4) A friendly rejection
5) Lists of all sorts of animals to be eaten
6) An unrefined crucifix
7) A type of bar bet, maybe
8) Makes a news agency irrelevant
9) Stamps that someone refuses to return
10) Makes contact with feminine hygiene products
11) A price reduction given only to certain noblemen
12) Newer style of patio furniture

I'll put the answers in the "comments" section.

Another puzzle sequence that came on line was the Amazing Web Race. The authors had fun with the Da Vinci Code Quests and made their own puzzle sequence relying on a primitive knowledge of html and search engines. I can post the answers to that in the "comments" section also.

And finally, the third trip to London I'm not planning to win: the Microsoft Conspiracy Game. I'll make a separate entry about this in a minute.