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Ed Barbeau, a retired math professor at the University of Toronto, made this object from a single rectangular piece of paper. Can you figure out how he did it? Check the solution at the link.
Link -via Boing Boing | Professor’s Website
Frank Sinatra wrote this letter to New York Times editor Eugene Maleska. The correspondence between them began in the early 80s after he was featured in a crossword puzzle, which he could complete in half an hour.
Link -via Letters of Note
The image is part of a campaign designed by Costa Rican agency TBWA. What other potential Lego creations can visualize from above? I think I found “alien life form.”
Link -via COLT + RANE | TBWA website
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of an Alternate Reality Game, essentially, it’s a viral marketing campaign mixed with a scavenger hunt. Users have to unlock clues to be able to move on to the next step of the puzzle, which almost always involves deciphering even more hints. Over at Cracked, you can learn about the 5 craziest alternate reality games ever played…and discover what Halo has to do with bees.
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Computer scientist Haym Hirsh wrote this puzzle. See if you can figure it out:
I am in one of the great capitals of Europe. I just learned that Bob, Carl, and I are in countries that share physical borders with each other. The official language of Bob’s country is Dutch, and Carl’s is Portuguese. It is 9:00am local time for both Bob and Carl.
Now: What is Hirsh’s local time?
You can view eight other good puzzles by Hirsh at the link.
Link | Hirsh’s Website | Photo by Flickr user pobre.ch used under Creative Commons license
Toy and puzzle making company Ravensburger has created the world’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle. It weighs 42 pounds and is composed of 32,256 pieces. The completed image is a compilation of 32 works by the pop artist Keith Haring. You can view more images of it at the link.
Link | Company Website | Image: Ravensburger
Dutch puzzle maker Oskar van Deventer designed this mindblender. It’s like a Rubik’s Cube, but has 17 cubes on an edge instead of 3:
When Oskar heard of the world records being set for twisty puzzles, like the 7x7x7, 9x9x9 and 11x11x11 by Panagiotis Verdes from Greece, he wanted to try his hand at setting a new record himself. With sponsorship from his close friend Claus Wenicker, Oskar set about designing and testing a number of prototypes, and his third attempt was printed successfully with Shapeways. Sorting and dyeing all 1539 pieces took Oskar 10 hours of work, followed by 5 hours of assembling. The result is an oversized (140 millimeter, 5.5 inches) and fully functioning “Over The Top” 17x17x17 puzzle.
It currently sells for just over $2,000.
Link via Technabob | Photos: Shapeways
How many different ways can you have your Rubik’s cube? How about gigantic, minuscule, tasty, expensive, monochrome, round, electronic… and many more variations on the ’80s puzzle. See them at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
GarE Maxton is a machinist in Michigan. He built this puzzle called “The Intimidator.” It’s composed of 125 pieces composed of 6 different metals and requires a special key to begin disassembling it. About 20 of the pieces can be reconstructed into a functional, single-shot .45 caliber handgun, pictured below. — Link via Make | Photos: Maxton
German photographer Josef Schulz traveled across the U.S., taking pictures of highway signs. He then photoshopped out the text, leaving only the shapes and colors. The series is called “Sign Out.” Can you guess what company the sign represents? More at the link.
Link via Fast Company
This unexpected puzzle creation takes Sudoku a giant step forward: it is also very tasty, especially if you like your pizza with exactly 9 toppings arranged differently on each slice. So what’s the logic in this culinary invention? Well, this probably depends on how hungry you are but if you want to find out here are the 9 steps and the list of ingredients:
Instructions for making this pizza are included, as well as a look at other puzzle derivatives in the post 9 Creative, bizarre and unexpected ways of using logic puzzles. Link -via Unique Daily
Kelly Ferrell uses a laser to cut these adorable mammoths, there are also t-rexes, butterflies and more. They seem quite hard to put together once you get them, but the result is quite worth it and is certain to attract attention from anyone who sees them.
Link Via Boing Boing
Maybe it’s just a childhood fascination, but I adore hedge mazes. After fun Halloween corn mazes and the movie Labyrinth, who wouldn’t? WebEcoist has a great collection of mazes for your viewing enjoyment. Enjoy!
