Marshall Brain

I'm sure you've heard of How Stuff Works. If not, you should check it out.

Anyway, the guy who started HowStuffWorks.com as a hobby back in 1998 is actually really named Marshall Brain. Weird huh? What's more, he's the kind of nut who thinks that by 2055 robots will have forced 50% of the US population into unemployment. It's always easy for the rich to be philanthropists and even easier for them to suggest you do the same.

But, while his ideas may seem a little out their, he's a smart guy and backs up all his ideas with statistical data, trended information and well thought out postulates.

Give it a read and then get out of the unskilled labor field.

Robotic Nation

For the Nerd in all of us

What would you call someone that was/is all of the following:

Nationally competitive scrabble player,
Professional lego sculptor,
Record store owner,
Computer programmer,
Puzzle designer and puzzle party host,
Word Fanatic.

One word: NERD

Another word might be Eric Harshbarger.

Come on, we all have a little nerd inside of us. (Dave sometimes has a cowboy inside of him too.)
Whether you simply go, "Cool," or actually try to understand what Eric is talking about it's worth checking out.

Some highlights:
Clock
Mona Lisa
San Francisco
Scrabble

All right that's all you get.

Real Riddles

Riddle is a vague term.

Sometimes, when someone says riddle, they mean joke. Like, "Why did the chicken cross the road?...To get to the other side!...Ha ha ha!"

Sometimes riddles are puzzles, like the things The Riddler from Batman does.

I'm not sure what riddles really are, but for the purpose of this post, "Real Riddles" have the following qualities:

1. They pose a question, or other such device, that elicits a solution.
2. The solution is not ambigous, usually it's unique, and once discovered, the solution is clearly correct without the need for further verification (99.9% of the time.)
3. A real riddle can be solved with only the information provided in riddle.
4. A real riddle is not a trick question.

Here's a Real Riddle:

Your lost in a forest, and walking along a path when you come across a fork in the road. Somehow you know that one way leads to a certain, painful death and the other way leads to safety and your way home. Once you head down one path, there is no turning back. How will you ever choose a path that will lead to safety? Luckily for you, there are two guides at the fork to help you. But, they will not be as helpful as you'd like.

Here's how they will help:
-You may ask them one question, and only one question.
-Only one of the two will answer you.
One of the guides will deliberately lie to you.
One of the guides will deliberately be honest to you.
-Unfortunately, you have no idea which guide is which, so you may get an answer from the liar or you may get an answer from the honest guide.
-It's perfectly exceptable for the answer to be, "I have no idea what you are asking me." Therefore, your question to them must be simple enough to be easily understood.

What one question can you ask that will point you in the correct direction?

I may have asked this of some of you in the past. If not, try to figure it out. You might start by thinking, "What kind of question do I ask to determine if the guide answering me is honest or a liar?" But step back an think about it, do you really need to know which guide is honest and which guide is a liar to know which path leads to safety? Okay, enough hints. I'll post an answer in the comments to this post.

So, where have I found some real riddles?

At Brent R. Reeves Real Riddle site.

For the most part, the riddles here are in line with the conditions for real riddles that I outlined above. The best part is, he doesn't provide answers!

Next time you need a challenge, or need to feel stupid, try one out.

Good luck.

Darth Vader's Emotions

I stumbled upon this site a few weeks ago. Basically, a guy from Canada, (I think), wanted to generate more traffic to his website during the weeks leading up to the release of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. He created a blog in the form of a diary of Darth Vader, in the time frame of the original trilogy.

There are two initial reactions one might have:
1) Star Wars fans will consider this degrading to the character of Darth Vader.
2) Non-fans will just find it stupid.

But the opposite is actually true. This guy is a terrific writer and he gets into the head of Vader without weakening his character or making him appear "cheesy." The diary adds to the story somewhat in that it deals with the complex emotions Darth Vader might be experiencing due to the new knowledge of his son, and his son's blind faith in the good that may or may not still exist in a man once called Anakin Skywalker. Even if you're not really a fan, it's hard to not appreciate the style of the author and his ability to share emotions so well from a character who seems emotionless.

I suggest starting at the beginning, reading the HTML or PDF version choronologically. The blog ran from April 11, 2005 to May 18, 2005, and was updated more or less daily.

It has inspired me to start working on a project I had conceived a few months ago. Maybe by mid-summer, I can begin sharing that with you. (It's not musical.)

A Star Wars note: In a month or two, Star Wars will die down a little and I promise I won't talk about it too much anymore.

COMING TOMORROW: My new guitar arrived today, but, because of a busy schedule today, I won't be able to play until later tonight.