IQ Puzzle #16 - Medium

So apparently the last puzzle was a little bit too easy, here is one that should take a while to wrap your head around!

Good luck to you all, this one is tough :)

Ann Coulter vs. Al Franken - Racial Profiling

Hello all,

I have been a little bit sick recently, hence the lack of daily updates. I am just breaking the cusp of my flu now so I should be back to the races shortly. For now I have a question to you all:

What is your view on Racial Profiling?

I watched the video below recently and was shocked to hear what Ann Coulter had to say nearing the end. Skip to around 6:50 you can hear her rant.

I was sickened by this as she is demonstrating a severe lack of understanding. In my opinion it seems as though she does not have the slightest inclination of how airport security functions, let alone that it is not the liberal left who is keeping racial profiling from occuring. Racial profiling is occuring, and it is a very unfortunate thing. One of my friends who I go to university with is just about to finish his degree in engineering here in Canada, and yet every time he goes to the U.S. he gets hastled to the point where he has to exit his car and go have his fingerprints matched. This means any border crossing takes around an extra hour to hour and a half. What is the reason for this? He is Arab looking.

This is very unforunate because it not only affects him but anyone he is friends with as well. We were planning to all go down to the states for a day trip until he pointed out that if we were to do so our car would undoubtedly be pulled aside and the border crossing would take around 4 hours (including traffic). In my opinion that is completely unnaceptable. So what do you think?

IQ Puzzle #15 - Explanation

So the answer is H. You are all correct :p.

I actually made a mistake when I labelled it Medium haha, I see you guys felt this was far too easy so the next one I post will be a throwback to when I first started and Medium's were virtually impossible.

In case anyone did not understand the answer to this it was basically a series called the fibonacci series in which the previous two numbers are added together to generate the next in the series. For example 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 shows how 1+1=2, 1+2=3 and 2+3=5.

Hence all you had to do for this really was add together the last to numbers, 13 and 21, and you would realize you are looking for H, which had 34 in it. The orientation of the dots was simply a rotation around the central axis based off of the next number to be completed. This is most easily seen between 5 and 8 where 8 ends up in the same orientation (left side) as 5 because 8 is two full rotations of 4.

I am sorry it was so easy, I am working on one right now to blow your minds.


Shout out to linus who beat out convictus for the top spot. Welcome to the Leaderboard!

IQ Puzzle #15 - Easy

Alright guys here is the latest puzzle - I think that by using numbers instead of dots I have made this puzzle easier, however I hope you guys figure it out!

Good luck :)

TF2 - Screenshots, K/D Ratio

Just a super quick update from a match I played recently where I absolutely dominated. I started off as Scout, my worst class and ended up dominating so I decided to switch to my worst class, Heavy and here are the results:

 I ended up getting 20 kills in one life when I switched to Heavy, skyrocketing my K/D ratio to over 7.0!

I felt so invincible in this game and I attribute my play being so much better to a tip I heard where you turn on "dings" so that you can hear when you hit your enemys. This has improved my game durastically. Any of you have tips for TF2?

IQ Puzzle #14 - Explanation

The answer to this puzzle was very close to a few of my previous puzzles. If you take each number and convert it to a letter based off of A=1, B=2 etc. you are left with this:

Where the hint about the leaderboard was referencing the current leader, Convictus. The puzzle spelled out his name in numbers rather than letters. I figured I would bring up the idea of one of you doing a guest puzzle again, is there any interest?

IQ Puzzle #14 - Easy

This one here is really easy so I hope to have someone new get a point! Try your best :)

I will be back with the answer tomorrow, until then have a great day!

TF2 - Screenshots

So I have been playing TF2 a lot lately and have been doing pretty well. I thought I would share some screenshots of my progress thus far:


Here I start off as a Demo and take an early 2.4 K/D Ratio.

 Continuing as Demo I end up with almost a 3.0 K/D Ratio (2.75 to be exact) with 14 assists.

 After playing demo for a while I switched off to Spy and managed to maintain an exact 2.0 K/D Ratio until the end of the game with 5 Dominations.

All in all I feel pretty good about my performance thus far and hope to continue learning tips and tricks to get even better.

Do any of you guys play TF2?

Vancouver Music - Mother Mother/The New Pornographers

So I thought I would feature two awesome bands from my hometown, Mother Mother and The New Pornographers.

Both of these bands are unbelievable to me in the sense that they do not put out any songs that I dislike. I am amazed at the quality and dedication put into crafting each piece, something you don't see often in the music industry anymore.

As for The New Pornographers I am absolutely in love with their sound. They sound so fresh and so new that I can't help but have them on in the background. Seriously, listen to the song I posted. Unreal.

Both of these bands performed at Vancouver's 125th Anniversary Concert Series held at Stanley Park. It was absolutely beautiful at night and the crowd was super into all the songs. Such a great time.

Here is a link to a song by Mother Mother

Here is a link to a song by The New Pornographers

As well here are two videos I took at the Concert, you can hear how good The New Pornographers sound live and you can see the glowing balls that were designed by my University's Engineering Department:

It was really cool when they came down over top of you:

Anyway I will have another puzzle up soon, best of luck to you all and have a great day :)

IQ Puzzle #13 - Explanation

This one here was another classic addition/subtraction puzzle. The number of edges of each of the figures had to be subtracted from left to right to garner the correct answer. Congratulations to Convictus who somehow continues to get the answer right the first time, every time. Shout out to badscribbler and Shaw who also got it right!

I will have a post up tomorrow all about Vancouver's local bands! Hope you will enjoy :)

IQ Puzzle #13 - Easy

Another easy puzzle to warm you guys up, I will be trying to return to the once a day puzzles, I have been exceptionally busy with midterms this week but after Monday will be all done. I think you should all be able to figure this one out pretty quick, it is quite similair to a previous puzzle I made.

Good luck to you all, results will be up later tomorrow.

Drinking/Andre the Giant

I for one love enjoying a glass or two of wine over dinner, it is relaxing and I love the feeling of the warmth that comes from my stomach. I was stumbling around the internet and came across a hilarious site devoted to drunkards. What surprised me the most however was who the focus of the article I found was upon. Andre the Giant.

You see, recently we had been learning in my Biopsych course about Andre as he was an excellent case study of acromegaly, a glandular disorder which causes some people to grow to be remarkably large. What was NOT mentioned in my Biospych class was that Andre was a massive drinker. When I say massive, I mean after reading this article I learned he had to drink 2 litres of vodka just to feel "warm inside".

For those interested, here is the article. It is quite long but picks up in the middle and becomes hilarious as it describes carriages in New York being stolen, piano covers being used to cover Andre when he was passed out, and keeping bars open until 5am by ordering drink after drink. Definitely worth a read.

So what do you guys and gals like to drink? My favourites are Rum and Coke, Sangria, Whiskey Sour's and White Russians. Post below!

Zombie Ball - Video Update/BioPsych Low Calorie

I am currently in the process of getting another zombie ball game organized and have decided I will for sure sit out a round and video tape the proceedings. Hopefully the video will explain the basics so that you all can try it out some time. It is honestly a ton of fun to play.

In other news I have been learning about something exciting in my Biopsych course about low calorie diets and their effect on aging. Basically a low calorie diet that is still balanced in nutrients has been shown time and time again since the 80's to extend the life of rats dramatically. Flashback to post WWII and you have the island of Okinawa in Japan already practicing this sort of diet. So by the time the researchers had done the rat studies they were able to study this island's inhabitants as well.


Turns out, the low calorie diet seems to have a dramatic effect in humans as well! The researchers involved found that the level of centenarians (those of age 100 or older) was in some cases 40 times higher on the island of Okinawa than the rest of Japan. It is notable that the Japanese already have a calorie reduced diet in comparison to the rest of the world so the Okinawans are eating less than less than normal. Along with the longevity comes other perks as well. It was found that there was absolutely no daibetes or other insulin diseases, cardiovascular health was improved significantly and levels of disease were lower than normal as well.

So what do you guys think? Is it worth sacrificing calories for a longer healthier life? Is it worth it to live your life this way without adequate research done to prove this is the cause of the Okinawan's health? Post in the comments.

Gaming - Mann Co Store/TF2

So I am struck with a dilemma and need some opinions. I have recently started playing tf2 after it was released free to play. For those of you who do not know tf2 is "team fortress two" a game put out by valve that originally cost money but has been made free to play. You might say "Well how do they make money then?" The answer is quite simple hats and other items are available for purchase in the store for real money and these micro transactions fuel the addition of new content and upkeep.

So my problem is this: I feel like I should give some money back to the game as I have already played for over 10 hours for free. I would like to gain something at the same time and so have been looking at buying these keys they have to open crates for an item. The only thing is #1 a key costs $2.49, and #2 the item you get is not set, it is randomly chosen from a list and can in around 20% of cases give you the weapon you start with which in my opinion is a waste of money.

So I ask you bloggers, what should I do? Does anyone know if it is worth it to buy keys? Apparently after even one purchase your chances of finding items randomly, (what I have been doing up until now), increases. Does anyone know if it is a substantial increase? Post your opinions below!

IQ Puzzle #12 - Explanation

This one here I messed up on a little bit. There were two possible answers, C and G. C is the more "simple" of the two, although G would technically still work.

As you can see above when the dots are inside the circle they count as (+1) and when they are outside the circle they count as (-1). The column on the left is always added to the middle column to produce the column on the right. In this respect the equation to solve this puzzle is (2-3) or (-1). This is represented as a dot outside the circle, or as some posters pointed out a circle inside and two outside.

Great job and the scoreboard on the right has been updated!

IQ Puzzle #12 - Easy

Alright so comment moderation is back on for the duration of this puzzle. I will have the answer out tomorrow. I figured I have been making the puzzle too hard lately so here is a nice and easy one:

Good luck to you all and on a side note going out now to play some zombie ball, I will try to take a video/pictures and make a post showing you all how it is done.

Frisbee Tips - Common Mistakes

I figured I would put together a little set of tips for new Frisbee players out there. I will cover the three largest mistakes I see.

#1 Not enough spin.

A lot of people when they first start learning how to throw have discs that wobble a lot. The wobble can be avoided by providing enough spin on the disc.

Solution: Spin comes from the wrist and is a snapping motion that follows the arc of your arm. One way to practice getting enough spin on the disc is to hold your bicep against your ribs with your non-throwing hand and then try to throw. Because your arm is strapped against your body, both the force to make the throw go forward and the spin needed to keep it flat must be provided by your wrist.

#2 Too much spin/Late Release.

The too much spin problem usually comes hand in hand with a late release. As players try to put more spin on the disc they often hold on for too long and the trajectory of the disc ends up going to the right on a backhand and to the left on a forehand.

Solution: This late release can be avoided by reminding the player to always release the disc as soon as the wrist is in line with the forearm. If it is later than this, often times the disc will end up going in a direction you don't want it to.

#3 Stepping forward.

The last problem that is often seen is that people try to step forward while throwing. When you have no mark on you this is no problem, however as soon as someone is defending your throws they will be in front of you and you will have nowhere to step.

Solution: Always step outwards, from your plant you should be making a step directly in line or even backwards a little bit to allow you to throw unimpeded by your marks defense. This one is an easy fix in terms of helping the person correct it, but unfortunately can take a long time to get into muscle memory so that it is done immediately.

Those are my tips for now, also comment moderation is off thanks to the suggestion by icey.

Until next time, get out there and enjoy the weather!

Free Game to Play - Fault Line

I stumbled across this little gem today and it has a super easy yet rewarding premise, you can fold the lines of the world you are in. I really enjoy puzzle games (as most of you know), and so games like this are awesome. I think that so long as an element of fun is added to puzzles, the repetitve nature can be avoided. Portal did this well in Portal by having intriguing dialogue, and Portal 2 added the co-op play which is hard to resist. What do you guys think, are puzzle games fun?

IQ Puzzle #11 - Explanation

This one here was an addition problem. The grid was the usual 1-9 in a series moving from left to right as in:

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

The numbers were represented in this fashion:

A dot in the quadrant counts for the number it is beside. To explain this further when a dot is in the top quadrant it counts as 1, when the dot is on the right hand side it is worth 2, when the dot is on the bottom it is worth 4, and when the dot is on the left it is worth 8. When a number other than 1, 2, 4 or 8 is to be represented you use dots in multiple locations. When dots are placed in more than one position they are connected by a line. In this way the last panel is meant to be worth 9 so you would place two dots at 8 and 1 and draw a line to connect them. As such the answer would be (G).

Congrats to convictus for another point!

Housing Success/Some Local Tunes

Just a minor update to let you all know the housing situation went through! I am super excited as we almost lost the deal but last minute managed to scoop it back up. The landlord seems like a super nice guy and so I am quite excited about moving in. I will have the puzzle explanation up for tomorrow, I will tease you by letting you know at least one of you got the right answer! As well since I don't want to bore you all, here is an awesome song by a local artist that I think deserves some more views:

She has a smooth, rhythmic style I hope you will all enjoy.

IQ Puzzle #11 - Medium

Here is the next puzzle all, this one is not too hard once you figure out what is going on, but it is not like the keyboard one where it is a trick to figure it out. Also now that the comments are moderated I can hold off on posting them until it is over.

Post your best guess in the comments as always!

Housing/Zombie Ball

So I recieved notice today that the first place my friend and I were looking at panned out! We somehow managed to beat out those rotten girls even though they wanted to rent a month ahead of us. YES! I am supremely excited because like a lot of you mentioned, finding a place to rent can be difficult. August 1st here I come!

In other news here is the first draft of the rules for Zombie Ball. Let me know if you think any changes should be made for clarity.

Zombie Ball Offical Rules

# of Players: 4 or more
Length: 30 minutes to 3 hours
Objective: Be the last player "alive".
Equipment: Ball
Playing Field: An area no larger than half a soccer field, and no smaller than a six yard box with clear boundaries on all sides. Adjust to fit the # of Players.

Beginning of the Game:

All players begin the game with 3 lives. Whenever a player has lives remaining they are deemed "alive". When all lives have been depleted the player "dies" and for the rest of the game is a mindless zombie.

Zombification and Losing Lives:

Players lose lives by having a ball hit their bodies and immediately after hit the ground with no contact made on any other players. In the case of ricochets of multiple players, the last player that was hit before the ball touched the ground loses a life. When all lives are depleted a player becomes a zombie for the player that threw the eliminating strike. Becoming someones zombie means that you are now owned by whoever killed you. Your goal from then on is to be loyal to your master and try to kill other players so they can join your zombie empire.

In the case of ricochets this would mean it would be the initial thrower who would take control of a zombie and not the player that ricocheted the ball. In the case of a zombie killing off a player, the player who owns the zombie assumes control of the new zombie. Zombies can be killed as well, however when a zombie is killed they simply transfer to be controlled by the player that hit them.

Initialization of the Throwing Procedure:

Gameplay begins by juggling the ball in the center of the group until the number of juggles reaches a count of five. Juggles may be performed using any part of the body save the hands and arms. If at any point during the count a juggle is made off of a hand or arm, the offender lets it be known and the juggle starts again. Juggles cannnot be accumulated by a single player juggling the ball multiple times. The first player to begin juggling gives one juggle to the count, to add more juggles to the count the ball must first be played off of another player. Essentially only the first touch counts, then the ball must be played to another player before more touches can be added. Another way to think of it is that a minimum of 4 passes must be made for the ball to reach a count of five. After the fifth count the ball may be grabbed with the hands and then thrown at an opposing player to eliminate their lives. If the player the ball is thrown at catches the throw, play continues as normal and the throw is considered a pass.

Strategy:

Players all begin on seperate teams and as such it can be difficult to eliminate other players without passing the ball during the throwing phase. Being in possesion of the ball, throwing the ball to an enemy player in the begining poses very little risk to you as if they drop the ball you have eliminated a life of theirs, and there is no penalty for them catching the ball.

Summation:

There are two phases, the counting phase and the throwing phase. The counting phase consists of juggling the ball until a count of five is achieved at which point the ball may be grabbed with the hands. This initiates the throwing phase.

The throwing phase is how players lose lives and eventually turn into zombies. For a life to be lost the throw must hit a player and then the ground without anything in between. When all lives are lost, a player becomes a zombie and must mindlessly help their owner in hunting down other players.

New Game - Zombie Ball/Looking for Housing

Today was a busy day but in the end something amazing was formed. I was down at the beach with my ultimate team and a few other people for a barbecue/party thing. In any case, we had a volleyball and started juggling it around when an old game I used to play with my soccer team came into my head.

The premise was simple, everyone stands in a circle and takes turns juggling the ball, once the juggle count gets to five you are allowed to grab the ball with your hands. At this point in the game the object is to throw the ball and hit someone to get them out. If they catch the ball it is considered a pass and they get the chance to hit someone. From this basic set of rules more were added and eventually Zombie Ball was created. I will be posting the full rules on here tomorrow, the game is great for 5 or more players. All you need is a ball and some open space and you are set.

In other news me and my friend went looking for some housing today for the upcoming school year and found some nice places. The first place we looked at was very utilitarian, two bedrooms, a washer and dryer, a bathroom with a shower and a kitchen with a fridge, sink, dishwasher and electric stove. The guy renting it was super nice but we are pretty sure this pair of girls will get it because A. They are girls and B. In the eyes of renters all adolescent men are partying drunkards who will play loud music and break stuff.

In any case we have our fingers crossed for that one but it does not look too bright. The second property was much the same but had a larger dining area as a plus, but a washer and dryer in the middle of the kitchen as a minus. We will be checking out a few more places but for a first try at renting a house we are pretty pleased with ourselves.

Zombie Ball rules will be up soon, along with a new puzzle :)

IQ Puzzle #10 - Explanation

So as a few of you guessed the answer to this one was multiple choice (F) or in letter form M. The pattern to this can be seen by looking down at your keyboard (the hint was supposed to be a key and a board, hard to draw a board haha). Looking at your keyboard you will see that the pattern looks like this:

So anyway user IWannaBeAnon mentioned I should change my comments section to moderated so that I can release all your guesses after I put up the solution, thereby not spoiling the answer for others. The winner this time is convictus who receives one point for the correct answer the fastest, and an additional point to icey for giving the logic for a second possible solution (even though it was not technically a multiple choice). Good job all and I can't wait to make the next puzzle! Also does anyone want to do a guest puzzle? I know I got no response last time I asked but figured I might as well try again.

IQ Puzzle #10 - Medium

Now that I have reached 10 puzzles I thought it would be neat to have a guest puzzle every once and a while. If you think this is a good idea let me know in the comments (I know you are all super creative). In any case, here is the puzzle, since it is #10 I included a hint.

The hint is meant to be difficult to understand, but if you can get it it should help you to solve this. Good luck!

Hot Yoga/Ultimate Frisbee

On Tuesday I found out just how important it is to drink water. It was my girlfriends birthday so I decided to go to hot yoga with her, something she had been wanting for a long time. Sure enough I end up racing around in the morning and don't drink enough water before hand. What followed was one of the strangest experiences of my life.

I began strong keeping up with the flow, but eventually started to become more sluggish until nearing the end I just laid down and was unable to continue any of the postures. With about 20 minutes left in the class I began to notice some tingling in my hands. I did not think much of it but it soon grew to a full on numbness (pins and needles). Next my arms started to get numb as well and my thumbs involuntary contracted to press against my pointer and middle fingers. At this point I knew something was awry, but with only 4 minutes left in class and the teacher encouraging me I pressed on.

After the class was finished I tried to drink from my water bottle but found I had to fight to open my hand. In the changing room one of the other participants asked if my hands were alright and offered me some electrolytes telling me it was dehydration. What happened next was incredible, within 5 minutes of drinking some more water and electrolytes my hands were back to normal, just feeling a little bit sore. I ended up going to Ultimate afterwards and running for a good three hours but ensured I brought a bunch of water. It turned out fine as I was able to drink a bunch of water and not have any hand problems at all (which would be devastating while trying to throw a frisbee!).

In any case a word of advice to you all! If your hand every really hurt, drink a bunch of water and if you plan on doing a lot of exercise/sweating a lot (I soaked an entire towel through at hot yoga!) MAKE SURE YOU HYDRATE YOURSELF ADEQUATELY! This means drink water before, during and after! Speaking of sweating and hydration, how hot is it where you all live right now? The forecast for tomorrow where I am from is a measly high of 16°C (60°F). A new puzzle will be up soon, don't worry :)

IQ Puzzle #9 - Explanation

The explanation for this one is pretty simple, no picture necessary. Essentially all of the symbols in the grid are numbers that have been mirrored along a vertical axis. Once you "decode" this pattern you are left with this grid:

2 3 4
5 6 7
7 9 ?

From here the next step is to realize you take the top two rows and add them by column as in:

2 3 4
+ + +
5 6 7                   <= View this as (2+5) = 7, (3+6) = 9 and (4+7) = 11.
= = =
7 9 11

This means the answer is 11 and if you flip 11 on it's vertical axis you will end up with three lines as such: | | |

Looking at the possible answers this means the correct answer is (D). Congratulations to IWannaBeAnon for getting the correct answer first, but a point to icey as well for a commendable effort (figuring out the number grid first).

Next puzzle will be up soon, until then well done all!

IQ Puzzle #9 - Easy-Medium

This one here is a little tricky, but the answer flows nicely once you get past the smoke and mirrors. *cough cough*

Best of luck to you all! As well if you missed it, I put the explanation to the last puzzle up here.

IQ Puzzle #8 - Explanation

The solution to this puzzle can be achieved through simple division. A lot of you got this one correct, the solution was to realize that the first two numbers were related in that dividing the first by 2 resulted in the second.

In essence what this diagram shows is that you take 712 and divide it by 2 which gives you 356. Following suite, you would take 356 and divide it by 2 leaving you with 178. Well done to you all! I will make the next puzzle the same difficulty, this seems to be a reasonable level to figure out.

IQ Puzzle #8 - Easy-Medium

Try your brain at this one, a wee bit harder than last. This one requires a little bit of math to solve, but not too much! I promise.

Once again for those who are trying these out for the first time: If you want to guess "13" for example, write (A) in the comments. It is just like a multiple choice quiz!

IQ Puzzle #7 - Explanation

This one here I made a little bit easier and I think I like the results! A lot of you got this correct, even if some of you only guessed right because everyone else did haha  :p

Anyway the answer to this puzzle was (H) as many of you guessed. The simplest way to explain this puzzle is to have you go back to the original image and tilt your head to the right. If you view the right hand side as up, you will see that the first two lines say "ONE" and "TWO". The third line has the letters "IX" so the correct answer would be the sideways "S" to spell out "SIX". Congrats to those who got it right, the next puzzle will be up tomorrow!

Also for those who are new the format I use is a 3x3 grid with the bottom right section missing. The goal is to choose from the symbols below for the best answer. Hope that clears up some of the confusion!

IQ Puzzle #7 - Easy

I decided to make this one a lot easier so that everyone can take a shot at it without having to wrack their brains. As always post your guess in the comments!

Good luck to you all, I can feel a new leaderboard winner coming this way!

IQ Puzzle #6 - Explanation

So a lot of you seemed to be really confused by my latest puzzle. I think it was because I posted the puzzle and then a hint, but you all seemed to think the hint was the puzzle haha. In any case I will explain the puzzle itself here.

Essentially the puzzle was set up such that each number was a combination of two numbers multiplied. The formula is as such:

Starting at the top left square let all numbers go from 1 through 9.

Now you have a grid like this:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8

Next you have to determine what you have to multiply each of these by to get the corresponding number from the original puzzle.

You are left with this grid:
3 3 5
4 4 3
5 5

The pattern is not actually mathematical, rather it is based off of the number of letters it takes to spell each number. That is to say "one" would be multiplied by the number of letters it has, 3, resulting in 3. Next "two" multiplied by the number of letters it has, 3, would result in 6. This continues until you get to the last panel. We know that it has to be "nine" multiplied by 4 (letters) so the answer is 36. My next puzzle will not be nearly as tough, sorry all!

Vancouver - Riots

I am not sure how well known this is outside of Vancouver, but after losing game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals a bunch of people went insane and started rioting. There is a ton of footage of it circulating around, but I really like this video (originally an advertisement to come to Vancouver for those that don't know).

So just how well known is this incident outside of Canada? Post in the comments.

IQ Puzzle #6 - Hint

This here is the grid I talked about, hopefully it will point you in the right direction for solving #6.

IQ Puzzle #6 - Very Hard

This one is a tough one. I will post a grid after this that hints at the logic behind the puzzle. Best of luck, I added more answers to make this one less luck based.

Obviously because this one is so difficult it will be a three point puzzle just like the last one. Also don't forget to check out the leaderboard, they all have their own blogs which don't make you work like this one does :)

Best of luck, and I will be leaving this one open to answers for 2 days before I reveal the answer. That should be ample time to figure it out, no?

IQ Puzzle #5 - Explanation

The answer to this one does not need an image and Brittany from the comments section actually did an awesome job of explaining the puzzle. She said

"3C or 9A are my guess. If you turn each letter into it's corresponding number A=1, B=2, etc. Then multiply the 2 numbers together you get
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
Therefore to get nine you could say 3C (3x3), or 9A (9x1)!"

That is spot on! I awarded one point to convictus for guessing one of the right answers first, and two points to Brittany for not only guessing both answers but providing an explanation as well. In case her explanation did not make sense here is my quick run through:

If you begin by treating all letters (A,B,C and D) in this puzzle as numbers with their corresponding values as A=1, B=2, C=3 and D=4 then you end up with a pattern of two numbers in each box. Multiplying these numbers together leaves you with a pattern starting at the top left with the number 1, then 2 in the top middle, 3 in the top right etc. Think:

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8

This leaves you with the bottom right most likely being 9 which thinking back to the beginning can be represented as 9A (9x1) or 3C (3x3). Hope that makes sense! Also the next puzzle I will be releasing is going to be near impossible to solve, just thought I would warn you all.

IQ Puzzle #5 - Easy-Medium

So I am going to switch it up a little bit for you guys with this one. There will be no multiple choice for this, but it should not be all that difficult if you keep in mind how the last few puzzles were solved. So give it your best shot!

As well there are *technically* two possible answers, so one point for each answer. If you happen to know both go ahead and post them both to claim your two points!

Video Selection - Brand New Dubstep, Trial Biking and Babe Youth

Watch this one in HD. Unreal dancing and cool song.

This one starts off slow, you can skip through to about a minute in to see some awesome stuff. Such talent.

This one is a neat song pulled from those new Perrier commercials. The commercials are not very interesting but the song they decided to use is gold.

Next IQ Puzzle will be up tomorrow morning, until then rock out to the top video.

IQ Puzzle #4 - Explanation

The explanation to this one is super simple to understand, I commend those of you on your efforts to solve in different ways. If you feel that you came to a correct answer as well through a different method let me know in the comments and if your method makes sense I will give you a point. Next puzzle up soon, I want to see someone hit 1st place with 2 points!

Music - The Irony Of It All

So I am posting this to give you all a relief from the intense puzzles. This song (The Irony Of It All by The Streets) is not only cool but raises some interesting points about the ongoing debate between Alcohol and Marijuana. Check it out!

As well if you feel like relaxing with some chill songs in the background look no further than THIS playlist. Have a great day you all, I am off to watch the big game tonight!

IQ Puzzle #4 - Hard-Very Hard

Sorry guys I had to throw a really tough one at you this time. Don't worry though, because it is so hard I will be awarding 3 points to the solver who explains the correct answer!

Good luck to you all, feel free to post in the comments not only your answer but the reason why if you want to!

IQ Puzzle #3 - Explanation

This is a two part explanation as this puzzle was a little bit harder. The first part narrows it down to 3 choices and the second part narrows it down to two. Only one of these choices overlaps, and of course this is the answer. I tried to make the explanations colourful this time so that they are easier to follow.

 This explains the flow of the inside to outside symbols.

This explains the flow of the outside to inside symbols.

IQ Puzzle #3 - Easy-Medium

Try your hand at this one - it is a little tougher but I think you guys can figure it out! This one even comes with a smiley face to give you motivation :p

IQ Puzzle #2 - Explanation

So this one is a little bit harder to understand but I hope my illustrations will help. Essentially the symbols had 2 parts, the red circle with a hole and the green parallel lines. The red circle rotated at a constant rate of one 1/4 turn clockwise throughout. This means that the next symbol in the series must have the opening facing the top. This narrows down the possible answers to (C), (D) and (E). The second part are the green parallel lines that rotate in an addition series. That is to say that from the first symbol to the second there is 1 rotation of 1/4 turn clockwise. From the second to the third there are 2 rotations of 1/4 turn clockwise. This continues linearly so that from the third to the fourth there are 3 rotations, then 4 rotations, 5, 6, 7 and finally 8. The second to last symbol has 8 rotations and that means that the sticks will encompass two full rotations ending up facing straight up and down again. This means the answer is (C). Hope this makes sense! If you have any questions just ask in the comments!

IQ Puzzle #2 - Easy-Medium

Here is Puzzle #2, I made this one last night based on how you guys were thinking of how to solve Puzzle #1. Best of luck to you all, and I hope this one is a little bit easier!

IQ Puzzle #1 - Explanation

I hope this explains Puzzle #1 well enough. Congratulations again oinyo! For those who still don't get it, the first stroke of each letter of the first 9 letters of the alphabet has been written in order from left to right in descending rows. Puzzle #2 will be up a little later today, wonder who will top the leaderboard?

IQ Puzzle #1 - Medium

So here is the first one for you guys (the quality will increase I promise). The first person to answer correctly in the comments gets to be on the leaderboard featured at the top right on my page. Give it a shot!

Also if you figure it out don't post the solution in the comments and ruin it for others!
I will post the solutions to all the IQ puzzles the next day along with a new puzzle to try out.

Biopsychology - Letter to my Professor

I spent quite a while compiling all the resources to post this email to my professor and figured some of you might find the content intriguing or entertaining. In any case here it is:

Hello Steven,

I am not sure how busy you are but if you have a moment you might find this of interest. I was the student who had to leave early today and brought up the use of tongue stimulation as a method of therapy for "wobblers". You asked me at the time if someone was involved in the project and I cannot remember who you named so I found the relevant articles.



The article about the woman involved in the experiment can be found here: http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/07/perpetually_falling_woman_learns_to_balance_with_her_tongue.php

A video of her improving her balance can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&feature=related&hl=iw&v=Z36LxkWt0Dk

I hope that clears up the question of whether or not the researcher you mentioned was involved.



As well as a tack on bonus considering we are doing a unit on vision I thought these two articles might be of interest:

A new imaging technique allows for imaging of rods and cones in great detail (published yesterday): http://www.opticsinfobase.org/boe/abstract.cfm?uri=boe-2-7-1864

The images are found from page 6 onwards if you wish to skip the reading.



As a final note the idea of using a 500x500 array of electrodes for recording or inducing vision got me thinking back to an older article I read that deals with facial hallucinations (sort of along the lines of the person/fire hydrant/car image you showed us), the article can be found here and the upscaling images are found on page 4: http://www.iipl.fudan.edu.cn/~zhangjp/publications/ICME2009.pdf



If you do not have time to bother with these I fully understand,

Thank you for your time,

Stowdashay

I doubt this will be of interest to many but the video showing the woman's ability to balance with the help of electrodes on her tongue is awesome.

100 Followers!

Just a shout out to all my followers, thank you for showing interest in my blog! I try my best to get back to your comments and check out what new things you guys have kicking around. I now have the leaderboard of awesomeness up and running and will begin my IQ posts within the week. What would you guys say would be the best choice, really tough IQ puzzles or easier ones?

Even More Updates on Everything

I think I may have found a way to get a scoreboard up on the right hand side to rank the top 5 IQ puzzle solvers, the only thing is I need to test it first, so the first 5 people to comment on this will get to be my guinea pigs for the scoreboard. The only thing I have left to figure out is how to get a system for digitizing the drawings I have made thus far. I am debating between a few methods, mostly I just want it to look professional. So anyway, comment and become the first five on the leader board!

Updates on Everything

So I have decided that I will start posting some IQ style puzzles once and a while to spice things up. As well due to the comments on my last post with almost all liking the fourth song I figured I would throw out a few bands that I feel have a comparable sound. So here they are in no particular order, they are all pretty good listens:

Civil Twilight - Letters From the Sky

Crash Kings - Mountain Man

Oddly enough those two bands were the openers for a concert I went to a while back and absolutely stole the show from the main act (Anberlin). I ended up spending the rest of the concert talking to the Crash Kings who were exceptionally nice guys and quite down to earth. In any case see you all tomorrow with a new post and perhaps a tricky puzzle for you to solve! Stay tuned.

Music - A List of Awesome Songs

So I just came across a comment from a while back from this guy named Pieter thanking me for recommending The Glitch Mob to him. You should check out his blog, I recommended them based on some music he had posted. He also is an awesome writer with a really neat short story he translated about... well you should read it yourself!

In any case, I thought it was appropriate to thank him for his thanks, and I thought to myself I should share some music I enjoy and maybe people will enjoy it as well. So here is my list of songs in different categories for you to enjoy:

1. If you want to feel intense like you want to rip something apart (Great for working out) then CLICK HERE.

2. If you want to feel really chill like you are sitting at the top of the amazonian rainforest thinking intensely about some epic problem CLICK HERE.

3. If you want to feel like you are flying over the ocean dipping your hands into the water as you fly across the atlantic CLICK HERE.

4. If you want to feel like you are unstoppable and have shivers run down your spine (Make sure you watch in HD, so intense) CLICK HERE.

5. If you want a song to pump you up and make you want to do pushups (Again make sure you watch in HD, even more intense) CLICK HERE.

So anyway there are my top 5 recommendations depending on how you are feeling. Let me know which one you chose and what you thought!

Movie Review - X-Men: First Class

I will try my absolute best to ensure I leave out any spoilers and simply focus on what made the movie good and what made it bad. That said, here is my review:

X-Men: First Class, the fourth or fifth installment in the series depending on whether or not you count Wolverine's movie, manages to find a niche unto itself which the other movies had not covered. In the previous movies the X-Men were already well trained, in control of their powers and keen to fight for their side. Whenever there was a battle, the audiences focus was on the ability for one characters power to beat another one's power (think this scene).

X-Men: First Class, being a prequel, takes the concept of powers in a different direction. We see internal struggle, with mutants having to overcome their own limitations, fears and humanity to rise above the rest. Those aspects made this film great, and allowed the audience to connect more with the mutants on an emotional level. This connection kept you distracted from the at times massive suspension of disbelief necessary to reconcile some of the situations.

In terms of the plot, the story builds slowly, adding in cameos and explanations to the origins of some of the characters from the first three movies. The other neat thing about the plot is that it does a great job of integrating actual history with the "what if?" of mutants existing. Speaking of mutants, so as to not spoil anything let's suffice to say that the powers in this movie are pretty cool and definitely subtly enforce the characters flaws/character traits without barging into centre stage.


I give this movie a hearty 7.5/10.

Movie Reviews Possibility

So I have been thinking of taking a break from the various posts about Ultimate Frisbee. I will be seeing X-Men First Class today and figure I will put up a review of it by tomorrow. If there are any movies you would like me to review post them in the comments and I will be sure to check them out! In the meantime here is a tough game that takes some practice to do quickly. What is your fastest time on easy? Mine is 29 seconds! Post your times and suggestions in the comments.

Ultimate Frisbee - Positions

So Francis Caron asked here about what positions there are in Ultimate Frisbee. This question gets asked a lot and it is a tricky one to tackle due to the variety of positions there are. I will try my best though. It is best to start by saying that every player on the field has two positions depending on whether or not your team is on offense or defense at the time. Your team is considered to be on offense when one of your team members has the disc in his or her posession. Your team is considered to be on defense when your team does not have the disc. From here we can break down the positions into offensive and defensive.

Offensive Positions

1. Cutters

• Cutters are the offensive players that run and try to create open space to move the disc upfield. Cutters either play a horizontal or vertical offense. In a horizontal offense the 4 cutters form a straight line across the field and "cut" (run) in and out to try to beat the defensive player marking them. In a vertical offense, a vertical line is made in the center of the field and cutters run to either side hoping to beat their checks.

1. Handlers

• Handlers are the players that have the disc the most, they stay furthest back and pass with one another to reset the "stall count" (The stall count is when the defence counts to 10, if they reach ten and you have not thrown the disc your team loses posession). Handlers are usually split up into swings and dumps. The dump is the handler who runs directly behind the player with the disc to offer an easy throw to reset the stall count, whereas the swings are the other two handlers who offer a longer throw to gain some yards forward as dumping the disc loses yards.

1. Strikers

• Strikers are essentially cutters but are more geared toward running long for "hucks" (long throws).

1. Poppers

• Poppers are essentially cutters but are more geared toward running (popping) into the cup for a short pass as an alternative option to a dump.

 Defensive Positions

1. Man

• A man defence is where each defensive player marks an offensive player, usually players try to mark offense of equal skill so there are no mismatches.

1. Cup

• A cup is a style of zone defense in which each player is marking a zone of the field rather than a player. When a cup is put on there are usually three defensive players who mark the person with the disc in a semi circle shape (hence the term "cup"). The next three players mark the zones in front of the cup, or the middle, hence they are called "mids". The last player is called the "deep" and marks any long throws to strikers.

1. Rabbit Wall

• The rabbit wall is a variation of the cup in which there is one "rabbit" who runs after the frisbee constantly being the only person to count stalls. It is an exhausting position and the wall's job is to prevent any throws up the field. This leaves the team on offense with the option of swinging the disc back and forth between handlers. The idea is that the more throws you force the other team to throw the higher the chance there is they will drop the disc. Because you now have 4 people marking rather than 3 you sacrifice on mid. This leaves you with two mid's and a deep.

So I hope that semi clears up the different positions, if you have any questions feel free to ask! (I am thinking about perhaps making some picture diagrams as I can imagine this must be quite confusing to someone who has never played). Hope that clears things up Francis!

Ultimate Frisbee - Moving Up a Division

So unfortunately even with all the luck you guys gave me there were no games last night due to rain. I thought this was supposed to be summer! I still have a practice Sunday and a game Tuesday so I will get a chance to play but I hope this rain lets up or all the fields will remain closed. Short post for now, will give you all something neat later on. For now be appeased with this song:

See you all later today.

Ultimate Frisbee - Championship Video

So in the comments for my Ultimate Frisbee post there were two that stuck out (1 and 2). I thought I would post one of my favourite highlight reel videos from the 2009 UPA Nationals. The best moments to look at in my opinion if you don't want to watch the entire video are 00:58 for an example of a great read, 1:07 for an awesome layout/cross field hammer, 1:45 for a good recovery and 2:31 for a guy outskying two players. Now the best moment in the entire video deserves a section all to itself so please CLICK HERE to see the most amazing layout (quite possibly ever). If anyone knows of video of one that beats that let me know in the comments! The video is underneath:

 

I hope you enjoy and seriously CHECK THIS MOMENT OUT!

Ultimate Frisbee

I currently play on two Ultimate Frisbee teams, one quite competitive and the other one more lax. I am really enjoying the sport, been playing for at least 6 years now. The competitive team I play for just moved up a division so hopefully it will be even more intense. First game in the new div is on Thursday, hope all goes well as it is a double header against Sheet It Out and The Incredible Huck. Here are some recent pictures of some play:

Summer School - Psych 304 - Interesting Facts

On my last post about my summer course icey posted:

"post some things you've learned if that's legally ok please. behaviour is a very interesting topic."

I have decided to detail some of the interesting things I have learned thus far and don't worry icey, it is legal.

1. Eye Movement

How your brain interprets movement is quite extraordinary. Consider these four cases and try it out for yourself!

1. Both object being viewed and eye are stationary. (Hold out a pencil, is it moving?)
   Result: Object appears to not be moving.
2. Object is stationary but eye is moving. (Scan from the top to the bottom of the pencil, is it moving?)
   Result: Object appears to not be moving.
3. Object is moving down but eye is stationary. (Move pencil downwards while keeping eye focused straight ahead, is it moving?)
   Result: Object appears to be moving.

Now here is where it gets a little bit complicated. Consider case two and three. In both of these the pencil changes its place on the back of the retina. When you move your eyes up the pencil but the pencil is stationary, the retinal image ends up hitting higher on the back of your eye. Yet the same thing occurs when the pencil moves down but your eye stays staring straight ahead (the focus ends up on the eraser in both cases). Why then does your brain interpret one of these as movement and the other as not movement. Well let us make a hypothesis and then test it. Perhaps when your brain moves your eye it subtracts this movement from the change in retinal image and so even though you move your eyes, your brain can tell the world is stationary. How then could we test this? Well try this:

1. Stare off into the distance as far away as possible.
2. Close your right eye.
3. With your left finger gently push on your bottom eyelid to push your eye upwards.
4. Continue to apply pressure, then release it in an alternating pattern.
5. With enough pressure applied you should see the world tilt downwards!

It can be tricky to get this effect to work as people aren't usually comfortable with prodding their own eyeballs. I find that alternating pressure/no pressure helps you to better visualize the downward movement (it can be quite blurry). So what does this mean? Well you tilted your eyeball up, just like you did when you looked at the tip of the pencil. This time though, your brain did not initiate the movement of the eyeball so it was unable to subtract this movement, thus your brain said "The world is tilting down!".

I just realized this does not have much to do with behaviour so I will have to do another post tomorrow about behaviour. Dangit. Hope this is interesting icey!

Summer School - Psych 304

So I am attending a summer course at UBC, Psych 304, entitled "Brain and Behaviour". The instructor is Steven Barnes and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to pick up a difficult but straightforward credit. Steven is exceptional at explaining concepts and really takes the time to help students out (for example he held two extra lectures outside class time that were student driven to prepare for the midterm). He is also a phenomenal artist, his website is located here.

The course so far has been very interesting, with the text accompanying the lectures well. The textbook is very well written, it can be found here. Steven mentioned at the beginning of the course that it has a very low sellback rate, meaning a lot of students either choose to keep it or burn it. Either way I would never burn this book, not only because I hate the loss of information, but also because I am beginning to develop a personal affinity for the way the author, Pinel, structures the material. Hopefully I do well in this course, I will keep the updates flowing.

HST - Why should you care?

A little while ago I came across an awesome video explaining some of the misconceptions about the HST and what it means. It is definitely worth taking a look at.

 I will admit that even though I thought I understood the concept fully, some of the finer points completely eluded me until I watched this explanation. This hearkens back to my previous post about misinformation and how important it is to concentrate on educating through facts.

Vancouver Art Gallery Expansion

So per a comment by this guy here asking about the comparison between the VAG and the TAR, I decided it would be worthwhile to do a post about the VAG and the direction it is headed. One of the cool projects that has been proposed is the construction of a dual concert hall beneath the VAG. Initiated by the Vancouver Concert Hall and Theatre Society, the aim would be to create a space for performances by the VSO, as well as offer live performance spaces and room to book festivals/celebrations. An article on the proposal has been put out by World Architecture News and can be found here. The part I appreciate above and beyond the concept is the dedication to factual based evidence as seen in the section of the editorial that reads:

"One early commenter is Anthony F. Ingram, who posted his thoughts on the Facebook wall: 'While I think this idea is laudable, the 450 seat theatre space, in my opinion, will be of little use to the numerous small theatre companies that are crying out for spaces in which to present their work. What we really need are 150 to 200 seat spaces. We can't afford a 450 space.'"
"The group’s administrators responded swiftly to this post, thanking Anthony for his comment and directing him to a full report by Vancouver’s City Council which suggests that there is a gaping hole in the market for a venue of this size. This 160-page document (compiled in 2008) recognises that: 'the majority (87%) of Vancouver’s small-scale, live presentation spaces are delivered through multi-functional facilities that accommodate performance-based activity as a secondary/ancillary function.'”

This sort of accountability to the hopes and fears of the citizen is a step in the right direction in my opinion. It is beneficial to take the time to inform the citizen of why their concerns may be misguided and why something that may seem strange, costly or impossible might actually be beneficial on second glance. This whole post reminds me greatly of the issues we are currently having in B.C. with the HST. I think I will do my next post on that.

Art Installation Concept

Today while at the VAG I had a discussion about forms of art. One idea I came up with was to have a room held at 0 degrees Celsius and place some blocks of ice in it. In the middle would be a sledgehammer with which a viewer could destroy the ice. Now the catch would be that a portion of those viewing the exhibit would partake in destruction and a portion would choose not to, the catch being that regardless of whether or not you were to actively destroy the ice, your presence would heat the room causing the ice to melt. Perhaps it could be taken even further in that for each visitor that swings the sledgehammer the temperature would be lowered a degree and for each one that does not it would be raised a degree. Hmmm....

Vancouver Art Gallery

Attended the VAG today, ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. On the first floor was an exhibit encompassing the works of a handful of Surrealists. The most notable artist for me was Kurt Seligmann whose paintings detailed great landscapes obscured by whirling objects which appeared to be made of either air or stone depending on their orientation on the canvas. Continuing on through the surrealist portion there were a number of Dali paintings and I had a moment to write down an amusing anecdote from his book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali" where it details him "demanding to know why when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a boiled telephone". Oh Dali, you strange, strange man. Another piece of intrigue was Giorgio de Chirico's "The Child's Brain", which Chirico described as a combination between his father and Napoleon III. Many of the pieces were linked back to Freud, with this one being described as having a semblance to Freud's Oedipus Complex.

The second floor ended up drawing a close parallel with the ideas presented on the floor below, even though it was supposed to be a completely separate exhibit. A variety of artwork was presented however one artist soared above the rest with both his art style and installations. Ken Lum, a native to East Vancouver had a number of photographs as well as a larger room devoted to his art installation of a neon sign detailed by the Vancouver Sun here. There was a computer set up in the room that allowed you to look at various articles about the piece and I noticed that the majority of the negative response was due to a lack of information on what the installation is meant to represent. This video that was in the room did a great job of showing that the art was not designed by him to be religious, in the video he actually mentions it is both religious and sacrilegious at the same time.

The negative comments stating this was promoting Christianity seemed to be a little bit misinformed and misplaced after watching the video.

The most outstanding of Lum's installations in the VAG were his room of mirrors and his wall of mirrors. When I entered the room of mirrors I was filled with a little bit of a joking feeling, figuring it would be similar to the one at the PNE (in which it is possible to run through, though they advise you not to). Instead, Lum's room of mirrors was utterly disorienting, to the point where on the first pass both my mother and girlfriend had to exit the way we came in after getting turned around in the corridors. I decided to go back in and they came through the exit side so we could meet in the middle and they could lead me back. On the way back out my girlfriend managed to mistake a mirror for the exit and walk full force into it. Quite bizarre and intriguing at the same time.

Lum's wall of mirrors consisted of a length of mirrors with reverse text printed on the wall across forcing you to read the text on the mirror in front of you. To read, it was necessary to move along the mirror as your own body obscured a portion of the words. Once you reached the end, the hallway turned in on itself and eventually after a series of mirrors it became a dark tunnel. Upon entering the tunnel you came into the room behind the mirrors you were just in and then had the chance to observe other people reading with the mirror. It was very strange, but fascinating.

All in all the VAG has a great series on right now and I would recommend that anyone in the Vancouver area drop in to check it out!