Some pics from my San Francisco morning exercise walk:
- A new-to-me little free library in the shape of its accompanying house (kind of a thing in the Sunset District) at 14th Ave and Quintara (a.k.a. the end of the 6 Parnassus line)
- The accompanying house, a little washed out in the fog, i.e., a typical view around here
- Car parked in a driveway. Yeah, I already reported it to 311; no reason to think they did anything about it, though. Not pictured, not reported: another car parked in a driveway with a "Pro-Environmentalist / Anti-Fascist" window decal; yet another car parked in a driveway with an 🚫Elon sticker.
- Toy dinosaur on the hood of a car in a driveway
- Little Free Library in the shape of its accompanying house (did I mention this is kind of a thing in the Sunset District?) on Lincoln around 30th Ave.
- Chalk art at 20th Ave and Irving: That "Don't Panic / Organize" meme with the fish. Not shown: the probably-more-impressive art next to it which was scuffed by the time I got there.
Permalink
2025-04-14T17:10:27.911169
Some photos from my morning exercise walk.
- Shot of the Golden Gate Bridge to be a home screen for my new phone
- Today's chalk art on 20th and Irving: Ha ha, so appropria— oh wait, she got the new iPhone? I got an Android. Oh well, still kinda appropriate.
- Yeah, yeah, already reported to SF311. No reason to think they dispatched a ticketmobile at oh-dark-thirty on a Sunday morning, though.
- I do like these frogs. 7th and Irving?
Permalink
2025-04-06T15:44:28.929894
USA folks over 50 years old:
Some months back, the CDC started recommending that people
50+ years old get pneumococcal vaccine, against pneumonia,
which you don't want.
(Previously, they recommended the vaccine for people
65+ years old.)
I procrastinat gave my health plan a chance to nudge
all 50+ folks to get it.
Months later, I gave up on that and asked my doctor about it.
She quickly* said yep, get that vax, and set me up to get
an appointment. If you're 50+ and were waiting for your
doctor to nudge you, maybe it's time you nudged them instead.
*OK, first I had to slog through an irrelevant "answer" from an AI
assistant and then repeat my question, but still quick overall.
Permalink
2025-04-04T19:56:17.594115
I'm sufficiently vain to set a Google alert so I find out
when I'm mentioned someplace new on the World Wide Web.
Thus I found out I'm in the Acknowledgments section of a
recent academic paper.
Oh, neat!
Some nerds at a company called Scale A.I. set up a new
benchmark for AIs.
Here, a "benchmark" is a set of questions and answers; ask the
same questions to several AIs, grade those AIs based on how many
answers they get right. This new benchmark was unusual:
They gathered together puzzles
from places like
the MIT Mystery Hunt and
Puzzled Pint.
I, with esteemed puzzle editor
Neal Tibrewala,
made some Puzzled Pint puzzles, thus the acknowledgment.
(Some question the utility of this benchmark; is it useful
to measure a chatbot's wordplay ability if customers don't care
about that and instead want the chatbot's advice on, say, setting
a tariff rate on an uninhabited set of islands in the Antarctic?
This is a valid point. One nice thing about puzzles: They
have unambiguously correct answers. Grading the answers to
questions like "What tariff should we apply on these penguins?"
isn't so straightforward.)
I chuckled. I wanted to keep up with whatever other silly things
these "Scale" people came up with. I looked around to see if
they had a blog I could follow. I found their blog!
I saw some recent articles:
-
"Scale AI products approved for
purchase on AWS Marketplace for the U.S. National Security Community"
(military intelligence can use Scale's A.I. vision tech to track my
movements through a crowd so that autonomous drones can find and kill me)
-
"Machine Perception for Human Protection: Creating Vision Algorithms
to Augment Perimeter Security"
(Finally, some good news: This tech would only try to kill me if I
were on a boat, which is only rarely)
-
"Introducing Thunderforge: AI for American Defense"
(They're working with the ghouls at Anduril to make AI for military
decisions, e.g., whether to find and kill me vs
some other potential target.)
-
"Letter from Alexandr Wang to President Trump on Winning the AI War"
("There is incredible evidence about how AI can
improve government efficiency, decision-making, and service delivery."
This is technically not a lie, since "incredible" can mean
unbelievable.)
When a bunch of AIs try to solve Mystery Hunt puzzles and get 0.00%
correct, it's a fun chuckle. But when Israel's military uses AI to
figure out who to kill and ends up murdering aid workers and reporters,
nobody's laughing.
Whew! Who knew looking over a vanity alert would just lead to a
reminder that there are people playing at keeping me safe by means of
scattershot murder. Here's hoping they fail at the scattershot murder part.
Permalink
2025-04-03T21:50:42.898437
It's the third book in Curtis Chen's Kangaroo sci-fi/spy/comedy series.
It continues the tradition of witty banter, action, and intrigue.
Of course, I was mostly focused on looking out for the puzzle-y bits;
Curtis was a pillar of the SF Bay Area's puzzlehunt community while he lived around here.
This novel comes through:
Our young and snarky protagonist, seeking to annoy a fussy fellow spy,
uses the least secure variant of Pig Latin.
Yes, Curtis used puzzlehunt-y lore to demonstrate character.
(It's not puzzle-y, but I also noticed when the young and optimistic protagonist said,
of a man-made sci-fi nanobot-altered-virus disaster, "because it's in the history books now
and no one who lived through it will ever forget." And of course in my head I was already
plotting out the 30-years-further-in-the-future sequel in which our now old and jaded protagonist,
facing yet another nanobot-altered-virus disaster thinks oh for f*ck's sake, not again.)
It's fun, give it a read; or if you haven't already read the first couple of books in the series
I guess start there.
Permalink
2025-04-01T18:35:09.310526
It is March and the
lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers
to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "puzzle".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump
(egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk)
fails so constantly and consistently that
for every day in the month of March, it was
pretty easy to find a screw-up that went with
the EnigMarch daily word. Well it wasn't always
easy; on the 25th, I was overwhelmed by choice.
Today that's maybe happening again? Hmm, "puzzle."
OK, here's a puzzle from 2021: The
C.I.A. warned its field offices:
many C.I.A. spies were being killed or turned.
It was a real mystery: How were our adversaries
figuring out who to recruit and/or assassinate?
We may never know the answer for sure, but it sure
was interesting when they
found all of those classified documents Trump
was keeping in a bathroom in 2022.
Did Trump sell secrets to other countries, thus enabling
those countries to narrow down who was leaking?
We don't know, of course.
Thank you for putting up with all of these puzzles
about Don (and, for most of them, Elon). Here's
#31, a crossword puzzle.
Notice: There are two sets of five circles each. Those are
Don and Elon, together for one last puzzle.
Permalink
2025-03-31T21:08:22.983012
It is March and the
lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers
to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "route".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump
(egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk)
keeps threatening to take over Greenland.
He seems to think Greenlanders will welcome the USA as liberators.
Why? Because he's stupid.
(For some history of why Greenlanders might not appreciate the USA
or Denmark rule, you might refresh your memories of that time
America dropped some nuclear bombs there by accident and then some
very unhappy people had to go into some very cold water to retrieve
those bombs.)
Usha Vance, V.P.J.D. Vance's wife, planned to go to Greenland for some P.R.
Her plan: visit some friendly Greenlanders, view a big dogsled race, spread
goodwill. But when her aides scouted ahead to find
someone, anyone in Greenland who wanted to meet her, they got
no takers.
So that part of her itinerary got discarded.
Then they figured out just how popular the US isn't in Greenland right now,
and the dogsled race part of her itinerary got discarded, too.
In the end, she just visited a US military base.
To honor the efforts of her hapless aides wandering the streets of Nuuk in
forlorn hope of a friendly face, here's a maze for you to find a route
through from top to bottom. (No secret message today, just
a maze to wander.) Ice cubes are walls; black squares you can
walk on. There are some cold-ish emoji scattered about; they might
be handy landmarks.
🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🍨⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🥶⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⛸️⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🍧⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊
🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🏒⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛❄️⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊
🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊
🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⛄⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🐧⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🛷⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🌡️⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊
🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊
🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛🧊⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊
🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊⬛🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊
Hints, rot-13'd:
These hints are the "landmark" emoji you'll encounter going from north to south.
If you were hoping for directions from south to north, maybe decode 'em from the bottom.
- zbfg bs gur jnl gb gur vpr fxngr, ohg ghea fbhgu rneyl
- ubpxrl fgvpx
- fabjzna
- fyrq
Permalink
2025-03-30T02:45:47.347547
It is March and the
lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers
to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "compass".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump
(egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk)
really wanted to send a lot of water south in a hurry.
A wildfire had spread to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of
Los Angeles. Fox News showed a big problem: hoses plugged
into fire hydrants weren't getting enough pressure to actually
spray water.
Trump knew that California had lots of water in the North;
but Los Angeles was in the South. Trump obsesses over this.
On another occasion when he was throwing tantrums about wanting
to remove federal protection from endangered species, he specifically
called out the Delta Smelt, an endangered fish species that's
been especially-endangered by California's past efforts to build
canals from the wet North to the arid South.
With fires burning, Trump wasn't going to let any fish stop him
from sending water south!
(By this point, the firehoses in Los Angeles had water pressure again. The problem wasn't a citywide water shortage, just a local problem with terrible timing. But he didn't care.)
He ordered the Army Corps of Engineers
to send water from its California reservoirs into canals.
When the Engineers
told him that was stupid, Elon Musk sent a couple of DOGE dimwits
to open up the canals anyhow.
Thus California sent a lot of water from north to south…not
to Los Angeles, those canals didn't go to Los Angeles. The water
went to Tulare Lake, which had no use for it. Let's hope California
doesn't have a drought this year, since a couple of stupid gits
dumped a big chunk of water water reserves.
Anyhow, here's a puzzle. In the North, we have some words and phrases.
In the South, we have those words and phrases with H2O added.
That is, some clown added H H and O one of the north phrases and then
swirled up the result. For example: because + hho,
anagrammed gives us beach house. That ③ under "beach house"
means that we should jot down the third letter of "because":
C. Once you match up the North and South phrases, the letters
you jot down should spell out an appropriate word.
army units
because
complicate
interesting
permits
renting
RuneScape
↑
North
South
↓
beach
house
③
C
human
history
⑤
mothership
③
night
heron
①
photochemical
⑩
Schopenhauer
③
there is
nothing
③
Some hints, rot-13'd:
- Bayl bar L va guvf chmmyr.
- Bayl 2 Tf va guvf chmmyr, bar jvgu na F naq nabgure jvgu ab F.
- Fpubcraunhre naq EharFpncr tb gbtrgure, ng yrnfg va guvf pbagrkg
Puzzle solution, rot-13'd:
p / ornpu.ubhfr / orpnhfr
h / uhzna.uvfgbel / nezl havgf
e / zbgurefuvc / crezvgf
e / avtug.ureba / eragvat
r / cubgbpurzvpny / pbzcyvpngr
a / Fpubcraunhre / EharFpncr
g / gurer vf.abguvat / vagrerfgvat
Permalink
2025-03-29T02:21:49.201813
It's about crossword puzzles: history, current bigshots, the author's personal experience attending ACPT and a crossword-celebrating ocean voyage, …
You are not shocked to learn that I apparently already absorbed a fair amount of crossword knowledge
by reading blogs, watching that "Wordplay" movie some years back, hasty research for puzzlehunts, etc.
But I did learn a couple of nifty things:
Ernie Bushmiller, the Nancy cartoonist, got his start drawing crossword grids.
Back in those days, you couldn't just ask a computer to draw a grid of squares and fill some of them with black.
Someone had to sit down with a straightedge and draw by hand.
People call Nancy "diagrammatic," maybe Bushmiller just never got over drawing those grids.
Crossfire is OK.
The author, Adrienne Raphel, writes about her experience creating a crossword using the Crossfire program.
I used Crossword Compiler, a different crossword-making program. Crossword Compiler is made for Windows
machine; I don't have a Windows machine, so I struggled to use Crossword Compiler with an emulator.
It mostly worked, but some buttons in the app just did nothing. In recent years, more buttons
stopped working. (I don't think Crossword Compiler changed; I think my Windows emulator changed,
alas, breaking some things.) Raphel used Crossfire and didn't notice a horribly
long wait when using its auto-fill feature. I'd stuck with Crossword Compiler for its fast auto-fill; but maybe
Crossfire was fast enough? Crossfire runs on several kinds of computer, even my Linux machine.
I gave Crossfire a whirl, and it worked fine. You might have noticed that for #EnigMarch so far, I made
three crosswords and uploaded them to Crosshare. I made those crosswords with Crossfire.
In my efforts to give less money to the recently-Nazi-wannabe-aligned Amazon,
I put my old Kindle on a shelf and bought a Kobo e-reader.
It works about the same as the Kindle. It's fine. This here book was the
first I read on the Kobo.
Permalink
2025-03-28T21:57:33.093264
It is March and the
lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers
to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "draw".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump, back towards the end of his
disastrous first term, tweeted about the incoming Hurricane Dorian.
He tweeted about which US states would be hit—but alas, he's
stupid, so he mistakenly
added Alabama to the list.
This confused some Alabamans, who then did something dangeous:
They asked about the mistake. Trump threw a tantrum and published
a video in which he showed a map illustrating where the hurricane
would go—a map which somebody had crudely
drawn on with a Sharpie pen, trying to extend the
path so that it reached Alabama.
When asked later, Trump said he wasn't sure who had altered the map.
Yes, who on earth had motive to edit the map to try to reflect
Trump's asinine statement? Who could it be?
Five years later, almost half of America's voters re-elected this man.
Oh my goodness. What? Oh, right, the puzzle. ahem
We had some nice words, but some clown insists
on adding AL to each of them. For example, he
saw fine and turned it to finale. We
filled in that one. Can you fill in the rest? When you do,
the circled letters spell out a better medium for the clown's
future artistic endeavors:
| Grand end of a narrative. E.g.: Question Hound haunted an attic with ghostly fire: | Ⓕi n a L e |
| Not all animals here are poisonous! (Some are venomous): | _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ |
| America's Got…: | _ _ _ _◯_ |
| Good app for consumers. Not so good for Houthi PC Small Group, tho: | _ _◯_ _ _ |
| Hanlon said not to confuse it with stupidity; Trump said "Why not both?": | _ _ _ _ _◯ |
| Who you'll have to ask for vaccines next year, probably: | _ _ _ _ _◯ |
Loon ex-governor who still gets on talk shows somehow?
(That link is a spoiler, but I fear the young folks might not remember this loon): | ◯_ _ _ _ |
| Election fraud conspiracy theorist's fixation: | _◯_ _ _ _ |
| It's salty (more as in briny than in whiny): | _ _ _◯_ _ |
| Eagle's got…: | _ _ _ _◯ |
| Tasty treat that may be big and/or hot: | ◯_ _ _ _ _ |
Original (Do not call them "correct") words: Austria, blot, deer, fine, mice, pin, sign, sine, tame, tent, ton
Hints, rot-13'd:
- Ubhguv CP Fznyy Tebhc jnf ba gur Fvtany ncc
- Cnyva jnf Nynfxn'f ybba Tbireabe, abj n ybba chaqvg
- Fnyvar vf fnygl
Solution, rot-13'd:
Svanyr / svar / Tenaq raq bs n aneengvir.
nhfgenyVn / nhfgevn / Abg nyy navznyf urer ner cbvfbabhf!
gnyrAg / grag / Nzrevpn'f Tbg
fvTany / fvta / Tbbq ncc sbe pbafhzref. Abg fb tbbq sbe Ubhguv CP Fznyy Tebhc, gub
znyvpR / zvpr / Unayba fnvq abg gb pbashfr vg jvgu fghcvqvgl; Gehzc fnvq "Jul abg obgu?"
qrnyrE / qrre / Jub lbh'yy unir gb nfx sbe inppvarf arkg lrne, cebonoyl
Cnyva / cva / Ybba rk-tbireabe jub fgvyy trgf ba gnyx fubjf fbzrubj
oNyybg / oybg / Ryrpgvba senhq pbafcvenpl gurbevfg'f svkngvba
fnyVar / fvar / Vg'f fnygl (zber nf va oeval guna va juval)
gnybA / gba / Rntyr'f tbg
Gnznyr / gnzr / Gnfgl gerng gung znl or ovt naq/be ubg
