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WebSkulker announced a minor contest in last Thursday's issue: go to www.simeonmagic.com and figure out how these tricks work:  www.caveofmagic.com and www.simeonmagic.com/triangle.

The card trick in CaveOfMagic is really quite simple and the jr. skulkers who couldn't figure it out will kick themselves.  You are presented with pictures of six playing cards and asked to pick one in your mind.  At the next step, the site claims to figure out the card you chose, and proves it by showing you five cards with yours missing.  How did it know which one you chose; how did it remove your card?

Are you ready to kick yourself, George?  The five cards are all different from the original six cards, although they look similar in color and values to fake you out.  No matter what card you pick from the six, it will be missing from the five because all cards have changed.  Did it hurt, George?

The triangle puzzle is a lot harder.  Go to this page and look at the diagram:
http://www.simeonmagic.com/triangle/triangle1.htm

The secret to this is the "hypotenuse" of the big "triangle" composed of the puzzle pieces.  The top figure is not a triangle, although it is close.  You can see this in two ways:  (1) the red triangle piece is 3 units high and 8 wide, so the slope of the line is 3/8.  The bluegreen triangle piece is 2 units high and 5 wide, so the slope is 2/5, which is not the same as 3/8.  The "hypotenuse" is really two separate lines that don't quite match.  (2) Press a piece of paper against your monitor, tilt it at an angle to the left, and try to line up the edge of the paper with the "hypotenuse".  You will see that it is not straight and you can't make the paper line up.  Note that the "hypotenuse" bows in towards the center of the big "triangle".

Now slide the paper down and try to line it up with the "hypotenuse" of the lower big "triangle".  Note that this time the "hypotenuse" bows outwards away from the center of the big "triangle".  The big "triangle" at the bottom is therefore a little larger than the one at the top because of the bow-in and bow-out of the "hypotenuse".  If you calculate the difference, it will equal exactly one square, and that is where the area of the hole comes from.

Congratulations to Jr. Skulker Uncle Brucie for being the first to email us with answers to both puzzles.  Other people who got both right are:  Tom McWilliams, NoReality, Roland, James Backhouse, Jorge Handl, Gene Kaufman, and Carlos Taliaferro.

http://www.shellcity.net

"Shell extensions are system utilities which allow you to customize the way your system works for you. Most SHELL EXTENSIONS are tiny little tweaks to the system or else small programs, 100kb or less, very easy to download and install, and they'll generally make your computer experience easier by more conveniently configuring your system, allowing you to perform some system function more easily. So now you know the abstract principles, go and browse the shell extensions to learn more."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone

Ms. Cat, who can't type, but can press buttons on a TV remote control, was channel skulking the other day -- changing channels repeatedly looking for programs about cats.  Suddenly she started meowing excitedly and pointing at the screen: she had come across the PBS special "The Telephone".  WebSkulker watched the remainder of the program with her and recommends it highly to the jr. skulkers interested in phones.  It has a lot of history with pictures, movies, and audio of the early days of telephony.  The web site has the complete transcript of the program, but little else of use, so try to find the TV program being shown in your area.

http://www.drue.com/coredump/spoopix.html

Jr. Skulker Lena Diethelm told us to look at the cute kitty pictures, and they really are.  Be sure to move your mouse over each picture.

Submitted by Jr. Skulker Chris Custer

The Jar 

An 85 year old man went to his doctor's office to get a sperm count.  The doctor gave the man a jar and said, "Take this jar home and bring me back a sample tomorrow." 

The next day the old man reappeared at the doctor's office and gave him the jar which was as clean and empty as it had been the day before.  The doctor asked, "What happened? Didn't I ask you to bring back a sperm sample?" 

"Well doc it's like this," said the old man. "first I tried my right hand, but nothing. Then I tried my left hand, still nothing. Then I asked my wife for help.  She tried first with her right hand, then with her left. Still nothing. Then she tried with her mouth, first with her teeth in, then with her teeth out. Still nothing. We even called up the lady next door, and she tried with both hands and her mouth too, but nothing." 

The doctor was shocked! "You asked your neighbor?" 

"Yep," the old man replied, "but no matter what we tried we couldn't get the damned jar open!"

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