I'm awesome now

A man in a shop told me the left side of the brain controls things like logic and analysis so I spent some time this weekend rubbing a special ointment into the left side of my head and I also poured some Lucozade into my left ear in order to increase the analytical capability of my brain.

I think it's working because I actually got the answer to the Richard Wiseman Friday puzzle and I'm usually no good at this kind of puzzle:

Imagine a monastery in which ten of the monks may have a disease which causes them to have blue spots on their foreheads but has no other symptoms. All the monks have taken a vow of silence, they meet just once a day, and there are no mirrors in the monastery, so nobody knows whether he has a blue spot on his forehead or not.

If a monk discovers that he has a blue spot on his forehead, he will have to leave the monastery by the end of the day. All the monks are perfect logicians – that is, they can instantly infer all the logical consequences of any statement made to them – and they all know that all the other monks are perfect logicians.

One day, the Guru, who is known to be truthful, gathers all the monks together and announces “At least one monk in this monastery has a blue spot on his forehead.” Nothing happens for nine days, but on the tenth day, all the monks with blue spots leave.

How many monks left and why?

Wednesday poker hand of the week

This beauty of a hand comes from the Norton's wine bar £20 freeze-out which Alan and I experienced for the first time last night. The starting stack is 6,500. If you bust out in the first two levels you can buy back in.

I think this was the first level. As we're new to this game we have no information on any players. However, it's a £20 freeze-out in a Wine bar in Witney so some of the players are doing well just to pick their cards up without an opposable thumb. One guy hasn't learnt yet how to use a chair.

For the purposes of anonymity the player in seat 3 will be called 'Seat 3,' the player in seat 4 will called 'Seat 4' and the player on the button will be called 'Button.' Snappy names. I'm not entirely sure how the action unfolded as I went a bit dizzy, but I think it went something like this;

We're ten handed:

Seat 3 (utg) limps, Seat 4 raises (I think) to 200. Folded round to Button who calls, blinds fold, Seat 3 calls.

Pot is 675.

Flop: Qd - Kd - 9d. I believe everyone checked.

Turn: Jd. Seat 3 checks, Seat 4 bets out 500. Button calls. Seat 3 check-raises to 2000.

We have seen Seat 4's cards, he has the Ace-four of diamonds and therefore had flopped the second nuts, losing only to a straight flush...what does Seat 3 have and what does Seat 4 now do?

EUREKA!!

1 ..4 ..3 ..5 ..10 ..2 ..6 ..9 ..8 ..7

I IV III V X II V IIX VIII VII

I've got it! It's Roman numerals. When you convert the above sequence of numbers to Roman numerals it becomes palindromic. Blimey I should have got that sooner. Back in the day when I was clever I'd got that immediately.

FAB

Every Friday we like to attempt the Friday puzzle on Prof. Wiseman's blog. Usually we do OK...and we find we have more success if we refer to ourselves in the third person as it's like drawing on a collective intelligence.

This week's puzzle has got us all stumped though, especially me. The poser is this; in what sense is this order of the numbers from 1 to 10 palindromic?

1 ..4 ..3 ..5 ..10 ..2 ..6 ..9 ..8 ..7

I just can't figure it out. How is this palindromic people? How HOW?? IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

I thought maybe it had something to do with 1 and 7 being prime numbers, 4 & 8 being divisible by 2, 3 and 9 being divisible by 3 and so on, but then we have 5 and 6 and our theory is destroyed. I fear it is something very simple and I'm looking so far beyond the obvious I may never solve it. Try it yourself.

* * *

In the meantime..I was just watching Thunderbirds...awesome! International Rescue were able to save the day which was fantastic because for a minute when the music got all dramatic, I did start to wonder. Makes you wonder really. I mean I know they're not affiliated to the US Government, but what would we do without Americans saving us all the time?

What if no one had ever discovered America and the whole country was just populated by those silly Indians in tee-pees still, all girly long hair and dancing about in feathers. This blog would be in German for one thing.

Anyway, so the Tracy brothers - three of them have got blonde hair and two of them dark brown hair!? The two eldest brothers have the dark hair. This suggests to me that there's been some extra-marital nookie in Daddy Tracy's past.

Is Lady Penelope the mother of the blonde brothers? Is that like one of the sub-plots of the series? The boys think Mummy Tracy tragically died, but really she's the posh sort they all secretly fantasise about and would take their turns with in the pool house if Gerry Anderson ever diversified into puppet bongo films.

This explains why Daddy Tracy was more upset with John than Scott when he found them both wearing Lady Penelope's underwear and experimenting with their urges together. Suddenly it all becomes clear. If only I could unravel the mysteries of Wiseman's puzzle as easily.

Scott Tracey pondering a healthy sexual fantasy yesterday

Blonde haired John Tracy, sporting a pink sash
wrestling with his Oedipal thoughts yesterday