Why is a raven like a writing desk?

This year's UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest is actually pretty good, as these things go. Nice and poppy. And in general of course I approve of videos featuring girls in school uniforms.

I actually enjoy Eurovision once a year – pity it's not available here.

Sir –

I would like to reassure my 4 regular readers that this LJ will not be featuring ads, even in the face of the new Sponsored+ level of free LJ subscription. And the day that the powers that be present adverts on this LJ as a matter of course will be the day that this LJ ceases to exist.

Yours,
Principled of Culver City

From a Japanese show. As if it weren't impressive enough (including the catchy theme), look out for the Marmite pot making an appearance at about 9 minutes.

PS. For Americans, Heath Robinson = Rube Goldberg.

Happy first-Sunday-after-the-first-full-moon-on-or-after-the-vernal-equinox.
Whatever it is you celebrate this time of year, have a good one.

Henry Thomas Peregrine arrived at 18:26 on 5th April 2006 (his due date!), weighing in at 8 lbs 1.5 oz and measuring 20″ long.

Inspired by 's Rubik cube antics, I picked one up myself last week. When I was a kid, the most I could do was one side. So this time I set about solving it properly. I'm not interested in solving it really quickly, just in being able to solve it. So I set about it without looking at any solution guides.

What I did do was look at Lars' guide, just looking at the goals of each step in sequence without looking at the moves to get there. Here's how it progressed:

2x2x2 is easy.
2x2x3 is also easy.
Rotating the edges I figured out quite quickly.
2x3x3 takes me a long time but it's basically doable. I found this stage to be a bit random in progress towards the goal.
That leaves just the top layer to do. Here's where I departed from Lars' method a bit.

I figured out a few different variations of moves for manipulating the top layer which permute edges and corners and also turn corners, leaving edges unturned. This stage was a bit random. In fact very random. But I had a strong feeling that between the various moves I knew, some combination would solve the cube. I started by doing edges first and then corners, and ended up with all solved but 2 corners incorrectly rotated. I could also get 3 corners incorrectly rotated, or all 4, but I couldn't get none. (Just one is also impossible for parity reasons). Then I went back to Lars' steps and noticed he does corners before edges. So I tried that instead. And finally a solution occurred.

Having solved it, I checked Lars' actual moves. What he calls a Sune I had discovered also. And many variations thereof which do various things to the top layer.

I also have a different method from the old days: rather than starting with 2×2, 2x2x3, etc. I start with a layer (blue of course being the One True Layer) then proceed to the second layer. I have a move that is much easier to me than the 15-puzzle style second layer alignment I did when following Lars' steps. It leaves the top edges incorrectly rotated, but a variant of it can also be used on the top layer (multiple times if need be) to end up with 2 layers solved and top cross correctly rotated. From there it is just a matter of applying my move to permute 3 corners, then the Sune & variants to rotate corners and edges correctly.

I'm usually solving the cube in around 5 minutes. That'll do.

Currently number 1 in the UK on the strength of downloads only: Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. I do miss TOTP now and then.