On June 30, 1999, the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick was discovered in a field in St. Louis, Missouri. The only clues found at the crime scene were two encrypted notes discovered in the victim's pants pockets. But expert cryptanalysts have failed crack to the killer's code and thus the murder has yet to be solved.
Photo credit: FBI
Can you decode the newly-released notes above and help the FBI solve this real-life murder mystery?
So put your keyboard/smartphone away and grab a sharpened pencil. And maybe a Scantron test sheet or two — oh, how I love those!
Did you know?
In Middle English the word, spelled pencel, meant "artist's brush." It was borrowed from Old French pincel or peincel, related to Modern French peinture "painting." The French inherited the word from the Latin penicillus, for "little tail."
In 1795, French chemist Nicholas Jacques Conte received a patent for the modern process for making pencil leads by mixing powdered graphite and clay to form sticks and hardening them in a furnace. The gradient of the pencil (No. 2 versus No. 2.5) is based on the amount of clay initially added to the mixture.
The emergence of Siberian graphite as the standard led manufacturers to associate pencils with the Orient by using names such as Mongol and Mikado and painting them yellow, a color associated with royalty and respect in China.
An average-sized tree makes about 170,000 pencils. The average pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, or write about 45,000 words.
Hey movie buffs and a math geeks!
Test your film knowledge and math skills on this 3-part quiz, courtesy of Spiked Math. Answers are at the bottom, so scroll to the end and find out how well you did.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
ANSWER KEY
PART ONE
1. The Matrix (1999)
2. Signs (2002)
3. Ball of Fire (1941)
4. Duck Soup (1933)
5. Cross of Iron (1977)
6. The Social Network (2010)
7. Sin City (2005)
8. Heat (1995)
9. Goldeneye (1995)
10. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
PART TWO
1. Snakes on a Plane (2006)
2. Independence Day (1996)
3. Mean Girls (2004)
4. Paths of Glory (1957)
5. 8 Mile (2002)
6. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
7. Field of Dreams (1989)
8. Alpha and Omega (2010)
9. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
10. The Sum of All Fears (2002)
PART THREE
1. Manhattan (1979)
2. Joan of Arc (1999)
3. Open Range (2003)
4. Inception (2010)
5. The Odd Couple (1968)
6. In the Loop (2009)
7. Star Wars (1977)
8. The Exorcist (1973)
9. Transformers (2007)
10. Absolute Power (1997)
NPR Sunday Puzzle for March 27: Take the word "calm" and flip the letters A and L to get "clam." Take the last name of a film director known for using profanity, and flip two pairs of letters in place to get a word used as a substitute for profanity. Who's the director, and what's the word?
Five years ago today, the first tweet ("just setting up my twttr") was posted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The social media platform has since changed the way we communicate, connecting everyone from celebrities to government leaders — in 140 characters or less. It's estimated that we send 140 million tweets per day, making Twitter an invaluable part of our daily lives.
NPR Sunday Puzzle for March 20: Take the phrase "consumer protection laws," and rearrange the letters to name a person in broadcasting and an issue of public debate. Hints: The name of the person in broadcasting has five letters in the first name and five letters in the last name. For the issue of public debate, it's a familiar two-word phrase with seven letters in the first word and five letters in the second. What name and phrase are these?
Heading out to the local pub tonight, or perhaps you've already been there since 7am?
Get even more into the St. Patrick's Day spirit and annoy entertain your drunk friends in between Irish Car Bombs and pitchers of green beer — introduce yourself under your new leprechaun alias.
For example: "Top 'o the evenin' to ya! You can call me Fluffernutter O'Donnell!"
Fun right? It will be...up until someone proceeds to vomit on your shoes.
NPR Sunday Puzzle for March 13: Think of a five-letter girl's name that ends in a "J" sound. Change that to a CH sound to get a five-letter boy's name. What names are these?
Universal wrapping paper is a genius idea! Just find the respective occasion — Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Congratulations, etc. — and circle it in the word search puzzle.
Cadbury — makers of those famous candy Creme Eggs (which frankly I've never tried because I'm somehow convinced that they actually taste like raw egg) — launched a fun little internet game, just in time for Easter. Simply type any address into the blank field, click to launch the Cad-apult and SPLAT! "Goo" any address on the planet.
Computers mimic human reasoning by building on simple rules and statistical averages. Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence.
A truly random game of rock-paper-scissors would result in a statistical tie with each player winning, tying and losing one-third of the time. However, people are not truly random and thus can be studied and analyzed. While this computer won't win all rounds, over time it can exploit a person's tendencies and patterns to gain an advantage over its opponent. —The New York Times
I didn't do so well, but then again, I didn't waste much time trying. Play it here
What's a paczki? If you don't live in an area with a large Polish community (Detroit, Boston, Cleveland), you may be wondering. Paczki (pronounced poonch-key) are doughnut-like pastries, typically filled with jelly or Bavarian cream, and sometimes glazed.
Paczki Day is celebrated on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) because the ingredients — lard, sugar, eggs, fruit, etc — were traditionally forbidden from being consumed during Lent.
But beware! As delicious-looking as they are, these Polish treats are notoriously unhealthy — each paczki is estimated to be a whopping 400 calories and 25 grams of fat! So although they invaded my office this morning, I stayed far away.
Grab the milk carton and pour a bowl of your favorite cereal — March 7 is National Cereal Day!
The food holiday is meant to celebrate Dr. John Kellogg, who served the first bowl of corn flakes on March 7, 1897. Kellogg believed that a strict diet would benefit patients at his sanitarium (a term he coined) in Battle Creek, Michigan. The corn flakes were given to the patients, but at that time the breakfast cereal was sugarless (and nearly tasteless). John's brother, Will, eventually added sugar to the cereal, an act which violated his brother's strict guidelines for a healthy diet — a family feud began. Will eventually won the legal battle and went on to market the cereal to the masses.
NPR Sunday Puzzle for March 6: Think of a two-word phrase that means a time long ago. Move the third, fourth and fifth letters to the end of the phrase, without rearranging those three letters, to get a new two-word phrase that means the beginning. What phrases are these?
Hey, y'all! I've discovered a meme we can all enjoy — Paula Deen Riding Things. Does it make any sense? Absolutely not! Do we care? No! Because it's brilliant fun! It's like a stick of butter! I have no idea what that means, but here are just a few gems:
In a world of 7 billion people, are you typical? According to National Geographic, the typical person is a 28-year-old Han Chinese man. If that's the case, I guess I'm pretty unique! Tell me something I don't know, NatGeo.
If you've ever bought a Prado purse on Canal Street, because it's the closest you'll ever get to the real thing, brace yourself. The Guinness Book of World Records has named the 1001 Nights Diamond Purse the most expensive handbag on the planet.
Ten artisans worked for a period of four months and an incredible 1,100 hours to construct this beauty. Valued at $3.8 million, the handcrafted heart-shaped purse is encrusted with more than 4,517 diamonds.
A bit extravagant for something that will essentially tote around your keys, lip gloss and a cell phone, no?
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March 31, 2011
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