TAM fundraiser--puzzles, puzzles, puzzles!

[Cleon]

Hey all,

I mentioned this in the chatroom the other day, but thought I'd post and get some more input.

Back in my high school days, I had a small hobby designing puzzles--word searches, crosswords, mazes, that sort of thing. I had completely forgotten about this until this past week, when while cleaning out my garage I found my old templates, dictionaries, and stuff. I even found an old Pascal program I'd written to generate word searches. And I thought to myself, "self, with the miracle of Lulu, you could probably put together a nice little fundraiser for TAM."

So the plan is to put together a book of skeptic and science-related puzzles. Mostly crosswords and word searches, but maybe some other stuff too (I recently wrote a nifty Java application to generate Sudoku puzzles). I have a few done already, but I'd like to shamelessly solicit ideas and themes for the puzzle book.

Disclaimer: Raised funds will be split 50/50 between the TAM Scholarship Fund and Cleon's Personal TAM Scholarship Fund. In the offhand, remote chance that Cleon's Personal TAM Scholarship Fund pays Cleon's entire way to TAM, 100% will then go to the general Scholarship fund.

 

[kittynh]

Very generous Cleon!

And we could "pimp" it at other skeptic sites?

 

[Brown]

Did someone say, "puzzles?"

 

[Cleon]

Sure, why not?

 

[Cleon]

Did someone say, "puzzles?"

No, I said "puzzles, puzzles, puzzles!"

 

[Tobermory]

Puzzles are always good. But are you still wearing that tie?

 

[Cleon]

Puzzles are always good. But are you still wearing that tie?

I'm at work, so no way in hell. T-shirt and jeans, моя друга.

 

[ottle]

Awesome idea, Cleon. Let me know how I can help!

 

[Hokulele]

Hey all,

I mentioned this in the chatroom the other day, but thought I'd post and get some more input.

Back in my high school days, I had a small hobby designing puzzles--word searches, crosswords, mazes, that sort of thing. I had completely forgotten about this until this past week, when while cleaning out my garage I found my old templates, dictionaries, and stuff. I even found an old Pascal program I'd written to generate word searches. And I thought to myself, "self, with the miracle of Lulu, you could probably put together a nice little fundraiser for TAM."

So the plan is to put together a book of skeptic and science-related puzzles. Mostly crosswords and word searches, but maybe some other stuff too (I recently wrote a nifty Java application to generate Sudoku puzzles). I have a few done already, but I'd like to shamelessly solicit ideas and themes for the puzzle book.

Disclaimer: Raised funds will be split 50/50 between the TAM Scholarship Fund and Cleon's Personal TAM Scholarship Fund. In the offhand, remote chance that Cleon's Personal TAM Scholarship Fund pays Cleon's entire way to TAM, 100% will then go to the general Scholarship fund.

Me me me me me me me! I travel too much for work, and always keep a puzzle book in my laptop bag. Right now, my obsession is with extreme Sudoku puzzles (large grid, overlapping grids, sum puzzles), but have done and will do almost any type.

 

[Tobermory]

What about something like: Sharpen Your Critical Thinking Skills for a theme/title? Another idea may be something like: Test Your Critical Thinking Skills; You're Already Smarter than You May Think, since everyone will be good in at least one of these areas.

The puzzles can/should include games like:

-word searches (an easy start for everyone, with words specifically related to critical-thinking concepts and JREF)
-crosswords (easy if, unlike me, you're good at trivia -- again, a JREF-based theme would be good)
-sudoku (fun, fun, fun!)
-simple logic puzzles (see any GMAT or LSAT book for good examples)
-complex logic games (in their most complicated form, you need to construct a grid to solve them, unless your memory powers are far higher than mine)
-research trivia (force the player to use research skills and other sources, e.g., the library or the intertubes, to find obscure answers to obscure intellectual questions)
-spacial reasoning puzzles (common on most IQ tests; kind of fun)
-math puzzles (using basic math concepts no more difficult than advanced algebra or geometry -- see SAT for an example of the math skills required)
-anagrams (always fun)
-lateral thinking puzzles (I'm hopeless when it comes to these)

Anyway, those are just some silly ideas, and I'm yet another post closer to changing my profile.

 

[Cleon]

What about something like: Sharpen Your Critical Thinking Skills for a theme/title? Another idea may be something like: Test Your Critical Thinking Skills; You're Already Smarter than You May Think, since everyone will be good in at least one of these areas.

Good ideas!

The puzzles can/should include games like:

-word searches (an easy start for everyone, with words specifically related to critical-thinking concepts and JREF)

Already have a few worked up.

-crosswords (easy if, unlike me, you're good at trivia -- again, a JREF-based theme would be good)

I've got a few of these done, too, but I'll probably make more.

I've got a few of the newspaper-style general grids, which include some JREF themes but also a lot of other words. (You kinda have to, with that style.)

I'm also working on a few "freeform" crosswords, which will let me stay much more on-topic.

If anyone has any ideas for specific words/clues/themes, please send them on!

-sudoku (fun, fun, fun!)

I'm already working on some sudoku books, so yeah, I'll be including some.

The current plan is to include some of the standard 9x9 sudoku grids (varying degrees of difficulty), and--based on hokulele's comments, a few 16x16 ones. Maybe even a 25x25 or two, just to be evil.

-simple logic puzzles (see any GMAT or LSAT book for good examples)
-complex logic games (in their most complicated form, you need to construct a grid to solve them, unless your memory powers are far higher than mine)

Do you have any websites I could look at for examples?

I've got some ideas about logic puzzles, but honestly this isn't my strong area and I don't know many.

-research trivia (force the player to use research skills and other sources, e.g., the library or the intertubes, to find obscure answers to obscure intellectual questions)

Meh...If I include stuff like that, it'll be crossword clues. More interesting that way, rather than just "what's the coefficient of friction of a coconut-laden swallow sitting on a 45 degree incline?"

-spacial reasoning puzzles (common on most IQ tests; kind of fun)

Hrm. I'll check this out. Is this like a "move a single twig to form shape X" sort of thing?

-math puzzles (using basic math concepts no more difficult than advanced algebra or geometry -- see SAT for an example of the math skills required)

What sort of math puzzles?

I'm working on a program to generate kakuro puzzles, but it's slooow going. (Especially since I can't solve the damn things myself.) There are some commercial programs to do it, though...Maybe I'll go for one of those.

-anagrams (always fun)

Anagrams by themselves are kinda boring IMO, but I'm looking at some anagram-related puzzles that adds some spice to solving them.

I'm also going to have some "cryptic" crosswords, where instead of clues each letter is represented by a number; the trick is then to figure out which number is "A," "B," etc. I love these.

-lateral thinking puzzles (I'm hopeless when it comes to these)

Such as? Again, not something I do a lot of.

Anyway, those are just some silly ideas, and I'm yet another post closer to changing my profile.

If you PM Darat or Lisa Simpson, I'm sure they can help you out.

 

[Tobermory]

I'll send some examples via email or PM. Basically, I think logic puzzles test one's innate ability for critical thought. Or, if you prefer, I can send you all my old GMAT and LSAT books, although I still enjoy perusing them every once in a while. The GMAT books contain some fun math problems, including data sufficiency, which tend to be the toughest (do you have enough information to solve the problem or not?).

Basically, all of these things, including spacial reasoning, are included in any standardized "IQ" test. It's changing the themes, situations, and characters that would make this book different. Also, sometimes it's easier to solve puzzles when they actually pertain to something you care about.

Lateral thinking puzzles are like the ones we did that night on the cruise. E.g., a man is dead in a cabin in the middle of the woods, alone, and with no way of killing himself. How did this happen? (Of course, I abbreviate and simplify grossly.) There are many of these floating about the net, and some have been proven to be impossibilities or myths. At any rate, they test your creativity and ability to think "outside the box," rather than straightforward logic. Some have multiple plausible answers. It's also been rumored that Microsoft uses such puzzles in its interviewing process.

I like your ideas about anagrams. You're right, that would be more fun. It's just that anagrams always come to mind coz Scrabble is my favorite game. I lurve words.

 

[Hokulele]

The current plan is to include some of the standard 9x9 sudoku grids (varying degrees of difficulty), and--based on hokulele's comments, a few 16x16 ones. Maybe even a 25x25 or two, just to be evil.

...

What sort of math puzzles?

I'm working on a program to generate kakuro puzzles, but it's slooow going. (Especially since I can't solve the damn things myself.) There are some commercial programs to do it, though...Maybe I'll go for one of those.

Yay puzzles! Have you tried killer sudoku? I love puzzles, but am an absolute moron when it comes to creating them (I used to try my hand at crosswords), so kudos to you for doing this!