Author: damazah@gmail.com

Today’s puzzles – and prize draw! – are about different types of deception.1. Super syllabusA school cohort has two classes. At the end of the year 1, all pupils are graded. When all the pupils are listed in grade order, the median pupil is a C.(The median is the middle value in a data set listed from smallest to largest.)For year 2, the school introduces a new syllabus. At the end of the year, all pupils are again graded. Now when the pupils are listed in grade order, the median has dropped to a D.Devise a scenario in which the…

Lionel Messi added two more records to his remarkable World Cup career on Monday in Argentina’s second group game against Austria. The former Barcelona star first set one unwanted mark before quickly achieving another that further cemented his place among football’s greatest players. The Argentina captain first became the player with the most missed penalties in FIFA World Cup history after failing to convert from the spot during Argentina’s latest outing at the 2026 tournament. The miss was Messi’s third unsuccessful penalty at the World Cup, moving him ahead of several players who had previously shared the record. However, the…

The rolling idyll of heath and forest, spinney and stream that gave us the Heffalump, the Woozle and, most famously of all, Winnie-the-Pooh, has a new fantastical resident. Creeping through the bracken, making strange cooing and purring noises, is a shapeshifting creature with a huge tubular nose and eyes inspired by adders. It shimmies with iridescent patches and the psychedelic purple of flowering heather in high summer.Poppet, a puppet made by costume designer Jack Irving and brought to life by a team of 10 award-winning puppeteers, is performing for schoolchildren in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex. The primary school class squeal…

new video loaded: Vance Says Iran Has Agreed to Allow Nuclear Inspectors Into CountrytranscriptBacktranscriptVance Says Iran Has Agreed to Allow Nuclear Inspectors Into CountryVice President JD Vance was in Switzerland on Monday, where he declared the negotiations a “very good foundation” for a lasting agreement to end the war the United States and Israel began in February.That is a major milestone for the American people, and the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.Vice President JD Vance was in Switzerland on Monday, where he declared the negotiations a “very good foundation” for a…

‘Important day for tax reform’: government hails deal with GreensThe prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is now addressing reporters at Parliament House with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, finance minister Katy Gallagher, and NDIS minister Mark Butler.Albanese says the changes that were announced in the budget (and have since been heavily amended) are important and ambitious.He also takes a dig at the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation who will oppose it. double quotation markI expect that just as the three rightwing parties have opposed every tax cut, every pay rise for workers, every cost of living measure, every policy to build more…

Peter Uzoho  An energy expert and Chief Executive Officer of New Hampshire Capital Limited, Mr. Odion Omonfoman has accused the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of operating a “black-box” internal finance system despite  mandating detailed transparency from electricity distribution companies (Discos) under the Electricity Act 2023. He also called on the Minister of Power, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, to use his oversight role to direct the commission to upload corporate audited financial statements for 2023 and 2024, and previous years, onto its public website immediately. In his opinion piece obtained by THISDAY, Omonfoman said NERC publishes meticulous quarterly and annual reports…

Oracle disclosed Monday that it has reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees over the past 12 months, a decline of 13%, which means more cuts than was previously known, including jobs eliminated because of AI. “The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce,” the company said in an annual financial regulatory filing. The revelation puts new numbers to what feels to many in the tech industry like an epidemic: companies reporting record revenues while simultaneously culling their workforces, pointing to AI as both the engine of…

Before Alexandra Thoms goes to sleep, she puts together a flat-pack dining table with her father, Gordon. She needs the table for her otherwise sparse two-bedroom Melbourne apartment which she has moved into just weeks earlier.At 23, Alexandra has met the milestones of an ambitious life at lightning speed. She is well travelled, has earned a double university degree and a graduate job at Deloitte. She is healthy; an avid skier and gymgoer. Now, she is also a homeowner. She didn’t have a formal housewarming, though, as most of her friends still live at home.Alexandra is excited about her independence…

This 48-team extravaganza is the biggest World Cup there has ever been, and it might just be the most complex too. Twelve groups of four teams might be enough to follow in the first place, but those fans of brackets who have a familiarity of past tournaments might have a sense of what the issue is here. A dozen groups do not a round-robin path to the final easily make.As such, eight of the 12 groups will send their third-place team to the first knockout rounds, meaning 72 games will be required to trim a third off this field. Those…

Michael Ovitz, the co-founder of CAA, stormed out of a deposition on June 1 after being asked about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Ovitz was being questioned by a lawyer for Julia Ormond, the actress who has sued CAA for allegedly setting her up to be sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in December 1995. Ormond’s attorneys have been seeking to take Ovitz’s deposition for more than a year, and ultimately got a court order directing him to comply with their subpoena. According to a deposition transcript filed in the case, Ovitz showed up to testify at his attorney’s office in…