Play Prince of Persia

Googling for some TSQL sample a stumbled across a script that will generate one of my favorite puzzles so far.

I like ‘The Disappearing Square Puzzle’ as it is for once, quite tricky to figure out by yourself, but also because it questions ones believe in maths.


DECLARE @table1 TABLE( id CHAR(1), shape geometry );
INSERT INTO @table1 VALUES
('A','POLYGON((0 0, 8 0, 8 3, 0 0))'),
('B','POLYGON((8 0, 13 0, 13 2, 10 2, 10 1, 8 1, 8 0))'),
('C','POLYGON((8 3, 8 1, 10 1, 10 2, 13 2, 13 3, 8 3))'),
('D','POLYGON((8 3, 13 3, 13 5, 8 3))');

SELECT id, shape FROM @table2;


From: http://www.beginningspatial.com/t_sql_tuesday_2_spatial_puzzles, thanks!

This week winter came back - again - and I got to shovel some snow, which means, I had a complete and proper winter.
I also walked to work on Wednesday through the snow and wind. I completely forgot that I had cleaned my winter jacket and that it was no longer water proof as a consequence and ended up pretty wet and without a change of clothes at the university.
All in all not one of my brighter ideas!

It can now stop snowing! It is nearly March and this is Scotland, not Austria! Krawutzi!

Our group now has a shinny new website….I think Laura did a great job!
Judge for yourself:
Scottish Solar Research
And no, “scottish” and “solar” in one phrase does not constitute an oxymoron.

SISER is the acronym for “Scottish Institute for Solar Energy Research”
Have I mentioned that I hate searching for these acronyms?
Worst part of submitting an EU proposal is finding a “striking” acronym.
One of my collegues once suggested S.H.Y.T.E
I’m with you, pal!

We have seen him last year filming the first stunt next to the meadows.

Guy has some skills.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes ’twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow

By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holler boys, holler boys, ring bells ring
Holler boys, holler boys, God Save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o’cheese to choke him
A pint of beer to rinse it down
A faggot of sticks to burn him

Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we’ll say old Pope is dead

Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!

Now here is something you don’t see everyday.

17% of Windows users curse it
4% of Linux users selected Bill Gates as their hero

Today marks the beginning of one of the most important experiments in human history. One which goal it is to eventually find the question to which the answer is 42.

However, more and more people (who never read Joe Haldeman ) are telling me their concerns about it. Even more disturbing, more and more children seem to be, as a friend put it, very emotional about it. They seriously fear the world is going to end.

So I wondered where they got that idea from and started googling. This is one of the most often found paragraphs.

“Someone will spot a light ray coming out of the Indian Ocean during the night and no one will be able to explain it, retired Professor Otto Roessler told London’s Mail on Sunday. “Very soon the whole planet will be eaten in a magnificent scenario — if you could watch it from the moon. A Biblical Armageddon. Even cloud and fire will form, as it says in the Bible.”

One of the biggest representatives of this theory is seems to be a certain Otto Rössler.

He’s worried that the Large Hardon Collider may create micro black holes. Based on the hardly accepted Max Abraham theory. But in order to sustain the black hole, the widely accepted Hawking radiation theory must be wrong. Hmm.

According to his wiki entry, he is a biochemist who once wanted to become a monk. Kind of hard to ignore the picture forming who might benefit of freighting children.