Canada Two: The Revenge

If things go according to plan, my youngest brother will take over Canada sometime in the next two decades. Details are a little sketchy as to whether this will be the result a bloody revolution or if he will be welcomed with open arms following a massive ingestion of tainted poutine. The means of his ascension really doesn't matter; we know that it will happen eventually.

Once he takes power the basic plan it to set up a utopian society; a socialist meritocracy guided by a benevolent dictator. The first order of business will be to build a large wall to separate Canada II from the normals in the rest of the world. Then everyone wishing to remain inside the wall will have to take an intelligence test. Those who do not meet a minimum requirement will be ejected from the country by means of a large trebuchet. All future applicants for citizenship will be subject to the same test and penalty for failure.

The benevolent dictator part will be ensured via a lottery system. Every 24 months a call for applicants for the office of High Poobah will be made. Anyone who applies will be ejected via the trebuchet. Everyone left will be assigned to the lottery pool and the (un)lucky winner will be declared dictator for life. Obviously they will have to make the best of the two years left to them.

My only concern with the plan, other than hoping that I pass the entrance exam, is that Canada is a long way from the South Pacific. I'm going to be very torn between my dream of subsistence level farming in the tropics and hanging out with Adam.

Rubik's Revenge

I've got a Rubik's problem. Tom got me a Rubik's Revenge for my birthday. It's a 4x4x4 version of the evil cube. With 7.4E45 permutations possible for the 56 components of the cube there is a lot of twisting to do.

Interestingly, it's not too much different to solve than the 3x3x3 cube. Basically what you can do is reduce the 4x4x4 to the same problem as the 3x3x3 by solving the centers and pairing up all of the edge pieces. Once that is done, the two inner layers can be rotated in tandem and solved normally.

Solving the centers and edges only takes a handful of new algorithms. Once you solve a couple of centers that part becomes pretty easy. The first 6 edges are cake too because you have room to store them out of the way once you've matched the pieces. After that things get a little trickier.

It's sitting on my desk at work right now. I've got the cheat sheet for solving it in my "man purse." Sweet fancy Moses I am a dork.