The Hub

As we’ve reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery.

And much to our enjoyment, they’ve decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm… Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), so each morning at 12:01am ET you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING: As a test, we’re going to leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

In the century following Columbus’ trip to the New World, people began playing an organized sport on a frozen surface. Where did that sport begin?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (HIGHLIGHT TO SEE):

No answer for today, as we did not carry a puzzle yesterday.

Now that the “Lady Gaga Incident” is over, we can all breath a sigh of relief in the knowledge that yes, a new “Weird Al” Yankovic album is on it’s way. Thank goodness there’s something to tide us over until The Hobbit.

Our favorite high-flying teacher Todd Stowe is in the midst of another high-altitude camera-attached-to-a-weather-balloon project right this very minute. You can track the progress of package as it ascends to the heavens live, right now, right here. And as soon as Todd gets the camera back and posts the pictures, we’ll tell you about it.

We are very sad to pass along news that Elisabeth Sladen, who played intrepid reporter and Timelord companion Sarah Jane Smith during the Pertwee and Baker eras of Doctor Who, has passed away at the age of 63. The BBC has issued a statement on her passing, noting that she had been battling cancer for a while, but no further details are available. Sladen had been recently reprising her role as Smith to much popularity in appearances on the new series of Doctor Who, as well as the more tween-oriented spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. She will be sorely missed.

I don’t do a lot of direct PR for the Geek Dad books here on GeekDad, which is probably a mistake, but it’s always felt a bit funny using this community forum for personal promotion. On the other hand, I’m always encouraging the other GeekDad writers to promote their outside work here, so I figure I should just get over my reluctance. As such, here goes:

In two weeks (yikes!) my second book, The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family will hit the proverbial shelves (the actual shelves, at least at my local Borders and Barnes & Noble, have all gone away). While this book is very much an in-kind sequel to my first collection of geeky projects, I really feel this one goes to eleven. Not only is it loaded with a new batch of great things to do with your kids, with ideas from myself and many of the other GeekDad writers, there’s also a selection of projects and prose by some very cool geeky celebrities, like Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy champ), Chris Anderson (our founding geek-father), Rod Roddenberry (keeper of the Star Trek flame), Patrick Norton (tech guru), David Hewlett (sci-fi acting fave), and more. I can’t tell you how excited I am about it!

So beware the coming storm of PR hits that may strike a small-to-mid-size radio station or podcast near you. And feel free to stop by GeekDadBook.com where I’ll be posting updates as they occur. And if you’re so inclined, stop by one of these fine retail outlets to pre-order the book now:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Powell’s
(It’ll also go on sale at ThinkGeek, too!)

We at GeekDad would like to send our congratulations to Michael and Evan at Siege Toys for reaching their Kickstarter funding goal four days early! We are all looking forward to some epic desktop trebuchet action at Maker Faire in May!

Mike Koehler is a man with a dream – and a mistaken understanding of my importance in the greater geek universe. A couple days ago, he tweeted Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Mark Frauenfelder (Make Magazine), and me (you know) about his grand idea to bring America together: use Kickstarter funds and the collective genius of the geek/maker community to build a fully-functional, full-scale All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT).

Okay, maybe not “fully-functional” – I doubt anyone can pull off the blaster turrets. But a walking transport actually seems within the realm of possibility, and Mike thinks we – as a nation – can pull it off. I’m not going to doubt either his resolve or the ingenuity of the geek community. We can do this.

Word is that Kickstarter has approved the project, but the funding page has not been set up yet, so all details can be found right now at the temporary site. The point being, though, that there must be plenty of folks in the GeekDad and GeekMom communities who can help. No, this won’t solve world hunger, or cure a disease, or help any other completely valid and needy cause. But it will spark imagination, and involvement, and the spirit of cooperation that we could all use a little more of in these challenging days.

And it’s nice to see word is getting out: