If you've been wondering why I haven't been posting recently on Scott's Puzzles, it's because I've been working on getting this puzzle just right! I hope you like it.

This upcoming Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 is election day in the United States. To help garner interest in voting in this year's election, I'm posting this puzzling reminder in red, white and blue!

All you have to do in this particular puzzle is arrange the pieces to read “VOTE THIS TUESDAY”. As you can see by clicking the Original button, the word “TUESDAY” is split up into 2 lines, with the third line reading “TUES” and the 4th line reading “DAY”.

When solved, the top half of the puzzle will will have white letters on a red background, and the bottom half will have blue letters on a white background. The election date will pop up as the missing piece.

Since each piece features a letter, I have turned off the Numbers button (which ordinarily numbers each piece).

When I tested this puzzle on some friends, some found it to be no more difficult than the standard fifteen puzzle. Others claimed it was “tricky”, or even “unsolvable”. To those who think it can't be solved, I say, “Not only can it be solved, but it's a great way to rate your mind, pal!”

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, and the Original button shows the finished picture. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

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1 year ago today, on October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) reached a record closing high of 14,164.53, which still stands. Today, the stock market, due to the financial crisis, closed at 8,579.19, a fall of 39.01%! Even worse, this may not be the bottom of the current stock market plunge.

Most of the drop, of course, has taken place in recent days. Over the last 4 days, the market has dropped 17%. If we assume that this rate were to continue steadily, which it won't due to market mechanisms, it would only take another 19-20 days for the DJIA to reach zero. This example isn't mean to scare you or be a prediction, but rather as a dramatization of the scale of the recent drop.

Your challenge is to put the 1-year stock market chart below back together before the real stock market gets put back together. Or, you could simply try and do it as fast as you can, which will still be quicker than the real market gets put back together.

Open the puzzle by clicking here!

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

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Quick Note: I apologize for not posting much in the past week, but I was trying to avoid political posts for a while. Between the bailout bill and the vice-presidential debate, there wasn't much that was non-political that was notable enough to inspire a puzzle for this site.

As you have no doubt heard by now, O.J. Simpson has been convicted of all 12 charges against in the Las Vegas robbery trial. The charges include conspiracy to commit a crime, a kidnapping, and a robbery, as well as burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, and two counts each (one for Bruce Fromong and one for Alfred Beardsley) of first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, and coercion with use of a deadly weapon.

Immediately after the verdict, O.J. Simpson was remanded into custody without bail. There were many reactions to the verdict, including the collapse of O.J. Simpson's sister, , who had to be attended to by EMTs. You can see the reactions for yourself in this slideshow. O.J.'s attorney, Yale Galanter, will most likely begin the appellate process, starting with the filing of a new trial later this week.

Interestingly, the robbery itself took place on the 13th of September in 2007 (the same day the Goldmans released O.J.'s If I Did It book), and 13 months later, the jury deliberated for just over 13 hours, before delivering their guilty verdicts 13 years to the day after the famous murder verdict was handed down. The date of both verdicts occured on Oct. 3rd, or 10/3, and 10 + 3 = 13!

If you're not familiar with all the players in the robbery case, my previous O.J. Simpson puzzle will help you learn the names and details of the people involved. The challenge with the puzzle below, however, is to put O.J. Simpson back together again. It may seem tough, but you'll probably be able to do a better job than Simpson himself.

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, the Original button shows the finished picture, and the Numbers button puts numbers on the pieces, to give you a better idea of where they belong. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain O.J. Simpson image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense.)

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Well-known actor, director, entrepreneur, and racing entusiast Paul Newman died yesterday (September 26, 2008).

While most people knew Paul Newman for his classic movies such as Cool Hand Luke and The Sting, his racing car enthusiasm, or his successful line of salad dressing, few people know of his military service in World War II in the Pacific Theater.

Although his battle with cancer was only made public in June 2008, friends of Paul Newman report hearing the news of his cancer diagnosis in early 2007. He died at 83, and will missed by many.

In his memory, I'm posting the following jigsaw puzzle in his memory. Simply click on the image, and a window containing the Jigsaw puzzle will open. Enjoy it, and think of your favorite Paul Newman memories as you do.

Open the puzzle by clicking here!

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain Paul Newman image courtesy of Aleposta.)

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State governors who paid attention to the events of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, aren't repeating the mistake of waiting to call in FEMA.

As an example, Hurricane Ike is expected to make landfall tonight, yet the ambulances in the pictures below (or rather, the ambulances that will be in the picture below once you put them back together), were ready and in place in San Antonio, Texas 2 days ago! They can be quickly dispatched to Galveston, or any other part of Texas that needs their help.

Can you arrange the ambulances in time for help, too?

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, the Original button shows the finished picture, and the Numbers button puts numbers on the pieces, to give you a better idea of where they belong. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Picture courtesy of FEMA.)

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This just in: The world didn't end this morning. Granted, some of you may not have known that it was supposed to end today.

At approximately 5:00 AM Eastern Time this morning, the first particle beam was successfully circulated through the entire Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is no small feat, considering that the LHC is 17 miles around, and runs from 160 to 560 feet underground. The first actual particle beam injections were actually carried out last month, but this is the first time a particle was circulated through the entire LHC.

Because the purpose of the LHC is to study previously unknown realms of physics, including aspects of black holes, and even the Big Bang itself, many doomsayers were predicting that a black hole would be created that would destory the entire earth. While the Earth itself wasn't destroyed, Google announced some damage was done to their logo. They said that, while there was no permanent damage to the logo, they would have to replace and polish the Chrome:

To help clear things up, How Stuff Works provides a very clear article about the ideas behind the LHC, including a TED video. Popular Mechanics points out 5 things you need to know about the LHC now.

It took plenty of time and specialized knowledge to put the LHC together. To give you an idea of how long, the first 5 years, starting in 1983, were spent just building the concrete-lined tunnel that houses the LHC!

I won't ask you to put together the entire LHC. You only have to put together a picture of the time projection chamber (TPC) of the ALICE detector's endplates. On the other hand, I can't allow you 5 years just to get started on the puzzle.



Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, the Original button shows the finished picture, and the Numbers button puts numbers on the pieces, to give you a better idea of where they belong. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(ALICE TPC image courtesy of Skalex.)

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Voice-over artist Don LaFontaine died on Monday (Sep. 1). His name wasn't well-known to many, but his voice was known by his catchphrase, “In a world...”.

Since his voice is better known than his face, I'll help you piece together his face by, well, having you piece together his face! Thanks to Jigzone, I'm able to bring you the following Don LaFontaine jigsaw puzzle.

Because Jigzone requires an area of at least 700 pixels for an embedded puzzle, and this blog's content area is only about 500 pixels wide, I'm embedding it via FancyBox, which is a jQuery version of the standard Lightbox window.

Open the Don LaFontaine jigsaw puzzle by clicking here!


Check out the following videos to see Don LaFontaine in action:

• Don discussing his career


• Don's GEICO ad


• 5 famous voice-over artists in Don's limo


• Don's voice-over “cameo” from the full Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain image courtesy of Maciek17)

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I posted an Obama and Biden slider puzzle earlier, so it's only fair that I create one for John McCain, and his recently announced vice-presidential choice, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin.

It took John McCain quite a while to put Sarah Palin together as part of his team. How long will it take you to put them back together?

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, the Original button shows the finished picture, and the Numbers button puts numbers on the pieces, to give you a better idea of where they belong. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain picture courtesy of JohnMcCain.com)

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Barack Obama has finally annonced his running mate, Joe Biden. Can you put (from left to right) Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, and Joe Biden back together before the election?

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

Click on any block next to the empty space, and that block will slide into the empty space. The Shuffle button mixes the pieces, the Original button shows the finished picture, and the Numbers button puts numbers on the pieces, to give you a better idea of where they belong. The clock begins when you move your first piece, and when you solve the puzzle, the empty square will appear.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Picture courtesy of Daniel Schwen. This picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.)

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This site is powered by numerous technologies and programs that make the puzzles possible. In this post, I'd like to give credit where credit is deserved by linking to the people, sites, and technologies responsible for making this site's content possible.

• Applet Depot: Eric Harshbarger's site features many Java applets that he has generously allowed to be used on any website. You can see his programs at use in my word search and FlipSwitch puzzle posts.


• FancyBox: This is the program that powers the Lightbox-like windows you see on this site.


• Java: Sun Microsystems' programming language is so versatile, it can be used online and offline.


• Javascript: The most commonly used scripting language on the web! Despite the name, it's vastly different from Java (above).


• Jigzone: This site not only lets you play jigsaw puzzles, but create and embed your own original puzzles, as well!


• jqPuzzle: A powerful jQuery plug-in that powers the slider puzzles you see on this site.


• jQuery: A popular Javascript library that vastly simplifies how Javascript, HTML, and CSS work together.


• Mazesmith: This is the powerful, yet simple, Javascript program that makes the custom-shaped mazes on this site possible.


• Timed Quiz Generator: An online program that lets you quickly and easily generate the HTML/Javascript/CSS code for your own custom How Many Xs Can You Name In Y Minutes?-style quiz.

As I continue to make use of new programs to develop puzzles on this site, this post will be updated with new information.

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