World's Hardest Sudoku

As reported today in The Age (thanks KJ) the world's hardest Sudoku has been uploaded to a players' forum on sudoku.com.

The puzzle -- known as "AI Escargot" or "AI Etana (Snail)" -- was created by Arto Inkala and it looks a little something like this:

Here's a blank Sudoku grid you can copy the puzzle onto if you're inclined to have a go at it.

Enjoy!

Annual diary anguish

The buying-of-next-year's-diary time is once again upon us and, as some of you may know, I usually go through much anguish as I review how this last year's diary has performed and as I try to predict which -- if any -- of my diary-based needs will change in the year to come.

No real anguish this year. I'm still happy with the Collins Sterling week-to-an-opening (A5) that has been my companion for two years running.

I was tempted by the new Moleskine offering (the large weekly planner)

but at three times the price and lacking Australian public holiday and other useful local information it doesn't quite beat the Collins Sterling, even with its uber cachet.

A quick game

If you still have time to waste after perusing the pussies, you may want to accept the hand-eye coordination challenge posed by this simple but highly addictive game (Click on the Union Jack in the lower left corner to see the instructions in English). Be warned: if you are someone who spends hours playing Solitaire or Minesweeper, Double Jeu is pretty much guaranteed to wipe out out whole chunks of your day, even though most games won't last longer than 20 seconds.

At first.

Uberpets: stuff on my cat .com

My attention has been drawn to stuffonmycat.com (thanks J + K), where you can see gems like these.

The next big (cartoon) thing

The Cartoon Network is calling for cartoon ideas and characters which they can turn into world premiere animated short films.

I nominate Dümmerth (powered by BARNABY).

Submissions forms are available HERE.

What say you, BARNABY??

Capsule Endoscopy

You know those miniature video camera capsules you can swallow to examine the inside of your gut as they travel through? Sounds much more pleasant than drinking barium or having a barium enema, right?

This article in eMJA -- Initial experience with capsule endoscopy at a major referral hospital -- describes the process:

Patients fasted from midnight, and in the morning swallowed the capsule endoscope with a glass of water mixed with simethicone (1mL), which helps eradicate small bubbles in the small bowel. After 8 hours, patients returned to have the recording equipment removed.

They don't elaborate further. One can only imagine . . .

Dog Bog Blog Post from Marrickvillia

If people aren't going to clean up after their dogs, doing THIS is the next best thing:

Political Poo Art (from Meredith's MARRICKVILLIA blog).

Heads up

Monarch cake shop (Acland Street, St Kilda) now sells its famous chocolate kugelhopf by the slice. The plum cake too.

That is all.

Marysville & the Yarra Valley

We've just spent the weekend poking our noses around Marysville, Buxton, Healesville and all places Yarra Valley. I could be wrong but I think it's my first trip beyond the city limits in about 6 months and I'm so happy to be well enough at the moment to do a small jaunt like this one.

We stayed just out of Marysville at a cottage within burbling distance of the river, along the road to Steavensons Falls.

I'd almost forgotten how lusciously earthy the world can smell; the real world of fern tendrils, humus, understorey and wet bark.

Other things very much enjoyed were:

• The wonderfully confusing sensation on my outstretched and upturned bare arm of a rosella's needle-sharp claws while its soft, plump, downy belly nestled just inches away as it pecked sunflower seeds from my palm

• Salivating upon seeing burlap sacks of raw coffee, a digitally controlled hot air coffee roaster and a Synesso espresso machine at Cellar Door in Healesville

• Mountain Ash smoked trout from Buxton (coming from someone who generally doesn't like seafood, this says a lot)

• Bruno's sculpture garden, gallery and workshop in Marysville

• The cherry tart from Marysville Patisserie

• Wandering around the waterfall

• Shitake chilli paste from Australian Harvest Fine Foods (especially combined with the semi-matured goaty goodness of Yarra Valley Dairy's chevre)

• Feeling my brain and body go limp with relaxation after the first spa bath in, well, a very long time

• The smoked smallgoods from a virtuoso butcher in Healesville

• Seeing J have a work-free weekend of relaxation, enough to shift into the sort of headspace where it's perfectly OK to bring home a bucket of Persian Fetta in olive oil and spices.
  

Most people return with photos of the places they've visited. We return with produce.

Winners!

Winners!!!

You buh-yewty!

(You know who you are)

Can you hear that . . . ? It's the sound glory makes as you bask in it.