Things that made my eyeballs bulge this week:
* Last month, Wired.com reported on Ole Miss students’ campaign to install Rebel Alliance leader Admiral Ackbar as their new mascot. Well, it didn’t work. Today, the University of Mississippi adopted the Rebel Black Bear instead. Nothing against the Black Bear, but it’s no Admiral Ackbar. Or is it? If you delete the 1st, 2nd, and 7th letters of BLACK BEAR, you get ACKBAR. Among the choices—the other finalists being the Rebel Land Shark and the Rebel Hotty Totty (no, not making that up)—the Black Bear is clearly the Ackbariest of them all. So cheer up, Mon Calamari lovers! Two-thirds of the school’s choice is exactly what you wanted. (Note: I claim no responsibility for any letter-removal vandalism on the Ole Miss campus that might follow in this column’s wake.)

* Sunday was 10/10/10 (or, if you’re in England, 10/10/10). This was popular among Douglas Adams fans, since 101010 is the binary number for 42, the computer Deep Thought’s answer to life, the universe, and everything. But I was puzzled by seeing thousands of people calling it “Binary Day.” Because every century, there are actually thirty-six binary days. So not only was Sunday Binary Day, but so was Monday (10/11/10). Within very slightly more than a year (10/10/10 to 11/11/11), almost 4 percent of all days are Binary Day. Robots, this is your time.

* On Monday, I saw an ESPN promo on the ticker for an international friendly soccer match billed as “USA VS. COLUMBIA.” Now that is indeed friendly, given that Columbia is the USA. Had anybody actually bothered to score in that no-doubt-thrilling 0-0 draw, their team would have been able to say, “We really beat ourselves today.”

This week’s Noodler: Because this is supposed to be a puzzle blog, I’ll also toss a reader challenge in every week. For this week’s Noodler, I spent at least two minutes of my life making that awesome WordArtistic “Decoder Ring” logo above. Per a suggestion by very smart fellow Ian Tullis, one of its key aspects is anything but random. The first reader to send what that aspect is and why to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it will be inducted into the Decoder Ring of Honor. I’m sure that will look good on your resume.

Where the geeks are this week: If you’re a game/puzzle nerd and want to do good by the world, definitely check out Extra Life. It’s a benefit for pretty much every children’s hospital in the U.S. You get folks to sponsor you and then you play games online all day tomorrow. There are thousands of gamers signed up who would love your support, even if you don’t know who they are. I’ll probably be playing HexaLex on my iPhone, for the benefit of the Children’s Hospital in L.A. See you cats in cyberspace.

Mike Selinker is a game and puzzle designer who heads the Seattle-area studio Lone Shark Games. He also writes a blog about non-puzzly stuff called The Most Beautiful Things.

Authors: Mike Selinker

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