5x5x5 Rubik's Cube

I solved it. My wife scrambled it at my request on Thursday night. I got a lot done Thursday but didn't have much time for it on Friday and Saturday, but finished it up Saturday evening.The procedure is to pair up the 2nd and 4th edgies first, which may involve parity problems of the type I saw on the 4x4x4 cube. Then I used 3x3x3 routines to solve the single corner problem combined with the 2nd and 4th edgie pairs matched with the absolute (unchanging) center of each side. That left the 8 centers on each side and the 3rd or middle edgie. There are two types of movable centers: sides and corners of the little 3x3 patches of centers. But I used the same method, borrowed from the 4x4x4 cube solution, to do both. Last to fix was the middle edgies. Several were already in the right place after step one, when I filled them in when I could. I used a basic routine from the 3x3x3 cube to move them around. And I was able to used the "Rubik" routine from the 3x3x3 cube to flip the last pair, but it messed up some of the 3x3 patches of center pieces. So the last step was to clean up those center pieces.
It probably took me 4 hours, but I must have wasted an hour due to improperly applying my old routines, routines I know by habit on the 3x3x3 cube which had to be applied slowly and meticulously on the 5x5x5, both due to the size and because sometimes I grabbed two layers and sometimes I grabbed one layer (on purpose).

Fun challenge!

Chinese in South Africa

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/06/19/in-south-africa-chinese-is-the-new-black/?mod=yhoofront

If I understand this article, the Chinese people living in South Africa been reclassified as "blacks." At first glance, that sounds bad, like they will be subjected to the same horrible conditions as the native Africans. At second glance, it appears to reaffirm the former racist policies of the South African government but in reverse. But this reclassification of the Chinese is considered to be a good thing, because "ethnically Chinese citizens will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid."

I'm not so sure this is a good thing. I think they missed the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He (and I) oppose racist government policies of any sort, whether they favor whites, as they did in the South in the 1950s, or blacks, as they do now in Zimbabwe. And this sure seems to be a government policy based on race.

About Those Oil Wells Off the Coast of Florida

A week or so ago, George Will wrote a column that claimed that "Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are [allowed to]."
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will060508.php3

Vice-President Cheney quoted George Will but, when attacked, his "office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast."
http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/661427.html

Meanwhile, there are those at CBS news that essential say that Cheney is a liar:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/12/
politics/politico/thecrypt/main4176037.shtml

But the CBS News claim is based on the distinction between where China CAN drill and where they ARE drilling. I think the point can still be made that Cuba has given the Chinese the right to drill in the waters between Cuba and Florida in outer continental shelf areas where the U.S. oil companies are not allowed to drill under the current moratorium imposed by, guess who, the U.S. Congress.

I, of course, come down on the same side as McCain and Bush on this issue, that it is time to open up vast areas for drilling oil wells on the continental shelf. But I'd go one step further than them, since I would support drilling in ANWR and other federal lands (e.g., National Monuments).

Father's Day

I went for a little walk with my father and my son yesterday. I really enjoyed it. We three all enjoy hiking in the woods.

I picked out a nice 7 mile loop on the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains. There were lots of pretty flowers, including Lewisia rediviva, a rare beauty, named after Meriwether Lewis.

The only problem was that the road was heavily rutted and we could not get to the starting point. So we had to hike extra up the road to get to the loop, and back to the car. That extra ended up being 2 miles each way, for a total of over 11 miles. And we hiked it in 5 hours, including the lunch stop. With my 88-year-old dad. He was fine. He IS amazing! Happy Father's Day!

Presidential Politics

As a conservative, I feel like we have a choice of a centrist (McCain) and a socialist (Obama) in the election this fall. Kind of like this (and yup, that is an actual bell curve, Gaussian distribution, exp(-x^2):

The way I drew this chart, it looks McCain will win by a landslide. But that is not what the polls are saying. I know there are a bunch of others like me who think McCain is too liberal, but our voices are not being reflected in the polls. Is America really ready for socialism? George Soros as Secretary of the Treasury? Hillary Clinton as Secretary of Health and Human Services? Maxine Waters as Secretary of Labor? Some pacifist as Secretary of Defense? No more conservative talk radio (the "Fairness" Doctrine re-applied)? Total ban of handguns so only the thugs will have handguns? Is that really what America wants for the next four years?

Our Own Oil Cartel By Terence P. Jeffrey

From the Editor in Chief of CNSNews.com (not CBSNews as I originally wrote):

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200806/COM20080604c.html

"Contemplate this the next time you spend $60 or more filling up your tinny little car with gasoline made from imported oil: The U.S. government knows where it can get its hands on more untapped petroleum than exists in the proven reserves of Iran or Iraq, which have 136 billion barrels and 115 billion barrels, respectively. This unexploited stock of crude is greater than what the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports is in the proven reserves of Russia (60 billion barrels), Libya (41.5 billion barrels) and Nigeria (36.2 billion barrels) combined. It is more than Hugo Chavez's Venezuela has (80 billion barrels). It is more than is now known to sit beneath the waters and sands of Kuwait (101.5 billion barrels) or the United Arab Emirates (97.6 billion barrels). So, where is all this oil? And why aren't they pumping it? What cartel is holding it off the market, to drive up prices at American gas stations and American supermarkets? What insidious power is stifling the free market for this vital commodity and thus threatening the vitality of our economy? It is us, of course. We are the culprits. We are responsible for artificially increasing oil prices. It is our oil that sits untapped beneath our deserts, our forests, our swamps and our oceans. It is our politicians -- the ones we freely elected, and re-elected, and re-elected -- who are not allowing our oil to be drilled by us and sold to us. ... You elected Congress. It paid you back with $4.00-per-gallon gas."

The full article explains how Congress has contributed to this oil shortage.

Thought for the Day

I like to think of the "maverick" John McCain as Ross Perot and Bob Dole all rolled into one!

And just maybe he will get as many votes as Perot and Dole combined. :)