>>>>>Ok, there is a new definition for loser:
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Man_takes_26_years_to_solve_Rubik%92s_Cube&in_article_id=471180&in_page_id=2
>>>>
>>>>LOL. Thanks for the morning smile.
>>>>
>>>>You have to wonder, though, how long it would take many other people to solve it if they absolutely had to and didn't have access to a guide showing you how to do it. It's not an easy puzzle, especially if you don't happen to be good at visualizing spatial relationships.
>>>
>>>Back in high school in class of 34, we had almost 20 cubes being solved at the time
>>>At the time when it become popular, it almost completely eradicated preferans (card game)
>>>
>>>While professors were writing some boring stuff on board... {g}
>>
>>Do you know if they all worked it out on their own, though?
>>
>>Full disclosure: I was unable to solve it on my own. I bought a book and memorized the steps. It was driving me nuts. One thing I still remember is that it said the biggest mental hurdle is that solving the third layer involves temporarily going backwards. You have to undo cubes that were previously in place.
>
>Although guy who brought it first claimed so, I don't think so ;)
>
>I did not do it myself eighter;
>Someone showed me few basic methods and that finishing touch. I was doing it quiet fast, but never close to top 3-4 who were
>real cube maniacs. But after you manage each pattern, it is all down to finger mechanics.
>(Kind of lika programming isn't it {vbg} )
>
>After a while mania subsided. My cube ended up in some closet and I never saw it again.

Same here. I have boxes of Unknown Things in the basement and am not even sure it's in one of them.

Now there are speed contests. They grease the cubes up so they fly. I think the record is around 20 seconds, something outrageous like that. I read about a woman from Eastern Europe, now an Ivy League professor, who gained some fame as a child Rubik prodigy. She says now she wouldn't be within shouting distance of winning a speed contest.