Helium Party Balloons

As we’ve reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery.

And much to our enjoyment, they’ve decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm… Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), so each morning at 12:01am ET you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING: As a test, we’re going to leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

How long would it take to walk to all the cities that have served as capitols of the U.S. government since the signing of the Constitution?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (HIGHLIGHT TO SEE):

Search [define: paladin] to find it means hero or champion. Search [hero of Uruk] to discover that Gilgamesh is the main character in the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” one of the earliest known works of literature. The standard Akkadian version dates from ca. 1200 BCE.

As we’ve reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery.

And much to our enjoyment, they’ve decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm… Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), so each morning at 12:01am ET you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING: As a test, we’re going to leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

I was celebrated as the paladin of Uruk, but my legacy is in the realm of ancient literature. Who am I?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (HIGHLIGHT TO SEE):

Search [waterless place]. Find that “waterless place” is the translation of the Mongolian word “Gobi” or “Gobi Desert.” Search [Gobi Desert George found eggs] to find a book that tells of George Olsen unearthing the first whole dinosaur eggs in 1923.

Photo credit: A. Schwalm

SB242 is currently making its way through the California legislature and according to SFGate.com:

“Under the proposal, social networking sites would have to allow users to establish their privacy settings–like who could view their profile and what information would be public to everyone on the Internet–when they register to join the site, instead of after they join. Sites would also have to set defaults to private so that users would choose which information is public.”

For those of us who are long-time Facebook users…that might sound vaguely like a return to the terms of use we initially agreed to when we created our accounts, before Mark Zuckerberg redefined privacy. I, for one, would prefer greater control over my personal information than I currently have using Facebook. At the moment, it feels as if I am buying my monthly social-networking access by giving away small pieces of my self in the form of soul-shaped personal anecdotes, childhood photos, and “likes.”  As time goes on, I am wondering if this degree of access into my personal landscape is equitable or advisable…

According to NBC Bay Area, there is a second component to this bill that has even further-reaching implications, in that it would essentially give parents editorial power over their children’s Facebook accounts:

The bill’s language also states that social-networking sites would have to comply with parental requests to remove information or photos from their children’s pages or accounts. The new bill “would require removal of that information regarding a user under 18 years of age upon request by the user’s parent, within 48 hours upon his or her request.”

Ironically, I had a problem with that portion of the legislation. It took me a little while to suss out exactly why I felt it was misguided, though.

Read the rest of Andrea’s post over on GeekMom.