Recent Comments

1. 3 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   I think we agree on #2. I am saying it is a mistake to think a copy will have an easily detectable difference. I.e. copies will appear identical to the naked eye.

   On #3… One might, for instance, add watercolors on top of a well-sealed oil-based painting. This could then be washed off easily enough. (I admit, this won’t work on an old cracked painting.)

2. 3 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   Interesting. Three state outright their picture is a copy. One says the original wouldn’t be hanging in her living room (but we have no reason to believe that we are seeing it in her “living room”, maybe she calls that room her “den”). One says he collects and doesn’t steal (which means that like any good “collector”, he buys from the thief).

   Overall, I think there are three mistakes here:

   1) Thinking that the thief and the person who has it now are the same person.

   2) Thinking that a copy will have an easily detectable difference.

   3) Thinking that the person having the originally won’t change it to make it look like a poor copy.

   Personally, I suspect either #1 or #3: Their differences are easily added.

3. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   I would have to say “Bernie Wilcox”. He has the best alibi (and is the only one whose alibi covers the time from the medical evidence), ergo is the most likely to have faked his alibi. Of course, Danger’s second step: find a way to break the alibi. Danger’s first step: find some reasonable evidence.

4. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   point #2 is the point made by jroggs above.

   The “his” gun is that Alfie cavalierly saying the gun belonged to the killer should NOT be taken as fact. What is known to the police is that the gun is not known to be owned by the victim. (convoluted?) This doesn’t actually mean it wasn’t the victim’s gun.

5. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   Danger: You need to fire:

   1) Your lab techs, who don’t know to check all surfaces of an item, not just the exterior ones.

   2) Your writer, who doesn’t know the difference between a revolver and an automatic.

   Additionally, the fact that the deceased allowed his girlfriend to load his unregistered gun does not make her the killer. Worse, it may make the killing self defense.

6. 4 months ago on Get Fuzzy

   “Is it not true that …” I think he found the loophole.

   If the “not” is fluff, then the answer means the bath statement is false.If the “not” modifies “true”, the answer means the bath statement is true.

   The only correct way to answer that form of question is something like: “Monkeys do not take baths in boiling pots of fish stock and onions.”

7. 4 months ago on Back to B.C.

   A mouse’s diet is 1/3 insects.

   So the correct answer in the first frame is almost certainly “yes”.

   OTOH, I suspect that entering an ant lair is beyond most mice, as ants en-mass will counterattack.

8. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   Nice try, but no. The lack of visible antenna is a result of advancing technology, not being a smartphone. Besides, you can run an 8.3 cm monopole antenna down the edge of a circuit board easily enough, and some larger devices could handle a 16.6 cm dipole as well. Though actually, I think they prefer to use more complex antennae to make the radiation pattern less directional.

9. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

   If it is an Apple iPhone, and you have access to the computer it is backed up, you can back it up again, wipe it, and restore it with a new password.

   There may be similar tricks for android phones.

   But, in this case, I don’t think that is a smartphone. The screen isn’t full size, and in 2012 (original publication here) there were simpler OSes for phones.

10. 4 months ago on Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz

    Good drama. Bad science. Like “which wire do you cut leading from the timer to the detonator?” (answer: either one, but it doesn’t stop the timer)