RUBIK'S CUBE IS 50 YEARS OLD

I don't think I have ever owned a Rubik's Cube.  I have also never solved the game.  However, I can order one from Amazon.com for $5.19.

A larger one costs $20.

Hate to stoop to this level, but there is a Donald Trump Rubik's Cube.  

From the Japan Times in 2017.

The story of Rubik's Cube:

• 
  Invented in 1974 by Hungarian Professor Erno Rubik (right).
• Has 26 cubes with 6 colors--white, yellow, red, orange, green and blue--plus 519 quintillion permutations.

• 

  Began to be sold in 1980, and at one stage in 1981, three of the 10 best-selling books was on how to solve this cube.
• The New York Times in 1982 reported that the craze had died.
• But Rubik's patent expired in 2000, and the craze returned in the early 2000s
• When it sold 350 million, it became the best-selling toy in the world, according to some sources.
• Now, 500 million sold.

• 
  However, this article says that the cube ranks #14, with Barbie (3 billion sold) at #1 and the Yo-Yo as #2.
• Incidentally, the Design Museum in London is celebrating 65 years of Barbie in partnership with Mattel.  Barbie:  A Cultural Icon Exhibition, arrives in Milan in September.  
• The vibrant pink showcase features over 180 Barbies in the UK, and will have 150 dolls in Italy.

• The Yo-Yo perhaps deserves an entire posting.
  
• Originated in China around 1000 BC.
• 70 million sold annually.
• Duncan Company was once responsible for 85% of yo-yos sold in the U.S., but lost it's trademark in 1965 and went bankrupt.

• 
  President Richard Nixon, shortly before his resignation in 1974, was taught how to play a yo-yo by Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff.  Two decades later, this yo-yo sold for $16,029.

• The Herbert Kociemba's two-phase algorithm can typically determine a solution in 20 moves or fewer.
• However, you might first want to begin with this beginner's method.

• 
  There are speedcubing championships organized by Guinness.
• The first competition in 1982 was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student with a time of 22.95 seconds.

• 
  In 2023 Max Park of the U.S. dropped the time to 3.13 seconds.  Got to see that to believe it.
• A robot had a time of 0.38 seconds.
• 
  There are variations, as for example, more cubes.  You can buy one up to 21x21x21 for around $1500.
• The largest is a 33x33x33, with 6153 moving parts, and weighing 6.5 pounds.
• Most expensive Rubik's Cube, made of 18 carat gold, with each panel having 25 valuable stones, has a value of $2.5 million.

   

Hurricane Beryl is now a tropical storm after barreling into the Yucatan as a Category 2.  However, Beryl will regain strength when she returns to the Gulf and again become a hurricane.  The questions are whether she will again attain Category 2 status and exactly where she will make landfall.  The closest city will probably be Corpus Cristi, Texas.

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