StrangeSights

• It’s proving a tough nut to crack. A riddle embedded in a work of art outside the main entrance to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, remains unsolved 20 years after it was first unveiled to the public. The riddle is one of four contained in Kryptos, an artwork resembling a 3.6 metre high scroll designed by sculptor Jim Sanborn which was put in place in 1990. While the first three puzzles - the answers to which included a poetic phrase and a passage taken from Howard Carter’s account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun - were cracked within a couple of years of the sculpture being unveiled, the last has proved somewhat harder leading Sanborn to this week release a six letter clue, that the letters ‘nypvtt’ correspond to the word ‘Berlin’. Now all you have to do is work out what the other 91 letters in the riddle mean. If you reckon you know the answer, simple fill in the first 10 letters on Sanborn’s website. Good luck with that.

• Like a Coke? How about a fruit juice? A Japanese company has reportedly created a vending machine that recommends what it thinks customers will like. The new machines use facial recognition software to detect the age and gender of customers and then makes recommendations based on its conclusions. The first machine has been installed at a Tokyo railway station with more to follow.

• So what does the moon smell like? According to former astronaut Charlie Duke - the 10th person to set foot upon the moon, it’s “like spent gunpowder”. He’s been working with a group of artists to create some scratch and sniff MOON prints which are being sold to those looking for something a little different to hang on the wall. The smell, apparently, will last for around a year.

• Roman Catholic Capuchin monks in Switzerland have taken to advertising in the newspaper’s classifieds section to recruit new monks. An advertisement reportedly appeared in the banking and insurance’s classifieds of a recent Saturday edition of the Alpha newspaper, asking for “bankers, journalists, teachers, theologians, tradesmen, lawyers and communication experts” aged between 22 and 35 to consider signing up. While the ad makes it clear there’s no pay for the job, it says the monks do offer “spirituality and prayer, contemplation (and) an egalitarian lifestyle” as well as freedom from personal material riches. The Franciscan order in the country currently boast only 200 monks and the average age is apparently 70.

• Caution: this article could contain a spoiler. News this week that David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the ‘original’Star Wars movies, let slip the secret that Darth was Luke Skywalker’s father two years before the Empire Strikes Back came out during an autograph session with fans. But, as was the case in the days before social networking, no-one seemed to pay much attention - even a newspaper report of the autograph session didn’t pick up on the revelation, saying only that Prowse in his comments - “Father can’t kill son, son can’t kill father” - “offered a glimpse of a possible plot for the second sequel”. Ah, for the good old days.

• Paying $1 a week to rent a farmhouse isn’t a lot these days. That’s what the New South Wales community of Trundle, about 50 kilometres north-west of Parkes, are offering in a bid to attract new families to the district and save the local schools. Applications for the positions close on 12th December, 2010. Five farmhouses are available to rent straight away but, be warned, they do require some work.

• Looking for an alternative to the chips, chocolate bars and softdrinks usually found in vending machines? A Chinese company has reportedly installed several vending machines at underground stations in the city of Nanjing which dispense live crabs. Not sure how you’re supposed to eat that on the run…

• And the award for the most famous moustache of all time goes to (drum roll please)…artist Salvador Dali. A poll conducted on behalf of the Movember charity - which encourages people to grow moustaches to raise money - reportedly found that 24 per cent of people favoured Dali’s as the most famous followed by wrestler Hulk Hogan (18 per cent) and Albert Einstein (13 per cent).

• Want to be among the first humans to go to Mars? Catch is, it’s a one-way trip. NASA’s Ames Research Centre is reportedly investigating the idea and looking to raise some interest from among the world’s billionaires to help fund the mission which is estimated to cost around $US10 billion.

• Looking for a way to spruce up your town by stymied by the many vacant buildings? Why not adopt the approach of the English town of Redcar which has reportedly placed a series of stickers on the windows of unused shopfronts in a bid to improve the town’s appearance. The stickers depict everything from a furniture store, cafe and restaurant, to a bookshop and even the living room of a house.

Don’t forget to scroll down and have a look at our Strange Contests Special…