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The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Did you solve it? The deductive decade – ten years of Monday puzzzles
To celebrate ten years of this column, this morning I selected ten puzzles from the Monday Puzzle archives. Here they are again with solutions. Click on the solutions to be taken to the original columns, which have full explanations. 1. Bat and ball Three friends (A, B and C) are playing ping pong. They play the usual way: the winner stays on, and the loser waits their turn again. At the end of the day, they summarise the number of games that each of them played: A played 10 B played 15 C played 17. Who lost the second game? Solution A 2. Tricky trams Why are the tram's overhead cables positioned to make a zigzag, rather than straight line? Solution The metal structure on the roof of the tram, the pantograph, rubs against the cable as the tram moves forward. If the cable was in a straight line, it would rub the same point on the pantograph, which would begin to fray. But if the cable is in a zigzag, the rubbing happens evenly across the top of the pantograph, and the pantograph wears down less quickly. 3. Read the question 3. What is never odd or even? Solution 'never odd or even' is a palindrome, i.e. it reads the same back to front. 4. Catch the cat A straight corridor has 7 doors along one side. Behind one of the doors sits a cat. Your mission is to find the cat by opening the correct door. Each day you can open only one door. If the cat is there, you win. If the cat is not there, the door closes, and you must wait until the next day before you can open a door again. If the cat was always to sit behind the same door, you would be able to find it in at most seven days, by opening each door in turn. But this mischievous moggy is restless. Every night it moves randomly either one door to the left or one to the right. Although if it is behind the first or last door, it has only one option for where it can move. How many days do you now need to make sure you can catch the cat? Solution ten days 5. Mystery number I have a ten digit number, abcdefghij. Each of the digits is different, and a is divisible by 1 ab is divisible by 2 abc is divisible by 3 abcd is divisible by 4 abcde is divisible by 5 abcdef is divisible by 6 abcdefg is divisible by 7 abcdefgh is divisible by 8 abcdefghi is divisible by 9 abcdefghij is divisible by 10 What's my number? [To clarify: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, and j are all single digits. Each digit from 0 to 9 is represented by exactly one letter. The number abcdefghij is a ten-digit number whose first digit is a, second digit is b, and so on. It does not mean that you multiply a x b x c x…] Solution 3816547290 6. Disappearing cub This picture has not been doctored. Explain why the reflection has a yellow lion cub. Solution: The cub is camouflaged by a cleverly-coloured flap 7. Crazy triangle Show that there is a triangle, the sum of whose three heights is less than 1mm, that has an area greater than the surface of the Earth (510m km2). Solution Here's one: 8. Deck dilemma Your friend chooses at random a card from a standard deck of 52 cards, and keeps this card concealed. You have to guess which of the 52 cards it is. Before your guess, you can ask your friend one of the following three questions: is the card red? is the card a face card? (Jack, Queen or King) is the card the ace of spades? Your friend will answer truthfully. What question would you ask that gives you the best chance of guessing the correct card? Solution It doesn't matter. In all three cases, your chance of guessing the correct card is 1 in 26. 9. The question with no question (a) All of the following. (b) None of the following. (c) Some of the following. (d) All of the above. (e) None of the above. [Just to reassure you, nothing has been omitted here.] Solution (b) 10. Triangle fold Find a way to fold a square piece of paper into an equilateral triangle. The triangle can be of any size. Solution Here is one way, that uses the side length of the square as the side length of the triangle. I hope you enjoyed these puzzles. I'll be back in two weeks. Sources: 1. Adrian Paenza, 2. Kvantik magaizine, 3. Des MacHale, 4. New York Times. 5. John Conway, 6. Matt Pritchard, 7. Trần Phương, 8. Henk Tijms, 9. Parabola, 10. The Paper Puzzle Book. I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I'm always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
Telegraph
02-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Can my wife get a state pension if she's never paid National Insurance?'
Write to Pensions Doctor with your pension problem: pensionsdoctor@ Columns are published weekly. Dear Charlene, I am an NHS doctor and soon to retire, although I have been drawing my state pension for a few years already. My wife is 65 and a British passport holder, but she has never contributed to National Insurance (NI). She did work part-time in a clerical role, earning around £500 per month at the time. She also has a small pension pot. I have two questions about my wife: When she reaches age 67, is she eligible for any state pension at all? After my death, will she get any part of my state pension? I believe she will get half of my NHS pension payments. Many thanks, –B Dear B, I'll begin by going through the state pension rules before looking at the payments that could be made from your pensions on your death. Under the 'new' state pension system, your wife will need at least 10 qualifying years to get any state pension in her own right. Although your wife was not earning enough to pay NI when she was working part-time, she may still have built up some qualifying years for the state pension. That's because her £500 monthly wage could have put her above the lower earnings limit (LEL) at the time. The LEL was designed for people in your wife's situation. It is currently set at £125 per week, above which an employee who is not earning enough to pay NI gets a credit in the NI system, allowing qualification for certain benefits, including the state pension. NI contributions are treated as having been paid for those years to protect someone's record. Your wife, therefore, needs to check her NI record and get a state pension forecast – both of which can be done online on the government website – as soon as possible to see if she has benefited from credits at all. From there, it will be clearer as to whether there is scope to plug any gaps with voluntary contributions to get her to the 10 required years, or beyond. Your own state pension You are also under the 'new' state pension system, which began in April 2016, and you have already claimed your pension. Under the new system, there is less scope for a surviving spouse to inherit anything. But surviving spouses or civil partners might be able to claim up to 50pc of their late partner's 'protected payment'. This is the amount they receive if they paid into the additional state pension before 2016 and would have been better off under the old system. Your state pension statement will show if you are receiving any protected payment at the moment. But, if I'm correct in assuming that you've been an NHS doctor your whole career, I think it is unlikely that you will be receiving it. This is because the NHS pension was 'contracted out' of the additional state pension. Your NHS pension You've already mentioned a 50pc spouse's pension that would be paid to your wife after your death. It's also worth checking with the NHS pension scheme to double-check if your wife will be entitled to anything else. Clearly, I want to wish you a long and happy retirement but, as an example, if you were to die within five years of retiring, your wife might also be eligible to receive a lump sum from the scheme too. This could be up to five times your annual pension, less any payments made to you up until your death. The lump sum on offer will depend on which section of the NHS scheme you are part of, and how much tax-free lump sum you take at the start, among other factors, so it is best to speak to the scheme itself to get the full picture. It's worth mentioning that pension credit can provide extra money to help with living costs for people over state pension age with a low income. But it's likely that any death benefit payable from your NHS pension will put your wife over the income limit. With best wishes, –Charlene Charlene Young is a pensions and savings expert at online investment platform AJ Bell. Her columns should not be taken as advice or as a personal recommendation, but as a starting point for readers to undertake their own further research.
Elle
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Miley Cyrus's ‘Easy Lover' Lyrics Include a Subtle Ode to Beyoncé
Miley Cyrus's ninth album, Something Beautiful, is officially here. Alongside the LP that dropped today, Cyrus also released a music video for her newest single 'Easy Lover.' In the '80s-tinged track, she sings about a partner who's not so easy to love, which just makes her even more obsessed: 'I love to hate ya, uh, but I can't stand it when you're gone / So I call you once every hour.' And despite that, she just can't give them up. While the song wrestles with themes of a complicated relationship in its lyrics, the backstory of how it came to be is just as fascinating. In an interview with Zane Lowe last week, Cyrus explained that she initially pitched the song to Beyoncé for her Cowboy Carter album. (That explains why it includes the adlib, 'Tell 'em, B!') 'I had written that song originally around the Plastic Hearts days and never got the production quite where I wanted it,' she explains to Lowe. But she held onto the song, and when Beyoncé was looking for tracks for her country album, she sent her this one and 'Shotgun Rider,' which was eventually renamed to the Grammy-winning 'II Most Wanted.' And though 'Easy Lover' didn't make it onto Cowboy Carter, that didn't stop Cyrus from keeping the adlib. 'I just was like, 'What am I going to do about, 'Tell 'em, B'?' she said. 'And Britney Howard's like, 'I'll play the guitar on it.' So that's her playing all that electric guitar.'' You can check out the full lyrics to the track below, courtesy of Genius.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Freddie Mercury's Alleged Child Revealed in New Biography
The post Freddie Mercury's Alleged Child Revealed in New Biography appeared first on Consequence. A woman claiming to be Freddie Mercury's secret daughter has come forward for the first time in a new biography about the legendary Queen singer. According to the upcoming book Love, Freddie by Lesley-Ann Jones, the child was conceived accidentally during an affair between Mercury and the wife of a close friend in 1976. Mercury remained involved in the child's life from the moment she was born until his death in 1991, though her existence was known only to members of his inner circle. The woman, who has chosen to identify herself as 'B,' is now 48 years old and works as a medical professional in Europe. Upon learning of the pregnancy, Mercury reportedly began chronicling his life story in a series of diaries. In total, he wrote 17 volumes, which he delivered to 'B' before his passing. 'B' shared the contents of these diaries with Jones for Love, Freddie. 'He entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me, his only child and his next of kin, the written record of his private thoughts, memories and feelings about everything he had experienced,' 'B' said in an interview with The Daily Mail. 'After more than three decades of lies, speculation and distortion, it is time to let Freddie speak,' she added. Jones said she first learned about 'B''s existence three years ago, and is 'absolutely sure she is not a fantasist.' 'No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three and a half years, never demanding anything?' Popular Posts Billy Joel Diagnosed with Brain Disorder, Cancels All Upcoming Tour Dates Holy Shit, You Have to See Footage from System of a Down's Concert in Brazil Bruce Springsteen Gives Trump the Middle Finger with Another Defiant Concert Guns N' Roses Share Video of Axl Rose Repeatedly Falling Onstage: Watch The 30 Best Action Movie Stars of All Time, Ranked Neil Young to Trump: "I'm Not Scared of You. Neither Are the Rest of Us" Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Freddie Mercury had secret love child, claims new biography
Freddie Mercury had a secret love child, a new biography has claimed. The Queen frontman's inner circle, including his bandmates and Mary Austin, his long-term girlfriend, were the only ones who knew of the child's existence for nearly five decades. Mercury's daughter was said to have been conceived in 1976 during an affair with the wife of a close friend, who is understood to have died years ago. The child, who is now 48 and living in Europe, spoke to Lesley-Ann Jones, a rock biographer. In the biography, entitled Love, Freddie, the woman, known only as B, said: 'Freddie Mercury was and is my father. We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life. 'He adored me and was devoted to me. The circumstances of my birth may seem, by most people's standards, unusual and even outrageous. That should come as no surprise. It never detracted from his commitment to love and look after me. He cherished me like a treasured possession.' She has claimed to have always known that Mercury, who frequently visited her home, was her real father, according to The Daily Mail. The book also stated that B now has children herself, and biographer Jones said: 'My instinct was to doubt everything, but I am absolutely sure she is not a fantasist. 'No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three and a half years, never demanding anything? 'In my experience of fantasists, and I've met a few, they seek instant gratification, publicity and reward. She has never asked for money. She does not want recognition. Both Freddie and her stepfather left her extremely wealthy. She was not provided for through Freddie's will, but by a private, legal arrangement, so no one will find her mentioned there.' Mercury's worth was estimated at £40 million when he died in 1991 of pneumonia resulting from Aids. Before his death, the singer was said to have given his daughter 17 volumes of detailed personal journals, which were estimated to include 555,000 words written across 15 years. Ms Jones said Mercury had instructed his daughter 'not to read the more graphic journals' until she turned 25. There have been no previous claims of Mercury fathering a child, according to the Mail. Jim Hutton, the singer's boyfriend, wrote about their experiences together but made no mention of any children.
