Here's a logic puzzle that might keep you busy the rest of the day -unless you give up. There is a link to the answer and links to solving tips at Coudal Partners. 

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

Good luck. You'll need it.  -via Nag on the Lake

Here's another TED-Ed brain bender that can ruin your evening. I actually tried for a little while to solve the puzzle on my own, but I got bogged down and went for the answer. Yeah, there's math involved, as well as logic, which is why I got bogged down.  

(YouTube link)

Even if you don't try to figure it out by yourself, the story turns out to be kinda cute, with endangered species, sharks, and a submarine. -via Laughing Squid

Alfakennyone presented this puzzle a couple of days ago. Let's assume a steady rate of flow (inlet does not exceeed outlet), and no confounding factors such as air pockets or rust. Look carefully before you decide. Then check out the answer and explanation.

Then you'll want to see the animated version, showing the containers being filled with water, made by CorneliaXaos, who dedicated more than three hours to making it happen. Spoiler: eventually, your basement will be completely flooded.  -via Boing Boing

In order to get out of the dungeon, you must perform a service for the king. He wants you to identify the one counterfeit among twelve coins, but you can only use his scale three times to do it. Lucky for you, you are the kingdom's top mathematician. I can slice a tomato into 18 pieces with five cuts, but this one's a real head scratcher.

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Jennifer Lu sure came up with a hard one in this riddle. I might have been able to figure it out, if I had infinite time and no stress, but the scenario as it is would not allow for that. The king has a temper, you know. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Five pirates found a treasure chest of gold! How do they divvy it up? It's up to the captain, but he has to have cooperation from the other pirates. Once you find out the circumstances here, you'll decide that no, you can't solve the pirate riddle. These pirates are too smart.

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But if you decide you want to solve this on your own before the answer is explained to you, good luck and we'll see you much later. This is a TED-Ed lesson from Alex Gendler. -via Geeks Are Sexy

This TED-Ed puzzle reminds me of The Andromeda Strain, except the answer isn't fed to us like in the book or movie. You're in a contaminated virus lab, and you have to save the world by figuring out the puzzle. No pressure at all.

(YouTube link)

Along the way, we learn a little bit about patterns and paths, and maybe how not to design a containment facility. -via The Kid Should See This

Futility Closet gives us a crime scene and a logic puzzle to solve it. Five children go into a candy store, and one of them steals a box of candy. Let's assume that none of them have chocolate on their faces, and the stolen box is not in their possession at the moment. Each of the five children gives a statement of three sentences.

Ivan:

1. I didn’t take the box of candy.
2. I have never stolen anything.
3. Dennis did it.

Sylvia:

4. I didn’t take the box of candy.
5. I’m rich and I can buy my own candy.
6. Linda knows who the crook is.

Ernie:

7. I didn’t take the box of candy.
8. I didn’t know Linda until this year.
9. Dennis did it.

Dennis:

10. I didn’t take the box of candy.
11. Linda did it.
12. Ivan is lying when he says I stole the candy.

Linda:

13. I didn’t take the box of candy.
14. Sylvia is guilty.
15. Ernie can vouch for me, because he has known me since I was a baby eight years ago.

Okay, the clue is that each child told the truth in two sentences and lied in one sentence. Who stole the candy? Don't let the fact that there are 15 sentences deter you; it's not that difficult when you get into it. When you come to an answer or give up, see the explanation at Futility Closet. -via Boing Boing

Boing Boing reprinted this puzzle from the book My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles by Martin Gardner.

Imagine that you have three boxes, one containing two black marbles, one containing two white marbles, and the third, one black marble and one white marble. The boxes were labeled for their contents – BB, BW, WW – but someone switched the labels so that every box is now incorrectly labeled. You are allowed to take one marble at a time out of any box, without looking inside, and by this process of sampling you are to determine the contents of all three boxes. What is the smallest number of drawings needed to do this?

It’s not difficult to figure out if you can visualize the boxes in front of you (or just look at the picture). It wouldn’t be hard to make this a real world puzzle, either. Give us your answer in the comments!

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

Preparations were all in place for the Peace Treaty Summit. Nary a twig was out of place in the secluded, wooded retreat. The service staff had been cleared by security. And the entire compound was off-limits to motor vehicles until the dignitaries started arriving in their limousines.

Security Chief Derrick Gerber was making a final tour on his bicycle. What if an assassin had somehow managed to get in? Gerber's suspicious mind focused on one of the newly hired staff. He decided to run another check.

An hour later, Gerber's body was discovered in a ravine. Gil Abel, the security chief's assistant, was immediately notified.

Abel cycled up the main road, noting with irritation a shaggy black piece of bloody road kill along the shoulder, being toyed with by a kitchen cat. Twenty yards later, he was at the ravine. Gerber had put up quite a struggle before succumbing to a flurry of stab wounds. "I've had my own suspicions," Abel mumbled to himself. "I suppose it's time to check them out."

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen)

After the theft of a medieval goblet, collector Felix Cheshire became obsessed with security. He improved his alarm system by installing metallic strips on the rear of all his canvases and other art objects. He didn't even trust his two longtime assistants. His latest precaution was to carry a loaded pistol and a sword hidden inside his walking cane.

As usual, Felix began his day by ushering in his assistants and setting the alarm. He had barely entered the rear research room when the alarm sounded. Grabbing his gun and cane, Felix hobbled up to the entrance and found Tanya Garfield standing by the door, a sheepish grin on her face. "I was just going out for coffee," she apologized. "I guess my earrings set it off."

The collector checked his major possessions, found nothing missing, then reset the alarm. He settled back into the research room and accepted a cup of tea from an earring-less Tanya. Felix had no idea for how long he'd nodded off. But suddenly Jack, his other assistant, was shaking him by the shoulders.

"It's gone," Jack shouted. "The da Vinci's gone."

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Keanu @ no:wp)

All evidence pointed to Frank Fortini. "He has motive," the homicide chief told his men. "Frank's Uncle Gregor, the victim, just won the state lottery. Frank and his brothers are Gregor's only relatives and would inherit the $14 million prize.

"Also, Frank had opportunity. Gregor was a paranoid guy living in an isolated cabin. He always kept his doors locked and hated strangers. Since there was no forced entry and no sign of a struggle, we know Gregor was attacked by someone he knew and trusted.

"To top it off, we found direct evidence at the cabin. There were fresh tire tracks, perfectly matching the tires from Frank's mountain bike. And ..." The chief was getting angry. "And we found a ticket from today's lottery near the scene—with Frank's prints on it.

"The only trouble is . . ." The chief pounded the table. "He has an alibi.

Hey look! It's time to play a game, from Neatorama and the wonderful What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? It doesn't really matter if you do, because we are looking for the funniest guesses. You can win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But first, read the rules:

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. You can only win if you haven't already won in the month of October. Two winners who submit funny and/or clever (albeit ultimately wrong) answers will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

If you guess the correct answer, you'll get a big pat on the back. There are more clues about the object at the What Is It? blog. 

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts? Pick your favorite T-shirt and leave it with your comment -and it would help us if you also include the URL or the name of hte artist. Have fun with it, and good luck!

Update: The tool in the picture is still a mystery, as we don’t have a definitive origin or use for it. But that didn’t stop y’all from rampant speculation! We got a funny and timely story from theoneandonly, which is well worth a t-shirt:

This is a classical "semi-automatic Halloween-Pumpkin-hollow-outer".
Cut the upper part of the pumpkin, place the device on the top and turn the handle...
Flip the pumpkin upside down, and all the intestines and seeds will happily splotch your feet.

In a next step you can easiyl place a light in side the now hollow pumpkin and start carving yor favorite monster face or landscape with mountains, lakes and trees wherein every tree needs a frind and no mistakes occur just happly little accidents...

And in case an happly little accident was bad enough so you need another hollowed out pumpkin, with the above "semi-automatic Halloween-Pumpkin-hollow-outer" this is achieved just in notime...

And another great suggestion from Parrot Head:

Donald Trump's hair-teasing comb. 'Nuff said!

Congratulations to both! Thanks to everyone who played along, and thanks to the What Is It? blog. Rob is going traveling again, and we don’t know when he’ll be back. But when that time comes, we’ll have another edition of the What is It? game!  

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Flickr user Neven Mrgan)

Roger Vail was having a bad day. First off, the advertising executive spilled coffee over the back of the roller chair in his redecorated office, resulting in a permanent stain. Then his computer went haywire. With his hard drive gone, Roger had to stay late to complete a report. And to top it off, while he was working late, he was shot three times in the back and killed.

When the cleaning woman entered Roger's office that night, she thought it was empty. The chair back faced her, a virtual wall of beige. Her expert eye quickly noticed the three tiny blemishes on the fabric, three little round holes. She came closer, rolling the chair away from the broken computer and toward the light. Roger Vail's corpse slumped forward, the holes in his back matching the bullet holes pumped into the chair.

Roger's death shocked his colleagues. "Everyone liked him," Joan Jackson sighed the next morning as she watered her flowers. "If there was a murder here, I would have expected . . ." She left it unfinished, piquing the curiosity of the interrogating officer. Blakemore Advertising, it turned out, was a hotbed of seething emotions.

It's once again time for our collaboration with the wonderfully entertaining What Is It? Blog. Do you know what the pictured item is? Can you make up something totally wacky? That's what we're looking for: the funniest and most creative guesses. We will award t-shirts from the NeatoShop to two commenters who post the cleverest, funniest, or most outlandish use for this thing!

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. You have until Friday evening to come up with great guesses.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize. May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts? Since we have so many shirts, it would help if you included the artist's name or the URL at the NeatoShop.

See, you don't have to know the answer to win! See all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: The What Is It? blog tells us that this object is a mold for making glass lenses. See, there you would have found out that the object is less than six inches tall. No one here guessed anything close to the right answer, but it doesn’t matter, because we were looking for funny answers anyway.

Berhard had a great idea for this thing, which wins him a t-shirt from the NeatoShop:

This is a martian mammography breast support table specially designed for three breasted mutant Mary from “Total Recall”...

And ladybugs brings up a picture as well with her idea:

Pedicure footrest for the three toed sloth.

Congratulations to both! And thanks to everyone who entered this week. We’ll do the What Is It? game again soon, from Neatorama and the What Is It? blog. http://55tools.blogspot.com/

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

(Image credit: Tony Webster)

It was a cloudy Sunday, with the skies threatening rain all morning and showers anticipated in the afternoon. So Detective Wilson didn't really mind when he was called in to work.

A tourist had gotten himself lost in an industrial section of town. At the very end of a dead-end alley, the poor visitor came across the body of Vinny the Fish, a stoolie who'd been supplying Detective Wilson with information on several ongoing mob investigations.

"Both kneecaps busted," the on-scene officer said as he pointed to the corpse crumpled up against the blank wall. "Chest cavity was crushed in, too. We'll know more when the medical examiner arrives."
Wilson didn't wait for the M.E. Instead, he looked up the addresses of three of Vinny's associates and drove off to see them. Someone had found out about Vinny's cooperation. Wilson felt he owed it to the stoolie to find his killer.