Veterans describe a repetitive strain condition as "Rubik's thumb, " developed from trying to speed-solve standard-issue cubes.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik's famous mechanical puzzle has gained a second wind in recent years.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
"It takes about a month to break in a brand-new Rubik's Cube, " said 23-year-old Australian Tim McMahon.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
Steal your kids' toys: There's a new version of that Rubik's Cube that you loved as kid.
"The Rubik's Cube provides balance in the toy box, " explains Adrienne Citrin, speaking for the Toy Industry Association.
FORBES: That 1980s puzzle fad is back. No batteries required.
Mr. Dickman, 15, was consumed with solving Rubik's Cube puzzles or by spending hours a day playing videogames.
"We've been working on it for five years, " said Janos Kovacs, chief executive at the puzzle-master's Rubik Studio design firm.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
The pirated cubes are almost frictionless and bear as much resemblance to genuine Rubik's Cubes as Nascar hot-rods to family sedans.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
For a time he wrote a mathematics column in Scientific American from which you could learn things like the theory of the Rubik's Cube.
The cube was invented by a teacher, Erno Rubik, in Budapest.
FORBES: That 1980s puzzle fad is back. No batteries required.
German politicians claim their Rubik deal lets Switzerland off too easily.
In a pivotal scene from The Pursuit of Happyness Will Smith's character solves a Rubik's Cube in front of a brokerage executive stumped by the puzzle.
FORBES: That 1980s puzzle fad is back. No batteries required.
It's the 3-D-like Rubik's 360, and it's probably good for brains of any age, because it sharpens flexible problem-solving skills, says neuropsychologist Karen Spangenberg Postal, Ph.
And on February 7th Alcatel-Lucent unveiled technology that reduces the size of a wireless base station from a filing cabinet's to that of a Rubik's cube.
But Mindstorms fans--most of them well past childhood--have blown past that promise to make thousands of automatons: discus throwers, bartenders, maze explorers, Rubik's Cube solvers and more.
The Rubik's Cube--that maddening twistable puzzle that requires mental and digital dexterity to twist and turn bands on a cube until each side is a solid color--is making a comeback.
FORBES: That 1980s puzzle fad is back. No batteries required.
In Budapest, meanwhile, the reclusive Mr. Rubik, 67 years old, is working on a new solution to the marketing problem his own version of the speed cubes to compete with the Chinese.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
And just for fun, we brought you the world's largest Rubik's Cube mosaic -- which stands over 13 feet high by 200 feet wide and is made from 85, 794 cubes.
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One reason Mr. Pleskowicz and a new generation of Rubik's fanatics can solve the notoriously difficult puzzle in record time: They don't use Rubik's Cubes at all, instead substituting souped-up Chinese knockoffs engineered for speed.
WSJ: One Rubik's Cube, Many Knockoffs, Quintillions of Possibilities
The finished product is expected to be about the same size as a Rubik's cube and, said its creators, would let owners get at its innards to make their own modifications and write their own games.
By his own design, though, WALL-E has become, over time, an endlessly curious garbologist who collects objects that strike his fancy -- an eggbeater, a sheet of bubble wrap, a Rubik's cube, a paddle-ball, a Zippo lighter, a brassiere (he experiments with it by putting it over his eyes) a diamond ring in a velvet box (he tosses the ring and keeps the box).
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