Lunz Tee is an electrical engineer for Marvell Semiconductor from Berkeley, California.   He first visited Marbles in February and wowed our BrainCoaches by solving the V-Cube 5 and The Brain Cube.  So they challenged him to the Isis Adventure.  A week later he bought the Isis puzzle and opened it in 2 days.  He solved the Copernisis in a week and is currently in the process of solving the Ramisis.

When asked why he solves these, Lunz says “because the challenge would keep nagging at me if I didn’t [and] I’m too stubborn to stop.”  Congratulations, Lunz!  It looks like your stubbornness paid off.

Each puzzle in the Isis series has a game connected to it. When you purchase one of the puzzles, you can register your puzzle online. Once you solve the puzzle, you will find a code inside. You can then purchase a membership to the Adventure series and unlock the game with your puzzle code. The Isis Puzzle’s game has a pyramid map that shows different locations around the world where small golden pyramids are hidden (there are some virtual ones as well). Each location has a specific riddle that has to be solved to get the password that opens the pyramid. The pyramid contains a gold coin and entitles you to a cash prize, if you are the first to find and solve it.

For the San Francisco pyramid, the clue was:

Three times bigger than an IMAX

discover the link with the 3.141 isis puzzle

and name the Indian inventor.

The password was Sequoyah.

Inventor of the Isis puzzle series and Managing Director of Sonic Games, Andrew Reeves explains the connection to the riddle and its answer:

Albert Pissis was an architect who designed a number of buildings in flamboyant Queen Anne and Eastlake styles. In 1890s he was a major figure in the Neoclassical (Classical Revival) movement, particularly Beaux-Arts, and introduced that style to San Francisco beginning with the Hibernia Bank building in 1892.  The dome he designed for the Emporium Department Store, now part of the Westfield San Francisco Centre, is often considered a masterpiece.

Pissis died of pneumonia at age 62, in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel. He was survived by his widow, Georgia, who in 1920 sold land to Redwood City, California that became Sequoia High School. After Redwood City had been decided upon as the site for the school, the name Sequoia was chosen as the most fitting to stand for the district as a whole. Sequoia, the name of the great redwood, is named after Sequoyah, the great Cherokee Indian scholar and inventor of the writing system for the Cherokee language.

For more info on the Isis series, check out BrainCoach Jeff’s blog about the puzzles. http://www.marblesthebrainstore.com/blog/2012/08/22/behold-isis-adventure/

National Master Sam Schmakel is the highest-rated high school player in Illinois, currently sporting a USCF rating of 2283.  He’s a four-time national champion and the highest-rated player in Chicago Public Schools history.  In team competitions, Sam has added two titles to his impressive resume just this month.  He’s first board of the Whitney Young High School chess team, newly crowned Illinois State champions; and his four person team of friends, The Illini Schmakelers, just won the U.S. Amateur Team North title. 

1. She loved to play the piano and enrolled her son in violin lessons when he was 5. He hated them, but eventually grew to love them.

2. She was the first woman to become National Director of the United Way.

3. She was from an aristocratic family, but married an illiterate man from a farming family.

4. When a school master told her that her son was “addled” or slow, she took him out of school and taught him at home.

5. She was a freedom fighter and was arrested for “seditious” public speech.

6. She is believed to have been a slave from the Middle East.

7. She sent her child to live with a grandmother so that the child could attend better public schools.

A. Shakespeare (Mary Maxwell Shakespeare)
B. Thomas Edison (Nancy Elliot Edison)
C. Leonardo da Vinci (Caterina)
D. Bill Gates (Mary Maxwell Gates)
E. Sandra Day O’Connor (Ada Mae Wilkey)
F. Indira Gandhi (Kamala Kaul Nehru)
G. Albert Einstein (Pauline Koch Einstein)

1. G 2. D 3. A 4. B 5. F 6. C 7. E

Most Awesome Talent Show Contestants

We’re impressed that not only did the singer remember all the words and sing them beautifully, the talented girl drawing managed to get the whole map done while the song was happening. We’ll let you in on a little secret here – it took the artist in our video a couple of DAYS to do his map (but we still think it’s pretty awesome too)!

Best Video Reimagining

We feel like we’re along for a tour with the coolest tour guide while we watch this awesomely creative video.

Best Outdoor Concert

Next we take it to nature with an outdoor concert – we’re so excited how many of you have learned all the words – and all the state capitals. Good work on this video!

Best Test

And finally, we often hear that Tour the States helped kids with their test but we rarely get to see the results. Great job filling in the map!

Are you the next video star?

Make your own video for Tour the States or any Marbles product and let us know about it. We’d love to feature you as the next Marbles Rock Star!

Bellevue Square and the Hoberman Sphere

If you have been to one of our locations, you know that our BrainCoaches know how to play all of the games. When the new items come in, we have to scramble to learn them so we can explain them to our customers. The last weekend in April, all of our stores across the country had a product training night. We watched videos about the products and played some of the new games.  Three times a year we get an influx of new stuff. It’s always fun and exciting and brings lots of energy to our stores. And our regular customers love getting to try out all of the new stuff.

Menlo Park BrainCoaches play Snake Oil

Here are some of our new items and what our BrainCoaches had to say about them:

Snake Oil-  This seems to be the favorite so far among our BrainCoaches.  Here’s what Chris from our Menlo Park store had to say: “I cant remember the last time we all had that much fun playing a game. It is the perfect option for any customers looking for a social party game. We all loved it!”  Menlo Park Manger, Hal said “I really loved the creativity of the game and how a group can play and be as funny as possible. It is a game that just makes you laugh.  So many possible paths to go down also.  It’s just crazy fun!”

Our Woodfield Team playing KanJam in the mall

KanJam- Is was one of our most popular games from our active play products.  You may have even seen our Lincoln Square team playing outside on the square.   Manager of our Boston stores, Kate, has this to say about the game:  “I love KanJam because it’s an action-packed coordination game that requires a fair amount of critical thinking as well.  You have to work as a team to get the most points possible or try to win the whole game with one well-placed toss.  It’s like Ultimate Frisbee, basket ball and horse shoes all rolled into one super fun game!”

Spirograph-If you were a kid any time between the 60s and 90s, you probably played with Spirograph.  In the 1990s it was discontinued, but we contacted Hasbro and asked them to bring it out again for our stores.  I would play with this for hours as a kid.  I think it is still one of the coolest toys around, and according to Peter at our Old Orchard store in Skokie, IL, “Customers are buying it like it’s candy”.

GoldieBlox- Nicole from our Seattle store at Bellevue Square loves selling GoldieBlox.  “For me, what makes GoldieBlox so exciting is that it creates a relationship between children and engineering fundamentals that is about problem solving and fun, with a story-line to back up the curiosity.  So as a product, it is a wonderful brain strengthening toy.  It is just icing on the cake that it may also help a generation of girls get excited about engineering, when, unless they were drawn to Lego, they may not have previously!”

Check out all of our new products

Congratulations to our Game Design Contest winner Dan Bavernik (& family) for the game Marble Groove. The Bavernik family received $2000, and will get to see their game produced by us to sell in our stores and online.

The Barvernik family are regular customers at Marbles Columbia. Deirdre, the mom, comes in every Friday with her five children, Madeline, Jon, Keiran, Chevon, Rowan, and her husband Dan The children are all home schooled by mom. The family has been coming to the Columbia Marbles for over a year. They heard about the game design contest through the BrainCoaches and flyers throughout the store. They immediately walked around the store, gathering ideas from the past winners, and other games throughout the store.

Jon had the main idea for the game and the rest of the family jointly pitched in ideas. (Deirdre picked out the colors of the marbles!) Dan, the father, put his engineering skills to work and help create the game! They knew they wanted to do something with marbles, since that was the name of the store. After about two weeks, they came in with their prototype before shipping it off. We had a chance to play it with them and told them how awesome it was!

The rest is history!

-Keith, Marbles Columbia Manager

Chicago, IL
1st) Peter Gwinn (he placed 33rd at the 2013 ACPT), 2nd) Aaron Wilson (he made the C finals at the 2013 ACPT, 61st overall) 3rd) Joe Weidner (rookie). And a special thank you to our judges, The Famous Amy Reynaldo and Kent.

Click to see more pictures of the Chicago event

Columbia, MD
1st) Scott Weiss, 2nd) Marie desJardins, 3rd) Alexandra Doumani. And a special thank you to our two-time judge, Crossword Constructor Erik Agard.

Click for more pictures of the Columbia event

King of Prussia, PA
1st) Jeff Hyson (also 36th at the 2013 ACPT), 2nd) Paul Coulter, 3rd) Nancy Ross. And a special thank you to our judge, the well-known crossword constructor, Benjamin Tausig.

Click for more pictures of the King of Prussia event

Sherman Oaks, CA
1st) Eric Maddy (also 11th at the 2010 ACPT), 2nd) JT Williams, 3rd) Bill Farhood. And a special thank you to our judges: Crossword Constructor Doug Peterson and the amazing 15-year-old David Steinberg.

Click for more Sherman Oaks pictures

San Francisco, CA
1st) Jon Berman (also 32nd at the 2013 ACPT), 2nd) Yoshie Hill, 3rd) Jeremy Horwitz (also 71st at the 2013 ACPT). And a special thank you to our judges: Five-time ACPT Champion Tyler Hinman and Trekaroo Editor Kristine Dworkin.

Click for San Francisco pictures

In order to support himself, he used his drawing skills in the areas of architecture and engineering.  His inventions were very much ahead of his time. Many were impossible to build given the technology of the day.  Many of the machines in envisioned have been constructed in modern times and actually work.

He designed numerous weapons such a multi-barreled machine gun, mortars and grenades.  He created plans for two different kinds of catapults. A double arm and a single arm.  On the single arm there was a long pole (on the right of the above drawing) that inserted into the drum so the swing arm could be put into firing position. It used a ratchet system where as the arm was pushed into position, a ratchet would prevent it from firing. Once in position, the release mechanism was pulled (on the left of the bottom drawing). We used that type of release mechanism in our catapult model, but not the long arm to push the swing arm into place, since there is little pressure on a model and the swing arm can be easily pulled into position^1.

If you would like to try the catapult on a small scale, check out our DIY version of DaVinci’s Catapult.  We have loads of fun launching Brain Drops at each other in our stores and corporate headquarters.

¹Pathfinder Design. Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions. http://www.pathfindersdesign.net/www.pathfindersdesign.net/Leonardo.html 4/12/13

Photo: AP/Susan Walsh

When we first opened the store there was not much mentioned in the media about the brain or brain fitness. Over the past two years there has been an explosion of articles, news specials and documentaries. Now the big news story is President Obama’s introduction of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies).

Originally mentioned in the State of the Union address, the President announced the official launch of this massive undertaking on Tuesday. The project is launching with 100 million dollars for research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF)^1. Millions in additional investment will come in private sector pledges from foundations and research institutes.

The purpose of the initiative it to gain a better understanding of how the brain works by mapping its activity. This will require the invention of better technology to image and track the complex functions of the brain. In doing so, it is hoped that researchers will eventually be able to find cures for neurological issues and diseases like autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and traumatic brain injuries. The President also highlighted the job creation that will result from this project.

There is some skepticism about the initiative, but for the most part there seems to be a lot of support (including bi-partisan support). For people who are concerned about their brain health or struggle with disease, it’s very hopeful. And when you look at the statistics for Alzheimer’s Disease alone you can see how we can’t afford not to invest heavily in this kind of research. (It’s estimated that by 2025 6.7 million Americans over the age of 65 will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.²)

The more we learn about how the brain works, the more opportunities we have to create products that can help people. And that’s great news for Marbles, the brain health industry and consumers who are looking for ways to improve and maintain brain fitness.

^1.Office of the Press Secretary. Fact Sheet: BRAIN Initiative. Web. April 2, 2013. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/02/fact-sheet-brain-initiative
^2.Alzheimer’s Association.Alzheimer’s Disease 2012 Facts and Figures. http://www.alz.org/downloads/facts_figures_2012.pdf

The Easter Bunny stopped by the headquarters of Marbles The Brain Store to get some suggestions on how to improve his brain function. We know that creativity is extremely important to him, so we knew that Colorfall was a must-have. He knows that exercise is good for the brain and he also wants to stay in good shape so that he can hop to all of the houses that he needs to go to, so we recommended Skippity Do to help him with his coordination skills. Of course when he saw Dancing Eggs, his eyes lit up. He was very excited to play this hilarious and active game that exercises memory and hand-eye coordination. Pengoloo was a big hit as well with it’s colored eggs and cute penguins. The Easter Bunny has a lot of addresses to memorizes, so memory games are a great choice.

Needless to say, he had a fabulous time at Marbles and got lots of suggestions for more games for himself and to give as gifts. When he was done shopping, he asked if he could take advantage of our free shipping. So we got him all set up, but we had to make a promise not to tell where he lives.

If you would like to play the same games as the Easter Bunny, hop on over to one of our stores or on our website.