My Blog's General Structure

This is the first delivery of my blog in the new CR4. Every week (or so) I will talk about general topics related to trends in engineering, science, technology and other general topics with the purpose of creating an environment of camaraderie, learning and fun. I expect my readers to participate by means of friendly rebuttals or friendly agreements on the articles. The blog will also feature some other short sections (not necessarily every week!) that hopefully will provide the reader with amusement, challenges and enlightenment. The general structure of what you will see every week is as follows:

1. The Weekly View. In this section a short article (I will try to abide by my rule of 'no more than 300 words') about engineering, technology, science and other trends will be introduced. This will be the main feature of the blog. I will make it simple and to the point.
2. The Challenge(s).I will propose one or more short math and/or logic challenges. The readers are invited to solve the puzzles and to send the solution to me before the end of the following Monday. The solution will be posted the following week and the 'winners' will be honored by mentioning their names in the blog. Also, I encourage the readers to submit puzzles to be published in the blog. You must submit them to me (don't forget to send me the answers too!) for my consideration.
3. Biographies, trivia, news, and other entries. Maybe a list of inventors, scientist, engineers and other individuals who have contributed to the human knowledge will be posted every week. Nothing fancy or exhaustive. Simply in one or two lines I will mention some names and their contribution. Relevant news and trivia information, when relevant. This, hopefully, will encourage you to research about these people and these events and news.

I will change the picture of my blog at random. Sometimes you will see the spires of an Oxford college, the logic diagram of a flip-flop, the picture of Machu Picchu or Petra, the picture of an old New England village or the dazzling beauty of a town in the South of France.

Final Note: The success of this blog will depend entirely on you, the interested reader. Without your active and enthusiastic interaction, the blog will disappear

The Weekly Challenge

Here you have my first set of puzzles. Send your answers directly to me.

Good luck!

1. Challenge No. 1: Find five different integers whose product is 12.
2. Challenge No. 2: Three fishermen coming from the lake told me about their catch. Each one made three statements:

1. Gene: I caught 9 fish. I caught two less than Henri, but one more than Matt.
2. Henri: I do not have the smallest catch. The difference between my catch and Matt's is 3 fish. Matt caught 12.
3. Matt: I caught fewer than Gene. Gene caught 10. Henri caught 3 more than Gene.

This is what they told me. Given that they are fishermen, each one made one wrong statement. Could you determine how many fish did each actually catch?

Abe Michelen