Kai Jiptner and Michel Bechtatou on German national TV

[pjk]

In case you didn't see in Speedcubing.com, Kai Jiptner and Michel Bechtatou were on German National TV here:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/content/346370?inPopup=true

It is a pretty nice clip.

Kai, I know exactly how that BLD goes. I always do my worst, and normally fail BLD whenever someone asks me, eventhough I am not nervous. Good work overall though.

 

[Stefan]

That's a major show on a major channel here in Germany, btw. In 2006 it had a market share of 13.2%, averaging 1.79 million viewers. Also, he just had one chance.

 

[pjk]

Wow, very awesome. Yeah, only one chance sadly. At home Kai memos in like 30 seconds, on the show it took him 1:30, and still failed. I understand where he is coming from. Cool nonetheless.

 

[Joël]

Yeah.. I've seen it on ZDF .

 

[KJiptner]

It was horrible, and to tell you the truth, I had 2 tries and at the first one I recognized after i solved like 3 or 4 pieces, that there is something in my memo that can't be and i just quit. On the second one i think i just screwed up an algo at the beginning and that made the whole cube looked scrambled at the end. If I would at least have come a little close to a solved cube I would be fine now. We did a rehearsal before the show was recorded (no audience, only like 20 people in the room) and I got a 1:27 with two edges flipped.

 

[Pedro]

oh, Kai...that's really bad...I know how it feels

 

[KConny]

Didn't Tyson Mao also fail when he attempted a BLD on TV?

 

[tim]

Didn't Tyson Mao also fail when he attempted a BLD on TV?

Yes, he did, but he was only a 3-cycle away, so it was obvious, that he can solve a cube blindfolded.

 

[AvGalen]

Yes, he did, but he was only a 3-cycle away, so it was obvious, that he can solve a cube blindfolded.

I was only a 3-cycle away at my very first attempt in an official competition, but it took me 8 tournaments and 17 more attempts before I actually proved it (besides the 2/2 multi-blind)

Non-cubers can think differently. If you are to fast, people think you are a fake. If you DNF, they think it is indeed impossible even if you DNF by just a 3-cycle.

I even heard someone say this:

If he can really solve it blindfolded, why is someone showing him that piece of paper with the solution on it every 30 seconds?

That piece of paper happens to be the way the judge checks that the cuber is NOT cheating.

 

[Johannes91]

That piece of paper happens to be the way the judge checks that the cuber is NOT cheating.

I don't understand why they do that. Has it ever been useful?

 

[tim]

Non-cubers can think differently. If you are to fast, people think you are a fake. If you DNF, they think it is indeed impossible even if you DNF by just a 3-cycle.

Every non-cuber i've met so far and talked about blindfold solving, can see/unterstand, that a 3-cycle, 2 flipped egdes and so on... is very close to a solved cube.

 

[Mike Hughey]

That piece of paper happens to be the way the judge checks that the cuber is NOT cheating.

I don't understand why they do that. Has it ever been useful?

I always assumed it was just done for the benefit of the audience. I think the average non-cuber finds that amusing and amazing, all at once. And I still find it a little amusing.

 

[AvGalen]

Mostly, the paper check is for the audience, however:

I don't know his name (we called him Mozart because of his clothes and hair) and I don't have prove, but at the European Open 2006 someone was cheating. Several times during his solve he scratched his nose and accidently lifted the blindfold. This was not innocent and several people noticed. It was even more clear after the "paper-check" where he didn't turn the cube for > 30 seconds, but started turning the cube 5 seconds after the paper-check and his nose-itch were removed. The judge should have intervened right then and there, but didn't. The end result was a +5 minute DNF, so no harm was done.

 

[Stefan]

We could use a permanent paper shield. Like this, only larger:
http://www.mauritia.de/de/barock/vooght_t.jpg

 

[Johannes91]

We could use a permanent paper shield.

That would also eliminate the possibility that the cheater does some moves that don't affect the state while the paper is on the way (like 10 T-permutations in a row) to make it less obvious that he's cheating.

 

[Mike Hughey]

We could use a permanent paper shield. Like this, only larger:
http://www.mauritia.de/de/barock/vooght_t.jpg

That's hilarious!

 

[AvGalen]

That's hilarious!

I don't get the joke. Do I have a bad sense of humor or is this a German/American inside joke?

 

[Mike Hughey]

I don't get the joke. Do I have a bad sense of humor or is this a German/American inside joke?

I just thought it would be really funny to see a bunch of people at a competition wearing huge Elizabethan cartwheel ruffs like this. Actually, it's probably me that has the bad sense of humor. Oh well.

It would be kind of fun, though - you'd know who the BLD competitors were by their collars.

 

[Stefan]

I don't get the joke.

It wasn't intended as a joke.

Elizabethan cartwheel ruffs

I wish I had known their name, without it it was hard to find one such picture.

It was horrible, and to tell you the truth, I had 2 tries

What? But after your failed attempt that they showed, you (I guess jokingly) asked whether they could cut it out, and the host said something like "No, we show the whole truth". Liar.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Elizabethan cartwheel ruffs

I wish I had known their name, without it it was hard to find one such picture.

I knew about them because my wife played the Infanta Clara Eugenia Isabella at our local Renaissance Faire. Fortunately (since it was outlandishly hot the weekend of the Faire), her costume didn't include Elizabethan cartwheel ruffs, but it could have, since she would have sometimes worn them.