Six Degrees Of Francis Bacon

Six Degrees of Francis Bacon

A Web game that tests your linking skills.

Puzzle No. 4: “From Friedrich von Hayek to Salma Hayek”

Wanna play? Click for the rules.

This week’s puzzle was submitted by Slate reader Greg Ransom, a devotee of Nobel Prize-winning Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek. Ransom challenges you to get from his page on von Hayek to this page celebrating movie siren Salma Hayek, star of Desperado, Fools Rush In, and the forthcoming Dogma.

We did it in eight links. If you can tie or beat that, e-mail your solution (with instructions and URLs) to FrancisBacon@slate.com by noon ET Tuesday. (All submissions will become the property of Slate and will be published at Slate’s discretion. Slate may publish your name on its site in connection with your submission.)

Results will be announced Thursday, March 19, at about 5 p.m. PT, along with a new puzzle. Readers are also invited to submit their own puzzles (along with a solution path).

Happy surfing!

Solution to Puzzle No. 3: “Yo Mama to Yo-Yo Ma”

Last week we asked readers to get from this page of “yo mama” jokes to this page on cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 13 links or less. Solutions came from as far afield as Brazil. The winner, Ken Shirriff, managed the task in just seven links. Here’s how he did it:

From Yo Mama, click music. This takes you to …

John’s Music Page. Click Sony Music WWW Server to go …

here. Then, click Cool Links. You will find yourself …

at this site, where you should click unfURLed.

From here, click M in the “Artists Index,” …

and in the browsable artist index, click Ma, Yo-Yo, which will lead you …

here. Finally, click Yo-Yo Ma Biography.

You’re done in seven links.

Congratulations to Shirriff for running home to Ma quicker than everybody else.

–Seth Stevenson