Awesome

From the Times yesterday:

Game Over: Sudoku Spoils a Trial in Australia

By Mike Nizza

Say what you will about the performance of the airline industry — it was first to identify a threat in sudoku.

In one of the first major signs that the game had grown into a phenomenon, British Airways told its 13,000-strong force of flight attendants in 2006 that they were forbidden to play sudoku during takeoffs and landings.

Two years later, the number puzzle, which has its own section on NYTimes.com, has succeeded in spoiling a federal criminal case in Australia, wasting almost $1 million in the process. Judge Peter Zahra made the decision to abort the trial and discharge the jury after the forewoman admitted to a prodigious amount of puzzle solving during the proceedings, according to The Sydney Morning Herald:

She said four or five jurors had brought in the sudoku sheets and photocopied them to play during the trial and then compare their results during meal breaks.

She admitted to having spent more than half of her time in court playing the game.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/game-over-sudoku-spoils-a-trial-in-australia/index.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss