Yes, cubes are indeed very big here in England due mostly to the fact
that they have been featured on television several times recently.
About 3 weeks ago a kid solved a cube in 37 secs on the Saturday mor-
ning BBC1 show "Multicoloured Swap Shop" (very appropriate name). In
a follow up a group of people challenged him, but "only" managed it
in 57 secs. Nothing was however said about local maxima etc, so it
wasn't a very scientific exercise. The recordholder's solution se-
quence was shown in slow motion (his hands still seemed to move very
fast) and as far as I could determine he uses Kertezs's Algorithm,
i.e layer-by-layer, but with some clever shortcuts rather than just
using the macros blindly. At the moment cubes are impossible to get
but we are hoping for a new shipment to arrive soon. A cube club
will probably be formed here at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon
Tyne and I would be surprised if other universities won't be doing
the same.

By the way, has anyone ever tried turning cube when the temperature
is 5-6 degrees C? I have, because that is the temperature my room is
at when I come home at night. English houses are VERY cold.
Ole