Decision Helper

To be or not to be, this is what to do with your dilemma:

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  Riddle 1:  What to say?

To save your lover's life, a deal was made with the devil, and now he comes to collect his debt: your own horrible death. The devil insists that you make one last statement. You'll be incinerated if, and only if, your statement is true. You'll be suffocated if, and only if, your statement is false. What should you say in such a dilemma?

  Riddle 2:  How many chickens?

In our recent family gathering, my bro-in-law Tony posed a riddle that kept us busy for a good 45 minutes -- of course, our minds were not at their peak operating efficiency after the heavy dinner, and Tony was incessantly disrupting our train of thought with a barrage of verbal distractions :~/ .  Without further ado, here's the problem statement:

A person invested $72 in a number of chickens (or bonsai or whatever).  After a week, however, 18 of those chickens died.  The investor lost interest and sold two-thirds (2/3) of the remaining live chickens at cost for a total of $30.  How many chickens did the investor acquired originally?

Hint #1:  Half of the riddle's entertainment value would be lost if you had already seen it before or resort to simultaneous algebraic equations/a financial calculator.

Hint #2:  The investor was wearing red plaid with blue jeans, had pancakes for breakfast when he bought the chickens then wore tweeds with wing tip shoes and ate a cheeseburger with fries for dinner after he sold them ... See how distracting and unhelpful some information can be ... Sorry  ;*)

  Riddle 3:  Strings Puzzle

Here's a curious one that my Uncle Khanh, who resides in Australia and possesses a Ph.D. in Mathematics, forwarded by email:

There are 2 pieces of string.
Each piece is made of a different material and are of different lengths.
Both pieces of string takes exactly 1 hour to burn from 1 end to the other end.
The strings are manufactured with non-uniform rate of buring so the speed of burning is not constant throughtout, e.g., it may burn quickly at first and then more slowly at the end.
If you are given only these 2 pieces of strings and a box of matches, how do you measure 45 mins?
The solution only requires you to burn the strings.
No other actions like cutting, measuring, folding, etc is involved. No tricks!

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This is set by a Professor for a Ph.D qualifying examation at Stanford University. Answer is expected in 15 mins.
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