Mysteries and Puzzles

The national-security expert Gregory Treverton has famously made a distinction between puzzles and mysteries. Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts are a puzzle. We can’t find him because we don’t have enough information. The key to the puzzle will probably come from someone close to bin Laden, and until we can find that source bin Laden will remain at large.

Boing Boing: Gladwell on mysteries vs. puzzles

Well, the question where Osama is, is a puzzle. But the question if he is a real person and not a invention of some boys working in Langley, that question is in my eyes a mystery.