What is the next number in this series?

4,12,84,3612....

A time long back, there lived a king who ruled the great kingdom of Trojan House. As a part of the renovation of the kingdom to meet future security needs, he asked his chief architect to lay down a new play in a manner that all of his 10 castles are connected through five straight walls and each wall must connect four castles together. He also asked the architect that at least one of his castles should be protected with walls. The architect could not come up with any solution that served all of King's choices, but he suggested the best plan that you can see in the picture below. Can you find a better solution to serve the king's demand?

The day before yesterday I was 25 and the next year I will be 28. This is true only one day in a year. What day is my birthday?

Trying to tease Birbal, Akbar gave him one gold coin and ask him to buy
* something for him to eat
* something for him to drink.
* something to feed the cows
* something to plant in the garden
and most important you need to buy only one thing.

What must Birbal buy to silence Akbar?

When I asked a girl's name she told me her name is the date '07/09/2001'.

I thought for a few seconds and then I got her name. Do you?

In case you were starting to feel confident, this one was meant for third graders in Vietnam. The answer is 66, but we don't blame you for scratching your head about how they got there.

A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most?

Can you count the number of triangles in the given picture?

The more you take me, the more you leave me behind.
Who Am I?

There was once a troop of 5 elves. The 5 elves were very dedicated on finding the magical treasure of 1000 coins. However, being elves, they were super geniuses, very greedy and they did not hesitate in taking lives of other elves. The 5 elves were named Aye, Bee, Cee, Dee and Ee, ranked from high to low respectively, from Aye to Ee. One fine day, their efforts brought results and they found 1000 coins. Now they had to split it in between them as per their ranks. The lowest ranked elf has to make the proposal. If the proposal is accepted by majority, it is agreed, or the suggesting elf is killed.

What proposal should elf Ee make ?