Thursday, April 28, 2005

Imagery and Puzzles

More of my brother's jazz:

Just to reinforce this importance of using the right "setting/imagery" in a
puzzle:

A) There is a 2n*2n grid of squares. One of the pair of diagonally opposite
squares is removed from the grid.
You have (2*n^2-1) dominoes, each of which can cover 2 adjacent squares. Can you
cover the remaining grid (whole - one pair of corner squares) with the
dominoes?

Setting: Now rephrase the problem. Instead of 2n*2n grid, consider a chess
board. So you have 31 dominoes each
of which can cover two squares. Now can you cover the board - one pair of
diagonally opposite squares with the dominoes?
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

something to think about

I think I've asked this before:
If you are thinking about "WHAT you are thinking about," then what ARE you thinking about?
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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Desiness cracking!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The end of the Ithacan summer

Rain is falling chumachum.....
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We, the whole of India?

Did you guys see the Amitabh Bachchan interview on WSKG (or WCNY or some other channel) ? I happened to catch it while flippling through the channels. Of course, I was too engrossed to call any of you and inform about it. Besides, it was too late in the night.

It was pretty flattering to see India garner so much attention in this part of the world - the interview lasted half an hour. And Big B was very professional. None of those nervous cackles that dotted Ash's interview. They talked about a variety of topics ranging from movies, politics, economy, culture, society etc.

The thing that annoyed me though, was how B generalized his opinions and foisted them on the whole population of India. When asked to comment on the name Bollywood, he said, "We don't like it. We think it is demeaning." When asked about what the mood in India was towards America, he said, "We don't see you very favorably".

Who is "we"? Is he using it in place of the royal first person plural in hindi, or the whole of India? I think it doesn't behoove anyone coming from such a diverse country to make generalizations.
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Give me a name

We need to decide on a name for this blog. Some propositions so far:

1. Illegal Allegations
2. Allegorical Alligator's Illegal Allegations
3. Psychological Pollution
4. Smokin' Lounge

Do chip in, wage a war, backstab, connive and conquer.
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