Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Trump's Election Interference

I can think anything that may not be true. And I can say untruths because I have a right to freedom of speech.


Based on that thought and words of mine I can allege anything. And incite others with my words to take any action, even illegal ones.


If people claim what I said was wrong and that my actions of incitement to violence was wrong, I can claim that I acted on advice of my counsel.


I do not recognise the concept of right or wrong. A man's purpose is to win. Losing is not an option.


I am not accountable for any words or actions of mine. I will continue to fight until I get what I want.


Friday, October 20, 2023

Math Puzzle - Instagram Series

The question was shared on Instagram by the handle @maths.puzzles__. The puzzle states, "Only 2% of students solved this question. 5+3+2= 151022, 9+2+4= 183652, 8+6+3= 482466, 5+4+5= 202541 Then 7+2+5 =?"

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Guess The Direction Of The Train

This photo was taken in a train sleeper compartment in the morning. The train was going from Moradabad to Lucknow. Was the train moving to the left or to the right? Explain.


Map showing Moradabad and Lucknow (both circled in red pen). Regular Map pointing North



Beautiful Thought and Beautiful Emotion

I was thinking of the difference between a beautiful emotion and a beautiful thought.


This is a Beautiful jathi someone choreographed. Look how it is.


Now this is an Excel sheet i choreographed.



See how beautiful it is.

What is the learning here? 

An emotion is exceptional if it moves your heart. 

A thought is exceptional if it serves a purpose, solves a problem. The sheet above may be an Excel jathi but not a useful one.

An expression of emotion can be beautiful. A thought is never beautiful. That's not the purpose of a thought.

If a thought seems beautiful, it was actually an emotion.

A person strong in emotions can create beauty and elegance. A person strong in thought cannot.


Saturday, April 1, 2023

Evaluating A Dance


These are videos of classical dances. Both are youngsters, informally dressed. 

And I watched each video twice: once with audio on and once without audio. 

I think this is essential. 

We should evaluate a singer without looking at what she is wearing, what she is emoting, how she looks etc. This is in stark contrast to the opinion espoused by the author here. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/19/fashion-fabrics-and-fishtails-why-we-need-to-talk-about-what-female-classical-performers-wear#comment-155980075


In the same way while evaluating a dance as shown in the videos at the top, it is essential that the person be wearing ordinary dress and that we switch off the audio and experience the dance. So our response is only for the quality of the dance. And not distorted by a good audio or by good dress or good stage effects.


Look at these two dances with and without audio and see how they are.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Solving Wordle

 

The 2nd word choice is interesting. The last letter after N can be Y, K, D, T, O (RHYNO). So I chose DORKY.





The solution might have K at the end. Possible words are BREAK, BLEAK, FREAK, WREAK. So I chose FRILL.


This again is another nice one.





L, P, H are letters that can follow the starting S. Hence ALEPH. Sure enough it was solved in 3 attempts!


The most interesting step in this was the 4th. At the end of the 3rd step I had E yellow in 2 steps. I didn't know whether the solution had two Es or one. The 4th guess made the solution within grasp.




Additional reading

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Adani - Dubious Or No?

Man Is Defined By Questions

I used to think that man is defined by what he has understood in life, by what answers he has arrived at to questions.

Today I realised something else. That man is defined more by the questions that drive him than by the answers he has arrived at.

The answers decide what he does transactionally. The questions he has decide what he ponders about and spends his quest on.

Does every man spend time thinking about questions other than whether his car will start in the morning and whether it's ok to add eggs in tomato fry? I don't know. This post is about those that do.

If Filter In Google Sheets Isn't Working

 Sometimes the filter doesn't work in Google sheets in Android. On clicking the inverted triangle icon filter, nothing is displayed. I don't know why it happens. 


Here is a simple workaround. 


Take a copy of file before starting

  • Create new sheet in the original file
  • Create working filter 
  • Copy few rows and confirm working filter
  • Change references to new sheet and confirm vlookup in referencing sheet is working
  • Copy rest of rows to new sheet and modify references in referencing sheet to new sheet
  • Delete old sheet where filter is not working
  • Rename new sheet
  • Confirm everything ok

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Soon Their Marriage Unraveled, Emotional Expression

 They Poured Their Savings Into Homes That Were Never Built


This is an article about how thousands of Chinese made down payments for their houses but they never got possession of their apartments. 



This post isn't about real estate issues in China. It's about communication, Sophisticated communication. Read the last line in the blocked text in the image above which is taken from the same NY Times article mentioned at the top. 

"Even their marriage unraveled" - I fail to see how that's relevant to the real estate issue being discussed. Bringing very poignant things not directly germane to the main issue seems kosher when we are emotional. And when we want to create a bigger impact on our audience. 

Some of us wouldn't know that this is allowed and wouldn't know how to bring up marriage problems in an article on real estate issues. But those that do know have an edge over those who don't!

Can a husband tell his wife "the breakfast yesterday was burnt and my presentation to the customer yesterday went bust"?
I am not sure. 

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Wordle And Dumb Charades

Dumb Charades (DS) and wordle are both popular games.


Both are guessing games. In DS you have to guess the name of something (a movie typically) and in wordle, a 5 letter word. The former is limited by time (so many minutes allowed to come up with the right answer) and latter by number of attempts (6).

The solution is DS can consist of multiple words (as in the name of a movie "Maid in Manhattan")) while the solution in wordle is always a single 5 letter word.

In both games the other party (another team) responds to your guesses in terms of how close or far you are from the answer. The response in DS is a little subjective while in wordle the response is more structured in terms of yellows and greens. DS also has a GREEN, YELLOW, GREY kinda response system.

Though wordle is typically a solo game it can very well be a two player game, though with only one people on each team. DS usually has more than 1 player on each side. 


In both games the player converges to a solution, from having no clue about it initially to making large jumps towards the solution with each guess. 


In both games the ingenuity of the guesses is a major factor. 


Both games are intellectual (despite wordle needing a paper and a pencil or a web page) unlike video games.


Both are quite addictive!


Additional reading 

https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2022/12/my-personal-worldle-copy.html


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