See All Cells

A friend sent me this puzzle.

The question is: Whether "No inmate should see the corpse more than once" means that no cell should be traversed more than once. For example, assume some cells have no inmates then the corpse could pass through the cell twice and still not violate the give constraint. To make the puzzle more interesting we will take my interpretation in bold above as the right one.

Now solve.

I think I know the answer.

L'Affaire Clandestine Le Muslims

We all know how angry Muslims were with USA and how that triggered the 9/11 incident. And then after US marines took out Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan, the fury of Muslims has known no bounds. This time the big guns in Saudi and ISIS decided to use some finesse, the Russian way. They decided to ruin USA in an entirely non-violent, if not legal, way. (Some juicy stuff here: Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election https://nyti.ms/2IV6EpU.

Just about this time came the US presidential election. So they (Muslims) found the best way to ruin America. They hired some Russians and impersonated few Russians and made it seem as though it was the Russians that fiddled with the US elections. The Muslims ensured that they made Russians the fall guys and they also ruined America. 

That leads us to the 63.9 million dollar question: How exactly did the Muslims ruin the US? 

Muslims made a cartoon character the President of the USA. Here is an article about the cartoon's response to the finding that Russians were definitely involved with messing with the elections (though the Americans are yet to find about the Muslims program managing the whole affair): Trump’s Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment 

It isn't long before the Muslim dream comes true. With Trump at the helm,  USA will be on its knees soon. 

I am predicting that US will create a 10 billion dollar fund and offer it to any country who will accept a certain immigrant (an ex president) as its full time resident citizen and who will also not provide him with a passport. 

Perhaps a better president might be the incumbent's namesake, a famous name created by Disney. 

Additional reading:

1. President Trump seems to be saying more and more things that aren’t true
3. The four times Trump signed tax returns for his foundation that contained incorrect information - https://wapo.st/2yG8szg
4. When investigators threatened his power, he declared himself dictator: https://wapo.st/2M77CgB
5. Mueller and Trump: Born to wealth, raised to lead. Then, sharply different choices. http://wapo.st/2CBPCG5
6. How Trump made up with Australia’s prime minister after a ‘most unpleasant call’Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’
7. Justice official alerted White House to ongoing issues in Kushner’s security clearance
8. Bizarre legal brawl intensifies at Trump hotel in Panama
9. Kushner’s Business Got Loans From Companies After White House Meetings: It will be interesting to ask the father in law (FIL) and SIL what their definition of conflict of interest is.
10. Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’
11. Jared Kushner Flames Out
12. Trump Lawyer’s Payment to Porn Star
13. Tillerson Is Out as Secretary of State; Trump Taps Pompeo
14. Trump’s Stormy History: The Seven-Year Battle Between the President and the Porn Star
15. Wooing Saudi Business, Tabloid Mogul Had a Powerful Friend: Trump - what would Ayn Rand say of this deal making?
16. https://wapo.st/2FjFCXD: "Keeping opponents offbalance is the key to negatiation"

Constipation And Overweight

This is a remedy I heard on the radio today.

Honey + lemon juice plus + warm water

Note:

1. Do not drink tea / coffee for about an hour after drinking honey lemon.

2. Pure honey does not mix / dissolve in water. It will settle to the bottom..if honey dissolves it's not pure.

3. This is good for constipation also.

From Spice - Pune.

Numbers Across Generations

I came across a family of grandfather (GF), father (F), son (S) and sometime in future a grandchild (GS). 

An interesting observation was that the grandfather's last salary was about 1.5 times the father's starting salary. The father's last salary was about 1.5 times the son's starting salary.

Next Observation:

The grandfather's last salary was about 60 times his own starting salary. The father's last salary was about 60 times his own starting salary.

Gold was about Rs10/gm when grandfather started working. It was about Rs300/gm when father started working. It was about Rs3000/gm when son started working. Seems gold price is rising slowly now.

Finally: When grandfather started working one USD was about Rs 5, at the time father started working it was about Rs17, when son started working it was about Rs65 increasing 3.5 to 4 times each generation.

Assuming the same trend continues, one can predict the son's last salary at about 60 times his current salary. And three decades later the starting salary of the grandchild maybe about 60/1.5=40 times son's starting salary. These numbers sound astronomical. Maybe gold will be about Rs15,000/gm then. And one $ will fetch about Rs 250 at that time.

And how India be then? What will be the latest fad?

T Raped By F's

T(hinker) and F(eeler) as in MBTI, differ in one interesting respect. 

For an F, need gives a right. It is often expressed as "who else can i ask?" - meaning I have a need and I don't have anyone else to ask. The fact that the person being asked isn't obligated to give doesn't matter. That he is the only one who can be asked is all that matters to the person who is asking. 

For a T,  a positive evaluation and reward is based on who has delivered or achieved. For an F, a reward (or support) is given to whoever hasn't achieved. F recognizes need as the currency for transactions. 

T recognizes performance as currency.

Since F asks based on need and not an performance, there is an inherent pride-less transaction. A "T" caught in the middle of many F's feels shocked. If the T also happens to be in a position to provide or shell out he is automatically expected to provide since he is surrounded by needy people and he doesn't normally express any need. This is legitimate gang rape. 

Estrous Or No?

I have a doubt: The desire to get pregnant - whether it's a formal learned desire or an intuitive drive. While I read many articles that indicate that the desire to have a baby is a S2 (consciously thought out) desire and not a S1 (subconscious) desire.

My question is :

Why do animals have babies (or have sex)? Because they have seen others of their species having sex (they don't have bedrooms to hide in so they do it in public) and they want to try it out too? 

What about the estrous cycle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle) when females are in heat meaning they are driven to have sex and get pregnant? During ovulation phase women's sexual needs are much higher than during other days. Is this learnt? No this is S1 too as is the sexual desire / being in heat for other mammalian females. 

Another question i have is: is the drive in humans and other animals primarily to enjoy sex or primarily to have a baby? 

If the act is not enjoyable then it is to have a baby or for other social reasons like security. 

Vikram Or Vetaal?

A friend of mine was telling me about her cousin (C, settled in the USA) - about the way C took care of her (C's) ailing father in India.  Till recently my friend had been taking care of her aunt and uncle but of late it was beyond her. 

There being no other person to take care of the elderly parents, one of whom - the father, about 90 years old, was in his last stages, C had rushed down from the US and took charge of the situation. And how. They are wealthy and had employed 3 nurses / attendants, C herself oversaw everything. She slept next to her father holding his hands, talking to him, feeding him, massaging his hands. The elderly gentleman, while confined to the bed, was conscious of things around him. 

My friend herself is very caring and comes from a family of very warm people. But she was stunned by the extent of warmth and attention shown by her cousin to her uncle (C's father). My friend wistfully told me that she could learn a lot from C. Her uncle eventually died last month - he had a good end - surrounded by family and taken care of every minute in the last 4 months. 

My friend told me about another cousin of hers (D) who was taking care of her (D's) father, a gentleman now about 80. D has no family of her own, she stays largely home to take care of her father. They have a daytime nurse who looks after her father. She, D, would always hang around close to home should there be an emergency. D had been taking care of her father for the last few years, since there wasn't anyone else. She is an introvert and because of her father's needs, has little other activity outside of what the home and the father needed. 
D is different from C, very different. While C was warm and affectionate and fun to be with,  D wasn't. D is an academic type with little interest in the world or people around her. 
What D did for her father had little warmth, she did it because she took taking care of her father as her duty. Her father needed affection but he didn't get any from his daughter unfortunately. 

My friend thought that D was stupid because D put her own life on hold, doing little for herself. And that D was a loser, while my friend thought highly of C who came down to India from US for 4 months and did a great job with her father. And now presumably C has gone back. Incidentally both C and D have a sibling each who have not participated in the care of their respective fathers. 

Having mentioned two real life stories, the question I have is this: how come my friend thinks poorly of one cousin D and highly of another, C? 

It sounds like a Vikram Vetaal question. 

Earlier (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/vikram-vetaal-and-some-friends.html) I had mentioned about another friend who rated surviving and winning as more important. Here my friend with her 2 cousins was thinking the same way. 

While all the characters in the stories (except for the fathers) are women who generally go all gooey about sacrifices, here we see that women find winning and doing something (taking care) with elegance and with minimal cost to oneself as being more important. 

Not just more important but critical because if you don't take care nicely (that is not warmly) and if you don't take care of yourself then you are termed a loser. My friend's feelings resonate with what another friend of mine told me decades back - that it's not adequate to do good,  it's more important to be seen as doing good. C followed this dictum exactly. D didn't. Even D's father doesn't think much of D and what she has done for him. Nor does her cousin, my friend. My friend sees C as a person to emulate,  but doesn't see D that way. 

4 months of passionate care trumps 4 years of dull care, even if such dull care is done at a good cost to oneself. 

I am reminded of Francesca and Zubeida (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2012/05/bridges-of-madison-county-book-by.html). Why am I drawn towards Francesca and D but not to Zubeida and C? 

Additional reading

1. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/when-parents-come-full-circle/article23467589.ece
2. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/07/men-in-tears.html - Another heart story from my archives
3. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2009/10/lost-puppy.html

Interesting Eating Places In Chennai

• Amehyst's Branch: Chamiers Park (Opp Adyar Gate: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
• Le Manche at Chamiers Road: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/lamandier-ra-puram
• https://www.zomato.com/chennai/10-downing-street-t-nagar: Beer and Punjabi food
• Una Mas: Not high priced but not good food either
• Best Dosa places: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/where-to-find-the-best-dosas-in-chennai/
• Nice places for eating out:
  http://www.polkacafe.com/best-vegetarian-restaurants-in-chennai-1634.html
  Anti Cafe Society in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar - This provides unlimited wifi and coffee.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Additional reading:
  
  
  Amethyst on Chamiers:
  1. https://chamiers.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/breakfast-at-cafe-chamiers-a-review/
  2. https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
  3. http://chamiershop.com

Maintaining A Zero Balance

I have a habit of remembering what I owe anyone (be it money or something intangible) and I make it a point to pay it back. I hate being indebted. 

A few years back I was having lunch with a friend when this topic came up. I explained my take to him. He replied that he didn't agree with maintaining a zero balance (zero debt actually) with each individual person. He explained that in life we help some people, we take he elp from some people and sometimes we are left owing some people and have some people owing us. And that largely they cancel each other out. And that endeavoring to maintain a zero balance was a waste of time and effort.

I was not convinced by what he said. I believed that we should maintain a zero balance with each person and not just hope it's zero at the aggregate level. 

Yesterday I saw a lady,  hunchbacked, - she stopped me and asked me something. I thought she was asking for money. She pointed to the cup of coffee I was holding and asked me where the coffee shop was. I told her where it was and continued on my walk. 

That's when it struck me. How many times have I asked people for directions. And got it. Did I repay each of those people? Obviously no. And I don't feel bad about it either. I have given directions to many people. And I don't keep accounts of those either. 

I think they cancel each other out. Now in the case of giving directions I consider it too trivial and hence don't intend to maintain zero debt with EACH person who helped me. 

Maybe for my friend, even other help (of a larger kind) is same as giving directions. He just writes it off and not maintain balances. 

The difference between me and others, then, is WHAT maximum amount each of us chooses to write off. That's all. 

So what's the takeaway from all this? 
That there are 2 kinds of people - some who maintain balances for small things (type 1) and ones who don't maintain individual balances (type 2) largely. Type 1 people should exercise restraint while helping type 2 people since the latter largely don't maintain balances. 

Acceptance

Some people do not accept facts staring that at the face. Acceptance of facts is issue kinda similar to cognitive dissonance (CD)  - one refuses to accept what is obvious because it interferes with the prebuilt opinion and the opinion is more sacrosanct than the correctness of it. 

F and J (as in MBTI) are more susceptible to CD because both the J and the F interfere with thinking (=S2). S1 is the king in F and J.

Getting through logically to F and J is a pain in the a**.

Additional reading:

http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/lord-ganesh-munna-bhai-kabhi-haan-kabhi.html