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A true tale of two tailors- one lucky & one not so much

The other day I was thinking of what defines someone as being lucky. The dictionary defines the word luck as a chance event good or bad. It has nothing to do with the person “deserving” the event happening to them. However, in the colloquial usage people sometimes use the word lucky in a phrase like “Oh! You are lucky!” This might mean that something really good happened to the person. Now this is where it gets murky. People tend to affiliate good luck or the phrase we just talked about in a sense that the person had something more bestowed on him/her than that they probably deserved. Some of you might agree with this statement and some of you might not!

In my opinion though, in the current world we live in, it is sufficient to call someone lucky if he/she gets what they deserve in the first place. What do I mean by deserve? – It would be returns for whatever hard work or what ever it is that they put into something. We all know many of us do not get what we rightfully deserve many a time. This is where the tailors come in.

This is a true story I heard on NPR the other day but I forgot their names. There are two tailors who are also friends – one in Haiti (recently quake struck) and the other in Dominican Republic. They are both about the same age born sometime in the 60′s, I believe, in their respective countries. Both of them had a very similar dream to set up a factory and sell shirts and worked equally hard towards their goal. The Haiti tailor being born in what is now the poorest nation in this hemisphere, owing to a lot of things which includes bad government policies now owns a small factory where people sew shirts and he makes a small profit. On the other hand the Dominican tailor had good governance in his country and fair weather now owns a big factory which sells tee-shirts. He even recently made a deal with some european big brand to make shirts for them.

Both the tailors started out the same, they had similar backgrounds, worked the same way, but owing to factors completely out of their hands, like government policies and weather, are now in completely different positions in their life. As a matter of fact, the Haiti tailor even has his small factory damaged due to the earth quake.

That just shows how much ever we like to think that we can control everything it is not the case. Give your best and forget the rest. If I get returns for what I put into something or I “deserve” I would call myself one very lucky guy.

Weekend puzzle- 8 ball

It is weekend puzzle time again. Here is the puzzle.

“There are eight billiard balls of equal weight except for one. Your job is to the find the odd ball by weighing them on a common balance (in which the scale tilts towards the heavier side) What is the minimum number of times you would have to weigh the balls?”

Post your answer but do not explain it. Answer on Monday as usual.

Answer: 2 times
You would take 6 balls and weigh 3 on each side. If the scale balances weigh the other two balls to find the heavier one. If they are not equal take the heavier set of 3 balls and weigh any 2 of those to get the heavier one. If equal the third ball us what we are looking for.

Did you come up with a different/ better solution? If so, please post it.

Snow etiquette…Say WHAT?

Parking in a spot cleared by someone else during a snow emergency is considered bad etiquette – at least in some cities of US like Boston that have harsh winters. Other US cities are divided on their opinions’ though. (check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35312588/ns/us_news-washington_post/page/2/ for related info).

Snow etiquette says that you are not supposed to park your car in a spot cleared by somebody else during a snow emergency till 2 days after the emergency has passed. The law and etiquette exist for the simple reason that it takes an average person up to 2-3 hours to clear the snow around the car and be able to get it out. Some even go to the extent of leaving a lawn chair or a box to “reserve”their spot.

Is this because DC hasn’t seen anything other than a mild winter for the last few years?  I ask why one even needs to “reserve” their spot. My neighbor along with his wife were sick but still spent 2 hours shoveling to clear the 30″ of snow and last night somebody else parked in his spot. “I parked my car last night itself” quipped the perp, apparently, when confronted (as if that makes it OK).

Moral of the story: Leave a chair/box in your car spot.

Headache after watching Avatar 3D… you are not alone!

Avatar was certainly not the first 3D movie I watched but it is the longest one I watched – a total of 160 odd minutes. By the end of the movie I had a headache which partly ruined the movie experience for me. After a little bit of research I figured out that the type of 3D technology used in Avatar is different from the 3D movies produced for the most part. Cameron’s camera produces a shallow 3D effect all across the screen instead of the usual popped images we usually see.

There is a simple way to avoid the headache. I think there is a good chance it will work because I realized I did exactly what I was not supposed to do while watching a 3D movie. (Source: shadowlocked.com)

How to avoid a 3D movie headache (if you get it)

Weekend Puzzle – Disjunction effect

As I am watching my car get pounded with a supposed accumulation of around 30″ of snow and nowhere to go, I decided to write my weekly blog. Coming to the puzzle of the week, I have a puzzle interesting not only for its logical analysis but also for its insights into the inner workings of the human brain (Out of sight is often out of mind and disjunction effect) and probably the stock market too.

I read this one in How would you move Mount Fuji?

There are four cards with an alphabet on one side and a number on the other.

The puzzle is ” What cards do you need to turn over in order to test the rule ‘If there is a vowel on one side of the card, there is an even number on the other side.’”

Post your answers below and your reasoning. As usual answer on Monday.

Solution:

You need to turn over cards A and 7 because even if there is an even number on the back of A, 7 might have a vowel and that needs to be checked.

The reason this puzzle is difficult is apparently because many humans have a hard time imagining the condition “if”. More about this in next blog.

Books I read recently

I usually enjoy reading Non-fiction although I occasionally read a book or two from the fiction section. The last few recent books I read are in the side bar on the right side (you would probably have to scroll down). I would post later my thoughts on the books.