22 May 2015

Puzzle time in India !

Today was the last evening in Kalyani this trip. Like everyday, after dinner, we all went for a walk. “All” means the nephews, niece, my brother, sister, brother in law and of course myself. We, the adults, chat about a lot of things and I usually give the kids some math or logic puzzle to keep them busy.

Today started as an innocuous puzzle. But the adults joined in too. As a result, we amped up the difficulty of the puzzle. We have not been able to solve it fully. Maybe you can…

The puzzle is simple – using just the digits 1, 2 and 3 (each only once) derive all numbers from 0 to 25. You can use any of the following mathematical symbols any number of times : plus, minus, multiplied by, divided by, factorial, square root of, decimal point and parentheses (+ – * / ! Sqrt . and () ). For the programming types, ++ and — are not mathematical symbols.

E.g you can get 7 by 21/3 or 3*2+1 etc etc

We got everything other than 19 and 21. Still stuck.

Care to give it a try?

I am going to sleep now – will check tomorrow morning. Feel free to answer in Comments section.

Category: Puzzles, Vacations | 50 Comments on Puzzle time in India !
21 May 2015

Anniversary run…

Ten years back on this day, I had started running in Dallas. Six years later, almost to this day, my brother went out for his first run with me in Raichak near Kolkata. To celebrate those anniversaries, we put in a 10K run this morning.

One of the quick realizations you tend to have if you run in this part of the world during this part of the year is why you don’t need to lick your envelopes before you mail them here. The run was like cutting through a solid shell of humidity. Every time a finger touched another, they would stick together. Yikes!! Dropped nearly four pounds just sweating.

image

Category: Running, Vacations | 2 Comments on Anniversary run…
19 May 2015

You know… because we have cured cancer already

There is an article today in USA Today to inform us that researchers have made a big breakthrough in understanding why men exist. You can read about it here …

A few points are in order here…. First, this has to be a body blow to the opinions of quite a few women 🙂

Second, who is funding these kind of research? Have we already figured out how to cure cancer?

Third, three letters, I say. N F L 🙂

Category: Humor | 5 Comments on You know… because we have cured cancer already
17 May 2015

Well, duh!!!

Apparently, Microsoft just released a study that has shown that technology is shortening our attention span. You can read it here

This, of course, was published by Microsoft’s Department of Stating the Obvious. In the department’s defense, they said they would have come out with the research results a few years back but they kept getting distracted while checking their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts 🙂 I am also guessing nobody in that department has a teenager kid 🙂

Category: Humor | 1 Comment on Well, duh!!!
12 May 2015

False advertisement!!

I was driving peacefully down I-94 from Milwaukee to Chicago, when I suddenly came across this board – somewhere in Wisconsin before I hit Illinois. Excitedly, I pulled over and looked around. Sadly, there was no sign of any soccer balls around, no smell of fried fish and no “khichuri” to be seen on this cloudy and rainy day! I could not even find a single person smoking a cigarette for that matter…

Total false advertising, I say!!

I94 BRA

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
12 May 2015

Different kind of Puzzle – more of a trivia question

I took this grainy picture as I was driving last evening. It was very cloudy and the picture is not the best. But here is a question. There is something unique about the flag that you see. Can you guess what it is?

I will give you two hints – Look at the relative size of the car on the highway. And the other hint is I was in Wisconsin last evening.

image

Category: Puzzles | 8 Comments on Different kind of Puzzle – more of a trivia question