USA Today headline this morning “Thai satellite spots 300 objects in the Indian Ocean”.
Everybody is like “It is absolutely amazing what advance technology has made. It is unbelievable what a little piece of gadget thousands and thousands of miles away in the space can spot in the high seas….”
And I am like “Thailand has a satellite!!! Who knew?”
This is one of those “shunting” puzzles. As you can see in my somewhat clumsy diagram, there is a railway track that goes indefinitely to the right. On the left, it splits into a “Y”, both ends of which merge into a finite straight railway track. There is a coach “A” sitting on one arm of the Y and another coach “B” sitting on the other arm. Both the coaches are 5 yards each.
The distance between the junction point on coach A side and the end of the finite straight track is 5 yards. On the other side, near coach B, the distance between the junction point and the end of the straight finite track is 15 yards. (See pic). In between the junction points on the straight track sits an engine “E” which is itself 10 yards in length.
Like every engine, E can go forwards or backwards and can pull or push the coaches. Any coach and engine can be attached to each other.
Here is the puzzle: Can you interchange the position of coach A and coach B? You have to get engine E back to its original position when you are done.
After meeting Buck this evening, remembered all my MBA friends and felt great that I got a chance to have them as my friends.
Decided to relax with a cooked up drink… Took the traditional gin and tonic and improvised it. First, used Tito’s handmade gin from Texas and then Fever Tree tonic water from India. A little splash of sparkling water, a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters and a very thin slice of cucumber gently slid down the slide the glass (not to mess the gin too quickly)…. and there it was… a very refreshing gin and tonic. Can’t wait for summer!!!
Or the memories of sweltering Ahmedabad summer days….
The prospect of impending rain did not keep the Chalupa runners from showing up! Fortunately, the rains held up till just about the time we finished. What was amazing was that we had an elementary school student – Raya – who had gone to sleep at 2 am the previous night (late night party) – showed up nevertheless and ran with us. You can see me and her in the picture going “toe-to-toe” so to speak 🙂 to symbolize that she was ready to match the adults at every step of stamina and strength.
Two high schoolers – Mishtu and Pooja as well as a middle schooler – Remi were there too. Pooja and I ran the “fast mile” together. We clocked at 7:15 min/mile. By the way, we need to find out why the young boys of our group are sleeping in when the girls are coming out to run.
It was good to see Sudipto, Nachiketa and the ever reliable Samaresh, Malobika and Ashok on the trail. It was even better to have the coffee together at Starbucks!!
Early this morning Niki and I woke up and we sat in her bedroom chatting in hushed tones so the rest of the house would not wake up. During the one hour chat, the topic came up about a livecam set up by Berry College in an eagle’s nest that she saw. (You can show your kids, it is very cute : www.berry.edu/eaglecam).
In any case, she was excitedly telling me about the egg hatching and the mom taking care of the baby eagle, feeding it and all that. Then, she mentioned that in the evening, the “husband” eagle flew in.
Barely concealing my amusement, I asked her how did she conclude that it was the “husband” eagle?
Niki just shrugged her shoulders and said “Oh! It was constantly fighting the mother eagle”!!!!
I conceded that no further proof is required 🙂
