untamed

The Jars Game

2011-11-07T18:48:00.004+05:30

This game of mine can be played either on onlineerealgames.com or in FUPA gamesite

TheJars1
Click to play this game.

I gave the game FREE to onlinerealgames website and you will find the reference when you goto HELP to see me as the Game Designer.

ENJOY

Hema's Dance Ballet "Remembering Meera"

2010-12-24T11:11:00.002+05:30

My wife, Hema, staged a dance ballet “Remembering Meera’ in February 2010 which in my opinion was excellent. It was extremely well received by the audience but due to some slip up, did not get newspaper reviews. The ballet was done to Classical Hindustani music. The choreography was very original and the costumes really vibrant. Here I have made a short video clip as the ballet video would take over an hour. One of the main songs which was sung by Smt Vinati Udaiyar in the ballet ,I have substituted it by the magical voice of the famous Kishori Amonkar.

Dont feel sorry for yourself

2010-12-17T18:20:00.003+05:30

Nicholas James Vujicic ( of a Serbian Family) was born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia with the rare Tetra-amelia disorder: limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, and legless but with two small feet, one of which has two toes. Vujicic was otherwise healthy. His life was filled with difficulties and hardships. Several times he contemplated suicide.However he did not give up hope. He was prohibited from attending a mainstream school because of his physical disability. However he came through and
graduated from university at the age of 21 with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning.

He is now a preacher and motivational speaker regularly gives speeches on subjects such as disability, hope, and finding meaning in life and has spoken to over three million people so far, in over 24 countries .
He learned to write using the two toes on his left foot, and a special device that slid onto his big toe which he uses to grip. He also learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe" method He has learned to even , comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone, shave and get himself a glass of water, throw tennis balls, play some games.

Watch this Video and see if you hold back your tears.

If he can be happy, given his circumstances, we can be happy, given ours. cant we.

Ronnie 0''Sullivan - the legend

2010-11-16T19:29:00.003+05:30

I am a great admirer Ronnie O'Sulivan though I have only seen him play on TV. You can’t take your eyes off him, his movement and the way he literally commands the position of the balls in Snooker. If I had a choice to see Tendulkar and Ronnie at the same time on TV, I will take the latter and that is saying a great deal!

Ronnie O' Sullivan , nicknamed "the Rocket" ( born 1975), 3 times world champion and occupied the world No 1 player on 5 occasions is the most talented player in the history of the game according to most pundits....a 1st century break at 10 years of age, a maximum score possible of 147 at age 15 and turned professional at 16 ! O'Sullivan is right-handed, but can play to a high standard with his left hand. While not quite possessing the same power in his left arm he is genuinely ambidextrous. His style of playing is fast and attacking which with all his other qualities makes him a genius and the biggest draw in snooker.

He has had a rough life and background. His parents have both served time. His mother, Maria, for tax evasion and his father, was sentenced to 18 years for murder and is still serving term. His marriage life was also pretty bad and personally he has been guilty of many offences (e.g.: guilty of assaulting an official, drink and drug addictions abuse, poor conduct and gross misbehavior). As such he is not an Icon but a genius, he is.

Watch this 147 break (the highest break possible) in just 5 minutes. Enjoy.

Slideshow

2010-11-09T18:51:00.002+05:30

You can easily create a slideshow by using some of your pictures (or a simple image as I have done) on the website wwwdotslidedotcom. What I have shown below is the simplest just using my face in a jigsaw. Several effects and transitions are available there to be used fancifully. My purpose here is to introduce you to this site where a slideshow can be done and directly emailed to friends or placed in Facebook. Enjoy

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Talking Newspaper

2010-09-26T11:56:00.001+05:30

National Talking Newspapers and Magazines was set up in 1974, serving the needs of the rapidly-growing network of local talking newspapers throughout Great Britain with the primary purpose of serving as national newsagent for blind and partially sighted people and others for whom print is not an accessible medium.Later it was instrumental in providing national newspapers and magazines in audio on tape, CD and by MP3 download, and in digital full-text format by e-mail, download and CD-ROM for visually impaired and print disabled people who find reading a strain.

It is only now that it started a new potential for advertisements, a very costly method at present.

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI:Date 21st Sepember 2010 :Volkswagen’s advertisement for its Vento sedan has become the talk of the town, literally and figuratively. On Tuesday, readers of The Times of India in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai woke up to the surprise of their newspaper ‘speaking’ to them about the Vento, the first ever advertising campaign of this type in the world.

The device was a cheap vacu formed plastic box with a photo-transistor and a speaker.
A single chip MP3 player with two button-call batteries, played the sound clip.
The open plastic box containing the embedded electronics
was closed and cemented to the newspaper with a double-sided adhesive foam sheet.

Since the idea of a talking newspaper catering to the blind and handicapped is over 35 years old and the new technology is available now, I suggest the original idea is transformed into a practical reality to help the blind and handicapped in India to be knowledgable without even the other handicapp of the language barrier.

Viewing Nebula with Celestia Space simulation program

2010-09-08T18:18:00.003+05:30

As I said earlier I am enclosing some videos I made on this subject,in this blog.

Hubble Telescope on Nebula

2010-08-27T20:06:00.002+05:30

I will soon be placing a video on various Nebula from Celestia Program on YouTube.
In the meantime let me show you a few authentic ones taken from HUBBLEs Telescope.

Source: Hubblesite.org

These are just 3 samples from HUBBLE.

My wife (Hema) and her musicl voice

2010-05-25T17:31:00.002+05:30

This post is in remembrance of my wife’s voice about 25 years back. It is not that she has not got the voice now, at the age of 75; it is that she cannot ‘hold’ the voice for a long period and that the strength is weaker.
I have put aside a few of the recordings I made (amateurish) when alone with her when she was around 50 and when she was not singing professionally any more. The recordings we not planned. She just sang offhand with a harmonium. The name of the song is followed with the Ragam.

Vamsee Vibhushita - Slokam Ragamalika

Maye Tarangini

Krishna Nee Begane Baro Yaman Kalyani

Padari Varuguda Kambhoji

Brochevaru Khamas

Kalai Thooki Yadukula Kambhoji

Hari Thum Haro _Meera Bhajan Darbari Kanada

Music in my blog

2010-05-05T18:29:00.002+05:30

Using www.divshare_dot_com I have uploaded this music.
This is the music which my wife for making her ballet 'Remembering Meera'

Suggestions for IPL20 and World Cup 20:20

2010-04-03T18:48:00.003+05:30

Suggestions for IPL20 and World Cup 20:20

1. The Cricket captains should announce the BENCH of 15 Players at the TOSS and NOT the “Playing 11”.This will enable to bring in Bowlers or Batsman as required.
2. This Substitution is restricted to a MAX of 3 (or 4) players and will be only done at ‘Strategic Time Outs’ and be available to both teams. No other substitutes will be allowed on the field.

Advantages
1. Enormous change in Strategy
2. Bowlers will be better off as this format suits only batsman now.
3. More involvement of cricketers – 15 vs 11
4. Advertisement Value of “Player Exchange Board”
5. These suggestions will not delay the game as the substitutions are done where there is already a time- out

( I have based these as in Football, hockey, basketball, etc the total BENCH is involved in the game and it is working well)

I have sent these to Mr Lalit Modi, through the website link www.iplt20.com/write-chairman.php

COPENHAGEN - Climate Change Discord

2010-01-01T10:16:00.005+05:30

Climate Change and Global Warning: Copenhagen Accord or discord
Without doubt, the conference on Climate change and Global warming was a fiasco, failure and a retrograde step. It even went back on the Kyoto Protocol, held in 1997 in Japan where 37 industrialized countries committed themselves to a reduction of 6 greenhouse gases to as much as 5% of the 1990 level.

The reasons:
1. It was a wrong place and a wrong time for the meet. Copenhagen, a chilly city made even more icy in December. The delegates shivered and probably wished the temperature to be a few degrees warmer and some sunlight! How could these delegates (90 % of who did not know enough of the subject believe that the Earth getting warmer by a few degrees can destroy itself?)
2. The conference had too many countries in participation. It was a merry mix-up with hundreds of politicians and delegates confusing the issue. This is one of the reasons that United Nations General Assembly cannot take any meaningful decisions. Most of them are skeptics, and do not accept anything based on scientific predictions and demand physical evidence.
3. Every politician had been warned to put the country before the Earth. Patriotism towards the country was more important than saving the Earth.
However he was told that he must show concern for the Earth.
4. Every politician was told NOT to commit to a figure or, if he is pushed to commit to some small figure he should ensure it could not be verified. If he is accused of not showing concern he should indulge in a blame game. Without these “protections” he could not face the Parliament (or a Senate) on his return.
5. Most of the Politicians and delegates not having a technical background should have undergone a small scientific instruction course before attending the conference lest they talk without the desired seriousness.
6. Lastly, all the countries recognized in advance that nothing substantial will be achieved and waited for a political agreement to mess around in platitudes and show a consensus. The Heads of the big countries could spare just a day or two to get a final agreement – shows their seriousness and commitment.

COMMENT
The setting of goals for achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and carbon emissions at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system and temperatures not to go higher than 3
degrees WILL NOT be achievable for the next 20 years unless the above state of affairs stop and someone who knows takes charge

Why is our Earth warming up?
The concentration of carbon in living matter is almost 100 times greater than its concentration in the earth. So living things extract carbon from their nonliving environment. For life to continue, this carbon must be recycled.
The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is gradually and steadily increasing. The, CO2 in the atmosphere retards the radiation of heat from the earth back into space which and is referred to as the “greenhouse effect”. With this effect the Earth gets warmer; in other words these gases regulate our climate by trapping heat and holding it in a kind of warm-air blanket that surrounds the earth and warm the earth. If we don’t have any such blanket the Earth will on the other side become far too cold for our existence. We must have this balance
But we have gone the other side and this increase is surely caused by human activities:
Examples of malpractices and disregard
1. Burning natural gas, coal and oil - including gasoline for automobile engine
2. Deforestation
3. Some farming practices and land-use changes
These are caused by Greenhouse Gases than Carbon Dioxide like methane ( caused by burning forests, flatulence of cattle produces methane that is expelled, etc).Growing rice has an adverse environmental impact because of the large quantities of methane and this can be reduced by better agricultural practices like draining paddy fields.
4. Luxury of man: Chlorofluorocarbons, a totally human luxury (used in refrigerators and aerosol cans,)
5. Rise in Human and Cattle population.
6. Increase in Environmental pollution

What are the effects of global warming and the greenhouse effect?
1. Weather changes. Even a small increase in the global temperature would lead to significant climate and weather changes, affecting cloud cover, precipitation, wind patterns, the frequency and severity of storms, and the duration of seasons.
2. Temperature. Rising temperatures would raise sea levels as well, reducing supplies of fresh water as flooding occurs along coastlines worldwide
3. Sea levels rising: and global warming is at least part of the cause.
If the sea level were to rise in excess of 4 meters almost every coastal city in the world would be severely affected, Long-term changes are mainly caused by temperature (because the volume of water depends on temperature). The rise is also due to melting glaciers (irreversible phenomena) caused by global warming.
4. Land. Millions of people also would be affected, especially poor people who live in precarious locations or depend on the land for a subsistence living.

Solutions
1. Saving energy and Life style changes and "throw away" practices. Be frugal. Use Carpools.
2. Using Government and Media to highlight the problems and offer solutions. Pour more money into research activities for clean energy.
3. Plant trees and support Organic farming (In simplest terms, organic farming is a form of agriculture that avoids any use of synthetic chemicals or Genetically Modified Organisms.)
4. Use Alternative energy rather than coal and petroleum
a. Using Solar power: solar cells capture the heat from the sun and store it.
b. Using wind power: Wind turbines capture the energy of moving air and convert to electric y
c. Biofuels: Converting organic matter into fuel (ethanol, marine algae
d. Nuclear energy: It is a source of clean energy but is only a temporary solution. It has the drawbacks of disastrous consequences of accident and getting rid of nuclear waste.
e. Use of CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) for lighting. If a building's indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFLs, the heat produced due to lighting will be reduced. Its environmental advantages are big because of its lower energy requirement. For a given light output, CFLs use 20 to 33 percent of the power of equivalent incandescent lamps. If a building's indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFLs, the heat produced due to lighting will also be reduced.

f. Use of hydrogen
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy (torque). With further research and development, this fuel could also serve as an alternative source of energy for heating and lighting homes, generating electricity, and fueling motor vehicles.

Telengana and consequences

2009-12-20T15:15:00.010+05:30

What is all the uproar on Telengana and division of other Indian States about? Let us see it in a Macro viewpoint and what happened to other countries in the world and what is likely after 100 years. The US with a population of nearly 300 million people (and 9 million sq kms area) has 50 states whereas India with 1.2 billion people and (and 3 million sq metres) has only 28 states (and 7 Union Territories.). Before independence there were 568 states in India (Yes it is true). We have come along way. There are 18 Scheduled Languages in India (of a total of 114 languages and 216 mother tongues). Since the Country was reorganized on the basis of language we cannot divide the country into 100 states on this linguistic logic, but this was the basis for foresight and we have to consider each case.

The Politicians divided pre-independence India on a religious basis and Nehru and Jinnah wanted to Head the countries on communal lines to benefit themselves, irrespective of consequences and the fact that India had more Muslims than Pakistan. They even broke up United Punjab and United Bengal into separate countries because of ambition. All these past factors are now leading upto dismemberment. If we don’t take care we could even land up as the breakage of the country (not into states) but countries like the USSR broke into 15 COUNTRIES not just states and this happened as recently as 1971. Since the USSR's collapse, Russia faced many problems that free market proponents in 1992 did not expect. Among other things, 25% of the population lived below the poverty line, life expectancy had fallen, birthrates were low, and the GDP was halved. (Wikipedia). Let us be judicious and act wisely. This might be easier send than done as in the end, simple greed and political scoring points override any concerns, moral rights ,legality or interest in development.

Childrens smiles Stairway to Heaven

2009-12-08T11:12:00.002+05:30

At my elder age I find beauty in every child’s face, particularly the poor ones. Their smiles and carefree attitude are so refreshing and unspoiled. At that age they don’t realize that as they grow older the compulsions, complexities and flawed competitive practices to stay afloat begin, and they have no time for contemplation into environs and humanity. I have made a video to express these thoughts and have taken a number of pictures from the internet. Usually the pictures we see on UNICEF programs show children in extremely poor conditions but I think they could carry the same message by smiling children.

Arni Palaces in ruins by chandru arni

2009-10-31T11:09:00.008+05:30

The Arni Jagir, given as a Gift from Shajee, the great Mahratta warrior, to my ancestor, Vedaji Bhaskar Punt, for military services rendered in the former's invasion of the Carnatic had existed since 1640. The Jagir covered an area of 180 square miles and is situated in the North Arcot District, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

The Government of India abolished it in 1951 by a Zamindai Abolition Bill, and as a First Amendment to the Constitution, giving the Jaghir a small compensation. This resulted in the bad upkeep of the Palaces due to lack of funds.

The video below reveals what existed then and what is the current state and seeks the Government of India's help in restoration and make it a heritage and tourist site.

The photographs were taken in 2008 by Mr.Megarajan and friends in his TRAVELOGUE blog for which I thank him.

Palace in ruins by chandru Arni

2009-10-25T09:59:00.006+05:30

The Arni Jagir existed for over three hundred and fifty years beginning from the days of Shahjee, the great Mahratta warrior. The Jagir came into existence during the decline and disintegration of the Mughal Empire.
Arni Jagir is situated in North Arcot District in the Presidency of Madras (Chennai) in South India. The extent of the Jagir was 180 square miles. The city of Arni (or Arnee or Aarni) is about 20 miles from Vellore. There were two palaces situated 3 miles from Arni .There were also Palatial residences for the Jagirdar of Arni in Poosamalikuppam (a forest resort very close to Arni town),

Arni Jagir was originally acquired in the early part of the 17th Century by Vedaji Bhaskar Pant, who accompanied Shahjee (the father of Sivajee. In 1640 Vedaji Bhaskar Punt was awarded the Jagir of Arni in consideration of his military services to Shahjee.

The Jagir has remained in the possession of the Jagirdar of Arni and his direct descendants since then (even during British Rule) till it was after enacting the Zamindar Abolition Bill 1948. (This was the first amendment to the Constitution). My father was the 12th and last Jagirdar and he died in 1989 The Jagir of was taken over by the Government on 3/1/1951 and now all that remains is the Municipality of Arni and tattered palaces.

The Palace in Poosamalikuppam was visited and photographed by Mr. Megharajan and friends. This video views the ruins and asks the Government of India to make it a Heritage site after due repairs.

"THIS IS NOT CRICKET"

2009-10-09T19:41:00.016+05:30

Difference between Sportsmanship and Rules in Cricket

These incidents occurred during the recent ICC Champions trophy in Sept 2009.

1. Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews turned England fast bowler Graham Onions to square-leg and completed a first run comfortably but collided with the bowler going for a second run. Mathews, after being declared 'OUT' stood briefly at the pitch before walking back to the pavilion, but Strauss, England’s Captain, called the batsman back in a rare sporting gesture.

2. Only 48 hours after Strauss was praised for his sense of fair play by withdrawing a run-out appeal against Angelo Mathews, he allowed no liberties against South Africa when he refused Graeme Smith, South African Captain's, request for a runner when Smith was cramping after scoring a century.

3. In another match England's Collingwood, possibly one their best batsman obviously wasn't going for a run; he was probably a bit hasty in leaving his crease and New Zealand were in their rights to appeal. Collingwood was declared 'OUT" but the New Zealand Captain Daniel Vettori, in a sportsmanship act, called him back.

The issue here is the difference between SPORTSMANSHIP and RULES. Gilchrist and Sangakara walk when they know they are out. Basically most Australians will not leave their crease till the umpire lifts his finger. In both cases they exercise their personal choices and are right in their own way. What is the Umpire for ? In my opinion these issues should be judged by the umpires with the fielding captain making a FINAL decision whether to call the batsman back if he is declared out.

Then I wonder if Smith or Strauss or Vettori would appeal to the umpire for the batsman "handling the ball" when a batsman is just picking the ball to return to the bowler before the umpire calls it the end of the over. Basically, he is out handling the ball is when the batsman deliberately handles the ball without the consent of the fielding side ( Law 33) or if a batsman is run-out(a la Mankad) when a batsman, whilst backing up, leaves the popping crease before the bowler has actually delivered the ball. Where this has happened, the bowler may attempt to run the non-striking batsman out. Getting a batsman out this way, though legal, is generally considered to be against the spirit of the game as the non-striker (usually )does accidentally leaves the crease. Another instance is,at the end of the days play when the umpire has not taken off the bails or called it the end of play, the player is Run out (A la Kalicharan, the West Indian left after the last ball of the day' play ended and was 'Run Out').

Will Gilchrist or Sangakara 'walk' or will Daniel Vettori say "not run out" (or sportingly call the bat in the spirit of the game)when it is the last wicket and 2 balls remaining to win at the end of the match?

Past incidents of Bad sportsmanship

1. In a Test Match between Australia and England, Graham Gooch, one of the best English batsmen was batting very well; he was on 133. Then Merv Hughes (Australian bowler) got a ball to lift and Gooch fended it into the ground from where it bounced - apparently - towards the stumps. Instinctively, Gooch pushed the ball away with the back of a hand. The Australians appealed and Gooch was given "OUT".

2. Steve Harmison appealed for a run out when Inzamam-ul-Haq took evasion action - but is given out, Pakistan v England, 2nd Test, Faisalabad, November 21, 2001 Inzamam played the ball back to Harmison. Harmison threw the ball back at the stumps. Inzamam moved away to avoid getting hit. The ball hits the stumps. Inzamam is out of his crease. Given "RUN OUT"

3. Inzamam-ul-Haq is declared out by umpires Simon Taufel and Asad Rauf for blocking a throw by Suresh Raina by his bat in the first India vs. Pakistan ODI in Feb 6, 2006; here again he took evasive action. Pakistan then required only 40 run from 41 balls to win the match with Pakistan with 5 wickets remaining. Given out "Obstructing the field".
(see video)

4. The most famous incident of running a batsman out involved the Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad. It occurred during India's tour of Australia in 1947 in a Test match at Sydney. Mankad ran out Bill Brown when, in the act of delivering the ball, he held on to it and whipped the bails off with Brown well out of his crease. The Australian press strongly accused Mankad of being unsportsmanlike, though some
Australians, including Don Bradman, the Australian captain at the time, defended Mankad's actions.
However, during the 1987 World Cup, when Courtney Walsh, the West Indian fast bowler could have done a ‘Mankad’ he graciously choose not to do so. Courtney Walsh requires praise for warning rather than dismissing Abdul Qadir who was backing up.

Sledging ( not gamesmanship)
The Aussies try to win by any means possible; particularly sledging, accusing people (eg.Inzaman Huq of ball tampering); wasting time by sledging or otherwise; their bowlers threatening batsman (e.g. Glenn McGrath to Kalicharan), etc. But when they get the response from the opposition they can’t take it.

Some filthy instances of sledging in the past

1.Once Australian Wicket-keeper, Ian Healy's made a legendary comment which was picked up by the microphones when Arjuna Ranatunga called for a runner on a particularly hot night during a one dayer in Sydney... “You don't get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat c*nt!"

2. Sarwan, the West Indies vice-captain, and Australian Fast bowler, Glen McGrath went toe-to-toe in an ugly shouting match in Antigua in May 2003, The incident was sparked after Sarwan, was on his way to a match-winning second-innings century, reportedly reacted to lurid taunts from McGrath.

McGrath: "So what does Brian Lara's d*ck taste like?"
Sarwan: “I don't know. Ask your wife. "
McGrath (losing it): "If you ever F*&king mention my wife again, I'll F*cking rip your F*king throat out."

"The Ball does the talking"
In many cases the sledging does not just involve “talking” and the chitchat cannot be heard by the spectators. Sometimes it involves both mockery and gesticulations which are visible. A classic reply from a fast bowler after he has been hit for a boundary. See the video clip is from the quarter-final match between India and Pakistan World Cup 1996 in Bangalore involves Venkatesh Prasad (India) and Aamir Sohail (Pakistan). Sohail “sledges” Prasad by hitting him for a Boundary and arrogantly gesticulates. (Go Fetch That!). Prasad’s response is shattering the stumps with the next ball. The famous Imran Khan is the commentator.

"The Bat does the talking"

The year was 1989, the little master, Sachin Tendulkar, had recently made his debut in Pakistan. He was not even old enough to get a driving license. Sachin Tendulkar was facing the best bowlers in the business. As the Pakistani crowd jeered and mocked Sachin holding out placards saying "" Dudh Pita Bhachcha ....ghar jaake dhoodh pee", (hey kid, go home and drink milk), Sachin sent the then young leg spinner Mustaq Ahmed hiding for cover (he had hit two sixes in one over. Then the legendary Abdul Qadir challenged Sachin saying " Bachchon ko kyon mar rahe ho? Hamein bhi maar dikhao ` (`Why are you hitting kids? Try and hit me.). Sachin was silent, since then we all have come to know that he lets his bat do the talking. Sachin obliged him by hitting 4 sixes in the over, making the spinner regret his sledging. The over read 6, 0, 4, 6 6 6, David had felled Goliath ... and a legend was born. The bat did the talking.

Epilogue
I say Sportsmanship is the "Immediate state of the Mind at any particular moment".
When you are an amateur you are sporting, but as a Pro, you do what it takes. However, since there is an Umpire, you have to go by his decision. Sledging should be included in the “Rules of Cricket” and umpires /match referee should act by these Rules.

NOW IT IS YOUR CALL!

Arithmetic Recreations

2009-09-21T19:54:00.006+05:30

Arithmetic Recreations
Before we tackle the FOUR FOURS Problem which we carry out in my next session it is easier to start with the 1234 problem which has the same rules. Here we have to express all the numbers from 1 to 100 using the digits only once in each expression. Remember all the 4 digits must be used only once to form the number. The notations allowable are Multiplication (x), division (/), addition (+) and subtraction (-). We also define that the only other symbols to attach to a digit are the decimal (.), factorial (! - For example 4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 =24), and (exponential - a digit raised to the power of another digit). There are several solutions and to make it a little different I am excluding the square root function in my solution.

Mathematical Recreations

2009-09-16T11:21:00.010+05:30

Whilst reminiscing what I did 60 years back (I am 81 now), in my spare time when I was alone by myself and when there was no TV, mobile phone, computer, Internet or even a ball point pen I found that I amused myself with Mathematical recreations, reading such books and using a Venus 1B Pencil to make notes or solve a problem. Of course when I had friends or family we played Cricket Tennis etc and when indoors, Draughts, Monopoly, Cards, etc. Even today I am intrigued by the subject though I find it more difficult or impossible to solve many problems that I used to earlier. One such Arithmetical Recreation was the FOUR FOURS PROBLEM. I had solved the problem and had written in my book which I was intending publishing one day. Now when I googled “Four Fours” on my computer I was surprised to find many solutions (some wrong and inelegant). And even Wikipedia covered the problem. Nevertheless I wished to blog my solution.

THE FOUR FOURS PROBLEM

The objective of the four fours problem is to find a mathematical expression for every integer from 1 to 100; using only common mathematical symbols and exactly four fours (no other digits are allowed). The rider I add is to express these in the simplest possible manner.

Operations and symbols that are allowed include the four arithmetic operations (+, ×, -, /), concatenation (e.g. the use of 44), decimal points (e.g. 4.4), powers (e.g. 44), square roots, factorials (4! - which is 4 x 3 x2 x 1 =24), and overbars for repeating decimal (e.g. .4 with an over bar to express 0.44444….) – I found that to express 6 numbers I had to resort to this.)

The Indian voting system requires Major surgery. Mere casting of a vote is not the answer

2009-04-17T18:16:00.006+05:30

This is once again election time and we are told that as proud Indians we must cast our vote for the next Government and that we belong to the world’s largest democracy and every vote counts. SHIT! However, I voted yesterday for a candidate whom I thought was competent and clean. I know that my vote will NOT count as in the present voting system there is no REAL provision for banning the criminals and murderers. Even the Majority power (Congress or BJP) will NOT pass a bill to debar these culprits as they themselves came to power using these villains.

Yesterday I saw an article in my newspaper “The Hindu” and was ashamed to be an Indian. It was an article headed “Centenarian waits D-day”. It was about Lakshmana Dora, who is aged 108 from a village in Andhra Pradesh (my State – I am also ashamed of my State) and who has voted in every election since 1951. He is also blind having lost his sight at an early age. He eked out his living as a cowherd. He lives on a pension of Rs.200 (less than US$ 5) per month. He however gets only Rs. 190 (Rs. 10 for the middleman). His prayer is to get Rs. 500/-(US$ 10) per month because of being blind, as that is the amount that is paid to physically challenged persons. Possibly he has voted/awaited 60 years for someone to hear him. Who is blind? Is it him or the politicians? BLOODY HELL !

If after over 60 years of independence this is the state of our VOTE, WHAT is the use of voting? I feel ashamed, disjointed and helpless. As an exercise I try to trace the background of why this is happening?
______________________________________________________________

The Congress and the BJP have taken turns at ruling.- the Congress 80% of the time and the BJP 20 %. This is at the Centre. At State level which is Andhra in my case, the Congress has been in power 90% of the time. So the CONGRESS is mainly accountable for India’s torments. Dynasty politics has taken the country to this abominable state. It first started with Motilal Nehru who as the President of India National Congress held the purse strings. After Independence his son Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was made the 1st Prime Minister of India. He trained Indira Gandhi who was by his side most of the time. She was a Minister in charge of Information and Broadcasting in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet. Shastri died in Tashkent of a sudden and most unexpected heart attack. Indira Gandhi succeeded him. She had a long rule at the helm – 3 terms and another later. All this went to her head and she thought that grooming of her son, Sanjay Gandhi, would ensure the continuance of the dynastic rule. Ruling India was their birthright of the Nehru family. When the High Court declared that Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha was based on electoral malpractice, she imposed the dreadful Emergency. Her groomed son Sanjay died in an accident. She then started grooming her elder son Rajiv Gandhi. Indira used the emergency provisions to grant herself extraordinary powers.

"Unlike her father [Nehru], who preferred to deal with strong chief ministers in control of their legislative parties and state party organizations, Mrs. Gandhi set out to remove every Congress chief minister who had an independent base and to replace each of them with ministers personally loyal to her...Even so; stability could not be maintained in the states..."

She had twice imposed "Presidents Rule”" under an Article of the Constitution by declaring states ruled by opposition parties as "lawless and chaotic", and thus seizing control. Later she played Politics with Sikhs that lead to “Operation Blue Star” and this lead her assassination. Then followed the 1984 Sikh riots instigated by the Congress party. The Nehru dynasty continued to flourish. Her son Rajiv Gandhi was made PM. He was later assassinated by the LTTE for interfering in another country’s affairs. There was a brief period where Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister of India and Sitaram Kesari the Congress President. There was a revolt and then his Italian wife Sonia Gandhi was made President of the Congress. Remember this is where the MONEY and CONTROL lies.

She was the fifth members of the Nehru dynasty to be the President of the Congress Party). When she tried to get elected as the Prime Minister she failed. (It is said that the President of India, Abdul Kalam questioned her foreign Nationality ) and she thought it wise to refrain from seeking the PM’s Job,. As it turned out this made the Dynastic Control easier. She made Manmohan Singh the PM. She now had total power. As the President of the Congress party she could, by remote control and manipulation do whatever she liked. She can sack anyone in the Party who questions her. We must remember that Manmohan Singh on previous occasions failed to win a Log Sabha election and this was a windfall for him. It is also to be noted that before Indira Gandhi all Prime Ministers of India, who served more than a year, either had been Chief Ministers of State or had experience in being a member of the Cabinet earlier. The new Dynasty did not have to follow these qualifications. It was their inherited right.

This was a new method of Ruling India –remote control; puppet on a string! Where an action succeeds the credit goes to the manipulator; if failure then the PM has to answer. Heads I win- tails you lose. So for this election the name of “Prime Minister in Waiting” for the Congress has already been announced and he DOES NOT FACE THE BALLOT. The Italian born President of the Congress Party will be returned to Parliament as the village she represents has been in the dynasty for decades. If Manmohan Singh fights for a Lok Sabha Seat the chances are that he would be defeated. So, take the backdoor and enter through the Rajya Sabha.

If he cannot contest and win he should not a make statement like he made today in Mumbai "They (independents) are 'spoilers'... I seek the cooperation of this vibrant city( Mumbai) not to encourage these independent candidates because they cannot win and they are only spoilers." Does he know what is free elections in a Democracy ?
Sour Grapes !.He does not know because he did not cast his vote in the 2004 elections both for Lok Sabha and the Assembly !

If the incumbent Prime Minister himself is scared of facing the ballot then I cant see what is the purpose of holding Election. Did we vote the British out? No. Mahatma Gandhi used the weapon of Non cooperation and Sathyagraha. The people's voice will not be heard in the present election scenario. The voter and the system should be armed with more powers. For instance, no criminal voter allowed to be put up or stand as a candidate; the right to recall through a referendum every year; the right to vote for “none of the above” in the voters slip; elected MPs to be “derecognized” if they are found guilty of any serious demeanor and many more such aids. I honestly feel that most of these proposals will NOT become law, as the party if elected would have used “other” means to form the Government. If the votes are to count, the present Election Scenario has to be radically changed. If not the only non-violent way out is for the people to have a mass movement NOT to vote. Throwing shoes is not the only way!

Must vote for? Who ?To get a criminal Government? No thank you !

2009-04-16T16:56:00.003+05:30

This is once again election time and we are told that as proud Indians we must cast our vote for the next Government and that we belong to the world’s largest democracy and every vote counts. SHIT!

Though I make this statement I have cast my vote this morning. My vote goes to a candidate who I have read and heard about and WHO, to the best of my knowledge is “CLEAN”. Unfortunately when the Government is formed, such persons will not have much of a voice. The voice of the Dynasty (of any party), their relatives, “hangers-on”, sycophants, (“Indira is India and India s Indira”), murderers, booth capturers, ‘threateners’ ,etc who got the party the votes, will finally rule.

The Parties put up candidates based on only a single factor; “winnability”. Several of their candidates are prima facie murderers and who are guilty of anti national crimes, for example Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for the 1984 massacre of Sikhs, Sanjay Dutt for his possession of prohibited weapons under the Arms Act during the 1993 Mumbai Serial Blasts, and recently, Vaiko for threatening a blood bath in India if alleged Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspirator V. Prabhakaran is harmed, D.Srinivas saying at a public rally that he would sacrifice his life for Muslims and if need be, cut off hands of those who pointed a finger at them,Varun Gandhi saying in another speech about the “ cutting off those hands which strike Hindus’ Lalu Prasad responding in another hate speech that had he been the Home minister, he would have crushed "that person" (Varun Gandhi) for his alleged anti-Muslim speech. We must remember that these words and actions are NOT that which occurred at random; they are planned. They were prepared speeches to be given in front of lakhs of voters. Nobody talks about issues such as the economy, health, poverty alleviation, eliminating terrorism, etc. That is in their manifesto. All this is treated as “given”. Almost all politicians engage in hate speeches using foul language and threats. The so called ‘Prime minister in waiting”, in this election, also traded charges on their individual character and did a ‘tic for tat’ like school children. The fate of a nation hangs in the balance and none can be trusted. Liquor, money and promises of Free Power, colored TV sets, Cooking gas connections, etc are used to entice the voter. One voter confided in me saying that he would welcome an election every month as he will definitely get some money, liquor and a day off!

When things go too far, as mentioned earlier, the Election Commissioner just gives a warning and says that he is powerless as per the present Law. The main parties like the Congress and the BJP also do not take action as they will lose votes. Their ONLY consideration is to come to power. Everything else is not important. And when they come to power they will have to pay a big price to stay on ( e.g.: Shibu Soren,the criminal who served term and was made Union Coal Minister in the Manmohan Singh’s government).

Does the solution lie in the throwing of shoes as this one (Home Minister Chidambaram shooed by a Sikh journalist worked as no ticket was given to Jagdish Tyler and Sajjan Kumar). How many pairs of shoes are necessary to throw out bad candidates?

Escott sliding Block Puzzle

2008-12-29T19:41:00.007+05:30

Apart from the "Rush-Hour" type of puzzles there is the conventional one. One of the most exciting ones is the one invented by E.B.Escott, an American Mathematician in 1938. Martin Gardner said of this puzzle that "It is the most difficult sliding block puzzle "that he has seen. The optimum solution will be 48 moves counting each movement of one block as a single move even if it goes around a corner if the space is empty.

T0 Play/Solve the puzzle GOTO site below

http://www.puzzleworld.org/SlidingBlockPuzzles/classic.htm

NIM

2008-12-17T18:43:00.005+05:30

This is how I finished with Juan.
NIM is one of my favorite games and it really tests the mind, there are various “modes” of it which you can play on my site shown in LINKS on RHS referred to as “My Mindgames”. Here I show you in my voice video of what is the most well known BASIC NIM consisting of 3 piles. Turn your volume on and listen to the way to play and solve it which is the best way to solve using the binary code.

If you have trouble in conversion go to the ready chart

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/msdos/decimal_hexadecimal.htm

The BEST NIM game to play is on the site www.transience dot com dot au where you play with Juan a really wonderful animated character. There is Pearl 1,2 and 3 varieties
In the game shown in this link
http://www.transience.com.au/pearl2.html
there are 4 rows (Piles) . The Binary strategic positions is the same as explained; for the piles 3,4,5,6 the strategic position initially are 3,4,5,2 or 3,4,1,6 or 3,0,5,6 so you pick to get one of these positions and thereafter Juan cannot win if you play correct. he just grunts and walks away.

The TOWER of HANOI

2008-12-16T18:26:00.005+05:30

This puzzle was invented by a French Mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883. The problem is to transfer the tower of ‘n’ disks from that peg to any of the other 2 vacant pegs, moving one disk to a time and never placing the a disk on top of a smaller one. This is to be accomplished in the least number of moves.

The puzzle is also referred to as the “Tower of Brahma” situated in the holy city of Benares, India. Legend has it that there were 64 disks of Gold on one “peg” and that the priests are engaged in transferring the disks and when the last move is made the world will end . The formula for the least no. of moves is 2 raised to the power of ‘n’ minus 1. Assuming that there is no wrong move and if it takes one second per move, it will take 15 secs to transfer 4 disks and just about 4 minutes for 8 disks and about one month for 15 disks…. But roughly 600 billion years for all 64disks.

To play this game there are several sites but I recommend this link as the best:

http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi/index.htm

I suggest you see the solutions below before attempting to solve the puzzle. That it.

"Rush Hour " sliding Box Puzzles

2008-12-16T11:15:00.008+05:30

There are several types of sliding puzzles that stimulate the human mind apart from being fun to solve.Here I am demonstrating a RUSHHOUR puzzle designed by Noki Yosgihara.RUSHHOUR sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the late 1970s
The goal is to get THE RED car out of a n-by-m grid full of automobiles by moving the other vehicles out of its way. However, the cars and trucks (set up before play ) obstruct the path and are so intertwined that a typical puzzle requires many moves to complete.

Below...I have also given a solution to the puzzle using SBPsolver , a freeware utility created by Soft Qui Peut.

AND.......
if you like to tackle such "RushHour Puzzles" goto the site mentioned below where you will find a lot of them to play AND get their solution. You can also create them on line
www dot puzzleworld.org/SlidingBlockPuzzles/rushhour.htm

TANGRAMS

2008-12-06T14:31:00.002+05:30

This is an ancient Chinese Shapes Game where the puzzle is posed as an integrated image and one has to solve the puzzle with all the pieces of different shapes given. This is very much like a jigsaw puzzle except that it always has the same pieces and all of the same color. In other words the picture puzzles themselves have been made by fitting together all the pieces in several different ways. Standardization is that the BASIC STRUCTURE is a square cut into seven pieces as shown here. These are 2 identical large triangles, one medium sized, another 2 identical smaller triangle, a square and a parallelogram. The 2-D picture-puzzles are usually of humans, animals and birds (many in motion) and other common objects like houses, boats, constructions and sometimes plain geometric shapes. The basic STRUCTURE is shown in Fig.A.

Two examples of a puzzle and their solutions are shown here. They are taken from the bird series and marked as Puzzle A and Puzzle B. These Tangram puzzles have engaged the attentions of mathematician like author Lewis Carroll, and puzzle makers Henry Dudeney and Sam Loyd. No wonder the game in Chinese is called "Seven-Board Game of Cunning". It has also been claimed that the famous theorem of Pythagoras was solved by the Chinese using this basis. The animations shown here is a result of the puzzles taken from a book by Joost Elffers called "Tangram" and published by Penguin Books which has over 500 puzzles with their solutions. (Fig B)

However I having played with this game many times I wish to make a color animation to promote this hobby.

"15 Puzzle" or BOSS puzzle

2008-12-06T10:47:00.003+05:30

There are several types of puzzles that stimulate the human mind apart from being fun to solve. The most famous and commercially successful sliding block puzzle was invented in the 1870's. It was known as the “15 puzzle" or BOSS puzzle. The puzzle consists of a block of 15 numbered small square blocks within a larger square box (4 x 4) capable of holding 16 such blocks, with one empty space. These are set at random (by sliding) to get an arrangement and the player has to slide them (without lifting) to get them in order with the last space vacant as shown in FIG 1.

One of America's greatest puzzle expert, Sam Loyd,"drove the entire world crazy" (as he himself put it) with this newly invented puzzle. (Now it has been discovered that he did NOT invent this puzzle but falsely took credit for it.) He had made it famous by offering a prize of $1000 for a correct solution of the puzzle. As Martin Gardner puts it "'Thousands of people swore they had solved it but no one could recall the moves and collect the prize.Loyd's offer was safe because this particular one was not solvable.".

Of more than 20 trillion possible arrangements of the squares, exactly half can be made by sliding the squares if the initial position is as shown in FIG 1 and thereafter jumbled up randomly. But if the 14 and 15 are interchanged and then jumbled up, we have a disturbed the ‘parity’ (to use the language of permutational mathematics)". And is not solvable.
I now show you a video of how to solve it using an algorithm used by 'THEmuteKi' in Youtube.

My Car Racing Days

2008-08-10T15:02:00.001+05:30

Believe it or not, I, Chandru Arni was the first Indian to build a sports car and race in an official race meet in India. This was in November 1953 at the Calcutta Airstrip under the auspices of CMSC (Calcutta Motor Sports Club). The CMSC was set up around 1952 and had 100% expatriates and they held their meetings in the then "Whites Only" Saturday Club. I was interested in car racing and met Robin Davies, who had a lot of time for Indians and he got me interested in building a ‘Special’. The car was fabricated at the Shalimar Tar Products Factory garage in Alipore out of a Standard Vanguard. Robin Davies (an Englishman who was the Works Manager of that Factory) and Henri Ribordy (a Frenchman) were mainly responsible for designing it. We named it ARD special after our three names. A specialist tinker and I designed the shape. Many foreigners were under contract not to take part in risky sports and hence their deep interest to see me do what they visualized for themselves.

My first act was to procure a car (economically) that was involved in an accident, with the engine and chassis in good condition. Also since I wanted to race in the 2_litre class it would be ideal to get a Standard Vanguard. To my immense luck this happened on 6^th June 1953. My good friend, Mr.E.K.Srinivasan who was the MD of Hercules Insurance helped me. I got the "completely smashed "Vanguard ('52 model) for Rs.2500.The cost of the body frame came to Rs. 500. (Notice, in the video shown below) that there are no doors and no glasses - this was done for safety and in lowering the costs. The chassis was cut, cross-braced for strength and the steering lowered to reduce the height. Other modifications & additions were also engineered but I am omitting them. Suffice to say that the final cost came to Rs. 6500, a big amount in those days for a hobby!

Also notice that the holes in the front were positioned such that when racing they acted as ducts to cool the brakes and, when not racing, I could fit sealed headlights in them and enjoy my evening jaunts to Calcutta’s Night Life at Firpos ,Princess and 300 Club. Remember I had 2 cars now - the Morris Minor was my normal car since the ARD was usually parked in the Alipore Shalimar Tar Garage for there was always something necessary to be done before the fortnightly race meets.

Sunday November 22nd, 1953 was my 1st Race. On the previous day, Saturday, Robin Davies and Ribordy had the car checked out and Ribordy did the Test-drive. They had also extracted a promise from me that if they do not pass the car fit for racing I will not race! I am not present there as I am pretty nervous and I know they will be going on a binge that evening and I would be tempted to a late night also. I wanted to stay off alcohol and have a good rest for the next day. I am praying that they will find the car coming upto their expectations.

Alipore, the race strip where CMSC holds its races has a course length of1.4 miles with 2 hairpin bends and a chicane. Not complicated but one of the hairpins called for 2 fast gear changes prior to intensive braking and then another fast gear change with sudden acceleration to prevent being overtaken before entering the narrow "S" chicane.

All the races were not scratch races. The handicaps were based on the previous meet's best timings per lap for each car. There were 2 methods of handicapping when cars from 1.5 litre race with 3.5 litre. (1) Start them off one after the other based on the total handicap for the number of laps for the race, or (2) Start them all together and make them take a compulsory pit stop for that time. The latter delighted the crowd and challenged the drivers, as they have to do a "standing lap" again and not overshoot the pits! The races were normally 3 laps, 5 laps and 10 laps. The grand prix of the season was for 20 laps.

Even in 1953 there were some crowds as the Statesman newspaper carried the advertisements & the warning that the spectators come at their own risk & neither the club nor the drivers take responsibility. We, the so-called racing car drivers had to also sign an indemnity bond to protect the other drivers and the CMSC against claims, etc. Once, when I got a little nervous, I approached my good friend E.K.Srinivasan (MD of Hercules Insurance) & requested an Insurance policy for just the racing days at a premium he can decide. His answer "We only insure contingencies - not certainties!"

The races were held only in the (lovely) winter months every fortnight. After every race we stripped the engine and examined the chassis. In my case every month the brake linings and several clutch items had to be changed. Compression ratios with the engine cylinder head gaskets were sometimes "fiddled" to get higher compression ratios to beat the handicap! For a whole season of racing it cost me Rs 300 per race day when my Monthly Salary was then Rs 400!

My competitors were all “whites” and they won more races than I. I was also the youngest and being an Indian in those days was not really acceptable to them (except to Robin Davies and Ribordy). Alan Ramsay ( Director of ‘Tractors India’ was the best driver in my 2 years of racing.

Just 3 years of this “activity” brought an end to my racing history. It was before marriage and was strongly brought home to me that I will have to quit as a result of my new responsibility. The quitting was made easier as my last race ended in an accident with the right front wheel shearing off its connecting rod and me hitting the fence, walking shamefully back to the pits.

The video below reveals some of this history. (The camera generally used those days were of Black and White pictures!)

My car racing days

2008-08-10T14:02:00.002+05:30

TERRAGEN

2008-08-07T10:51:00.001+05:30

Terragen is a photo realistic landscape and scenery-rendering program. This article is a brisk walk- through into TERRAGEN. By using this program you can generate the landscape as per your intent by working on several make-believe aerial views "taken" of terrains. It is as if a satellite kept photographing the earth and you render the images later. The terrains are "height maps" seen as Black and White images. White is the tallest mountain (snow!) and Black is a lowest valley; all colors in between portray heights as in a terrain 3D photograph. Here Blue is water. Apart from that you have several options for locating a "camera" in various (x,y,z dimension parameters) and focusing on a target scene. You can zoom and adjust the camera. You get options for setting the height of the sun, reflectivity of the water, changes to the atmosphere like coloring and misting and fogging and hundreds of preferences. That’s it. Now render the scene. Play God.
No photographs! No Photoshop! Rendering takes a little time and you may have to do it several times before you get something you like.
When we first load Terragen, the terrain is blank. In order to generate some scenery, we must generate a terrain. At first the terrain is generated at random. Then we use dialogue boxes such as:
Rendering Control: Camera position, Target position, Camera orientation, exposure and Zoom: Width of Image to generate.
Landscape Control: Modification, Use of surface maps (and designing them), Sculpting Tools, etc
Water Control: Setting Water level will give water/no water. Then controls for Water roughness, wave size, visibility, reflectivity, diffuse color of water, etc.
Cloudscape Control: Cloud and haze color, frequency & size of clouds, altitude of clouds, etc.
Atmosphere control: Density and atmospheric color, (Sunset settings), Haze/Mist settings, etc
Lighting and Sun control: Angle and altitude and position of sun, Sunlight strength and Colour, Brightness, penetration, shadows, Suns disc diameter and Carona, background light, etc.
The program was free when I started with it. It can be downloaded from: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen
All this may sound very difficult, but as you "set and render " the results will amaze you. I will now give you a glimpse of some Dialog boxes Screen Shots ....

Terragen Dialog Boxes

2008-08-07T10:19:00.002+05:30

Terragen video

2008-08-06T19:04:00.003+05:30

WHIZZBALL

2007-05-27T19:56:00.002+05:30

Whizzball
I, Chandru Arni found this puzzle as an excellent puzzle game and have enjoyed both "Solving" the puzzles and "Creating" them. To be honest I prefer creating them.

I also assure both adults and children to play together and have more fun both playing and testing their creativity on this wonderful puzzle game. I hate games that show brutality and indulge in violence. If they want entertainment I recommend "Whizzball" .

As defined in the site
“ A WhizzBall! puzzle is made up of a grid, a drop funnel (where the ball begins its journey to the target), a target (where the ball should end up) and building bricks, which you'll find in the scrollable bar below the grid. The building bricks roll, bounce, direct, punch and throw the ball towards the target.”

CREATING
When I create the puzzle I start by placing the Drop funnel and then place the Building Bricks,one or two at a time and then test ( ie. drop the ball in the Funnel and see where it finally lands). Once I have exhausted all my imagination for each game and the several routes the ball has too travel, I place the target and test once more.If the ball finally hits the target, the puzzle is complete. You can then SUBMIT the puzzle for others too play and you are awarded points to keep you competitive. The site also rates your puzzle as Easy,medium,hard and very hard;besides awarding "stars" for popularity. ( Incidentally,one of my puzzles exhibited in this blog was rated "very hard" and earned 5 stars for popularity)

SOLVING
You are only shown the Drop funnel , the Target , the Grid spaces occupied ( in grey) and the available Building bricks. You have to reconstruct the puzzle. You are allowed to ask for a clue ( but you lose points !).

Having said this , I show with some illustrations what the puzzle looks like, but nothing is better than going to this link:

(http://kids.discovery.com/games/whizzball/whizzball.html )

The only problem with the site is that there are literally hundreds of thousands of players and you have to select a fancy USERNAME as most have been taken up !

Intelligent design

2007-02-02T17:27:00.000+05:30

President Bush has said that he believes that intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories in US schools. I wonder why he said that ? Most of the scientific establishment feel that though intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory he has tried to cleverly introduce students, particularly Christian, to his own religious belief. This type of debate will get no one anywhere. It is the same as teaching astrology as a science in India when there is no scientific basis.

I humorously leave the debate to these morfs I made using the early Freeware Software from Morpheus. The latest version is in www.morpheussoftware.net and you have to buy it now !

Electrifying experience with a lone Elephant

2007-01-30T18:15:00.000+05:30

I wish to share a most electrifying recent experience for the 4 0f us. On 7th January we were motoring in a travel agency SUV from Mysore to Coonoor ( hill station in South India) and we were in the region between Madhumalai and Bandipur (I guess I was around the 56th Km milestone). Around 4 pm as we turned a small curve on the road, right in front of us, on the main road, about 50 to 60 yards in front of us stood a huge elephant all alone with its mammoth tuskers facing us. The driver. Subbu saw him and brought the car to a halt. I was in the front seat with him (Hema and Vidyuth and Bhavani were in the back seats) and I could clearly see him. I was in fright. The elephant put a step forward and started to charge at the car with his tusks down. Subbu had the presence of mind and skillfully reversed the car in high speed. The “Yannai” ( Tamil for Elephant) must have covered about 20 yards in his charge and when he saw us backing off, he stopped and slowly moved off the road. We just talked about this in a low voice and waited. The elephant partially hid himself in the dense bamboos but I could see his tusks and he was waiting for our next move. In another few seconds he had disappeared. Vidyuth, my son, had a shot of him whilst in the car and that’s the only picture we got.

All the way we discussed the event. The driver who was making regular trips in this area said he never ever experienced a ‘charge’. He felt that had he delayed the reversal, the car would have been turned over. We all agreed. He have never known how fast an elephant can “dash”. I don’t believe he was a rogue as otherwise we would have heard about this. I believe he was with a smallish herd and he was unwell or slightly injured and was not able to keep up with them. Seeing a big SUV moving towards him left him no options ---- well this is just my theory.

36 OFFICERS PROBLEM - Part 3

2006-11-21T11:00:00.000+05:30

In Part 2, we annunciated Euler’s “36 Officers Problem. In spite of much experimentation, he was unable to discover a Latin-Graeco square of order 6. He was also unable to prove that it did not exist. He therefore made the famous conjecture, which meant that:

“ There does not exist such a Latin-Graeco Square whose order has the form
n = 4k + 2 ”

In the first case of k = 0: n=2 is trivially impossible. The next case k = 1: n=6 is, according to Euler’s conjecture, impossible and so also cases where n= 10, 14,18, 22,26 …. etc are impossible. This conjecture went unsolved for over 100 years. In1900, a French mathematician, Gaston Terry checked every possible combination for a 6 x 6 Euler square and showed that none existed, partly proving Euler’s conjecture.

Finally in 1960, Bose, Shrikhande and Parker managed to prove that Euler squares (i.e. Latin-Graeco squares) exist for all orders except for n=6. (and obviously form=2)

The Euler Square which is shown on the left where n = 10, which for 177 years had been believed to be impossible was finally constructed by Parker in 1960.Here in each column and in each row each color of the outer square and each colour of the inner square occurs only once. No combination of 2 colours occurs twice.

36 Officers Problem – Part 2

2006-11-19T10:05:00.000+05:30

The great mathematician Euler (1707-1783) was an authority on magic squares and did a considerable amount of work on Latin Squares and Graeco Latin squares. He even came up with methods for constructing them. But he could never produce a Graeco Latin Square of the order 6. (n=6). This led him to state the famous “ 36 Officers Problem”. It goes like this.

“ Is it possible to arrange six regiments, each consisting of six officers of different ranks, in such a way that that no row or column contains two or more officers from the same regiment or with the same rank.” This simply meant can you construct a Latin-Graeco Square of order 6 ?”

The above is a diagrammatic colorful representation of some of the solutions for Latin-Graeco squares starting from n=3 to n=9. The squares of n = 8 and n = 9 was based on the method of construction by Bose.

36 OFFICERS PROBLEM - Part 1

2006-11-15T12:23:00.000+05:30

In my recently designed game www.sodokogame.com I mentioned Euler’s “36 officers problem” as the driving force. In this article I propose to say a little bit more without using Combinatorial Mathematics, as I too have difficulty in grasping this. I will explain by means of necessary diagrams.

First we must know what is a LATIN square and what is a Graeco-Latin square ( also referred to as Euler squares ) as the latter was the basis of the “36 Officers Problem” .

A LATIN square is an n x n table filled with n different symbols in such a way that each occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column.

A GRAECO-LATIN square is also an n x n table, each cell of which contains a PAIR of symbols, composed of a symbol from each of 2 sets of n elements. Each PAIR occurs exactly once in the table. Each SYMBOL in the 2 sets occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. Another way of defining is as follows. When two Latin squares are constructed, one with Latin letters and one with Greek letters, in such a way that when superposed, each Latin letter appears once and only once with each Greek letter, the resulting square is called a Graeco-Latin square.

In the image above we see 2 LATIN squares and 1 GRAECO-LATIN square in letters and below I have represented them in colors, for easy understanding and that is the manner I will use for the remainder of this article.

Sudoku Board Game Launched

2006-10-28T10:16:00.000+05:30

The 2-person Sudoku Board game, which I had temporarily removed from this site for 3 months from August 2005 for security and confidentiality reasons, was put back on my site on December 26th 2005. The 2-person game was being developed for the net by a team of 4 with myself being the 4th member. The other team members were working people and gave-up a part of their weekends of their weekends to work on this game.

They believed that this game was better than the famous SUDOKU puzzle (which was solitary) and since they belonged to the Gaming industry where multi-players are involved or engaged, they readily took up the challenge.

The Team members are:
Sole Programmer …………………… ………John Jos
Concept Art /Artist…………………………...Pratik Jaiswal
Inventor/Designer……………………………Chandru Arni (myself)
but the man who shaped & controlled it
and made it happen was…………………….. Sumit Mehra

Through this blog I once again sincerely thank them for their time and effort.

Now, I am pleased to announce that the game has been released .It is a 2-person game somewhat similar to the Sudoku Puzzle which itself is based on Euler's Latin Squares. Instead of being alone solving a puzzle you play a game with another player. In this version the other player is the computer. Please visit www.sodokogame.com

With your comments, feedbacks and support I can take this a level up and host it as multiplayer game where two people can connect and play.

Note: To see this link you can click on the right hand side as I have made the link as one of my favorites and named it My Sudoku Board Game

Prototype of 2 person SUDOKU Board Game

2005-12-26T18:08:00.000+05:30

Below are two photographs of the 2-person SUDOKU Board Game.
If anyone (Mattel, HasBro etc.) in the Board-Game industry interested please contact me for more details.

Board Game (For 2) of Suduku

2005-12-26T17:53:00.000+05:30

Board Game (For 2) of Suduku

2005-12-26T17:48:00.000+05:30

Sodoko Game _markers update

2005-12-26T17:02:00.000+05:30

To ensure that there is always a winner and no Stalemate , I have introduced seven types of markers and 5 of each type instead of 6 types of markers x 6.

SUDOKU GAME ON COMPUTER PLATFORM

2005-12-26T16:53:00.000+05:30

Sudoku is back

2005-12-26T16:29:00.000+05:30

The 2-person Sodoko game is back on my site for your reading enjoyment. I had temporarily removed it for 3 months (August-October) for security and confidentiality reasons:
I was developing the board game,
And, with a friend from IGDA, was in the process of “productizing” the game for the PC platform.
Wish me Luck.

Winning Sodoko Game

2005-12-26T12:23:00.000+05:30

Correct Play

2005-12-26T12:21:00.000+05:30

Sodoko Game - Bad play

2005-12-26T12:17:00.000+05:30

The Start of the game

2005-12-26T12:13:00.000+05:30

Sudoku as a 2 person Game

2005-12-26T12:09:00.000+05:30

I have made Sudoku into made into a game for 2 players. My game uses a 6 x 6 Grid ( 36 cells) with 6 rectangular blocks of 3 x 2. Almost the same rules of Sudoku prevail (i.e. each row, each column and each rectangular block can only have 6 different markers without repetition). At the start the Board is empty and there is a common pool of 36 markers ( which can be used by both players). The first player selects any 3 markers and gives it to the 2nd player to place on the board. After the 2nd player’s placement, he in turn chooses 3 markers and gives it to the 1st player to place on the board. The game proceeds in similar fashion in turns. The first player to complete any row or column or the 3x2 rectangular box wins ( he does not have to use all his 3 markers to accomplish this). A player loses if he cannot legally place all his 3 markers. The tactics lie not only in the placement but in the selection of the markers to give to the other player. I give examples of poor play when one cant place the 3 markers , and good play and a winning play.

2005-12-26T12:04:00.000+05:30

Remembering Rosa Parks

2005-10-30T20:10:00.000+05:30

I felt very sad last week when Mrs Rosa Parks died at the age of 92. She was to the Black Americans as what Mahatma Gandhi is to us, Indians.

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress, Mrs Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. (The city laws at that time forced Blacks to sit only at the back of the bus.). This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere. Her arrest prompted over a year’s boycott of city buses by blacks — led by Martin Luther King , who was then unknown . The following 10 years saw a huge, mostly non –violent struggle for African Americans right to vote and an end to segregation.

In 1893, a 24-year-old Indian lawyer arrived in Durban to take part in a lawsuit in Transvaal. Just before he was to return to India, he had to travel to Johannesburg on business. He booked a first-class train ticket to Johannesburg – and was ordered out of the train because of his colour. He spent a cold night in the non–European waiting - room at Pietermaritzburg railway station. The lawyer’s name was Mahatma Gandhi. – and the rest is history.

I also feel very angry that USA having had only 40 years of experience of giving equality to their own countrymen, which was based on color now wants to preach and establish in the world its arrogant idea of democracy, peace and civil rights. By its own record the USA is the biggest terrorist having dropped Atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima,(when the war was almost ending,) interfering and killing innocents in countries which posed no threat to it , such as Vietnam and now in Iraq, and exhibiting unpardonable sexual and violent sins to so called prisoners. More on that later ……

Sudoku_Beginners 4x4 with color symbols

2005-07-16T12:04:00.000+05:30

Probably this would be more appealing than the digits 1 to 4 used in the last teaching exercise.

Sudoku _ beginners logic for 4 x 4 grid

2005-07-12T19:13:00.000+05:30

Sudoku - for beginners

2005-07-12T18:48:00.000+05:30

These images need no explanation.The concept of Sudoku is shown under various grid sizes. I have done this to encourage beginners to attempt the main 9 x 9 Sudoku. No maths or calculations are involved, just logic. Colours or symbols can be substituted for the numbers. It is just like a Crossword Puzzle

Sudoku - Tutorials, Contests and Cheating

2005-07-12T13:29:00.000+05:30

SUDOKU : Tutorials, Contests and Cheating.
The main site of the pioneer , Wayne Gould, trading as Pappocom is http://www.sudoku.com/ .Clicking on the link on the left column “how to solve” leads you to a very good tutorial.
Another good tutorial is found here along with examples : http://www.puzzle.jp/letsplay/sudokuruleflash-e.html

Every month one or more newspapers/magazines presently hold contests. One of the sites that hold this is http://www.sudoku.com/contest.htm where every month there is a contest and the solution and winner is declared the following month. You may want to try it !

If you want an unfair (Cheat !) advantage, or need to know the answer to the latest one that's driving you nutty, or you just want to know what the fuss is all about, why not check out Guy's Sudoku Solver at http://www.sudoku-solver.org.uk/ ?
This will solve your Sudoku problem in seconds while you watch!
You can also use it to create your own puzzles and solutions to give to friends. Either way you'll be onto a winner. Unfortunately it does not make use of the techniques stated herein but solves them inelegantly using Computer Brute Force.

Another site, where, given a puzzle you can solve it there is : http://www.sudokusolver.co.uk/

Sudoku - Solving techniques

2005-07-12T12:21:00.000+05:30

SUDOKU –Solving techniques
Fundamentally there exist 2 logical methods of solution:
First: In elimination, progress is made by successively eliminating candidate numbers from one or more cells to leave just one choice. After each answer has been achieved, another scan may be performed - usually checking to see the effect of the latest number. There are a number of elimination tactics. One of the most common is "unmatched candidate deletion". Cells with identical sets of candidate numbers are said to be matched if the quantity of candidate numbers in each is equal to the number of cells containing them. For example, cells are said to be matched within a particular row, column, or region if two cells contain the same pair of candidate numbers (p,q) and no others, or if three cells contain the same triple of candidate numbers (p,q,r) and no others. These are essentially coincident contingencies. These numbers (p,q,r) appearing as candidates elsewhere in the same row, column, or region in unmatched cells can be deleted.
Second: In the what-if approach, a cell with only two candidate numbers is selected and a guess is made. The steps above are repeated unless a duplication is found, in which case the alternative candidate is the solution. In logical terms this is known as reductio ad absurdum : For each candidate for a cell, the question is posed: will entering a particular number prevent completion of the other placements of that number? If the answer if yes, then that candidate can be eliminated. The what-if approach requires a pencil and eraser. This approach may be frowned on by logical purists as too much Trial and Error but it can arrive at solutions fairly rapidly.

Ideally one needs to find a combination of techniques which avoids some of the drawbacks of the above elements. The counting of regions, rows, and columns can feel boring. Writing candidate numbers into empty cells can be time-consuming. The what-if approach can be confusing unless you are well organised. The SOLUTION is to find a technique which minimises counting, marking up, and rubbing out.
To get this drudgery out of the way try this link http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/ which is “Simple Sudoku” and it does the “markings” for you. In this site also see the "a step by step guide for solving Sudoku" on the very first page. It is excellent.

For persons not familiar with reductio ad absurdum, it is a mode of argumentation that that seeks to establish a contention by deriving an absurdity from its denial, thus arguing that a thesis must be accepted because its rejection would be untenable. It is a style of reasoning that has been employed throughout the history of mathematics and philosophy from classical antiquity onwards. Say, I have a Su Doku puzzle partially filled in and I see there are two squares within a box, row or column where some symbol could go. If I show that putting it in one box leads to a chain of logical deductions from which a contradiction follows, then the alternative must be correct. Many mathematical theorems can be proven using proof by use of reductio ad absurdum, for example the fact that the square root of 2 is not the ratio of two integers.( My observation: Even though the proof of the irrationality of the square root of two using this method is accepted by mathematicians ,I still believe it is not the strictest proof ; it is indirect proof.)

Sudoku - History

2005-07-11T19:53:00.000+05:30

Sudoku - Its History
The game was created around 1783 by a Swiss mathematical genius named Leonard Euler. He called such puzzles as Latin Squares. These were also grids of equal dimensions ( starting with 4 x 4) in which every number or symbol occurs once in each row and column. It differs from the Sudoku grid only in the subdivision of blocks conditionality. In the 1980’s the game turned up in the United States and was renamed the Number Place Game. However a Japanese puzzle magazine found an example of this in an American magazine, modified the game into a slightly more difficult verssion and christened it as Sudoku which means “number single”. It was introduced to the Japanese readers in 1984 and the game became a craze. However the present domination of the game is due to a retired New Zealand lawyer and puzzle fan Wayne Gould, aged 59, who spent six years developing a computer program to mass produce the puzzles. He promoted this final version to the Times and Daily Mail in November 2004. The immense popularity of Soduku internationally is being dubbed in the world media variously as the “Rubik’s cube of the 20th Century” or the “fastest growing puzzle in the world today’. As I mentioned earlier there is no mathematics involved and a person need not be even literate. It is amenable to symbols or colors.

Sudoku -What is it ?

2005-07-11T14:27:00.000+05:30

SODUKU - What is it
For anyone who doesn't know, it's a puzzle now found in most newspapers, books and online. A simple-looking grid of nine rows by nine, split into nine boxes, each containing nine squares, it looks like just another numbers game. Almost every newspaper carries this game now and already it is on cellphones and TV and recently introduced as a board game. It's the latest craze and it is addictive ! Addicts are as obsessed as 1980s teenagers fixated on the Rubik's cube. The internet is awash with chat about Su Doku and programmers are tapping away to find the best system for creating and solving the puzzles. Before I go further into this I quote from the 2 great mathematicians:

"Puzzles and Paradoxes have been popular since antiquity, and, in amusing themselves with these playthings men have sharpened their wits and whetted their ingenuity. But it was not for amusement alone that Kepler, Pascal, Fermat, Leibnitz, Euler, Lagrange, Cayley and many others devoted so much time to puzzles. Researches in Recreational Mathematics were guided by the same principles and required the same faculties as the researches leading to the most profound discoveries in mathematics or science. (Edward Kasner & James R. Newman)"

Again, Wait on. It is nothing to do with Mathematics. Even illiterates can solve them. Sudoku is not a mathematical or arithmetical puzzle. It works just as well if the numbers are substituted with letters or some other symbols, but numbers work best.

SUDOKU _ How to solve.
It is very simple. Fill in the blanks in the 9 x 9 Grid so that every row, column and every 3 x 3 box contains the digit 1 thru 9. There is no math involved. Nothing has to add up to anything else. You solve the puzzle through logic and reasoning. The puzzle rewards Applied Logic as it encourages you to apply the principles of deduction and induction. It is simple and yet fiendish and once played, utterly addictive. If you just try guessing you wont get very far, I assure you !

Double Vision 2

2005-06-13T19:28:00.000+05:30

Double Vision (Diplopia)
A few days back I had the misfortune of being confronted with this eye problem of double vision, also called Binocular diplopia. Diplopia causes a person to see two images of a single object. There are two types of double vision: monocular and binocular. Monocular diplopia is double vision in only one eye. The double vision continues in the affected eye even when the other eye is covered. The doubling does not go away when you look in different directions. What I have is Binocular diplopia - double vision related to a misalignment of the eyes. Binocular diplopia, however, does go away when either eye is closed. I see a double vision when I open both eyes. However if I closed one eye, I clearly see a single image, near or far. Any problem that affects one or more of the muscles around the eyeball that control the direction of the gaze can cause binocular diplopia. Besides, nerves can be injured by brain damage caused by infection, multiple sclerosis, stroke, head trauma or a brain tumor. If the specialist, after his examination feel that further investigations are required you may need to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or (CT) scan, etc. Fortunately my Super Neuro Ophthalmologist was of the opinion that as a result of my medical history ( previously having had a Stroke and Heart attack ) and age (77 yrs) and his tests , that the indications were a muscle dysfunction or a mild paralysis of this or the cranial nerve, and it should resolve itself in 8 weeks to 6 months. Presently I am wearing a patch over one eye to prevent visual confusion till the new prism lens arrives. This is for distance vision. The Neuro Ophthalmologist, by holding my head in his hands and moving it in different directions was able to prescribe the Prism Lens ( #4, in this case) to be incorporated in my new spectacles. However in near vision I will have to close the weaker right eye.
I will relate to you how it happened but I give below some sketches made by me after the specialist examined my eyes.

Double Vision

2005-06-13T19:17:00.000+05:30

On June 4th 2005 I was having several bouts of headache, some dizziness/ giddiness and an uncomfortable feeling. I kept treating this with CROCIN (Paracetomol). It became really worse the next day. So I took my BP with my home Omron Digital Blood Pressure Monitor. It was 90/50 with pulse at 45 bpm. PANIC. Decided to see my Cardiologist and he measured it as 100/50/50. ECG was done. No significance. Told to discontinue BP medicines except Aspirin. Asked for investigations for Blood Sugar, Blood Urea, Blood Picture, Creatine and Lipid profile. As tests were to be done on an empty stomach they were done next day. Results were normal - nothing significant.
But BP had returned to 120/90 with pulse 55 bpm. However, now there no dizziness now but was having Double vision. (It may have been there earlier but was lost in my dizziness!). The Cardiologist referred me to an expert Ophthalmologist who found I had Binocular diplopia that would in time heal itself. Not being convinced I went to an Eye Institute and was examined by another expert Ophthalmologist, who, to make sure referred me to an in-house Neuro Ophthalmologist whose examination and results I have already given. Time for self-healing was 8 weeks to 6 months. No medicines or eye exercises were prescribed. Advised to keep hypertension in check and not to search for double images. He had the courage and confidence of his diagnosis that he did not ask for a MRI and CT scans to get additional information.

Now what caused this? Well, I have had a history of “blood thickening” in that I had a stroke 15 years back when I lost my voice for 10 days, a heart attack 5 years back and a “temporary loss of vision” for almost a minute 2 years back. I am by nature very excitable and suffer from hypertension. I had cataract surgery and lens replacement for both eyes a few years back. Fortunately I have no diabetes and I am 77 years young. Again! What caused this? During the first week of June I was reading, as usual newspapers for 1.5 hours in the morning, then watching TV for 5 hours per day (French Open), followed up with a 2 hour session on the computer where I was trying to figure out the relationship of the now famous puzzle Sudoku and its relationship with Euler’s work on magic squares and the algorithms for programming such, etc, apart from solving these puzzles for another hour. I continue to work on the computer and continue studying the subject of Eulerian squares to invent another Mindgame !Was this really such a strain on the eyes to result in double vision or was it a coincidence or was it a random age related problem?

Fractal Art

2005-05-31T12:10:00.000+05:30

Fractal Art is a specialized form of Digital Art and has been around for approximately 15 years. It is a genre concerned with fractals-shapes or sets characterized by self similarity (small portions of the image resemble the overall shape) and an infinite amount of detail. Fractals are created on a computer, using an iterative ( repetitive algorithm) numerical process. The word 'fractal' was coined by Benoit B. Mandelbrot. Generating fractals can be an artistic endeavor, a mathematical pursuit, or just a soothing diversion. Today there are many pieces of software that can produce astonishing Fractal Art. Knowledge of Mathematics is not essential to use these programs.
I have used several Fractal generating software- namely Fractint, FracXtreme, Grafvision, TieraZon and UltraFractals to produce Fractal Art. The one above depicting GANESHA is done by me using UltraFractal program.
The main point of any discussion is “Is Fractal Art really ART?”. My answer is “YES. Most definitely yes. “. To know more about this subject I strongly suggest you go to http://www.fractalus.com/fractal-art-faq/

suicide

2005-05-25T12:22:00.000+05:30

If the state does not allow one to take a life then how come the state allows a soldier to kill and also pays him for it ?
At the outset we are speaking of a person making a decision in a stable state of mind rather than an instant decision following some frustration or depression.
The person who is contemplating suicide is obviously making a choice between what the future holds for him by staying alive or otherwise. If he has thought through this, and believes that if he were not to take this measure he would continue to live a difficult and painful life , then he has a reason and a right to commit suicide The right to suicide is a right of noninterference and is a right to his personal liberty, so long as he does not harm or imperil others. Even if suicide is harmful to family members or loved ones, this does not support an absolute prohibition on his attempted suicide. The arguments invoking God and religion are just evasive arguments. So also the argument of what the State or Government has enacted. The State or Government should clearly spell out what it will do to help out in a case of a person contemplating suicide is made to decide otherwise. No State has deliberated on the right to die. I shall go still further and defend SATI (in case it is not enforced on her and she does it on her free will.). The Indian Government does not allow SATI ( the act of a widow committing suicide by throwing herself on the dead husband’s funeral pyre). It is only she who knows of the consequences of what the State, her immediate society and the family will bring upon her.... And she has this right to decide what she has to do with her own life. If causing death to ones attacker can be treated as self-defence and the act condoned, by reverse argument all these acts fall in the same category.

In conclusion the basic question a person must answer is to determine which world-course is best or rational for him to choose without causing legitimate harm to others.