An eating dilemna

Hmm. Since when has cutting the cake become such a problem? Quick Gun Murugan, Revolver Rita and Bogustatistix are wondering how to split the cheesecake sitting on the table. Each wants the maximum share possible. Since the three are alone at home, a neutral and certified third person (such as Agmark Mano (further clearance granted through ISO 9000 certification))cannot help in evenly splitting the cake. Each cannot be trusted to act in good faith (implicitly).

Question: Can you help by suggesting a mechanism to split the cake evenly?

My roles…. (Confusing roles of a woman)

This is a poem written by blogger "prof" .Since she has forgotten her l0gin id & passwd, I am taking the role of an assistant and pasting it from a file.

What role do I don?

The sacrificing mother,
Or the loving daughter?
Should I be the willing wife,
Offering myself,
Or just for a change,
An eager lover?
The woman with the shell,
Or simply the woman with a heart?
Should I protect myself,
From the jibes, or
Just let joy flow,
As HE willed it to be?
The bubbling laughter,
Bursting to spring forth,
Should I stifle it with a soft,
Muffle, deep into the soul?

The unknown love, reaching to
The world;
Is it to be sung, or swallowed,
In mute silence?
Am I all the roles I don,
Or am I just a sham?

Roll Baby Roll

Meera spent the better part of last week, researching joggers and umbrella strollers. One consistent theme I noticed was that joggers/strollers with bigger wheels got better reviews. People commented that bigger wheels absorbed the bumps better and I was left pondering the point. With a pen and paper and some diagrams, it became obvious why. So I thought I will share my thoughts  in this blog.

             Fig 1                                  Fig 3

          

Fig 1, shows a small wheel going over a bump in the pavement. Here the bump is approx. equal to the diameter of the wheel and so the wheel dips by an amount equal to its radius. Baby feels the bump obviously. Fig 2, shows the same gap in the pavement. But this time a wheel with a much bigger radius rolls over it. Here obviously only a small portion of the arc of the wheel dips. Its clear that bigger the wheel, lesser the dip. Ideally a wheel so big that its curvature is almost flat would have no dip at all.... but that would be a really really big wheel.

The other scenario is when going over the edge of curbs. If the height of the curb is approximately equal to the radius of the wheel, like in Fig 3.  Then it becomes clear that a horizontal force will not be enough to make the wheel roll over the curb. You need a bit of vertical force too. But the bigger the radius of the wheel w.r.t the height of the curb, the easier it is to apply a horizontal force and have the wheel roll over it.

Its now pretty obvious why the joggers have huge wheels- the ones we finally got has 20" rims (diameter) compared to 3" rims on the regular stroller. But everything cannot be peachy, there has to be disadvantages to big rims. One comes pretty fast- the bigger the radius then lesser the rate of curvature per unit length. And lesser the rate of curvature per unit length then lesser the strength of the wheel. In other words if you go fast over a huge bump, the wheel could bend. Of course this is also a function of the inherent strength of the material used to make the wheel.  But all things being equal- a smaller wheel holds its shape better than a larger wheel. The other negative I could think of- bigger the wheel, more the metal needed to make the wheel. Which increases the weight. So the need to go in for alloys to reduce the weight while retaining the same strength, which of course increases the cost. 

How much is your life worth?

I was reading the following news article http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14599305

It talks about a doctor “Dr.Horror” who has been tracked down in Canada. In a nutshell, this is what he did

“Kumar, dubbed as ''Dr Horror'' by media for allegedly supplying hundreds of kidneys bought or coerced from the country's poor was reportedly running the operation partly from an unknown location in Canada where his family is said to be living”.

Yes, he was selling kidneys to potential transplant recipients while getting them from the poor people in India. This guy is not the only one, there are numerous others like him. Poor people are usually lured into this with the promise of money and are left high and dry after the surgery ,once their kidney is removed. Pathetic, huh?. Legally, Indian government does not allow live donor transplants to take place unless the donor is related to the recipient. But, there are numerous hospitals which turn a blind eye and accept this since it involves saving a life.

This got me thinking…What would I have done if my mother was not able to donate her kidney ? I was 23 and would have done almost anything for survival. There used to be an agent in the hospital where I was operated. He used to bring people who were interested in selling their kidneys for 100,000 Indian Rupees (~$2500 ). 10 years ago, this amount was quite a handful, especially for poor people. The donor needs to sign somewhere saying he is related to the recipient and knows him well etc etc..and the process was done. I am assuming the agent would get his commission at the end of the day. I would have definitely gone to the agent if all my other resources failed. But, at least he was not cheating them. “That is what I like to think”. Maybe, he was . It was almost a legal transaction where everyone understood what the other person was doing.If I had gone that way, I might have actually given more money and might even be in touch with the donor till today. But, there are numerous others who may not care. And the persons who donated did not think about saving a life. They were there just for the money. Once , during one of my follow-ups, I met a man in the waiting room , who wanted to sell his kidney. He was very paranoid about doing it and wanted to consult the doctor. He wanted to know how my mother was faring after the surgery. He was badly in need of money as his business has tanked and he thought this was the only way to get out of it. I tried to convince him saying that he was saving a life, rather almost giving life to a person .Yes, it was about the money but for an ultimately good cause. He did not understand it and I don’t know if he ever will. I wish I could put myself in his shoes and think like him. It all comes down to priorities, I guess. To me, saving a life is priceless.

The megaserial conundrum

Does cohabitation lead to preference effects in the choice of television program viewership? I read a paper which essentially answered this question and the verdict is that the wives' viewing behavior depends more strongly on the husbands' choices and not vice versa. Obviously the analysis was done based on viewers in the United States. Imagine translating to the Indian market. Does the husband in a typical Indian household, prompt his wife to watch the never ending mega serials? Judging from my interactions with friends back home, that does not seem to be the case. But can I be definitive in my conclusions? Of course not! So guys, what is the likelihood that you will end up watching "Kyon ki saans bhi kabhi bahu thi" or "Chitti" or whatever? (I dont watch TV here, so I dont know if there are comparable programs here).