Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Anagram Poems

I found interesting anagram poems when I searched the term ''Anagrammatic poetry" in google.

The poem below, in yellow, was written by Shel Silverstein. Below it, in rose, is an anagram of the poem created by Meyran Kraus. It scans and rhymes well, paraphrasing the original remarkably closely. Such anagrams take a lot of time and patience to produce.

The Little Boy and the Old Man
Shel Silverstein

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.


And here is the anagram poem:

The Tot and the Elder
Olin Foblioso & Billy Foblioso

The tiny tot went: "When I eat I mess up."
The elder replied: "O, that makes two of us."
"I soil myself," went the tot with shame
And the elder added: "O, I do the same."
On the tot told him: "I sob a lot."
"O, not only you," answered gramps to the tot.
"And what's totally bad," the tiny tot told,
"I think mom and dad don't love me at all."
While grandpa simply, pitiably smiled,
then said: "O, I understand, my child."


Article idea: http://www.fun-with-words.com/anag_short_long.html

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Few shortcuts used frequently in Windows word...

1. Ctrl + Shift + A All Caps
Makes the selection all capitals (toggle)
2. Alt + Ctrl + 1 ApplyHeading1
Applies Heading 1 style to the selected text
3. Alt + Ctrl + 2 ApplyHeading2
Applies Heading 2 style to the selected text
4. Alt + Ctrl + 3 ApplyHeading3
Applies Heading 3 style to the selected text
5. Ctrl + Shift + L Apply List Bullet
Applies List Bullet style to the selected text
6. Alt + F10 App Maximize
Enlarges the application window to full size
7. Alt + F5 App Restore
Restores the application window to normal size
8. Ctrl+B Bold
Makes the selection bold (toggle)
9. Ctrl + PgDn Browse Next
Jump to the next browse object
10. Ctrl + PgUp Browse Previous
Jump to the previous browse object
11. Alt + Ctrl + Home Browse Select
Select the next/prev browse object
12. Esc Cancel
Terminates an action
13. Ctrl+E Center Paragraph
Centers the paragraph between the indents
14. Shift+F3 Change Case
Changes the case of the letters in the selection
15. Left arrow Character Left
Moves the insertion point to the left one character
16. Shift + Left arrow Character Left Extend
Extends the selection to the left one character
17. Right arrow Character Right
Moves the insertion point to the right one character
18. Shift + Right arrow Character Right Extend
Extends the selection to the right one character
19. Alt + Shift + C Close Pane
Closes the active window pane (if you are in Normal View and have, for example, the Footnote pane open)
20. Alt+Drag (or press Ctrl + Shift + F8 and drag) Column Select
Selects a columnar block of text
21. Ctrl +Shift+C Copy Format
Copies the formatting of the selection
22. Shift + F2 Copy Text
Makes a copy of the selection without using the clipboard (press Return to paste)
23. Alt + F3 Create AutoText
Adds an AutoText entry to the active template
24. Ctrl+ Backspace Delete Back Word
Deletes the previous word without putting it on the Clipboard
25. Ctrl + Del Delete Word
Deletes the next word without putting it on the Clipboard
26. Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F4 Document Close
Prompts to save the document and then closes the active window. (But doesn't intercept the menu command)
27. Ctrl + F10 Document Maximize
Enlarges the active window to full size
28. Ctrl + F7 Document Move
Changes the position of the active window
29. Ctrl + F5 Document Restore
Restores the window to normal size
30. Ctrl + F8 Document Size
Changes the size of the active window
31. Alt + Ctrl + S Document Split
Splits the active window horizontally and then adjusts the split
32. Alt + Shift + F9 Do Field Click
Executes the action associated with macro button fields
33. Ctrl + Shift + D Double Underline
Double underlines the selection (toggle)
34. Alt R, G Draw Group
Groups the selected drawing objects
35. Alt R, I Draw Snap To Grid
Sets up a grid for aligning drawing objects
36. Alt R, U Draw Ungroup
Ungroups the selected group of drawing objects
37. Ctrl+Shift+F5 (Or: Alt I, K) Edit Bookmark
Brings up the bookmark dialog
38. Del Edit Clear
Performs a forward delete or removes the selection without putting it on the Clipboard
39. Ctrl+C Edit Copy
Copies the selection and puts it on the Clipboard
40. Ctrl+X Edit Cut
Cuts the selection and puts it on the Clipboard
41. Ctrl+F Edit Find
Finds the specified text or the specified formatting
42. F5, Ctrl+G Edit Go To
Jumps to a specified place in the active document
43. Alt E, K Edit Links
Allows links to be viewed, updated, opened, or removed
44. Ctrl+V Edit Paste
Inserts the Clipboard contents at the insertion point
45. Alt E, S Edit Paste Special Inserts the Clipboard contents as a linked object, embedded object, or other format
46. Alt + Shift + Backspce Edit Redo
Redoes the last action that was undone
47. F4 Edit Redo Or Repeat
Repeats the last command, or redoes the last action that was undone (unfortunately, doesn't work for as many commands in Word 2000 as in Word 97 and below, but this is still one of Word's most useful shortcuts, if not the most useful)
48. Ctrl+H Edit Replace
Finds the specified text or the specified formatting and replaces it
49. Ctrl+A Edit Select
All Selects the entire document
50. Ctrl+Z Edit Undo
Reverses the last action
51. Alt + PageDn (to select to end of column, use Alt + Shift + PgDn) End Of Column
Moves to the last cell in the current table column
52. Ctrl+Shift+End End Of Document Extend
Extends the selection to the end of the last line of the document
53. Ctrl+End End Of Document
Moves the insertion point to the end of the last line of the document
54. End End Of Line
Moves the insertion point to the end of the current line
55. Shift+End End Of Line
Extend Extends the selection to the end of the current line
56. Alt+End End Of Row
Moves to the last cell in the current row
57. Alt + Ctrl + PgDn End Of Window
Moves the insertion point to the end of the last visible line on the screen
58. Shift + Alt + Ctrl + PgDn End Of Window
Extend Extends the selection to the end of the last visible line on the screen
59. F8 (press Esc to turn off) Extend Selection
Turns on extend selection mode and then expands the selection with the direction keys
60. Alt + F4 File Close Or Exit
Closes the current document, or if no documents are open, quits Word. Horrible command, as it makes it a long winded business to quit Word. But there's a simple solution - assign Alt+F4 to FileExit instead.
61. Ctrl+N File New Default
Creates a new document based on the Normal template.
62. Ctrl+O File Open
Opens an existing document or template
63. Alt F, U File Page Setup
Changes the page setup of the selected sections
64. Ctrl + P File Print
Prints the active document (brings up the dialog)
65. Ctrl+F2 File Print
Preview Displays full pages as they will be printed
66. Alt F, I File Properties
Shows the properties of the active document
67. Ctrl+S File Save
File Save
68. Alt F, A (or F12) File SaveAs
Saves a copy of the document in a separate file (brings up the dialog)
69. Ctrl+Shift+F Font
Activates the Fonts listbox on the formatting toolbar
70. Alt I, L Insert File
Inserts the text of another file into the active document
71. Ctrl+Shift+P Font Size
Select Activates the Font Size drop-down on the formatting toolbar
72. Alt + Ctrl + K Format AutoFormat
Automatically formats a document (or sometimes, automatically screws it up)
73. Alt O, B Format Borders And Shading
Changes the borders and shading of the selected paragraphs, table cells, and pictures
74. Alt O, E Format Change Case
Changes the case of the letters in the selection
75. Alt O, C Format Columns
Changes the column format of the selected sections (brings up the dialog)
76. Alt O, D Format Drop Caps
Formats the first character of current paragraph as a dropped capital (must select it first)
77. Ctrl+D Format Font
Brings up the Format + Font dialog
78. Alt + Shift + R Format Header Footer
Link Links the current header/footer to the previous section (but does not intercept the button on the Header Footer toolbar)
79. Alt O, P Format Paragraph
Brings up the Format Paragraph dialog
80. Alt O, S Format Style
Applies, creates, or modifies styles
81. Alt O, T Format Tabs
Brings up the Format Tabs dialog
82. Shift + F5 Go Back
Returns to the previous insertion point (goes back to up to 3 points, then returns to where you started; this is one of the most useful shortcuts of them all. Also useful when opening a document, if you want to g straight to where you were last editing it)
83. Ctrl + > Grow Font
Increases the font size of the selection
84. Ctrl + ] Grow Font One Point
Increases the font size of the selection by one point
85. Ctrl + T (or drag the ruler) Hanging Indent
Increases the hanging indent
86. F1 Help
Microsoft Word Help
87. Shift + F1 Help Tool
Lets you get help on a command or screen region or examine text properties
88. Ctrl + Shift + H Hidden
Makes the selection hidden text (toggle)
89. Ctrl +Click on it Hyperlink Open
Connect to a hyperlink's address
90. Ctrl + M (or drag the ruler) Indent
Moves the left indent to the next tab stop
91. Alt + Ctrl + M (or Alt I, M) Insert Annotation
Inserts a comment
92. F3 Insert AutoText
Replaces the name of the AutoText entry with its contents
93. Alt I, B Insert Break
Ends a page, column, or section at the insertion point
94. Alt I, C Insert Caption
Inserts a caption above or below a selected object
95. Ctrl + Shift + Return Insert Column Break
Inserts a column break at the insertion point
96. Alt + Shift + D Insert Date Field
Inserts a date field
97. Alt + Ctrl + D Insert End
note Now Inserts an endnote reference at the insertion point without displaying the dialog
98. Alt I, F Insert Field
Inserts a field in the active document
99. Ctrl+F9 Insert Field Characters
Inserts an empty field with the enclosing field characters

Article idea: http://c-n-k.blogspot.com/2008/10/few-shortcuts-used-frequently-in.html

Wednesday, October 8, 2008




What is the meaning and origin of beat around the bush?

Sometimes when someone asks us a question, we try and avoid answering it. It's not because we don't know the answer; the answer is rather embarrassing. Therefore, instead of giving the person a direct answer, we go about answering his question in a roundabout way. This indirect way of answering questions is called 'beating about/around the bush'. Very often, people beat about the bush in order to conceal their intention.

*For God's sake, stop beating about/around the bush. How much is it going to cost?

*Will you please stop beating around/about the bush? Just answer my question.


The expression comes from the rather cruel sport of 'batfowling'. In this sport, people ('batfowlers') entered the forest during the night and proceeded to kill 'fowls' (birds) with the 'bats' or clubs they were carrying. The batfowlers and the servants that they took with them used to scare birds by beating around the bush in which they were sleeping. The sleepy birds, dazed and confused by the sudden commotion, would then fly directly to the bright lights that the men were carrying. Here they were beaten to death. The men who were beating about the bush were not really interested in the birds that were sleeping there. Therefore, when someone beats around the bush, he is concealing the thing that he is interested in; he doesn't come to the point directly.

Artivle idea: From The Hindu magazine dated on october 7.

Sunday, October 5, 2008



Following is a dozen of puzzles that I found very interesting. Try to solve them.

1. A man is condemned to death. He is given to say a last statement; if it is truth
he is hanged to death and if it is false he is poisoned. He uttered his last sentence from which he escaped. What is the last statement ?


2. In a 3 way junction there is a house in which there are 2 brothers. Elder one always tell the TRUTH and the younger one alway LIE. Here a man comes from one road and wanted to go for a particular city (say city A) and he don't know which way to take out of the two. He knows that in that house there are 2 brothers who always made TRUE and FALSE statements but he donot know who is who. At one time there is one one brother at home. The traveller asks only one question from one of the brothers who is there at that moment and chooses the correct way for his destination. What is that question and whats the road he chooses ?


3. A,B,C are aligned according to their height. A the shortest. C the tallest. A, B,C are faced left. They cannot see back. C can see A&Bs' head. B can see only A's head and A cannot see anybody's head. After C there is D who holds a gun. ie they stand like A B C D(with the gun)
D has 3 white hats and 2 black hats
ABC are blind fold and hats are put onto their head. After that,
Now C can see A&B's hat colors,
B can see A's hat color

Now respectively C,B,As' chance to predict the color of the hat that they are wearing (one at a time starting with C). If someone made a mistake he will be shot to death(by D). A,B,C are intelligent and try to escape from the death.
They all can hear previous guy's answer and if the previous guy is shot to death the sound of gun fire.
This is what happend.
First C uttered the answer, but shot to death.
Then B uttered the answer, but again shot to death.
Finnally A uttered the answer and it is the correct answer
So he escaped from the death.

What is the answer and explain
how A thought(actually you) that it is the color of
A's hat.



4. You are given two threads which takes 1hr to burn from one end to the other. Using these 2 threads and a matchbox(or lighter) how will you measure 45 minutes You are not allowed to break these threads.


5. A warden of a prison comes back to the prison from a party very drunk. Inhis state, he accidentally turns the key to open all 100 of the jail cells.He realizes what he's done, so he goes back and turns the key on every othercell (thus, now cell 1 is open, cell 2 is closed, cell three is open, etc.).He realizes that he hasn't closed all of them, so he goes back and turns thekey on every third cell (thus, now cell 3 is closed, and cell 6, which heclosed when he turned every other key, is now open). Still drunk, he goesback and turns the key on every 4th, then every 5th, 6th, 7th, etc. until heturns the key on every 100th cell (thus, only on cell #100). After all this,which cells remain open?

6. There are 4 people that need to cross a bridge. Only two can go across at a time and one has to come back with the flashlight each time. They take 1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes. They only walk as fast as the slowest one. They are able to all cross the bridge in 12 minutes. How?


Very good one

7. Pretend you have two strings which burn at random rates but which will alwaysbe completely burned in exactly one hour. Thus, after 1/2 hour the stringswill NOT necessarily be half burned length-wise, only time wise. How do you use these strings to time exactly 45 minutes without using any othertime-keeping device?
It is inaccurate to assume that each 4th of string A will burn in exactly 15 minutes. Three of the fourths could take one minute, and the other could takea full hour (thus, the entire string burns in one hour, as said).
The string, remember, burns at random rates in random places. If you were tocut it into four pieces and light each SEPARATELY so that one would beginburning when another stopped, the sum of the time would be one hour. That isall you can assume. For example, if you lit all of them together, three ofthe fourths could burn in exactly one minute, and the last fourth could take57 minutes. Thus the entire string burns in one hour. That is the onlyassumption you can make. You must look a little beyond just the string.


8. There are 3 settlers and 3 indians on one side of the creek. How can you get them all over to the other side by using a boat that holds two(they can only get there by boat). You can never have more indians than settlers on one side at a time because the indianswill kill the settler.


9. You ask a person to pick a number. Say they pick the number 20, 20 has six lettres in it, so therefore 20 is 6, then you see that 6 has three lettre's in it, so 6 is 3, 3 has five lettres so, 3 is 5, 5 has four lettre's so 5 is 4, and four is cosmic. this pattern works for any number, at all. so quickly, take the number 13 (thirteen), 13 is 8 (eight), 8 is 5 (five), 5 is four and four is cosmic.

10. Three men, members of a safari, are captured by cannibals in the jungle. The men are given one chance to escape with their lives. The men are lined up and bound to stakes such that one man can see the backs of the other two, the middle man can see the back of the front man, and the front man can't see anybody. The men are shown five hats, three of which are black and two of which are white. Then the men are blindfolded, and one of the five hats is placed on each man's head. The remaining two hats are hidden away. The blindfolds are removed. The men are told that if just one of the men can guess what hat he's wearing, they may all go free. Time passes. Finally, the front man, who can't see anyone, correctly guesses the color of his hat. What color was it, and how did he guess correctly?

11. Ten men stand in a line facing same direction.
Random Red or White hat is placed on their head(one hat per person).
One cannot see his own color(of the hat) but can see everybody else's in front of him.
The first man(Man1) cannot see anybody else's whereas the last man(Man10) can see 9hats.
They know ten men got 10 hats but we do not know how many Reds or Whites were there.
The game organizer starts asking men from the last in line(Man10, Man9,... Man2, Man1)
the color of individual's own hat.
When a man gives correct answer he is awarded a one point.
Individual's answers is heard by everybody else in the line. Their correctness exposed at the end.
What is the strategy the group should take to maximize their group score.
Hint : They can get 9 points.

12. X number of cards are placed on table A. Out of X, Y number of them are face down.
You have to move cards (one at a time) from table A to table B.
After the move both tables should have equal number of cards face down.
You are blind folded and sit in the middle of tableA and tableB.
(means you can touch the cards but you cannot see whether they are face up or down)
You are given the values of X and Y.
How do you accomplish this ?


ANSWERS

1."I should be poisoned" think a bit and analyse. Still if you don't get keep on reading.
Explanation : If "I should be poisoned" is TRUE(by sentense) you have to poison him. But according to the rule of the riddle "He should be hanged". Because of the contradiction no one can hang him or poison him. This solves by CONTRADICTION.

2. "If your brother is here instead of you what would he say for the question "What is the correct way to city A" ? " Then he chooses the other road whatever the brother say.

3.A cannot be black, because if A was black, C or B
would live.
If C sees A is black:
if C sees B is also black
then he knows he is white, and lives.
Cannot happen.
else C sees B is white
B knows this because if he were black
and A were black, C would live.
No matter how C answers, B has to be white, if A
is black, or C would live.

Therefore A cannot be black, and has to be white for
both C and B to die.

4.Burn both ends of one thread and one end of the other. After the first thread is burnt completely burn the other end of the second thread. The total time taken by threads to burn will be 45 minutes.


5. All the cells that are perfect squares (1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100)remain open because they have an odd number of multiples so the key will be turned an odd number of times on them, making them open at the end. Allothers have an even number of multiples and will stay closed.

6. 1&2 : 2mins, 1back : 1min, 4&5 : 5mins, 2back : 2mins, 1&2 : 2mins = 12mins

7. The first thing you must understand is that the time which it takes the strings to burn is proportional to the number of flames present on the string. If you light both ends of one of the strings, it will take HALF of an hour to burn, by definition. Thus, to time 45 minutes, here's what you'd do. Light string A at both ends while you simultaneously light string Bon one end. When string A is completely burned up, 30 minutes will have passed. At the moment that this happens, you will have 30 minutes left on string B. Right as string A burns out, light the OTHER end of string B, which will now only burn for 15 more minutes because you have two flames on a30-minute string. When it's gone, 45 minutes total have passed.

8. Any number could be ended in four which always has four letters only.

9.This is similar to the priest devil game that I had preciously posted.
Check the first comment of that game or play the game to find the solution.
http://24x7interestingfacts.blogspot.com/2008/09/priests-n-devils.html

10. If black is 1 and white is 0
All possible combinations :
a. 000
b. 001
c. 010
d. 011
e. 100
f. 101
g. 110
h. 111

a. does not happen ; if e fist buy can answer
if c or g, second guy could have answered
In all other cases 3rd guy wears black.

11. If one sees odd number of (say) Reds he calls RED. Then the one in front

12. Pick a card from tableA , flip the side and place on tableB
You do this until you reach Y.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzles!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

This week may be termed as the week of optical illusions. And here I am coming with yet another optical illusion.

How many colors do you see?



There are only 3 colors: White, green, and pink.
There seem to be two different shades of pink and green, but there is only one pink and one green.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Here is another illusion. I have seen it presented as a puzzle or math problem but commonsense tells us that this must be an illusion. The only thing we have to do is try and explain the illusion.





Solution:

The area of a right triangle is computed by multiplying the base times the height and dividing by two. The pieces of the puzzle have an area of 32 square units. Although they can be assembled to form what appears to be a 13×5 right triangle, they actually form quadrilaterals that are slightly smaller or slightly bigger than a 13×5 right triangle.

The top figure has an area of 32 square units. The bottom figure, including the empty square, has an area of 33 square units. A real 13×5 right triangle would have an area of 32.5 square units. The distortion is difficult to see because one square of the picture is approximately 3% of the area.

The distortion can be seen more clearly when the empty square constitutes a larger percentage of the area, as in the figure below where 1 square represents 13% of the area.

This is an optical illusion that caught my attention!
I was surprised to know that we humans too have blind spots!




Wasn't that funny?



This picture is an ambigram, an image which can be viewed in more than one way depending on how you perceive it. The thing about this sort of image, in particular, is that it manages to convince you visually that you're looking at two completely contradictory views at the exact same time. What does this tell you about perception, and the way our brain processes conflicting stimuli? Can you see it as both images simultaneously, or merely as one, then the other, alternating based on how you squint or tip your head?

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Today is the birthday of Mahathma Gandhiji, on this day I would like to recall the partition of India and Pakistan.



Millions left for their promised new homeland with smiles on their faces as trains left both India and Pakistan.



The massive exchange of population that took place in the summer of 1947 was unprecedented.



This is a train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off.
In 1947, the border between India and its new neighbour Pakistan became a river of blood, as the exodus erupted into rioting.



These pictures are by Margaret Bourke-White from Khushwant Singh's book Train to Pakistan, Roli Books.Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts and trains to their promised new home.



An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the the roadside on this arduous journey. "The old man is dying of exhaustion. The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White.



It left behind a trail of death and destruction. The Indian map was slashed to make way for a new country - Pakistan.



In a couple of months in the summer of 1947, a million people were slaughtered on both sides in the religious rioting.



The street was short and narrow. Lying like the garbage across the street and in its open gutters were bodies of the dead. Here, bodies of the victims of rioting are picked up from a city street.



With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila, transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi.



Men, women and children who died in the rioting were cremated on a mass scale.
Villagers even used oil and kerosene when wood was scarce.



The migration