Friday, December 18, 2009

Teleshopping heights

Did your new car get scratches on the very first day?
Does your kid get ill with no apparent detectable illness?
Did you suddenly lose business on a new venture?
Did the ladke waale break the shadi with your daughter all of a sudden?
Has your boyfriend suddenly started ignoring you?
Are you suddenly losing money in share market?
Does your brilliant son face difficulty in passing exams?

And you have no idea what's wrong? Well, it is possible aapki khushi ko kisi ki nazar lag gayi hai.

Lets see nazar kaise lagti hai... This happens when someone is jealous of something good which is happening to you. While you are showing your new factory, or your beautiful child, or your shining car, to your bhabhi, bua, colleagues you are only exposing your success, your happiness to their nazar. And this is how nazar lagti hai.


To save you from this evil, scientists (you can put the comma before the word evil) in Shri Divya Rishi Kendra after research in "evil eye shielding technique" have come up with a product which will save you from buri nazar. This is how you will be able to ward off the evil nazar from friends and family>>>>

The set comes with an amulet, a bracelet and some other stuff as shown. This product is in line with some Turkish tradition. And has been energized by "mahamantro ka jaap". MRP, nominal, 2375/-. With 30days money back guarantee.

And I forgot to mention, it was said that beautiful girls, their complexion, their figure are all highly susceptible to the nazar lagne ka problem.

Honest. I didn't make any of this shit up. During this 10 min odd ad I laughed out loud some 5 times, and shouted ugly words, which I can't mention here, at the host the same no. of times.

Friday, October 09, 2009

As the pendulum swings

Not so long ago, I was in Class 9/10. In Hindi class, Sir mentioned the name Bachchan, and then said, "humare waale, aapke waale nahi" clarifying that he is talking about Harivansh Rai, and not Amitabh.

If the exact scene is repeated in a school today, the Bachchans would be Amitabh and Abhishek. Time really flies. Also the generation jump is quantum, not continuous.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Sounds similar

Doesn't the song Ek mai aur ek tu, (youtube) sound kinda like, if you're happy and you know it (youtube again).

Sing the lines one after the other...
Ek mai aur ek tu = if you're happy and you know it clap your hands
Dono miley is tarah = if you're happy and you know it clap your hands
aur jo tan man me ho raha hai = if you're happy and you know it then your face will really show it
wo to hona hi tha = if you're happy and you know it clap your hands.

Doesn't fit eXactly, specially the length. but still, some similarity? Maybe some one educated in music can tell better, how wrong or right I am.

Uff, thinking of a title for this one took more time than writing... and this is what I come up with! bad.

Friday, July 24, 2009

We the people

People are idiots, confused, mercurial. But they think they are not. They repeat their mistakes. They get affected by others' opinion. They get depressed by every other setback. They tell themselves not to but they do. They look at happy and successful people around and think why can't they be so. They get jealous. They get greedy. They want more but don't know what to do to get it. When they know what to do they just don't do it. They say they need someone to push them, but they don't even when someone does push. They work on the rocket principle, but it doesn't work everywhere. People form opinions, biases, prejudices. When A says X they are irritated. When B says X they smile.

One might say there are 100s of kinds of people. Some will say there are 1000s. Some may say every individual is different. Well in that case, this one is just about me. Hey, maybe they sometimes belittle what they have :-) and write something like this to unwind.

Are you like me?

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

'aise hi' post

Don't you think we do not have a life of our own anymore? So many rules, so many restrictions. One can't take one's own decisions. Just keep following whatever you are being asked to do. Isn't it? All I can see around me are signs asking me to do as told:

No Entry, Keep left, Do not spit, No smoking, One way, Use stairs in case of fire, Tender exact change, Be in the queue.

Why should i listen to them? Tell me, why shouldn't I be on my own?
:D

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Oopsie!

We had a course in Microeconomics in the first term at XLRI. In the next term I met the Prof. on the road and wished him a good day. He stopped and this is how the short conversation went:

Prof.: ahhh, ummm, B?
Me: No sir, (with a smug smile), A+
Prof.: Oh no, I meant the section.
Me: (oh shit) ah, yes sir, B.

:-(

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Will the block topple?

This post will be vulnerable to the assumptions i have made. If you find one too far stretched or simply wrong, please comment. And of course you are free to comment otherwise also :-)

If you place a cuboidal block in water it will float if it is lighter than water, but in what position. If you lay a block flat it will float like that, but if it is put standing, it may float, or may fall to a flatter position. This much is observation, or just intution, but I wanted to get there mathematically. I wanted to find an expression which would tell me if the block will fall, or not.

So I have a block lighter than the liquid it is in. I try to find an expression which will tell me if the position it is put in is stable or not. So fr
om the position, i deflect it by a small angle θ and check if a restoring couple is created by the pair of forces (weight and buoyancy) or if the couple helps topple the block.

Approach:
Simple, find the center of buoyancy and the center of gravity after tilting the block by a small angle.
Check the points at which the buoyancy and weight act, to see the direction of the couple formed.

At this point of time, my guesses. High density of liquid will make it difficult for the block to float in a erect position, that is on a smaller face. And of course larger the vertical dimension with 
respect to the flat one, difficult it should be to float.

To start the so
lution, here is the diagram. All the required dimensions are marked. The block has been tilted by an angle θ. 
The axes X and Y are stuck to the blocks flat position, thus tilted to vertical and horizontal by θ.
Since the density o
f the liquid is ρ the displaced volume of the solid so that it is in equilibrium is ρHB (third dimension is 1, say). Thus the average depth in water is ρH.
Another parameter η has been used which just defines the shape of the block. η=B/H.

Next is to find the buoyancy point. That would be the center of mass of the submerged portion which is trapezoidal. We find that the distance of the center from the origin along both axes are:








Using simple geometry, the horizontal distance of this point from the origin is [ΔXsinθ-ΔYcosθ]. This is to be compared with the location of the center of mass of the block, since the weight acts through this point. In a position with B horizontal, the distance of the center from the bottom base is H/2, 
while the base is at a depth of below the water level. Thus the distance from the origin is (ρH-B/2), and hence the horizontal distance is (ρH-B/2)sinθ.

The latter should be greater for the restoring couple to act, so that as seen in the diagram the couple formed is favorable for restoring the position. Thus using (ρH-B/2)sinθ>ΔXsinθ-ΔYcosθ we get 









After coming this far, now i do not know how correct this is and more importantly i had fun doing all this but what do i do with it now!
:-(

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Special effects

Concerned song: right here right now (hip hop mix) - Bluffmaster
The opening of the song is in a female voice, but difficult to make out what is being said. Sounds arabic or something, also difficult to pronounce. Listen to it first

I went over this part again and again, and thought of trying something. The voice was human but there were no clear words. I thought let me reverse the piece and see what it becomes. This is what i got...

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The mystery was solved. Success!