Dancing partner Puzzle

Julie invited couple of friends for an evening of dance, great food and fine wines. Each of the guests was handed over numbers from 2 to 18 with the number 1 reserved for Julie. Over the course of the dance Julie observed that the dancing partners numbers add up to perfect squares e.g. if number 1 is paired with number 8 then the total is 9 (8 +1) which is a perfect square of number 3.

If all the pairs add to perfect square what is Julie’s dancing partner’s number.


Courtesy: Car Talk

Austin Film Festival

At a recently concluded Austin Film Festival (16th and 23rd October 2008) I got an opportunity to watch a number of independent, international and short films. One of the movies, Lost and Found, a Japanese film and jury winner of the Narrative Feature Competition is one of the outstanding movies I had viewed in recent times.

Movie Synopsis:
A rural train station in Japan is the setting for this charming and sad story. The lives of the denizens of this station, from the lovelorn to the lonely, all intersect in and around the lost and found department. Shot with an incredible grace, and with wonderfully subtle and human performances by an ensemble cast, Miyake’s feature is a tale of human bonds and the need for connection.

Courtesy: Austin Film Festival


The movie is very sensitive, simple and has great screenplay. The camera work is unique, it might be amateurish but weaves well with the movie story. Don't miss a chance to view this wonderful movie.

Movie Scripts

Recently I had an opportunity to read couple of original movie scripts, movies like Silence of the Lambs, Lethal Weapon series, American Gangster and television shows like pilot episode of Family Guy or one of the episodes of The Office.

It was a wonderful experience going over them, these scripts are so much in depth and detail that right from the dialogues to the actor expression and movements to end of scene everything is there. It you are keen on reading movie scripts a one place stop is : IMSDB

America Loves Drive Through

One of the first things that amazed me when I first came to the US was the drive through or drive thru available at banks. Drive thru at fast food joints is not a big deal but for banks they are just amazing, one can make a check deposit or talk to a bank representative without stepping out of ones car. Its fast, easy and provide for longer hours than regular bank hours.

The drive thru concept has been in the US for decades, there are drive thru available for anything and everything, from drive thru for fast food joints to movie theater to banks to liquor stores. In Las Vegas one can get married by drive thru.

With the 2008 Presidential Elections round the corner in California voter registration and voting is available by drive thru.

I don’t know what is next in drive thru list.

And the Roller Coaster Ride Continues…

There is so much happening on the global economic front that its difficult to ignore them or keep tabs of all the happenings. The following is just a gist of all the happening in the past 10 months and majorly in the past one month. And mind well the roller coaster ride is still on. So fasten your seat belts (or your money) and enjoy the ride.

Jan – March 2008 :
Bank of America buys Countrywide, the major mortgage lending firm for $4 billion
Bear Stearns, one of the five major brokerage firms get sold out for peanuts price to JP Morgan Chase

September 7 th – Fannie Mae and Freddie mac are nationalized by the US Treasury for $5 trillion

September 15th - Lehman Brothers, the second major brokerage firm files for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch the third brokerage firm is brought by Bank of America

September 16th – A $85 billion Federal loan to insurance giant AIG

September 19th – Henry Paulson, the national secretary call for a major bailout plan for the country’s financial backbone, banks to be give loans in huge denomination by the government

September 20th – A $700 billion bailout plan is revealed

September 21 st – Golfman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two standing brokerage firms are made into bank holding companies.

September 24th – Warran Buffer buys 9% of Goldman Saschs. Gives a $5 billion loan to GE, which is finding hard to get the loans

September 25th – Washington Mutual(WAMU) closed by US Government, JP Morgan buys the assets worth $1.9 billion

September 29th – US house of Representatives reject the $700 billion bailout. DOW drops by 800 points.

October 1st – US senate revamps the US financial resue plan

October 3rd – US house of representative pass the $700 billion bail out package.
Wachovia is bought by Wells Fargo. Initially Citibank wanted to strike a deal by things didn’t workout

October 5th – European Union nations fight over saving their economies. Germany, France, Iceland, Britain etc. all work for a bailout packages.

October 8th – A co-ordinated global interest rate cut pumps $87.2 in the economy