Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears. Paul Simon, -Reader's Digest{June, 1997}

Yippeeee its nice to be back ….sigh* (Vc shows a couple of Greg Chappel’s fingers at the ISP who blocked Blogger.) Read this in Reader’s Digest : There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ( wah wah) or you could switch on the Sodium Vapour lamp. Did anyone read this editorial in today’s TOI ? It’s so funny: DEVIL’S ADVOCATE It’s a Steal By MUKUL SHARMA WAL-MART Stores, the largest retail chain in the world, is secretly going to allow people to steal from its outlets. According to internal memos leaked to the media, the company, which is already the leading destination for shoplifters, will no longer prosecute first-time thieves unless they are between 18 and 65 and steal merchandise worth at least $25. Apparently this will enable it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from its stores every year, rather than the casual executive crooks who only swipe a pair of occasional socks. Actually there’s a solid reason for this: It’s just not financially justifiable to expend more than twice the amount in order to prosecute someone who’s stolen something worth $5. The legal costs required are simply too high. Or as a person in charge of asset protection at Wal-Mart put it: “If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money. I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organised group stealing $3,000”. Unorganised kleptos and hobby shoplifters will immediately realise what a bonanza awaits under-aged and senior citizens of India should Wal-Mart be allowed FDI in retail for which it’s been trying so hard. For one thing $25 translates to over 1,100 bucks here. Which means if an average family has two live-in minors and two grandparents they should easily be expected to bring home nearly 5,000 bucks of stolen goods every month. And that’s not all. With home-grown corporate giants also planning to get into the retail act now, can we not expect some competition? Will Reliance up the ante to, say, 10,000 rupees worth of goods that they will allow us to steal to pip Wal-Mart? Will others narrow the age limit instead to prosecute only thieves between 35 and 36? The National Retail Federation of the United States says American retailers lose more than $30 billion a year to theft. Can we, a burgeoning economic power and a future player on the world stage, not match this paltry figure and perhaps better it? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Currently trying to solve this puzzle : Its simple areh baba the 9 dot puzzle http://www.dcu.ie/ctyi/puzzles/general/9dotpuz.htm yeah but then Leslie came back with this reply : I am taking a math class that the professor said there are 17 solutions to this puzzle using just 1 line to connect them all. He gave us the following:lay the paper on the ground and walk around the earth 2 times. All dots connected with 1 line. He also gave us use a really fat marker and make 1 like that covers all the dots. He said from these 2 there are 15 more :-( I figured that you can use a cylinder, and a cone which are different than the sphere of the world. Does this give you anymore ideas?? Any help would be appreciated!! Yep I am thinking about the other 15 solutions: Remember its 1 line …..