Old MENSA Test

This is from an old Mensa Test, I came across on some random website. Copy-Paste-Post.

For eg. Solution for Question no.0.. "24 H in a D" is "24 Hours in a Day"
Try the rest and see how many u get..

0. 24 H in a D - 24 Hours in a Day
1. 26 L of the A
2. 7 D of the W
3. 7 W of the W
4. 12 S of the Z
5. 66 B of the B
6. 52 C in a P (WJs)
7. 13 S in the USF
8. 18 H on a G C
9. 39 B of the O T
10. 5 T on a F
11. 90 D in a R A
12. 3 B M (S H T R)
13. 32 is the T in D F at which W F
14. 15 P in a R T
15. 3 W on a T
16. 100 C in a R
17. 11 P in a F (S) T
18. 12 M in a Y
19. 13=UFS
20. 8 T on a O
21. 29 D in F in a L Y
22. 27 B in the N T
23. 365 D in a Y
24. 13 L in a B D
25. 52 W in a Y
26. 9 L of a C
27. 60 M in a H
28. 23 P of C in the H B
29. 64 S on a C B
30. 9 P in S A
31. 6 B to an O in C
32. 1000 Y in a M
33. 15 M on a D M C

Answers are in the Comments section, peep only if it itches bad.

Diving in my thoughts

So I went skydiving. My shallow pocket had been beating my urge of more than three years. West Lafayette is where my friend and senior from university days lives. Lovely town I must say, home to Purdue university, unbeatable summer weather, cool, breezy and spectacularly photogenic clouds this time of year. Were taking a spin around town when I spotted this eye catchingly ancient graveyard, where the trees grew thick and tall and the summer sun glistened and shimmered through the dense foliage to form minute patterns on the tombstones. A stroll in the graveyard with the evening sun (the town also has a mall for the afraid), confirmed existence of fear of apparitions in late 20s too. This picture proves that if one perishes in Indiana, one rests in scenic peace.

The eerie stroll was later complimented by a horror flic (wolf creek) which was a disappointment even with a mega sized and as flat as Indiana TV hooked to an equally impressive BOSE. Exploring the downtown? of west lafayette unearthed a recent chocolate-candy store where the vendor was too polite to ask me to stop sampling everything they had. We walked off with a pound of the best roasted almond-dark chocolate i've had, the last of which are going to see an end of their glamorous lives soon. A quaint lil town with a railway line (with station) running through it is this.

Skydiving day! A little bit of hesitation, some perplexing visuals and a long winding drive through Indiana/Illinois grass fields later, we found ourselves at the skydiving center, which was basically a rundown outfit at a barn and a paddyfield for an airstrip. It was almost sunset. Jim Morrison was singin somewhere far off, the barn had no neighbor for about a mile on each side, place was run by a bunch of wild kids and couple of old timer pilots smokin cigars. The planes were themselves not-so-young Cessna two seaters with one seat removed especially for parachuting. The tandem jump trainer who claimed to be a nurse in the making appeared to me a half crazed adrenaline junkie, and I was hesistant once more. Cowardice looks prettier masked with thoughtful hesitation, no? Want a video, someone asks...of course not! I am gonna be screaming my lungs out, might even pee mid-air, last thing I want it all that on video for my friends to laugh at.

Since it was a tiny (rusty, highly stickered, engines-bout-to-falloff) plane, I went with my certified co-jumper and a pilot.

10,000 feet later, everything on the ground is reduced to specks of dust and i'm saying my last prayers. I'm huddled near the door of the Cessna, when the pilot opens the door and my co-jumper asks me to hang my legs down and out of the plane. The roaring wind jumps to get his words, my shoe laces and last wits. This is when I make my first mistake...I look down. With my legs hanging out of the plane and my body about to, all the indian gods start a tandav right in front of my eyes and i'm reminded of everything since age 2 in a flash. I almost asked the pilot to turn back, but this heavy thing was obstructing my tongue..a heavy thing called male ego.

I jumped. 40 seconds of free fall, dont remember if I was breathing, the wind was cold and piercing at dusk. Free fall and gravity conspired against me knowing the presence of the co-jumper and for a while I was alone, in the clouds...falling...with my thoughts...like a hundred times before.

Most Memorable Photos - Part II

Stanley J. Forman [1976]

This picture was shot for the Boston Herald by Stanley J. Forman, in 1976. A fire broke out in Marlborough street and Stanley climbed the firetruck to take this picture. There was universal debate at the grim picture. Despite a great effort the fireman was seconds away from saving their lives. Stanley took this picture but turned away before the young woman Diana Bryant and her godchild Tiare Jones hit the ground. Diana died later that night but broke the fall of Tiare who lived. This controversial picture led Boston authorities (and others worldwide) to re-look at their fire safety codes and improve them. Stanley won the Pulitzer that year, he also happens to be the only photographer to win the Pulitzer in two consecutive years for photojournalism.









Next year he won it again for “Soiling of the Old Glory”, shot near Boston’s city hall, showing Theodore Landsmark, an African-american lawyer who on his way to a case encountered over one hundred and fifty anti-busing youths from South Boston and Charleston protesting the decision to bus in students from Roxbury, an African American suburb.
Souce: Wikipedia



Nick Ut [1972]


This is perhaps the most famous picture from during the Vietnam War. This picture shows Phan Thi Kim Phuc who was aged about 9, running away from her village which was bombed with Napalm. She was screaming “nong qua nong qua” – too hot too hot. After the picture, Nick promptly took her and other children to the hospital . Nick won a Pulitzer and the World Press Photo for 1972. Kim Phuc was treated and grew up to be a doctor and now lives at Canada. She was also awarded as a goodwill ambassador by UNESCO.
Souce: Wikipedia


Oded Balality [2007]

Most of my memorable pictures have been longer back in history, as they keep getting repeatedly published and hence more chance of people seeing them. This picture however is from recent times, at Israel. This picture titled “The Power of One” shows a lone Jewish settler challenging Israeli security officers during clashes that erupted as authorities cleared the West Bank settlement of Amona, east of the Palestinian town of Ramallah. This picture taken in Feb 2006, won Balality the Pulitzer in 2007. This picture reminds me of the great photo at Tiananmen Square, coming next.
Source: Pulitzer.org


Stuart Franklin Magnum [1989]


Tank Man or the Unknown Rebel, the one man who stood in front of advancing tanks during Tiananmen Square protests near Beijing in 1989. He held two bags in each hand and stopped the tanks. In response, the front tank tried to go around the man, but he would step into its way and not let it pass. The tank driver refused to crush the man. He later climbed on the tank and spoke with the driver and asked them to “Go away and stop killing my people”. He was pulled into the crowd by onlookers, Sunday Express claimed the identity of the man as Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student. There are various versions about what happened next, some say he was executed, some say he still lives. Many photo versions of this incident exist, the most popular was shot by Stuart Franklin who won the World Press Award and this photograph was featured in Life’s “100 photos that changed the world”.
Source: wikipedia, life.com

Most Memorable Photos - Part 1

Most of you who will read this know of my love for the lens. This will be a multipart series based on the most memorable pictures through time. This is a personal collection based on my gleanings from Life, Time, National Geographic, Pulitzer prize winners, and some pictures which are great in my opinion. I am really thankful for open-source knowledge through wikipedia.




Nicéphore Niépce’s [1826]

This is perhaps the world oldest photograph. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s is noted arguably as the world's photography pioneer. He used to call his technique heliography and used prolonged exposure of 8-20 hours on. He improved the technique with Louis Daguerre. Daguerre used silver bromide plates and his pictures were called Daugerrotypes, I still have one of his shots of a nude lady somewhere in my books at Bhilai.
In this particular picture Joseph exposed the shot between sunrise and sunset, hence there is light on both sides of the building. This technique, due to the long exposure times was not good for photographing people.
Source: Wikipedia



Charles O'Rear [2000]

This is perhaps the most widely seen picture among computer users around the world. This image titled "Bliss", appears as the standard wallpaper in Windows XP. This is a landscape from Napa Valley, California. O'Rear has worked for National Geographic for over 25 years, this one was however taken for a different company. He lives at St. Helena in Napa County. This image inspired Microsoft to start a $200 million ad campaign called, Yes You Can.
Source: Wikipedia

Yasushi Nagao [1960]


This was the assassination of Japanese Socialist Inejiro Asanuma by Otoya Yamaguchi, a japanese ultranationalist student. Photographer Yasushi Nagao won the pulitzer and the world photo awards that year. Just 3 weeks later, in his cell, Otoya mixed a small amount of tooth powder with water and wrote on the wall - Seven lives for my country. Ten thousand years for His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor!..before hanging himself and committing suicide - an act of Owabi.
Source: wikipedia.

Maafi Marconi

There are two reasons why I am disappointed at the desi radio at Houston.
Being an engineer, I will list the technical problem first. The point of invention of the radio by our beloved Marconi (you may start a debate in the comments section please), was the transmission of voice over electro-magnetic waves to distant regions. Maybe he should have added "successful" to the transmission, because the success of transmission is somewhat lost on the local desi radio channel maaliks. One radio channel that boasts on loudly colored and similarly resounding commercials during hindi movies at the local cinema, that it is the best radio channel of houston and has the city's best behind it.

Now, when I drive around this 20 mile radius city of houston, I never, repeat never recieve clear broadcast of any of their programs, maybe my radio is wiser than me. My antenna is over 4 feet long, I boast you not. But then, at least I deserve to be disappointed once in a while. I've heard of this miraculous oasis in the southwestern part of town where they recieve a screech or two out of the desi DJ once in a while, but I find it difficult to make myself travel 40 miles from a diagonally opposite end of town to hear two silly old men squabbling in urdu, or some punkish desi trying to sound yuppie but failing miserably between pauses. Now then unfolds the second reason.

So today on 1180AM, I heard real bad grammer, some paki guy sucking upto some white guy (not a racist, desis do that too). I've this concept which I will delineate some other time, that there are two type of desis in the USA, one who tries to speak with the white man, and one who speaks to the white man.

So amidst real lousy usage of english and may I add lousy urdu as well (i'm not so good at understanding urdu, but know enough to distinguish bad from worse, being brought up in a pathani mohallah as a kid). After a relatively refreshing attempt of a singer at "pani ka bulbula", who was either bangladeshi or paki, the two anchors start hum-hawing again. This time our main anchor reveals to us with great enthusiasm the location of a gas station at Houston that has the city's lowest price for gas. Having found the ultimate treasure of sierra madre, he urges listeners to call in at the station's number if they find a cheaper price! $2.59 WTF. The sad channel has nothing entertaining to offer! Terrible disappointment in the face of desi radio (OK when I say desi, I club hindustani, paki, bangladeshi radio representation in houston air). The radio in this city has excellent spanish music, classical music and rock channels. I patronize The Arrow (93.7 FM) with devout enthusiasm, the morning anchors Dean and Rog chow down on politicians and dumb people
in general for cereal.

When the desi population, thumps their chest at being the majority among the minority races at houston, boasts of bringing cultural diversity and an elegant cuisine to the city (someday I will write why houston cannot cook desi food well), why can a few good desis not start a decently entertaining radio channel?

Terrible disappointment the desi radio is.

Houston Springs to Life

I was gonna write, then I groaned and rolled off to sleep.

Enjoy the pictures!

A Blogger's Disclaimer

I've copied this from http://www.namaii.com/readme/ pointed out to my by my faithful friend, whom I shall not name at this point of time, lest I break half a dozen rules listed from below:

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