The Elephant

There is an old story from India that aptly illustrates how frame of reference affects an understanding of physical properties, and indeed of the larger setting in which those properties are manifested.

It is said that six blind men were presented with an elephant, a creature of which they had no previous knowledge, and each explained what he thought the elephant was.

The first felt of the elephant’s side, and told the others that the elephant was like a wall. The second, however, grabbed the elephant’s trunk, and concluded that an elephant was like a snake.

The third blind man touched the smooth surface of its tusk, and was impressed to discover that the elephant was a hard, spear-like creature. Fourth came a man who touched the elephant’s legs, and therefore decided that it was like a tree trunk. However, the fifth man, after feeling of its tail, disdainfully announced that the elephant was nothing but a frayed piece of rope. Last of all, the sixth blind man, standing beside the elephant’s slowly flapping ear, felt of the ear itself and determined that the elephant was a sort of living fan.

These six blind men went back to their city,and each acquired followers after the manner of religious teachers. Their devotees would then argue with one another, the snake school of thought competing with adherents of the fan doctrine, the rope philosophy in conflict with the tree trunk faction, and so on. The only person who did not join in these debates was a seventh blind man, much older than the others, who had visited the elephant after the other six.

While the others rushed off with their separate conclusions, the seventh blind man had taken the time to pet the elephant, to walk all around it, to smell it, to feed it, and to listen to the sounds it made.When he returned to the city and found the populace in a state of uproar between the six factions, the old man laughed to himself: he was the only person in the city who was not convinced he knew exactly what an elephant was like.

Excerpt from "Science of Everyday Things".

Burst Pipe

Dubai: An underground water pipe that burst on Shaikh Zayed Road on Monday morning caused traffic congestion and a number of minor accidents, Dubai Police said.

The Al Marabe'e exit on Shaikh Zayed Road in the Sharjah direction was blocked by police as a result, and traffic was diverted which caused the congestion along the road and at the following exit.

Dubai Municipality workers and equipment were seen trying to fix the problem, while deep excavations were made on the side of the road, under the metro track.

Meanwhile, the congestion and unexpected diversion caused a few minor accidents in which no injuries were reported.

That was on Monday. The work on the damaged pipe hasn't been finished. And Al Marabe'e exit is still blocked, which has lead to this:

Taken this morning: Motorists forge their own trail through the Municipality tended lawn under the metro-track.

Later in the morning: Troops deployed to prevent state of anarchy.

I remember that a pipe (probably the same one) had burst back in 2006-07. Which is five years ago. Five years construction warranttee on the pipe expired?

Self Defenestration

The father brought little Mohamed a trinket tied to a lanyard.

Little Mohamed loved it, he kept it slung around his neck all the time, getting on his mother's nerves.

The mother got fed up and took it from him and hung it on a window handle, where he couldn’t reach at his natural height.

The mother woke up the next morning, opened the window (which swings outward) to air the house.

She then got busy in the kitchen.

Little Mohamed woke up; saw his trinket hanging from a lanyard by the handle of the open window. It looked so beautiful in the sunlight, swaying with the soft morning breeze.

Mohamed brought a chair, climbed, and leaned out of the window frame to retrieve his trinket.

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The above is not how this went down, but it's one of the many possible scenarios.

You may blame the architects, the landowners and the authorities but, eventually, it's your responsibility as a parent to take care of your child. Cars of various brands have different safety features, but ultimately it's your driving that makes a difference, and it's true in the case of a hosue or an apartment: it's the way you run your house-hold and educate your child or spouse about safety that makes the difference.

I'm not saying architects and authorities aren't responsible, we are. But we can not guarantee prevention (except in the case of fixed, un-openable windows.) The code says window sill should be 110 CM above finished ground level, and that window handles should be beyond children's reach. But that's just a theory. Children are very inventive and creative when it comes to bypassing problems. What I'm trying to say is, height alone won't prevent your child from jumping (accidentally or by a delusion). You need to make sure he or she understands the dangers. You need to make him NOT want to open the window or lean out of it.

My mom tells me that she once caught me when I was two and a half years old standing on mid-section of your balcony's railing (we lived on the fourth floor), arms spread to the side and shouting "Jonkaaaar!". Jonkar, like Iron Man and Grendizer, were all cartoon characters with the supernatural ability to fly.

One more thing that may have been missed in the controversy: 50% of children still die due to jumps from 4 and 5 floors height. In other words, once you go above the fifth floor, the odds are more or less the same, whether you're on the seventeenth or the seventieth floor.

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P.S.: The title refers to the act of defenestration, which apparently was a popular phenomenon in Europe centuries ago. Especially as an act of a political retribution (throwing a corrupt nobility or a feudal leader out of a window of a high palace, occasionally to be plucked and finished off by angry mobs surrounding the palace)........ I could think of a few acts of defenestration that I would like to see happening myself.