Stuff
There's the old story about the wise man setling a dispute among two thieves, about how to divide up a pile of stuff: one guy makes two piles, one guy gets to pick. Works reasonably well, assuming neither wants to get cheated and neither has information the other doesn't have about the worth of the stuff. So, imagine a loaf of bread. Not your nicely packaged wonderbread, but a loaf of bread, solid, wide on one end and tapering down to a point on the other end. This loaf of bread is cut into 4 pieces. These 4 pieces would make 2 reasonable sandwiches, each with one piece slightly smaller than the other. Since the 2 sandwiches would be slightly different sizes, the offer is made for the other person to choose what slices of bread he wants. Unexpectedly, he picks the 2 middle pieces, leaving 1 huge piece and one tiny piece for a sandwich. [still a tasty sandwich, anyway] An onlooker quotes the old story. If a tree in the middle of a forest falls on your head, does it still hurt even if no one else sees it happen? Oh well. Merry/Happy/Joyous HanukSaturinChrisKawanzNewYear.
- posted by owlish @ 12/21/2004 06:41:00 PM