146) Tidbits

I'm having a total brain void this morning, and nothing coherent or meaningful is coming together. In the interest of actually posting something, here are a couple tidbits I've been thinking about.

1) LA Times "In the News" links for 9/8: TAX CUTS  -  TORTURE LAWSUIT  -  PIERS MORGAN  -  BP SPILL PROBE  -  WESTLAKE SHOOTING. One of these things is not like the others.

2) It's all relative. I know I said this in Barcelona, but comparing cities puts a lot into perspective. For example, Beijing and Xian's smog and traffic make LA look like Eden. In China's big cities, even when it's sunny out, the sky is this eerie, hazy grey/yelow color, and you feel like you can actually see the pollution particles swirling around you. Driving here is essentially one big game of chicken.

3) A little brain exercise for you. My brother told me a riddle the other day, and I thought it was worth passing on.
There are four prisoners in jail. Three of them are standing on a large staircase, prisoner A on the lowest step, prisoner B on the middle step, and prisoner C on the highest step. They are facing down the stairs, so each can only see what's in front of him (prisoner C can see prisoner B and prisoner A, prisoner B can see A, etc). Prisoner D is in an entirely separate room with no windows. Each prisoner wears a cap - A's is white, B's is black, C's is white and D's is black.

The warden tells them, "Each of you is wearing either a white or black cap. There are two white caps and two black caps. The first person to correctly tell me what color cap he's wearing goes free." Without turning around or speaking to each other, which prisoner (if any) can tell what color cap he has on?

(Mini aside - Tonight we're flying into a mountainous part of China for a couple days of outdoorsiness. Again, I'm told the hotel will be interwebs connected, but who knows.)