Thread: IF - Kipling, a century later, still striking a chord

^that Kipling was observant, and used his observations in his prose & poetry.

I googled "wee willy winkie" and turns out that it's an old Scottish poem. But I was partially correct that Kipling used it in his short stories. It was the nickname of a boy, whose name was Percival William Williams. Funny how that name stuck my mind, but not rhe title of the short story.

Women of different species use cunning, if not brute strength, esp to protect their young or territory.

My mom's female dog growls whenever her husband/lover (the male dog) comes near her pups. Perhaps she thought that the father/male dog would eat her pups. Have seen this 2x - she's had 2 batches of pups. I wonder if our male dog knew that those pups were his kids, and if the pups knew that he was their dad.

As to female humans, I'll say that generally what we lack in strength, we'll.use cunning. I've been watching Game of Thrones. Bronn, a sellsword, said to Jaime Lannister that he fidn't think Tyrion poisoned Joffrey (the king), because poison is a woman's weapon. True enough, the poisoning of Joffrey was plotted by Lady Olenna Tyrell (together with Littlefinger).

In another case, Cersei killed her enemies by wildfire. She didn't use strength, but used a chemical as well, albeit an explosive one. Daenerys uses her dragons to force people to submit to her and "bend the knee".

Back to Victorian men & sexism, even Charles Darwin remarked that women were inferior to men. But then during those times, females had less opportunities available to them. They weren't allowed in universities, no right to vote or hold public office, etc.

Then there's Marilyn vos Savant who had her IQ recorded at 228...

Monty Hall Problem:

The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle loosely based on the American television game show Let's Make a Deal and named after its original host, Monty Hall.

The problem was originally posed (and solved) in a letter by Steve Selvin to the American Statistician in 1975. It became famous as a question from a reader's letter quoted in Marilyn vos Savant's "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine in 1990:

"Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, 'Do you want to pick door No. 2?' Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?"

Vos Savant's response was that the contestant should switch to the other door. Under the standard assumptions, contestants who switch have a 2/3 chance of winning the car, while contestants who stick to their initial choice have only a 1/3 chance.