ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

The purpose of Evolution and Natural Selection is to reward those characteristics in a species that enhance its ability to survive [and penalize those characteristics which are do not contribute to the survival quotient]. So the original giraffe’s neck grew longer and longer as Nature favored those giraffes which had long-neck genes. Because a long neck meant the ability to reach the leaves on the higher branches of the Acacia trees on which the giraffes fed, longer neck giraffes ate more, were healthier, and were more able to find mates. The genes which promoted the long necks were passed on, and over the generations, the necks of giraffes grew longer and longer. In general, animals evolved to have characteristics which enabled them to more successfully find food, find a mate, or adapt to the climate or geographical conditions of their environment. But Dogs are unique in that in they evolved to have characteristics that endeared them more to Man. Of course there were working dogs and ...

Noise can mean much more than 'unwanted' audio signals. Noise can be defined as information that is not useful for your purpose at a certain point in time. It can be audio information, visual information or even olfactory [smell] or gustatory [taste] information. In this sense a frequent encounter with Noise is a part of daily Life. Here are some instances of Noise and how it is filtered: 1. When looking for a location or directions on a map, you have to choose the map with the appropriate scale. If you are traveling from Florida to New Jersey on a non-stop journey, a regional map showing the main highways is the one that is most useful. Detailed maps of each State are not necessary. The small county roads, the streets in each town are all Noise. 2. When getting familiar with a city, it pays to visualize the basic layout of it' s major streets first, and to ignore the rest temporarily. For example, anyone who wants to get to know Manhattan in New York City would first note ...

If, by 'God', you mean an old man with a long white beard, Sitting on a Cloud, then count me out... I have sometimes wondered what it means when people say they believe in God. I, myself believe in a God. But my definition of ‘God’ may be very different from others. When Einstein famously said , “ Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”, religious leaders promptly and gleefully seized upon these words as proof that the greatest brain in the Universe believes in God. However, there are also many other words said by Einstein, which should be mentioned: “ I don’t try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the Universe, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it”. “ I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be anthropomorphic [* i.e. anything that causes God to be moulded in the human image, in my opinion , a result of the vanity of Man: my words]What I see in Nature ...

The type of guitar on which a person plays jazz is usually an Archtop, a big hollow-bodied guitar that gives the fat, mellow tone typical of a jazz guitar. [for picture of an archtop, see my previous article on Eastman:Made-in-China jazz guitars]. Although no one can argue that archtops give a superlative tone for jazz, they do have one problem: feedback. That hollow body is very prone to feedback, and makes an expensive archtop [those with the carved instead of laminated top] become like an uncontrollable thoroughbred horse when playing in a live band situation. Trying to do some inspired playing while that big wooden body is vibrating underneath you, and could at any moment suddenly turn into a howling monster is impossible. Also, archtops are great when you are playing alone or in a very quiet small band setting. At open jamming sessions, in noisy clubs, and playing with drums and horns, archtop tones, though sweet, cannot cut through the noise. A Fender Telecaster, on the other ha...

At every Fed meeting, whether Bernanke raises interest rate or not depends on whether he thinks there is Inflation. Understanding Bernanke means understanding clearly the concepts of Inflation, Economic Growth and Productivity. And so What’s Hot for this week features a short lesson on Inflation, Economic Growth and Productivity. Inflation happens in an Economy when Price growth outstrips Output growth, resulting in spiraling prices [including spiraling wages, the price of Labor], and loss of incentive to work and save as costs living became unmanageable. Extreme cases of inflation [such as sometimes happens in third world countries like Zimbabwe or Indonesia] will mean you have to carry a wheelbarrow full of notes to Wal-Mart. And you would not want to keep money in the bank or under the bed when you know $1 will be worth less than $1 tomorrow. One way Inflation can happen is when the rate of Productivity growth is less than the rate of Economic Growth. Simplified Example: There is a ...

Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business Is Selling More of Less" highlights a statistical phenomenon of the modern business environment brought about by the revolution in information technology: The much increased efficiency in bringing together suppliers and buyers of goods and services means that sellers of very niche products can now reach out to buyers of such products in the furthest corners of the world. The term "Long Tail" is derived from the shape of the bell-curve representing a Gaussian [Normal] statistical distribution, where the greatest frequencies occurs at the top of the curve. [see images above] The Long Tail means a greater number of frequencies at the extremes, or "more of less" as the book title says. The Long Tail is the reason why I can indulge in my very niche interests. I can buy books on esoteric subjects like Evolutionary Programming, stochastic modeling or mathematics in Nature from Amazon. I can also...

There's an old Hokkien* ditty that I remember from childhood days. It's surrealistic, if this term can be applied not only to visual art, but to songs and poetry as well. Like Salvador Dali's art, it conjures up images that can only possibly appear in dreams. Like "Alice in Wonderland" , it is nonsensical, and yet profound. When I hear it, it seems to be saying something important to me that lies beyond the words, though I know not exactly what. This photograph of a busker at the Mass Rapid Transit Station in Tampines, Singapore playing the traditional Chinese guitar the Pi-Pa was taken many years ago. He was singing this ditty: The Sky is black, its going to Rain, Grandpa went to dig a Drain, Tortoise carried the Lantern, Snake beat the Drum; they said The Beggar broke wind, and the Tiger was dead * Hokkien, or in Mandarin Fujian are the people of Fujian province, on the South-Eastern coast of China bordering Taiwan. Living in an area with not much arable la...

The sound of an electric jazz guitar playing a jazz standard in the quiet of the night, with all those luscious chords and chord melody sends thrills and chills up and down my spine. The sound of an electric jazz guitar has come to epitomise urban sophistication, cool factor and maybe wealth. Look at all those advertising clips from banks to luxury cars or chic restaurants that use the sound of an electric guitar jazz quartet playing in the background. Look at the popularity of Diana Krall's band which always includes a jazz guitarist. And marvel at how her guitarists Russell Malone and Anthony Wilson so fittingly complement her music. In my view the sound of an electric jazz guitar has a charm and authenticity all it's own. An instrument in it's own right, distinct from the acoustic guitar from which it was derived. Until about 4 years ago, a jazz guitar player who wanted a good carved- top would probably have to buy an American-made Gibson . An L-5 would set you back abo...

More than Char Kway Teow [a messy, greasy plate of fried flat noodles garnished with squid, cockles, Chinese sausage, eggs, chive] and Roti Prata, [ a crispy Indian pancake eaten by dipping it into a Curry]; I miss the Singapore dish called Yong Tofu. Basically Yong Tofu is a dish that uses minced fish meat to be the stuffing for vegetables and items made of tofu. Above, you can see the brown triangular pieces of dried bean curd which has been stuffed with the fish paste. You can also see Chinese bitter gourd, large peppers, white pieces of soft tofu, and fish balls. There are many versions of Yong Tofu, and the number of items can be in the dozens as the newer food stalls become more inventive. Some stalls have their stuffings made of a mixture of fish and pork. Many stalls offer Convolvulus, also known as water spinach, as an item. Another common item is rehydrated cuttle-fish. But I like the simpler, purer versions of days gone by best, like this one from a shop in Telok Kurau cal...

It is an accepted principle that in attempting to build a model of something in the real world, one should have a deep knowledge of the subject that is being modeled. Because domain expertise is crucial for choice of input variables, as well as clear statement of the relationship between the variables, as well as the quantification of the coefficients [parameters] for each equation of the model. However, in recent times, there is some serious study of blackbox approaches to modeling. A blackbox type of model is one where [1] choice of Input need not be restricted to those which are justified to be inputs according to the theoretical principles of the subject to be modeled. [2] A clear statement of the relationship between input variables is not absolutely necessary, instead leaving it to the blackbox to work out the relationship. [3] For [2], non-parametric methods machine-learning methods such as neural nets, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms are used to classify, detect patterns or ...

*Articles on Economics and Finance are especially perishable. Change is continuous and fast and what you say one day may be irrelevant the next. Putting my thoughts down on this 29th day of September 2006, I will come back and read it one year from now and see how relevant it will be then. As the first baby boomer turns 60 this year, and 78 million more in America born between 1946 and 1964 do so in the next 25 years, will this have an earth-shaking effect on the U.S. economy? As the baby boomers sell their stock market holdings or downgrade to smaller homes to free up cash, investors all the over the world shudder at the possible consequences on the stock market and the real estate market. There is no consensus on how serious this impact will be. Professor Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of Business and author of the best seller " The Future for Investors" certainly thinks that we will all suffer a lowering in our standard of living, but street-smart reformed junk bond k...

There are two aspects of American culture that I will never get accustomed to: (1) The practice of separate bills [or checks as they call it] for meals, and (2) The practice of greeting anyone and everyone with ‘How are you doing?’ [Often it becomes a lazy ‘How ya DO-ING as in the sound you would make riding a pogo pole with springs] Lets get (1) out of the way first: I can never understand how Americans can act so calmly, and stone-faced, with no sign of awkwardness or embarrassment whatsoever, when at the end of a meal with a friend [s], they calmly ask the waiter for separate checks. In Asia, this is unheard of, no matter how poor anyone is. Why not, be more gracious, and yet practical as in Asia, by letting one party pay for the meal. The one who wants to do the paying would insist on doing so, while the other would protest most vehemently, but ultimately only one party would pay the bill, with a promise [and insistence] by the other party to reciprocate such an act of graciousness...

Blackbox models of complex situations are tempting. Without the need to specify parameters, and not limited by choice of variables, you can throw in everything including the kitchen sink, and see how the model performs. But in real life, it is not that simple. With every variable that you throw in, you are increasing the complexity of the model exponentially as well as the computational workload. Although there are algorithms for dimension reduction as well as for assessing the significance of an input towards model accuracy, nothing beats a good old human being with expertise in the subject domain, for initial choice of input variables. Let's do an academic exercise for the building of a model that (1) hopefully gives an objective, 'true' valuation of a house. (2) predict the future house price. We will attempt to build our model using a Neural Network, or a hybrid Neural with Genetic Algorithms for the last mile of calculation, to avoid local optima. Any human expert in r...

One of the most common things we humans face in our daily lives is the problem of optimization. viz what is the optimum solution for a problem using certain mix of resources that we have, and bearing in mind our objective(s) In Life we seldom find that there is only one solution to a problem, but in fact many possible choices for a solution. Here are some examples: Which is the best route to travel from A to B, after defining what is ‘best’. {is it the shortest route in time, which again is different from the shortest route in distance, or is it the most economical route, the most scenic route etc}. What is the minimum risk and maximum gain I can get from re-allocating the number of shares in each stock that I hold in a portfolio? What combination of resources [land, labor, capital] will enable me to complete a certain construction project in a specified period of time. What is the best way to draw up the School timetable using the variables we can juggle with viz the school hours Mon-...

Besides Char Kway Teow, another Singapore street food dish that I miss is Teochew Fishball Noodles. The dish has two variations: soup or dry. The photo here shows the dry version. These noodles are of the flat variety, rather like the Italian fettucini. They are cooked by dipping them into a rich stock of pork bones, and quickly taking them out of the boiling stock in less than a minute. They are then made al dente by giving them a quick rinse in cold water. The side ingredients that go with the noodles: fish balls, minced pork, mushrooms, beansprouts and fishcake are also cooked in this way. But it's the sauce that makes the dish. It's a paste made of chili, onions, dried shrimp, soya sauce and vinegar. Each noodle seller will have his own recipe for the sauce. The sauce is at the bottom of a bowl and the cooked noodles plus ingredients are deftly stirred in to blend with the sauce. A separate bowl of soup made with pork bones is given to accompany the noodles. A garnish like...

Char Kway Teow is a dish loved by all Singaporeans, and what they miss most when on prolonged stays in a foreign country. It is hard to express why we love this mess of flat noodles fried in pork lard. A simple dish actually, if you look at the recipe. First heat up a wok with some pork lard. Brown some minced garlic in it, then toss in the noodles. Stir in and mix a table spoonful of soya sauce that's black and thick and slightly sweet. Add chili paste to taste for that touch of spiciness Now comes the hard part: Use your gourmet instincts to stir-fry this mixture until you can smell the fragrance. Add in bits of shrimp, Chinese sausage, and slices of fish cake. Then throw in a handfil of bean sprouts and chives as garnish. But we are not finished yet. Next break and stir in an egg over this, and finally sprinkle a handful of cockles as a final flourish. With the cockles half-cooked, make a final stir and then take what is now called Char Kway Teow out of the wok. I think the appe...

There was a time when you could easily tell people what you did for a living and they could easily understand. If you were an auto mechanic or a restaurant manager, people knew what you did. So too, if you were a doctor, racing car driver, economist or professional poker player. And then came the Information Technology revolution and the Knowledge Economy, when more and more of what we do was assigned to the Machines who could do what we did faster, cheaper and never fell sick or took vacations. Thus many jobs became redundant, among them parking meter maids, bank tellers, clerks, and all jobs which could be automated or relegated to a computer. Bosses didn't need a secretary anymore [except for reasons of prestige] because they had computers and email and scheduling software. Companies didn't need mid-level paper shufflers called managers because Management could easily obtain information on the state of their business on their computers. In the factories Robots and automation...

"The Electric Guitar Sourcebook, by Dave Hunter [Backbeat books 2006] is a new book on what makes a guitar sound the way it sounds. Dave tells you that every part that goes into the making of a guitar contributes in some way to the total tone of the guitar. From all important factors like wood and design, to seemingly inconsequential factors like it's bridge, nut, scale length, and frets. The problem is that all these components inter-act in a non-linear way to give the total effect such that the whole tone is more than the sum of it's parts. This would seem to explain what many guitarists already know-that no two guitars will sound exactly the same. Or more importantly for them, why they must have a particular guitar. In an interview with Fender Custom Shop Master Builder, Chris Fleming, Hunter's question was " How much difference is made by the mere fact of a guitar having been played or not played over the years ?" Chris Fleming: That makes a difference, p...