ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

No one can predict the oil price 1 month ahead, next week or even tomorrow. But still, some businesses e.g. Airlines have to try because they have to hedge their fuel cost against swings in their fuel cost. In economic planning, governments also need to forecast revenue and expenditure.  One of the ways to hedge is by buying a Futures contract [which is the promise to deliver something at a certain price at a certain time in the future]. Such as the Brent Oil Crude Futures of the CME Group (former Chicago Mercantile Exchange) in the chart above. Can the 1-year, 2 year and 5-year Futures price of oil give us an indication of the direction of oil price? We know that prices change according to events that happen every day and every hour; and no one can predict such events from Libya oil terminals burning to release of data on China’s economic growth. There are two reasons why the Futures price can be a predictor of prices in the future: (1) The futures price is determined by ...

For a long time I have been confused by the terms DNA, Genes, and Chromosomes and what do people mean when they say we have good or bad genes. After reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press, 1976), I have a clearer picture. With the help of the graphics enclosed, here is an explanation of what are genes, DNA and chromosomes:   Our bodies are made up of thousands of millions of individual cells. Each cell contains your DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) – a molecule with a complete set of instructions for making your body. The double-helix DNA is made up of strings of A,T,C,G* nucleotides stringed together in a particular sequence with  "A" always pairing with "T" and "C" with "G"  *Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine. A gene is a particular length of DNA with a particular sequence of A,T,C,G pairing; that has properties which enable it to survive several generations e.g. a Blue eye gene, a Brown eye...

At a  Palm Civet cat farm near Bandung, Indonesia. The cat is fed fresh coffee berries. When he shits, his poo contains undigested parts of the coffee berry. This is processed to give Kopi Luwak (Civet Cat coffee) which is the most expensive coffee in the world. You may pay up to  US$40.00 for a cup of Kopi Luwak in New York or San Francisco.' The civet cat's stomach enzymes do their work on the beans, and the resultant cup of coffee is a strong, snooth and fragrant, but not acidic.