ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

Toddy Palm-from which the Indian alcoholic drink Toddy is made Mexican Golden Flame Vine Bleeding Heart Vine Hankerchief Tree Golden Chain Blood Banana tree Bottle Tree Tongkat Ali [Ali's Walking Stick]-the Malay aphrodisiac The Nipple Tree Rarely seen flower of Cannonball Tree It's such a pleasure to meet an interesting taxi driver. After the fall of the Soviet Union and with the closing down of many State establishments, you would meet cabbies who could make really stimulating conversation with you. There were the ex-KGB men who were still feeling grouchy about the whole thing. I once met a former Nuclear Physicist who was retrenched from his Research Center in Siberia and became a Moscow cab driver. There were cabbies who played Tchaikovsky on their cab radios and could discuss Tolstoy's War And Peace with you. Recently I met a Singapore cab driver who amazed me with his knowledge of the botanical life here. He could identify hundreds of plants, trees and shrub...

My friend Bill Kirchen playing his 1953 Telecaster ToneRite: Aging the guitar with vibration technology The back of the ToneRite showing the grooves for the six strings ToneRite affixed on a guitar Road-Worn Fender '50's Telecaster: Cosmetic aging for the cool look Close-up of the Telecaster We all know how old violins especially those made by the Master luthiers of Cremona, Italy are treasured for their glorious tone. Virtuoso musicians always insist on violins such as a Stradivarius, and because the supply is limited, these old violins are worth millions of dollars. Most musicians are loaned vintage violins by rich patrons of the Arts, who fund the purchase of such instruments. Nobody has yet been able to determine why Stradivarius, Amati and Guanarius sound so great. Some say it could be the resins used by the Master luthiers. But one fact is undeniable: the more you play a stringed wooden musical instrument, the better it sounds. Maybe its because of the millions of v...

Below are some extraordinary photos and paintings from an extremely talented childhood friend of mine. Thubten Kway, formerly Victor Kway. Now a staunch Tibetan Buddhist, he resides in Fellbach, Germany near Stuttgart. You can see more of his work at www.flickr.com/thubtenkway . He is also a master musician and composer. What a joy to see such works. 1. Peeper 2. Dragon Fly 3. Butterfly 4. Vineyard 5. Shining Lama 6. Fishing Boat 7. Pink Rose 8. Eat And Be Eaten 9. Three Carps And Lilies

1. Self-Organized clusters of S&P500 stocks, plus screened Growth, Quality and Value stocks 1. Statistics of the self-organized clusters shwoing the model variables of the screened stocks 3. Short/Long Areas of the self-organizing map. Though generated for serious analysis of the U.S. stock markets, these colorful self-organizing maps are attractive in an artistic way. Taken from my financial markets Blog, these images were generated using Self-Organizing Map technology [SOM], which is a form of Artificial Intelligence. In essence the map clustered elements according to their degree of similarity. Imagine it as a matrix with each row representing a stock, and each column filled with data on fundmental and technical characteristics of the stock e.g. its P/E, the last 5 years Return, the Sharpe Ratio, the estimated Earnings Per Share etc. All in there were about 30 variables for each stock. The SOM took into account all the variables of all the stocks simultaneously when plotting...

BioComp System's Dakota Swarm Intelligence In Action I don't usually post articles on financial markets in this blog, since I have a special purpose Blog for it at http://www.technifundamentals.com/ . But the great number of advertisements in the local papers claiming to be able to make you rich quick in Forex, Stocks, Futures, Options and other derivatives prompted this post. Small investors may not know it. But for short-term trading, the odds are against them when competing with the Big Boys in the market. For the individual house-wife, retiree and wannabe traders who think that using technical analysis charting is sufficient, they will find it interesting to have a glimpse of machine-controlled high frequency trading supported by tools far beyond their understanding and financial means. I have been fortunate enough to have a glimpse of such tools although these tools are incompatible with my risk profile, my character and mental make-up. This post shows the reader three e...

The real McCoy: Narcissus Brand Stewed Pork Trotters An imitation: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Artery-clogging it may be but it's comfort food par excellence A stall serving this iconic dish with its stack of cans of the pork trotters, to ensure that you know the cook is using the real thing. Fried vermicelli with Narcissus brand stewed pork trotters. The mere thought of it is enough to conjure up images of mother, family gatherings, festivals, homes full of aunties, uncles, cousins, babies, grandmother and grandfather to many Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. For generations, this canned food in its distinctive yellow packaging has been a staple of home festive cooking. Chinese New Year, weddings, birthdays of the elderly and the new-born have all been welcomed by a big dish of fried vermicelli with Narcissus brand stewed pork trotters. Cans of pork trotters are also used as gifts and symbolize that you wish the recipient a ...