ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

THE FLOCKING BEHAVIOR OF BIRDS, FISH, INSECTS AND EVEN HUMANS. CGA (computer graphics animation) of how flocks of birds, fish, or humans in a crowd move are very realistic. But they follow simple rules discovered by Craig Reynolds in 1986 i n a simulation of digital creatures he called Boids. In the 1992 film Batman Returns the swarms of computer- modeled bats and penguins used this algorithm. Crowds of people behave in the same way if you observe them going leaving the MRT, or shoving to get ahead  towards some object. The simple rules of 'flocking' from which emerge the the fascinating patterns of swarms are (1) keep a certain average distance between your nearest flockmates (avoid collision) (2) Move towards the average position (center) of the flock/school/crowd (3) Move in the average direction of the flock/school/crowd. The next time you are in a crowd see if you have unconsciously followed these rules. Flocking is a stable phenomenon but if just one of the flock br...

FAQ ON HIGH FREQUENCY ALGORITHMIC TRADING (HFAT) IN FINANCIAL MARKETS Q1.Why must I know more about HFAT? Because if you don't, you will be ignoring a major revolution that is going on in the financial markets and affects whole economies as well as individuals like you. HFAT is growing rapidly in market volume share all over the world. In America it now accounts for > 53% of all trades, in Europe 28%, Asia 18%. By asset class it accounts for 65 % of equity trades, 50 % of f utures, 40 % of options, 25 % of forex and 20 % of fixed income instruments. Q2.What does Algorithmic mean.? Algorithmic simply means a set of instructions/rules. In our IT age it means having a software program that executes these instructions automatically. Algorithmc does not automatically equate with high frequency. Many fundamentals-based institutional traders also use algorithms merely to automate their trades. These could be stop-loss Algos, Algos that break up big blocks of buy/sell so that they won...

To all the ardent Creationists and Theists who keep writing to me re the posts on 'God' on this Blog. Thanks, but no thanks. I respect your need for religion but there are many like me who don't need it. So leave us alone. Here is a re-post from my Facebook: LIFE IS A CLASS 4 CELLULAR AUTOMATA To the Creationists and Theists who inhabit my Facebook, I understand that Religion is ultimately a quantum leap of faith and it is suitable for some people. But I am impressed by my correspondence with a pastor in Georgia, USA-who did use Science to explore alternative views of the origin of the Universe and Life before taking that leap of faith. I applaud him for that though I disagree with his conclusion. He has read Richard Dawkin's many books, Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, dabbled with Artificial Intelligence, and played with Cellular Automata such as Conway's Game Of Life (available as an iOS app). Cellular Automata are a simulation of Life played ou...

From these photos (whose compilation or authorship is unknown) you can have an idea of the Indian psyche. Of a people in a hurry to climb up the steps of economic development, and of an ingenious people with a pragmatic bent of mind, with a as-long-as-it-gets-done credo. Function and form take into account the local business environment. Never mind that the results sometimes look comical to the rest of the world. On thing for sure is that you will never see the same kind of pictures in China, that other developing giant. Improvised swimming float Improvised motorcycle raised pillion When you are holding a child and need to use your camera in a hurry.... Cooling beer with airconditioner when yu don't have a refrigerator Peeling onions with motor cycle helmets on to stop the tears Computer prodigy Election rally- Audience of one, but the show must go on A bicycle lock can also be used to prevent sandals from being stolen Improvised fuel tank Improvised air bag

A typical Chinese small-time business man on the train from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The ubiquitous cellphone glued to his ears, the soft-case for his documents, and the two large bags containing his wares. A house of the Swamp Aborigines in the Mangrove swamp of Johor, Malaysia Aborigine children eating their rice gruel and curried fish A beauty salon way out in the Florida swamplands: Fellsmere. An Amish farm at sunset, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania The ancient (at least 30 years old) ShoeBill stork at Jurong Bird Park, Singapore A Pied Oriental Hornbill in the trees, Changi Village, Singapore Discus fish at Qian Hu fishfarm, Singapore Peeping through the window of a guitar shop in Summit, New Jersey that sells only jazz archtop guitars A baby Alligator climbing on to a drainpipe of a canal in downtown Melbourne, Florida Relaxing on a sunny afternoon at a cafe in Annapolis, Maryland Sunday afternoon Bluegrass jam in a park in Malabar, Florida Crowd watching gamblers in a card game; in...

Ten Types of Common Trees In Singapore from Singapore Postage Stamp * all images generated with Fractal Grower software by Joel Castellanos of University of New Mexico: See http://www.cs.unm.edu/~joel/PaperFoldingFractal/paper.html 1. Leaves on a stem 2. Fern 3. Weed 4. Simple tree. This post is on what we often ponder: that what shapes our life as we grow is a combination of our genes, our environment, the decisions we make along the way, and random unforeseeable events which had an impact on the path we were traveling on. I choose to compare our lives with the shape of trees. An Oak is as different from a Coconut Tree as a Fern is different from a bush of Roses. An Oak cannot turn into a Coconut Tree and yet each Oak is different. The analogy with Life is that to a certain extent there is a boundary beyond which your Life cannot cross, yet within this boundary, there is considerable freedom for you to choose the the eventual 'shape' you will become. Let us illustrate this wi...

The New Lucky Claypot Rice stall Rice, Chicken, Pork Sausage, Liver Sausage, and Salted Fish cooked in a claypot Close up of Claypot Chicken Rice Black Chicken Soup with Wolfberries, Red Dates and Dang Qui Herb Braised Chicken Feet and Mushrooms In Dark Soya Sauce Soup of White Fungus and Pork Ribs Soup of Lotus Root, Red Dates and Pork Ribs Chicken Feet and Peanuts Soup Water Cress and Pork Ribs Soup Prices for Claypot Rice: S$10= US$8.00 In a previous post on this Blog, I wrote about the joys of eating out in Singapore: the variety, the quality, the convenience- and how I have not cooked at home for three years: See http://www.fu-lu-shou.net/2010/11/affordable-eating-out-increases.html . This post offers another example of affordable, good food in Singapore. The New Lucky Claypot Rice restaurant is situated in Clementi, one of the suburbs of government-built apartments in the west of the island. Claypot Rice is its specialty, and as you can see from the signboard in the top image, ...