Garry Kasparov Decision Making

I watched a fascinating clip on Garry Kasparov in how he discussed factors involved in Decision Making. The clip came to my attention that Google has posted more the 1000 of their talks on YouTube. I have alway been interested in Google talks after reading the blog post on talk by Freakonomic guys. So I am very happy having access to these talks.

Garry Kasparov is one of the smartest people alive and Google Employees are also some of the smartest people working in the IT industry so the questions and answers were of a very high quality. There are to many points to talk about so will focus on what I found the most interesting which are the factors involved in decision making.

First just after watching the clip, I had to finish the book "End Game" on Bobby Fischer, which I found fascinating. It brings up the idea that to reach that sort of intelligence you have to be a bit different to what is considered normal in western society. I also think chess world champions must be very arrogant in their beliefs of their own intelligence and have a hard time accepting other peoples views and opinions. Especially in terms of any activity that would seem to show that they are not as smart as they think there are.

Okay in terms of decision make Kasparov makes the following interesting points

Quality of a decision will be affected by the time it takes and the materials used to make decision.

Every person is different in the ability to make a decision and some are better at making decision quicker while others need more time to look at all the elements relating to making the decision.

Some people will go in circles if given to much time to make a decision.

A lot of times you have to sacrifice the quality of the decision by time constraints.

Intuition or "Gut Feeling" is one of the most important factors in decision making but is very hard to explain in how you came up with the decision for transparency reasons.

Intuition is like any other muscle but making a decision with intuition is avoided in risk adverse cultures.

Fear of making mistakes has a bad affect on decision making as making a mistakes are normal process, so you should kill the fear of making mistakes and be more resolute in decision making

Have to recognize that some sort of failure will occur when making a decision. When making a decision understand limitations of situation and find strengths and weakness of factors in decision where you are trying to aim for your strengths against their weakness.

We are all different in coming up with a decision making formula, their is no one formula that will work for everyone as we are all different. So to maximise our decision making process need to work at a method that is best for us. First you really have to understand yourself well.

When making a decision remember that risk and mistakes are needed for progress.

Group Decision Making

There was one question which I really enjoyed and is a good example of how decision making process of groups can be greater then for one person who is smarter then the group.

The situation was two chess games. The World vs Anatoli Karpov in 1996 then in 1999 The world vs Garry Kasparov.

In the World vs Karpov the world were represented by a few grandmasters who only had a limited amount of time to come up with a decision. So what happened was that Karpov defeated them easily.

In the World vs Kasparov the world team had much more time to come up with a decision and were lucky that Irina Krush was able to facilitate all decision making into a transperent mechanism in which all decision that were made involved the group being able to see the direction and possible directions of their moves. Unlucky for them is that Kasparov could also see these decision trees. But after Kasparov won he commented that It is the greatest game in the history of chess. The sheer number of ideas, the complexity, and the contribution it has made to chess make it the most important game ever played.

There is also excellent comments from from Michael Nielson saying

Kasparov versus the World is a fascinating case study in the power of collective collaboration. Most encouragingly for us, Kasparov versus the World provides convincing evidence that large groups of people acting in concert can solve creative problems well beyond the reach of any of them alone.

More practically, Kasparov versus the World suggests the value of providing centralized repositories of information which can serve as reference points for decision making and for the allocation of effort. Krush’s analysis tree was critical to the co-ordination of the World Team. It prevented duplication of effort on the part of the World Team, who didn’t have to chase down lines of play known to be poor, and acted as a reference point for discussion, for further analysis, and for voting.

Finally, Kasparov versus the World suggests the value of facilitators who act to channel community opinion. These people must have the respect of the community, but they need not be the strongest individual contributor. If such facilitators are flexible and responsive (without being submissive), they can co-ordinate and focus community opinion, and so build a whole stronger than any of its parts.

So for me really, a great decision can be made if given enough time with significant contributions from many people as long as their is a great facilitator to make sure the decision meats the goals of what was to be decided on.

AFL SuperCoach Strategy 2011

Since I spent the majority of yesterday researching SuperCoach players and strategy. I am writing what is AFL SuperCoach Strategy for 2011. Supercoach is an online Australian Football League (AFL) fantasy football game in which the punter takes on the role of coach and selector and guide their hand-picked team against other teams.

There are three main competitions in AFL SuperCoach. The main one is be the top of the ladder at the end of competition and this one you will be in competition with around 400,000 players. The second is to get the top points in one weekend's game. The last type of game and one in which most people will be focused on is winning your finals. All three types should employ different strategies especially now when byes are involved in the 2011 AFL season.

The main factors affecting your strategy for all competitions are

• The original selection of your starting 22 and choosing players who will be your captain and vice captain.
• Their is a maximum of 24 trades where you can only trade 2 per round
• Affect on your players who will have Byes on Rounds 4, 5, 6, 16 and 19 considered bye weeks.
• The amount of cash you have to purchase your team and then upgrade your teams through trades

Strategy for Winning your League.

The main factor in winning this leagues is getting into the top eight of your league and then by the time of the finals having the best 22 players in your team.

So the main aim to to be able to get enough cash to upgrade your players for the finals but also win enough games to get in the top eight of your competition. What I have read is the best way to do this is stack your team with players you expect to have have significant upgrades with some premium players who you expect will be in your final 22 for the finals.

The bye's are really important to in terms of head to head games and which players will be available in finals. So players from Fremantle, Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane won't be affected from byes and premium players from North Melbourne, Geelong, Carlton or Essendon won't be available for some of the SuperCoach Finals.

A good way to start off is by selecting two/three cheap players who are less than $200,000 for each position/area. This players will probably sit on bench and I also look for mature age rookies who will be getting game time and have proven themselves in pre-season. e.g Nick. Duigan and Andrew Krakouer.

The choose some mid rang players from $200,000-$400,000 players who you expect will either be upgraded or will be in you final 22 for the finals. A key factor which is hard to find stats on his if the player Supercoash statistics is trending up or down because of his age/injuries.

Now majority of players should be selected and then you pick your Gun players who will be your captain and vice captain and will accumulate the most of your score.

The first three rounds is really important in the trades because players value don't get upgraded until after the third round. This is where you identify players that will be increasing significantly and if your guns have not lost a step or two. So would use all trades on picking up value to be traded later for my final 22 and if you are lucky might end up in the final 22 for the finals.

Then all my trades after this would be focusing on getting my final 22 and making sure my team reaches the finals. From my experience from Fantasy Football what really matters is just reaching the final with a good team and then just hope you have some good luck. But having the best team on paper gives you an advantage.

Last factor you should think about in winning your league is what teams will resting their players in the SuperCoach finals and if your gun players are playing at team that is good at reducing SuperCoach points.


Strategy for Winning the Ladder

In this comp its really about getting points so the byes and potential upgrades is not as much a factor. As your starting 22 has to start getting a lot of points from round one to the final round.

The strategy for winning the ladder is risky and it has to be as you competing against nearly 400,000 players.The best strategy that I have read is getting mid range players who you will then trade for value rookies that have become good and premium players who will become guns.

If you are aiming to win this one you should also be checking what ground, teams and players your starting 22 is playing against as that can have significant affect on their performance.I would also identify who are the best taggers in the AFL and note when they are playing against my players.


Strategy for Winning one Week.
This competition is all about having your starting 22 and your captain scoring the most points in one week. I would suggest a similar strategy for winning the ladder where the main difference is pick a few dates on the comp where a lot of teams on bye and majority of premium players that are left playing are on your team.

The key though to differentiate yourself from others is to pick a captain that is going to have a huge game that is not one of the gun players. So your team should be good but different to what most punters are choosing.

Formula for Changing Salary.

As one of the keys to success is having enough funds to trade for your top 22 players. Its valuable to understand how the salary change is calculated.

At start of season every point is worth around $4,865 but through performance this value will change. Super coach updates players salary after every three weeks of games not including byes for that player.

Over the three weeks if the player plays better then their previous average. Then the their salary will increase by about one quarter of value of the change in points. So if a player is on 100 points then after three weeks is averaging 120 it will take around four weeks for his Salary to be worth 120 points. It will incrementally increase or decrease by around 1/4 of the difference.

e.g

Player Jude Bolton is worth 100 points at start of year and Salary is $4,865,000. For the first three rounds of the competition he score 113, 107, 110 . So his average for last three games will 110. A ten point increase based on $4,865 is worth $48,650 but Super Coach will not add the total amount to Bolton Salary in one ago. Supercoach will only add around one quarter of the increase, so will add around $12,000. So if Bolton keeps scoring 110 SC point for the next three rounds his salary will increase from $4,865,000 to $5,351,500

This is why strategy of getting a lot of rookies is used to win the league competition as rookies start are around 22 SC points with plenty of room for improvement in terms of salary. Which you can then use funds to trade for premium player for a Gun player

Anyway good luck in your team whatever competition you are focusing on and note the biggest advantage you have besides selecting a good team is the first few weeks trades. If I think I can add value to this topic I will post some more as I am finding this comp really interesting especially as I have a a lot of free time at this point in time.

Updated.

Best SuperCoach advice can be found at this link The members have four of the top six leagues in SuperCoach which speaks for itself.

AFL SuperCoach Value Players from PreSeason

I have joined AFL Supercoach and have created my team even though have been back in the country only a few months. So I don't know the majority of AFL players. But this was the case when I played in my first NFL football fantasy game in 2000 and won two Fantasy leagues and made final in others.

As I don't know the majority of AFL players, I needed a system to be able rank players for my team. So used a list of preseason results and created a rating system based on average supercoach result divided by SuperCoach Salary.

Below is a list of those AFL players who I think are undervalued based on Pre-Season Form. They make up the majority of teams with some gun players.

persuasive talk topics

A persuasive talk is an oral argument designed and presented to convince or influence the listener to do a specific thing, such as vote for a certain candidate or support a cause. Trying to persuade an audience to your point of view in the speech.

I have done a lot of persuasive talks and the most important one I have actioned is the replacement of an 18 million dollar MySAP system have also been part of few presentations to our Prime minister and ministers on one of most important topics that our nation faced.

The most important factor for me in a pesuasive talk is that the audience believes that you believe in what you are talking about and if you want to change their mind they also much trust you. From their its just a getting all good facts and have a one or two wow moments where you give them an amazing stat or presentation. that they can remember the talk from.  For being honest and passionate about your subject is also very important and having good visuals tool is also very important to make sure you audience does not get bored in the presentation. Thats why power point has been one of the best tools in persuasive talks in my generation.

Humor at beginning is also a good way to get their guards done, since I am not good at humour a self depreciating comment works in its place.


Example of Persuasive talk topics are

• Value of Federal Reserve Bank
• Peak Oil
• Global Warming
• Multicultarism
• Gold Standard
• Bullying in School
• Political Correctness
• Language
• Globalsation
• Media Influence
• Fad diets
• Video Game Violence
• Gay marriages
• Subsidized Health Care
• Use of Internet should be censored for kids.
• Do ghosts exist?
• Exams should not be mandatory.
• Was life in the previous century better?
• Will life in the next century be better?
• Religious practices in public
• The current tax system
• Quantative Easing
• United Nations
• Deficit Budgets

Here is an outline that will enable your words to move your audience to accept your point of view.

.A. INTRODUCTION
Tells your audience what you are going to tell them and establishes the foundation for your speech. A good Introduction 'draws the map' for the journey. For a Persuasive Talk, an Introduction consists of ...

1. Attention-Getter:
A statement, visual or sound (or combination) that startles, gains attention and makes your audience sit up.

2. Bond : Link-to Audience:
Identify a personal connection in the audiences’ life, eg their use of the ‘device’ or system, or there emotional experience (grief and sorrow, happiness).

3. "Credentials" of Speaker (Credibility):
Demonstrate how you are an ‘expert’ through your own use, experience or study.

4. Destination / Objective Sentence:
State clearly why you are speaking at this moment. State yourGoal, Thesis or what you expect as an Outcome.

State your Destination.
An example may be .. “This evening/today I am here to convince you that .... is the most effective way to do business today"

5. Explain your Map to your Destination : Talk Preview:
Briefly outline what you will cover in your persuasive talk.
"This is where you will ... "
“Tell what you are going to tell them”
Transition: A transition is how you move from one section or point to the next. It is a linking idea.
You could say … “Let’s begin by ...”, “Let’s start with ...” or I prefer “Let’s consider …”

B. BODY of your Talk
The Body of your speech is where the detail is found and is best contained in THREE points (you can have more, but don't confuse your audience). For a Persuasive talk, this is where you will ...
“Tell them”

1. Main Point #1
State Point 1
State a Reason
Give an Example
Restate the Point
Transition: Create a linking statement to Point 2

2. Main Point #2
State Point 2
State a Reason
Give an Example
Restate the Point
Transition: Create a linking statement to Point 3

3. Main Point #3
State Point 3
State a Reason
Give an Example
Restate the Point
Transition: Create a linking statement to the Conclusion, eg “Let’s summarise ..." or “Can we consider these main points ..."

C. CONCLUSION
“Tell them what you have told them”
1. Restate thesis:
2. Restate main points:
3. Call-to-Action: eg “I encourage you to …”,
“Let’s all contribute …” ,
“… sign now …”,
“make a decision now to be involved …”
4. Decision-Maker (optional):
“Coming around is the petition …”

So using the above tools in creating a persuasive talk, I wish you luck in convincing other people in the problems the world is facing today.

pepsi sugar throwback

Both Mountain Dew and Pepsi cola have now introduced the pepsi sugar throwback editions of their soda which are sweetened with real cane sugar as opposed to the HFCS sugar replacement used in many sodas today.

Pepsi has been using HFCS, a fructose corn syrup, to sweeten their cola instead of sugar, but a limited edition supply of Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback are now available and are made with real sugar. The Throwback sodas can be found in regular grocery stores and supermarkets.

On March 11, 2011, PepsiCo announced that both Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback would become permanent additions to the Pepsi and Mountain Dew product lines

As blogged before we have around fifty cane farms on our land in Fiji so any move away from  HFCS to cane sugar is good move for us.

 It would be interesting to work out if the permanent addition was really influenced by a 20,000-member Facebook campaign or the fact that corn prices have increased substantially due to ethanol use.

dukan diet vs other diets

Interested in comparing the Dukan diet vs other diets. The other diets I will talk about are Atkins, Weight Watchers and Candida diet. As dukan diet is now more famous due to Kate Middleton is following the diet before the Royal Wedding.

The Dukan Diet is a protein based diet designed by French MD, Dr Pierre Dukan. Although Dr. Dukan has been promoting his diet for over 30 years, it has only been since 2000 that the Diet has really grown in popularity and is now widely accepted.  The main benefit of the diet is to prevent followers from regaining their lost weight. The approach is in 4 phases, including stabilisation and consolidation.


The diet is based on a n allowed foods list, as well as four specific ground pillars also known as phases.

• Attack,
• Cruise,
• Consolidation, and
• Stabilisation.

The difference between the Dukan diet and the other diets are


The Atkins diet:focuses on high proteins, fats and oils rather than carbohydrates. This method was the first one to suggest no calorie counting which, at that time was considered a dietary revolution. In comparison to Dukan, there are similarities except Dukan won't allow fats and oils and relatively low calorie counts.

Weight Watchers:  The diet is a low calorie diet points system, where you lose weight very slowly and hard to follow if you don't have any support. They were the first ones to propose support groups to their customers. The Dukan diet differs as animal protein carrying calories (non-fat) are ignored but others are not. These calories often comes from fats in dairy products which are not allowed.

Candida Diet is diet based on having no sugar or yeast in foods being consumed and introduce a lot of probiotics into your diet. Concept of cleansing whole body and rebuilding it again with good foods. I followed the candida diet and lost ten kilograms over a two month period but have put that weight back on but feeling much healthier.

Candida diet is also very similar to the gluten free diet in that you can't have any gluten in your diet but goes even further in relation to no sugar and also taking foods to try to build the immune systems.

In my experience the most important factor in losing weight is motivation and self control and the way the Dukan diet is broken up in phases, seems to promote better discipline in being able to keep from weight loss. In my experience Weight watchers does well with repeat customers.

The key to weight loss is the diet but in term of general health you need to also include exercises and make sure you rebuild your body with good ingredients. This is why I still consume a lot of vegetables, fruits, garlic and use natural probiotics of cabbage juice.

Farmer/Panda Update for Google Searches

Google has just had a major update to its Google Search engine that had a significant affect on what results be shown. The update was to start in USA then be rolled out to other countries.

The major change in the update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

I have been looking at Google search results for more then eleven years now, the first time was getting my work website to be number one on a specific Google search when Alta Vista was still king. The key at that time was getting quality sites related to information on our website to link back to our website.

Google Mission is "to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful". This change in algorithm will make useful information more accessible. But the reality is the majority of research information I find is from Wikipedia and significant amount of other information I find is from Social Media like Facebook. Facebook has now a significant amount of the worlds information in a walled garden.

One other factor that should be included in Google algorithm is to somehow include factor of how long a person was on that page after clicking it. That to me is the best sign of how useful that search result was for the Google search.

The key for me going forward is how to access information on mobiles and currently I am only accessing gmail, facebook and twitter information on my mobile.

Most Expensive House

It has just come to my attention concerning the first billion dollar home. The most expensive house is owned by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

Mukesh Ambani is the world's fourth richest man and his new home includes everything from an underground car park to a gym, cinema and even a garden with an elevated ceiling to accomodate trees. There are 600 staff to support the house.


Ambani, his wife and three children have moved into the building which is named Antilia, after a mythical Island. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one studio, a ballroom, guestrooms and a range of lounges and a 50 seater cinema.

The house was designed by U.S. architects using principles of Vaastu, Indian traditional geomancy akin to Chinese feng shui, to maximize "positive energy." No two floor plans are alike, and the materials used in each level vary widely, driving up the cost.

The reality is when I first saw the house I thought it was houses in India that have built on each other. I also can't see how it is worth or one billion dollars maybe one billion rupees. Also 600 staff to support a home sounds to much, to me. I think its sounds like Donald Trump stretching the truth.

March Blogging Update

The reason I have been blogging so much lately. Is we are still waiting for application to be processed so blogging about all things that I find interesting. Aim is to also get use talent code's techniques in increasing number of unique views I am getting a day. Currently that  totals is less then 200 unique views are day which has increase by around 100 over the last three weeks.

nuclear radiation effects

After seeing the radiation dose chart did some more reach on nuclear radiation effects

First is radiation in Daily life in which are exposed to radiation on regular occurrence through food, plane trips, xray and daily exposure to environment.

Once you have to much radiation there can be severe effects which can either be physical or genetic. The effects can be erythema, acomia, fetus development disorder, cataract, Cancer, leukumia and conginetal anomaly

Below is diagram of acute Radiation impact. Which shows what sort of impact would happen to exposure to nuclear radiation Show that nuclear radiation of more then 7000 mSv would lead to death

Below is diagram of control measure in Nuclear disaster so that you lime the effects of nuclear radiation. Where the best option is to hide in concrete shelter.

The international limit for radiation exposure for nuclear workers is 20 mSv per year, averaged over five years, with a limit of 50 mSv in any one year. In Fukushima, Japan, On the morning of Tuesday 15 March 2011, radiation rose to approximately 1000 millisieverts (or 1 sievert) per hour for a brief time, the highest level of radiation detected at any point of time during the accident at the plant.

There is too much money/agenda's involved in current Japanese nuclear incident to get correct figures so really the Fukushima 50 will be canary in this coal mine on the effects of nuclear radiation.

VCU NCAA 2011

VCU (Virginia Commonwealth Rams) has reached the final l four in NCAA 2011. VCU will be playing Florida State in the Sweet Sixteen.

It seems in the difference from their season play to the 2011 NCAA playoffs is their intensity in defending the three point line and the play of Joey Rodriguez.

I have also said if players are off similar ability pick the smart coach and Shaka Smart is a Smart. He could have been an Ivy Leaguer. He was accepted at Harvard before deciding he'd be more comfortable at a small college in Ohio.

Another interesting point in the sweet sixteen is that there will be two team from Richmond. The Rams will be joined in San Antonio by the University of Richmond, marking only the fourth time since 1980 that two teams from the same city advanced to the Sweet 16. Los Angeles has sent two teams on three occasions -- UCLA and USC in 2001 and 2007, and UCLA and Loyola Marymount in 1990. Temple and Villanova represented Philadelphia in 1988.

Team for VCU Rams in NCAA Basketball Mens tournament for 2011


Starters
Jamie Skeen, F, D.J. Haley, C, Joey Rodriguez, G, Bradford Burgess, G
Ed Nixon, G

Bench
Darius Theus, G, Rob Brandenberg, G, Troy Daniels, G, Toby Veal, F, Brandon Rozzell, G, Juvonte Reddic, F

You can see that the current Rams recruiting is in a different class then previous VCU teams as two players in the last two drafts have been selected in the first round of the NBA draft where previously they highest was a second round draft choice in 1974. The two VCU players that were drafted in first round are

• Eric Maynor 2009 to Present - Drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 1st round (20th pick, 20th overall)
• Larry Sanders 2010 to Present - Drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st round (15th pick, 15th overall)

I was going to take VCU in the bracket but on the assumption that USC would beat them in the playoffs. I always like Cinderella teams especially teams that play as a team.

Final Four
Last time blogged about a team in the Final four the Florida Gators won two years in a row so VCU may be lucky this year. Problem is I first picked Kentucky to win it all then decided against them because of bill Simmons podcast and then went with my gut with Uconn to win it all in my bracket. I also like the story of Butler and would be happy if they won.

But as since I wrote this post "VCU NCAA 2011". I really hope that VCU Rams wins it all and really if you look at all their games so far, there has only been one close game against Florida St.

Gold for Wheat

As price of wheat consumption has increased significantly over the last five years and this year there is major Chinese drought and the main wheat areas of Australia were flooded. Under these circumstances you have significant devaluations on major fiat currencies of the world against commodities. Is there a chance that we will be trading gold for wheat instead of the use of dollars.

Sounds crazy but in Zimbabwe they are already trading Gold For Bread.  The crazy thing about that you tube clip  is people complaining about no food in fertile land and saying how that have to pan for cold so can get one loaf of bread of 0.1 grams of gold..

I can now see why the use of notes a much better then Gold as a trading mechanism. Otherwise people will be spending their productive labour in looking for gold instead of creating things of value for the community.

Any people always joke how countries fiat system will follow the path of zimbabwe and if so we will be trading gold for wheat and other goods.

Ron Paul Fiscal Conservatives Hypocrisy

Ron Paul in latest addresses mocks Fiscal Conservatives of cut money to million's of dollars of funding for NPR but continue to waste hundreds of billions on military engagements in other countries mainly Afghanistan.

Two other comments that I found interesting from his address was through history the end of empires come when those empires spread themselves out to far and are not able to financially sustain them.The other comment was how a significant reason of why the Soviet union went down was due continuous occupations.

Its amazing to me how people believing the words and talking points from politicians when their actions are so different.

As I have blogged before I don't thing there is much difference between Democrats and Republicans only on some divisive wedge issues that never get resolved anyway and doesn't really affect the majority of people.

I do like Ron Paul though as on major issues he seems to be more reality based and it was him who first go me to read about how destructive the Fed is and the importance of Gold.

Purim in 2011 parallels to current world problems

Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. Purim is celebrated on 19th March 2011.

The main story is how Esher saved the jewish people by being a trusted adviser to a King when one of the advisors of the King was jealous of the power of jewish influence over the king.. The Yaman and all his sons were executed with the assistance of the jewish adviser Mordecai.

Local example of story of Purim is in early 1953, Stalin was planning to deport most of the Jews in the Soviet Union to Siberia, but just before his plans came to fruition, he suffered a stroke and died a few days later. He suffered that stroke on the night of March 1, 1953: the night after Purim. The plan to deport Jews was not carried out.

I can see close parallels of story of Purim with the chaos that is going on now, with majority of Obama's closest advisors are jewish which is causing a lot of jealousy by non jewish people especially on the issue of Israel and Finance scandals.

I am still a confused about this topic and will flesh this out later as think that this Purim is significant in 2011 and has parallels with current world problems .

soprano alto tenor bass

I have been in church choirs as a youngster a long time ago but now we are about to sing a hymn for the Fijian Church. The sheet with the song had all these strange methods that I have seen before but was never really interested in understanding. It was the parts for the different vocal range i.e . soprano alto tenor bass. They are telling me I am the bass.

Below is a description of the different vocal ranges which I found

Vocal Ranges
A typical choral arrangement divides women into higher and lower voices and men into higher or lower voices. Most voices can be assigned one of these four ranges, and this gives the composer four vocal lines to work with, which is usually enough. The four main vocal ranges are:

• Soprano – A high female (or boy’s) voice
• Alto – A low female (or boy’s) voice
• Tenor – A high (adult) male voice
• Bass – A low (adult) male voice

Arrangements for these four voices are labelled SATB (for Soprano Alto Tenor Bass). The ranges of the four voices overlap, but singers may find themselves straining or getting an unpleasant sound at the top or a weak sound at the bottom of their ranges. So although the full ranges of an alto and a soprano may look quite similar, the soprano gets a strong, clear sound on the higher notes, and the alto a strong, clear sound in the lower part of the range. But there are vocalists whose strong, best-sounding range falls in a distinctly different place from any of these four voices. The names for some of these ranges are:

• Coloratura Soprano – This is not really a different range from the soprano, but a coloratura soprano has a voice that is unusually high, light, and agile, even for a soprano.
• Mezzo-soprano – In between soprano and alto
• Contralto – Contralto and alto originally referred to the same voice. But some people today use “contralto” to refer to a female voice that is even lower than a typical alto
• Countertenor – A male voice that is unusually high, light, and agile, even for a tenor
• Baritone – A male voice that falls in between tenor and bass

We tried singing the song in the Do Ray Me Fah So Lah Tee Doh format and I was totally lost how am I supposed to use that format when singing the actual words. I suppose its a learning exercise and at least I now know the difference between soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

Number of Computers for Home School

So what are the number of computers for home school. As we are heavily into using online tools for our homeschooling it is interesting to determine number of computers needed for home school.

Our setup is wireless with three PC's and one notebook. I use the notebook while the other three PC's are on a first come first served basis. So this morning when I asked my son's to continue with their Khan Academy math's exercises we have Grandma doing her blog posts and Facebook updates and Mum checking her email and other social media activities. So there is an issue on number of access to internet to complete their exercises.

For me its really hard to get my son's to do activities, so having any excuse to get out of learning activities is given with great enthusiasism. I think the best option is to have a wireless  netbook or table computer for each  child that is being home schooled is the best option. It should also be also on a wireless network which as of now is not that hard to setup compared to a few years ago.

What is the CRB Index

In tracking the increase in commodities one of the best indexes is the CRB index. So what is the CRB index, it is also called the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (TR/J CRB) which is a commodity index of unweighted geometric average of some important commodities. It averages prices across 17 commodities and across time. The index tracks energy, grains, industrials, livestock, precious metals, and agriculturals.

The latest weighting are listed below

Energy	Crude Oil, Heating Oil, Natural Gas	17.6%
Grains	Wheat, Corn, Soybeans	17.6%
Industrials	Copper, Cotton	11.8%
Meats	Live Cattle, Lean Hogs	11.8%
Softs	Coffee, Cocoa, Sugar Orange Juice	23.5%
Precious Metals	Gold, Silver, Platinum	17.6%

Below is a chart comparing of gold prices to CRB index and really shows why gold is not overvalued.

Albert Einstein Interesting Facts

Interesting article on Interesting facts about Albert Einstein. Below are the interesting facts concerning Albert Einsteing


Born With a Giant Head
Einstein was born with an abnormally large and generally misshapen head. In fact, the thing was so big that doctors were concerned he might be mentally challenged. This concern was apparently present for much of his childhood, as the future physicist spoke slowly until about age nine (those rumors that Einstein didn't speak at all until age four are apparently just that, however).

Asked to Be Israel's Second President
When Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, died in 1952, the country's prime minister offered Einstein the job—hey if the guy could do for politics what he did for physics… Einstein ultimately turned down the position, expressing regret at his "lack [of] both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official function."

The Illegitimate Daughter
Perhaps it was the accent or the rock star hair or the Matthau-esque sense of humor. What ever the case may be, Einstein was reportedly quite the chick magnet in his day. In 1896, he befriended Mileva Marić, one of the first women to study physics in Europe. The relationship soon blossomed into something altogether different, and by 1901, Marić was pregnant with Einstein's child. The daughter, Lieserl, was born in 1902, a year before the two were married. No one knows for sure what happened to the daughter. She was likely either given up for adoption or died some time in 1903

Mysterious Last Words
Before Einstein died in his sleep, Einstein uttered his final words to a nurse—in German. Unfortunately, it was a language she didn't speak, so the words were lost forever. At the time of his death, the physicist was writing a piece, which ended abruptly mid-sentence, "Political passions, once they have been fanned into flame, exact their victims..."


Women and War
Einstein's thoughts about women in the military? Simple. Send them to the front line—it'll confuse the hell out of the opponent. From his 1931 Essay, The World As I See It, "In my opinion, the patriotic women ought to be sent to the front in the next war instead of the men. It would at least be a novelty in this dreary sphere of infinite confusion, and besides—why should not such heroic feelings on the part of the fair sex find a more picturesque outlet than in attacks on a defenseless civilian?"

Couldn't Remember Birthdays—or Anything Else
The smartest guy in the world couldn't be bothered with such trivialities as bringing umbrellas or changing his clothes. Einstein famously had a terrible memory when it came to those things he deemed unimportant—something that extended to birthdays. As he once wrote to his then-future wife, Marić in a letter, "my belated cordial congratulations on your birthday yesterday, which I forgot once again." Well Albert, for what it's worth, we remembered yours.

Whats new with Blogger in 2011

Blogger has just announced new abilities in SXSW. Blogger introduced template designer, real-time stats, comments spam filtering, mobile templates, web fonts, and more.

I like the new version of blogger the only issues I am having is that when adding pictures it seems to swap the different methods of adding the photo's. In the stat's tab and "traffic sources" the referring URL section is confusing if majority of the referrals are Google searches. May need to include the entry pages and who is on now.

Based on Alexa, Blogspot has had an increase of pageview by 15% over the last three months. The increase must be a sign of the turbulent times that we are having as I thought users would be moving more to social media e.g facebook. So expect the trend of pageviews to be negative.

Interesting that South by South West is getting to be a much bigger event where a lot of major announcements are now made.

Uncle Tom Jalen Rose Grant Hill

Michael Wilbon has just written an excellent article on how Jalen Rose called Grant Hill an Uncle Tom in FAB five documentary and Grant Hill responding to those comments.

I think the most important comment in the article was trying to address the notion that there is one definition of "Blackness" is insidious and dangerous and too often promotes the notion that athletic achievement is "black" and academic achievement is "white.". For me this has significant factor in how black teens are 400% more likely to be unemployed then the average and 600% more likely to be in jail.

Instead of defending yourself against the term Uncle Tom black people should embrace it which is also something that Wilbon was doing in the article. The definition of Uncle Tom is a term for a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people. The reality is the majority of people in power are white, so majority of black peoples bosses are white, how do you not succeed in a job by not listening to your boss.

By creating a culture were black people biggest offence is to be labeled as being subservient to white people is a recipe for disaster and the statistics prove it in terms of unemployment and imprisonment.

There is another definition of "Uncle Tom" as being a sellout to the black race. What is the black race, do Jamaicans feel offended by being called an "Uncle Tom". I know Fijians don't, most people don't know what it means only that it is offensive. Biggest sellout I can say in not getting a job to provide for your kids or go to jail or live  a lifestyle that is negative for your future generations. That is selling out your family which in turn means selling out your race. Not taking offense for label someone is giving you because you want to do better for yourself or family. By playing at Duke are black players doing better for themselves and their families then choosing a college like Michigan. I wonder how Rumeal Robinson would have turned out if he went to Duke.

The real problem is pride, when people take to much weight in language and should focus on reality of whats better for them and their family. But the first way to address this is to show how worthless some of these language is in which I think Wilborn has done in his article.

The podcast with which Jalen Rose talks about the documentary with bill simmons was interesting but I can't remember this topic being brought up. Only about the relationship that Jalen Rose had with his father.

Ken Pomeroy NCAA Power Ratings 2011 March Madness

In researching my bracket for 2011 the work of Ken Pomeroy came to my attention as some very smart people seem to defer to him when making choices on who will win certain choises. Pomeroy power rankings were very accurate in 2008 and last year as he had duke to win it. 

An interview of Ken Pomeroy with Chad Millman can be found here
In the interview he states that he was influenced by Bill James and Dean Oliver. His ratings are based on Offense and Defense Efficiency. Main stat is points per possession and ranking the strength of the opponent and more recent results have more of a factor.

 My final year computer project was creating a horse handicap system which I have been successfully ranking horse in Melbourne cups so I am one that loves complicated ratings systems.

Problem for me is I have just found his site now and have already filled my bracket out which goes against his ranking as I have Uconn winning it and they are ranked sixteen.

Below are Ken Pomeroy's power ratings  for the March Madness NCAA

Rank Team
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Duke 1
3 Kansas 1
4 Texas 4
5 Pittsburgh 1
6 Kentucky 4
7 San Diego St. 2
8 Purdue 3
9 Wisconsin 4
10 Notre Dame 2
11 Syracuse 3
12 Louisville 4
13 North Carolina 2
14 Brigham Young 3
15 Washington 7
16 Connecticut 3
17 Belmont 13
18 Utah St. 12
19 Florida 2
20 Illinois 9
21 Clemson 12
22 West Virginia 5
23 Cincinnati 6
24 Nevada Las Vegas 8
25 George Mason 8

UN to take on Libya by the Issue of no fly zone

U.N. approves no-fly zone over Libya which means that raids may begin this week by British forces.

Interesting aspect to this is that Egypt is reported to be shipping weapons and ammunition to Libyan rebels with the knowledge of the Obama administration.

I have a significant number of my families members either employed with the British Army or as security in the Middle East. I also have other members waiting for more job opportunities as security personell, so  this escalation in Middle East must be good for them.

In terms of oil prices not sure how this will affect them as I consider that the main issue by TPTB is to take back control of oil fields to reduce instability in daily oil production.  The statement from the UN was
The U.N. Security Council has approved a no-fly zone over Libya and authorized "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
which is interesting as where were the Armed forces and planes to protect the people in Zimbabwe, Bosnia and Rwanda.  But I suppose they don't have any significant amount  of the most important commodity in the world.


Actions speak louder then words.

New York Times Charging Pricing Model in 2011

New York Times is changing it charging model by charging for full internet access and change. Sign of times as newspapers are having issues with circulation and New York Times have dropped their circulation around 20% since 2007.

The New York Times has had a strong presence on the Web since 1996, In September 2005, the paper decided to begin subscription-based service for daily columns in a program known as TimesSelect, which encompassed many previously free columns. This service was discontinued two years later in September 17, 2007,

The charging model is interesting where they offer different rates for different types of access. So the people running this model seem to understand current trends also the newspaper is eager not to alienate its existing readers online, so each month the first 20 articles will be free.

The different types of charges are

• $15 per month for unlimited access to the website and its smartphone app
• $20 per month for unlimited access to the website and an iPad app
• $35 per month for unlimited access to the website, a smartphone app and an iPad app.

Subscriptions to the print edition of the newspaper will include full access to the internet content.

I consider New York Times writing some of the best in the business in terms of giving new relevant and easy to understand information.

I hope it works out for them but have a feeling that the new generations just can't read newspaper articles anymore. Now being conditioned to a few paragraphs of talking points.

Japan Freezing With No Electricity

One of the saddest aspects of the media coverage of the affect of the Japanese earthquakes is the lack of media reporting on how how so many japanese are suffering as Japan is freezing with no electricity for a large number of households.

The Nuclear crisis is diverting attention from the tens of thousands affected by last week's earthquake and tsunami. About 850,000 households in the north without electricity in near-freezing weather.

The Death toll is expected to exceed 10,000 which is shocking for one of the most prepared countries in the world for addressing earthquakes and tsunamies

Man this is really bad, first survive the earthquakes, then tsunami and now having to survive freezing temperatures and lack of supplies. To add to all this the possibility of getting radiation poisoning.

I know in Fiji Japan helped us a lot with a lot of projects and scholarships. Why aren't we doing more and what can we do to help?

Home School Struggles

It is now ten days since my two boys have not been able to attend high school due to immigration issues. So we have been home schooling them in that period So far there has been significant struggle in home schooling my kids but they has been some wins.

The biggest struggle we are facing is getting the kids to focus and do what we have assigned for them to do. We live in extended family with my parents and brother all living in same property so there will be always jobs that they are doing in which my sons want to be involved in. As being human we love having our children around especially at this stage when the mainly listen to what we say. So they end up doing other activities e.g doing volunteer work to strip computers, assist with church newsletters, move furniture of friends, clean up garden of friends. Create a Fijian underground oven for my oldest son's birthday. But I suppose all those activities could be counted as learning activities.

The best way so far to get my kids to concentrate is to actually take them to the library in which they end up reading. The library services here are great and besides Khan Academy my kids have access to intrepica which help them in english, student edition of Britannica Online which is a much better resource for them to research topics instead of wiki. The problem with wiki is that it is written for reading levels usually greater then year seven and nine.

Some of wins have been transplanting tomatoes and planing another three trays of vegetables in garden beside daily weeding and watering activities. Learned how to play Aussie Rules and my son will be playing ruck this weekend. Even though he has never watched a live Aussie Rules game in his life. They have also learning how to play piano and starting with local football song. The have also drawn maps of travel routes to some of the main places we go to here.

I have been constantly told that for home school we need to develop a routine and currently it seems to be just in time learning experiences. That is probably what is causing the biggest issue in them studying as they are not focusing on lessons that we have planned.

The elephant in the room though is that if we are to home school our kids effectively, we the teachers need to prepare properly and that has been a struggle for me.

Mike Tyson 2011 Cleaning Up his Image

It seems in 2011 Mike Tyson is cleaning up his image and this youtube clip is a classic example of that. I started following Mike Tyson after reading about a promising boxer in Sports Illustrated in the mid eighties. What was so special about that sports illustrated article is that where was also an article about an up and coming junior golfer named Tiger Woods. I have been searching for that sports illustrated issue with no luck.

Watching Mike Tyson fights with my brothers and father are some or my best experiences in life. People don't understand the violence of boxing unless you see it up close. This is something I didn't realise until later on when I helped administer professional boxing in Fiji.  Mike Tyson in my youth represented extreme violence and was a violent character. The only other boxers we loved that have come close for us besides Ali was Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu.

So how is Mike Tyson cleaning up his image in 2011. First he is on a vegan diet, acting in films and documentaries e.g hangover, dropped more the 100 pounds, no more gold teeth and creating a new television show about pigeons. But the most important change is I think is that he is just getting older and has reached a point in his life where he realises the importance of his children and becoming a family man



On December 7, 2010, Tyson was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, alongside legendary Mexican champion Julio César Chávez, light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, and actor/screenwriter Sylvester Stallone. This is amazing to me as Tyson is my favourite sportsman with Jordan, Kosta Tszyu is the best boxer I have seen in real life and in a real boxing tournament on TV i.e world amatuers.  Rocky 3 is my favourite movie of all time as I watched it at cinema with my brothers and father, amazing experience. Of course Julio Cesar Chavez was on of the best boxers in my generation.

I wish all the best going forward for Mike Tyson and his family.

Why are food prices rising 2011

Food prices around the world are significantly rising in 2011. The US consumer food inflation index has surged by the highest percentage in 37 years. The main reasons identified for the increase in prices are higher oil prices, natural disasters e.g. flooding in Australia, droughts in brazil etc.

There also has been arguments that commodity speculation and change in diets of people have also had a significant affect on Food prices.

My personal view is that the devaluations of the major currencies is what is causing the most significant cause in the increase of food prices. I also believe food security will be one of biggest issues going forward, especially if the natural disasters we have been facing in the last few years continue.

Below is percentage of income spent on food.by countries.

In US more then 35 million people receive Food Stamps then there is QE2 all having negative affect on food prices. As the FED prints more money in which US can buy more of the worlds food supply through government spending.

There is also the argument that as much more people entering middle class their dietary expectations change which will have an affect on food prices as they start purchasing food that otherwise would be purchased at a cheaper price in other countries e.g Egypt.

The major increase in the population of the middle class is China and India where in China it is expected to mover from 65 million in 2005 to around 700 million in 2020. To put this in perspective thats an increase of two times the population of the USA are going to expect to be fed more expensive food.

China is also facing their worst drought in sixty years which is threatening their wheat crop. China, the world's largest wheat producer. Traditionally self-sufficient in grain, the Chinese may be compelled to tap some of their $2.85 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to import wheat to feed their hungry people. This of course will drive up the wheat prices and really wheat is one the key foods for majority of poor people.

Interesting times ahead.

Updated.

Sister saying it costs $5 a kg for sugar in Fiji where sugar there is our main agricultural export and she has a sugar cane farm. I remember when you could get 1 kg sugar for less then one dollar last year.

Affect of planting of crops on availability of money is also a factor in amount of crops that will be planted going forward. And this is being harder due to financial situations affecting lending institutions.

natural probiotics good bacteria vs bad bacteria

There are a lot of probiotics that are advertised on TV but for me the method of getting natural probiotics is best as you are more certain that you are getting good bacteria to defeat the bad bacteria that is usually in your stomach

Probiotics are: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts give a health benefit on the host". Like I blogged before I am a big believer that a lot of our sickness and way of life causes the bad bacteria in our stomachs to overwhelm the good bacteria. This causes many different ailments that are common to people but are misdiagnosed.



For me the best natural probiotics that produces good bacteria is cabbage juice.

Cabbage has a lot of good bacteria around it, so the idea is to get bacteria and put it in a juice to be drunk. So fresh natural cabbage is best

My Recipe for Cabbage Juice

1. Two litres of fiji water as water has to be pure otherwise it is useless, boiling chlorinated water doesn’t work for me.
2. Chop Cabbage into small bits and submerge it in Fiji water in large plastic container
3. Water covers chopped cabbage and seal container but best if there is a small opening to let some air out
4. After three days I drain all the juice back into empty Fiji water bottle
5. Have half a cup of Cabbage Juice a day think its better on empty stomach or after eating so your two litres should last you at least one week.
6. I then create another bottle of cabbage juice just as the other is about to be finished

Its amazing to me how much commercial probiotics are advertised when this simple cabbage juice has been a good natural source of good bacteria for me.