Table of Contents
 

 

  
Topic 10
  

   
   Why did we Americans lose our savings habit?
   
  
 
  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ...
      good personal savings habit eaten away by 
      
       inflation plus our failure to index
       
      savings and wages 
      
     
    
   
    

      
2
      

      
      ... the
      
       federal structure
      
      of the U.S. has impeded indexing.
      
     
    
  
    

     

      All Links: 
       dollar taken off gold,
       inflation plus our failure to index,
       federal structure has impeded indexing,
       work expanded the economy by a factor of two,
       record-breaking inequality,
       should we change the way we govern ourselves
      
     
    
   
  
 
 

 

  
Topic 9
  

   
   Is the U.S. just as indebted as Greece? 
   
  
 
  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ...
      has 
      
       national debt
       
      equal to 113% of its GDP.
      ...
      
     
    
   
    

      
2
      

      
      ...
      There are signs that
      
       many Greeks blame themselves
      
      ...
      
     
    
  
    

     

      All Links: 
       national debt,
       many Greeks blame themselves,
       a lucky and smart people,
       Americans are another such people,
       the U.S. may be more indebted
      
     
    
   
  
 
 

 

  
Topic 8
  

   
   Do you need fast training for your multi-layer networks? 
   
  
 
  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ...
      This paper is about 
      
       training
       
      differentiable models
      ...
      
     
    
   
    

      
2
      

      
      ...
      Sometimes we train a model just to have a general
      
       equation
      
      ...
      
     
    
  
    

     

      All Links: 
       training,
       equation,
       diagnose,
       predict,
       practical problems
      
     
    
   
  
 
 

 

  
Topic 7
  

   
   Are you interested in comparing feed-forward and recurrent
   sensitivities in speech recognition?
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ... 
      This paper is about
      
       diagnosing
       
      systems
      ...
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       In a
       "feed-forward"
       system, the effects of a given input
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       diagnosing,
       feed-forward,
       feed-back,
       recurrent,
       sensitivity,
       differentiable
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 6
  

   
   Has the US Republican Party lost its connection
   to what we like and admire about business?
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ... 
      The states that voted
      
       Republican
       
      in the 2008 US presidential election
      ...
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       tend to be lower in 
       
        per capita GDP
       ,
       lower in 
       
        K-12 education
       ,
       and lower in 
       
        public health
       
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       Republican,
       per capita GDP,
       K-12 education,
       public health
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 5
  

   
   Interested in the JUPITER Crestor study
   and an opportunity for health-care reform in the US?
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      
       life-style changes 
       
      that I made to
      
      
       reduce inflammation 
       
      ...
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       
        potent compounds
       
       that we can choose to ingest for the same purposes,
       from so-called
       
        "food"
       
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       JUPITER,
       life-style changes,
       reduce inflammation,
       potent compounds,
       "food",
       health-care reform,
       Dr. Majid Ali
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 4
  

   
   Want a four-move solution to Rubik's cube?
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ...
      we can name its
      
       sides
       
      as follows.
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       Our
       
        overall plan
       
       is the following.
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       sides,
       "wheels",
       overall plan,
       six steps,
       four "moves"
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 3
  

   
   How does the 2007 US Chamber of Commerce education report card
   relate to a Pandora's box of population-based problems for the US
   and a democratic opportunity for US business? 
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ... 
      an unrepresentative government
      with additional, urgent, 
      
       population-based problems
      
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       This double challenge presents a
       
        democratic opportunity
       
       for
       
        business
       
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       Chamber of Commerce,
       K-12th grade education,
       population-based problems,
       unrepresentative government,
       democratic opportunity,
       business,
       National Popular Vote
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 2
  

   
   When it comes to U.S. presidential elections,
   is it true that 78 million of us do not exist? 
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ... 
      has the same effect as 
      
       ignoring
      
      78 million Americans in the 25 most populous states
      ...
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       It 
       
        ignores more people
       
       in the 21 most populous states
       
        than the total population
       
       of the other 29 states 
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       undemocratic,
       presidential election system,
       ignoring,
       ignores more people,
       than the total population,
       National Popular Vote
      
     
    
   
  
 

 

  
Topic 1
  

   
    Interested in how speech works?
   
  

  

   

    

     
1
     
     

      
      ... 
      Even if you hold your hand in front of your
      
       mouth
      
      ...
      
     
    

    

     
2
     

      
       ... 
       formant-based 
       
        acoustic cues
       
       for the phonetic dimension of place of articulation
       ...
      
     
    

    

     

      All Links: 
       mouth,
       acoustic cues,
       physical model
      
     
    
   
  
 







TOPIC 10:	Why did we Americans lose our savings habit?
DATE POSTED:	20100814

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TITLE: Why did we Americans lose our savings habit? 

The U.S. dollar was taken off gold in 1973.  Since then, Americans' good  ↑ 
personal savings habit has been eaten away by a combination of inflation
plus our failure to index savings and wages against inflation.  It
appears that the federal structure of the U.S. has impeded indexing.
Work in the U.S. economy helped expand the economy by a factor of two in
real terms, but inequality of income and net worth reached record levels.
To do better on indexing and on equality, should we in the U.S. change
the way we govern ourselves?

This essay starts with the loss of personal savings habit in the U.S.
since 1973, when the U.S. made the decision to take its dollar off gold.

There were good arguments for stopping the controlled exchange of U.S.
dollars for gold.  Here is one of those arguments:

  Only so much new gold is found from year-to-year, and the U.S. dollar
  is the only legal tender in the U.S. economy.  If each dollar in our
  economy must be backed by gold, how could we grow our economy faster
  than new gold is discovered?

What has happened in the U.S. political economy since the U.S. took its
dollar off gold in 1973?:
-- The U.S. money-supply (M3) has gone up by a factor of 10.
-- The price of gold has only gone up by a factor of two, once we remove
   effects of the expanded money-supply and the old, controlled exchange
   rate.
-- Inflation in the U.S. increased to an amount equal to an average
   annual interest rate of 4.35%, paid for 37 years.
-- As inflation tilted up, personal savings began to fall, from 10.5% in
   1973, to 1.4% in 2005.
-- Americans faced the following choice: save U.S. dollars, which
   continued to lose purchasing power due to inflation, or borrow and
   speculate, to give oneself a chance of retaining or increasing one's
   purchasing power in the future.
-- Home mortgage interest rates were better indexed to inflation than
   savings or wages.
-- While inflation and home mortgage interest rates approached 20%,
   personal savings interest rates were kept capped at 5.5%, under the
   control of a combination of local bank officers, state-based 
   savings bank regulators, and national banking officials.
-- It was not until 1980, when the savings bank industry was effectively
   bankrupt, that state-based, so-called "usury" laws were finally
   pre-empted.  By then it was too late for many savings banks, and the
   savings habit of Americans was on its way into the history books.
-- In other words, the federal structure of the U.S. allowed the
   national government to redefine the national currency without backing
   by gold, but impeded the national government from indexing savings
   account interest rates for protection against the resulting inflation.
-- The minimum wage was not indexed enough for inflation either.  
-- By 2008, the U.S. minimum wage had fallen to 60% of the poverty level
   for a family of four, to approximately $6.55 per hour.
-- Ignoring taxes, and with fresh cherries currently costing $3.99 per 
   pound, after an hour of work for $6.55 we could afford to buy a 1.65 
   pound bag of cherries.  Who wants to work for one hour for a bag of 
   cherries?
-- Only 14 U.S. states have a higher minimum wage than the U.S. national
   minimum wage.  36 states have no minimum wage or a lower minimum wage
   than the national minimum wage, or they use the national minimum wage.
-- In our national council of 50 U.S. states, the U.S. "Senate", 36
   states constitute 72% of the states, but as of the 2000 census, 72%
   of the U.S. states now represent as little as 36% of the U.S.
   population.  States with even less than 36% of the population could
   now block a new national minimum wage, if only by inaction in a time
   of inflation.
-- The U.S. money supply went up by a factor of 10, but prices only went
   up by a factor of 5.  The implication is that the value of the U.S.
   economy - the goods and services produced in the U.S., has doubled in
   real terms.
-- In such real terms, a doubling of the economy would mean that the
   money-based value of the U.S. economy has increased as much as the
   value of gold did.  We ought to be able to congratulate ourselves: in 
   an important sense, work in the U.S. economy has been as good as gold.
-- And it does sound good to say, after taking the expansion of the U.S.
   population into account (203 million Americans in 1973 versus 281
   million Americans in 2000), that a doubling of the economy means that
   Americans as of the year 2000 were on average 44% better off than in
   1973.
-- But, such averages were and are misleading, because the income of the
   top 1% of U.S. income earners has now risen to 15 times the per
   person average, far more than in other developed countries, and the
   top 1% of households by net worth now accounts for 40% of total net
   worth, more than the bottom 95% of households put together.
-- Our national savings habit has gone down at the same time as our
   personal savings habit.  Since 1980, the national debt of the U.S.
   has tripled as a percentage of GDP.  The White House has estimated
   that by the end of 2010, this debt will reach 94% of GDP, i.e., by
   the end of 2010, the U.S. national debt will reach $13.6 trillion.
   This amount of national debt is 24% more debt per person than the
   much-discussed and troubling national debt of Greece.

Our current U.S. federal system has brought us to destruction of the
small savers' savings banks, "pass-the-buck" between state and national
banking officials, no personal savings, an hour's labor for a bag of
cherries, record inequality of income and net worth despite work that
doubles the economy in real terms, and a tripling of national debt.

But this essay does not end with a rejection of the decision to take the
U.S. dollar off gold.  Instead it asks these questions:

  What kinds of changes to the U.S. system might increase the chances
  for national indexing of savings interest and the minimum wage?  Could
  such changes support a distribution of the benefits of our partly
  successful fiat currency and national economy along lines of greater
  equality?

  To do better on indexing and on equality, do we in the U.S. need to
  change the way we govern ourselves?

For details on these facts and possible answers to these questions,
please read the full essay.

To read this essay in .pdf format, click on the TITLE above or on this
link: 100814_Why_did_we_Americans_lose_our_savings_habit.pdf  

To read this essay in .htm format, click on this link:
100814_Why_did_we_Americans_lose_our_savings_habit.htm  

Eesti keeles:
101210_Miks_meie_ameeriklased_kaotasime_oma_säästmisharjumuse.htm  
101210_Miks_meie_ameeriklased_kaotasime_oma_säästmisharjumuse.pdf  

Comment:

In a democracy, the nation should accept with thanks each citizen 
initiative for better functioning of the government. VT, January 3, 2011 


       

Figure 1.  U.S. national debt as a percentage of GDP. Source:
zFacts.com.  The dotted extrapolation through the end of 2010 is based
on an estimate from the White House.  


       

       Figure 4.  In 1973, the U.S. dollar was taken off gold and inflation
       tilted upward.  The purchasing power of $30,000 in 1973 is the same as
       $150,000 in 2010.  Source: USA Today.


          

          Figure 5.  How the U.S. personal savings rate of 1973 compares to
          today.  Source: Business Insider.


       

  Figure 7.  Average contract mortgage interest rate (top) vs passbook
  and statement savings interest rate (bottom), 1987 - 2006.  The
  mortgage-to-savings interest-rate ratio increases from 2:1 in 1989, to
  3:1 in 1995, to 4:1 in 2000, to 13:1 in 2006.  Sources: mortgage-x.com,
  bankrate.com.

  Does this increasing ratio of interest-earned to interest-paid-out help
  explain why bankers and the finance industry were increasingly eager to
  market mortgages before the current recession?




TOPIC 9:	Is the U.S. just as indebted as Greece?
DATE POSTED:	20100506

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TITLE: Is the U.S. just as indebted as Greece?


The warm weather of May has been greeted with protests and anger
on the streets of Athens. Greece has been told, and Greeks have seen,
that there are facts to face: their country of 11 million inhabitants
has national debt equal to 113% of its GDP. 				 ↑   ↓ 

There are signs that many Greeks blame themselves. They admit they 	 ↑   ↓ 
were only too happy to pay bills without taxable receipts, and 
despite the crisis, opinion polls still favor Prime Minister 
Papandreou, who leads with the message "Let's turn the crisis 
into an opportunity."

And let everybody also face this fact: it is a lucky and smart people	 ↑   ↓ 
who inhabit and develop one of the most beautiful places on earth,
at a crossroad of cultures, the territory of Greece.

Now, do we know any other peoples similarly indebted, similarly to 
blame for their current situation, similarly ready to take 
responsibility and similarly lucky and smart?

Hypothesis: we Americans are another such people. Let us look at	 ↑   ↓ 
the situation of the United States.

Is the U.S. just as indebted as Greece? Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that the White House warns that the U.S. will have
national debt, by the end of 2010, equal to 94% of its GDP. If the	 ↑   ↓ 
U.S.'s 94% is not quite Greece's 113%, it is very close.

But no, the U.S. is not indebted similarly to Greece in the sense
that the U.S. is 300 million people while Greece is only 11 million.

There is a huge difference in the size of the two populations, and
there is a huge difference in the size of the two national debts.	 ↑   ↓ 

Statistics suggest that the U.S. has 27 times more people than Greece,
24% more national debt on average per person, and 34 times more		 ↑   ↓ 
national debt in total.

So, is the U.S. just as indebted as Greece?  What would be the dangers
of ignoring facts that suggest that the U.S. may be more indebted than	 ↑   ↓ 
Greece?

Are there signs that many of us Americans, like many Greeks, are ready
to take responsibility for our national debt?				 ↑   ↓ 

This essay is the first in a planned series of short essays related to
the U.S. economy. Further essays will discuss: why Americans lost the
savings habit (now Topic 10 above), why Americans' trust in their 
government is at an all-time low, a bad way to reduce the American 
national debt, and a good way to reduce the American national debt.	 ↑   ↓  

Yes, there is a good way to reduce the American national debt. Greece	 ↑ 
is already moving in some similar directions!

To read this essay in .pdf format, click on the TITLE above or on this
link: 100506_is_the_US_just_as_indebted_as_Greece.pdf  

To read this essay in .htm format, click on this link:
100506_is_the_US_just_as_indebted_as_Greece.htm
 

  

  Table 1. Statistics suggest that the U.S. has 27 times more people than Greece,
  24% more national debt on average per person, and 34 times more national debt in total. 




TOPIC 8:	Do you need fast training for your multi-layer networks?
DATE POSTED:	20100117

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TITLE: Variations on Training of Recurrent Networks


This paper is about training differentiable models to take inputs,	 ↑   ↓ 
and to approximate, or "regress to", expected or desired outputs.

Sometimes we train a model just to have a general equation that		 ↑   ↓  
relates	inputs to outputs.

Sometimes we train a model to diagnose how the outputs depend on the	 ↑   ↓  
inputs.  We put data in, we usually get expected data out, and then
we say "Now I am going to diagnose how these outputs depend on those
inputs under the current model, and maybe I can make the model better!"

Sometimes we train a model to predict specific outputs.  We put in	 ↑   ↓  
today's data, we get expected data out, and we see "Ah hah, this is
what would - or will - happen in today's case!"

These goals may sound nice, but are they realistic?  How easy is it to
load enough of the information that exists in a lot of data, onto just a
few numbers, the few so-called "parameters" of a model?  How easy is it
to get good-enough results out?

The answer is that sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is hard, and
sometimes it is impossible.  There is a whole science about the
difficulty of loading different types of information onto different
types of models.

Here is an easy case.  Take (x,y) pairs that lie more-or-less on
a straight line, and train the best-fitting linear model, y = ax +
b. We only have to find two parameter values, "a" and "b", to
get a good approximation of the desired or expected outputs.

Here is an impossible case.  Take time-ordered (x,y) pairs
measured from the trajectory of an iron ball fired into the air from a
cannon, and train the best-fitting linear model again.  The model is too
simple: one best-fitting linear model cannot do a good job of
approximating these y's as a function of x.

Between the easy cases and the impossible cases are the rest of the
possible cases, where a model has at least enough of the right degrees
of freedom, and where there is enough data to learn to approximate or
"regress" the inputs to the expected or desired outputs.

However, these harder cases which are possible in theory may still be	 ↑   ↓ 
impossible in practice, in particular because our approach to training
might not be good enough.

Suppose the way we initialize our model keeps it from learning to be a
good predictor of the expected or desired outputs.  Now what could we
do?

Suppose our training algorithm takes too long.  What if we need to	 ↑   ↓ 
train and apply a new model on each day's data, but training takes
longer than a day?  Now what?

Suppose our model has too many degrees of freedom.  How could we reduce
the tendency of such a model to overfit the data?  How could we make our
model adapt itself, to have effectively a smaller and better form for
solving our problem?

Suppose our application is to train a model on continuously varying
inputs, to produce discretely changing outputs.  For example, suppose
our application is to produce correct results in a classification task.
The right answer in one four-way classification might be [1,0,0,0], not
[0,1,0,0], [0,0,1,0] or [0,0,0,1].  How could we train our model to do a
better job of discriminating right answers from wrong answers, instead
of just approximating right answers?

Suppose it is hard to avoid putting into our model at least some data
that should be treated as irrelevant.  What if our model learns to do a
better job of matching the desired outputs for that irrelevant data, by
doing worse on the part of the data that we really care about?

Suppose our application is to produce discretely changing
classification-like outputs, but it would be hard for the model to learn
to map its continuously varying inputs to a discrete, desired or
"target" output value like [1,0,0,0] that we externally supply?  Are
there alternatives to using an externally supplied, discrete target
function?

This paper addresses these practical problems for multi-layered network  ↑ 
models that are either feedforward or recurrent in structure, on an
application in speech recognition.

All models in this paper are based on a superposition of logistic
"sigmoid" functions, each of the form y = 1/(1+e^(-x)).  All are
trained to discriminate the letter names "b", "d", "e" and "v", as
spoken by different talkers.

Warning: these suggestions may not be easy to implement.  Until we debug
our implementations, they will not work as we want.  After some amount
of work we may ask ourselves "Why are we bothering?"

We should remember this enjoyable benefit of taking something that seems
impossible in practice and turning it into something which is readily
doable:  if we persist, the model may not be the only thing that learns;
we ourselves may learn as well.  So persist, learn and enjoy!

Could suggestions from this paper help produce good results in your
applications?

To read this paper, co-authored with my friend Dr. Norman Herzberg,
click on the above TITLE or on this link: 100117_Variations_on_Training.pdf
 

  

      Figure 1. A network with 652 parameters is trained 
                in 100 iterations through the data.




TOPIC 7: 	Are you interested in comparing feed-forward and recurrent
		sensitivities in speech recognition?
DATE POSTED:	20090716

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TITLE: Comparison of feed-forward and recurrent sensitivities
in speech recognition


This paper is about diagnosing systems whose inputs and outputs vary	 ↑   ↓ 
over time.

In a "feed-forward" system, the effects of a given input pass through 	 ↑   ↓ 
the system in a finite amount of time, after which that input no longer
affects the outputs.  For example, a healthier live chicken is taken to
a packing plant, and some time later a better piece of chicken meat
comes out in a shrink-wrapped package.

In a "feed-back" or "recurrent" system, previous outputs are included	 ↑   ↓ 
among following inputs, so an input at one point in time can
potentially affect outputs forever after.  For example, a healthier
chicken is put into a breeding process, and more and healthier chickens
may then be available in the next cycles of the breeding process.

In this paper, both types of systems are used, and they are diagnosed.

When we say "diagnose", we mean diagnosing the dependence of outputs on  ↑   ↓ 
earlier inputs.

One way to diagnose the dependence of outputs on earlier inputs is	 ↑   ↓ 
called "calculating the sensitivity".

Here is a technical question that can be answered by calculating the	 ↑   ↓ 
sensitivity: if we make a small increase in one of the system inputs
at a given point in time, how much increase or decrease will we see in 
each of the system outputs over all following points in time?

One way to calculate sensitivities is to train what mathematicians call	 ↑   ↓ 
a "differentiable model".

In a differentiable model, outputs, called "y", are related to inputs,	 ↑   ↓ 
called "x", by a differentiable function, called "f".  We say "y equals
f of x",  and we write "y = f(x)".  This notation may be familiar to
you from high-school algebra.

To train a differentiable model, we structure the model and train its	 ↑   ↓ 
weights "w", to approximate desired outputs.  Maybe we chose a
structure like "y = f(w*x)", maybe we chose "y = w*f(x)", or maybe we
chose both, with "y = w2*f(w1*x)".  Maybe the model is a cascade of
such structures.

I have posted a paper above ( Topic 8) about training such models.  Let
me point out again here that having structured and trained a model, we
can diagnose the input-output dependencies of the trained model.

Note, however, that when a system undergoes change, we may have to
re-train the model.

Why bother with any of this?  Because once we have modeled how a
system's outputs depend on its inputs, we can predict the
outputs, or we can try to modify the inputs or the structure of the
system to improve the outputs.

This process of modeling how a system works, and how a system might be
modified to work better, can contribute to scientific discovery.

Applications abound, either in physical science or in social science.
Maybe we are studying chickens, maybe we are studying market responses,
or maybe we are studying the education of children who will grow up to
be voting adults.

You can learn about differentiable models or about approximating	 ↑   ↓ 
desired outputs in courses on differential calculus or applied
regression analysis.

With this kind of education, you can find a job with a technical branch
of a company or of a government.

Should we be interested in making these kinds of scientific discoveries?
Should we be interested in these kinds of jobs?

If you think so, you can see why taking math at least through
differential calculus and applied regression analysis might be a good
investment for our future.

This paper is an application of sensitivity analysis to speech		 ↑ 
recognition, co-authored with my friend Dr. Raymand Watrous.  

To read this paper, click on the TITLE above or on this link: 
090716_Comparison_of_Sensitivities.pdf

 
  

            Figure 17.2 Features and feed-forward sensitivites for
                           poorly-discriminated training examples




TOPIC 6: 	Has the US Republican Party lost its connection
		to what we like and admire about business?
DATE POSTED:	20090524

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TITLE:	Has the US Republican Party lost its connection
to what we like and admire about business?

The states that voted Republican in the 2008 US presidential election	 ↑   ↓ 
tend to be lower in per capita GDP, lower in K-12 education, and lower
in public health.

This statement will come as a surprise to some and as an outrage to	 ↑ 
others.  What, if any, are its implications for US voters and for the
Republican Party?

I defend this statement by reviewing three sets of data: per capita GDP
data from the "BEA" or US Bureau of Economic Analysis, K-12 education
scores from the "CofC" or US Chamber of Commerce, and public health
scores from the "UHF" or United Health Foundation.

To read this essay in .pdf format, click on the TITLE above or on this
link: 090524_Republican_Party.pdf

To read this essay in .htm format, click this link:
090524_Republican_Party.htm 

  

     Figure 1. States ordered by 2008 Bureau of Economic Analysis per capita GDP.  

Comments:

AMEN!!!  TD, May 25, 2009 

Interesting, very GKuhn-like data.  But the question you allow yourself
to ask is not exciting.  There is a conclusion that is begging to be
made from this, and I wish I knew what it is.   SJ, May 26, 2009 

Indeed, the graph is very interesting.  As you say, causality is another
matter, but one is tempted to make a connection: low GDP -> low
education -> conservative religious -> Republican.  I may be perfectly
wrong, or a victim of some prejudice.   PI, May 26, 2009 



TOPIC 5:	Interested in the JUPITER Crestor study and an 
		opportunity for health-care reform in the US?
DATE POSTED:	20090309

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TITLE:	From the JUPITER Crestor study to an opportunity for health-care
reform in the US


The recent "JUPITER" Crestor study showed that the statin drug Crestor	 ↑   ↓ 
cut the risk of heart attack and stroke for people with normal
cholestorol but elevated C-reactive protein (an indicator of
inflammation in the arteries).

After a lengthy discussion of the results of this study, I review	 ↑   ↓ 
-- some life-style changes that I made to reduce inflammation and the
   risk of blood clots, 
-- some potent compounds that we can choose to ingest for the same
   purposes, from so-called "food", and
-- an opportunity for health-care reform in the US, which opens up
   a whole list of population-based problems that we need to address
   in the US.

This paper was the basis for a discussion held on March 9, 2009 with	 ↑ 
Dr. Majid Ali, on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM, in New York.

Click on the TITLE above or on this link for this essay in .pdf format:
090309_for_Majid_Ali.pdf 

Click on this link for the same essay in .htm format:
090309_for_Majid_Ali.htm 

   

     Figure 1. Statistics for 50 US states and Washington DC.
     Left: K-12 education rankings, source: US Chamber of Commerce, 2007.
     Right: Health-care scores, source: United Health Foundation, 2008,
     graphed by Time Magazine. 



TOPIC 4:	Want a four-move solution to Rubik's cube?
DATE POSTED:	20071130

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TITLE:	A Four-Move Solution to Rubik's Cube

This document describes a four-move solution for three versions of the
cube puzzle originally sold by Ideal Toys under the name "Rubik's Cube".

One version of the puzzle is the original 3x3x3 cube which has colored
squares on its sides.  The colors are white, green, orange, blue, red or
yellow.  The second version is the 3x3x3 cube for the visually
handicapped sold by LS&S Group.  This version has raised symbols on its
sides.  The symbols are a triangle, a hollow circle, a hollow square, a
filled circle, a filled square, or a letter "x".  The third version is
the 2x2x2 cube puzzle sold by Winning Moves, which looks like the head
of Matt Groening's cartoon character Homer Simpson.

We use the 3x3x3 puzzle for the visually handicapped to describe the
solution.

Holding the cube straight up, we can name its sides as follows.  There	 ↑   ↓ 
is U, the side which is up, D, the side which is down, L, the side to
the left, R, the side to the right, F, the side in front, and B, the
side in back.  To repeat, the sides are U, up, D, down, L, left, R,
right, F, front, and B, back.

We can also name the internal "wheels" of the cube.  Wheel X, is the	 ↑   ↓ 
second horizontal row of the cube, which we can think of as a wheel
that goes from the front, to the right, to the back, to the left side.
Wheel Y, is the second column of the cube as viewed from the front,
which we can think of as a wheel that goes from the front, to the up,
to the back, to the down side.  Wheel Z, is the second column of the
cube as viewed from the right, which we can think of as a wheel that
goes from the right, to the up, to the left, to the down side.

Our overall plan is the following.  First, do the corners of U.		 ↑   ↓ 
Second, do the edges of U.  Third, do the corners of D.  Fourth, get
the edges of D in the correct position.  Fifth, get the edges of X in
the correct position.  Sixth, get the edges of D and X in the correct
orientation.

These six steps are the subject of the six sections of this paper.	 ↑   ↓ 

While there are six steps in this solution, it is sufficient to know	 ↑   ↓ 
four "moves"  or sequences of rotations.  Move 1 interchanges corners.
Move 2 re-orients corners in place.  Move 3 interchanges edges.  And
move 4 re-orients edges in place.

Even though we use four moves, this paper is organized in terms of the	 ↑  
six steps, because the first side of the cube, e.g.  the corners and
edges of U, can be done readily without resort to memorized moves.  In
the "Discussion and Conclusion" section of this paper, we review the
four moves, and suggest ways to make each move easier to memorize.

Click on the TITLE above or on this link for this paper in .pdf format:
071130_cube.pdf


  

   Figure 1. Left: the original 3x3x3 cube. Middle: the 3x3x3 cube for the visually handicapped. 
   Right: the 2x2x2 cube that looks like Homer Simpson

   
      

     Appendix A. All four moves. Details in the paper.




TOPIC 3:	How does the 2007 US Chamber of Commerce education report card
		relate to a Pandora's box of population-based problems for the US
		and a democratic opportunity for US business? 
DATE POSTED:	20070831

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TITLE:	The 2007 US Chamber of Commerce Education Report Card, a
political Pandora's box, and a democratic opportunity for US business

According to a 2007 US Chamber of Commerce (CofC) study, the measures	 ↑   ↓ 
of the shortcomings of the US K-12th grade education system "are stark
indeed".  We analyze a state-based summary of this study and discover
that the results are even worse when viewed in population-based
terms.

By comparing results in state-based, elector-based and population-based	 ↑   ↓ 
terms we quantify insensitivities of the US presidency, the US Senate
and the US constitutional amendment process to population-based
problems, and an inability of the US government to adapt to
population-based problems.

We name a large number of population-based problems that the US must	 ↑   ↓ 
address, which include in addition to K-to-12th grade education:
health-care, illegal drugs, violent crime, homeland security,
retraining of unemployed adults, support for retirement, and the
exhausting of natural resources like oil.

We argue that it is urgent for the US to address these problems, which	 ↑   ↓ 
means that the US must respond promptly to the double challenge of (1)
poor K-12th grade education, and (2) the broader political Pandora's
box of an unrepresentative government with additional, urgent,
population-based problems.

This double challenge presents a democratic opportunity for business,	 ↑   ↓ 
which has benefited historically from the democratization of
government.

A first step would be to support full, population-based selection of the
US president, by a system of one person, one vote.  The next question is
how to accomplish this step promptly when the normal way of not
changing the US Constitution, namely the constitutional amendment
process, is still in place.

Our answer is to help pass a state-by-state compact called "National	 ↑ 
Popular Vote".  ( www.nationalpopularvote.com )

We ask the US Chamber of Commerce and US business in general to please
announce their support for National Popular Vote, and we foresee that
further steps, like population-based voting in the US Senate, and
population-based voting for amendments to the US Constitution, could be
built on business's success in this first step.

Click this link for this essay from August, 2007, in .htm format:
070831_US_CofC_education_report_card.htm 

Click this link for the same essay in .pdf format: 
070831_US_CofC_education_report_card.pdf 

  

        Figure 1. The score (height) and grade (color) for K-12 education in 50 US states
        and Washington DC. Source: US Chamber of Commerce, 2007.


    

      Figure 4.  The scored (height) and graded (color) US states plus Washington DC,
      ordered by population (left-to-right) and with width proportional to representation
      (top) in the US Senate, (middle) by US presidential electors, or (bottom) in the US 
      House of Representatives.
  
      Why do the people in the 21 most populous states (thru Minnesota, MN) get 93% of the
      presidential electors that they should have by population?
  
      Why do the people in the 29 least populous states plus Washington DC (starting with
      Louisiana, LA) get 129% of the presidential electors that they should have by 
      population?
  
      Why does the 68% of the US population that lives in the 16 most populous states (thru
      Tennessee, TN) only get 32% of the vote in the US Senate?
  
      Why do the 103 million people in the five most populous states (CA, TX, NY, FL and IL)
      have an average K-12 education grade of D+?

      In the US federal system, does under-representation of the people in the most populous
      states produce an insensitivity to their population-based needs such as education?



TOPIC 2:	When it comes to U.S. presidential elections,
		is it true that 78 million of us do not exist?
DATE POSTED:	20040806

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TITLE:	When it comes to U.S. presidential elections,
is it true that 78 million of us do not exist?

We Americans have not acknowledged how undemocratic our U.S.		 ↑   ↓ 
presidential election system is.

It can be shown that the U.S. presidential election system has the same	 ↑   ↓ 
effect as ignoring 78 million Americans in the 25 most populous states,
or 64 million Americans in the 21 most populous states.

It ignores more people in the 21 most populous states than the total	 ↑   ↓ 
population of the other 29 states plus Washington D.C. This statistic
is explained and illustrated in Figure 1. See the paper and below.

To eliminate this undemocratic effect, one solution would be to pass a
constitutional amendment to drop the 2 "Senate" electors allocated to
each state.

But, given the difficulty of passing a constitutional amendment, the	 ↑ 
state-by-state compact proposed by National Popular Vote now seems a
more realistic alternative (  www.nationalpopularvote.com  ).
See also the discussion of Figures 4 and 6 in Topic 3, above. 

Click on the TITLE above or on this link for this paper in .htm format:
070114_elector.htm

  

   Figure 1.  The 21 most populous U.S. states get 70.6% of the U.S. presidential electors
   for their 77.4% of the U.S. population, a down-weighting to 91.3%. The 29 least populous
   states plus Washington DC get 29.4% of the electors for their 22.6% of the population,
   an over-weighting to 129.7%.  The ratio of 91% to 129% is 70%.  In other words, if the 
   weighting of people in the 29 least populous states plus Washington DC is the unit of 
   comparison, the people in the 21 most populous states are down-weighted by 0.70, with an 
   effective loss of population of 64 million people, a loss of more people than 
   exist in the rest of the country.



TOPIC 1:	Interested in how speech works?
DATE POSTED:	20070629

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About the auther

TITLE:	From Acoustic Tube to Acoustic Cues

Even if you hold your hand in front of your mouth, a person who is	 ↑   ↓ 
listening to you can tell whether you are saying, for example, "/aba/"
or "/ada/".

To explain how this is possible, we can model the relation between	 ↑   ↓ 
sound propagation in an acoustic tube (e.g. in our mouth) and
formant-based acoustic cues for the phonetic dimension of place of
articulation.

In this paper, following Webster's classic wave equation, we model an
acoustic tube as a pressure source exciting an acoustic filter.

Starting with this physical model, here are some problems that we	 ↑  
can solve:

1. Find the zeroes over frequency of the pressure at the lips, i.e.
   the formant frequencies.
2. Relate constriction of the uniform tube to changes in formant
   frequencies.
3. Relate changes in format frequencies to acoustic cues for place
   of articulation.
4. Relate constriction of other tubes to changes in formant
   frqeuencies.
5. Relate changes in formant frequencies to rules for speech synthesis
   that were derived from listening experiments.

Figure 5, in the paper and below, shows modeled formant frequency
transitions for the first three formants, for six symmetric intervocalic
utterances /vowel - constriction - vowel/, and for constriction on each
centimeter-long section of a 16-centimeter long, modeled tube.

The formant frequency transitions are measured as changes, in Hz, around
steady-state formant frequencies for the adjacent vowel.  The changes
are displayed at the bottom of the graph for the 1st formant, in the
middle for the 2nd formant, and at the top for the 3rd formant.

The six symmetric intervocalic utterances are /i - constriction - i/, /e
- constriction -e/, /õ - constriction - õ/, /schwa - constriction -
schwa/, /o - constriction o/, and /a - constriction - a/.

A centimeter-long constriction was modeled on each centimeter-long
section of the modeled tube representing the vowel.

The intervocalic utterances /vowel - b - vowel/ are modeled by a
constriction on the centimeter-long section of the tube at the "lips",
the one that starts 0 cm back from the opening of the tube.  The graph
suggests that these utterances are cued by a downward transition from
the vowel formant frequency and then a return, for each of the three
formants, in response to the constriction and its release.

The utterances /vowel - d - vowel/ are modeled by a constriction on the
tube section that starts 3 centimeters back from the opening of the
tube.  The graph suggests that these utterances are cued by a downward
transition from the vowel formant frequency and then a return for the
1st formant, by no formant frequency transition for the 2nd formant, and
by a strong upward formant frequency transition and return for the 3rd
formant, in response to this constriction and its release.

A matrix relating pressure and volume velocity to formant frequency
changes, and formant frequency changes to place of constriction or
perceived place of "articulation" is given in Figure 2 of the paper.

A computer program for generating formant frequencies from log area
measurements is included in the paper.

Click on the TITLE above or on this link for this paper in .pdf format:
070629_tube.pdf

          
   
   Figure 5. Formant transitions superimposed, /V - constriction - V/.




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About the author:

Dr. Kuhn is a former head of the Adaptive Information and Signal
Processing Department of Siemens Corporate Research, and currently
President of St Martin Systems, Inc., both located in Princeton, New
Jersey.