Email Archive

June 18, 2021

What would you do if you have a rodent problem? A problem like what we had, for example.

You probably would go the same way we did: hire an exterminator.

Transform all the rodents into carcasses and toss them out.

Techniques for this transformation can be cruel or messy. Poison is a slow killer of rats and mice (handled poorly, it can hurt humans too). Glue boards are no better. Snap traps are supposed to be instantaneous in their effect but can be messy at times.

There has to be a better way.

And there is!

Enter Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, who shows the way. Residing at 10 Downing Street in London, he has been on the job of keeping the mice out of the British Prime Minister’s residence since 2011.

Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office (Source: Wikimedia)

Prime Ministers come and go, but the Chief Mouser is on duty just like the other Civil Servants.

The resident cat at the seat of government is a long-standing tradition in England, dating back to the 1500s, but we only have modern records of it since the 1920s. The cats are ‘hired’ for the express purpose of controlling the rodent population. They command an annual budget!

The Chief Mouser with the longest history so far is Wilberforce who had a 13-year tenure and served under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher.

There are times when this post is unfilled and mice have a free rein at the Prime Minister’s residence. January 2011 was one such time.

On spotting rats running around on the steps of the residence during TV news reports, things quickly came to a head to remedy the situation. Personally selected by Prime Minister David Cameron and family, Larry was hired in February 2011. It didn’t take too long for him to hob nob with President Obama. They met in May 2011.

Larry in the company of President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron (Source: Wikimedia)

Who knows, Larry may eclipse Wilberforce’s tenure if he sticks around for four more years. He has already completed 10 years on the job and worked for Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, and currently, Boris Johnson.

Not just for the government

The wisdom of using a cat to control rodent population seems elementary. It is tempting to believe that every house cat that is a pet in any home can rise to this challenge and be the Chief Mouser to the House.

But there may be more to it than meets the eye.

Some cats just won’t hunt. Some may catch the mice but not eat them. Some can even be scared of their prey! [Disclaimer: These and other problems with cats as pest control are from a pest control company]

So, I was thinking about Akila, my daughter and son-in-law’s pet. We think she is adorable. I think you’ll agree.

Can she be the Chief Mouser to the House?

Akila, Chief Mouser to the House?

When I look at her staring at me, I think she is cute. But would a mouse have the same reaction to her stare? Does she have the hunting instinct and could help with pest control?

I was reminded of an incident my daughter reported a few weeks ago.

A stray bird had flown into her apartment and got trapped inside. Akila apparently went on high alert and started stalking the bird and attacking it with a clear intent to kill.

My daughter felt sorry for the bird and intervened. If it was a mouse I am sure there would have been no intervention.

Key benefit

In all this, we generally focus on the hunter and the propensity for a kill.

But an interesting twist in the scenario is the smart prey.

On sensing the cat around, smart mice would avoid the area, thereby preventing the whole problem in the first place.

No drama, no mess, no pest!

That’s what impressed me the most about a house cat as natural pest control: Chief Mouser to the House.

I wonder if the British government agrees.

Happy hunting for a hunter!

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. Everything here is hearsay. How’s that for a bold admission! We don’t have pets. Never had any.

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June 11, 2021

You are probably very familiar with mutual funds. After all, there are thousands of mutual funds available to investors today and they have been around for a while.

In fact, they have been around much longer than any of us have been alive on this earth.

That’s right.

Lest we are not on the same page, let’s quickly talk about what they are.

A mutual fund is an arrangement where investment capital from multiple investors are pooled together and managed by an expert investor for collective profits.

Private investment clubs do something similar. But mutual funds are much larger in scope and handle a lot higher number of investors and total capital managed.

A brief history

Investopedia offers a glimpse of the history of mutual funds and we learn that the first such pooled resource investment idea can be traced to a Dutch investment trust created in 1774 by Adriaan van Ketwich.

The idea is not new.

The first modern-day mutual fund came into being in 1924 when Massachusetts Investors’ Trust was created and launched a pooled investment vehicle.

Even this idea is not that new.

But 1929 has a special place in mutual fund history as that was the birth year for the Wellington Fund, still in existence as the Vanguard Wellington Fund. It was the first fund to include both stocks and bonds in its portfolio.

Types of mutual funds

There are two types of mutual funds: open ended and closed ended.

You are probably familiar with the open ended kind as that is generally what is traditionally meant by the term. In this kind, funds can be added or withdrawn on any day without restrictions for the most part.

Sometimes a fund closes the (open ended) fund to new investors. But if you are already invested in it, there is usually no barrier to add more money to your account.

Likewise, you can always reduce your investment as you deem fit.

A closed ended fund (CEF), on the other hand, behaves like a company stock. A certain number of shares of the stock are issued by the company and then nothing more. When someone wants to invest in that company stock, they need to find a seller who will sell the number of shares of stock that needs to be bought.

A CEF behaves in a similar manner. The number of units of investment is fixed after the initial set up. These units are bought and sold on the stock exchange and buyers need sellers and sellers need buyers in order to have transactions.

Decimation of mutual funds

As the mutual funds came into society after stocks did, and mutual funds invested in stocks, the structure of mutual funds would naturally mimic that of corporate stocks.

Early mutual funds were mostly closed ended funds.

When the idea took hold and the mutual fund segment gathered momentum, a large number of CEFs were created and were thriving, often employing leveraging to improve returns. The Roaring Twenties saw to that.

Slowly but surely, open ended funds came into being as well, starting in the 1920s. As of 1929, 19 fledgling open ended mutual funds were competing against nearly 700 closed ended funds.

I think you can imagine what might have happened.

Yes, the infamous stock market crash of 1929 happened.

That wiped out highly leveraged CEFs. But the small open ended funds survived and the dynamic between them changed forever.

decimation=opportunity!

These days there are a lot more open ended mutual funds than their closed ended counterparts.

Okay, so what?

That is a topic for another day. We’ll look at the differences between them and think about why you might choose one over the other.

Adding spice to this discussion is the invention of yet another cadre of mutual funds: Exchange traded Funds, or ETFs. Yes, CEFs are traded on exchanges but the two are very different.

We’ll talk about that too!

Till then enjoy the warming weather!

P. Venkat Raman

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June 2, 2021

If you had received my newsletter on March 31, you would have had some fun with pictures. You would have explored Pareidolia.

Fun because you can let your imagination fly and see what’s not there; transform the mundane into art.

Leonardo da Vinci agrees [wikipedia] (emphasis mine):

If you look at any walls spotted with various stains
or with a mixture of different kinds of stones,
if you are about to invent some scene
you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes
adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys,
and various groups of hills.
​You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement,
and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes,
and an infinite number of things
which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.

da Vinci saw Pareidolia as a device for painters; a benevolent tool to use.

Sadly psychologists used to view this as an affliction that betrayed an underlying abnormality in a person. A symptom of psychosis. Thankfully, it’s considered normal these days.

After all, isn’t imagination mental imagery of what is really not there?

For the longest time, I had been staring at my bathroom floor tiles and seeing a specific image in random patterns. Just recently something else popped into my mind about the exact same formation.

It’s fascinating!

Time to tickle those gray cells and see what we come up with. Below is a picture of a small portion of my bathroom floor. Take a look and see if you can imagine some people, animals, landscapes, or whatever.

Reply and let me know what all you see.

​

I see a few things in there. As a peek into my imagination, let me share with you one image I see. Check it out.

Next week, I’ll share other images that come to my mind.

Till then, happy imagining!

P. Venkat Raman

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May 26, 2021

Well, almost.

I was wise last week. I promised you nothing for this week. I shall do my best to deliver.

But I did say that I would reveal the result of my experiment. So, there goes the blank page!

And the answer to my experiment is: No one. That is, no one said anything when I skipped the week.

But some people did notice. In fact one person noticed it and acted on it to reach out to me. Only she didn’t tell me this was a trigger for her action until I asked for feedback last week!

But the most impressive were the responses I got from folks who wrote and said they had completely missed the missing missive until the next one arrived, alerting them of such absence. That took guts to say, but I greatly appreciate the honesty. I expected no one to have noticed, so it’s all good.

But it was very nice to know that some did notice. Enough people did, so I feel elated!

Last week I had said “[I] will take it easy until the end of May. Next real issue will be on June 2.“

I think I will keep my word. See you next week!

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. You must admit, while this is not a blank page literally, it approaches it in substance.

P.P.S Have a good Memorial Day Weekend!

May 5, 2021

I feel so lucky to be alive.

This happened about four years ago and the memory is still so vivid!

All I did was take a few snapshots of her cute little kids who were frolicking.

Perhaps she thought I should have asked her permission first.

True, I had not been prepared with a photo release form.

Somehow, I feel that trying to get her to sign that form would have been unwise anyway. I am sure I wouldn’t have been able tell you this story in that case.

A quiet retreat sounded like a prudent action. Who wants to confront an angry mama bear!

Indeed, this wake up call to my good fortune happened in the Glacier National Park.

It was August 2017 and we were moving our son to Minneapolis from the Bay Area. Glacier National Park is really not on the way, but we made it so by defining our route.

We were happily taking the Avalanche Lake trail, wanting to reach the Avalanche Lake, quietly surrounded by mountains all around.

As we were walking along, fairly close to the trailhead, there was a hushed commotion, with most hikers stopped to train their eyes on something of interest.

Through the gaps between trees, we spotted a bear cub climbing up and down one of the trees. We loved it, but couldn’t get a great angle on the frolicking cub.

So we went ahead a few yards where the trail swung a little and offered a great angle on not one but two cubs getting their morning exercise.

Not only were they undaunted, they showed such an ease with their up-and-down fun, I was mesmerized by the view.

I whipped out my camera and started shooting a few pictures. I was congratulating myself on my photography when our wise son spoke:

“I think we need to move. Where there are cubs, there’s sure to be a mother.”

A quick round of checking reminded us that we need to keep about 100 yards between ourselves and a bear to not threaten it.

For a mother bear with two cubs, who knows what a safe distance would be!

We estimated we were probably around 100 feet away. Ouch!

That’s when I actually spotted the mama bear. Don’t you think she has her eyes trained on me?

A quick snapshot later, we decided to continue to the lake.

Thankfully, the mama didn’t charge us! That was a good thing because we didn’t have bear spray or any other defense than a singing voice.

I’ve heard that if you talk or sing to a bear, you can keep it curious and at bay.

I can’t remember if that was for a black bear or a grizzly. Either way, I was in no mood to try it out.

Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park

The lake was beautiful.

HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHER’S DAY!!

P. Venkat Raman

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April 28, 2021

“Some S.O.B. is trying to ship a whole building through the U.S. mail,” protested the postmaster of Vernal, UT, in an urgent telegram to Washington, D.C. [1]

He had reason to be miffed.

He was putting in 15-hour days trying to keep up with the ton of bricks descending on him. 37 1/2 tons, to be precise!

Entrepreneur William Horace Coltharp, a director of the Bank of Vernal, might have taken issue with the postmaster. He was only trying to ship the facade of the building; not the entire building!

This happened in 1916, when Coltharp wanted to construct a new building for the bank and other businesses. Though cheaper, locally-fired bricks would be used for the building itself, Coltharp wanted to use pressed bricks for the facade. His trouble: the nearest supplier for these more expensive bricks was in Salt Lake City, 125 miles away as the crow flies.

Transporting these bricks from Salt Lake City to Vernal was expensive using freight through private carriers. Coltharp discovered that it would cost him just half as much to send the whole load through Parcel Post, a relatively new invention of the Postal Service.

Restrictions, but not really

Only, the packaging restrictions for parcel post meant that the full load of 15,000 bricks for the project needed to be shipped using 1500 crates of 10 bricks each. The bricks were individually wrapped in paper before being packed in the crate. The stacked crates of bricks was a sight!

The beauty was that there were no restrictions on how many such crates can be shipped at the same time. So the shipments were arriving at a fast and furious pace, aggravating everything in the chain of transportation.

The mountainous terrain where Vernal is situated meant that the freight transport needed to loop South from Salt Lake City to Mack, Colorado for 272 miles, then go North to Watson, UT for 63 miles, and then make the last segment of 54 miles to Vernal using the railroad company’s trucks. Instead of just 125 miles, the bricks needed to travel nearly 400 miles. [2]

In one incident, the shipment caused havoc to the truck hauling it on the road segment. Struggling to climb uphill, the drive chain broke, resulting in a brake failure and a roll back of the truck, causing it to turn over and catch fire. Most of the bricks were lost.

While the post office eventually modified the limits of shipment to prevent shipment frenzies of this kind, Coltharp got what he wanted before that went into effect. So, the Bank of Vernal building got built as planned and still stands today with the adornment of those precious pressed bricks from Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company. Only, the Parcel Post Bank as it’s fondly called, bears the name of the new owner: Zions Bank.

Bank of Vernal building is now a historic landmark and bears a new name

What precipitated this shipment frenzy and crisis seems to stem from the pricing model that the postal service followed. Pricing was based on the 125 miles as the crow flies, without regard to the distance actually needed to be travelled. The private carriers were likely smart and set their tariff based on the actual cost.

Bank of Vernal wasn’t the only exploiter of this pricing imbalance. Several other merchandise like cement, plaster, flour, sugar, canned goods, etc. were exacerbating the troubles of the Vernal Postmaster. By one conservative estimate, the government was losing $25,000 to $30,000 a year due to parcel post traffic to Vernal. The situation was finally alleviated in November 1916.

Even the government can ‘fix’ things. It appears that they didn’t change the pricing to match the cost; rather, they limited the number of items a sender can send to a receiver!

‘Good things’ don’t last forever, but may last longer than you might expect!

In eternal lookout for a good bargain,

P. Venkat Raman

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April 21, 2021

Positive real numbers positively did a real number on me

Every so often you come up with a brilliant idea that you don’t know what to do with. Today seems to be one of those days for me.

For some reason, I was reminded of a mathematical paradox. It has to do with real numbers. For our discussion here let’s just limit ourselves to positive real numbers; that is any number you can think of that is greater than 0.

First of all, we know there is no limit on how many such numbers there are. If you don’t believe me, let’s play a game.

If I am wrong, there must be a highest number with no possible number larger than it.

You tell me what that highest number is. I will then tell you a higher number by adding 1 to it. Simple stuff.

There are infinite positive real numbers. I am positive about that. So should you be.

Reciprocal pairs tell us a story

Things start to get real interesting when you think about inverses; specifically multiplicative inverses.

If you are not sure, let’s just refresh the concept. A number and its multiplicative inverse, when multiplied together, always yields 1. So, multiplicative inverse of a number is 1 divided by that number. This makes 1 its own multiplicative inverse.

For example, if you think of 5, it’s multiplicative inverse is 1/5, or 0.2. So, 5 and 0.2 are multiplicative inverses of each other. You can come up with many other examples.

Without going into nuances, let’s just say a multiplicative inverse can also be called a reciprocal for our purposes. We are only considering positive real numbers.

Thinking further on this relationship, you would realize that reciprocal numbers are always in pairs where one of them is less than 1 and the other is greater than 1. (In addition, the number less than 1 is always greater than 0, because if it’s 0, then the product will be 0, not 1. Also, if it’s less than 0, the product would be negative, and not positive 1.)

Do you realize what this means? For every number you can think of that is larger than 1, I can counter with a number that is between 0 and 1 that will be its reciprocal. More interesting, that small number is the reciprocal of just that one number you thought of. No more, no less!

This is huge.

This means that the interval 0 to 1 packs the same punch as the entire set of numbers larger than 1! That’s right. There are as many numbers in that teeny interval as the entire upper side of 1 has.

This made me start to think philosophically. There must be the meaning of life lurking there somewhere.

I can think of one.

Self is a reflection of the universe, and vice versa

You may be familiar with that teaching. Different people present it in different forms, but they all come down to essentially the same idea.

Don’t go looking for answers all over the universe; just look inward and seek your answers within yourself. It may be called meditation, penance, or simple introspection. Whatever the vehicle, it is known to lead to calm and inner peace, and solutions that work.

I am seeing a parallel between this life principle and what our little math is telling us.

I see profundity in simplicity.

Do you? Hit ‘Reply’ and let me know what you think.

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. Are you wondering where the paradox is? Thought you’d never ask!

For every number in the interval between 0 and 1, add 1 to it. The result must be in the interval between 1 and 2. Simple addition, right? This also means there are as many numbers between 1 and 2 as there are between 0 and 1.

But we had just established earlier using reciprocals that there are as many numbers between 0 and 1 as there are above 1, unbounded. This unbounded set includes all the numbers between 1 and 2 (which are themselves equal in number to the number of positive real numbers between 0 and 1) and many more.

Aaaaaarrrrrrgh!

Do you see?

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April 14, 2021

What a scary thought! It’s bad enough to encounter a snake on the ground, but airborne?

Thankfully, very few snakes are known to take to the air. There is one species, Chrysopelea paradisi — or paradise tree snake —that can pull this off in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Flying pigs are probably an artifact of a tornado that has sucked them up, but these snakes don’t need such help. They are known to fly from tree to tree without ever touching the ground.

To be fair, these snakes don’t actually fly, but they do glide and can even gain altitude with an updraft in the air. National Geographic even alludes to them travelling about 330 feet (100 meters) in such flight. They do need a jumping off point like a high tree branch.

Not truly flying is just fine. Their ability to glide gracefully and alight on another tree branch or even the ground without getting hurt is awesome enough.

A research project at Virginia Tech has studied them and discovered their techniques for staying afloat in the air. They can actually pilot themselves to a destination during their ‘flight’. Here’s a video that explains more:

​ A Nature video on the Paradise Tree Snake​

The web has many articles describing the Paradise Tree Snake’s skill of ‘flying’ and other characteristics. The most troubling characteristic: They are venomous. Good news: They are mildly venomous.

What does that mean?

Just that its bite won’t kill you. A bite from this 4-foot long rear-fanged reptile can “cause swelling and pain at the bite site,” reports thailandsnakes.com. These snakes can be found all over Thailand (and other Southeast Asian countries). The thailandsnakes site reports that one was found in a handbag shop at the beach!

I am going to rethink my desire to visit Thailand.

FROM LAST WEEK

Remember the bowl of lemons waiting to be pickled? They have been.

Take a look at what became of them and the recipe I followed to get them transformed.

Yum!

P. Venkat Raman

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April 7, 2021

Don’t make lemonade! You don’t need all that sugar.

Instead, make lemon pickle! Yes, that’s a thing.

Where I come from, South India, lemon pickle is a delicacy. The lemon’s tartness, mixed with the right combination of hot chili powder and salt, with optional spices, makes it a divine condiment.

I use lemons from my backyard to make this pickle and I will cover the recipe next week. The lemons in the photo have just been picked. Properly canned, this pickle can be stored at room temperature for months and even years.

The batch of 15 lemons shown above will probably make about four quarts of pickle. Good for many months of consumption. Yum!

From Last Week …

Hope you had a chance to read last week’s issue and take part in the questionnaire. If you did, you would have seen the process I took to go from the starting point of interpretation to where I ended up.

In case you are curious, let me add that the initial blob was what looked like a dollop of asphalt on a concrete courtyard, flattened over time, presumably by folks stepping on it. The photo below shows where the blob is. In the photo further down, you see a zoomed in perspective on the blob, and what I saw in it.

Inconspicuous blotch in the foreground

The transformation from blotch to bird

To be sure, all the respondents gravitated towards it being a bird. Specifics varied. No one spotted the gnat, however!

Here are selected answers to my questionnaire prompts:

Question: What’s in this photo?

Answers:

Oil? Melted

A block of wood or cement, maybe.

Tar spot made by some construction worker’s hand on a concrete wall

Pavement with a dark stain, perhaps oil that has leaked from a vehicle

Question: What image comes to mind when you look at it?

Answers:

An owl

A bird – a robin.

Back side view of an Owl

A hawk in a rain storm with a tiny branch in her mouth

An inquisitive owl looking up

—————

As you can see, we all have a slightly different take on this. I liked the interpretation of the bird having a tiny branch in her mouth, because I saw it too. But then I didn’t take it far as that perspective would have hidden the beak and the eyes.

If your response appears above, thank you! If you didn’t have a chance to respond, and you are interested in seeing my process of interpretation, the questionnaire is still up. It’s not too late to weigh in. When you submit your response, the link to a seconds-long video will be available.

Days are sprinting by. The next week will be here before you know it. And with it comes the recipe and other fun details about the lemon pickle.

Have a great week!

P. Venkat Raman

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