Quiz

As usual, I put up a quiz for the Chinese Valentine's Day:

既繫禍福之源
復隱陰陽之始

(猜一字)

Oil

The famous gourmet Chua Lam (蔡瀾) used to say that the best tempura chef leaves not a single drop of grease on the tissue paper.

The comment appears a mystery to me for many years: On one hand it is very true - experienced tempura chefs tend to leave much less grease than the others. On the other hand, it seems incredible because we could observe the difference when the two chefs are using the same ingredients, stove, oil, and even temperature settings of the oil.

However, I saw light during this very lunch. You know what, the amount of grease left actually does not depend on the skill of frying (the determining factor of how good a dish of tempura is), but how much oil could the chef shake away from every newly fried piece of food, which, in turn, is governed by three factors:

• the skill of holding chopsticks
• physical strength of the wrist and forearm
• how meticulous the chef is

Tempura

Lunch with Vivian in a Japanese restaurant specialized in tempura.

We've tried this one some years ago, and the dishes are always superb. This time, while I was busy with the deep fried veges, my wife suddenly said, "Do you notice that man?" She pointed at a middle-age chef, "He's probably the most senior one besides the main chef from Japan. He is very smart and could always spot who needs some more tea or their table cleaned."

"Well, I see the same thing, but have a different conclusion." I found myself Hercule Poirot and was speaking to Arthur Hastings.

"Eh ..." obviously my wife could not see what I meant.

"Yes, he stands there and is quick to spot what we customers need. It gives him all the bonus. But, remember, he is a chef - and I did not quite see him attending the stove or the food."

I refrained myself from saying the word window dressing - human being could not face too much reality.

Cooperate

You may not aware of the fact that it is indeed illuminating to try Monoply with three AI players.

To begin with, you could choose how sophisticated your opponents are - from a group of simple minded beginners to three quasi-experts, each of whom has their own calculation.

The point is, it is actually not more easy to defeat three naive AIs than shrewd ones. In fact, usually it's the other way round.

The reason is, naive AI players all follow simple rules, and it is very easy to fix up a mutually beneficial trade between two of them. In contrast, more calculating strategies include considerations to minimize the gain of their opponents - not uncommonly result in a slightly less favorable decision to oneself.

The same phenomenon has been proved by studies in game theory of economics decades ago.

Monopoly

Talking about Monopoly, you may not know it is the only game that I paid to install in my iPhone, and I still play quite a bit over weekends with the three players with artificial intelligence.

You know, many people consider Monopoly not a enjoyable board game - it just lingers on without anyone going to bankrupt. In reality, if you follow strictly the original rules, which could be found in the set or on-line, the market follows an exponential growth, with the bubble bursts in around an hour.

**************************************

I must declare there is tinge of obsession to Monopoly for me. I had a set when I entered secondary school - it was a present from a distant auntie. At that time, my family was living from hand to mouth, and the board and houses and paper money and all the pieces received a big cheer. I still remember it cost HK$180 - when HSBC was selling below HK$5 per share (before splitting).

Soon after I received the expensive gift, I realized my auntie, who used to be not much more well off than my parents, made her money by leverage trading in the gold market. In fact, she also bought herself a new car, many purses, handbags, and clothes.

The problem was, the gold market crashed and remained stagnant in the following years. The car, purses, handbags, clothes, and what not, all vanished into thin air. (To me, they seemed to have traded back to the Community Chest in the Monopoly.)

Behind the game of paper money, going on there was actually a game of real money - in flesh and blood, literally.

I learned a lesson.

Apartment

(Our luncheon discussion continued.)

"Although you may think our friends in mainland have much research money, the amount is actually trivial - if you compare to that of the price of any apartment in the Mid-Level." one of us pointed out.

I considered for a while, and added, "Nonetheless, it is still entirely right to look north for research money. You know, our local grants are so small that it is not enough even for the premium of an apartment in the Home Ownership Scheme (居屋) - maybe its only good for buying a house in Monopoly !"

We all laughed, though not without a sense of bitterness.

WY remarked, "The Monopoly game suffers inflation as well. You know what, the new version has marked up all the price."

"Maybe, even for Monopoly, our grant money is only good for an old house that is about to fall apart." I say to myself.

PS. To be exact, monetary values were multiplied by 10,000 in the 2006 US version.

Provost

Lunch with LS and WY.

"PS is on leave. You know, she is quite disappointed after attending the meeting with provost." The former said.

"Oh, I was not there. What's up ?" I said.

"The provost said that there is no need to have so many publications - you only need a Nature in ten years."

"That's literally correct, and also what our man from Pluto always says." I added, "In fact I know of one person who really did it." (I refrained myself from saying that that happened long before universities regularly monitor the research output of their academic staff.)

"OK ... OK ..." my friend certainly saw that I was not helpful, and she added, "The provost also said that, for grant money, we have to look north."

"Quite true. Our friends in mainland are never short of research money." I agreed, "Just that we need to have collaborative work with them. Nowadays, they are so self-sufficient that I do not see where lies our added value."

WY chipped in, "Many a time you could not take the money back here - the research work must be done within mainland."

"Very true," LS sighed, "By the way, is it the reason that a satellite institute is set up north to the SZ River ?"

I smiled, "Do you know why Chairman Mao's body is put in the Mausoleum ?"

The two girls looked startled.

"For displaying." I continued.