Twinkle Toes Engineering

Donald E. Fulton (EE) homepage
w/engineering, physics, biology, chemistry
& consumer essays

IEEE Compel 2006 paper -- New Current Sense Circuit   Poster OverView
        Copy of a technical paper I gave at an IEEE electrical engineering conference at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, July 19, 2006. It describes a fundamentally new circuit architecture for sensing motor current that I invented (US patent # 6,998,800, Feb 2006). Patent link

Class of 1916,  Parlin Junior High,  Everett MA
hi-res picture (1.5 mbyes)  This is a wonderful photo full of great character faces of students now surely all dead. Looking at this photo reminds me of the opening of the movie, Dead Poets Society, where close ups of old student photos (like this one) are shown while Robin Williams pointing to them says to his students:  "I don't think you've really looked at them ... their eyes are full of hope. Did they wait until it was too late? ... Because you see, gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. Carpe Diem! Seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary!"

        I went to Parlin Junior High as did my brother, father, and lots of my aunts and uncles. I found this photo stained, ripped, and neglected in a glass case in a dingy corridor in the Everett City Hall in early 2006. I photographed it (through the glass!) with my 7Mpixel Cannon S70 and did quite a bit of photo restoration work on it.
left side    right side      detail1 . detail2 . detail3 . detail4

Social Security & Work
        Is there is a huge penalty if you work while collecting SS below full retirement age? Not really. SS early retirement work policy is usually described as 'You are taxed $1 for every $2 you earn above $12,000/yr', but this is extremely misleading. The money withheld ('taxed') is not lost, just delayed, you get it eventually. This SS policy is widely misunderstood because it is so poorly documented, and some consider this close to a scandal.

        Attached file is basically my research notes on the subject, and while disorganized, it contains a lot of useful information.

Charity/IRA/Probate
        Notes on tax efficient ways to give money to charity. Funds remaining in IRA accounts at death are good candidates to leave to charity, because if left to heirs a substantial fraction of these funds will be lost to taxes. Also info on the directed beneficiary route for bypassing probate.

BioFuels & Solar
         Notes on ethanol and energy efficiency of biofuels. Ethanol from corn is of very limited value (if any) in reducing use of fossil fuels, and as Bernie Karl puts it, "You can't burn food, it's just stupid". Solar plants are still relatively small and a wide range of technologies are competing, but with an investment of large sums over many years the US could meet its future electrical needs from solar. Plus interesting articles on coal, geoengineering, methanol, etc.

Peak Oil
         An oil extraction model proposed by Hubbert predicts annual oil production peaks when (about) 50% of the recoverable oil in the ground has been taken out. Applied to the earth this model predicts that peak oil production will occur 2004 to 2008, and it will never be as high again, ever! Maybe, just maybe, this explains why oil has recently tripled in price?

Panspermia, Bugs Below Ground, & Abiogenic Hydrocarbons
 Subtitle: Interesting ideas of Thomas Gold and Fred Hoyle
      Did life come to earth from space? Fred Hoyle thinks so. He argues that DNA from bacteria and viruses that are constantly raining down on earth (from comets) are a major driving force of evolution. He has data, too, that indicates that dust in deep space may actually be dried bacteria.

        Bacteria MV-1 on earth assemble atom by atom magnetic crystals of a distinctive shape. These crystals might turn out to be an extremely useful biological marker because as far as is known they do not form inorganically, and they can survive intact for billions of years. One very old meteorite from Mars appears to contain such magnet crystals. Does this indicate life on early Mars?

        Thomas Gold has a very interesting (double) theory that one, huge numbers of microbes live in rocks deep below ground, and two, that they feed on primordial hydrocarbons that outgas from earth. Gold first put forward his underground bug theory in 1992, and fifteen years later the evidence is piling up that he may very well be right. Everywhere we look underground and in hot extreme environments we find microbes.

        And amazingly Gold presents a good case that coal, oil, and gas we use for energy arenot the remains of buried surface life, i.e. they are not fossil fuels.

Consumer Abuse
          *  XP to Windows 7 Upgrade, What a Freaking Nightmare
        An essay based on a log I kept as I replaced my old XP computer with a new Windows 7 computer. For someone who isn't a computer pro the setting up a new computer and at the same time being forced to 'upgrade' to a new operating system is a (freaking) nightmare. Thanks Microsoft and HP.

          *  Virus Recovery using 'Microsoft Sytem Restore'
        I wrote this essay right after 'Microsoft System Restore' rescued me from a virus that captured my Compaq Vista portable. In my HP/Compaq computers F11 at boot (confusingly labeled 'System Recovery') provides access to several recovery tools, one of which is System Restore.

Win one, lose one (update 4/11)
       Nine months later when my Windows7 desktop kept freezing just as Windows starts to load, I expected 'System Restore' to again save me. It didn't. It ran and reported a successful roll back, but still no boot. Had to resort to destructive 'System Recover' followed by a week's work to reinstall everything.

         'Microsoft System Restore' is a gem in Windows OSs (XP, Vista and Windows 7) that can roll back your operating system (files and registry settings) to a time before the computer was captured by a virus (ideally by just hours or a few days). It will not affect your files and data (it's even reversible), so it's a safe way to disable a virus. One trap is that it has a name almost identical to a destructive recovery program called 'System Recovery', which that must be avoided at all costs because it wipes out all your programs and data when it reinstalls the OS,

          *  What banks don't tell you about online Bill Pay   or  (hide in the fine print)
        My bank's online BillPay service switches back and forth (unpredictably) between mailing out draft checks and cashiers checks. You can see in your account when draft checks are cashed, but not when cashiers checks are cashed.

        *  CableTV Analog to Digital Transition   or  (what Comcast 'forgets' to tell you)
        *  Stop encryption of Comcast expanded basic cable  protest letter  (pdf format)
                        Follow up Encryption/cable newspaper articles

        There are dozens of digital and HD channels on the cable that can be legally received without upgrading to expensive HD service by using non-Comcast equipment

        My cable provider (Comcast) recently changed expanded basic channels (ch 23 to 71) from analog to digital. If you followed Comcast instructions and used the Comcast provided (free) equipment, all HD channels you may have been getting were lost! Comcast never tells people that a huge number of the digital and HD channels on non-Digital service can be legally received without using Comcast equipment. Just hook the cable direct to newer TV's and do an auto-scan. For your computer you need an inexpensive (non-Comcast) analog/QAM digital tuner and some software.

        Comcast's withholding of cable information during this transition was clearly abusive, a marketing ploy to force people with analog service to (unnecessarily) upgrade to more expensive 'Digital HD' service to hold onto their HD channels. Not using Comcast cable boxes with your cable can not only keep your your monthly cable bill from increasing, it may even allow you to substantially decrease it.

Encryption protest letter
        Six months after the analog to digital transition a Comcast mailing says as part of the "cable enhancement" all TVs will soon need their own cable box. I know what this means, they are planning to encrypt (scramble) all the expanded basic channels (ch 23 to 99). Encryption is not a cable enhancement, as Comcast claims, it does not improve cable capacity or picture quality. It is a power grab plain and simple, a crippling of large screen digital cable ready (QAM) TVs and computer TV tuners. Customers are told to receive HD cable channels requires them to buy (expensive) HD service and rent (obscenely overpriced) HDTV cable boxes. It sounds reasonable, but it's not true! It's at best misleading and pretty close to an outright lie. Artfully concealed is the fact that all local HD channels on cable are likely to remain unencrypted and that most newer large screen HDTVs have built-in (QAM) HD digital tuners that can receive them with a direct cable connection by buying the cheapest Comcast services (Basic at $10/month or Digital Economy at $30/month w/internet).

Rants -- Tickets, Reservation Disasters
        Monopoly control of online tickets by at least some ticket vendors has resulted in terrible service, hard to use web sites, and high prices. Read my rant against TicketMaster, the story of some reservation disasters, and my experience with Medicare billing.

Global Warming     &    Global Warming Physics
        Two essays on global warming:
                 *  Little primer on global warming with real data
                 *  Technical essay on the physics and models of global warming

        The establishment says ignore the sun, focus on CO2, but Svensmark of Denmark has been the pioneer of a tiny group that for a long time has been arguing that the influence of the sun on climate is important (maybe even dominant over CO2) via an indirect mechanism where the sun's magnetic activity modulates the cosmic rays hitting earth, which affects cloud cover, which affects the albedo (reflectivity) of earth. Enough people are now convinced that this idea has merit that CERN is going to mount a huge, multi-year, 60 scientist, cosmic ray/cloud experiment to check it out with particle beams playing the role of cosmic rays.

Awake and Sing!  &  Vienna Waltzes  (First half) 2006 to June 2009)
Awake and Sing!  &  Vienna Waltzes  (Second half) 2006 to June 2009)
Awake and Sing II    (July 2009 to Dec 2011)
Awake and Sing III  (Jan 2012
        It's a pleasure to see really good acting in a classic american play. Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets (1935), revived spring 2006, at Belasco Theatre, NYC. "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust" (Isaiah 26:19)  Found 15 different biblical translations of this line! Only the King James Bible gets the poetry right.

        A first row seat in the open air on a warm summer night in July 2006 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY for a glorious three hour performance of New York City Ballet in Vienna Waltzes, Divertimento #15, and Songs of the Auvergne.

        This essay has evolved into running commentary & mini-reviews of many of the theater pieces I have seen since summer 2006.

Men of God
        No comment

AC vs DC Power & Tesla's Induction Motor
        The story of AC vs DC power and Tesla's AC induction motor, the world's most common motor. The huge range advantage AC has over DC power is explained. Initially AC was held back because no one knew how to make an AC motor, but Tesla to the rescue. Tesla's induction motor, the world's first practical AC motor, helped AC power overtake DC power in the late 1800's. How the induction motor worked was not really understood for nearly a century, and I played a role in finally understanding it.

Human Body Cells
        It's a little known fact that most (majority) of the cells in our body are not human! They do not have human DNA. Collectively they are known as the fauna and flora of the gut

Atoms
        How were the size and basic structure of atoms figured out in the early 20th century without atom smashing machines? I never knew, I learned almost nothing about atoms in school. Here's some of  the key developments plus some fun calculations.

Investing
        How to invest explained in just a few pages (with a little bull).

Speed of Light     &    Light Vision
       Why is the speed of light so special? Here's real data on the speed limit for electrons, and surprise, it' s the same as the speed of light in a vacuum. Maxwell in the 1860's found his equations predicted that electromagnetic waves could exist and would travel at 3 x 10^8 m/sec, which he knew to be the speed of light. How could the speed of light possibly have been known in the 1860's?  How the speed of light was first measured accurately on earth (about 100 years ago). A discussion on how an electrical signal travels down a cable provides insight as to why light slows down in transparent materials.

        Light Vision discuses how the eye sees color, and how cone cells are so remarkably sensitive that they can detect a single photon of light. (ref: First Steps in Seeing by Robert W. Rodieck)

Special Relativity
        Who sees what contract? Whose time dilates?  It can be very confusing. Here's an easy way to visualize and calculate the Lorentz factor and to remember how it applies (think muons). Plus real data on relativistic increases in mass, and a fun riff on the 'missing ½' in E = mc².

Electron
        There are four ways to measure the size of an electron. One size is zero. The other three sizes differ by exactly the same ratio (1/137) called the fine structure constant. The fine structure constant is the strangely named coupling constant in QED (quantum electrodynamics), and also important because it is one of only a few dimensionless constants in physics

         Electrons are the source of (almost) all light (+ x-rays, radio waves, etc). Photons come from electrons, electrons that are accelerating, decelerating, oscillating, or jumping to lower orbits inside atoms.

Quantum Hall Device   (quantization + magnetic field  =>  Resistor Standard)
        The quantum hall device is of interest to physicists, because it provides a measure of one of the fundamental constants of physics (fine structure constant), and to the electrical engineer, because it has been shaped into the world's best resistor. The unusual properties of this device are caused by very high magnetic fields forcing the conducting electrons into tight, quantized (based on wavelength) orbits around quantums of magnetic flux.

Mystery
        I ran into an incredible mystery with this device. The physicists 'proved', by writing out the equations, that the resistance of the conducting path is approaching zero. But the engineers who had extensive experience building, testing and modeling the device disagreed. They modeled the conducting path as having a resistance equal to the four terminal hall resistance (which thankfully both the physicists and engineers agreed on), and it is far from zero, typically 12.9k.

        The engineers had data, and it showed the engineers had to be right. What the hell were the physicists talking about? I finally cracked the mystery, finding that there is a way that zero resistance applies. This is a classic case of how engineers and physicists view the same device and see something different.

HDTV Computer Monitor
        If you want a computer monitor where text and images are big, consider using a big (720p type) LCD HDTV as your PC monitor. A 32" Olevia  HDTV (for $650) makes a great PC monitor.

Who wrote Shakespeare?    &    Shakespearean cryptograms
         I don't think most people are even aware that there is a controversy about who wrote Shakespeare's plays and poems, but there is. The leading candidate of the anti-Shakespeare crowd (which includes me) is Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford) with Mary Sidney Herbert (Countess of Pembroke) up and coming. In the mother of all conspiracy theories it's the Statfordians vs Oxfordians & Pembrokians.

        As a retired engineer, I know enough mathematics to understand that the recent claims that some early Shakespearean documents are really cryptograms is a statistically strong argument.

No Wonder Intelligent Life is Rare!
        I would argue it's a very, very good bet that we (man) would not be on earth now except for one, totally random event in earth's history.  I refer to the earth being hit by a (little) 6 mile wide meteorite 65 million years ago (creating the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary). It was just large enough to wipe out all the dinosaurs while preserving some mammals. A hit a little larger, smaller, earlier, or later and it's unlikely we would be here now. How does the God squad explain this?

         The history of how we (civilized man) came to be is an incredible series of random, twists and turns occurring over an incredibly long time period. In this essay I review some of the arguments from astronomy, geology, and evolutionary history on earth as to why intelligent life in the universe is (probably) rare.

Photosynthesis     &    Cell energy
       Two related essays on energy in biological systems:
                * Photosynthesis generates high energy molecules using captured solar photons
                * High energy molecules (from photosynthesis) are used to power cells

Photosynthesis
        Photosynthesis is (arguably) the most important biological process on earth. Virtually all life depends on it for food, oxygen to burn the food, and organic compounds to build the body. It's the source for practically all the O2 in Earth's atmosphere. Not just plants do it, and therein lies an evolutionary tale. Some of the details are amazing, like a high speed rotary turbine machine spun by flowing protons. Yet the inputs for this life process are only CO2, water, sunlight, and a few inorganic minerals.

        It's almost impossible (I found) to learn photosynthesis from the vague little diagrams biologists draw. I got my arms around photosynthesis by drawing up a detailed top level diagram in the manner of the engineer. It is, I modestly claim, the world's best photosynthesis diagram. The obscuring of photosynthesis by biologists is too bad, because I found in photosynthesis some great surprises.

Cell energy
        Cell Energy essay is an overview of how cells in general use energy (obtained from imported high energy molecules) to control their ion concentrations, membrane voltage, water, and do various specialized jobs.

Astronomy    &     Cosmology
      Two essays on select topics from the huge subjects of astronomy & cosmology that I find interesting. I often add to these essays after reading a new astronomy book and the details are still fresh in my mind. I aim for a good short summary, or I try to extend the material with a few calculations, or sometimes I just pick a subject I like and ramble on!

DBK Solar Scam
(DBK Solar => Lassen Energy => Natco International => P2Solar)
(Wind power scam => Astralux Ltd, Ukraine)
        For two years a USA solar panel manufacturer has been making a claim that violates the laws of physics. They claim to have a 3,000 watt solar panel that outputs 2.3 kw/m^2, whereas the total power in bright sunlight is 1 kw/m^2 (approx @ earth's surface).  For reference conventional solar panels that size in bright sunlight output about 200 watts or 140 watt/m^2 (14% efficiency).

        Here is the true story of how I stumbled onto a million dollar solar scam/fraud, and how I pried open a look at the underlying crackpot physics when I discovered a recently published patent application by the DBK president.

        Over the two years I have followed this scam the fraudulent 3,000 watt solar panel has mutated from an internet scam (DBK Solar => Lassen Energy), both run by the same man, into the public domain in the form of SEC registered penny stocks (Natco International => P2Solar, OTC symbol 'ptos'). This is a fraud that the law somehow does not seem to be able to shut down.

Ponzi - Madoff   &   MIT Picower mini-campaign
        My take on the 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme run by Bernie Madoff. Bernie was the money manager it was said who never lost money, prima facie a genius or a cheat! A wild story with lots of angles, populated by a large cast of slimeballs, not so innocent victims and various co-conspirators.

        Why is MIT taking money from crooks? The MIT Picower mini-campaign is my email trail, newspaper articles and original research by an MIT alumnus distressed that MIT has accepted tens of millions from Madoff insiders Barbara and Jeffry Picower. The Piocowers are honored with an MIT building and major research lab named after them, and their portrait hangs in its lobby.

Telegraph     &     Telephone
        Two electrical histories from the 1870's:
                * The patenting of the telephone, or how Alexander Graham Bell made a fortune
                           with the help of some crooked patent lawyers
                * Duplex and quadruplex telegraph, or how Stearn and Edison learned to send
                            two, then four, telegraph messages over one wire simultaneously

Hybrid and Electric Car Technology   &   Wind Turbines
        A detailed primer on the electrical power designs of hybrid and electric cars by a (former) inverter designer. Includes my block diagram of Toyota/Ford/Lexus hybrids and a circuit sketch of voltages and currents in gen III 2010 Toyota Prius. For electrics the emphasis is on issues associated with lithium ion batteries. This essay tracks electric cars and quasi-electrics (electric cars with generator backup like GM Volt) as they move toward production.

        Pictures, engineering, and economics of giant 2.5 Mw wind turbines including an overview of the specialized induction machine used as a generator. Just how are the thin, slow blades of a wind turbine able to capture 50% of the wind's kinetic energy? Curiously professors don't seem to know because the efficiency of real wind turbines exceeds calculated limits!

Battery
        A primer on the how batteries work. Plus info on MIT Prof Sadoway's terrific new idea for a self forming, very high current (> 100 ka) liquid metal battery and the 'one terminal' zinc air battery. If the liquid metal battery can be made practical, it could be game changer for wind and solar power.  (in development)

Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Flaws
        I really like my first kindle (kindle 3 from Amazon). It's an e-book reader (w/text-to-speech), audio book player, MP3 player (w/speakers), web browser (w/WiFi), picture display (BW), and 3 Gbyte USB memory stick in a small, thin, light package with an incredible one month battery life. A lot of technology for $139. I have been researching and playing with it to see what it can do. I find its user interface to be deliberately crippled and buggy. The result is this essay 'Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Flaws'.

Mozart
        A few thoughts on enjoying Mozart.

Glucose
        The human body, like plants, runs primarily on the sugar glucose, the king of sugars. A few respected scientists argue that non-glucose sugars, specifically fructose the sugar in fruit & vegetables, can overload the liver leading to weight gain and diabetes. Is this true?

Costa Concordia Shipwreck
        A little essay on the mysteries of the cruise ship Costa Concordia shipwreck (Jan 2012). Was the captain really that crazy and/or cowardly ("I fell into a lifeboat", cook, 'get desert for my girlfriend') or did Costa after the crash buy him off to shift blame from them? Did nearly all the officers flee the ship leaving hundreds of passengers on board a (potentially) sinking ship? How did (nearly) all the passengers get off the boat when it was reported lifeboats on on one side could not be launched? How many went into the water, how did they get into the water, to where did they swim, how many swimmers died?

Photo Gallery
        A few of the thousands of photos I have taken with my two Cannon miniature digital cameras (7 Mpixal S70 and 2 Mpixal S200).

EE Technical
       Motor Rewinding mini-Tutorial
        Servo IGBT stall analysis

Pending
         Nobody knows
         Negative feedback
         Lecture topics & grabbers
          Bode diagram tutorial
          my 80's induction motor paper
         (quasi-first order filter paper)
         Galileo's arguments for Earth going around sun
         Motor controllers (pictures, injection molding, split T snubber)
         Procedure for reading DNA genome sequences
         How can DNA polymerase copy DNA in a test tube?
               good ref:  www.wv-inbre.net/bioinformatics/ slides/IntroDNACloningDNARep.ppt

US Patents (14 total) ( Fulton inventor)

     6,998,800   Current sensor for DC powered three phase motor control system
            An elegant new circuit architecture for sensing motor currents. Superb performance, continuous sensing, stable offset, accurate gain, yet simple and cheap. Limited to DC controllers.  In commercial use. (filed 2003) -- see my IEEE Compel 2006 paper for additional information
     4,868,479    Low loss permanent magnet motor
     4,862,049    Constant area pulse generating network
     4,670,698   Adaptive induction motor controller
     4,620,272   Line-regenerative motor controller with current limiter
         A newly developed circuit architecture for regenerating power from large decelerating motors back to the power line.  Rugged, simple, and amazingly done without a carrier.  A break through patent. In commercial use. (filed 1984)
     4,506,321   Motion control system with adaptive deceleration
     4,484,126   Induction motor controller
         An early, fully developed, high performance, induction motor controller. In commercial use. (filed 1982)
     4,461,987   Current sensing circuit for motor controls
     4,455,513   Self-starting transducerless, brushless DC motor controller
         A significant advance in the control of  sensorless PM motors. It describes a reliable method of  starting this type of motor.  [I recently found out that a decade later a patented (5,255,529) high speed auto air conditioner compressor was controlled using the techniques of this patent.] (filed 1982)
     4,417,194   Induction generator system with switched capacitor control
         An advanced voltage controller for an induction motor used as a generator in a heat and electric cogenerator system.
    4,348,627   Induction motor controller with rapid torque response
         One of the major, break through patents in motor control. It describes a technique for controlling motor currents that for the first time achieved fast, accurate, servo-like torque performance from an induction motor, the world's most common motor.  This realized a long sought goal in motor control. It laid the foundation for the induction motor to develop into the workhorse it is today of large computer controlled machines and vehicles. (filed 1980)
     4,275,343   Back EMF controlled permanent magnet motor
     4,266,176   Induction motor slip frequency controller
     3,667,031   Phase-Locked Resolver Tracking System
         A resolver tracking circuit with substantially improved performance. (filed 1970)

Publications (Fulton author)

Motor control application notes written for Pacific Scientific and later republished as featured articles in Conformity a leading EMC magazine (July, Aug 2004)

       1)   Reducing Motor Drive Line Noise    (Conformity)
       2)   Reducing Motor Drive Radiated Emissions    (Conformity)
       3)   Poor Man's Guide to CE EMC Testing

        Cool Links

July 4th Fireworks on Desktop (dead)

(late) Elizabeth Parcells sings Blue Danube Waltz (1986 rehearsal, age 35)

Don Quixote Grand Pas de Deux  (#2)  danced by ABT principals Paloma Herrera and Angel Corella (1999, both age 24)
      Tamara Rojo-José Manuel Carreno     #2, with full company       (Royal Ballet/ABT from Cuba)
      Roberta Márquez- Iñaki Urlezaga      (Royal Ballet)
      Svetlana Zakharova Mikhail Lobukhin      (Russia, 2010 Boshoi Ballet)
      Irina Perren, Mikhail Lobukhin       (Russia, 2009 Mikhailovsky/Bolshoi)
      Nadezhda Pavlova Vyacheslav Gordeyev    (Russia, Bolshoi Ballet)
      Don Quixote Grand Pas Cinthia Harvey and Mikhail Baryshnikov (ABT/PBS, 1983)
         Entreeman's variation  (#2)(with cups) Kitri Variation  (variation Act 1)   Coda
      Francesca Dugarte - Nerijus Juska,       (Montevideo Uruguay)
      Lali Kandelaki, Angel Corella      (Georgia/ABT)
      Stacey Shiori Minagawa & Richard Landry ?   (National Ballet of Canada, in Virginia, 2007)
      Adiarys Almeida-Rolando Sarabia  (Cuba 1999, she is 15, he is 16)
      Tetsuya Kumakawa (Japan, 16years old, Prix de Lausanne 1989) (man's Don Quixote variation)

"Alleluia" from Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate" (K165, 1773, age 17)
      Bartoli (wow!) Battle . Buchberger . Brightman (audio)    Damrau . Gruberova
      PoperaLani . Movimiento . Fleming . Fleming(w/organ) Gutierrez. Auger (9 min)
      Parcells (audio)  Kamenskaya (w/string quartet)   Tesch (w/piano)
      Maurey (student w/piano) . Yu

Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" (K339, 1780, age 24)
      Popp (1967 audio)   Kirkby (1993 audio)   De Los Angeles (1964 audio)  Riccitelli
      Jenkins . Vienna  Boys (w/piano)   Justman (w/organ)   Phoenix Boys
      violin (w/piano) Atkins (w/piano)  Csenki (student)   Cathedral of San Isidro

Mozart concert aria "Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia" (K582, 1789, age 33)
     Bartoli . Bartoli (audio, imeem)  Popp (audio, FireFox)  Larsson . Kiri Te Kanawa
     Garanca (recording)  Garanca (audio)  Orgonosova . Gens (audio) Sumi Jo (audio)

Mozart Magic Flute aria "Queen of the Night" (K620, 1791, age 35)
     Florence Foster Jenkens  (40's recording, Jenkens is in a class by herself)
     Popp?(audio, not Bartoli as credited)  Serra . Damrau  (recording session)  Damrau
    (performance)   Dessay . Watsham . Miklosa . Popp2 . Scholtz (boy suprano)

Kathleen Battle -- Voices of Spring by J. Strauss II with Vienna Philharmonic (1987)

J. Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Adele's Laughing Song sung by Krisztina David

Ghent Altarpiece
                Musical Angels, just two of 24 fantastically detailed, wonderfully preserved, early (1432) oil painting on oak panels at Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium by brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck.

        In an NPR story some expert says, "It's arguably the single most important painting ever made", but I will admit that until I read an article about it recently in the New Yorker, I had never seen it or heard of it. But I love this degree of realism and detail in a nearly 600 years old painting.

Even closer detail of hands on lecturn:
        http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Ghent_Altarpiece_B_-_Angels_-_detail.jpg

Close up of all 12 inner Ghent panels
        http://media.npr.org/assets/news/2010/12/25/ghent-altarpiece-custom-enlarge.jpg
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• Standard Deviation of uncorrelated random variables varies as the SQUARE ROOT of the number of variables
• Stock Variation is modeled as a random walk
• Asian, Europe, Emerging, US, small cap, and large cap are reasonably uncorrelated (over longer term)

• Key Risk Concepts
• Standard Deviation goes down (ideally) as Square Root  of Number of Uncorrelated Assets in a Portfolio
• Standard Deviation goes down (approximately) as Square Root of Time. Does that mean market risk goes down with time?
• Well, if  you say risk is the % uncertainty in your assets, the random walk model says risk goes up with time. And, in fact, this is exactly what many financial experts and financial textbooks say, that market risk goes up with time.
• On the other hand, some financial experts say no, market risk goes down with time. This argument is based on the historical fact that over the long term the market does not look like a random walk because market values tend to (loosely) track the growth of the economy.

 Historical Return/Risk Data

Asset	Real Return (1926-1994)	Real  Return (1973-1994)	Return (1926-1994)	Return (1973-1994)	SD   (1926-1994)	SD    (1973-1994)
1 mo T-Bills	0.59	1.42	3.69	7.32	3.29	2.73
5 yr Treasury	1.88	2.88	4.98	8.78	5.49	6.87
20 yr Treasury	1.73	2.99	4.83	8.89	8.61	7.89
S&P Stocks	7.09	4.88	10.19	10.78	20.30	16.45
US Small Co.	9.12	9.28	12.22	15.18	34.52	23.87
Inter Small Co.		11.64		17.54		30.14

Inflation for 1926-1994 was 3.1% annualized;  for 1973-1994 was 5.9% annualized.
Long term, remarkably uniform, REAL return for equities is 6.8% (1802-1996).

Morningstar

        Info on any mutual fund in standardized format

        Morningstar forums where knowledgable investor's often post

                also a good source of info

Other Interesting (mostly Vanguard index) Funds (Updated June 2000)

 International Stock Funds (Updated June 2000)
 

OAKIX	Oakmark Inter	1.4 bil -2.6 / 14/0 / 11.7 1.8 bil 11.0/7.2	2.89     2.85	20.1     18.6	3.47     3.29	(1k)54%, 49 corp	24.3	1.29%	70% Asia Rim (1/99)
FDIVX	Fidelity Diversified Inter	2.1 bil 21.5 / 21.3 / 15.9 16.9 bil 33.0/18.2	3.63     5.19	26.1     36.1	0.99     1.03	(2.5k)/81%, 529 corp    /73% 481 corp	10.2      21.7	1.23%     1.18%	has  changed     from Small Cap       to Large Cap
TBGVX	Tweedy, Browne Global Value	2.9 bil 27.7 / 23.3 2.3 bil 9.9/16.0	2.98   2.75	26.3   23.3	4.46   1.20	(2.5K)/23%, 246 corp	16.8	1.41%	Coward's portfolio
Latin America
SLAFX	Scudder Latin America	5.1 bil -8.4 / 15.5 / 13.8 6.3 bil 7.9/-2.9	2.50     2.00	18.4     18.7	0.89     0.23	(2.5k)/44%, 40 corp	22.0     39.4	1.96%     1.87%	Coward's portfolio 53% in 10 companies
PRLAX	T. Rowe Price Latin Amer	5.0 bil -9.9/13.5 5.2 bil 22.1/-2.1	3.39     2.53	18.5     19.7	1.25     0.42	(2.5k)/43%, 44 corp	23.6     44.6	1.47%     1.62%	2% redemption! (Schwab)
Large Cap Foreign		Invested 7/98-6/99 6/16/2000	P/B	P/E	Yield	(min)/turn, # in port	SD (3 yr) Anual	Expense	Comment
PRESX	T Rowe Price European Stock	43.6 bil 20.1 -3.7 YD -4.6  mon	10.7	37.4	0.56	16% 133 corp	18.7	1.05%	1.3 bil
TIINX	TIAA-CREF Inter Equity	21.4 bil 15.7 YTD 20.5 bil 39.2	4.44   6.08	29.8   35.7	--   0.75	(0.25k)/74%, 405 corp		0.49%   0.49%	(Vanguard associated) 67% Europe 27% Japan
VWIGX	Vanguard Inter Grow	20.7 bil 18.0/4.2/ 14.5 29.8 bil 25.6/11.2	4.77     4.28	29.8     34.2	1.09     1.12	(3k)/37%,  133 corp	12.7     19.7	0.57%     0.58%	no fees
PRITX	T. Rowe Price Inter Stock	12.9 9.1 / 13.4 / 12.7 37.8 bil 23.0/11.6	4.23     7.96	29.0     42.0	1.26     0.71	(2.5k)/18%, 222 corp	11.7     20.1	0.85%     0.85%	(Fidelity) Changed from value to growth!
FIGRX	Fidelity Inter Grow & Income	9.1 bil 16.4 / 14.5 / 11.1 20.8 bil 36.6/16.5	3.87     6.31	29.2     37.0	1.58     1.14	(2.5k)/94%, 286 corp	9.76     22.7	1.17%     1.10%	25% bonds

 Domistic Bond Funds & High Yield Bond Funds (updated June 2000)

 International Bond Funds (updated June 2000)

Emerging Market Bond Funds (updated June 2000)

Muni /Funds (No federal tax)
 

Symbol	Name	1 yr / 3 yr / 5 yr	Qual (av)	Dur (av)	Yield	Index (min)	SD Annual  3yr (5yr)	Expense	Comment
VWSTX	Vanguard Muni Bond Short	4.34 / 4.08 / 3.84 3.53	AAA     AA	1.1     1.2	3.94     3.87	(3k)	0.56 (0.67)(0.86)   0.50	0.19%     0.18%	1-2 yr maturity (Fidelity)
FSTFX	Fid Spar Short-Inter Muni Income	5.51 / 4.92 / 4.57 3.26	AA     AA	2.8     2.8	4.17     3.99	(10k)	1.35 (1.88)(1.79)   1.35	0.55%     0.55%	2-5 yr maturity (Vanguard)
VMLTX	Vanguard Muni Bond Limit Term	5.58 / 4.86 / 4.60 3.48	AA     AA	2.9     2.8	4.31     4.42	(3k)	1.35 (1.64)(1.78)   1.40	0.19%     0.18%	2-5 yr maturity (Fidelity)
DMAIX	Dreyfus Mass Inter Muni Bond	7.83 / 5.77 / 5.38 3.02	AA     AA	6.3     5.8	4.30     4.6	(2.5k)	3.04 (4.41)     3.06	0.80%     0.80%	Free of Mass Tax inter maturity (Fidelity, Vanguard)

Vanguard Tax-Managed Funds (June 2000)

Symbol	Name	Median cap (bil) 1yr/3/yr	P/B	P/E	Yield	SD Annual 3yr (5yr)	Turn- over	Expense	Fund Assets (bil)	Index
VTGIX	Vanguard Tax-Managed Growth & Income	70.7 bil     87.9 bil 9.55	8.77   9.4	34.6   36.3	1.04   1.05	16.7   20.9	4%	0.19%   0.19%	1.8  2.0	S&P 500
VTMSX	Vanguard Tax-Managed Small Cap	0.78 bil   0.91 bil 15.06	4.14   5.3	25.9   28.9	0.42	---	xx%	0.19%		S&P Small-Cap 600
VTMGX	Vanguard Tax-Managed International	35.1 bil	5.9	36.8	---	---	xx%	0.35% 0.75% purchase fee (paid to fund)		Margan Stanley EAFE (70% Europe, 30% Pacific)
VMCAX	Vanguard Tax-Managed Capital Appreciation	52.3 bil 20.72	8.44   9.8	36.9   40.3	0.45   0.37	19.2   24.6	12%	0.19%   0.19%	1.8	Low Yielding stocks of Russel 1000
VTMFX	Vanguard Tax-Managed Balanced	53.5 bil 12.8	8.66     9.2	39.9     39.2	2.35     2.40`	`9.53     11.1	13%	0.19%     0.20%	0.27	50% Low yielding stocks of Russel 1000, 50% municipal bonds (intermediate term)

         Reference Portfolio