Computational gastronomy – part 3 – ‘Cooking with Dirty Data’

The Varshney twins – Dr. Kush Varshney (currently at IBM) and Professor Lav Varshney (previously at IBM) – have authored a series of papers on the theme of computational gastronomy, two of which — on Food Steganography, and on Active Odor Cancellation — we looked at recently. Example 3 : ‘Flavor Pairing in Medieval European Cuisine: A Study in Cooking with […]

How to write a book semi-automatically

To semi-automatically compose a non-fiction book, or several hundred thousand of them, one can observe the methods of Professor Philip M. Parker (of INSEAD), of whom we have written (semi-automatically) many times. To semi-automatically compose a work of fiction, one can learn much by reading Michelle Legro’s essay in Brain Pickings. It begins: Plotto: The Master Book […]

A shorts course in cooking, inspired by neutrinos

Len Fisher [pictured here], who was awarded the 1999 Ig Nobel Prize in physics for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit, has advice for a scientist who is confident to his very shorts that the neutrinos-travel-faster-than-light reports will turn out to be in error. Dr. Fisher wrote a letter that’s published in The Guardian (on Nov 25): If […]