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The first definitive natural history of the Indian subcontinent.

Did you know that the exquisite caves of Ellora were hewn from rock formed in the greatest lava floods the world has known—eruptions so enormous that they may well have obliterated dinosaurs? Or that Bengaluru owes its unique climate to a tectonic event that took place 88 million years ago? That the Ganga and Brahmaputra sequester nearly 20 per cent of global carbon, and their sediments over millions of years have etched submarine canyons in the Bay of Bengal that are larger than the Grand Canyon? Ever heard of Rajasaurus, an Indian dinosaur which was perhaps more ferocious than T rex? Many such amazing facts and discoveries—from 70-million-year-old crocodile eggs in Mumbai to the nesting ground of dinosaurs near Ahmedabad—are a part of Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent.

Researching across wide-ranging scientific disciplines and travelling with scientists all over the country, biochemist Pranay Lal has woven together the first compelling narrative of India’s deep natural history, filled with fierce reptiles, fantastic dinosaurs, gargantuan mammals and amazing plants. This story, which includes a rare collection of images, illustrations and maps, starts at the very beginning—from the time when a galactic swirl of dust coalesced to become our life-giving planet—and ends with the arrival of our ancestors on the banks of the Indus. Pranay Lal tells this story with verve, lucidity and an infectious enthusiasm that comes from his deep, abiding love of nature.

Half vampire, half fairy, totally unique! Isadora Moon is special because she is different. Her mum is a fairy and her dad is a vampire and she is a bit of both. Isadora’s class are going on a school trip to an old castle. The castle’s a little bit spooky and it doesn’t help that there’s thunder and lightning outside. While Isadora investigates the castle dungeon she discovers a surprising new friend. He’s a little different, like her, so Isadora’s going to have to try and find a way of introducing him to her friends without them getting too much of a shock. With a gorgeous glittery cover, irresistible pink and black artwork throughout, and a totally unique heroine with an out-of-this-world family, this is a beautiful, charming, and funny series of first chapter books. Perfect for fans of Claude, Dixie O’Day, and Squishy McFluff, Isadora Moon is the ideal choice for readers who want their magic and sparkle with a bit of bite!

This volume provides the definitive treatment of fortune’s formula or the Kelly capital growth criterion as it is often called. The strategy is to maximize long run wealth of the investor by maximizing the period by period expected utility of wealth with a logarithmic utility function. Mathematical theorems show that only the log utility function maximizes asymptotic long run wealth and minimizes the expected time to arbitrary large goals. In general, the strategy is risky in the short term but as the number of bets increase, the Kelly bettor’s wealth tends to be much larger than those with essentially different strategies. So most of the time, the Kelly bettor will have much more wealth than these other bettors but the Kelly strategy can lead to considerable losses a small percent of the time. There are ways to reduce this risk at the cost of lower expected final wealth using fractional Kelly strategies that blend the Kelly suggested wager with cash. The various classic reprinted papers and the new ones written specifically for this volume cover various aspects of the theory and practice of dynamic investing. Good and bad properties are discussed, as are fixed-mix and volatility induced growth strategies. The relationships with utility theory and the use of these ideas by great investors are featured. Product description
Review
For those who have heard of the Kelly mythos and want to explore the science behind it, this book will be an instant classic. The editors have collected all the pivotal original papers, spanning centuries and the rarely bridged gulf between theory and practice. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in Kelly’s legacy. — William Poundstone “Author of “Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street””

The present handbook assembles in an impressive way the classical papers and also provides the link to modern research. It also presents important papers with a critical view towards the Kelly criterion. Among them figures the famous three-page paper of P. Samuelson from 1979 which is written by using exclusively one-syllable words. — Professor Walter Schachermayer “Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna”
From the Back Cover
This volume provides the definitive treatment of fortune’s formula or the Kelly capital growth criterion as it is often called. The strategy is to maximize long run wealth of the investor by maximizing the period by period expected utility of wealth with a logarithmic utility function. Mathematical theorems show that only the log utility function maximizes asymptotic long run wealth and minimizes the expected time to arbitrary large goals. In general, the strategy is risky in the short term but as the number of bets increase, the Kelly bettor’s wealth tends to be much larger than those with essentially different strategies. So most of the time, the Kelly bettor will have much more wealth than these other bettors but the Kelly strategy can lead to considerable losses a small percent of the time. There are ways to reduce this risk at the cost of lower expected final wealth using fractional Kelly strategies that blend the Kelly suggested wager with cash. The various classic reprinted papers and the new ones written specifically for this volume cover various aspects of the theory and practice of dynamic investing. Good and bad properties are discussed, as are fixed-mix and volatility induced growth strategies. The relationships with utility theory and the use of these ideas by great investors are featured.