A word about this site. ~Efficient Happiness is designed to be collection of excerpts from news reports, essays, speeches, articles, and blog posts that I find interesting. My primary goal is to edit together other people’s written and artistic work into cohesive reader-friendly posts. Disclaimer: Please assume that I am not the original author of any material on this site unless the material so indicates. All content and pictures are attributed to the sources where I found them. For more information, click What is ~Efficient Happiness.
". . . The theremin is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. It was invented by Russian inventor Léon Theremin in 1919, and it is unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. It consists of two radio frequency oscillators and two metal antennae. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.
The theremin is unique among musical instruments in that it is performed without being physically manipulated by the operator. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennae. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Typically the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Additionally, some newer theremin use a volume dial and have only one antenna. . . "
“. . . Nomic is a game [Peter Suber] invented in 1982. It's a game in which changing the rules is a move. The Initial Set of rules does little more than regulate the rule-changing process. While most of its initial rules are procedural in this sense, it does have one substantive rule (on how to earn points toward winning); but this rule is deliberately boring so that players will quickly amend it to please themselves. The Initial Set of rules, some commentary by [Peter Suber], and some reflections by Douglas Hofstadter, were published in Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas" column in Scientific American in June of 1982. It was quickly translated into many European and Asian languages. Games were regularly played, and kicked off, the ARPANET, the Defense Department network which sired the Internet. Nomic has been used to stimulate artistic creativity, simulate the circulation of money, structure group therapy sessions, train managers, and to teach public speaking, legal reasoning, and legislative drafting. Nomic games have sent ambassadors to other Nomic games, formed federations, and played Meta-Nomic. Nomic games have experienced revolution, oppressive coups, and the restoration of popular sovereignty. Above all, Nomic has been fun for thousands of players around the world. For [Peter], it was intended to illustrate and embody the thesis of my book, The Paradox of Self-Amendment, that a legal "rule of change" such as a constitutional amendment clause may apply to itself and authorize its own amendment. . .” From Nomic: A Game of Self-Amendment.
--- “. . . Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move. In that respect it differs from almost every other game. The primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed. . . .” From The Paradox of Self-Amendment. Rules available here. --- “. . . Generally, nomic games tend to lead to evolving "dynasties" in which the rules remain relatively stable, and either someone wins, or the rules change drastically, preventing someone from winning, and in either case eginning a new dynasty. Sometimes nomic games can go on forever without anyone winning, and often continue seamlessly to a new dynasty when someone does win. There are even some nomic games played as blogs or by email. The general rules of a nomic game involve getting a "vote" to change the rules, players entering the game or dying (leaving), and the possibility to earn points towards winning the game, or ways to convert points into other substances. . . .” From Nomic Games.
". . . This is a short narrative film created by Superfad for Vision Research/Phantom using their slow motion camera. The video is amazingly well put together. The narrative is just enough to keep you interested but doesn’t distract you from what is obviously the point of the video, to show off the amazingly cool Phantom cameras. Phantom, for those who are unfamiliar with them, have been producing cameras since the 1950’s and have produced some of the highest quality cameras in the business. Hopefully one day in the future I will be able to review one of them for you all. But until then we can look at this amazing video and drool. . . ." From Stunning slow motion HD video from Superfad using a PhantomHD.
". . . This is a high-speed video of a water balloon that doesn't pop. Visit http://www.lucidmovement.com for a complete blog post with more information and a higher resolution video. . . ."
". . . David Pearce promotes the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. He argues that the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through paradise engineering. In The Hedonistic Imperative, Pearce outlines how technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology, and neurosurgery could potentially converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience in human life and produce a post-human civilization. . . ." --- ". . . The term “abolitioinism,” used to describe the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering, was first proposed by Lews Mancini in 1986. Abolitionism is the use of science to maximize happiness and minimize suffering—not just in humans but in all sentient life. It is a philosophy inspired by utilitarian ethics: if happiness equals value, then the elimination of suffering or 'maximization of value' should be the prime objective of the human race. . . ." --- ". . . It is hard for me [i.e., Barry Schwartz] to see much reason for concern over a society that dedicates itself to promoting happiness by cultivating virtuous character and human excellence. It strikes me that this is a vast improvement on the pursuit of increased per capita GDP. Making this point, I think, is Richard Layard’s main objective in his book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, which is cited by McMahon as a prime example of the current interest in identifying happiness-promoting policies. Layard’s argument, in essence, is that one of the things nations do is pursue policies. Given that nations pursue policies, they ought to be pursuing policies that promote the welfare of their citizens. All nations have pretty much taken it for granted that the way to promote the welfare of citizens is by increasing national wealth. It has seemed reasonable to take wealth as a proxy for welfare, because the more wealth citizens have, the better each citizen will be able to pursue welfare as he or she sees it. If wealth is not an end in itself, but rather a means of promoting welfare, then it would certainly be good to know whether it is achieving this end. . . ." From Why Societies Should Pursue Happiness. --- ". . . Four of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are proposing to launch a television station to tell the public about their drugs, amid strenuous lobbying across Europe by the industry for an end to restrictions aimed at protecting patients. Pharma TV would be a dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with health news and features but, at its heart, would be detailed information from drug companies about their medicines. . . ." From Coming soon: the shopping channel run by drug firms.
". . . In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth — and death — is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. . . ."
Lasse Gjertsen is a Norwegian animator, musician, and videographer known on YouTube as lassegg. He is best known for his short pieces "Hyperactive" and "Amateur," which string together short clips of video to create a unique form of video akin to stop-motion animation. His "Hyperactive" video has over 10 million views. During a 5 month break from new content, Lasse worked on a two part music video collaboration, named Sogno ad Occhi Aperti, with the Italian Cellist Giovanni Sollima.
John Pezaris and Clay Reid of HarvardMedicalSchool describe in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [their developments for restoring the vision of people who have lost their eyes]. In normal sight the eye relays coded impulses to the brain. Hence, in artificial sight, scientists can bypass the eye altogether and go straight to the business end of vision. To keep the task simple, Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid fiddled with a region called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which receives coded impulses and shifts them on to other regions for processing. At the LGN stage of the brain's visual pathway, the function of every nerve cell is largely determined by anatomical position. In other words, its nerve cells are arranged as a map of the retina.
Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid inserted tiny electrodes into the LGNs of two monkeys. These allowed nerve cells in those areas of the brain to be activated by the researchers, as though the impulse had come from a part of the retina. First Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid ran an experiment ignoring the electrodes. It measured the monkeys' tendency to focus on objects of interest. One at a time, the two monkeys sat in a dark room in front of a computer screen. As would any primate in an inquisitive mood, they tended to move their eyes rapidly to look straight at a dot of light whenever one flashed up at a random position on the screen, so that the light impinged on the most sensitive part of the retina. By the time the monkeys stared directly at the light, it had been extinguished.
Measuring how accurately the monkeys could move their eyes in the direction of the flash gave the researchers data that could serve as a baseline in their next experiment. This time flashes appeared on the computer screen just as before but the odd one was missed out at random. In its place an electrode briefly excited nerve cells in the monkeys' LGNs. Knowing which part of the LGN they had activated, Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid knew which position on the computer screen the monkey would have perceived a flash as having come from. The artificial twinkles seemed to make no difference. Both monkeys moved their eyes as accurately and rapidly in response to the imagined flashes as they had done to the real ones.
" . . . According to a neuroscience study, Mozart’s sonata for two pianos K448 (listen to it here) can increase your spatial-temporal IQ scores by 9 points. While the duration of the effect on your brain is only about 10-15 minutes, the findings are nonetheless fascinating. Neurology Professor John Hughes attributes this effect to the long-lasting periodicityin the power of Mozart’s music, seen also with JS Bach and hisson JC Bach. Having analyzed the melodic line, he found that Mozart repeats his melodic line far more frequentlythan other well-known composers, but often in an ingenious mannerreversing the notes. In other words, Mozart’s K448 is characterized by a high degree of long-term periodicity. The music cycles, with elements recurring at regular intervals. . . ." From How the amazing Mozart K448 can increase your IQ. ---
". . . Scientists in Germany used pattern recognition software to predict, from functional magnetic resonance imaging of people's brains, whether each person had secretly decided to add or subtract two numbers he was looking at. The computer correctly predicted the decision 71 percent of the time. The advertised application of this technology is computers that can discern and execute your will when you want them to—for example, if you're paralyzed or don't want to use a mouse. . . ." From Best of the Brain: The five biggest neuroscience developments of the year.
Puzzle #1: Here are six matchsticks arranged to form one equilateral triangle. Can you rearrange the six matchsticks to form four equilateral triangles? The solution is at the bottom of this page.
Puzzle #2: Here we have an olive (looking strangely like a dime) in a martini glass. Move two matches, to redraw the martini glass so the olive is outside the glass.
Puzzle #3: This one is a little tricky. Move one matchstick to produce a square.
Puzzle #4: Start with this grid of 12 matchsticks, remove two of them so that there are only two squares left.
Puzzle #5: Move three matchsticks, and make the fish turn around and swim the other direction.
Puzzle #6: Move two matchsticks to make only four identical squares.
". . . Film studios and publishers avoid the phrase “science fiction.” So do the novelists, film directors and editors in their employ. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, set during a nuclear winter, is about to become a blockbuster—Oprah Winfrey will tout it on an upcoming TV show as part of her book club. Describe it as “post-apocalyptic,” as most critics did, or as a masterpiece of dystopian literature. Just don’t call McCarthy’s novel “science fiction.” You won’t find the words “science fiction” in Random House’s bio of Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author China Miéville and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead, he’s called the “edgiest mythmaker of the day.” The nose-thumbing is nothing new. In the ‘50s, Robert Heinlein dismissed the term, opting for “speculative fiction.” But today, one might imagine that the term could gain traction. Our lives are entangled with everyday gadgetry Heinlein could only have dreamed of. The impact of science on culture—climate change, stem-cell research, the internet—is the subject of continuous debate. . . ." From Writers, Directors Fear ‘Sci-Fi’ Label Like an Attack From Mars. --- ". . . The flip phone design was inspired by the Star Trek original series communicator. Author Victor provided inspiration for the modern the taser. The word “TASER” is an acronym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electrical Rifle,” so named because the inventor was an admirer of Tom Swift when he was a child. Geosynchronous orbits and geostationary orbits were first popularized by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 as useful orbits for communications satellites. . . ." From 662 Technology Inventions That Came from Science Fiction. --- " . . . Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the cyberpunk literary movement, and particularly by Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash. The Metaverse, a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the Internet, constitutes Stephenson's vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future. The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. Total US Dollars Spent in Second Life in the Last 24h: $2,054,679. . . " --- " . . . An international consortium of nine automakers and two parts suppliers is asking researchers for proposals to develop “virtual humans” - computer programs that will help them design safer cars and trucks. The Global Human Body Models Consortium LLC says the computer models will provide better simulations of crash injuries than current crash dummies. . . ." From ‘Virtual Humans’ Sought for Crash Tests.
KT Tunstall performs Black Horse And The Cherry Tree. The song is usually performed solo by Tunstall, with the layered guitar and vocals constructed piece-by-piece by sampling the parts live, and using a digital delay unit to create the backing track.
Icaro Doria is Brazilian, 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. He was the author of the flags campaign "Meet the World." --- Tiny Drum 3.0 --- Ultimate Flash Face
Alex DePue's lightning fast fiddle is a hit at Open Mic Night at Lestats in San Diego: Yes's Owner of a Broken Heart by Yes & Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal.
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In this segment (see rest here), Jane Elliott divides her 3rd graders into blue and brown-eyed groups. She tells the blue-eyes they are "the better people in this room," gives them privileges and comments on their superiority all day. The brown eyes must wear collars.
Featured Thought Merchant
Hernando de Soto is a Peruvian economist known for his work on the informal economy, or economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government. De Soto argues that an important characteristic of capitalism is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded.
“. . . Capitalism is essentially the economic system of poor people. That's what allowed the people that came from humble origins of the world to have economic rights the way only nobility and the high bourgeoisie had it before. So capitalism is essentially a tool for poor people to prosper. . . The constituency of capitalism has always been poor people that are outside the system. That's the way it worked in the United States. That was the basis of the libertarian or liberal democratic revolution that occurred in Western Europe. I don't know why it is that everybody expects that when you go and you talk to rich people throughout Latin America or Asia or the Middle East you are in touch with people who have the same libertarian principles that you do. You don't. The real constituency is below, and until the people who consider themselves real capitalists realize that they're not real capitalists, they're talking about the systems of privilege that existed way before popular capitalism was in place. . . .”
