Hindu Force: Dynamo's card tricks revealed

Here's Dynamo performing a card trick - very good!




Here's the explanation - he is using the Hindu Force.





Watch the Dynamo trick again. Look at 20 seconds - the 4 of Spades is at the top. At 25 seconds, he flips the top card over and puts it at the bottom...

He's an excellent performer...

Polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleep refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually more than two, in contrast to biphasic sleep (twice per day) or monophasic sleep (once per day). Check this link for more information (see here).

And I bought a great book from the person who created the Uberman schedule. Check this link for the book and explore the blog (see here).

Looks great. I will try it when I get the chance.

Smile right

This was originally published by the BBC (see here).


There are any number of sayings about the power of the smile. 'Peace begins with a smile.' 'A smile is the universal welcome.' 'Life is short but a smile only takes a second.' All good advice. But it may not be as simple as that. According to new research, if you want to make a good impression when you meet people, it's not just that you smile. It's how you smile.

We all know that smiling is important when meeting new people. However, new research suggests that different types of smiles affect what people think of us.

The study was carried out by the Go Group, a business support organisation based in Scotland. They looked at people's reactions to different grins. They found that responses varied considerably.

Through this they say they have found three types of smile to avoid: The first is 'The Enthusiast', very wide, all teeth showing, possible evidence that you can have too much of a good thing. Then there is the 'Big Freeze', a fixed grin that looks practised and fake. Finally comes 'The Robot', a small, thin smile, lacking in warmth.

The group also warns about smiling too quickly, saying it can make you look insincere. The best smile, they say, is slower and floods naturally across the whole face.

The power of smiling

This is an amazing video. It describes all the amazing things that smiling can do...for you and others around you... Brilliant!

The genetics of happiness

I have spoken about the science of happiness before (see here). Now there is a gene that has been identified which is associated with happiness. The gene was identified by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, from the London School of Economics and Political Science (see here). People with one form of the gene are generally more satisfied with their lives that those carrying the other.

I don't think this discovery answers the nature / nurture debate - all it does is reinforce the fact that both play a role. There is as much evidence that our experience affects us as much as our genes.

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome

Neil's life went bad. But he got on with it and made a conscious effort to find the good things in life rather than dwell on the bad (why oh why don't more people do this rather than loaf around in self centred, self inflicted, self perpetuating misery). This is Neil's story and his insights. It's touching, simple and so damn obvious! Many people go through ordeals like this but he deals with the matter so personally and delicately (and even thanks his parents). It is from the heart. He got his platform at TED because he helped change the world. Respect. Thanks for having a bad spell :-)

Our future is greater than our past

Turn on your light (an excerpt) by Ben Okri


The new era is already here:
Here the new time begins anew.
The new era happens every day,
Every day is a new world,
A new calendar.
All great moments, all great eras,
Are just every moment
And every day writ large.
Thousands of years of loving, failing, killing,
Creating, surprising, oppressing,
And thinking ought now to start
To bear fruit, to deliver their rich harvest.

Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.

You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.

Gross National Happiness - in the UK

The UK Government intends to measure the happiness of its citizens. From April 2011, the Office of National Statistics will start taking measurements and publish its results in 2012 (see here). It is not just Bhutan that sees the importance of measuring happiness. In fact, wealth is linked to National levels of happiness (see the World Values Survey). I have talked about happiness previously - see my post here where Nancy Etcoff talks about the science of happiness. Believe it or not, there are economic benefits to being happy!

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow

Great insight. Understand. Bring this into your life. Once you have watched this, watch Martin Seligman (see here).

Musical intervention

Scientists at Glasgow Caledonian University are using a mixture of psychology and audio engineering to see how music can prompt certain responses. See here. Emotions and moods can be influenced by outside forces. This study aims to identify the components that influence specific responses. One application will be to compile personalised packages of musical components to help improve people's wellbeing.

There's nothing new about music therapy. This study is the first to try and model specific components to specific responses. The commercial applications will also be interesting. The retail environment could capitalise on the research to influence shoppers' buying decisions or define new ways of communicating brand empathy. It could also form part of the optimisation of advertisements and assessed by neuromarketing techniques. The opportunities are endless.

I have spoken about the use of scents in influencing human behaviour (see here). Now music.

Scent Bomb

Have you ever walked past Lush? That's the shop you can smell 200 meters away that makes smelly bathroom products. It has been around for a long time and everyone knows it as the shop that smells. Well it is not the only one. Lots of businesses are starting to develop their own scent brand - the view is that it helps make a distinct emotional connection with the consumer. Is this a new fad or something for the long term? Is this ethical? How much work goes on behind the scenes to get the right scent? Is it a form of air pollution? The questions go on...

In a recent article in Business Week, the latest ambition is to plant a scent bomb into a low income housing development in New York in an attempt to make the residents happier. Smell does affect mood - we don't need scientists to tell us that. So the concept is sound. And if there are ways of helping people then lets do it. I just hope it is used responsibly and does not turn our high streets into an overwhelming and unpleasant experience. There is something nice and comforting with consistency - even if it is the consistent smell of background pollution.

Money and happiness

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke addressed graduates of the University of South Carolina with a simple message: having a well paid job doesn't mean you will be happy. Here is the link to the report (click here).

Now I don't think there's anything new in this. I've talked about the science of happiness and the data says it all - there is no correlation between money and happiness.

So why is Bernanke making these statements? Is it because this message needs to be reiterated year after year as students prepare to enter the workforce? Is it our responsibility to help guide students towards making 'correct' decisions for their long term happiness. Or is it something else? Is he preparing society for a harder, less prosperous future? Is it a prelude to how the traditional high earning careers will be constrained through regulatory reform? Is it all of the above?

21 hour working week (New Economics Foundation: NEF)

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has just released a paper stating that a 21 hour working week is 'set to become the new norm'. According to the NEF "...so many of us live to work, work to earn, and earn to consume. And our consumption habits are squandering the earth’s natural resources... Spending less time in paid work could help us to break this pattern. We’d have more time to be better parents, better citizens, better carers and better neighbours. And we could even become better employees: less stressed, more in control, happier in our jobs and more productive. It is time to break the power of the old industrial clock, take back our lives and work for a sustainable future.”

http://neweconomics.org/press-releases/shorter-working-week-soon-inevitable-forecasts-think-tank130210

This is inspirational. That said, Isiah Berlin famously wrote "few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated". Perhaps the paper by the NEF is trying to do something along these lines. I don't know many people who could handle a 50% pay cut - but then the principle is that wealth is spread and individual people are given the chance to focus on the pressing the matters stated above. The benefit is to society as a whole.

The important point is that an influential Think Tank has taken a stance on something (strangely) controversial that, if followed, could have major ramifications. I admire the principle and will follow the ensuing discussions with interest.

Positive psychology

Why settle for 'ok' when you can have 'great'?

Martin Seligman was the President of the American Psychological Association in 1998 and made the theme of positive psychology the basis for his tenure. Positive psychology is the study of optimal human functioning and challenges psychology's historical emphasis on the study of mental illness rather than on mental wellness. Traditionally, psychologists worked according to the disease model eg. curing schizophrenia. But what about nurturing genius and talent?

There are three features to the positive psychology model. These are 1) enjoyment 2) engagement and 3) affiliation. By understanding these three components, it gives us the opportunity to see how they are currently relevant to our lives. It also allows us to see how we can adapt our lives to achieve a 'positive psychology' state. We owe it to ourselves to understand this model and take responsibility for our own mental wellness. This way, we get the most out of life and are happier. This way we each play our role in building a happier community.

Science of happiness

In this video, Nancy Etcoff talks about the scientific basis of happiness.

She covers the hormonal basis for addiction, reward, attachment; me vs. we; intragenerational value shifts; facial expressions etc. Whether it is social 'soft' or neurological / biological 'hard' science, this video is facinating.

By understanding the science and being aware of the physical changes in our bodies, we are in a better position to understand why we feel as we do. By understanding the basis for our emotions, we can control and change our emotional state. We can understand the stimuli that cause us to feel as we do. That way we can take action to ensure that we maintain a positive emotional experience and uninvolve ourselves in activities that don't make us feel happy.