January 2011
26 posts
Hedonic Treadmill
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the supposed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Brickman and Campbell coined the term in...
London Eye
The EDF Energy London Eye (commonly the London Eye, or Millennium Wheel, formerly the Merlin Entertainments London Eye and before that, the British Airways London Eye) is a giant 135-metre (443 ft) tall Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in the British capital. Since 20 January 2011, it has been officially known as the EDF Energy London Eye following a three-year sponsorship...
Freddy King
Guitarist Freddie King rode to fame in the early ’60s with a spate of catchy instrumentals which became instant bandstand fodder for fellow bluesmen and white rock bands alike. Employing a more down-home (thumb and finger picks) approach to the B.B. King single-string style of playing, King enjoyed success on a variety of different record labels. Furthermore, he was one of the first bluesmen...
The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique, published February 25, 1963, is a book written by Betty Friedan. According to The New York Times obituary of Friedan in 2006, it “ignited the contemporary women’s movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the...
Amygdalae
The amygdalae (singular: amygdala) are almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system. The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the...
Buddhas Of Bamiyan
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated 230 km (143 miles) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft). Built in 507 CE, the larger in 554 CE, the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art. The main bodies...
Stephen Soundheim
Stephen Sondheim was the most highly regarded composer/lyricist for the musical theater in his generation. Having his first musical produced on Broadway in 1957 and his 14th in 1994, he straddled two eras. The broadly popular musical theater of his early years gradually became a more insular art form, addressing a smaller, more dedicated, more serious audience. This jibed perfectly with the...
Truffle
A truffle is the fruiting body of an underground fungus; spore dispersal is accomplished through fungivores, animals that eat fungi. Almost all truffles are ectomycorrhizal and are therefore usually found in close association with trees. There are hundreds of species of truffles that are big, but the fruiting body of some (mostly in the genus ‘Tuber’) are highly prized as a food. The...
Information Cascade
An information cascade occurs when people observe the actions of others and then make the same choice that the others have made, independently of their own private information signals. Because it is usually sensible to do what other people are doing, the phenomenon is assumed to be the result of rational choice. Nevertheless, information cascades can sometimes lead to arbitrary or even erroneous...
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000) was an Austrian-American actress. Though known primarily for her celebrity in a film career as a major contract star of MGM’s “Golden Age”, Lamarr was a scientist, inventor and mathematician who co-invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications, a key to many forms of wireless communication from the pre-computer age to the present day....
The Old Man And The Sea
The Old Man and the Sea is a story by Ernest Hemingway, written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The book was dedicated to the memory of Maxwell Perkins,...
Stop Making Sense
Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film, “Stop Making Sense,” is one of those miracle movies, a picture that seems to have come together by laws unto itself. It doesn’t seem “made.” It merely exists, like some inexplicable and wonderful quirk of nature: a redwood, a toad with fabulous markings or something that just mysteriously appeared on a lily pad one...
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He is often credited as the “Godfather of Anime”, and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major...