The science of happiness - The Happiness Formula (Part-1)

We all want to be happy but the problem has always been that you can't measure happiness.

Happiness has always been seen as too vague a concept, as Lord Layard, Professor of Economics at the LSE and author of "Happiness - lessons from a new science" points out.

"There is a problem with the word happiness.

"When you use the word happy, it often has the sort of context of balloons floating up into the sky or something frivolous."

Now scientists say they can actually measure happiness.

Neuroscientists are measuring pleasure. They suggest that happiness is more than a vague concept or mood; it is real.

Measuring happiness

Social scientists measure happiness simply by asking people how happy they are.

It is argued that what a person says about their own happiness tends to tally with what friends or even strangers might say about them if asked the same question.

Most people say they are fairly happy.

The leading American psychologist Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois, told The Happiness Formula that the science of happiness is based on one straightforward idea:

"It may sound silly but we ask people 'How happy are you 1-7, 1-10?

"And the interesting thing is that produces real answers that are valid, they're not perfect but they're valid and they predict all sorts of real things in their lives."

One type of measurement even tries to record people's levels of happiness throughout the day wherever they are.

Ecological momentary assessment uses hand held computers.

The person being quizzed is bleeped and then taken through a questionnaire.

"The measures are not perfect yet I think they are in many ways as good as the measures economists use," said Professor Diener.

It is a remarkable claim. Simply by asking people, we have a measure of happiness that is as good as the economists' measure of poverty or growth.

And if true, governments could be judged by how happy they make us.

An adviser to the Prime Minister, David Halpern, told us that within the next 10 years the government would be measured against how happy it made everybody.

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A movie on female genital cutting

Moolaadé is a 2004 African film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène. It addresses the subject of female genital cutting, a common practice in a number of African countries, especially nations immediately south of the Sahara desert. The film is set in a village in Burkina Faso, and was filmed in the remote village of Djerrisso, Burkina Faso. The film argues strongly against the practice, depicting a village woman, Colle, who uses moolaadé (magical protection) to protect a group of girls. She is opposed by the villagers who believe in the necessity of circumcision, which they call 'purification'.

The film is a co-production between companies from several Francophone nations: Senegal, France, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia.

The film won the Prix Un Certain Regard and a special mention in the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.^[1] Prominent American film critic Roger Ebert was a big supporter of the film when it was released, naming it one of his top ten of the year.

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Sixth Sense by Pranav Mistry

Pranav Mistry (b. 1981 in Palanpur, India) is the inventor of SixthSense. He is a research assistant and a PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab. SixthSense has recently attracted global attention^[1][2]. Designer, Engineer and Inventor, Pranav Mistry is passionate about integrating the world of information with our real world interactions. Among some of his previous work, Pranav has made intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located and can send reminders and messages; a pen that can draw in 3D; and a public map that can act as Google of physical world. Pranav holds a Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and Master of Design from IIT Bombay besides his Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering. Pranav’s research interests include Ubiquitous computing, Gestural and Tangible Interaction, AI, Augmented reality, Machine vision, Collective intelligence and Robotics.

Sixth Sense has been awarded 2009 Invention Award by Popular Science^[3]. Pranav also won Young Innovator Award TR35 by Technology Review^[4]. Mistry has been called "one of the two or three, best inventors in the world right now" by Chris Anderson.

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Day of Wrath

Day of Wrath (Danish: Vredens Dag) is a black and white film, made in 1943, by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film is an adaptation of Anne Pedersdotter (1909) by the Norwegian playwright Hans Wiers-Jenssen, based on an actual Norwegian case in the sixteenth century.

Plot

Day of Wrath is set in a Danish village in 1623 where an old woman Herlof's Marte (Anna Svierkier) is accused of witchcraft. Anne (Lisbeth Movin), a young woman, has been married since childhood to the aged local pastor, Absalon Pedersson (Thorkild Roose), who is involved with the trials of witches, and they live in a house shared with his strict domineering mother Meret (Sigrid Neiiendam). Meret does not approve of Anne, much younger than her husband, being about the same age as the son from his first marriage. Anne gives Herlof's Marte refuge, but Marte is soon discovered in the house, though she is presumed to have hidden herself there without assistance. Herlof's Marte knows that Anne's mother, already dead at the time of the events depicted, had been accused of witchcraft as well, and had been spared thanks to Absalon's intervention, who aimed at marrying young Anne. Anne is thus informed by Herlof's Marte of her mother's power over people's life and death, and become intrigued in the matter.

The son, Martin (Preben Lerdorff Rye) returns home from abroad and he and Anne are immediately attracted to one another; she does not love her husband and considers him not to love her. Under heavy torture Herlof's Marte confesses to witchcraft, defined among other evidence as wishing for the death of other people, but threatens to expose Anne if Absalon does not rescue her from a guilty verdict, begging him to save her like he saved Anne's mother. Marte though, after pleading with Absalon a second time, does not betray his secret and is burned at the stake with the villagers looking on. Absalon feels his guilt over having saved Anne's mother, but leaving Marte to burn. Anne and Martin, clandestinely growing closer, are seen as having changed in recent days, fuelling Meret's suspicion of Anne's character. Anne is heard laughing in Martin's company by her husband, something which had not occurred in their time together. Absalon regrets that he took Anne's hand disregarding her feeling and true intentions, and tells her so, apologising for stealing her youth and happiness.

A violent storm erupts while Absalon is away visiting a dying young parishioner Laurentius (Olaf Ussing); he had been cursed by Herlof's Marte during her interrogation and foretold an imminent death. Meanwhile, Anne and Martin are discussing the future, and she is forced to admit wishing her husband dead, but only as an "if" rather than it actually happening. At that moment Absalon, on his way home, feels "like the touching of death itself". On Absalon's return, Anne confesses her love for Martin to her husband and tells him she wishes him dead; he collapses and dies calling Martin's name. Anne screams. The following morning Martin is overcome by his own doubts, despite Anne claiming that she had nothing to do with his father's death which she sees a providential help from above to release her from her present misery and unhappy marriage. At Absalon's funeral, Anne is denounced by Meret, her mother-in-law, as a witch. Anne initially denies the charge, but when Martin sides with his grandmother she is faced with the loss of his love and trust, and confesses on her husband's open coffin (bier) that she murdered him and enchanted his son with the Devil's help. Her fate appears sealed.

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The Great Sperm Race

It's the most extreme race on earth - a contest with 250 million competitors, only one winner and relentless obstacles thrown in for good measure.

Scaled up to human size with the sperm played by real people, The Great Sperm Race tells the story of human conception as it's never been told before using helicopter-mounted cameras, world-renowned scientists, CGI and dramatic reconstruction to illustrate the extraordinary journey of sperm.

With the microscopic world of sperm and egg accurately scaled up by 34,000 times, we see the human-sized heroes negotiate some of the world's most striking landscapes when the epic proportions of the vagina become the Canadian Rockies and the buildings on London's South Bank symbolise the intricacies of the cervix.

With the female body designed to repel and destroy invaders, from acidic vaginal walls to impassable cervical crypts, the sperm face unremitting obstacles. 'The battle that sperm have in order to find and fertilise an egg is just immense,' explains Dr Allan Pacey. 'Everything is working against sperm and they're not really given a helping hand by the female reproductive tract.'

Huge swathes perish and only one will reach the ultimate goal - fertilisation of the egg and the beginnings of new life.

Made in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust and consulting the world's leading reproductive scientists, The Great Sperm Race demonstrates the extraordinary intricacies of our bodies and the giant lottery of luck that is our reproductive process.

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The Gods Must Be Crazy - II

Xixo is back again. This time, his children accidentally stow away on a fast-moving poachers' truck, unable to get off, and Xixo sets out to rescue them. Along the way, he encounters a couple of soldiers trying to capture each other and a pilot and passenger of a small plane, who are each having a few problems of their own.

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The Gods Must Be Crazy - I

The Gods Must Be Crazy is a film released in 1980, written and directed by Jamie Uys. The film is the first in The Gods Must Be Crazy series of films. Set in Botswana and South Africa, it tells the story of Xi, a Sho of the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian San farmer Nǃxau) whose band has no knowledge of the world beyond. The film is followed by four sequels, the final three of which were made in Hong Kong.

Plot

The film is a collision of three separate stories—the journey of a Ju/'hoansi bushman to the end of the earth to get rid of a Coca-Cola bottle, the romance between a bumbling scientist and a schoolteacher, and a band of guerrillas on the run.

Xi and his band of San/Bushmen relatives are living well off the land in the Kalahari Desert. They are happy because the gods have provided plenty of everything, and no one in the tribe has unfulfilled wants. One day, a glass Coke bottle is thrown out of an aeroplane and falls to earth unbroken. Initially, this strange artifact seems to be another boon from the gods—-Xi's people find many uses for it. But unlike anything that they have had before, there is only one bottle to go around. This exposes the tribe to a hitherto unknown phenomenon, property, and they soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, even violence.

Since it has caused the band unhappiness on two occasions, Xi decides that the bottle is an evil thing and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. He sets out alone on his quest and encounters Western civilization for the first time. The film presents an interesting interpretation of civilization as viewed through Xi's perceptions.

There are also plot lines about shy biologist Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers) who is studying the local animals (which, because of his nervousness around women, he once described as "manure-collecting"); the newly hired village school teacher, a former newspaper reporter named Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo); and some guerrillas led by Sam Boga (Louw Verwey), who are being pursued by government troops after an unsuccessful attempt to massacre the Cabinet of the fictional African country of Burani. Also taking a share of the limelight is Steyn's Land Rover, dubbed the Antichrist (also Son of Maraka) by his assistant and mechanic, M'pudi (Michael Thys), for its unreliability and constant need of repair. Also part of the chaos is a fresh safari tour guide named Jack Hind (Nic de Jager), who has designs on Thompson and would often steal Steyn's thunder.

Xi happens upon a farm and, being hungry as well as oblivious to the concept of ownership, shoots a goat with a tranquilizer arrow. For this he is arrested and jailed for stealing livestock. M'pudi, who lived with the bushmen for a long time, realizes that Xi will die in the alien environment of a prison cell. He and Steyn manage to hire Xi as a tracker for the 11 weeks of his prison sentence, with the help of M'pudi, who speaks Xi's language. Meanwhile, the guerrillas invade the school where Kate teaches and use her and her pupils as human shields for their escape by foot to the neighboring country. Steyn and Xi manage to immobilize the guerrillas as they are passing by and save Kate and the children. Steyn allows Xi to leave to continue his quest to the edge of the world.

Xi eventually finds himself at the top of a cliff with a solid layer of low-lying clouds obscuring the landscape below. This convinces Xi that he has reached the edge of the world, and he throws the bottle off the cliff. This scene was filmed at a place called God's Window in the then-Eastern Transvaal, South Africa (now Mpumalanga). This is at the edge of the escarpment between the Highveld and Lowveld of South Africa. Xi then returns to his band and receives a warm welcome.

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