The Greatest Happiness Principle

60 Minutes: Happiness


We could learn a lot from the Danes (and all Scandinavians for that matter). A new study shows that they are the happiest people in the world.

I consider myself a Utilitarian in this sense: we should strive to create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. I am not a purist, mind you. There obviously are values that would more important (where it would conflict with Justice, for instance), but in a broad sense I find this principle to be the correct one.

American World Chess Champion, Bobby Fischer, Has Died

In late breaking news this morning, American World Chess Champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in a Reykjavik hospital, announced by his spokesman Gardar Sverrisson. According to the latest news reports at the time I am writing this, he died of an unspecified illness.

I never met Bobby Fischer, but his 60 Memorable Games was one of the two first chess books I ever owned and studied.

In later years, his greatness at the game of chess sadly became overshadowed by his possible mental illness and anti-Semitic rants. I remember talking to Bruce Pandolfini about the anti-Semitic statements once (Fischer had been saying those types of things for several years, apparently), Bruce told me that it probably came from his first chess coach who himself was anti-Semitic.

However, when it comes to the game of chess, his contributions are incalculable. As the last American World Chess Champion (Paul Morphy -- who was unofficially considered World Champion -- was the only other American that history books record as having the title), Fischer's image looms large over the American chess culture.

Fortunately, Gata Kamsky, who will be playing for the World Chess Championship later this year, may bring the title back to the U.S.

Perhaps American chess players will soon be able to say: "The king is dead, long live the king."

Birthday Bash

Today at work, my co-workers threw me a "surprise" birthday party. (I kind of halfway expected it.)

Going to Answers.com today, I found out that I share a birthday with:

* Martin Van Buren (1782-1862): 8th President of the U.S.

* Walt Disney (1901-1966): of Mickey Mouse fame

* Frankie Muniz (22): actor, Malcolm in the Middle

And at ChessBase.com, I discovered I share the birthday with former FIDE World Chess Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

***Update***

I forgot that I share a birthday with blogger Charles Smith of Of Two Minds. He also pointed out that the King of Thailand has the same birthday.

Gulf Coast Travels: Kemah

Here is my first installment of photos I took while sightseeing around the Gulf Coast of Texas. I took these pictures during my Labor Day weekend travels to Kemah, Texas.


This is the Captain Kidd "pirate ship" sailboat.


This is the first scene I saw when we got out near the open water: a sunken sailboat. Yeah, that made me feel safer!


This a helicopter that flew over our vessel. It was a lot closer than the picture probably shows.


A nice scene on the Kemah boardwalk. You have to go into a little cubbyhole to take this photo.


Here is a street performer I watched on the Kemah boardwalk. He was so good, I gave him a donation.


A nice fountain at one of the entrances to the Kemah boardwalk.


This little pond is where children could drive toy boats around inside of it.

One thing I didn't take a picture of was the speedboat that I rode after the Captain Kidd. That speedboat is called "The Beast." Prepare to get soaking wet if you take that ride. You'll almost get dry from the wind when you are going at high speed. Some guys might take the ride just to watch the dancing girls on the boat. The boat is run by Joe's Crab Shack, I think, which is right next to it.

There is also a small amusement park on the boardwalk. You can find more information about it, here.

By the way, if you would like to eat at a nice Japanese restaurant, I recommend the Ichibon Japanese Seafood in Kemah.

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Last night I survived my first hurricane. Hurricane Humberto was only supposed to be a tropical storm, but it picked up power very quickly and strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. I don't want to find out what a Category 2 will do. The eye of the hurricane passed right by here. The good news is that I ended up on the left side of the eye, which is less damaging than the right side. My RV seems to have escaped relatively unscathed. However, many of my neighbors were not so lucky.

I have to admit, it was downright scary to be inside an RV during a hurricane where the winds were near their top speeds next to the hurricane's eye. We heard this morning that they had clocked winds in excess of 100 mph. I was awakened with a lot of shaking and rocking back and forth at about 2am and could not get back to sleep until after 5am.

When I got up this morning, I joked to my neighbors that we get more warning time of impending tornadoes than they do of sudden hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. And they pass over and leave quicker. And their path of destruction is a lot smaller area.

My post Eye of the Storm was a little bit of a inside hint of where I was headed. I didn't fully expect that I would actually end up right under the eye of an actual storm.

Toil and Trouble

Image taken from Despair.com.

More problems. My electricity went out on my RV. It turned out that it was just a shorted wire that was easily fixed once I took the RV to the shop. The internet connection here is still inconsistent, so posting has been difficult. OK, these are minor problems, considering all I have been through.

I took a sailing trip (I Kidd you not) and then took a speedboat ride in Galveston Bay on Saturday. I went to a couple of museums and a Chinese Garden that had miniature replicas of China's Terracotta Army and Forbidden City, as well as a guided tour explaining Chinese history on Sunday and Monday. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

I was going to go swim in the Gulf of Mexico until I saw a news report while eating breakfast that showed thousands of fish getting washed up on the beach due to an unknown cause. I heard that the water here is dirty partly due to the pollution dumped into the Mississippi River, which then gets washed up on the beaches here. It's enough to galvanize you to action for environmental causes.

What did you all do this weekend? Anything interesting?

Organically Speaking

I discovered an organic grocery store here. If there was one in Oklahoma City, it was nowhere near where I lived.

I don't know that, as a whole, people are better off eating organic foods. The research on it is mixed. But with the large variation in our DNA, I am sure that there are some people who benefit from it. I have decided to try it out.

I have read studies that link poverty with bad health due to a bad diet; and some attribute it to federal policies toward food production.

Why do low-income people tend to exhibit more diet-related health problems? Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, posits a simple answer: people are gaining weight and getting sick because unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food -- thanks in large part to federal policies.

...

According to Drewnowski and his student Pablo Monsivais, cheap and abundant additives such as HFCS allow manufacturers to sweeten food liberally without adding much to their production costs. For people on a tight budget, these additives can also make cheap food the most efficient way to get calories.

To illustrate his point, Drewnowski distinguishes between "energy-dense" and "nutrient-dense" foods. For energy-dense, think of a package of Ding Dongs -- 360 calories, 19 grams of fat, and a liberal dose of high-fructose corn syrup. For nutrient-dense, think of a three-ounce chunk of wild salmon, delivering high-quality protein and essential fatty acids, among other nutrients, in a 185-calorie package. The former will run you about a buck at any convenience store, bodega, or supermarket in the country. For the latter, prepare to sidle up to a pristine Whole Foods fish counter and shell out about $5.

From a short-term economic viewpoint, the Ding Dongs present a better deal: 360 calories per dollar, and no need for the time or skill to cook. "If you're on a limited income trying to feed a family, in a sense you're behaving rationally by choosing heavily sweetened and fat-laden foods," Drewnowski says.

The price gap between these two categories is growing. Drewnowski and Monsivais show that the overall cost of food consumed at home, when adjusted for inflation, has been essentially unchanged since 1980. But over the same time, the price of soft drinks plunged 30 percent, and the price of candy and other sweets fell 20 percent. Meanwhile, the price of fresh fruits and vegetables rose 50 percent.

"Energy-dense foods ... are the cheapest option for the consumer," Drewnowski says. "As long as the healthier lean meats, fish, and fresh produce are more expensive, obesity will continue to be a problem for the working poor."

Organic foods are definitely more expensive, but I am going to start trying them to see if it has any long-term health benefits.

Connectivity

The reason I have not been posting has a lot more to do with the fact that I have not been able to get an internet connection where I am staying than any other factor. I can get a good connection quite regularly at work, but I usually only have enough time before work to read my e-mail and catch up on a little news. The place where I am staying is working on getting a new ISP with a larger capacity and a faster, more reliable connection.

Soon I hope to be back to my regularly scheduled punditry.

V.I.F. ("Very Important Flunky")

Last Friday, someone asked me a question. It didn't matter what the question was, I just gave my standard answer: "I don't know; I'm just a flunky." Ms. Jean was standing nearby. Having overheard what I said, she replied: "Yes, but you're a Very Important Flunky." Ms. Jean, a.k.a. the Nicest Lady in the Office™, always knows how to cheer you up.

Marty, a.k.a. the Nicest Guy in the Office™, always gets the office started on a good note in the morning. Marty and I sometimes talk about investing (he knows a lot more than I about the stock market). And I am finding new information to look at (and I have given him some of mine, too).

I am adjusting to life in the office environment. I'll update you more when I have time.

I am living on the western edge of Cajun country. That in itself adds new flavor to my experiences.

Crazy From the Heat

I have not had any internet access at home, so I am blogging from my workplace.

I went down to the Gulf of Mexico and swam for 4 hours. The beach is only 30 minutes away, I discovered. When I came back, the air conditioning in my RV had failed. The ambient temperature has been 99 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, with the heat index at 110. So I had to spend the weekend in the heat. I think I might have lost some water weight from all the sweating. Don't worry, I'll gain it all back; I always do.

My job seems to be starting out well. Business activity is booming here along the coast. Besides the project we are working on, there are many oil refineries being built and there are several road construction crews out doing work upgrading the highways here.

If you are looking for work, you might want to look into getting a job with the oil industry. Everything it touches seems to turn to gold here.

Now if I could just get my internet up and running at home.

Daisy Update

Daisy apparently found a good home where she is happy. A grandmother whose dog just died took her in. She has 5 acres of land with a creek running down the middle of it. Daisy found the creek and followed it until she came upon some horses. I was told she liked playing with them. The lady owner used to work for a vet, too.

It looks like she found a good home.

Popcorn Showers

Everyday here along the coast of south Texas they have what are called "popcorn showers." The clouds build up throughout the day and then it rains hard for about 10 minutes in the afternoon. Then the clouds dissipate and it gets sunny again.

It is an interesting phenomenon.

I Have Arrived

I actually arrived at 12:15am on Wednesday, but I didn't get internet access until tonight.

So far, I am quite pleased with my job. I am working on a project that will use carbon dioxide that would normally be a waste product from petroleum exploration (and is believed to contribute to global warming) to help extract more oil from the ground. See this page for more information about it. It is being advertised as a kind of "green" solution to oil exploration.

We are extremely busy with our project. Beaumont, Texas is a nice town. It's small enough that you don't have traffic jams at 5:00, but it's large enough that you have access to major shopping centers that you would expect in a large town.

If you need to see major sporting events or shows, Houston is only a little more than an hour away.

I am slowly settling in. After the initial shock of moving, I am quickly discovering that things are pretty good here. The weather is a little hot and muggy, but it isn't anything a little air conditioning can't fix. Besides, the ocean is not too far away, either. That's a premium when you are from a landlocked state.

Another difference in the weather is that the biggest threat is hurricanes rather than tornadoes. I was told with hurricanes you get days of warning rather than minutes.

The people I have met have been friendly for the most part; and I am already starting to think that some of my observations in Oklahoma may have been somewhat myopic. On the other hand, I think I may be living in a kind of oasis given what happened on the stock market today (and reading Charles Smith's predictions today at Of Two Minds).

I don't know how long this will last, but I intend to enjoy it while I can.

Moving Miss Daisy

One of the saddest parts of taking my new job was having to find Daisy -- the dog that I inherited after my dad died -- a new home. I was having a hard time finding someone to take her when by luck I found an opposing attorney's secretary whose mother's dog had just passed away. She needed a new dog. The lady has 5 acres of fenced-in land, so Daisy should be right at home exploring her surroundings. Daisy always pushed me to take her out on walks twice a day -- once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Hopefully, Daisy will find happiness in her new home.

Another bittersweet ending to my life's transition.

Sunday Music: I Can See Clearly Now

The rain is gone.

Johnny Nash -- I Can See Clearly Now

Murder Mystery Tour

I went to the Stone Lion Inn last night. I had been intending to do it for some time. The dinner costs just over $55 and you play a character in the mystery. If you register early enough, you can also stay in the "haunted" bed & breakfast.

When you first arrive (it is important that you get there early to get your character assignment and read the plot and characters), you get your own little booklet that tells you one the clues that you will read later as part of the "play" that will reveal some of the clues necessary to solve the crime. I arrived at 7:00pm, and even that was a little late with all of the information that needed to be taken in.

You start the night seated in the living room eating finger food and getting introduced to some of the other characters (others who, like yourself, play one of the characters in the mystery).

The host then takes you to a graveyard in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where a true-to-life bungling outlaw was buried. She will go through the true story of Elmer McCurdy. At first I thought it was just a joke and part of the play. But no, this part of the story was really true. He even has his own Urban Legends page.

From there, true Oklahoma yarn takes over. The play that you participate in revolves around the fictitious descendants of Elmer McCurdy meeting to try to claim their share of the inheritance of $1.2 million in mysterious loot buried at the Stone Lion Inn. One of the potential descendants is "murdered" during the evening. Your job is to interact with the other characters during the dinner that follows to try to figure out who the murderer is. But beware, one of you is the "murderer." In order to solve the murder, you must piece together all of the clues given during the evening from the time you arrive back from the gravesite to late in the evening.

It was a fun time to spend a weekend evening in Oklahoma. After the mystery is solved, the host will go around the room and have each guest introduce themselves. Be ready for a late night though; the show, combined with the follow-up introductions and discussions, lasted until almost 1am. It is no wonder many choose to stay overnight at the Stone Lion Inn. Even if it is "haunted."

Intergenerational Poverty

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently conducted a study on the causes of intergenerational poverty. The study found that socioeconomic mobility (i.e. the ability to move up from the lower classes to the middle or even upper classes) is lower in the United States than many other Western Democratic countries including Denmark, Austria, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Spain and France.

I mentioned a similar report in a blog entry about this before.

Here are a couple of the conclusions from the report:

The level of wealth and education of parents are two crucial determinants of children’s future life-chances. For example, the evidence suggests that parental characteristics are reflected in educational outcomes, and that greater public intervention in the accumulation of human capital might reduce intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage. Moreover, parents who are capital constrained – facing tighter liquidity constrains – cannot invest as much as rich parents in education although these constraints seem less important than other family background characteristics. The effects of such liquidity constraints are also likely to vary considerably accordingly to the ability of the child: they are likely to be tighter for low-income parents of high-ability children.

Growing up in low-income households seems to affect heavily children's future life-chances. In fact, parental poverty is related to lower levels of good health, nutrition and housing, all of which affect child development and future incomes. Furthermore, the home and social environment is where beliefs, attitudes and values are shaped (for example welfare dependency of parents is correlated with future
welfare receipt of children, even after adjusting for income, in part reflecting the role-model that parents provide). High parental income is correlated with a better quality of education because good schools are generally in good neighbourhoods, where in addition, networks useful in later life may be more present, and crime is less prevalent. It is further correlated with transmission of verbal ability, and non-cognitive skills, including self-discipline, which improve life chances (Heckman and Carneiro, 2003). Reducing poverty, and especially childhood poverty, might therefore contribute to reduce intergenerational inequality.

The language is highly technical; but basically it is saying that where a child starts out in life based on his parent's income and educational status has a great correlation to where they will end up. If governments would tax the wealthy more, it would go a long way to alleviating the problem of poor parents who don't have the spending power to get their children the best possible education.

The second paragraph says that children who live in better, lower-crime neighborhoods not only benefit from a better quality education, but also benefit from the social and business contacts who will be able to give them better job and entrepreneurial opportunities. Furthermore, going to those better schools improves language skills, interpersonal relationship skills (among them dispute resolution skills) and the principles of delayed gratification and other self-control skills that will help them avoid trouble. Therefore reducing poverty can lead to greater opportunities because it would alleviate the problems associated with stress brought on by fear of crime, which impedes learning.

There. Clear as mud?

I remember many years ago attending a short seminar put on by a local non-profit group that rated a child's chances of success based on some 30+ factors called "assets." The more assets a child had, the greater their chance of success in life. I can't remember if poverty was one of the factors. However, this study indicates that until we alleviate the problems associated with inequality in society, it needs to be a factor in evaluating a child's opportunity.

Politically Incorrect Nature of Man

From The Nature of Humans:

4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim – I think we already knew this, as I can’t remember any other type of suicide bomber. Almost all of them are Muslim. The author ties this to polygyny as mentioned above. Muslim society allows for polygyny, thus depleting the pool of available women for the guy on the street. There is also the mention of the 72 virgins available for Muslims who martyr themselves. Stay on Earth and have no wife and no sex or blow yourself up and find 72 virgins at your disposal?

It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

Translation – the lack of sex and promise of it in the hereafter makes men blow themselves into little pieces.

This statement was only one of 10 controversial ideas posted today over at Audience of One, a local Oklahoma blog by a Tulsa school principal. The idea ties into other ideas about power and sex in society. Here is another example from his post today:

2. Humans are naturally polygamous – I wrote about this some time ago in this post. There is certainly much in human history to indicate that monogamy does not come naturally. My friend Patrick (Patrick is the author of Optimus: Praetorian Guard and who is a regular commenter here. --OkieLawyer) commented on that post that monogamy evolved to keep men from killing each other in competition for women. Monogamy increases the number of available women as opposed to wealthy men monopolizing them in a polygamous society. The article agrees with Patrick’s assertion.

Among primate and nonprimate species, the degree of polygyny highly correlates with the degree to which males of a species are larger than females. The more polygynous the species, the greater the size disparity between the sexes. Typically, human males are 10 percent taller and 20 percent heavier than females. This suggests that, throughout history, humans have been mildly polygynous.

Translation – Tall dark handsome men get to have more sex and produce more children, thus increasing the average height of men as compared to women.

What constitutes "tall, dark and handsome?" Scientific studies seem to indicate it is related to symmetry. I wrote about it before, but only as a brief blurb. The basic idea is that people whose faces and bodies are more symmetrical make more money, have more sex, are more popular and enjoy more power than others. Kinda fits in with my Four Corrupting Influences.

Whatever the motivations are, it is worth talking about.

Flood

I was just getting ready to mow my lawn finally after what seemed like a break from the rain. As I was heading out the door it started raining hard again.

My life is a flood.

Jars of Clay - Flood (MTV version)

Oklahoma!

The Broadway musical of the Rogers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! is currently playing at the Civic Center Music Hall (now known as the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre) in downtown Oklahoma City. The play is produced in conjunction with Oklahoma City's Lyric Theatre. They have added an extra show on July 1st at 6pm due to its popularity. Tickets range from $20 (plus the $7.50 sellers fee) to $50. I bought one of the $20 tickets. I hope I will be able to see the stage.

The original film version will be showing at Oklahoma Museum of Art on Sunday, July 22 at 2pm.

***Update***

Here is a medley of songs from Oklahoma! I found on YouTube sung by John Schneider and Pam Dawber many years ago: