MAGIC & MAGICS

The Magic Barrel

2008-11-15T21:33:00.001-08:00

by Bernard Malamud

Not long ago there lived in uptown New York, in a small almost meager room, though crowded with books, Leo Finkle, a rabbinical student in the Yeshivah University. Finkle, after six years of study, was to be ordained in June and had been advised by an acquaintance that he might find it easier to win himself a congregation if he were married. Since he had no present prospects of marriage, after two tormented days of turning it over in his mind, he called in Pinye Salzman, a marriage broker whose two line advertisement he had read in the Forward.

The matchmaker appeared one night out of the dark fourth-floor hallway of the graystone rooming house where Finkle lived, grasping a black, strapped portfolio that had been worn thin with use. Salzman, who had been long in the business, was of slight but dignified build, wearing an old hat, and an overcoat too short and tight for him. He smelled frankly of fish, which he loved to eat, and although he was missing a few teeth, his presence was not displeasing, because of an amiable manner curiously contrasted with mournful eyes. His voice, his lips, his wisp of beard, his bony fingers were animated, but give him a moment of repose and his mild blue eyes revealed a depth of sadness, a characteristic that put Leo a little at ease although the situation, for him, was inherently tense.

He at once informed Salzman why he had asked him to come, explaining that his home was in Cleveland, and that but for his parents, who had married comparatively late in life, he was alone in the world. He had for six years devoted himself almost entirely to his studies, as a result of which, understandably, he had found himself without time for a social life and the company of young women. Therefore he thought it the better part of trial and error—of embarrassing fumbling—to call in an experienced person to advise him on these matters. He remarked in passing that the function of the marriage broker was ancient and honorable, highly approved in the jewish community, because it made practical the necessary without hindering joy. Moreover, his own parents had been brought together by a matchmaker. They had made, if not a financially profitable marriage—since neither had possessed any worldly goods to speak of—at least a successful one in the sense of their everlasting devotion to each other. Salzman listened in embarrassed surprise, sensing a sort of apology. Later, however, he experienced a glow of pride in his work, an emotion that had left him years ago, and he heartily approved of Finkle.

The two went to their business. Leo had led Salzman to the only clear place in the room, a table near a window that overlooked the lamp-lit city. He seated himself at the matchmaker’s side but facing him, attempting by an act of will to suppress the unpleasant tickle in his throat. Salzman eagerly unstrapped his portfolio and removed a loose rubber band from a thin packet of much-handled cards. As he flipped through them, a gesture and sound that physically hurt Leo, the student pretended not to see and gazed steadfastly out the window. Although it was still February, winter was on its last legs, signs of which he had for the first time in years begun to notice. He now observed the round white moon, moving high in the sky through a cloud menagerie, and watched with half-open mouth as it penetrated a huge hen, and dropped out of her like an egg laying itself. Salzman, though pretending through eyeglasses he had just slipped on, to be engaged in scanning the writing on the cards, stole occasional glances at the young man’s distinguished face, noting with pleasure the long, severe scholar’s nose, brown eyes heavy with learning, sensitive yet ascetic lips, and a certain almost hollow quality of the dark cheeks. He gazed around at shelves upon shelves of books and let out a soft, contented sigh.

Teaching Psychology Can Be Magical

2008-11-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

Mark W. Vernoy
Palomar College, mvernoy@palomar.edu
Paper presented at WPA, April 29, 1999

We all know that for students to learn, they must pay attention to the material being presented to them. During my 75-minute classes, my mind sometimes begins to wander and I suspect that if my mind wanders, the students' minds are wandering as well. The best way to keep us all engaged is to actively involve both the student and the professor in the presentation. Textbook teaching manuals are full of active learning exercises. Today, I want to focus on the use of magic in teaching introduction to psychology.
Nearly everyone is interested in magic. Therefore, anytime you can integrate a simple magic trick into your class, you will increase the interest level and keep your students' minds from wandering. The magical thing about magic is that you don’t even have to be good to put on a reasonable classroom demonstration. Below, I have listed several simple magic tricks and I have indicated how they might be integrated into the introduction to psychology class. The tricks can be used when discussing the topics listed below, or any one of them can be used to introduce the topic of experimental control. I use several of them during the course of my research methods and statistics classes. The more you use the tricks, the more fun you will have.

ESP

A large percentage of the general population and a large percentage of psychology students believe in ESP. By performing ESP tricks in your class and identifying them as mere "tricks" that anyone can learn, you can, with appropriate discussion, debunk those ingrained beliefs. Here are several ESP tricks that you can easily do in your class:

Mental Telepathy: Card trick
One of the easiest ESP tricks is the mental telepathy card trick. This trick requires a confederate, but it can be very convincing.
Take out regular deck of 52 playing cards, turn your back to the class, and while your back is turned ask a student to pick a card at random. While your back is still turned, ask him/her to show the card to all the students in the class, but not to you. Next, instruct the student to hide the card. Once the card is hidden, you can turn to face the class. Now everyone in the class knows the card, but you. So you must ask the class to try to use mental telepathy to send the card to your mind.
The key to all magic tricks is to sell the trick to your class. You really have to ham it up. The more ham, the better, and the more fun you will have with the trick. Tell your class to concentrate very hard on the card that was chosen. Then you need to look like you are concentrating and trying to read their minds, but just can’t quite make out the card. After a minute or so, tell the students to concentrate harder because you are not getting the card. Finally, tell them that you are getting too many images and that they should all close their eyes and concentrate on the one card. While the students are watching you put on your performance at the front of the room or when they all have their eyes closed, your confederate at the back of the room just writes down the card on a piece of paper and shows it to you.
Now you need to ham it up and say that you are getting the color of the card, then you are getting the suit, then it is a face card, or a number, until you have named the card.
As with all the tricks described in this paper, take your time. The longer you can string it out, within reason, the better.

(There are several different variations of this trick. You can use "mental telepathy" to guess a "random" name out of a phone book. Have a student choose two different numbers between 1 and 10, with the first number being the page number in a phone book and the second being the order of names on any one page. Your confederate needs only a sheet of paper listing the first ten names on the first 10 pages in the telephone book and a blank sheet on which to write the answer big enough for you to read.)

Mental Telepathy: Another Card Trick
This trick also requires a confederate, but this time the confederate “guesses” the card. To do this, you must tell the confederate, before the class starts, what card is going to be picked, and then you must force a random student to pick that particular card.
Begin by choosing a random student in the class (who is actually your confederate) and tell him or her to be ready to receive the mental image from you. Next, choose a random student to select a card at random from a deck of cards. (This student can be anyone; you might choose the most skeptical student in the class.)
It is easy to force this student to pick the card that you want. Before you begin, make sure that the card you want to be picked is the top card in the deck. Then go to the student who is to pick the card and then ask him or her for a number between 10 and 15. (Let's say she chooses 13.) Then in front of her, you start to count down to the 13th card. Make sure that when you do this, you take the top card on the deck and place it face down on her desk, then take the second card and place it face down on top of the first card, and so on until you have counted to 13. (You will now have a stack of 13 cards with the card you want the student to pick on the bottom of the stack.) Next you say, “Oh shoot, I forgot that we should deal the cards face up, not face down!” Then take the stack of cards and place it back on top of the deck. (Now the card that was on the top of the deck is now the 13th card down.) Finally, all you have to do is to count down to the 13th card, placing each card face up. The 13th card will be the one that originally was on the top of the deck, the one you told your confederate to pick.
Now, "send" your mental image of the card to your confederate. Before class, you will have encouraged him or her to take some time while receiving your vibes. During class, draw out the sending process and allow the confederate plenty of time to ham it up in trying to guess the card. Again, the more ham the better.

(There are also several variations of this trick. An easy one is to do it without a confederate. Just choose a student to count the cards. In this variation, after you have counted and replaced the cards on the deck, have the student count out the cards face down and look at the 13th card and try to send it to you using mental telepathy.)

Precognition or Mental Telepathy Trick: The Backward Card Trick
This is a really cool trick, but it requires a special set of trick cards and some practice. You can purchase this deck at any good magic shop. I begin this trick by pulling an invisible deck of cards out of my pocket and handing the invisible deck to anyone in the classroom. Then I ask that person to pass the deck to anyone in the class and to keep passing for 3 or 4 more times. (This makes it very unlikely that I could have a confederate helping me with the trick.) Once the invisible deck has been randomly passed around the room, I ask the person who ends up with the deck to fan the deck, remember that it is invisible, and pick out a card. Now I ask her to tell us all what card she pulled out of the deck. (Just for fun, I usually ask the person sitting next to her to look at the invisible card and verify that she reported the card correctly.) I now write the name of the card on the board. Let's suppose for the rest of the trick that the card is the five of hearts (I write 5 on the board).
Now it is time to pull the trick deck out of your pocket. I tell the students that before class, I turned one card backwards, and wouldn’t it be interesting if the backward card was the five of hearts? I proceed to take the deck out of the box, fan the cards, and then show them that there is only one backwards card. I ask one of the students to pull the backward card out of the deck and show it to the rest of the class. The card is the five of hearts. This, I tell them, either demonstrates precognition (I knew beforehand which card they were going to pick) or mental telepathy (the student could read my mind and knew which card was backwards).
The key to this is the trick deck. It really is a deck of 52 cards, but half of the cards are turned one way, and the other half are turned the other way. And the backs of the cards have a special tacky coating. The cards are arranged such that all the even cards are facing one way, and all the odd cards are facing the other way. In addition, the cards are paired such that the first card is facing toward you and the next card is facing the other way. Also, each pair of cards is arranged such that a diamond is always paired with a club and a heart is always paired with a spade, and the face values of the two cards always adds to 13. Therefore, the five of hearts is always paired with the eight of spades.
To make the trick work, you just have to do some mental arithmetic, then find the card that is paired with the chosen card. Because you are looking for the five of hearts, you need to locate the eight of spades. Following the instructions that comes with the deck of cards, you separate the target card, while keeping the other cards tightly together such that it appears that there is only one backward card, the five of spades. You have a student pull out the backward card, and there you have it.
The really nice thing about this is that you can use it over and over again, and it works every time. But remember that this trick, like most magic tricks, requires some practice to pull off.

MAGIC CARPETS FROM THE HIMALAYAS

2008-11-15T21:30:00.002-08:00

An exhibition of Buddhist meditation carpets from a private Swiss collection will be presented by London dealer Rossi & Rossi at the Neuhoff Gallery, Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, New York, from Monday 17 to Tuesday 25 March 2008. Voyage in the magic realm: Tantric carpets from the Himalayas will comprise 15 tantric carpets from Tibet, China and Mongolia dating from the late 18th and 19th centuries, offered for prices from $15,000 to $150,000. These extraordinary carpets were commissioned for revered Buddhist sanctuaries. Their unusual imagery of skinned humans, bound demons, skulls and severed heads derives from the cremation grounds of north India where yogis practised meditation. The exhibition coincides with New York’s Asia Week, other dealer exhibitions and the International Asian Art Fair.

Woollen carpets have provided practical comfort and aesthetic pleasure in Tibet for more than a millennium. They are used for sitting (kha gang ma), sleeping (kha gdan, nyal gdan) and to adorn the walls, ceilings, pillars (kha ‘thum), doorways (sgo yol) and, occasionally, the floors (sa gdan). Traditionally, many Tibetans are periodically itinerant (for trade, pilgrimage or grazing) and the easily portable woollen carpet was multi-functional.

The carpets featured in this exhibition, however, are chiefly associated with social activities and religious practices well beyond the mundane. Their potent imagery attests to their use in a variety of public and private Buddhist rites, particularly those associated with worship of the protector deities. They were seats of power during meditation or important ceremonies; served as platforms for special ritual implements; established the sacrificial ground for esoteric rituals of invocation and exorcism; were symbolic offerings to the protective deities; and some indeed may have been used as effigies in ritual performances.

Several wool, cotton and dye examples come from Ningxia in north-west China. One features a male effigy, naked and bound at the ankles and wrists by heavy chains, within a ritual triangle (dharmodaya), each corner supported by a severed head. This carpet is unusually large by Tibetan standards, 202 x 171 cm, and is likely to have been commissioned for a particular use. The iconography indicates that the carpet was used as a mat on which to conduct rites associated with destruction of the effigy (ling ga). Such bound human figures are also known as lu (glud), ‘substitute offering’ or ‘scapegoat’. They were presented as appeasements to wrathful deities and served as potent visual symbols of negative forces to be ritually destroyed. (fig. 1)

Another carpet represents a flayed male (g.yang gzhi) whose arms stretch overhead as if bound at the wrists. He has the fangs of a dog or a wolf and his mouth is held in a grimace. The striated inner surface of the skin is clearly indicated, as are the genitals of the ritual offering. The hands and feet of the effigy extend into the carpet’s border, partly obscuring the array of freshly severed heads. The image may be compared with several other published examples, each unique in physiognomy and body type but otherwise clearly representing the same ritual offering of a flayed male with long hair, symmetrically arranged on a red ground. They would have served either as symbolic offerings to the Buddhist protector deities, or as seats for meditation. (fig. 2) A third wool, cotton, and dye carpet, probably from China, depicts a flayed elephant. (fig. 3)

The only textile in the exhibition is a felt canopy with a silk fringe which comes from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. It would have surmounted a ritual space in which offerings were made and rituals performed to protect from harm or vanquish enemies. The symmetrical design shows the skins of two blond-haired males, their legs knotted together, eyes extended well beyond their sockets, lifeless hands grasping the tails of dragons whose long bodies wind through human skulls. At the centre is a ritual triangle (dharmodaya) resting on a sea of blood (khrag mtsho), and other accoutrements of ritual practice are also displayed in this extraordinary ritual textile. (fig. 4)

Among the Tibetan pieces is a wool, cotton and dye carpet or door cover featuring two skeletons (cittipatti) linking arms in a macabre dance. Each skeleton holds a skull cup and a ritual mace surmounted by a skull; tiger skins adorn their bony hips. Such imagery is often found at the entrance to or within secret chapels (mgon khang) dedicated to the protector deities of Tibetan monasteries. Indeed, it has been suggested that this carpet may have been used as a door cover to a gonkhang. A host, striped curtain behind the figures resembles the striped cloth sometimes used as door coverings in Tibetan establishments. The carpet’s size, 126 x 171 cm, may reflect the unusual shape of entrances to the gonkhang, which Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) noted to be ‘low and narrow’. It is possible that the carpet had other uses, including that of a mat for placing ritual implements, or as some other appropriate accoutrement in the protector deities’ highly specialised ritual environment. It may also have been used as a seat for meditation, as cittipatti were considered special protectors for practitioners of Vajrayogini meditation. This carpet was published in Rituels Tibetains: Visions secretes du Vth Dalai Lama, by Nathalie Bazin, Paris, 2002. Published in the same book is another Tibetan wool, cotton and dye carpet with a male effigy which shows a flayed man (g.yang gzhi) symmetrically arranged on a sea of blood (khrag mtsho). The powerful effigy has striking features with dark piercing eyes, scowling red lips, prominent cheekbones and wears large hoop earrings while his thick hair stands up in waves. (figs. 5 & 6)

The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue Tantric carpets from the Himalayas written by Dr Jane Casey, an art historian specialising in Tibetan art. She studied the history and philosophy of science at Harvard University, before studying Himalayan art at Harvard. She was Chairman of ‘Towards a Definition of Style: The Arts of Tibet’, an international symposium held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in association with the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1994); and co-curator of Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1998-99).

Rossi & Rossi was founded in London in 1985 by Anna Maria Rossi who has been active in the field of Asian art for over 30 years. In 1988 she was joined by her son Fabio who started travelling to Asia with his parents at an early age and moved to London in 1983 to attend the School of Oriental and African Studies. Together, Anna Maria and Fabio Rossi have established a reputation as leading dealers in traditional Indian and Himalayan art as well as contemporary Asian art, particularly Tibetan. Among their clients are such institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Tokyo National Museum.

Magic Brain

2008-11-15T21:30:00.001-08:00

Magic Brain

From a simple trick to a simply stunning feat, magic captivates us. But scientists are starting to pull the curtain back on how magicians dupe us with sleight of hand tricks.

Turns out, it's not our eyes that buy in to sleight of hand tricks, but our brain's parietal cortex, the region that helps us focus. Because magicians know how to keep it occupied our eyes can fail to notice dramatic visual changes, says Nilli Lavie, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at University College London in the United Kingdom.

"A magician will load your eye by [performing] a dramatic act, including hand waving," she says. "And as you're focusing say on the magician's left hand you'll fail to notice the magical trick that's occurring with the right hand."

Such David Copperfield-like deceptions induce what psychologists call change blindness, a phenomenon where people fail to notice dramatic changes because their attention is being held elsewhere. To test change blindness, Lavie used a classic attention test called the face test. As faces flash in succession and change onscreen, volunteers press a key to indicate when they see a change.

"We have as if a little magical trick built into this test," explains Lavie, whose research on change blindness was highlighted in Discover Magazine. "There is some flicker between the first image and the second image. That flicker serves to disrupt the location of attention. And that is akin by analogy to the magic trick, to the disruption that the magician will use."

Normally, people do well on the test, easily spotting changes by simply paying careful attention. But Lavie had a trick up her sleeve. In earlier experiments, she had subjects take the test while an MRI machine scanned their brains. The results indicated that the parietal cortex had something to do with visual processing even though it's not part of the brain region traditionally thought to help code for visual awareness. So Lavie put the parietal cortex to the test again. She asked eight volunteers to take the face test while seated under a transcranial magnetic stimulator (TMS), which targets a particular brain region with a magnetic field that temporarily disrupts electrical activity in the area it's set to disable. Then, presto!

"People are surprisingly not able to [recognize the changes] if their attention is diverted, or if the activity in the parietal cortex is disrupted by using a TMS machine," Lavie says.

So, change blindness tricks the brain into temporarily tricking the eye. But she stresses that we needn't be visually distracted to experience change blindness: "You may think that in order to notice important changes, say in situations where you're driving, all you need is to put your eyes on the road. But our research tells us that this is not enough that the brain simply doesn't work in this way. You have to have your attention and your parietal cortex on the road as well," she says. "So, in other words, it's not just your eye that has to be on it in order to perceive a change, but it's also your mind's eye."

That means change blindness is potentially as dangerous as it is enjoyable, resulting in visual mishaps in everyday life, like missing a changing traffic signal because you're talking and driving.

Lavie's advice for combating change blindness on the road * minimize distractions, unless you happen to be a magician.

This research was published in Cerebral Cortex, August 2005 and was funded by the Medical Research Council (UK), the Royal Society (UK), the Wellcome Trust and the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Here is a link to the entire article:

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392722

Magic Schedules software

2008-11-15T21:29:00.001-08:00

Magic Schedules software – Unclaimed Benefit Funds

Where a fund has been classified as an unclaimed benefit fund, the annual financial statements as set out in Annexure A of PF Circular 126, must be submitted electronically within a period of 6 months after the financial year-end of the fund.

The Magic Schedules software was modified to enable the administrator to capture the unclaimed benefits data on the prescribed format in the program provided by the FSB. The program validates that all relevant schedules are captured and scanned financial statements attached before allowing the administrator to submit the financial statements to the FSB. The program creates the text files that will be attached in an e-mail (password protected zipped file) and will automatically be send to the FSB. The file will be imported in the FSB’s server and the attachments are indexed into our workflow system under a unique case number.

Guidance on the use of the Magic Software

1. If you have not registered on the FSB Schedules system as yet, kindly send an e-mail to lorained@fsb.co.za to be registered with a password.

2. The link to download the Magic software to submit financial statements electronically to the FSB is as follows:
ftp://ftp.fsb.co.za/public/pfa/Schedule_Setup.exe.
If you are already using the Magic Schedule Software, the latest version (version 1.7) must be downloaded.

3. On the screen "Click here to update your password", the password supplied in the registration e-mail must be entered.

4. On the screen "User view", click on the button "add" and complete the 'fund number'* and 'year end' fields and click on "add" to complete the entry or on "cancel" to erase the entry.

* ‘fund number’ - Only that part of a fund number that follows the 12/8 prefix should be typed whenever a private or underwritten fund is to be specified. The last part of the find number (/1 or /2) should also be ignored.
For instance, if a fund with number 12/8/3467/2 is to be specified; only 3467 should be typed in the relevant field.

If the fund number was specified incorrectly, it can be changed:
Select the fund, click on "modify fund" and then press "ctrl" & "F12" simultaneously, and the fund number field will be enabled.

5. Kindly ensure that the fund type (private or underwritten) is correctly selected in the “general info” schedule before any other details are captured, as the fields that are not applicable to underwritten funds are disabled if the fund type equals “underwritten”.

6. Kindly ensure that the field “unclaimed benefit fund” are selected in the “general info schedule” before any other details are captured, as the fields that are not applicable to unclaimed benefit funds are disabled if the fund type equals “unclaimed benefit fund”.

7. Complete the following schedules on the Magic software:
- General Info
- Schedule A
- Schedule E
- Schedule F
- Schedule G
- Schedule H (notes H1 – H16 (where applicable))
- Schedule IB

Kindly note that the amounts reflected in the schedules must be to the nearest Rand value.

Warning: DO NOT USE “ ; \ * ” in any field as the export program uses these characters as delimiters.

8. The programme will automatically validate the data entered and you will not be able to export the financial statements until the validation is complete.

9. The button "print errors" will give the option to print the list of error descriptions.

10. The scanned version of the financial statements, Schedules A – F (refer to PF Circular 126) must be linked as a .pdf file (.tif file). Use the button "link PDF" to link the file. After the pdf file was linked, kindly indicate if the financial statements are signed or unsigned by selecting “yes” or “no” to the question “PDF is signed?”

Please note that the signed financial statements are still required to be submitted, as the Financial Services Board system will register the above submissions as “provisional”. Refer to note 16 for resubmissions.

11. Validated schedules will be indicated in green and if there is still an error it will remain red and the error description will be displayed.

12. The fund’s financial statements will not be allowed to export if all the errors were not rectified. The “recalculate button” gives you the option to recalculate the totals if any changes were made to the schedules.

13. Once the fund has passed the validation stage it can be exported to the FSB. The button "export fund" will export the fund's financial statements automatically, provided the password was entered as mentioned in step 3.

14. You will see the e-mail (exported file) sent to the FSB in your "Sent items" of your e-mail programme.

15. It will directly be imported in the FSB system and the fund number, year-end date, fund type, Unclaimed benefit fund status and previous year figures be validated. You will receive a return e-mail from the FSB, confirming that the import was successful or why the import was rejected. Kindly note that the report will indicate an unsigned submissions as “FUND IMPORTED (UNSIGNED) SUCCESSFULLY”

16. Resubmission of unsigned financial statements: The signed financials must be linked as a .pdf file(.tif file). and the field “PDF is signed?” must be changed to “yes”. The fund’s financial statements must be re-submitted to the FSB on the Magic software.

MATHEMATICAL MAGIC

2008-11-15T21:27:00.002-08:00

By Arthur T. Benjamin
Harvey Mudd College

In this paper, we present simple strategies for performing mathematical calculations that appear magical to most audiences. Specifically, we explain how to square large numbers, memorize pi to 100 places and determine the day of the week of any given date.

Squaring Large Numbers

The algebraic identity A2 = (A+d) (A-d) + d2 can be used to square two-digit numbers in your head, almost as quickly as someone can do on a calculator. With practice, you can even square three-digit numbers (and higher) by this method. Let’s illustrate.

Given a two-digit number A, let d be the distance between A and the nearest “easy” number. (I define a number to be “easy” if it only has one nonzero digit.)
For example, to square the number 23, let d =3 and compute
232 = (26)(20) + 32 = 520 + 9 = 529.

To square 48, let d = 2 and compute
482 = (50)(46) + 22 = 2300 + 4 = 2304.

Notice how much easier the above calculations are than a traditional “foil” computation like 482 = 402 + 82 + 2(40)(8).

Numbers that end in 5 are especially easy. For example,
852 = (80)(90) + 52 = 7200 + 25 = 7225.

Once you can square two-digit numbers quickly, you can attempt the mental squaring of three-digit numbers. For example, suppose you wanted to square 223. Here, we let A = 223, and d = 23, then compute
(223) 2 = (200)(246) + (23) 2 = 49,200 + 529 = 49,729,
where (23) 2 is calculated as illustrated earlier.

Note: I recommend doing all single-digit multiplication (and almost all other mental computations) from left to right.

To compute (200)(246), first multiply
2 times 200 = 400, followed by
2 times 40 = 80, then add those partial results to get
400+80 = 480, then add
2 times 6 = 12 to get 492,
Appending two zeros gives 49,200.

With practice, multiplying a single-digit number times a two-digit, three-digit, or four-digit number can also be done in a matter of seconds.

Squaring the number 848 is considerably more challenging. Letting d = 48, we see that
(848) 2 = (800)(896) + (48) 2.
We compute 8 times 896 as 6400 + 720 = 7120, followed by adding 8 times 6 = 48, to get 7168. Consequently, (800)(896) = 716,800. If you can quickly compute (48) 2 =2304 by the earlier method, then the problem reduces to 716,800 + 2304 = 719,104. Here, we perform the addition from left to right: 716,800 + 2000 = 718,800, then add 304 to get 719,104.

The problem you will initially encounter is a memory issue. By the time you finish computing (48) 2, you might have forgotten 716,800. How do you hold on to that number, and still have room in your brain to compute 48 squared? One way is to turn 716,800 into “COTTAGE FACES” using a simple mnemonic device described in the next section.

Memorizing pi or any other number

Commit to memory the following silly sentence:

“My turtle Pancho will, my love, pick up my new mover Ginger.”

Say the sentence a few times until you know it cold. Got it? Congratulations. You have just memorized the first 24 digits of pi. We are not using the slow and impractical method of associating each digit with the length of each word. Instead we take advantage of a phonetic code that has been in the English language for over 100 years. Here it is:

1 = t or d
2 = n
3 = m
4 = r
5 = l
6 = ch, sh, or j
7 = k or hard g
8 = f or v
9 = p or b
0 = s or z

There are even mnemonics for learning this list, but we will let you create your own associations. Now you can turn numbers into words by inserting vowel sounds (or the consonant sounds of h, w, or y) around or in between the consonant sounds in your word.
For example, the number 946 could become: bridge, birch, brush, perish, porridge, or preach, to name a few. Notice that spelling does not matter. Even though porridge is spelled with a double-r, the r sound only occurs once. Although a number can have many, many different words representing it, a word can only represent a single number.
Thus, our original sentence for pi translates back to:

3 1415 926 5 3 58 979 3 2 384 6264

The next 17 digits of pi can be encoded in the following sentence:

“My movie monkey plays in a favorite bucket.”

This codes the next 17 digits of pi, namely

3 38 327 950 2 8841 971

The next 19 digits of pi:

69 3 99 375 1 05820 97494

become “Ship my puppy Michael to Sullivan’s backrubber.”

The next 40 digits of pi are:

45 92 307 81 640 62 8 620 and 8 99 86 28 0 3482 5 3421 1 7067

which become “A really open music video cheers Jenny F. Jones” and “Have a baby fish knife, so Marvin will marinate the goose-chick!”

You can use this method to memorize more practical information, such as phone numbers, birth dates, and more. In the previous section, I recommended that the number 716,800 is easier to store as “COTTAGE FACES,” especially while manipulating other numbers. (Alternatively, you might simply turn 716 into “COTTAGE” and hold the 8 on your fingers. After all, what are hands for, if not for holding onto digits!)

Although I do not use mnemonics when squaring a three-digit number, I do need them for squaring four-digit numbers. For example, to square the number 3223, I compute
(3223) 2 = (3000)(3446) + (223) 2.
To compute 3 times 3446, I split the four-digit number into groups of length two:
3 times 3400 equals 10,200; 3 times 46 equals 138.
Thus (doing all calculations from left to right), 3 times 3446 equals 10,338 and
(3000)(3446) = 10,338,000.
At this point, I can actually say (for my audience to hear) “ten million”.

Note: The reason that I know that ten million will not turn into 11 million is that the largest three-digit square that I will ever have to add is (500) 2 = 250,000. (Remember, I let d be the distance to the nearest thousand.)

Since 338,000 is below 750,000, then I can say “ten million” with complete confidence, and free up two valuable digits of memory space.. To ensure that I do not forget 338,000, I convert 338 into MY MOVIE. This will stand out like a sore thumb while I compute (223) 2 = 49,729. I might convert the last three digits, 729, into CANOPY.
Finally, I add 49 (thousand) to MY MOVIE = 338 (thousand) to get 387 thousand, which I promptly say. Finally, converting CANOPY back to 729, I can say the final three digits. Thus, I have given the entire answer 10,387,729. (Amusingly, it is sometimes the case that by the time I have finished saying the entire answer, I cannot repeat the answer and often cannot even repeat the initial problem!)

Calendar Calculating

Finally, we end with an explanation of a skill that is as practical as it is entertaining: how to determine the day of the week of any date. We first describe the method before discussing its mathematical foundation.

Every day of the week is given a code number:

Sunday = 1
Monday = 2
Tuesday = 3
Wednesday = 4
Thursday = 5
Friday = 6
Saturday = 7 or 0

Next we assign a code to each month:

January = 1 *
February = 4 *
March = 4

April = 0
May = 2
June = 5

July = 0
August = 3
September = 6

October = 1
November = 4
December = 6

(* On leap years, January has month code of 0 and February has month code of 3)

This list is easy to remember in blocks of three: 144 is twelve squared; 025 is five squared; 036 is six squared; 146 is almost twelve squared!

Finally, we compute the year code:

For years in the 1900’s, the year 1900 + X (where 0 <= X <= 99) has year code
X + (X/4) MOD 7.
In other words, from the number X + X/4 (where we ignore any fractional part of X/4), subtract the largest multiple of 7. For instance, 1983 has year code
83 + (83/4) MOD 7 = 83 + 20 MOD 7 = 103 MOD 7 = 103 – 98 = 5.

Here is the formula for determining the day of the week for any date:

(Year code + Month Code + date) MOD 7 = code for day of the week

For example, March 20, 1983 has day of the week: 5 + 4 + 20 = 29 MOD 7 = 29 -28 = 1 = Sunday.

For October 16, 1962, we compute the year code as 62 + (62/4) MOD 7 = 62 + 15 MOD 7 = 77 MOD 7 = 77 – 77 = 0. Hence the day of the week for that date is 0 + 1 + 16 MOD 7 = 17 MOD 7 = 17 – 14 = 3 = Tuesday.

Note: When performing this calculation, ask for the year first, and compute the year code before asking for the month. If it takes a few seconds, that is okay. It gives the impression that you are trying to “visualize” the calendar for that year. Once you have computed the year code, the rest of the calculation goes very fast.

For years in the 2000’s, compute the year code for 2000 + X exactly as you would compute the year code for 1900 + X, but subtract 1 from your final calculation. Thus, 2083 has year code 5 – 1 = 4.

For years in the 1800’s add 2, and for years in the 2100’s (or 1700’s after the shift to the Gregorian calendar), add 4.
Thus 1883 has year code 5 + 2 MOD 7 = 7 MOD 7 = 0;
1783 and 2183 have year code 5 + 4 MOD 7 = 2.

The calendar cycles every 400 years, so all years beginning 2200 or later can be reduced (MOD 400) to one of the years between 1800 and 2199.

Mathematical explanation: The basis for this algorithm is that most years have 365 days, which happens to be one more than a multiple of 7 (7 times 52 is 364). Thus, for most years, the calendar will shift by one day. However, on leap years (after February 29), the calendar shifts by an extra day. Beginning with the arbitrary choice of January having a month code of 1, and Sunday having the day code of 1, and that January 1, 1900 was a Monday, 1900 is given a year code of 0.

In 1983, the calendar has shifted 83 + 20 = 103 times, that is, once for each year, and 20 more times for each leap year. (Incidentally, 1800, 1900, and 2100 are not leap years, but 2000 is a leap year.) And since shifting the calendar by 103 days is equivalent to shifting 103 – 98 = 5 days, this is why the 1983 has a year code of 5. The month code reflects how much shifting takes place in each month. That is, since January has a month code of 1 and has 31 days, then February should have a month code of 32 MOD 7 = 4, and so on.

Practice these techniques, and you will soon find yourself the life of the mathematical party!

Magic Cup Trick.

2008-11-15T21:27:00.001-08:00

You will need:
 3 x polystyrene cups
 some miracle grow water-absorbing crystals (sodium polyacrylate) OR
 crystals from the inside of an absorbent nappy
 water in a glass

The experiment:
 Place 2 teaspoons of the crystals into 1 cup.
 Have 50ml of water in a glass.
 Pour the water into one of the empty cups (pouring the water from a height gives good dramatic effect!)
 Muddle up the cups taking care not to knock the cups over.
 Ask a member of the audience to say which cup the water is in.
 Pour the water into the remaining empty cup and muddle them up again.
 Ask the person to pick where the water is.
 Finally pour the water into the cup with the crystals and muddle them up again.
 Ask the person to say which cup the water is in.
 Upturn each cup - leaving the crystals one until last – the crystals should have absorbed all the water and set into a jelly lump, this will stay in the cup when it is turned over.

The Science:
Sodium polyacrylate is a super-absorbent polymer. It soaks up many times its own weight of water and forms a jelly-like solid.
This technology is used in disposable nappies, so that when a baby wees the urine is absorbed by the polymer and turned into a solid, this way the babys bottom stays dry and doesn’t get sore!
Sodium polyacrylate is also used in plant-watering crystals that are added to compost. They absorb lots of water and store it until the compost dries out, then they release the water back into the compost again to keep the plant well-watered.

MAGIC SAND

2008-11-15T21:25:00.002-08:00

Mini-Lesson for First Visit

GOAL: To have a short, hands-on activity that the VSVS team can use during their first visit to
meet the class. To learn about "water-loving” (hydrophilic) and "water-hating” (hydrophobic) substances by using sand and coated sand (Magic Sand).

COMPLETE TEACHER CHECKLIST ON PAGE TWO OF THE MANUAL. This includes giving the teacher a copy of the manual, the schedule of visits, and the exchange of phone numbers.

Pre-lesson Preparation:
Put 1 spoonful of the Magic Sand into 16 1oz cups, and 1 spoonful of regular sand into another
16 1oz cups.
Pour water into 16 clear cups to the marked level.
Write the vocabulary words on the board: hydrophobic and hydrophylic

I. Introduction
Since this is your first visit to the class, take a few minutes to introduce yourselves. Mention you will be coming three more times to teach them a science lesson. Then tell students today's activity involves comparing the properties of a coated sand (magic sand) with regular sand.

II. Background
The chemical name of sand is silica and grains of sand are made up of silicon and oxygen atoms bonded together in a three-dimensional network of billions of atoms. The chemical formula, SiO2, illustrates the ratio of oxygen to silicon atoms is 2 to 1. The surface of sand grains is wetted by water, which means that water molecules are attracted to sand grains. This water-loving property of sand is called a hydrophilic (water-loving) property. Magic Sand is regular sand that has been coated with an oil-like substance that is water-hating or hydrophobic.

III. Activities with Magic Sand
Materials
1 oil and water bottle for demonstration
1 4-oz. container of Magic Sand
1 4-oz. container of regular sand
32 1oz plastic cups
16 9-oz plastic cups - marked on the side at about the 50 mL level
4 plastic mini spoons
16 1-oz dropper bottles of water
2 1-oz dropper bottles of liquid laundry detergent
16 popsicle sticks
2 16-oz water bottles (filled with water)
1 10oz jar with water
1 large waste container.
16 aluminum pie pans
1 roll of paper towels
1 trash bag

Students should work in pairs for the following activities.

DEMONSTRATION: (to show students that oil and water don’t mix).
Tell students that the bottle contains mineral oil and water.
Shake the soda bottle and allow the mixture to settle out again into the 2 layers.
Explain to the students that oil is hydrophobic (water-hating). Hydrophobic substances do
not mix with water.

Ask: What are other examples of oil and water not mixing?
A newly waxed car will make water form beads on its surface.
Oil from cars will float on top of puddles.
Oil and vinegar salad dressings need to be shaken up before using.

Distribute the materials to every pair.

Materials per pair:
1 1-oz. cup containing one spoon of Magic Sand
1 1-oz. cup containing one spoon of regular sand
1 9-oz plastic cup filled with water to the mark
1 popsicle stick
1 aluminum pan

1). Have students look at the Magic Sand and regular sand in the 1oz cups and make observations.

Ask: Are there any differences in the shape of Magic Sand and regular sand?
(No. Both dry regular sand and Magic Sand are free-flowing and neither can form
structures that hold their shape. They take the shape of the container.)

2). Tell the students to use the 1-oz dropping bottle of water to carefully add two drops
onto the Magic Sand.
Ask: What happens when water is added?
The water drops sit on the Magic Sand’s surface, and are separate. Like the oil, the surface of Magic Sand is hydrophobic (water-hating).

Repeat the experiment with the regular sand and make observations. The surface of regular
sand is hydrophilic (water-loving). The water drops are attracted to the sand and soak into
it.

3). Hand out the cups with water.

Tell the students to:
a) Sprinkle the Magic Sand from their 1 oz cups onto the surface of the water.

Ask: Why does the Magic Sand float on the surface?
Magic Sand is regular sand that has been coated with an oil-like substance so it is
water-hating. The Magic Sand grains like to stay in contact with each other. Also,
the surface tension of the water makes the Magic Sand float.

b) Add 2 drops of water on the surface. Keep adding water so that a large drop forms.
Look under the Magic Sand surface. What do you see and why?
Tell the students to have one partner keep adding drops of water while the other one
counts the number of drops, until the water falls through the sand layer. (The drop
eventually gets heavy enough to break through the layer.)

Ask the class how many drops it took.

Some of the Magic Sand will fall through with the water.

Ask: What shape does the Magic Sand form under the water? What does the surface of the Magic Sand look like underwater?

The Magic Sand has a silvery sheen and doesn’t become wet. It can be molded into a
structure that holds its shape under water.

c) Use the popsicle stick to mix the Magic Sand and water. What happens?
4. DEMONSTRATION: What will destroy Magic Sand’s hydrophobic properties?
Materials – 1 10oz jar with water.

Sprinkle 2-3 mini spoons of magic sand into the jar containing water.
Show the class that the Magic Sand is either floating or is clumped together at the bottom of the jar. Tell them that you are going to make the Magic Sand behave like regular sand.
Add 2-4 squirts of the liquid detergent, put the lid back on the jar, and shake gently.
Show the jar to the students and have them observe that the sand is now spread out over the bottom of the jar.

Ask: How does the addition of liquid dishwashing detergent affect the water’s interaction with Magic Sand?
The liquid detergent lowers the surface tension of water and wets the Magic Sand,
causing it to be like regular sand.

III. Practical Applications

A. Magic Sand was originally developed as a way to trap oil spilled from oil tankers near the shore. The idea was that when Magic Sand was sprinkled on floating petroleum, it would mix with the oil and make it heavy enough to sink. This would prevent the oil from contaminating beaches. However, it is not being used for this purpose, perhaps because of the expense of making Magic Sand.

B. Another potential use of Magic Sand is to bury junction boxes for electric and telephone wires in the Arctic in order to protect the utilities from the extreme cold temperatures but make it easy to dig up for repairs. Normal earth is frozen so hard because of moisture content that it is difficult to dig. However, Magic Sand remains dry and is easy to dig, regardless of how cold it is.

IV. Clean-up
Put screw lid on jar and return to lab.
Pour water and magic sand into bottle labeled “used sand” and return to lab. DO NOT MIX WITH MAGIC SAND IN 10OZ JAR. THE DETERGENT IN THE JAR WILL DESTROY THE MAGIC SAND.

Magic in the air:

2008-11-15T21:25:00.001-08:00

Magic in the air: Spiritual and transcendental aspects of mobiles
Between spiritual and material worlds
This chapter examines several broad theoretical stances towards technology and social change with an eye towards assessing how accurately they can account for recent developments in mobile communication. In particular, it examines theoretical claims about religious and spiritual uses of technology in light of contemporary mobile communication practices.
As backdrop, it is worth noting that a permanent fixture of human imagination is the belief that there is a spiritual world co-existing within, alongside, or just beyond the quotidian world of sensate reality. Many people -- indeed entire civilizations -- have shown profound commitment to the priority of this invisible world. These people also believe that the spiritual world controls the material one. Among the many actions undertaken to assuage or influence this invisible world are charity and the construction of magnificent edifices. But they have also included large-scale human sacrifices and gruesome genocides.
The idea that supernatural forces direct everyday life seems not only an appealing concept but also one that is nearly universal. Paintings in the caves of Lascaux testify to the notion’s antiquity, and its appeal today appears no less strong as it animates institution-building and daily routines worldwide. Talismanic and magical thinking occurs even when suppressed by other belief systems. Peter Berger has sketched the huge psychological cross-investment in religion due to its importance in organizing human experience, power relationships and institutions:
Religion legitimates social institutions by bestowing upon them an ultimately valid ontological status, that is, by locating them within a sacred and cosmic frame of reference. . . Institutional order is the reflected or manifested form of the divine cosmos. . . The inherently precarious and transitory constructions of human activity are thus given the semblance of ultimate security and permanence.
In contrast to the near-universal dominance of supernatural beliefs, scientific research and technological development (S&T) as social practice arises only in certain cultures and eras. One of the fruits of S&T of course has been mobile communication. Mobile communication technology has been made possible only through substantial commitments to research and development. This fact remains true, no matter what the inspiration was for the creative act.
There are many different potential relationships between S&T and spiritualism relative to mobile communication technology. Spiritualism as the term is used here encompasses religion, superstitions, magic, mysticism and parapsychology. On the other hand, spirituality can be considered a contemplative posture towards or outlook on life, nature or science itself; as such for present purposes it falls outside the meaning of spiritualism. As is often the case, an analysis such as is undertaken here necessitates committing the sins of both over-simplification and omission.
Perspectives on S&T and spiritualism
S&T supersedes spiritualism
One perspective is that S&T, which are natural extensions of rationalism, displaces spiritualism, religion, and mysticism. David Hume and August Comte were among the thinkers who anticipated that as S&T progressed, religion would recede. Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham celebrated technology’s role as a moral inspiration. Karl Marx famously called religion the opiate of the masses. Certainly S&T (particularly archaeology, astronomy and physics) have challenged the status of holy books, including the Bible.
While agreeing S&T is supplanting spiritualism, a more commonly heard criticism is that rationality and S&T are harming the spiritual side of humanity, a matter of great concern. For instance, the Lebensphilosophie (life-philosophy) school of thought, prominent in the 19th Century, deals harshly with technology. F. Nietzsche, W. Dilthey, and H. Bergson, among others, were hostile towards technology and its effects. To them, technology imposed an extreme form of rationality on human existence, limiting or extinguishing its emotional and spiritual sides.

No “magic bullets” to combat disease

2008-11-15T21:24:00.002-08:00

The UK's first Professor of Integrated Healthcare has called for all healthcare providers to think beyond biomedicine and embrace a more holistic, integrated approach.

With the National Health Service facing soaring drug costs and growing public disquiet over the medical use of new biotechnologies, Professor David Peters of the University of Westminster who chairs the British Holistic Medical Association, is suggesting that the time is right to draw a new map of the healthcare territory.

Professor Peters a GP, osteopath, homeopath and Clinical Director at Westminster's School of Integrated Health - will deliver his inaugural professorial lecture Integrated healthcare: a roadmap for holistic 21st century medicine? at the University on Wednesday, September 29.

Professor Peters contends that recent scientific insights into body-mind interaction will encourage practitioners to integrate biomedical and holistic approaches - including complementary therapies - into mainstream healthcare.

He said: "Public sector healthcare, anguishing about spiralling costs and the demographic explosion, knows it cannot carry on in the same old way, waging biochemical war on disease. So much is now known about humans’ capacity to make themselves well that the NHS really must tap into this self-healing potential _

"It is increasingly clear that there will be no 'magic bullets' for many chronic and environmentally-mediated diseases, no quick fixes for our epidemic diseases of lifestyle, mood and desire. Instead, we must find cost-effective ways of re-integrating the mind and body, understanding the links between predicament and health problem, and making the most of the relationship between patient and treatment provider.

"As 21st century healthcare wakes up to the reality that healthcare has to be more than applied biotechnology, integration will be the inevitable next step."

The Scientific Aeon:

2008-11-15T21:24:00.001-08:00

Magic, Science and Psychology in Crowley’s Scientific Illuminism

By Egil Asprem,
University of Amsterdam

Introduction: Secularisation of esotericism/psychologisation of magic
It is commonly contended that “occultist magic” and the broader Victorian occult revival of the nineteenth century represented a distinctly post-Enlightenment reception of esoteric thought. In this view, the revival of magic and occult teachings in the wake of the Enlightenment facilitated significant transformations of those teachings. In short, occultists have sought to negotiate esoteric belief systems with the common tenets of a “disenchanted” modernity. Esoteric and magical beliefs had to be negotiated with those of the new science and psychology.
However, it is not all that easy to distinguish one single trend in the way this negotiation has taken place. According to Wouter Hanegraaff it has brought about a “disenchanted magic”, characterised primarily by “psychologisation”. Others, such as Christopher Partridge, argue that modern magicians live in a world as enchanted as ever, seeing re-enchantment rather than the emergence of a radically different form of secular magic. The confusion in this debate seems to a significant extent to depend on where the commentators place their emphasis. Clearly, there exist a long-standing will within occultism to synthesise esoteric and scientific concepts; we find karma and evolution, the ether and the anima mundi, magnetism, frequencies and the astral light, and hosts of similar correlations and interpretations.
But there are also significant differences between modern esotericists. Blavatsky was fond of terminology from physics and the life sciences, Israel Regardie, being trained in psychiatry, would embrace psychological terms, while an anti-modernist magician such as Julius Evola would largely avoid either. In short, there seems to be not one trend, but many, and the relation between secular modernity and magic remains ambiguous.
In this respect, Aleister Crowley stands out as a particularly interesting case. Through his vast literary production, of books, essays, and letters, he made several interesting comments on science and psychology, their relation to occultism, religion, and society at large. In this paper I will explore some of Crowley’s main ideas where magic, science and psychology interconnect. Special emphasis will be given here to some important possible influences on Crowley’s ideas and conceptions of science, with brief comments on how he sought to integrate them in his approach to magic.

Trinity College, Cambridge: A rendezvous
I will start by recalling that Crowley spent his college years at Trinity College, Cambridge. Furthermore, one should recall the kind of milieu he was likely to meet there. Crowley attended Trinity from 1895-1898. Thirteen years earlier, in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) had been established there, and the Society still had their headquarters at Trinity. In addition, its central founding figure, Henry Sidgewick, still was a fellow at the college when Crowley attended. Crowley would quite clearly have been exposed to the SPR’s “psychical research”, and their attempted aim to bridge the perceived gap of scientific naturalism and religion by a scientifically rigorous study of occult and paranormal phenomena. Arguably, this had an impact on Crowley, as we will explore in greater detail in a minute.
First I want to mention another towering figure at Trinity: the anthropologist James George Frazer. Frazer’s hugely influential Golden Bough had been published only five years before Crowley attended Trinity, and the man himself was a fellow at the college. His book would have a lasting influence on Crowley, and although we have no evidence for it, it is tempting to imagine him attending lectures with Frazer.
Already here we have established a connection with two of the perhaps most significant influences on Crowley’s thought regarding the relationship between science and magic. Psychical research provided the idea of an approach based on testing and experiment of occult phenomena which we will later find very central to Crowley’s own take on magic. In Frazer we find especially the famous evolutionist framework of magic-religion-science, which Crowley later would adopt and adapt to fit his own agendas. What is interesting to note is that Crowley to a great extent accepted the intellectualist stance of Frazer’s views on magic: i.e., that magic is in some way analogous to modern science. But in Crowley’s scheme, the cultural evolutionism would be somehow modified. In his thought, science did not necessarily supersede magic; rather it called for a reformation of magic. Thus when he many years later wrote his “Magick in Theory and Practice”, Crowley could present himself as someone who had come to destroy “that unscientific … MAGICK (of tradition)”, and rather replace it with the modernised approach of “Scientific Illuminism”.

The Brothers of the AA
Before he got there, Crowley was of course properly introduced and trained in occultist ritual magic through the Golden Dawn, and such figures as George Cecil Jones, Allan Bennett, and MacGregor Mathers. I will not spend much time on this period and influence here, but rather focus on Crowley’s development after the schism of the G.D.. After the events in Cairo in 1904, with the reception of The Book of the Law, Crowley felt that not only had the “Old Aeon” come to an end, but also Mathers had been dethroned from the G.D. by the Secret Chiefs, and Crowley had been given the task to build and head a new and proper organisation. This led to the foundation of the AAbetween 1906 and 1909. Although based on the systems of the G.D., the AA proposed to teach and practice magic after the core principles of the new Aeon, which for Crowley entailed the adoption of a more scientific approach. When the order was officially launched in the Editorial of The Equinox in 1909, its new magical paradigm was proclaimed as “Scientific Illuminism”. The famous motto was “The Method of Science – the Aim of Religion”. At the same time, the Editorial promised to wage war on the prevailing “obscurantism” and “charlatanism” in the occult world.

Halloween

2008-11-15T21:21:00.002-08:00

Halloween, celebrated on the night of October 31st, traditionally includes activities such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, viewing horror films, visiting "haunted houses", and participating in traditional autumn activities such as hayrides.

History

Halloween originated as a Pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand.

The term Halloween (and its older rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening of/before "All Hallows' Day", also known as "All Saints' Day". In Ireland, the name of the holiday was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, the name is still well-accepted.

Halloween became a holiday in America in the 19th century, following the transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish after the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849). Scottish-American and Irish-American societies held dinners and balls that celebrated their heritages, with perhaps a recitation of Robert Burns' poem "Halloween" or a telling of Irish legends. Home parties would center around children's activities, such as bobbing for apples, and divination games often concerning future romance. Not surprisingly, pranks and mischief were common as well.

Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent

Celebrating Halloween

The main event for children of modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating, in which children disguise themselves in costumes and go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" to solicit the usual gift of candies. Upon receiving trick-or-treaters, the house occupants (who might also be in costume) often hand out small candies, miniature chocolate bars, loose change, or soda pop. Children can often accumulate many treats on Halloween night, filling up entire pillow cases, shopping bags or large plastic containers.

In many towns and cities, trick-or-treaters are welcomed by lit porch lights and jack-o'-lanterns. In some large and/or crime-ridden areas, however, trick-or-treating is discouraged, or refocused to staged trick-or-treating events within nearby shopping malls, in order to prevent potential acts of violence against trick-or-treaters. Even where crime is not an issue, many American towns have designated specific hours for trick-or-treating, e.g., 5-7 pm or 5-8 pm, to discourage late-night trick-or-treating.

Those living in the country may hold Halloween parties, often with bonfires, with the celebrants passing between them. The parties usually involve traditional games (like snipe hunting or bobbing for apples), haunted hayrides (often accompanied by scary stories, and costumed people hiding in the dark to jump out and scare the riders), and treats (usually a bag of candy and/or homemade treats). Scary movies may also be viewed.

For adults, Halloween themed nightlife thrives. Halloween costume parties provide an opportunity for young adults to gather and local bars are frequented by people wearing Halloween masks and costumes. Many bars and restaurants hold Costume Contests to attract customers to their establishments.

Jack-o'-lanterns

Jack-o'-lanterns are often carved into silly or scary faces.The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. The jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. For centuries, the bedtime parable was told by Irish parents to their children.

Fun Facts:

• Halloween has become the United States' sixth most profitable holiday (after Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, Easter, and Father's Day)

• Halloween is now America's second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating.

• The most popular Halloween costume for adults are, in order: witch, pirate, vampire, cat and clown.

• Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. In modern Halloween images and products, purple, green and red are also prominent.

• Anoka, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World", celebrates the holiday with a large civic parade and several other city-wide events.

• Salem, Massachusetts, also has laid claim to the "Halloween Capital" title, and sees a great deal of tourism surrounding the Salem witch trials, especially around Halloween. In the 1990s, the city added an official "Haunted Happenings" celebration to the October tourist season.

• Boston, Massachusetts holds the record for having the greatest number (30,128) of lit jack-o'-lanterns at once, as of October 2006.

• The Rutland, Vermont annual Halloween parade has been featured in a number of superhero comic books, including Batman #237, Justice League of America #103, Amazing Adventures #16 and The Mighty Thor #207.

• The Village Halloween Parade in New York City is the United States' largest Halloween celebration. Started in 1973, the parade attracts over two million spectators and participants, as well as roughly four million television viewers annually.

Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion

2008-11-15T21:21:00.001-08:00

Anthropology 125
S334

Instructor: Jill Pfeiffer
Voicemail: Ext. 3214
Email: jpfeiffer@riohondo.edu
Office Hours: S206M To Be Announced

Required Text:

Stein and Stein, Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft
Allyn and Bacon Publishers: ISBN 0205344216

Course Description:

This course will provide a holistic and comparative approach to the study of religious beliefs and practices in societies around the world. Through historical and contemporary anthropological studies students will explore the similarities and differences of religious expression on topics such as, myth and ritual, shamanism, ancestor worship, magic, witchcraft, belief in demons, ghosts and spirits. This course is web-enhanced. Students have access to resources through the virtual college WebCT system set up for our class. Login is located on the Rio Hondo main page…click online classes. Your login id is the first two letters of your first and last name in caps plus the last 4 digits of your student id. Your password is STUDENT.

Grading and Assignments:

Grades will consist of 4 exams each worth 100 points, 1 fieldwork paper worth 100 points, and in class assignments worth 100 points. The class point total is 600. 30 points extra credit is available. Late assignments will lose points.
Grading Scale: 600-540 points=A 539-479=B 478-418=C 417-357=D 356-below=F

Attendance Policy:

Attendance is crucial for a good grade in this course due to the fact that I lecture outside of the book and we watch many films that will show up on the exams. Three absences will be allowed and I will take roll every class period. If you miss beyond 3 classes I have the option to drop students from the course. Similarly, if a student has excessive tardies or leaves half way through classes, I may drop them. Please contact me if you have an emergency, illness, or anything else if you will be missing class beyond the absences allowed. Otherwise, please be aware of the drop deadline for the course and make sure you drop yourself if you choose not to remain enrolled. If you do not drop yourself it will result in an F grade on your report card.

Make-up Exams:

Make-up exams will not be permitted unless it has been arranged with me prior to the exam. If you miss an exam without arranging this with me ahead of time you will be required to show documented proof of an emergency or discuss the issue with me. I do not allow missed exams because of absences that do not have a legitimate reason.

Cheating:

Cheating on exams will result in a zero grade. Research or ethnographies that have been plagiarized, copied word for word from the source, or downloaded directly from the internet will receive a zero grade. I will provide a guide to writing in your own words or citing material properly.

Class Format and Strategies for Success:

Welcome to Anthropology! This course will introduce you to many religious traditions around the world.

The majority of the information on tests will come directly from lecture. I will lecture quite a bit outside the book which is why your attendance is crucial. We will also see many films that will be included on exams as well as any handouts that I give. Taking notes, listening attentively, asking questions, and making comments relative to the topic are important to understanding the material and creating an atmosphere for open discussion. I will also provide study guides before each exam and discuss exam formats.

I do not appreciate talking outside of our regular discussion or during lecture. Be on time to class and make sure all pagers, phones, or other electronic devices are turned off. Use the restroom or take care of any personal business before class…….do not walk out once we begin.

All reading assignments should be read or the chapter perused before class! I will expect class participation and this will help me to get to know and remember you at grading time. I do give extra points to those who participate in our discussions.

Please advise me if any student has a learning disability or other impairment that may limit their success. I am more than willing to accommodate or help in any way. If accommodations are necessary for exams…taken in a special testing center…please arrange this with me prior to the exam.

EARNINGS MAGIC

2008-11-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this webpage is to update earnings magic and related financial information available and provide additional details on specific companies, especially the Dow 30. The book is briefly described, then updates as they become available, followed by links to the detailed excel spreadsheets and other sites. If you have information to be added (or corrections to be made), please email me at the address given at the end of the webpage.

The book defines earnings magic—why the financial statements may not provide financial reality, with emphasis on all the income hanky panky that includes earnings manipulation and many other techniques to jack up those earnings numbers. And why the balance sheet is unbalanced—yah, debits equal credits, but many definitions of assets are used, not to mention liabilities and equity (plus lots of items that never get recorded on the balance sheet). Ultimately, it’s not obvious what the balance sheet tells investors and other users, except what the managers want to convey (within the limits of GAAP). That’s the point: companies may present a close approximation of financial reality—or not.

The purpose of the book is to come as close to financial reality as possible and, in the process, rate companies on a financial reality (transparency) scale from A to F. Along the way, I introduce the Big 8—financial items especially pertinent to transparency (stock options, revenues, pensions and other post-employment benefits, expenses and bottom line measures, treasury stock, special and nonrecurring items, operating leases and special purpose entities, and acquisitions) and the rest of the Dirty Thirty—all those other nasty financial items companies can use to hide financial reality plus other earnings magic signals. These include complex accounting issues, detailed financial analysis, corporate governance, and auditing issues.

I end up rating the 30 companies making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow 30) for fiscal year 2004, from A-F. No “A”s were given, but a couple of “F”s for General Motors and AIG.

The most astounding thing to me is the continued deception, despite the outrage of the scandals and new regulations with teeth. Earnings magic did not go away, nor is it obvious that it slowed down much. Perhaps, with increased monitoring, more of the nasty stuff is being uncovered and the overall level of outright manipulation is really going down.

DISNEY DREW HIS MAGIC FROM MISSOURI TOWN

2008-11-15T21:19:00.001-08:00

By Larry Bleiberg

As seen in
Omaha World-Herald
Omaha, NE

Marceline, MO – I’ve never been to this tiny town, but the moment I set foot on Kansas Avenue, I’m hit with a dizzying sense of familiarity.

The street is lined with two-story brick buildings, some fronted with candy-striped awnings. American flags wave from cast iron street lamps. You’ll find a move theater and a corner café serving fried chicken.

The only thing missing is the costumed mouse.

It’s said that Marceline, Mo., childhood home of Walt Disney, helped inspire Main Street U.S.A., the nostalgic avenue leading theme-park guests into Disneyland and its counterparts in Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.

The resemblance is faint – Marceline’s stores don’t have the elaborate gingerbread finishing you’ll find in the parks, and there’s rarely a crowd – but still, it’s there. And there’s no denying Walt Disney’s connection to Marceline – and Marceline’s love for Walt Disney.

“To tell the truth, more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since,” Disney wrote. “I’m glad I’m a small-town boy, and I’m glad Marceline was my town.”

Disney died in 1966. Just three years ago, the town launched an annual fall festival honoring Disney and cartooning.

At Susie’s Place café, black-and-white pictures of the Disney family hang on the wall. And the homemade fried chicken and crinkly fries look like they could have come from a nostalgia-themed Disneyland restaurant.

Disney lived in Marceline from ages 5 to 10. His father wanted to take the family away from what he considered the dangerous influences of Chicago.

“We are the place Walt found the magic,” said Kaye Malins; who lives in the Disneys’ former home.

Although the family was poor and lived in what was then a crowded farmhouse, the young Walt thought he was in heaven. It was here he saw his first movie and put on his first show.

The boy also studied the antics of farm animals that later became the inspiration for an animation empire.

Victors come to Marceline to pay tribute.

“They’re arriving on Disney hallowed land,” said Richard Switzer, a financial services adviser whose wife has taught at Walt Disney Elementary School for 23 years. “It really is a pilgrimage for some.”

The school’s lobby has a plexi-glass case holding Walt’s school desk, complete with the WD initials he carved on the top.

The gymnasium-lunchroom is decorated with Disney characters painted by the late Bob Moore, one of the company’s leading animators. He later designed the Walt Disney postage stamp, which was released at Marceline’s post office in 1968.

The Disney story is well told in the town’s museum, the former Santa Fe railroad depot. The museum displays Disney artifacts and papers. Disney’s familiar flourishing signature, still the company logo, jumps out from family correspondence.

Disney also gave playground equipment to the town and dedicated a swimming pool at the recreational complex.

At the old Disney home, the young Walt used to sit under a cottonwood and muse. He said he practiced “belly botany” there, examining bugs and plants.

The Dreaming Tree, as it became known, has been struck by lightning and looks to be in its final years. Recently a group called American Forests collected seeds and is selling saplings in its Historic Tree catalog.

A barn on the property is a replica of the original barn that stood there. Disney loved it so much that he had a copy built in California to use as his office. He called it the “Happy Place.” In 2001, to honor Disney’s 100th birthday, Marceline erected its own replica.

Inside, hundreds of fans have scribbled tributes in pen on walls and beams.

“Walt, thanks for the magic & fun,” reads one signed by Chris Linn in 2002.

Debating Points and Magic Tricks

2008-11-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

By MARK C. ALEXANDER

THE SCORE IS TIED 1-1. Another big contest looms. Baseball playoffs?
No. Presidential debates. George W. Bush and Al Gore are not Derek Jeter
and Mike Piazza, but they still are on television with their own fall classic. It's
not quite a game, but televised debate is a sort of magic show, and the grand
finale is still in store.

The conventional wisdom is that Gore won the first and Bush won the second
debate. High stakes and a new format suggest that the third and final debate
will be the most important of them all.

The first one was a traditional debate with two candidates, each at a podium,
with a rigid question-answer-rebuttal format, revealing Al Gore's greater
command of policy. The second debate was a more conversational affair,
favoring George W. Bush's more relaxed demeanor. The third debate will be
a town hall format, making for better television drama and offering new
insights into the candidates.

Because the series is tied, people are likely to tune in. And because polls
show a statistical dead heat, this last debate could be the most important.

But will the candidates keep the viewing public's attention? Next week, the
candidates have to do something, or they will lose the audience. They need to
grab the voters, convert them, and hope to hold them through Election Day.

As issues director on the Bill Bradley campaign, I was intimately involved in
the debate prep, and the scene behind the scenes. Debates are full of tactics,
tricks, and misdirection, but they are not what people expect -- a pure
opportunity to learn about substantive positions on the issues. Look back at
the first two debates and see the debaters' magic: issues changing shape,
hidden messages, people-as-props, and more.

The candidates have made issues change shape. How? In both debates Gore
said that Bush's tax plan primarily helps the richest 1 percent of the country, or
the "wealthiest of the wealthy," and Bush argued that Gore's tax plan leaves
out 50 million Americans. The candidates would rather redefine their
opponents' proposals than detail their own.

If Gore succeeds, then 99 percent of the people will be asking: Why doesn't
Bush want to help me? For Bush's part, he's now got everyone thinking: Am I
part of that 50 million who get shut out?

Similarly, on health care, the candidates sparred over why Texas is at the
bottom of the states in providing for women, children, and families' health
care, or whether the federal government is to blame for health care problems.
This debating trick is always used, and the illusion is very effective.

Like hidden-ball tricks, there are hidden messages in the debates: the
candidates say one thing, but really make another point. In the first debate,
Gore talked about the dangers of big oil, and Bush accused Gore of fuzzy
math -- each was making poiints about the personal background of the other.
In the second debate, moderator Jim Lehrer put that issue squarely on the
table, and the two men amiably smiled. Don't expect the same "love-fest"at the
last debate. Keep your eye out for politicians' magic: one thing appears when
another is actually happening.

Like magicians, candidates use props: people-as-props. Both Bush and Gore
have used this tactic -- which many credit to Ronald Reagan -- to a limited
extent so far. In talking about education in the first debate, Bush waxed on
about the KIP Academy in Houston and Michael Feinberg, who has been
working hard to educate students. Gore responded with his vision of America:
Kaylie Ellis of Sarasota, Fla., "will have a desk and can sit down in a
classroom where she can learn."

In the second debate, even though he was on the defensive about the
accuracy of the original remark, Gore still used the person-as-prop to make a
point about his commitment to education. The person effectively puts a human
face on (sometimes dull) policy discussions. Because of the format at the first
two debates, the candidates could not engage this trick for full effect. But the
town hall forum for the last debate should give both candidates an opportunity
for reaching higher drama -- like pulling a rabbit out of the hat.

The first two televised presidential debates had their share of tricks and
tactics, and more can be expected. It was not all smoke and mirrors --
actually, there has been far more substance than in most debates.

But all candidates debate much like a magician performs. The question is not
whether they do it, but how well do they do it.

Does this mean that we have a problem? Not necessarily. We have a problem
only if people think that they are getting purely substantive televised debates
on the issues when they are not.

We can learn a great deal about the candidates from the debates. We just
need to know what we are getting. So look and listen carefully at the next
week's final performance.

Blackstone, A Biographical Sketch

2008-11-15T21:17:00.002-08:00

By Daniel Waldron
Blackstone the Magician was born Henry Boughton on September 27, 1885, in Chicago, Illinois, a son of Barbara and Alfred Boughton. He was known as "Harry" all his life.
His love of performing showed itself early when, as a child, he emulated traveling entertainers with backyard performances of his own. At age thirteen he saw a presentation by Kellar, the leading magician of the day, and his life's ambition was set.
Shortly before young Harry's fifteenth birthday his father died, leaving a family which now included seven boys. Harry found employment at a woodworking shop; where one of the orders he handled called for construction of some conjuring apparatus, he made a replica for himself, and thereafter practiced and performed in off-hours while still working at other jobs.
By 1905 he and his younger brother, Pete, were doing magic shows in and around Chicago. By 1910 they'd dropped the "gh" from their name and taken to the road with a vaudeville act known as "Harry Bouton and Company in 'Straight and Crooked Magic'." Harry did a trick straight; Pete followed with a comical burlesque. Through decades of trouping Pete was rarely absent from Harry's side as fellow performer, backstage wonder-worker, master mechanic, trusted confidant, and bulwark of inestimable strength.
Harry's consuming dream was to have a big illusion show and from 1913 onward he began to make it a reality. He took on a new name--Fredrik the Great--selecting it simply because it happened to be one printed on a quantity of magician's unused advertising lithos which the hard-pressed young performer could buy for next to nothing. Once the United States entered World War 1, however, anti-German sentiment caused him to search for a less sensitive name and on January 7, 1918, at the Grand Theater in Tiffin, Ohio, he made his first appearance as "Blackstone, World's Master Magician."
During the next decade he became one of the best-known magicians in America. The speed and flash of his performing style were just what The Roaring Twenties ordered and important bookings flowed in.
His show had crisscrossed Michigan many times since the start of his career and in 1926 it was in Michigan, at the pleasant, secluded village of Colon, in St. Joseph County, where he purchased some 208 acres of woods, fields, and beachfront property on Sturgeon Lake. It would be his headquarters, workshop, and, as it turned out, the most "permanent" home of his peripatetic life. Here he and his company of performers could relax each summer, and from here every season for the next 24 years the Blackstone Magic Show set forth on its annual journey to entertain, baffle and delight U.S. and Canadian audiences from coast to coast.
In 1927 Harry invited to Colon a visitor who was to have a further impact upon the place of Michigan in the world of magic. Percy Abbott, an Australian wizard, came to fish, stayed to help form The Blackstone Magic Company, and when that dissolved, carried on by himself. Today Abbott's Magic Manufacturing Company of Colon, Michigan, is the largest such enterprise--anywhere. Abbott died some years ago but the firm continues to supply tricks of the trade to conjurors throughout the word and yearly hosts the nation's biggest convention of prestidigitators.
Harry met the Great Depression of the 1930s head-on, with a cut-down one hour version of the big two-and-a-half-hour full evening show, playing three and four a day between films at movie theaters. The same June of 1934 in which he was named "King of Magicians" at a conclave in Detroit saw the birth, in Three Rivers, Michigan, of son and heir, Harry Blackstone, Jr.
When World War 11 came along, the Blackstone Show was the first to entertain servicemen throughout the land for the newly-organized USO Camp Shows. The long tour was a grueling one but after the war the Blackstone Show was more popular than ever. The glory years of the late 1940s saw the show at its height of success; but the bonanza was not to last. Television killed live show business, and in 1950 Blackstone's big show, the "Show of 1001 Wonders," the show which required a jam-packed double-length railroad baggage car to transport it around the country, made its last trip back to Michigan.
With characteristic optimism Harry mounted a smaller, lighter show with fewer people and toured again. But in April of 1955, plagued by poor health and dwindling box office receipts, he left the road for good.
He had performed continuously for half a century and magic was his life. Happily, his last years were spent serenely at The Magic Castle, a private club for magicians in Hollywood, California. Here, just a few blocks from his residence, he could come each evening to visit, greet throngs of friends and admirers, do tricks for hours on end, and enjoy the adulation due the Last of the Big Time Magicians.
He died in Hollywood on November 16,1965, at the age of eighty. A few days later his ashes were interred at Lakeside Cemetery, just across the water from his old home at Colon, Michigan.
When Harry Blackstone stepped onto the stage you knew you were in the presence of "A Magician." Striding in, shoulders thrown back, arms thrust slightly outward from his sides, elbows bent, his sturdy hands poised as though ready to grapple with unseen forces, he seized the imagination instantly. And when he stood center stage, erect as a pillar, his great white head of hair glowing in the spotlight, a sudden smile of pleasure passing over his face as the gloves which he briskly tossed into the air turned into a fluttering dove before your very eyes--at that moment there was no doubt in your mind that you would relax and be assured of enchantment. Nor was there any fear, as the sonorous, good-humored voice rose without electronic amplification to the last row of the uppermost balcony, that you would have to strain to help lift the dusty cares of life away. You could give yourself over to the astonishment, laughter, awe and delight which lay ahead as horses vanished, princesses floated, handkerchiefs danced, gorgeous girls were buzz-sawed in half, birdcages disappeared from your own fingertips, and people, rabbits, flowers, ducks, burros, bottles, and silken shawls appeared from nowhere, behaved in incredible ways, underwent breathtaking transformations, or vanished completely from human sight in the twinkling of an eye. You were in good hands. You would leave the theater refreshed, full of wonder, and wholly satisfied.
________________________________________
(This is an edited reproduction of "Blackstone, A Biographical Sketch," first published by the Michigan Department of State as a Great Lakes Informant (Series 1, Number 1). It is no longer in print. © 1998 Michigan Historical Center.

The magic man

2008-11-15T21:17:00.001-08:00

Sophomore uses talent to start up own business

Media Credit: Jennifer Hietpas
"Magic Ben" Seidman attempts to read the mind of a volunteer during a card trick at his 8 p.m. show Saturday at Higherground for Little Sibs´ weekend. Seidman usually does magic for private banquets, weddings and corporate events, but can occasionally be seen performing on campus.

Making objects disappear, moving coins across the floor without touching them and, yes, even attending classes are just a portion of sophomore Ben Seidman's schedule as he balances his time around being a magician.

"I'm pursuing (magic) as a career," he said.

Seidman, who is a comprehensive theater major, said in addition to his theater performances, he also performs two-to-three magic shows a month.

"That number goes up as the years go on," he said.

Through these performances, Seidman gained a good reputation and a nickname from students as "Magic Ben."

The early years of a future magician

The 20-year-old said he found his love of magic during his youth.

"I sold my soul when I was seven, no wait I'm just kidding it was when I was eight," he joked. "I saw some magicians when I was young and thought that they were pretty cool and I started out with some easy magic tricks."

His mother, Susan Seidman, said her son's love of magic began after he received a magic kit.
"They've seen so much magic that I could snap my
fingers, have an elephant appear in the living room and they would say, 'That's nice, honey.' "

-Ben Seidman
Sophmore

"He was quite young, maybe six or eight," she said.

At the age of nine, Seidman said he was involved in a theater production at First Stage Milwaukee when he met Tim Catlett.

Ben's father, Michael Seidman, said Catlett was one of the technicians for the production, and he had been doing magic for a long time.

"In between acts, (Ben) and Tim started talking about magic," Michael Seidman said.

Seidman said Catlett studied techniques with him during that time.

"He could tell that I was genuinely interested," he said.

At 16, Seidman began working at the Theophilus Magic Shop where he was able to experience magic firsthand.

"I got to learn how to perform thousands of effects (that) we sold in addition to meeting all the magicians," Seidman said. "The whole process was exciting."

Seidman's mother said her son went to Edinburgh, Scotland the summer after his senior year in high school for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

His father said his son was able to see an exclusive club for magicians, while over in Scotland.

"Their group got inside and saw magic books from the 1800s," he said. "(Ben) was thrilled."

Seidman said his parents are very supportive.

"But they've seen so much magic that I could snap my fingers, have an elephant appear in the living room and they would say, 'That's nice, honey,' " he said. "They are used to me bending the waves of physics and it doesn't faze them anymore."

Even though they are used to his tricks, Susan Seidman said she still is amazed he can do so many.

"I have a feeling he does (effects) in his sleep," she said. "He always has something up his sleeve or in his pockets."

Jack of all trades

Seidman said he doesn't like to say he performs magic tricks, but rather magic effects. "Trick" implies the people watching are being tricked, he said.

"Hopefully they are gaining something," Seidman said.

He said he probably knows around 400 to 500 different magic effects, and still is learning new ones.

"I do two different types (of magic)," he said. "Parlor and close up."

Close up is when the effects are smaller for a smaller group of people, he said. Parlor magic are more traditional shows in front of a larger group of people, which last around 35 to 40 minutes.

Seidman said he prefers to do close up shows.

"You get hired to walk around at cocktail parties or banquets and (perform) the same effects," Seidman said. "I can do it for four hours if they need me to."

Seidman's most recent performance occurred Saturday at Higherground for Little Sibs' Weekend.

"We had to evacuate the building because of a gas leak," he said.

The leak came right before the grand finale, Seidman said, and some people thought it was part of the show.

"We went outside and half the audience stayed ... we went down to the basement of Sutherland and I did some more magic," Seidman said.

Even a few of the little kids asked him for his autograph.

"It reminded me why I do (magic)," Seidman said.

The business angle

Not only is Seidman a full-time student, but he also runs his own business called Close Up Productions.

"I find it difficult sometimes to balance between the business aspect and artistic aspect of it," he said.

Seidman said he is a free agent and is booked until the beginning of next year.

"I went to Las Vegas over spring break for the sole purpose of seeing magic and meeting magicians," he said. "I had a couple of connections and so I got to hang out with some of the best magicians in magic."

Susan Seidman said he opted to go alone because "it was a serious business trip."

While he still does birthday parties, he said he does more adult gatherings like corporate events, banquets and weddings.

"Lots of people have seen me do magic and I perform around the dorms every now and then or at parties," he said.

His business depends on word-of-mouth instead of advertising.

"If I can do a magic effect that appears to violate the laws of nature ... and someone sees that and realizes that I just did the impossible, then what's stopping them from doing something they previously thought tough and impossible to do in their own lives," Seidman said.

The physical world does not change because of his magic, he said. Instead, it changes the people's perception of what they see, he said.

Audience feedback

Other students on campus have seen Seidman perform.

Junior Kat Nerge said she's seen two of his on-campus shows.

"Ben's a very interesting character," she said. "I love the fact that he always has a deck of cards in his pants."

Another student who has seen him perform is sophomore Kate Bero, who said Seidman is a well-rounded guy.

"He's a lot more than just magic," she said. "He's always there (for you)."

Both Nerge and Bero said their favorite magic effect was one that occurred last year at The Cabin.

He ripped up a $20 bill and it later appeared intact in an orange, Bero said.

"It was absolutely amazing," she said. "I cannot explain it."

"He asked for a $1," Nerge said, which added to the crowd being mystified after only a $20 bill was offered.

"Obviously he's magic but that's no secret," she said.

Looking into the future

For his future, Seidman plans on looking into many different options like working on cruise ships, at the Magic Castle in Hollywood or maybe in Las Vegas, he said.

"People react differently (to magic), but so much in this world we don't understand and won't in our lifetime," Seidman said. "I understand that people want to know how everything works. We sometimes forget in our quest for knowledge how wonderful it can be not to know the secrets behind the universe."

Making Maths Magic

2008-11-15T21:16:00.002-08:00

Thank you for your interest in Making Maths Magic. Below you will find a general outline of the materials and the programme.

Making Maths Magic was put together by myself (maths consultant) and a group of leading teachers. It is an intervention programme to support pupils in Year 1 and/or Year 2 and is regarded as a wave 2 intervention. The pupils who would benefit from the programme are those who are predicted to achieve a 2C at the end of KS1.

The programme lasts of 6 weeks, 4 times a week for half an hour and it focuses on Year 1 key objectives. Links have been made to the Primary Framework and the end of year expectations. It is expected that a teaching assistant will deliver the materials. The intervention embraces key messages from the Excellence and Enjoyment materials, including assessment for learning and speaking and listening. There is a theme which runs the program which is Magic!

The programme was piloted with 12 schools in spring ‘06. Below are some of the comments from these schools:

“Wonderful, shame it didn’t last longer!!!” (Teaching assistant)

“The children have grown in confidence and are more willing to explain” (Teaching assistant)

“Children have returned from the lessons, enthusiastic and wanting to tell all” (Teacher)

“We thoroughly enjoyed MMM and would award it 9/10” (Teacher)

“They seem to have gained belief in themselves in numeracy in the small group” (Teacher)

The programme is now available to all schools in the LA and approx. one third of the schools are now using the intervention. In 2007 the LA results for KS1 Level 2B+ increased by 2% to 79.1%. The national average was 1% increase (74%)

The Magic Wand

2008-11-15T21:16:00.001-08:00

The Magic Wand (Reaction of Potassium Chlorate and Sugar)
and
The Combustion of Gummi Bears

Magic Wand
Source: B. Z. Shakhashiri (1983) Chemical Demonstrations: A Handbook for Teachers of Chemistry, vol. 1. pp 79-80.

Description: Two white powders are mixed. The two will react when initiated by a drop of acid on the end of a long glass rod (the magic wand). The reaction is violent a results in a "poof" of heat, flames, and smoke.

Concept: Some exothermic reactions produce a lot of heat. Potassium Chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent; a fire may start when it is mixed with combustible materials.

Materials:
• 8.90 grams Potassium Chlorate, KClO3
• 18.20 grams Sucrose (Sugar)
• 1 drop concentrated Sulfuric Acid, H2SO4
• Long glass rod (about 4 ft long)
• A flat surface made of a refractory material such as transite-2 (in other words, something fire resistant like asbestos but not asbestos).
• Wide mouth plastic container with lid (about 100 mL size)
• Spatula or spoon

Safety:
Mixtures of Potassium Chlorate and combustibles (sugar) are potentially explosive. Store these chemicals separately. Wear safety goggles, disposable gloves, and heavy gloves (ex. leather, acid gloves).
Sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive. Wear safety goggles, disposable gloves, and acid gloves.
Stand at a distance from the reaction.

Procedure:
Carefully mix potassium chlorate and sugar together in the plastic container.
Pour the mixture into a pile onto the transite pad.
Make a small depression in the top of the pile with the spatula.
Dip the glass rod into a small amount of sulfuric acid so that there is a very small amount (a drop) of acid on the tip of the rod.
Put drop of acid into the depression in the pile of KClO3 and Sugar (touch the pile with your magic wand).
Stand back and the reaction will start slowly, evolving smoke and then flames.

Clean-Up: Allow the leftover black carbon to cool and then flush down the drain with water.

Background: The stoichiometry of the reaction between KIO3, H2SO4, and sugar is not known. Chloric acid (HClO3), an explosive gas, is formed when KClO3 and H2SO4 are mixed. Chloric acid decomposes organic substances such as sugar very rapidly, often with inflammation.
Notes:
This demo is done in the Magic Show.
Option:
Mix 10 g of KClO3, 10 g of icing sugar, and 20 g of Sr(NO3)2 or 20 g of Ba(NO3)2 or 20 g of NaNO3 to add red, green (?), or yellow color to flame.

Combustion of Gummi Bears
Description: An Gummi Bear is dropped into a test tube of heated potassium chlorate. The Gummi Bear is combusted.

Concepts: An exothermic reaction releases heat. A chemical change (combustion reaction) as opposed to a physical change (melts in your mouth, not in your hands). Potassium Chlorate is a strong oxidizer.

Materials:
• Gummi Bears
• Potassium chlorate (KClO3)
• Safety shield
• Ring stand and test tube clamp
• Large (25mm X 200mm) Pyrex test tube (must be new)
• Bunsen burner
• Striker
• Fire proof tile

Procedure:
Set up a safety shield, ring stand, and test tube clamp. Put fire proof tile below.
Place about 1-2 grams of potassium chlorate solid into the Pyrex test tube. Put the test tube in the test tube clamp. Position the bunsen burner under the test tube. Heat the KClO3 until it melts and starts to decompose (bubbles will become visible within the liquid). As soon as the solid KClO3 is completely melted, shut off the gas, and drop a Gummi Bear into the tube and stand back.

Safety: Potassium chlorate is a strong oxidizer. Use care when heating it. Wear insulated gloves, lab coat, and goggles. Be sure to set up safety shield between the reaction and the audience. Be sure to put the fire proof tile below the reaction. Have a fire extinguisher handy.

Clean-up: After the reaction has stopped and the test tube is cool, discard the test tube in the broken glass bucket.

Can You See It?

2008-11-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

By Clint O'Connor
Plain Dealer Reporter

How about bringing the word "cool" back to the forefront? Let's use it in a sentence: "I stared at this weird glob of psycho-colors and suddenly a 3-D image popped out and it was, like, really, cool."
Very good.
There's an image in the picture at right, and you will see it. Eventually.
It will drive you crazy until you do. It's all Tom Baccei's fault.
Twenty-five years ago, Baccei (pro¬nounced Ba-shay) was behind the wheel of The Green Tortoise, which, like The Gray Rabbit and The Iron Pony, was part of the "Underground" bus fleet carrying adven¬turesome souls cross-country. They were big old diesel jobs, gutted and renovated into campers, sort of youth hostels on wheels, seeing America first on roads less traveled.
Like Neal Cassady and the Merry Prank¬sters from "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," there were a lot of hippie types on board the Tortoise, ingesting various hal¬lucinogens during the 20-day trips.
Talk about seeing images!
"But not the driver," emphasizes Baccei, in the drug-conscious '90s.
He 's speaking from his office at N.E. Thing Enterprises in Bedford, Mass., where they produce the Magic Eye puzzle illusions.
Baccei eventually parked the bus and set off on several new careers - carpenter, musician, teacher - before settling on computers.
By the mid-'80s, he was running an electronics company that made computer test equipment. He wanted to create a magazine add and remembered a bit of high-tech wizardry that could produce 3-D pictures.
"It was just this interesting lab trick," he said. "But nobody had tried it commer¬cially."
Baccei made the ad with computer-gen¬erated dots that conceal an image. He hid a number in the colored dots, with the tag line: "Finding a bug in your computer is as easy as finding the number in the picture above. Once you find it, it jumps right out at you."
The reaction to the ad was so phenome¬nal he realized it had greater potential.
He launched a mail-order business, featuring Stare-E-0 (now Magic Eye) 3D puz¬zle images. He advertised in the airline magazines, hoping to attract an affluent audience, and ended up capturing some of the most frequent fliers in America's skies: Japanese businessmen.
"Believe me, these puzzles translate well to that trance like state we all get in on airplanes," said Baccei. "We had a tremen¬dous response, people calling up saying, 'What is it? I have to know!' "
Two Japanese firms, were interested and, in 1992, Magic Eye posters and jigsaw puzzles took off in Japan. Even more suc¬cessful was the first "Magic Eye" book, which sold more than 750,000 copies there.
The rage moved to America last year. There are knockoffs and competing companies, but Baccei is the original. The in¬evitable "Magic Eye II: Now You See It" (Andrews and McNeel, $12.95), is second on the New York Times Advice and Mis¬cellaneous Best Seller list. The "Magic Eye Poster Book" and "Magic Eye Book of Postcards," are also in the stores.
N.E. Things also has agreements with 20 licensing companies producing neckties, paper bags, back-to school supplies and a new video. The puzzle-illusions now appear in some 200 U.S. newspapers as well.
"You can either do it or you can't," said Rachel Panzero, a buyer for the High Tide Rock Bottom gift store on Coventry Rd. in Cleveland Heights, which sells 3-1D image greeting cards, books and posters.
"It either really frustrates peo¬ple, or they love it and take it home," she said. "I just learned how to do it myself."
"The world loves a challenge," said Baccei, "so the fact that about 50% of the people see it pretty eas¬ily, and 50% have to struggle to see it, makes it fun."
Baccei's advice for the dimensio¬nally impaired?
"There is no way to just make it happen, which is your natural re¬sponse - to focus and make it hap¬pen," he said. "The thing to do is to drift and just let it go."
Does he ever struggle to deci¬pher the image?
"No. I can always see it from across the room, or walking down the hall, and it really (ticks) people off."

Depths of perception
It's in the dots.
The four-person art department at N.E. Thing tap away at their Ma¬cintoshes and PCs to create the Magic Eye pictures, images con¬cealed in a multitude of colored dots.
"Sometimes you come up with one on your own," said Baccei, "but usually it's a collaborative ef¬fort."
First, using a computer program, a 3-D image is created. Next, the depth of the image is calculated at various points. Finally, columns of dots are layed over the image at the different depths - some close together, some far apart - and a pattern, seemingly a jumble of colors, emerges.
Three-dimensional imagery has been with us almost as long as photography, but computers brought a new twist to the illusion.
In the '60s, Dr. Bela Julesz, a cognitive psychologist studying depth perception, threw a bunch of dots on a page concealing an image. The image could only be seen in 3-D, but could be reproduced on regular paper.
Better computers and programs brought more complex images. The colors matter to some degree; sharp contrast helps pop the image out.
Baccei just completed a new pic¬ture for his booming business.
It's an idyllic scene of a little girl playing at the beach, the glistening water behind her, the golden sun setting. As you stare, or blur, a three-dimensional castle grows out of the sand.
I really aspired to be a creative person," said Baccei.
"Now, to be involved in some form of, quote 'artwork,' is great. I saw it as a gimmick at first, but maybe us, or somebody else, will make it into something more. I'd like to see it become the art form of the '90s."
Sounds like he's back on the Tortoise.
Cool.
Tips on how to view
Hang loose is the best bet.
We all love secrets, but we espe¬cially love being IN on the secret.
For those who have trouble un¬locking the secret of the Magic Eye 3-D puzzle images, the folks at N.E. Thing (get it!) Enterprises rec¬ommend the following viewing methods. We've added some of our I own PD-tested tips, as well:

One method
Hold the image so that the cen¬ter of it touches your nose. Let your eyes relax and stare vacantly off into space, as if you are looking through the image. Relax and be¬come comfortable with the idea of observing the image without look¬ing at it. Things will be blurry.
When you are relaxed, move the page slowly away from your face, perhaps an inch every two or three seconds, keep it taut and straight out in front of you. Keep looking through the center of the page.
Stop at a comfortable reading distance and keep staring. When something starts to come in 3-D fo¬cus, you will be tempted to look at the page. Don't. Keep looking through it. You may have to move the page a little farther away to get the 3-D image to "pop" out.
If it doesn't appear, relax and try again.

Another method
Place the image in such a way that you can identify a reflection (perhaps under glass). Try holding it under glass with light coming straight at it from behind or above you. Look at the object you see re¬flected, and continue to stare at it with a fixed gaze.
After several seconds you'll per¬ceive depth, followed by the 3-D image, which will develop almost like an instant photo.
Or hold the image just under eye level, and focus on an object outside a window such as a distance tree or building. After staring at the focal point in the distance, raise the image slowly to eye level. The image should then come into focus.
With either method, once you get used to seeing the images, you'll eventually be able to hold one up in front of you and let your eyes relax to the point that the image just pops out in 3-D.
Fun,huh?
The-Magic Eye makers do in¬clude some caveats, like DON'T OVERDO IT!
Straining to see the image will not help, and could make you feel uncomfortable. Especially if you're getting embarrassed by trying to do it around friends and co-workers.
"That is not the way to proceed," they warn. "Ask your nephew or the paper girl to give you some help; they'll probably be able to do it in ten seconds. The key is to relax and let the image come to you.