Hello Music, My Name is Public School System... Have We Met?

A Re-Introduction to the Concept of the Continuance of insuring the Anti-Dumification of Our Youth

         When my Grandmother was still alive, she had an old Lowery Organ, the kind with the two levels and foot pedals for the bass notes and all sorts of different switches and knobs and whatnot. She was no professional musician. I'm not even sure if I could count on my fingers how many times she played it. She was a schoolteacher. I wasn't too far from teenhood when she was ready to move on to the unknowable experience of after-life. I remember it well, I had recently picked up the trumpet (my fingers were too fat for saxophone or violin, according to my stout, chubby-knuckled elementary school music teacher) and she honored me by requesting that I would play Amazing Grace at her funeral. I was terrified, she reassured me that she would give me strength and be with me while I did. Every day for the next 6 months or so I would go up to her room and play for her, stumbling through the notes, slaughtering any sense of rhythm that had been associated with the song. But, by the end of the 6 months I had become fairly good at racing through the whole thing without missing a note. She was good at that. She was a teacher, she taught children how to learn. When the day came to play I felt a little bit nervous, but not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. I got through the song and thought I sounded pretty good (it probably sounded like an airhorn fighting a couple of mating cats...but hey I hadn't been playing too long, gimme a break). As soon as it was finished I remember collapsing into a group of family members, hysterical in tears. It was a wonderfully horrible feeling, but it was the nudge from her that encouraged me to continue playing. It wasn't until later that I realized all of the benefits a love and appreciation for music had to offer. 

Einstein and the Violin

      Einstein was a physicist, maybe you've heard of him. What you may or may not have heard is his musical prowess. According to Al's first wife, music was one way that Einstein would work through his problems.

"...Music helps him when he is

thinking about his theories. He goes to his

study, comes back, strikes a few chords on

the piano, jots something down, returns to

his study..."

Not only that, Einstein performed in public and played with the leading virtuosos of his day. He spoke of music with more passion than his scientific studies - "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. I get most joy in life out of music."

 But he was a genius, right? I mean not everyone can be so smart, and he just happened to play music as well, right?  It's just a coincedence...right? Well, lets take a closer look at some of our most influential historical figures. 

Thomas Jefferson - Cello, Clavicord and Violin

Woodrow Wilson -  Violin

Ben Franklin - Guitar and Violin

John Quincy Adams - Flute

Patirck Henry - Flute and Fiddle

Condoleeza Rice - Paino

Richard Nixon - Piano and Accordion

Mahatma Gandhi - Concertina

Harry Truman - Piano

 and the list goes on, but I'll move on....Point is I can see a pattern going... not only are these people influential figures in history, but they are on the top of the list. 

 Learning a (or multiple) musical instruments improves brain activity. 

If money makes the world go round....

... How much should we shell out to the sun for its gravitational pull????

I've always heard that money makes the world go round... and ever since I was a little child I have suspected that this was a gross exaggeration of money's power... I would hear the words come out of a family members mouth in an effort to leave me with a little parable about the value of a dollar- hoping to inspire a desire to work hard in combination with the business mind to know how much my time was worth...but when processing the words as a little boy, I would imagine money getting up when everyone was sleeping and working together on some sort of magical rowing machine to get enough momentum going on the world to keep it spinning for the rest of the day....and then later, a little older and wiser - I would imagine businessmen behind huge desks making phone-calls to astronauts, who were spinning the world from outer-space on some sort of magical treadmill , and offering them wild amounts of cash to keep the world going for one more day... and then later, (or around the same time) superman was involved in the scheme....

Embarrassment will not allow me to mention the age that a sense of logic entered on the subject and I realized that 'Money makes the world go round' is a metaphor for - keeps business moving - and has very little to do with the actual movement of the earth (Let's just say, I shouldn't have been driving).

I am now positive (almost) that money has absolutely nothing to do with the world "going 'round". Not only that, whatever it is that DOES make the world go 'round, isn't man-made at all... it isn't money, or government, or religion, or guns ( or as I used to think - video games and the ice-cream man).

Recently it popped into my head 'well what if gravity (assuming thats what does it) DID require a certain amount of money to insure that the world would continue to go round?'... How much would that cost?

To start, gravitational pull is measured in Newtons..
-1 Newton is the amount of force that is needed to move a 1 kilogram object 1 meter per second squared (a force of about 0.2248 lb. object one foot per second).  But that will only push me slightly closer to the answer to my ridiculous question...I have to figure out how to convert Newtons into a unit of measurement that has a monetary value.

I decided to choose Kilowatts Per Hour (or kwh).. the measurement used in calculating the common electricity bill. For the purpose of simplicity we will say the Sun lives in the fine state of Virginia where the average price of one kwh in july of 2010 was 10.78 cents.

From the information I can find... I mean decipher, the sun exerts 3.5x1022 newtons of force on earth.
But Newtons alone are not convertible to kilowatt hours.

A Joule is the unit of measurement for the amount of energy exerted to move the object. Easily convertible to kilowatt hours!!!! GREAT! Who doesn't like easy, right?

Work = Force X Distance

So in order to continue with the illusion of precision we need a distance factor - which I found out, after hours of research, would be the distance of the earth's orbit.


General Consensus places that around 300 million km.


so ....here's the part where I poop myself and cuss alot....


(3.5x1022 newtons)x300000000km = 1,073,100,000,000,000 Joules...


1 Joule = 2.77777777777778E-07 Kilowatt Hours so consequently


1073100000000000 Joules = 298083333.3333333 Kilowatt Hours


Everyone still here? ok good.


298083333.3333333 Kilowatt Hours at 10.78 cents (or $ 0.1078) = 


$32,133,383.3 and thats per hour.


so our monthly bill to the sun would be - $23,472,935,155.60






Which is -


* a little over 1.6 % of our national deficit - 1.42 trillion
* Around the same amount that Goldman Sachs awarded in holiday bonuses in 2009
* Around the same as the estimated losses the 2010 oil spill created for the Gulf Coast States.
* The sun could buy Dracula's castle 170 times a month and still have money left over
** or build 70 Disney worlds a month.


Q: So what's a number like that translate to anually?


A: It's a lot of scrap...


$281,675,221,687.2 per year. - According to sources - that's a only 40,000,000,000 over the total amount of money spent on advertising in the U.S. for 2009... So, I think we should start paying up - aside from bringing a little bit of truth to an otherwise ridiculously conceited, and completely false cliche - less commercials would make t.v. easier to watch.


This is Perry Wheldun - thanks for popping by.

Hello Music, My Name is Public School System... Have We Met?

A Re-Introduction to the Concept of the Continuance of insuring the Anti-Dumification of Our Youth When my Grandmother was still alive, she had an old Lowery Organ, the kind with the two levels and foot pedals for the bass notes and all sorts of different switches and knobs and whatnot. She was no professional musician. I'm not even sure if I could count on my fingers how many times I remember her playing it. She was a schoolteacher. I wasn't too far from teenhood when she was ready to move on to the unknowable experience of after-life. I remember it well, I had recently picked up the trumpet (my fingers were too fat for saxophone or violin, according to my stout, chubby-knuckled elementary school music teacher) and she honored me by requesting that I would play Amazing Grace at her funeral. I was terrified, she reassured me that she would give me strength and be with me and that I was playing for her and nobody else. 'OK', I said (or something like OK). Every day for the next 6 months or so I would go up to her room and play for her, stumbling through the notes, slaughtering any sense of rhythm that had been associated with the song. But, by the end of the 6 months I had become fairly good at racing through the whole thing without missing a note. She was good at that. She was a teacher, she taught children how to learn. When the day came to play I felt a little bit nervous, but not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. I got through the song and thought I sounded pretty good (it probably sounded like an air horn fighting a couple of mating cats...but hey I hadn't been playing too long, gimme a break). As soon as it was finished I remember collapsing into a group of family members, hysterical in tears. It was a wonderfully horrible feeling, but it was the nudge from her that encouraged me to continue playing. It wasn't until later that I realized all of the benefits a love and appreciation for music had to offer. Einstein and the Violin Einstein was a physicist, maybe you've heard of him. What you may or may not have heard about is his musical prowess. According to Al's first wife, music was one way that Einstein would work through his problems."...Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories. He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study..." Not only that, Einstein performed in public and played with the leading virtuosos of his day who seemed to adore him, not for his technical ability, but for his deep understanding for the passion behind a piece and his ability to communicate that passion. He even spoke of music with more passion than his scientific studies - "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. I get most joy in life out of music." But he was a genius, right? I mean not everyone can be so smart, and he just happened to play music as well, right? It's just a coincidence...right? Well, lets take a closer look at some of our most influential historical figures. Small List of a Few Musically Talented World Leaders and Historical Figures - Thomas Jefferson - Cello, Clavichord and Violin Woodrow Wilson - Violin Ben Franklin - Guitar and Violin John Quincy Adams - Flute Patrick Henry - Flute and Fiddle Condoleeza Rice - Piano Richard Nixon - Piano and Accordion Mahatma Gandhi - Concertina Harry Truman - Piano ...and the list goes on, but I'll stop there before I am accused of rhythmically beating the idea into your head... Learning a (or multiple) musical instruments improves brain activity. Never Learned, Never Worry!!!! It's never too late to learn. Picking up a musical instrument and learning how to play isn't as daunting as it sounds and Studies show that even people who learn how to play at later stages in life increase their comprehension, and recall. One tip for adults learning music is to keep it light and make sure you adhere to comfort - Adults prefer comfort over newness.... our brains are not like children's absorbing everything as a new experience...most things are old hat to us and our brains become conditioned to be weary of altogether new things.... So practicing for hours in a concert hall will not be as productive as practicing at your leisure in your own home. Have no desire to learn music, well that's OK too! Just listening to certain types of music can increase brain activity. The brain processes the structure of music on a subconscious level so even if you do not know what's going on, part of you has an idea. Which Types of Music Works Best? Well I am sure that you all have heard that classical works best, and metal makes mice kill each other and makes plants die and blahblahblah... I'm not going to go into all that ( I like a lot of different types, and I don't want to stop listening to stuff because some neuro-jerk said it's bad for me) So, what I have found in different studies that do not bias against genre - Music that has very little repetition keeps the brain active - A little repetition is good, it stimulates the part of the brain that accounts for recognition. But studies show that the more a theme is varied and the more the piece moves from theme to theme, the better. Music at or around 60 bpm's (pretty frikkin slow) is best for improving recall - It is shown that this tempo slows the heart-rate (normally around 72bpm) and allow the body to relax making it easier for the brain to function on more conscious things like memories or ideas. Television noise decreases recall - Television is designed to keep the attention span short, it's the best way for the commercials to sell you something you don't want, distractions. Instrumental music is more effective than music with words - Music is a language and when you take the words out, it forces the brain to translate the music on its own. Why is music so influential in our brains ability to function efficiently? The idea goes - you have two parts of the brain - Left - which controls logical things, like meanings of words and math, rationalization, step-by-step processing... Right - which controls conceptual things - Creativity, intuition, randomness, multi-task processing... There are many different aspects of music. Rhythm, Tone, Timbre... yadda yadda... these different aspects work together to create a piece of music. When the brain processes these things it uses both sides of the brain to make sense of the piece of music you're listening to. Music encourages both sides of the brain to work in fluid harmony, rather than cultivating a preference towards one side or the other. Essentially, Music helps to create a balanced brain. Apparently there is an alternative to learning structure and motor skills through sports that are likely to cause just as many concussions as conclusive benefits... So if it comes to cutting something in the education system - maybe we should think about letting music stick around, and going a Lil lighter on the sports.. I mean kids will learn to run around whether you want them to or not, right?

Yeah, it's impossible. Tail me something I don't grow.

Some kids dream of being an astronaut...Some kids dream of becoming president, or being a fireman, or a police officer... dreamed of having a tail. Not like a happy, wiggly, puppy tail - but a flexible, versatile and completely controllable limb extending from just above my butt. It's not that I never dreamed of being a firefighter or a police officer, its just that in my dream - I got to save an extra baby, or carry an extra gun...With all the recent developments in technology I decided to find out the chances of the seeds of that childhood dream growing into fruition. Before I got myself into the tail generation, I decided to turn to science to learn about limb regeneration...Salamanders can regrow limbs over and over again... Why can't I grow back a finger? Well it turns out, I can! To be honest, I don't know for sure if I can (and I decided to skip that experiment), but one man did!

Lee Speivak, a humble hobby shop owner, was explaining the safety hazards of model aeroplanes... Lee happened have an overwhelming hunger to get his point across one day and decided to chop the end of his finger clean off to prove a point. When he couldn't find his severed phalanx, the Doctors suggested a skin graft and investing in a pair of gloves to hide the scars from the mishap. Lee's brother had another idea and it was the most bizarre combination of ancient witch-doctory and modern day sci-fi. So what was Lee's magical idea? Well, theres a long version and a short version... I will provide the short version, because I'm not versed in Sci-fi, or witch-doctory type things... 'Grind up some pigs bladder and sprinkle it on the cut.' -PPBLPBSPSBPSLLL!!!! SHA! That totally seems legitimate... WELL TURNS OUT IT IS!!!!

CHECK IT OUT!!!!

So if we can regrow what we've already have, can we grow a completely new limb?
After hours and hours of research (googling 'growing a tail' and reading through numerous peoples attempts to make light of what I feel is a legitimate scientific question) I have discovered to my chagrin, that growing a tail from scratch, as an adult, would be near impossible with meditation alone. However, I did discover, that in our DNA is the same code that a mouse has to grow his tail - the difference, our code is not activated in the early embryonic stage of our development when our limbs began to grow and take shape - or in my own terms - The tail button is not pressed when we are in our mommy's tummy. If we can alter the genetic code to activate that part of our DNA - viola! one tail... Now whether it is a mouse tail or not, I do not know... a mouse tail would be virtually useless for me, as it would be barely long enough to check my back pocket with. The other solution would be to transplant a tail from another species. The issue that arrives there is teaching the brain to work a completely new limb should the body decide not to reject the tail altogether (maybe sprinkle a lil' pig's bladder on it). So there it is so far, a tail may not be in my future - but science seems to be advancing technically and regressing maturity-wise, quickly enough that soon all the children may be able to get designer tails and lizard's tongues and all the cool stuff that kids (and some of us cartoon-loving big kids) have been dreaming about...

So to all the mom's that said growing a tail was a bunch of hogwash...maybe you're not too far off.

There's electricity in the air....

...seriously...I think...or at least the product of electricity... I don't know for sure if it's actually 'in' the air, or just dancing around it...but it is there. I have been doing a bit of hitting the books....well, it's more like a soft caress if you consider the amount of absorption involved. Regardless, I have made some progress on understanding the events that are necessary for the theremin to produce sound.

I will try not to bog you down with ridiculous terminology because it will only serve to confuse me. There are just way too many terms that I did not know where even existent up until a few days ago. Henries, Farads, permittivity, permeability, Prometheus...it's all just a melting pot of Greek names to me.



There is one term that stands out when trying to comprehend the theremin's duties in the creation of sound. The process is called Heterodyning.



Heterodyning is not the new fad of homosexual couples double dating with other homosexual couples of the opposite sex under the guise of two straight couples, as I previously thought.

Here's two versions - the watered down smart version...and the dumbed-down Hollywood movie analogy.

Heterodyning is the generation of frequencies using two oscillating frequencies. When I heard this it all seemed to click for me.... A light bulb went on and I yelled, "I finally get it- Theremins use archaic technology that is well above and beyond my scope of comprehension..." I have been told that yelling about physics, electricity, any combination of the two, or 'feelings' is not tolerated in the modernized shanty-town, which I have heard is commonly referred to as an office... I read more and more and the more I read, the more it made sense....kind of....
The two original waves crash to create to subsequent waves. One is the sum of the two frequencies and the other is the difference between the two frequencies. When the subsequent waves are combined it creates one new wave...if one of the original frequencies is fixed and the other is varied by the proximity of a persons hand, then the final output wave can be changed to different pitches with, literally, the flick of a wrist...that wave is amplified with a speaker and thus the aria of an electric angel is born.


the dumbed-down Hollywood analogy -

Lets take a look at the concept of the movie 'Twins'. Scientists made a combination of their genes to try and create the perfect super-human...the result of the impregnating combination was twins...One that was a sum of all of the positive qualities and one that was a representation of a subtraction of those qualities. Now when those two people are combined they create a whole new identity that equals a person of normal capabilities. However, if one of those people is a constant level of excellence (Awwnuld) , and the other is varied by the adaptation necessary to overcome the struggles of the real world (Danny Devito) then the final output is 105 minutes of hilarity those waves (or particles of light) are projected onto a screen and thus the symphony of one of the funniest duo movies of all time is born.

More Later -
Perry Rayer.

A Task of Herculean Frequencies...

It was late August in the Russian empire. The start of the short-lived autumn days were not far. The city of St. Petersburg was winding down from the summer's celebrations. Not everyone in the city, however, was stress free. A small family of French ancestry was eagerly anticipating a new arrival. On August 27, 1896- Lev Sergeyevich Termen was born. I know, you're probably thinking who is Lev Sergeyevich Termen. Well, you would know him as Leon Theremin. No? still not ringing a bell? World famous inventor (well, world is kind of relative), Russian Spy, musician... inventor of the predecessor of RFID bar codes that your grocer scans to ring you up....He was the guy who invented the surveillance bugs that the russians used in a U.S. seal to gather information during the cold war, and improved on the first t.v. back in 1926....C'mon! He was a mentor for composer and music theorist -Joseph Schillinger...anything???? no? He even mentored the smartest man in the 20th century - Albert Einstein!!!!!! really?!?! Leon Theremin?!?!?!?!??! OK, well anyways - The guy is a genius. He was doing experiments with high frequency circuits by 13 - shocking friends, family and professors with performances which showcased electronic visual effects that he had discovered. He even constructed a miniature Tesla Coil while he was still a student ... All without the help of Youtube or Google, or even floppy disks (if you don't know what a floppy disk is...its like a compact disk - but more obsolete).

In 1920, he attempted to invent a proximity detector which used the emission of radio frequency to do something or other...Much to his dismay, and later his delight... He discovered that he has invented one of the worlds first electronic instruments. It is also the worlds first "no touch instrument"...that's right, you play this instrument without touching it. It uses two antennae. One controls the pitch in by detecting and relating the proximity of the right hand to the antennae (it goes from boy voice to girl voice the closer your hand gets to the antennae). The other acts the same way, only with volume instead of pitch (and left hand instead of the right).

Well he can show you....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9O6c20o&feature=related

He took this invention to Stalin - Who immediately fell in love with it, bought hundreds and gave them to his officials to learn, and thus the story of the theremin was born.
It has made some mainstream appearances ...used in a variety of genres and in film to accent a feeling of creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

maybe you've seen this movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu5pjj1KzK8&feature=related


too obscure? well then maybe you recognize this song....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qo9wGDQ5_g&feature=related

And here's another professional Thereminist, who I happened to catch performing with the National Symphony Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2gZMNkyJo

It's an instrument the evokes strong feelings in all directions. Some words and phrases used to describe it are - Eerie, Ethereal, Heavenly, 'An electronic cat breeding', 'robot screaming', crazy, sensual, annoying, graceful, elegant, electric excrement - but everyone can agree on one thing - It's a pretty damned interesting thing.

So, I, being the average American with no concept for personal limitations, no concern for my lack of education regarding radio frequency or the inner workings of electronic components and a vibrant passion for accepting challenges that no-one in their right mind would ever think I could accomplish - decided to build a theremin....from scratch.....Dear God, what am I doing?

This is Perry Wheldunin Rayer
saying - thanks for peeping in.


Stay tuned for installment II
"Perry finally learns all of the E.R.'s Nurse's names..."

If Money Makes the World Go 'Round....

....Exactly how much are we paying the gravitational pull of the sun? What in the world is a rectifier and why does it have to have the prefix - 'rect'? Who are the quarks and where can I find their influence in Quantum Physics? If a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, and then it gets petrified and buried for thousands of years until an archaeologist digs it up to learn more about plant life in that region- Can't we just take the tree's DNA and re-create it? Is the Internet going to turn into the movie TRON? TRON II? If I do the same thing for my a large percentage of my life, how does that affect my memory? Why does light bend around objects and what can that do for me? Wait, so if everything is made up of tiny little neurons, protons and electrons - what's in those and if I had a bunch of whatever that is in raw form - can I make whatever I want? If I can build muscle and grow skin- why can't I meditate hard enough and grow a tail over a period of time?


Have you ever considered questions like this? Me too! My name is Perry Wheldunin Rayer, I am a common cubicle cruiser and I question things...In the seemingly random and absurdly obscure recesses of science, lies a world of mostly ridiculous ,but surprisingly more legitimate than you would expect, questions. I plan to answer those questions...Well I plan to write about the journey to discovering the answer or pointlessness of the answer to those questions through this blog.

Dan and I met recently and immediately our styles clashed in the most pleasant of ways. We constantly butted heads on our approach to the way we deal with life - the thing is - at our root we were so similar that we could not help but have a great respect for one another and quickly became fast friends. He had this idea for a blog where he would go on about random stuff that happened in his day...letting loose and saying what he really thinks about things and asked me if I would like to join in....I brushed it off as nonsense, then he told me about it again today. When I read what he wrote and talked to him about it, I watched a light bulb slowly increase to a bright shine over his head (He knows about my interest in learning new things and my affection for the sciences)...He proposed that I blog about science stuff. Now, I am no scientist....nor have I had any formal education in the subject other than a D- in high school chemistry - and that's pretty much what I told him.

"I know!!!" he said. His eyes pulsed with fire and wild-hearted passion, "That's the fuckin point man...You know less about science and technology than Lady Gaga knows about interviewing a stylist OR a P.R. person!!!" ....for anyone who is not savvy in Pop-Culture - that means slim to none. "You could be like my Yin and I'll be your Yang...peanut butter and fucking jelly- ya know...PB&KY...." I considered the possibility that underneath his crass tactlessness maybe a not completely horrible idea....so here I am....well, I'm way over here - stop looking in the screen, I'm not actually in the screen...OK just messing with you for a second. seriously, I think I may actually have fun with this, so I hope you all enjoy reading the story of one normal man's quest to understand the inventions of our worlds geniuses - past and present.
More Soon!!!!