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A happy friend is worth about $20,000
This is based on research, folks.
But we didn’t need scientists to tell us this. The old Frank Kapra films like IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE that have been demonstrating this for years. I think we need a new government measurement. We’d call it the GDH, the gross domestic happiness index. And then we can see who really is rich, e.g. my five bunko buddies cancel out your Lexus any day.
Joking aside, this shows how much social interaction is built into our genes. And why we tend to tire of congenital whiners, complainers, and sadsacks. Not to say that people who are sad shouldn’t be. But that a happy friend or family member, who listens with kindness, can be a great boon to someone who is suffering.
People with the most social connections — friends, spouses, neighbors, relatives — were also the happiest, the data showed. “Each additional happy person makes you happier,” Christakis said.
“Imagine that I am connected to you and you are connected to others and others are connected to still others. It is this fabric of humanity, like an American patch quilt.”
Each person sits on a different-colored patch. “Imagine that these patches are happy and unhappy patches. Your happiness depends on what is going on in the patch around you,” Christakis said.
“It is not just happy people connecting with happy people, which they do. Above and beyond, there is this contagious process going on.”
And happiness is more contagious than unhappiness, they discovered.
“If a social contact is happy, it increases the likelihood that you are happy by 15 percent,” Fowler said. “A friend of a friend, or the friend of a spouse or a sibling, if they are happy, increases your chances by 10 percent,” he added.
A happy third-degree friend — the friend or a friend of a friend — increases a person’s chances of being happy by 6 percent.
“But every extra unhappy friend increases the likelihood that you’ll be unhappy by 7 percent,” Fowler said.
The finding is interesting but it is useful, too Fowler said.
“Among other benefits, happiness has been shown to have an important effect on reduced mortality, pain reduction, and improved cardiac function. So better understanding of how happiness spreads can help us learn how to promote a healthier society,” he said.
The study also fits in with other data that suggested — in 1984 — that having $5,000 extra increased a person’s chances of becoming happier by about 2 percent.
“A happy friend is worth about $20,000,” Christakis said.
Here’s the full article.
Dawn of the Pirate
So reads the headline at Drudge.Here is Abdul Hassan, 39. A Somali pirate nicknamed “the one who never sleeps.” Hassan is part of a pirate group called the Central Regional Coast Guard. It was formed three years ago, has 350 men in its ranks and about 100 speedboats.
Zing, zing, zing, zing, zing!
There are some wonderful stories waiting to be told about this. Sure, there is the terrorist angle. But what about the angle of someone of value they stumble across on the ship? What about the kid who knows these pirates and decides to make a buck turning them in? What about the guys sent in to find out who the heck is backing these guys?
What about Hassan himself? Somali is so poor. With one job he made $350,000. Here are some great articles.
A fascinating MUST READ pictorial of Somali pirates.
A map of pirate attacks in 2008.
An article about a tanker just taken by pirates.
An article indicating just how much money pirates are making (more than $100m just this year) by taking ships and demanding ransoms.
Frisbees of Death
Yes, a weapon in development. Add this to the fart bomb, the scream, and The Rods from God and you’ll see where the future of the military is going to be very interesting. Here’s a list of interesting weapons.
Maya, a character for a thriller?
Maya lives in a yurt.She has glorious garbage floors.
And chickens that run around and lay pastel eggs in odd places like buckets–Easter every day.
Here’s a list of her most popular blogs.
So, folks. Maya has a fascinating life (as do most people when you start to get the details). So fascinating that you can’t help but want to write about someone like her to see where the story goes. Go read her blog and tell me you don’t agree. It doesn’t get any better than this.
In fact, what would happen if I took a Maya and put her in that thriller I’ve got incubating?
Oh, baby. Zing.
Ugandan Monkey Boy
I thought all such things were hoaxes. Above is a picture of John after having been found and saved.
John Ssebunya, the Ugandan Monkey Boy
Date found: 1991
Age when found: 6
Location: Uganda
Years in the wild: 3
Animals: monkeysJohn ran and hid in a forest, about 2-3 km from his house after witnessing the murder of his mother by his father. His father was known to be an alcoholic and violent.
John says he was so frightened of his father that he stayed in the forest. It is possible that he had some degree of mental handicap at that time and this may have contributed to the fact that he did not understand that he should have sought help from other adults.
He was aged roughly 4 or 5 at the time that he was found in 1989 according to witnesses like Mrs Milly Sseba who found him in the forest. There is no birth certificate…
John identified the mokes as Cercopithicus Aethiops (the common African Grey or Green Vervet Monkey). This is very significant as this is one of the very few species of mammal that lives in social groups and will accept and tolerate a lone individual of another species of monkey living alongside their group. Other monkeys and apes will not do this — chimpanzees for example would simply eat a human child.
Indeed zing, but heart wrenching.
Crow Journal, day 2
The deer came through this morning and ate the peanuts and cheese.
The good news is it appears the crows actually heard the weird call mix yesterday and had been scoping the place out for some time. My oldest saw them on the east. I saw them on the west. Then yesterday evening after writing the last post the pair of crows returned and did some acrobatics down the hill maybe 50 yards from the house.
Today I found some calls from the Crow Busters site. I created a new playlist using the Rally, Attention, and Look Here calls. I set out a pie tin, a bit further from the house with a few Sun Chips and a handful of large bird seed (dried corn, sunflower, etc.) in it. Then I played the calls for about 20 minutes.
Results: Nellie said she wanted to throw herself off the balcony. I’m telling you, these birds would not get the golden ticket on Avian Idol.
Some people must think I’m nuts. It appears crows can cause quite a bit of damage and have in other parts of the country. The folks at Crow Busters have listed their litany of reasons for hunting the birds. But they’re scarce where I live, so I’m not too worried.
Results of today’s efforts: nothing.
