April 18, 2009, 7:35 pm
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| Blue is sad; yellow is happy; green is in between. Note the clusters of similar colors. Click the image for a large size. |
Mom always told me to be careful of the crowd I run with. Turns out she was right—in ways she could not have known.
James Fowler of UC San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School published a study in the British Medical Journal showing that happiness spreads far and wide through a social network—not just from person to person but even to people up to three degrees removed.
Described in a UCSD press release, the study showed that happiness definitely loves company. As the network graph shows, happy people tend to cluster together. In fact, “every happy friend increases your own chance of being happy by 9 percent. Each unhappy friend decreases it by 7 percent. Happiness, the researchers found, spreads in a social network up to three degrees of separation: You are 15 percent more likely to be happy if directly connected to a happy person; 10 percent if it’s the friend of a friend who is happy; and 6 percent if it’s the friend of a friend of a friend.”
So, if you’re not happy, maybe you’re connected to the wrong crowd, or, maybe you are partly responsible for the unhappy people around you.
April 1, 2009, 9:30 am  My Trek 2200 is now about 15 years old and has served me well. I don’t really know how many miles I’ve ridden it—several thousand, I imagine, although all our long-distance touring was done on an even older Trek 600.
In possession of an REI 20% discount coupon (applicable to the REI Novara brand, but not other bike manufacturers) I attempted to check out the Squadra model (an all carbon fiber frame and fork) at the Fremont REI store. For the second time, I was disappointed in their stock. I guess my interests fall a little out of the bounds of their normal customer, and as a smaller store they don’t have a comprehensive inventory. So, the next day I was off to the Concord store, which had one bike in stock.
The test ride was great. The fit was remarkably close to what I was used to with my Trek, and it felt so much lighter and more responsive. I just couldn’t pass up saving $400 :-).
I put my old pedals on it, but I have to admit they look pretty dirty and scratched and don’t fit the new look. I may have to remedy that.
March 31, 2009, 9:36 am Trevin Wax has some delicious satire patterned after The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape’s advice to Wormwood includes:
At the local church level, I am convinced that the more you blind the people to their hypocrisy, the better off we will be in the long run. Make sure their temperaments run towards judgmentalism and not repentance. You can do this by keeping them focused on the sins of the increasingly decadent culture. As long as [they] focus on the actions of those in our territory, they are less apt to repent of the actions of those in their pews and pulpits.
So true it hurts!
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Consider this:“I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.” 2 John 1:5 |
