Archive
Archive for May, 2009
- The Atlantic: What Makes Us Happy? Back in the late 30’s, the founder of the Grants dime store chain wondered why scientists and doctors studied sick people instead of studying healthy, well-adjusted people. He thought there would be far more to learn from someone who was successfully navigating life than from someone failing at it. So he funded a study that selected 268 of the most “normal young men” at Harvard. That study is still going today — with about half of the men still alive in their late 80’s — and has provided an incredible amount of information on practically every aspect of human life. And of course, despite the best intentions of the study’s founders, very few of the men turned out to be “normal”. Over a third had psychiatric trouble, including 10% with severe problems. On the other hand, four of the men ran for Senate. One was a best-selling novelist. And one grew up to be President.
- Posnanski: I’m Getting to That Part. So apparently Joe and his wife argue about which of them their four-year-old takes after. Each of them arguing that she takes after the other parent. Apparently she’s quite the character.
- Consumer Reports: ShamWow Testing! With video! At least it’s good for drying off your pet. We’ve been using our clone ShamWow to dry up some other stuff our incontinent pet has made. All I’ll say is that that it definitely works for that too.
- GCBL: Lessons from Germany’s Rust Belt. Ralf Ebert is part of the group that’s working to repurpose old industrial sites in the Ruhr Valley. The main lesson they’ve learned seems to be to pick your battles and focus on certain specific efforts.
- Wednesday Chef: April in Paris. Luisa takes a short trip to Paris and returns with these wonderful words and pictures.
- Posnanski: Come on, That’s Not Real! Joe comes up with a highly believable story to explain how a photo of the new Collegiate Snuggies might have come to be.
- How to be a successful evil overlord. A lot of folks have pointed at this, and I finally got around to reading it. I’ll have to keep this stuff in mind.
- Philadelphia Daily News: Rethinking Philadelphia. A very nice package of stories on — you guessed it — how to move Philly to a more successful future. The Daily News collaborated on this effort with a group called Plan Philly, which works on this kind of stuff full time.