Three Keys to Happiness

What Makes Us Happy? by Joshua Wolf Schenk in the Atlantic Monthly.

For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age.

The conclusions are summarized here:

1. Have a healthy outlet
2. Don't take yourself too seriously
3. Happiness must be shared

“Happiness only real when shared.”

First image of a memory being made...

Link

These are the offices of city council candidate Evan Thies. According to an article in the Greenpoint Gazette, the saloon-like offices of the John Smolenski Democratic Club are being used by Evan as his campaign headquarters. The young new president of the nearly defunct old-line club hopes that Evan will revitalize the club and voter participation in North Brooklyn in general, where turnout has been low in recent elections. The snake-like 33rd council district stretches from Greenpoint, through Williamsburg, Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Gowanus, ending in north Park Slope.

For the record, this blog endorses Evan Thies for the 33rd District and Brad Lander for the 39th. (Of course, observers in the political world have been on the edge or their seats waiting to see who would gain our influential backing.)

Way to go Danny! I'm glad someone else is having fun cultivating a garden in a semi-wild backyard. I thought this photo he took recently was particularly good...

On 161st Street, in search of Sonia Sotomayor...

A Bronx Tale: In Search of Sonia Sotomayor from weekendvids on Vimeo.

Visualizing......

From the New York Times (article here): "A team of American Navy searchers is being flown in along with two devices that can detect electronic signals to a depth of 20,000 feet, according to the Pentagon, The Associated Press reported. They will be delivered to ships that will then listen for transmissions from the so-called black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least three more weeks. . . .

The ocean floor where the debris is being recovered is a tangle of mountains towering two miles above ocean valleys, which will make the recovery of the flight recorders — or black boxes — very difficult. The recovery, however, is paramount for investigators, as without them, said James T. Francis, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Air France case will be “a tough, tough cookie.”

I found this graphic to help me visualize the ocean floor in the middle of the ocean between Brazil and Africa (click for full view). It also reminds me of old fashioned maps in high school classrooms.