The Colors of Dreams

Happiness begets happiness...especially if you are central to the causation of happiness. A study from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego found that 

People at the center of the social network tend to be happier...and they are more susceptible to the waves of happiness that spread throughout the network.

To study the spread of emotion, the researchers plotted out the social connections of about 5,000 individuals enrolled in the ongoing Framingham Heart Study. To measure 'happiness' the study reviewed the participants feelings over the previous week "I felt hopeful about the future," "I was happy," "I enjoyed life," "I felt that I was just as good as other people." This has been shown to be a valid instrument for measuring positive affect and it has been taken as interchangeable with the concept of happiness. The study authors defined "happy" as a perfect score on all four questions. Listen to this commentary on 'the spread of happiness through a social network' or watch the great visual review

When one person becomes happy, the social network effect can spread up to 3 degrees — reaching friends of friends.

According to the new study on happiness and social networks, your probability of being happy rises:

• 15.3 percent if a friend or family member is happy
• 9.8 percent if friends of your friend or family member are happy
• 5.6 percent if friends of the friends of your friend or family member are happy

With the advent of Twitter and multiple other dynamic online social networking groups - we should hope to see an exponential growth in happiness in the very near future. How about a Twittappy Day - sending a 'happiness is Twitter' greeting to all your Tweeps should bring an enlightened surge of joy pulsating through the framework of social network ..bring it on

Happy Twittappy Day. I am happy, I am hopeful about the future, I enjoy life and feel I am just as good as other people http://short.to/bdf

Supporting the 'Free Hugs Campaign', 'SickPuppies.net', listening to Ivor Cutler and adding the synergistic 'Happiness is Twitter' should have a profound effect!

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It's official - the iMac is going into storage...

Just found an 'archive' of images on the hard drive. It is hard to be angry with the lad - after all some of them are very imaginiative.

                   

Click here to download:

Hammer_Time.zip (842 KB)

Click here to download:

HammerTime.mov (4269 KB)

Domain naming can treacherous - as highlighted by the 'Top Five DumNames' on the web... 

• 'Who Represents' is a website dedicated to finding the name of the agent that represents celebrities. You can find them at www.WhorePresents.com
• 'Experts Exchange' is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.ExpertSexChange.com
• Looking for a pen? Look no further than 'Pen Island' at www.PenisLand.net
• Need a therapist? Try 'Therapist Finder' at www.TheRapistFinder.com
• And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site www.SpeedoFart.com

Other contenders for the top five have unfortunately recently gone underground or been taken over by cybersquatters but include

• The Italian Power Generator company (Powergen Italia) will be hosted at www.PowerGenitalia.com [Currenlty having some down time]
• The 'Mole Station Native Nursery' in New South Wales - www.MolestationNursery.com [Had a change of heart and become Mole River Nursery]
• If you’re looking for IP computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com
• The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is www.CummingFirst.com

Credits: Rishbah

Living in paradise can be hard. In fact it should be wretched, unwholesome and downright dangerous according to a list of recent complaints by not-so-intrepid British tourists. Research compiled by the Association of British Travel Agents [ABTA] and Thomas Cook, have done nothing to dispel the whingeing Pom cliche. Here are some of my favorite 'complaints' British travelers made:

• I was bitten by a mosquito — no one said they could bite. 
• We had to queue outside with no air-conditioning.
• I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts
• Some British tourists found their Aussie holidays were spoiled because 
  • The beach was too sandy
  • The beaches were too wide
  • No one told us there would be fish in the sea; the children were startled
  • We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white.

• We booked an excursion to a water park but no one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels.
• We bought Ray-Ban sunglasses for five euros ($9) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake.
• My fiance and I booked a twin-bedded room, but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant
• No hairdressers at the accommodation." We're trainee hairdressers — will we be OK staying here?
• On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all.

• There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners.
• It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during "siesta" time — this should be banned.
• One disgruntled wife declared that topless sunbathing should be banned because her "holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women".