Lisa Napoli's Blog, page 55
April 26, 2011
Can your dog teach you happiness?
This article says yes.
"…The willingness to stand down is something which humans should try a little more often, according to Ryan O'Meara, author of an unusual new self-help book which suggests that our most faithful companions can teach us much about finding happiness and fulfilment.
'Dogs know that life is too precious to go into battle over something trivial,' he says. 'But people do it all the time."
April 25, 2011
#3goodthings
2 classes in one day
swimming in the glorious bright sun with no sunscreen and no one around
taking the metro rapid bus and the righteousness of mass transit
#3goodthings
In pursuit of tea
If you read RSL, you'll see the connection: If you haven't, enjoy anyhow.
Greetings
Please take a look at our spring harvest adventures. And watch for new arrivals to be posted weekly.
p.s. Free Shipping Promo coupon at the bottom of this email.
- Sebastian Beckwith
co-founder of In Pursuit of Tea
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Free shipping over $50 use code: Springforward
Offer Good Through: April 30, 2011
Eli Broad on 60 Minutes
I don't care if he's a control freak; I just love that he's giving all his money away (and building a museum on that parking lot in our backyard.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363716n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
(Thanks, Matt!)
April 22, 2011
Dark Contrasts: The Paradox of High Rates of Suicide in Happy Places
A new study, with only speculation as to the "why." (Thanks, Stacie!)
Excerpt:
"The happiest countries and happiest U.S. states tend to have the highest suicide rates, according to research from the UK's University of Warwick, Hamilton College in New York and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
The new research paper titled "Dark Contrasts: The Paradox of High Rates of Suicide in Happy Places" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. It uses U.S. and international data, which included first-time comparisons of a newly available random sample of 1.3 million Americans, and another on suicide decisions among an independent random sample of approximately 1 million Americans.
The research confirmed a little known and seemingly puzzling fact: many happy countries have unusually high rates of suicide. This observation has been made from time to time about individual nations, especially in the case of Denmark. This new research found that a range of nations — including: Canada, the United States, Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland, display relatively high happiness levels and yet also have high suicide rates. Nevertheless the researchers note that, because of variation in cultures and suicide-reporting conventions, such cross-country scatter plots are only suggestive. To confirm the relationship between levels of happiness and rates of suicide within a geographical area, the researchers turned to two very large data sets covering a single country, the United States."
April 21, 2011
#3goodthings
*the sun breaking through the clouds while I was swimming
*the first sighting of jacaranda in bloom (on Flower Street, really!) on my way to the library
*communing over a meal with friends at the Downtown Women's Center with ladies who are exactly like us, only less fortunate
#3goodthings
The blog tour, continued
Welcome to modern publishing. As part of my "blog tour" I Skyped in to a book club in Greenville, South Carolina tonight. Hosted by Kathy, who also blogs about books at http://www.bermudaonion.net. I could have talked to those women for hours! (Instead we stopped at just close to 75 minutes.)
One has a son studying to be a Tibetan monk in India; another woman told me all about the magic and mysticism of Fairfield, Iowa, and all the others were just plain interested, engaged and fun.
Hands down the best reward for being sequestered for a year writing a book….is getting to meet new people because of it. Even if it's sometimes just virtually!
April 20, 2011
Trip to #Bhutan: $4
If you want to see how the majority of the population in the Kingdom of Bhutan lives, told through the eyes of a little boy in a village, check out this wonderful half hour documentary that you can download online, PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE, or, Yongten Gi Kawa. 
It's about a little boy, the son of subsistence farmers, who walks hours to school each day in Trongsa, a spectacularly magnificent part of the world that any visitor invariably oohs and ahhs over. But where life is very hard.
It'll cost you $4 to access it, but you'll be supporting a Bhutanese artist and at the same time traveling to another place that seems like it's in another time, without leaving your computer.
Words can't do this captivating film justice, and by the end you'll probably want to hop the next plane and go give this lovely child socks, shoes, a bunch of food, and a very big hug, for he spends many nights alone while his family tends the land to protect it from pillaging by animals.
The film has won a variety of awards, and awards don't mean much to me typically as a determining factor, but when you see it you'll understand why.
Phones in Bhutan
A report in the Bhutan Observer says that 58% of the people in the country now have cell phones, and landlines are a dwindling phenomenon. Not that they ever made it so big there in the first place!
For more on cell phone wars in Bhutan, here my favorite story about Bhutan that I did for Marketplace about cell phone competition.
According to the Observer story:
"Fixed line connections peaked in 2005 with 32,709 subscribers. Since then, the number started declining to 31,536 in 2006, to 26,348 in 2009 and 26,292 in 2010. This was because of the growing popularity of mobile service among both urban and rural population.
In 2010, mobile cellular subscribers increased by over 21 percent. By December, the subscriber base of mobile users was 394,316 of which 312,316 were B-Mobile users and 82,000 TashiCell users.
In 2010, 197 gewogs out of 205 got access to fixed line telephone and 200 gewogs had access to mobile services."
Why your negative outlook is killing your career
"Bad news, pessimists: A growing body of scientific research reveals an indisputable connection between a positive attitude and career success. Take these five actions to start seeing your glass as half-full and watch your productivity and prospects rise, experts say."
