If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year.
Video Game Bosses Lament: They’re starting to see a pattern… Digg it if you like it!
This is fantastic for all of us who’ve lost count of how many pixelated enemies we’ve bopped on the head.
Source: collegehumor
Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t.
Source: karri
This is an interesting diagram because it illustrates how objective information can be displayed in a manner that influences your perception of the data.
In the first three vote blocks, the dividing line between “Yay” and “Nay” is drawn in the middle of the “split” party, indicating there are party members on both sides of the debate. However, in the final vote block on Heathcare Reform, the creator of this diagram has specifically arranged the colors such that the Yay/Nay dividing line runs directly between the parties, with the dissenting Democrats hidden off to the right side. Thus, the Heathcare Reform vote appears more partisan and divisive than it actually was.
(diagram via shaunbwilson, from www.politicalmathblog.com)
Source: politicalmathblog.com
Flickr Flow / Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg (click through for full color wheel)
“Using an algorithm developed for the WIRED Anniversary visualization, our software calculated the relative proportions of different colors seen in photos taken in each month of the year, and plotted them on a wheel. The image below is an early sketch from the piece. Summer is at the top, with time proceeding clockwise.”
Source: hint.fm
The water utiity in Edmonton, EPCOR, published the most incredible graph of water consumption last week. By now you’ve probably heard that up to 80% of Canadians were watching last Sunday’s gold medal Olympic hockey game. So I guess it stands to reason that they’d all go pee between periods.
But still—the degree to which the water consumption matches with the key breaks in the hockey game is stunning.
Do You Know The Difference Between A Browser and a Search Engine?
Only 8% of the people surveyed in Times Square are able to distinguish between a browser and a search engine.
Source: feld.com
Unsolicited Analysis: Annie Hall
The movie that beat the infinitely more important and influential Star Wars for best picture. Remember Annie Hall? No? Yup.
This “little guy, big guy” is nonsense. It’s crap. The Hurt Locker was made for 11 million dollars and made nearly 200MM dollars. The idea that this is some tiny film from nowhere “taking down” the best picture of 2009 is completely ludicrous.
For some reason, “sticking it” to Avatar became immensely popular, because it was big. In the spirit of populism, people rallied behind other films because they seemed to represent fiscal challengers to Avatar’s budget, which is the least relevant aspect of film-making. How is the trail being blazed here any different than The Blain Witch Project? Y Tu Mama Tambien? Pan’s Labyrinth? Little Miss Sunshine? There’s an “indie” darling every year, and the most cynical thing about it was that any non-Avatar winner would have been heaped with indie praise. You tell those big studios, Film X!
Here’s the thing. Paul Blart: Mall Cop still gets made no matter what a bunch of bought-and-paid-for Academics think. I can’t help but feel that when we’re watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3D next year, we’ll all be thinking of naked, blue people. That’s because what James Cameron did with Avatar was important, and groundbreaking, and infinitely more deserving than the achingly average liberal comfort food that won Best Picture this year.
Further into irrelevance with the Oscars, then, which will be rated highly specifically because of the attention on Avatar and the crowds of coastals who sneered every time it picked up an award. You’re all rather ridiculous, those of you who hate the “size” of such things. Paths are blazed by great, grinding machines, not solitary wanderers. It is fitting that 2009’s great “marvel” film will blaze the 3D trail in a similar manner to the film most like it. After all, what’s precedent worth if not followed?
