Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for October, 2009

Pretty, printable, positive booklet

Posted in Freebies, Printables on October 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Since starting this blog for myself, I’ve been surprised by how powerful it is simply to have a place where I save pretty photos, link to things I like or pat myself on the back for projects I’ve done well.  Add the benefits of focusing on positive news to the power of actually writing something down, plus pretty visuals…

Sample pages, where you can write down 'five good things' each day.

Sample pages, where you can write down ‘five good things’ each day.

and you get this charming booklet, which Whisker Graphics is giving away for free. A lovely thought and a lovely design. Definitely, go to their page and download it, look around and appreciate.

Read Full Post »

Mini-Colosseum found at Roman palace

Posted in History, Rome on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Private games were held, probably for emperors, at a personal Colosseum found inside a “gigantic imperial palace” near the present-day Fiumicino airport, which serves Rome. The London Times has pictures. Accounts say it’s lavishly built with luxury materials and seats 2,000.

Clearly, the forerunner of the modern home theater. Who needs plasma when you can screen the action in life-size 3-D?

Read Full Post »

Facebook tracks national happiness

Posted in Sky and Science on October 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Pretty interesting. Facebook announced today that it tracks the aggregate mood of the country, based on the negative or positive words that millions of Facebookers use in their updates. The blog where I first read of it, ReadWriteWeb, does some interesting probing into possible ramifications of this and of the data that Facebook is NOT sharing.

Turns out, for example, we were happier on Thanksgiving than on Christmas, according to their chart. And other tidbits are in there. I assume we’ll start to see periodic references to this in news stories that already bandy about “the mood of the country,” though Facebook users cannot be a wholly representative sample.

I’m fascinated by the study of happiness — as carried out by this professor, for one, at Cal State-Long Beach, whose Web site offers a questionnaire to evaluate your condition and thoughtful words on what makes up happiness. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.