Smile: You're not an island, and sin is not isolate. What you do makes a difference, whether you know it or not. Science is beginning to get it: happiness is contagious.
"We found that social networks have clusters of happy and unhappy people within them that reach out to three degrees of separation. A person's happiness is related to the happiness of their friends, their friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends–that is, to people well beyond their social horizon. We found that happy people tend to be located in the center of their social networks and to be located in large clusters of other happy people. And we found that each additional happy friend increases a person's probability of being happy by about 9%."
(Perhaps the most eudemon-like item I've ever posted.)
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Some good late night humor out there lately:
"You folks seem like you're in the holiday spirit ... did you just come from a Walmart stampede?" Letterman.
"McDonald's is reporting that despite the bad economy, their domestic sales were up last month. Which just goes to show you a great thing about our country ”“ you're never too poor to get fat." O'Brien.
"Paris Hilton is lobbying to play Tinkerbell in a new movie version of Peter Pan. In the Paris Hilton version, Tinkerbell would spread pixie dust as well as a troublesome rash." O'Brien.
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Only in Michigan, but it didn't occur in that outpost we call the "UP." This happened in the middle of the state:
[A] deer crashed through a window and into [a fourth grade] classroom.
The six-point buck sent chairs, desks, books and shards of glass flying. A boy suffered a small cut to his head, but there were no serious injuries. . . .
[The principal] says the teacher stayed cool, instructing her 23 startled students to drop to the floor as the deer bounded across the room. She then led the children into the hallway.
I'm kinda surprised the teacher didn't pull a shotgun from under her desk, plug the beast, then field dress it right there in the classroom.
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Only 15 days until Christmas. Don't forget to use the Amazon link on the right when going into Amazon. Many thanks.
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How big is Wal-Mart? According to Snopes, most of these statistics are accurate:
1 . At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
2 . This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.
8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.
11. This year , 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.
