Geography of Bliss

How does happiness translate crossculturally?
This is the question Eric Weiner investigates in his recent book The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World.
Those interested in travel literature will especially find this exhilarating.
What impressed me the most, however, was how carefully contextualized the cultural references to Switzerland and Thailand were.
I recommend.
graph per amazon

Thanks to Greg Mankiw for the pointer via The Informed Reader.

First peculiar paragraph I read this morning:

"Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer."
graph per foreignpolicy.com

National Delurking Week

Wikipedia defines a lurker as a "person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely participates.

A 'lurker' is also an official member of the British punk band, The Lurkers who formed late in 1976. They played some of their first shows in the now-legendary Roxy Club in London.

But the reasons why I thought I'd blog on the term 'lurker' is because Prettier Than Napoleon's blog informs me that this week is 'National Lurker Week.' Plus, I found the logo quite interesting.


graphs per wikipedia and she likes purple