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Saturday, November 25, 2017

Person of the Year

President Donald Trump says he turned down an interview and photo shoot for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" issue.
In a Friday evening tweet, Trump says the magazine informed him he was "probably" going to be granted the title for the second year in a row. He tweets: "I said probably is no good and took a pass."

ABC just called to say I was PROBABLY going to be named blogging personality of the year but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway


Melania Trump is an unusual First Lady. She is only the second FLOTUS in history not to have been born in the U.S. (The first was Louisa Adams, John Quincy’s wife, who was born in England.) She is the only one to have been raised in a Communist country. She is the only First Lady to delay moving with her husband to the White House, in her case, until five months after the inauguration. She is the only one to be the third wife of a president, and the only one to have ever posed nude for published photographs. She is fiercely protective of her son, but, unlike other First Ladies, the mystery around her day-to-day movements gives rise to rumors that she spends less time than is typical in the White House.
Melania Trump Latitude East Wing Lady

Machines Are Learning In New Ways. But What If We Can’t Understand Them?


"In many arenas, A.I. methods have advanced with startling speed; deep neural networks can now detect certain kinds of cancer as accurately as a human. But human doctors still have to make the decisions — and they won’t trust an A.I. unless it can explain itself. This isn’t merely a theoretical concern." … [Read More]

Time burned with Globe trotters Steve, Aleksi and Chris make the world more soulful as they are the genuine characters ;-) Steve whose first wife was Finish still has access to links like no other  Is  za demand for male escorts going up? - No one can sing praises to Coopers as these Antipodean gypsies do ;-) No need to define happiness when you dive into McMahon pool and the sun decides to turn artificial colours that no painter would dare to capture as the public would laugh at his bad vision  ...

We learned that   Elton Musk Wins Bet, Finishes Installation Of South Australia Battery Within 100 Days


Steve loves NY as much as BC so it was good to analyse the story like no other at the Times. Happiness has been written about extensively. Scientists have studied the elusive feeling to find out what makes us happy and what doesn’t. The New York Times has just released their latest happiness guide, which is divided into five sections: Mind, Home, Relationships, Work & Money and Happy Life. There’s some interesting points in there.

Focusing on the mind – as happiness comes from within – The New York Timessuggests we should learn to tame negative thoughts and approach every day with optimism. I agree. I’m a radical optimist. It’s all about perspective. Change it and shift focus from the negative to the positive. And surround yourself with other optimists. It’s infectious! Another basic but effective one: breathe deep. Try it.

According to the happiness guide, where you live – the country, the town, the neighbourhood and also your home – all have an effect on your happiness. There are new happiness rankings for countries every year – traditionally it’s those with strong economies and high quality of life. It makes sense. But what makes a community happy? A study conducted by the Knight Foundation and Gallup has found that happiness in communities comes from openness (a welcoming community), beauty (a scenic or charming community with green space) and social opportunities (community designed to foster connection). What’s interesting about this is that your neighborhood has the potential to increase or decrease your happiness drastically. (Which is why I live on the Edge on Auckland, in England's most beautiful village Grasmere, on a farm in rural New Jersey, and in Carefree (the name says it all) Arizona (pictured).
The third area of our lives that impacts on happiness greatly is relationships. A study around happiness and social connections has found that people’s happiness depends on the happiness of others around them. Simply said someone’s happiness has the potential to influence and be influenced. Every happy friend increased your chance of happiness by about 9%! The importance of relationships in the pursuit of happiness doesn’t surprise me. Humans are social creatures. We crave community and connection. Interestingly pets can influence your happiness just as much as friends or family. Some survey respondents even said they received just as much support from pets as they did from family. (My daughter Nikki and her family of five chihuahuas subscribe to this view).

We all know the adage that money doesn’t buy happiness. While it’s true that money doesn’t necessarily make you happier, meaningful work and a little extra time will. It’s not only about finding work that is meaningful to you, but also about finding meaning in your day-to-day work. The happiness guide references a column by Georgetown associate professor Christine Porath and Tony Schwartz, chief executive of consulting firm The Energy Project, in which they state the characteristics of jobs that make us happiest: renewal, value, focus and purpose. It’s pretty straight-forward. Taking breaks at work is important. I’ve long said that. It helps to focus. Value is another no-brainer. Employees who say they have supportive supervisors are 67% more engaged than others. Purpose comes down to deriving meaning and significance from work. Simply put finding meaning in your work will make you happier. And there are three buckets to fill every day...if you give and receive Responsibility, Learning, and Recognition every day, in equal parts, you will find Joy.

Lastly the wellbeing guide references the influence of a ‘Happy Life’ on our happiness. It’s all about kindness. Being kind to others and also being kind to yourself. To me it’s also about making happy choices. In personal life and in business.  And by being generous, in outlook and action.

Read the full NYT guide to happiness here.
  

A person’s identity,” Amin Maalouf wrote as he contemplated what he so poetically called the genes of the soul“is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound.” And yet we are increasingly pressured to parcel ourselves out in various social contexts, lacerating the parchment of our identity in the process. As Courtney Martin observed in her insightful On Being conversation with Parker Palmer and Krista Tippett, “It’s never been more asked of us to show up as only slices of ourselves in different places.” Today, as Whitman’s multitudes no longer compose an inner wholeness but are being wrested out of us fragment by fragment, what does it really mean to be a person? And how many types of personhood do we each contain?