text:
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Books of the year 2012, and Happy New Year!
Think of Number - John Verdon- A good mystery, the puzzle was great. The characters were interesting and well-defined. The only problem was the writing, which improved as the book went on. I liked the main character, Dave Gurney, but thought some of his psychological awareness at first was slightly manipulated. By the end of the book this was worked out and I ended up really enjoying this first mystery. His wife Madeleine was fascinating and very well-drawn. Dave is a retired detective, a cerebral intelligent detective whose greatest strengths are his logic and ability to put facts together quickly. It was fun watching him guess how the letters were done. I guessed the reveal before it happened, though this only added to the enjoyment (it was only a little before it was revealed, though I had my suspicions for a while). I will be seeking out the second one, after April 1 when the Double Dog Dare is over.
2012 in Review
So I ended up reading 71 books in total. Not a great year, though given my personal life last year, I am satisfied to get that many read. I had set the goal of 100 books to be read, which now looks like a perpetual goal, one I want to achieve every year. Last year was closest, at 97 books read.
Mysteries: 28
Science Fiction: 9
Fantasy: 8
horror: 4
Graphic Novels:2
Childrens: 7
Non-fiction: 2
Fiction: 3
classics: 1
Male 31 *
Female 41*
Looking at those numbers, I can see I continue my trend of reading 3:1 mysteries to anything else, which is why my goal is to read 50 mysteries a year. Science fiction took a lovely jump thanks to Carl's wonderful Sci-Fi experience, which I am joining again this year. Horror dropped as well, as most of the sf I read was dystopian fiction which satisfied my craving for end of the world disaster novels (mirroring my psychological state last year). I am still interested in dystopian fiction very much, I enjoyed all the books I read in this genre so much.
I am sad that classics dropped even lower. I only finished one of the three I started - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I am reading Les Miserables slowly, and have started Moby Dick as well. So one of my goals will be to increase my classics this year.
I read slightly more female than male writers. *Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall counted for one each, as a husband and wife writing team.
For fun I have broken this down for the first time into authors nationalities, where in the world was I reading this past year?
Canada: 5
Norway: 2
Sweden: 2
Iceland: 1
Ireland: 1
Australia: 1
Normally I have books from France, South Africa, and more from Iceland and Sweden on my list. For simplicity's sake I took all the Great Britain Isles together, but on the whole it would be slightly more in favour of England to Scotland. Again, Sweden got two votes, for Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. I need to radically increase my books read from other countries! And my own nation.
So overall, I didn't read as widely as I wanted to, nor in as much as I aimed for. I failed at almost every challenge I joined, though that hasn't stopped me from enlisting in a few already this year! Most of all, I enjoyed so many of the books I read this year. It was very difficult to get my books of the year in order, but finally, here they are, my
Books of the Year - 2012 -
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
Among Others - Jo Walton
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
White Pine - Mary Oliver
Seraphina - Rachel Hartmann
Sovereign - C.J Sansom
Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny
The Black House - Peter May
Roseanna - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeiffer
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Honourable mentions to: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Reviews will follow of the four I didn't manage to review, which I certainly want to. They were each marvelous reads, thrilling, and I could have sworn I did review two of them.......
Happy New Year, Gentle Readers. I hope many pleasurable hours of reading are ahead of you, and many delightful new books to discover, for 2013.
17 comments:
- Andrea said...
Happy New Year! Have you seen the Dystopia Challenge? I'm signing up this year. http://bookishardour.com/dystopia/
- 1 January 2013 at 13:59
- Chris Howard said...
You had a FANTASTIC year Susan :D Wishing you the absolute best in 2013 because you so so so deserve nothing but the best my friend :) <3
- 1 January 2013 at 18:05
- Cath said...
Great post. You did really well! I can't decide whether to join the sci fi experience or not this year.
Dark Matter and A Room Full of Bones would be in my top 10 as well. Two terrific books. And you know I agree about The Black House. Seraphina is sitting on my library pile right now. LOL
Happy New year to you, Susan.
- 1 January 2013 at 18:39
- Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness) said...
Even if you didn't read quite as many books as you wanted to, if the quality was good then I think that's a win. I have a perpetual goal of 100 books too; it's a nice, round number :)
- 1 January 2013 at 20:18
- Trish said...
I hope that you're able to achieve the 100 books this year! If you ever need feeling better, just remember my goal is 24 books. ;) Like you I'd definitely like to read more classics, though.
I hope you enjoy Les Miserables. It took me 5 months to read a few years ago but I LOVED it. I closed the cover and immediately wanted to read it again (except maybe the abridged version).
Happy new year Susan!
- 1 January 2013 at 21:26
Ooooh good list of 2012 bests. I read Moving Mars years ago and loved it so much that I went on. Greg Bear reading kick for what seemed like years. Also loved the Michelle Paver, looking forward to some good creepy reads this year!
- 2 January 2013 at 03:46
- Literary Feline said...
I am glad you enjoyed Think of a Number. I really liked Madeleine too.
It looks like you had a great reading year, Susan. I read a lot more mysteries than I have previously--and had so much fun doing so.
I hope you have a great New Year, Susan! Happy Reading.
- 2 January 2013 at 12:44
- Kathleen said...
Happy New Year and Happy Reading Susan! All the best for 2013!
- 2 January 2013 at 16:33
- Susan said...
Andrea: Happy New Year to you too! A Dystopia challenge - I will check it out. Thanks so much!
Chris: Yes, it does feel like a good, solid reading year, looking at what I read. Thanks so much for wishing me all the best, you know you deserve the same, plus some happiness to come your way :-)
Cath: You did really well in the sci fi experience last year, you know.....;-)
You and I read some of the same books last year and it is lovely that we both loved them! So I have high hopes for Seraphina for you. Also, we have to finish MOrville Hours and do our post :-) together. So goals for this year already! lol
Happy New year to you too, Cath, thanks.
Kim: I am beginning to realize that it's enjoying what we read and reading as much as we want to (and can) that counts the most. I'm happy that I've been able to find more and more reading time, which was one of my real goals in pushing for 100 books a year.
It will be a perpetual goal, just because of that, and also - you're right, it's such a nice round number :-)
Trish: I do feel better about your goal! lol Though, do remember Trish, one day your little one will be older, and you will find reading time again. This time is precious, and already I am wishing I had read more with my kids.
I am thrilled to hear you loved Les Miserables, that is so encouraging! and lol to the abridged version this time. Though I think reading it through once is good, then abridged is fine. One can only read so much about sewers, after all. Have you seen the movie or the play yet? So many people I know here are going to the movie version.
Happy New Year to you too, Trish :-)
bride: ooh, a Greg Bear reading kick! Funny that, I've been picking up books of his here and there now too! lol
What good creepy reads do you have this year? You know you have the most awesome taste in this area.
Literary Feline: do you find that having your challenge last year - which I'm so sorry I failed at completing! I really like it - helped you read more mysteries? Or is it the blogging community? Which mysteries do you like best? Some other bloggers have said the same thing to me, that they didn't read a lot of mysteries before, and now they find they do. I'm reading more sci fi than ever before.....its' funny what blogging here does to our reading, and I think it's one of the things I was looking for, anyway, to connect with other over books, and through books. :-) So thanks for the review about the Verdon book - either you or Sam Chase gave the review that got me looking for it.
Happy New year too :-)
Kathleen: Thank you so much! Happy New year to you too.
- 2 January 2013 at 23:44
- Carl V. said...
So happy that you liked Among Others so well.
I read my first Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three, a few years back and liked it a great deal. I'll be reading him again in the future.
- 4 January 2013 at 15:22
- Susan said...
Carl: I loved Among Others! I so wished I could have read it as a teenager, it would have had such an impact on me then. It was such a fun book lovers (sci fi especially) book, wasn't it? I think I will be rereading it again soon, just for the pleasure of it.
I hope you try Moving Mars next, it was so very good.
- 5 January 2013 at 01:01
- Ana @ things mean a lot said...
I love your list, and I definitely need to get around to reading Dark Matter. Happy reading in 2013, Susan!
- 6 January 2013 at 04:37
- Susan said...
Ana: Thank you! Yes, you do need to read it :-)
- 18 January 2013 at 19:32
- ninest123 said...
louboutin, replica watches, ray ban sunglasses, longchamp outlet, air max, cheap oakley sunglasses, sac longchamp, louis vuitton, louis vuitton, oakley sunglasses, oakley sunglasses, louis vuitton, polo ralph lauren outlet, nike air max, tiffany and co, uggs on sale, louis vuitton outlet, ugg boots, nike free, ray ban sunglasses, replica watches, louboutin outlet, longchamp, ray ban sunglasses, nike roshe run, louis vuitton outlet, polo ralph lauren outlet, jordan shoes, louboutin pas cher, longchamp pas cher, gucci outlet, kate spade outlet, tory burch outlet, tiffany jewelry, prada outlet, air jordan pas cher, louboutin shoes, chanel handbags, nike air max, prada handbags, michael kors, christian louboutin outlet, burberry, longchamp outlet, ralph lauren pas cher, ugg boots, nike outlet, nike free, oakley sunglasses, oakley sunglasses
- 13 July 2016 at 23:07
- ninest123 said...
nike free run uk, tn pas cher, ray ban uk, coach outlet, true religion outlet, sac guess, hermes, true religion jeans, true religion jeans, ugg boots, hollister, converse pas cher, air force, timberland, nike air max, ugg boots, new balance pas cher, nike blazer, michael kors outlet, michael kors outlet, north face, nike air max, vans pas cher, michael kors, michael kors, michael kors, abercrombie and fitch, coach purses, oakley pas cher, michael kors outlet, nike roshe, burberry outlet online, vanessa bruno, michael kors outlet, burberry, michael kors outlet, mulberry, kate spade handbags, hollister pas cher, nike air max, hogan, lululemon, coach outlet, north face, ralph lauren uk, true religion jeans, lacoste pas cher, ray ban pas cher, replica handbags, michael kors
- 13 July 2016 at 23:13
- ninest123 said...
nike roshe, oakley, babyliss, gucci, valentino shoes, north face outlet, ghd, chi flat iron, insanity workout, lancel, baseball bats, new balance, nike air max, lululemon, nike huarache, hollister, beats by dre, giuseppe zanotti, celine handbags, herve leger, hollister, ferragamo shoes, timberland boots, soccer shoes, birkin bag, north face outlet, reebok shoes, converse outlet, mcm handbags, iphone cases, soccer jerseys, nike trainers, abercrombie and fitch, asics running shoes, nike air max, p90x workout, wedding dresses, ray ban, mont blanc, instyler, jimmy choo shoes, vans shoes, hollister, nfl jerseys, louboutin, ralph lauren, mac cosmetics, bottega veneta, longchamp, vans
- 13 July 2016 at 23:16
- ninest123 said...
moncler, moncler, moncler, canada goose, doudoune canada goose, marc jacobs, pandora jewelry, juicy couture outlet, canada goose, canada goose outlet, hollister, swarovski, moncler, canada goose, sac louis vuitton pas cher, louis vuitton, ugg,ugg australia,ugg italia, louis vuitton, pandora charms, karen millen, ugg,uggs,uggs canada, moncler, montre pas cher, toms shoes, supra shoes, coach outlet, moncler, canada goose, bottes ugg, replica watches, ugg pas cher, moncler outlet, ugg boots uk, wedding dresses, pandora charms, louis vuitton, canada goose uk, juicy couture outlet, thomas sabo, swarovski crystal, canada goose outlet, links of london, pandora jewelry, louis vuitton, moncler
- 13 July 2016 at 23:17


text:
Topics range from grid adaptation, Winslow elliptic smoothing, overset grid assembly using Suggar++ and application of T-Rex hybrid meshing for complex internal flows.
A complete list of presentation topics and presenter biographies is available at the Pointwise User Group Meeting website, www.pointwise.com/ugm.
The Pointwise User Group Meeting is an opportunity to bring together our customers, partners, and staff in a forum specifically designed for the sharing of information, said John Chawner, president of Pointwise. In the past, each presentation has provided valuable insight into how we can make our products better so that in turn our customers can do better CFD. We expect nothing less from this years event.
The Pointwise User Group Meeting 2013 will be at the Embassy Suites-Fort Worth, Downtown. There is a special group hotel rate for the event, plus an early discount of 24 percent for those who register by 8 February. Registration and other information about the event is available at www.pointwise.com/ugm.
Pointwise, Inc. is solving the top problem facing engineering analysts today mesh generation for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The companys Pointwise software generates structured, unstructured and hybrid meshes; interfaces with CFD solvers, such as ANSYS FLUENT, STAR-CCM+, ANSYS CFX and OpenFOAM as well as many neutral formats, such as CGNS; runs on Windows (Intel and AMD), Linux (Intel and AMD), and Mac, and has a scripting language, Glyph, that can automate CFD meshing. Large manufacturing firms and research organizations worldwide rely on Pointwise as their complete CFD preprocessing solution.
More information about Pointwise is available at www.pointwise.com.
Pointwise is a registered trademark and Pointwise Glyph and T-Rex are trademarks of Pointwise, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owner.
[ Post Comment ]
< csimsoft Releases Next Generation Pre-Processor | Best Practices for Forced Convection Simulations >

subset: commoncrawl


text:
CosPlay Contest
One of the most fun traditions at MileHiCon is the CosPlay Contest (Masquerade). We will again have an excellent light and sound setup, experienced stage staff, and all kinds of help for both the experienced and inexperienced costumers.
Best of Show—$50
First Place—$25
Registering for the Contest
To pre-register for the CosPlay Costume download and complete the appropriate form below. Pre-Registration is HIGHLY recommended!
NOTE: Additional forms will need to be completed in person at the convention, you MUST check-in at the Masquerade table in the Second-floor atrium on Saturday between 10am and 2pm to participate.
Complete one of these online forms by October 23rd
Master Entry online form - for those 13 yrs old and up that have won before
Youth Entry online form - from newborn to age 13 with no prior winning experience
Journeyman Entry online form - from 13 yrs old and up with no winning experience. Also includes youths who have won before
Group Entry online form - 2 or more people together
2018 - Mile Hi Con 50 Winners
2018 Best of Show - The Sergeant Major's Return
2018 Kids Costume Contest Winner - Dragon Angel
|2018 First Place Winner - He-Man's Sorceress
2017 - MileHiCon 49 Winners
Click the thumbnail to view a larger version of the picture
|Best of Show
|1st Place - Masters Division
|2nd Place - Masters Division
|1st Place - Child Division
|2nd Place - Child Division
|Judges Choice - CB
|Judges Choice - HS
|Judges Choice - ST
|Judges Choice - TB


text:
How much do I eat a day?
Estimated daily calorie intake is based on an individual's age, gender, and activity level (sedentary to active). Most of today's nutritional values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet; however, for most of us, we vary from this value.
Sedentary means a lifestyle that includes only the light physical activity associated with typical day-to-day life.
Active means a lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour , in addition to the light physical activity associated with typical day-to-day life.
Waist Circumference
In addition to Body Mass Index, individual waist circumference can be a good predictor of body fatness and risk for chronic diseases. Research has shown that abdominal fat (fat in your mid-section) is a good predictor of risk for obesity-related diseases.
The following information will help you measure and determine your waist circumference.
Measuring Tape Position for Waist (Abdominal) Circumference
Health Assessments - Calculate Your BMI
Assessing your own risk for overweight and obesity is the first step in adopting a healthier lifestyle or ensuring that you are on the right track. Check here for a Body Mass Index Calculator and Waist Circumference Measures, as well as, definitions for moderate and vigorous activity and to find out how much you should be eating in a day.
|Weight Status
|Below 18.5
|18.5 - 24.9
|25.0 - 29.9
|30.0 and Above
Body Mass Index is commonly used to assess one's relative risk for health problems related to excess overweight and obesity. BMI is calculated using a person's height and weight.
BMI measurements are widely used and the correlation of BMI and body fatness is fairly strong. However, they do have some limitations. A BMI score is not a direct measure of fatness. It is a measurement based on weight which accounts for both muscle and fat. It does not account for muscle mass, water retention, or body build. For example, a body builder would have a higher BMI (based on height and weight) but not be overweight.


text:
HOLLYWOOD — Back in 1977, before he wrote the first episode of Dallas, David Jacobs composed a 12-page history of his characters. It covered the origins of the fiery Ewing-Barnes feud that has fueled the CBS prime-time soap opera for eight years now: how partners Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes had a falling out during the 1930s over their oil business and their love for the same woman, Ellie Southworth.
Jacobs intended nothing more for it than background. ''I always write back-story,'' he says. ''I just enjoy it. It's more novelistic, and it helps me to know where everyone came from.''


text:
Just barely into its first season, The Naked Brothers Band is gearing up for The Naked Brothers' Greatest Hits Marathon. From 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday June 22, Nickelodeon is airing back-to-back eps, in addition to a new episode titled 'The Song' at 8 p.m.
A special airing of The Naked Brothers Band – The Movie, complete with on-screen karaoke-style lyrics, will follow that broadcast. Nick is also encouraging viewers to submit lyric and subject ideas online. Naked Brothers Nat and Alex will perform the resulting song requests throughout the marathon.


text:
What are Hemorrhoids (or Piles)?
Hemorrhoids are swollen or inflamed blood vessels within the posterior anal region. It can be internal (in the posterior lower rectum) or external (under the skin around the anus). These two types of hemorrhoids may occur simultaneously.
Rectal bleeding is usually not painful, all throughout the bowel session. This is an ordinary hemorrhoid symptom. After the bowel movement, the tissue used in wiping the anus may contain red blood. In accordance with the volume, it is quite small. But even a small amount of blood, it can appear like a red tinge on water and can alert the person.
Bleeding is commonly not that serious. However, in a small chance, high amount of blood caused by rectal bleeding can result to anemia.
It's hard to know the real root cause of a rectal bleeding, so if you are experiencing it, it's best to consult a licensed medical practitioner and undergo a thorough examination.
Patients may experience one or more hemorrhoid symptoms depending if it's internal or external.
Hemorrhoids Symptoms
Hemorrhoids are easily identified as they are usually felt like a lump protruding from the lining of the anus. It's size, number, and shape may differ from one patient to another.
The size can be uncomfortably large like a walnut, and it can be also as small as the tip of a kidney bean. Some patient may have numerous amount of hemorrhoid while other only have one depending on the result of diagnosis. Hemorrhoids may appear with a round surface, while other have a creased texture.
Hemorrhoids can form outside the anus, thus called external hemorrhoids. This type of hemorrhoids can be seen and touched as they are visible with their basic characteristic. The other one is the internal hemorrhoids. This one are hidden inside the rectum. which can be unnoticed for sometime.
There are certain characteristic that differs between the classification of hemorrhoids.
- Bright pink/red hemorrhoids can be a prolapsed internal hemorrhoids.
- Purplish hemorrhoids are usually coagulated hemorrhoids.
- Green/Brown hemorrhoids are the common external hemorrhoids.
Hemorrhoids symptoms are extremely bothersome for most sufferers as they tend to be very uncomfortable. It renders the patient ill tempered and may easily lose focus.
Hemorrhoids can be so unbearably painful!. Patients tend to search for fast acting medications for stopping the pain as they might be experiencing a tearing feeling in the opening of the anus.
Difficulty on bowel movement is also a noticeable symptom of hemorrhoids as the lump blocks the passageway. Straining too hard on bowel movement tends to add further damage to the hemorrhoids as the stool passes the anus.
Another annoying symptom is the itchiness of the hemorrhoids. You can't focus to anything because the hemorrhoids keeps itching, and there is the urge to scratch it. Although it gives a temporary ease, it is not recommended to scratch the hemorrhoid as it just produce more irritation. Irritation can be also a symptom of parasitic worms rather than hemorrhoids. In this case, a medical examination is necessary.
Hemorrhoids symptoms can be one or more of the following:
- Painful bowel movement
- Itchiness
- Small bulb flesh on the anus
- Blood in stool
Hemorrhoids Causes
There are different causes of hemorrhoids, but what really happens is that the blood flow in the veins situated around the rectal area are being pressured, resulting into the veins to swell.
Constipation are usually the main cause of hemorrhoids. Straining the bowel movement will create pressure. Thus, constantly straining may cause inflammation and irritation, putting stress on the blood vessels. Blood may be present on the feces or in the water as pressure disrupt the normal flow in the veins and may be ruptured. In this case, you be obligated to practice healthy methods to avoid constipation. Constipation may be caused by the lack of fiber in diet.
Hemorrhoids during pregnancy can be caused by many reasons. For example, the blood vessels in the rectal area are irritated due to the constant tension. In return, you'll be hard to work as a result of the sharp rise in hormone levels in the blood vessels. This will result to the inflammation and irritation. This is a normal part of a pregnancy. It usually disappear after the delivery of the child.
To sum it up, patients who experience one or more of this hemorrhoids causes are more prone to hemorrhoids.
- Straining of bowel movement
- Constipation, stomach ache, or diarrhea
- Prolonged Sitting
- Old patients
- Having a pregnancy
- Patients with pelvic tumor
How to cure hemorrhoids?
First of all, there is no instant hemorrhoids cures other than surgical removal. Some light cases of hemorrhoids will heal with itself within a few weeks. It's possible for the hemorrhoids to reoccur, but even then, there is no reason for you to be embarrassed and stress as the hemorrhoid will dramatically return to normal by changing your diet and lifestyle.
Sometimes, hemorrhoids are chronic and in need of a lifetime maintenance of proper diet and lifestyle. Exercise, proper food, and natural remedies are still the best way to manage and cure mild hemorrhoids.
The following are some of the effective hemorrhoids cures depending on the type and severeness:
1) Sitz Bath
This is a process used to relieve discomfort caused by hemorrhoids in which the patient sits down in a bath tub or in a large basin. Some people prefer hot and cold water alternation. Sitz Baths increase the blood flow in the lower region of the body and it helps relieve irritation caused by hemorrhoids.
2) Herbal Cures
Herbal remedies is a mixture of different natural ingredients not only help increase your hemorrhoids healing manifestation through supplementation of nutrients, but also it strengthens blood vessels, reduce swelling, pain and it also help you defecate with ease. Selecting herbal cures should be carefully done because not all supplements are as effective as the others.
3) Fiber Rich Diet
Arguably, proper diet is one of the most practical hemorrhoids cures since not only it soften the stool, it will also helps reduce the hemorrhoids swelling since less pressure on the bowel movement.
4) Surgical Treatment
Surgical treatment will directly destroy your hemorrhoids, or cutting the extension so that it will be killed because of lack of blood supply, injection of medicine that eliminate it. Surgical procedures are conducted to instantly remove your hemorrhoids.


text:
It stands to reason that all human beings (assuming free of mental illness) want to be happy, content or at least have positive feelings and harmony in their lives. However, happiness is very subjective based on brain chemistry, individual mental state, and character disposition, none of which can be subject to public policy, except in so far as a country's health system and social programs are concerned. Happiness is also based on individual, family, community, religious or secular criteria that may include a combination of factors from health to money, from achieving one's career goals to securing upward social mobility for one's children, from mastering the complexities of quantum theory in physics to traveling around the world for the mere joy of it, and so much more.
It is also possible that some people may not want to entertain positive feelings, or be "happy" because negative feelings, lack of contentment or unhappiness provides an existential sense of being, feeling alive and empowered through negative energy because there is purpose in life for which to strive. There is also the element of happiness and cultural relativism that accounts for different perceptions of this concept in different cultures. What may constitute happiness for a Wall Street stock broker is not the same as a small farmer in Kazakhstan. As we will see below, the concept of happiness in the individualistic West is different than it is in societies where collectivist or communitarian values prevail. In all cases, of course, human beings have basic needs that must be met for survival and those essential common needs transcend cultural differences and nuances in what constitutes happiness.
Finally, there is the whole notion that happiness is an illusion like so many others people entertain in order to cope in life. If we accept that narcotics induce a sense of euphoria owing to stimulating effect and disruption of neurotransmission, then happiness as a state of mind may be another illusion that the media and societal institutions in general have inculcated into the mind of people. Can the state provide the illusion that people are happy? Of course it can and it always has by projecting an image of grandeur and the best possible society citizens can live in, an issue with which French thinker Voltaire dealt in his brilliant novel Candide. If government and its rulers endeavor to project the "best of all possible worlds" idea as Voltaire's novel satirizes, then people are either duped or they live vicariously through the lives of others who are satisfied with their lives.
Ideological commitments determine where scholars side on the controversial issue of public policy and human happiness. For some, there is a demarcation line between personal and societal welfare where public policy has no role to play in the personal domain for it would mean legislating morality. This reflects an ideological preference toward classical Liberalism, while those more accepting of collectivism in society see public policy as playing a role in both community and individual well-being. A Marxist and even some non-Marxist Socialist would argue that human happiness is economically determined and class based.
Depending on the ideology, so goes the analysis and conclusions about the merits of public policy and happiness. It must be stressed, however, that these are not absolute and constant concepts because the epoch and place determine their nature. Besides the issue of cultural relativism, all of this assumes rationality in human conduct when in fact that is not a valid assumption. The absurdity of society where everything from wars to individual violence takes place, from mass poverty to institutional prejudice poses monumental obstacles to human happiness. The question is whether government can and must help remove such obstacles to societal happiness by promoting greater social justice, even while religion and meditation offer spiritual comfort to help people cope individually.
Public Policy and Societal Happiness
Does public policy affect societal happiness or by contrast create or perpetuate societal misery? From ancient times to the present, many thinkers from different disciplines have argued this is indeed the case. Others insist that happiness is strictly an individual endeavor, thus happiness is strictly and individual matter and the domain of private morality and religion.
If public policy has a direct and indirect influence in peoples' quality of life, it is because of fiscal, economic, social, and foreign/defense policy. In this case, the role of the state becomes central to societal happiness or misery. If public policy benefits only a privileged segment in society, then it stands to reason that happiness is legislated for a narrow social group at the expense of the majority which remains in perpetual misery as a result of prejudicial public policy.
With the rise of mass politics in the 20th century, with capitalism weakening parliamentary democracy rooted in a social structure that requires a strong middle class base, there are scholars, politicians, journalists, trade unionists, students, and social activists arguing for public policy intended to engender societal happiness. More interested in social justice than they are in the success of market hegemony, critics of the dominant culture and capitalist political economy see public policy impeding societal happiness.
Although the mass media and politicians equate success and happiness with market performance, and although the market has a determining role in the lives of people around the world, happiness and the sense of satisfaction for the vast majority does not hinge as much on markets as on how public policy impacts them. At the broader societal level, happiness in civilized society has always been a matter of social justice.
The reality of mass uprisings throughout the Muslim world in the last few years (Arab Spring), mass demonstrations in the US (occupy Wall Street movement, among others) and EU (especially Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and France) against socioeconomic injustices and absence of political representation of all citizens, strikes and protests in Latin America (especially in Chile and Argentina) and Asia (especially Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and South China, Turkey, Cambodia, and Indonesia), all of these indicate a search on the part of those in the periphery of the institutional mainstream for social justice that many equate with societal happiness.
The challenge for politicians in the 20th century as the era of mass politics is to forge popular consensus in order to govern effectively under the umbrella of the market economy amid tensions between nations that case numerous wars. The challenge for political leaders in the 21st century remains essentially the same, except that the public, especially in Western democracies, is likely to make greater demands that public policy must meet the welfare of society and its broader happiness equated with a sense of fairness or social justice, and not special interests. The question of public policy and societal happiness or satisfaction as an integral part of the social contract is the key to successful government, more so today when instant global communications have raised the social consciousness of the masses.
While there is only one country, Bhutan, on the planet with a happiness index comparable to a GNP index, there is an underlying political interest on the happiness index as a measure of forging popular consensus. Just as some companies want happy and satisfied employees and customers, politicians wish the same for their constituents. Nevertheless, most politicians in the world today would oppose legislating "happiness" because it is an extremely high risk endeavor because this is the domain of utopian politics and an area filled with traps in case of failure to deliver on the social contract.
Regardless of a politician's predisposition on this issue, laws have a positive impact on some social groups and negative impact on others. After all, this idea is as old as ancient Athenian leader Solon "the Law Giver" (638-558 B.C.) who believed that good or harmonious laws (Eunomia) account for a harmonious and happy city-state, while bad or unfair laws (Dysnomia) result in chaos, misery and ultimately uprising of the citizens. Coming to power after the city-state was on the verge of revolution, Solon recognized that government has a role in social justice, which translates into harmony or disharmony in society and that in turn translates into happiness or unhappiness among the disparate segments of the population.
It may be realistic to believe that the political economy determines human satisfaction, positive emotions (happiness) or dissatisfaction or negative emotions (unhappiness) of citizens in the 21st century when markets dominate public life and influence institutional structures and societal values. (For more discussion on this see Benjamin Radcliff, The Political Economy of Human Happiness: How Voters' Choices Determine the Quality of Life (2013) However, it is realistic to expect the state to intervene in favor of citizens and not the markets because citizens may reach a point of destabilizing or even overthrowing the regime.
In public opinion polls, there seems to be a correlation between countries ranking low on the "happiness scale" and citizens disliking their governments. Therefore, misrule entails a disgruntled population in our time as much as in the time of Solon and the near civil war conditions, or 17th century England (Civil War and Glorious Revolution), 18th century France, 1789), 20th century Russia (Bolsheviks, 1917), China (Maoists, 1944-1949), and Cuba (Fidel Castro and Che Guevara Communists, 1950s).
Of course it must be stressed that societal happiness assumes a high level of national sovereignty where external forces do not determine policy. For example, how can we possibly compare societal happiness in Norway that enjoys national sovereignty and is listed as one of the world's happiest nations with war-torn Afghanistan under foreign military occupation and subject to intermittent foreign intervention in its modern history? There are also cases with lower level of intervention and external dominance at the economic level, such as Latin American nations historically under the hegemonic influence of the US and Africa under Europe. How can the people of Pakistan and the Central African Republic enjoy the same sense of autonomy and thus comparable societal happiness as the people of the US and France when the former have been subject to economic imperialism?
For the state to be an agent of societal happiness it must enjoy full autonomy, otherwise external agents determine societal happiness of its subjects. This is exactly what has been the case under the current globalization world order where there are patron and client states serving markets. Even if the role of the state is not to engender happiness in its citizens but to serve markets, do policies have beneficial impact on some who are much happier because they are institutionally privileged while others who are on the fringes and in misery because government policies keep them there? If indeed the state has a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index as does Bhutan, does this not mean that the state is restricting the liberties of those wishing to exercise their own will and even to wallow in misery if they so choose? The goal of Bhutan, a small country between China and India, is to adjust policy based on GNH indicators (economic, social, political, environmental, individual physical and psychological).
Although GNH was set up for the well being of citizens, libertarian critics argue that we live in a Rousseau-type world where people must be compelled to be happy at the expense of their free will. However, Columbia University and private polling groups track world's happiest and least happy nations, with criteria that some may find questionable and others may accept. The polls are not just an indication of measuring the reflection of public policy on citizens, but how stable a government may be so that investors feel safe with their money. For example, it is not surprising that the Scandinavian countries rank top in the world, while Africa and the Middle East rank among the lowest, while southern Europe undergoing austerity also rank among some of the world's poorest nations. Nor is it a coincidence that the countries ranking at the bottom enjoy a low level of national sovereignty owing to dominant external influence at the economic, political and/or strategic levels.
Religion, Happiness and the Earthly State
In all civilizations throughout history, religion has been the source to which most look for happiness they associate with inner tranquility and a sense of satisfaction combined with the hope of redemption. While Western thought stresses the role of the individual in relationship to the state, in Eastern religious and philosophical thought the emphasis is on societal unity that reflects a cosmological unity, and systemic-collectivist approach to the issue. In both Western and Eastern religious traditions, the emphasis is the individual's spiritual redemption and not the earthly goal of social justice that would deliver happiness through public policy.
In the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Karl Marx rejected religion as escapist illusion, a relatively cheap narcotic for the masses to alleviate the pain from earthly misery. After all, human beings live in the material world where the state and society produce religion and the elites use it as a conformity mechanism to perpetuate a privileged institutional structure. "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."
German theologian Ludwig Feuerbach's (The Essence of Christianity, 1841) assertion that the quest for happiness must form the basis of all morals because happiness is innate is a concept with roots both in pagan philosophy and Christian doctrinal tradition, especially in neo-Platonist Christian theologian Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 A.D.). Living during the declining years of the Roman Empire, he argued that people are not happy because they do not have what they want in life in terms of "earthly possessions".
According to the theologian who set the doctrinal foundations for Catholicism in the Middle Ages what people need is spiritual love of God that is permanent. Submission to the Will of God is the only road to happiness. After all, the disappointments of life on this earth point the way to God. People, however, seek things of the earthly temporary world at a time of the declining Roman Empire that could not even offer protection from Barbarian invasions overtaking the Western provinces and sacking Rome (410 A.D.by Alaric King of the Visigoth), an event that inspired Augustine to write the City of God as the alternative to Rome, the city of man. By accepting the assumption that happiness is a goal of human beings, St. Augustine was merely saying that the church could deliver it where the state had failed and can never succeed. Such thinking was not unique to Western thought, but is also found in Asia much earlier than in the West.
The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, 563-483 B.C) also argued that the pursuit of material things, pleasure, immortality and all things of this earth make people miserable because happiness is rooted in the spiritual domain. One answer to human happiness is religion or spiritual contemplation intended to achieve Buddhist-like transcendence. Needless to say, there are differences between St. Augustine's neo-Platonist Christian positions on happiness and those of the Buddha whose Upanishads-rooted teachings maintain that understanding the causes of (spiritual) suffering leads one to unlock the secrets to happiness. While the Buddha and St. Augustine offer spiritual solutions to human misery, neither had a practical institutional solution for misery caused by the earthly institutions. Not that one would expect theologians and spiritual leaders to provide "earthly" advice for people to be happy, for that is the job of those in other domains from medical science and the arts to public policy.
Without taking anything from the religious/spiritual emphasis to human happiness, there is the reality that people live as social beings in a material world becoming increasingly more so. Clearly, for many centuries religion was the domain to which people turned to find happiness largely because the City of God, as St. Augustine insisted was the place for permanent bliss, whereas the earthly city is where we encounter misery. Regardless of whether one accepts the religious/spiritual road or sees it as escapism, modern materialistic culture is swimming in hedonism, becoming less spiritual as science and technology mold the human mind along with all aspects of life.
Tenth century Muslim philosopher Abu Muhammad al-Farabi combined the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle on human happiness as a goal of all people with Muslim doctrine of liberating the soul of material want and using this life as a testing ground for eternal happiness in the next. One would expect theologians to insist on the spiritual dimension and to have nothing to say about public policy as a means to achieve happiness, regardless of the strong evidence of social justice in society. Spiritual meditation and hopefully transcendence provides the vehicle to bring relief from misery, regardless of whether this is all inside the mind of the individual and has no connection to the empirical world.
Although religion and spirituality have their very powerful institutional advocates, this raises the question of how societal institutions, first and foremost the state, shaping human happiness in order to maintain social harmony. This is an issue that Solon (638-558 B.C.) raised when he was asked to design laws for the city-state of Athens about to lapse into chaos, revolution and civil war. This remains a key issue for modern society, whether religions step in to provide answers or the state and secular institutions. Eudaimonia or happiness is as important in classical (pagan) ethics issue as the concept of arête or virtue was very important in ancient Greece. Because classical thought rested on the concept of man as a social and political animal (Aristotle), namely, all activities of the individual are shaped by the very existence of living in a community it stands to reason that the state plays a role in eudaimonia or happiness.
Philosophical Approaches to Politics and Happiness
A universal issue that transcends time and place, public policy and happiness is an issue that Plato raised in the Republic, John Locke in Two Treatises of Government, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the Social Contract, and a host of thinkers from ancient times to our day. In Plato's Republic, one notices the link between the sense of "justice" in the individual, presumably rooted in social justice, and happiness. This was probably the thinking of Socrates whose thought rested more on the heavens rather than earth, as Roman philosopher Cicero noted. Nevertheless, we have in ancient Athenian thought the link between happiness and justice of the citizen in city-state, although the concept of justice was invariably associated with virtue as well.
Just as Plato placed emphasis of the individual to determine his happiness by transforming himself as a just and virtuous citizen so did Confucius argue in favor of individual transformation, rooted in the "humanity" that makes one nobler. No doubt, Plato and Confucius represented the elites of their respective eras and societies, and neither had much concern for the lower echelons of society. However, the idea of applying a happiness principle in the political context was established in ancient times as it has been from the European Enlightenment (18th century) to the present.
The European intellectual/cultural revolution that took place during the Renaissance and coincided with the Commercial Revolution entailed a "humanist" definition in the concept of happiness. The man-centered culture, the emphasis on life in this world, and above all the idea of creativity as a factor that accounts for satisfaction in life became themes that Renaissance thinkers developed, whether through art, sculpture, literature, poetry, or other aesthetic and scientific endeavors that fulfill human life. This intellectual revolution stressed human dignity and creativity amid changes in the social structure where a middle class and a capitalist economy were emerging. The commercial middle class challenging the value system and institutions of the feudal nobility associated with monarchies accounted for new perspectives on happiness as part of the social contract.
Such a perspective we find in the works of John Locke the father of Western Liberalism and the epistemology of empiricism. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argues that: "The necessity of pursuing happiness [is] the foundation of liberty. The highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty. The stronger ties we have to an unalterable pursuit of happiness in general, which is our greatest good, and which, as such, our desires always follow, the more are we free from any necessary determination of our will to any particular action…"
By the time of Locke's era of the Glorious Revolution (1688), northwest Europe had changed to the degree that the rising middle classes made the association between societal happiness and public policy through the legislative branch that Locke believed ought to be in the hands of all propertied classes, and not just the landowning nobility represented by the Tory Party. Along with the Glorious Revolution we have a shift in the value system because class structure changes demanded it, as they demanded political change that Locke articulated in his Two Treatises of Government (1689).The 18th century brought about even greater changes in the bourgeois value system and even greater expectations of the government's role in society's happiness. However, the Industrial Revolution in England also created a sense of fear among the middle class intelligentsia because the greater wealth it created the more poor people emerged especially in London and other urban areas.
The American and French Revolutions formally placed the concept of societal happiness into the political dialogue by making it a core constitutional issue. To some degree the American War of Independence resulting in the Constitution codifies happiness as the excerpt below indicates.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The concept of Happiness during the War of Independence under those specific circumstances meant something unique that does not have the same meaning today. However, the basic meaning of the concept includes contentment with government, public virtue and success, indicating the inexorable link between citizen and the state entering the social contract as 18th century Enlightenment thinkers envisioned it. Clearly, the influence here comes mostly from Locke's Liberalism and to a lesser degree from Rousseau's concept of social democracy. For Rousseau, man in the state of nature is essentially happy, but not so in civilized society where institutions corrupt and degrade human beings. Hence the opening line in the Social Contract: "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are."
Undertaking universal systemic changes in society, the French Revolution went farther than the American in promising to deliver the ideal society for its citizens. During the more radical phase of the Revolution under Maximilien Robbespierre, largely influenced by Rousseau, the state would be the ultimate arbiter of societal happiness. Many intellectuals, including Hannah Arendt, deplore that the French revolutionaries made societal happiness instead of individual freedom the center of their political agenda. Interestingly enough, Arendt reveals her Liberal bias and anti-Rousseau-Robespierre view by arguing that the Jacobins were promising something reflecting a "totalitarian" regime. This is in contrast with the American Revolution founded not as much on Rousseau's social democratic ideology that promises happiness part of public policy, but on Locke's that only focuses on individual freedom and nothing more. In this respect, Arendt the Liberal actually sides with Edmund Burke the counter-revolutionary who applauded the American Revolutionary War that maintained the social and economic status quo, but deplored the French Revolution that tried to undertake system changes across society.
Addressing the issue of human happiness from a Christian moral perspective but with a sense of realism rooted in the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Malthus (An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798) linked the asymmetrical rise of the population to the exhausting demand for natural resources necessary to sustain such growth. Malthus did not see that the root cause of human misery rested with the unequal distribution of resources, but with the rapidly rising population and the poor multiplying at such rapid rates precluding their own ability for adequate means of survival. In short, it was not the economic structure and public policy that restricted human happiness, but population growth. A Christian clergyman, Malthus believed that there are limits to human happiness for infinity rests only with God. Therefore, it is not public policy that can deliver happiness, but rather people that must refrain from overpopulating the earth which has limited resources.
Without debating the many facets of Malthusian theory about asymmetry between rising population-declining natural resources, Malthus focused on this asymmetry as the one and only cause of poverty, disregarding the issue of equitable income/wealth distribution and the impact public policy on the economy. Classical economists from David Ricardo to Karl Marx debated the contradictions of capitalism, namely, how it creates enormous wealth and at the same poverty to polarize the social structure. Trade unionists, progressive politicians and journalists in the 19th and 20th century dealt with the same issue, debating whether public policy plays a role by legislating to promote the market economy based on the profit motive.
If indeed there was and still is more than enough food to feed the world's entire population but it is simply not profitable for companies to do so, the Malthusian argument has its limitations. It is worth mentioning that contemporaries of Malthus, as well as neo-Malthusians and apologists of a capitalist system throughout our modern times, insist that poor people have no one to blame but themselves for their condition. Therefore, the state must remain a casual observer of structural poverty, although the political economy based on capital accumulation and socioeconomic inequality creates poverty as it facilitates capital accumulation. After all, every person is on their own and the state can only provide protection for life and property, according to classical Liberalism, not alleviate misery through social policy.
Adamantly against public policy alleviating structural causes of societal unhappiness, neo-Malthusians and neo-liberals believe that aiming at social justice and happiness of all sectors in society entails higher taxes on the more affluent taxpayers. In short, societal happiness rooted in social justice has a price tag for the wealthy. This was the argument in the 1930s amid the Great Depression when FDR tried to institutionalize the social safety net that was rooted in Progressive Era (1900-1920) and Keynesian thinking.
Published in 1930 on the eve of the Great Depression, Bertrand Russell's Conquest to Happiness is a good study of some aspects of human nature with a rather practical and humane approach to the topic. Influenced by Aristotle's view all things in moderation and the primacy of the individual as the measure of all things, Russell believed in the Western concept of individualism. However, he was not oblivious to the reality that external forces, including institutions like the state, obviously impeding happiness at the societal level.
It is rather interesting that the most prolific philosopher of the 20th century decided to write a book would come out of the post-WWI decade when so many Europeans were not feeling so happy after the mass destruction and blamed not the individual but the institutions on which Western Civilization was built. Odd that Russell would tackle such a subject when a number of thinkers from T. S. Elliot to Jean-Paul Sartre were questioning the European value system that molded the minds of the masses and very foundations of Western Civilization as detrimental to human happiness.
Just a few years after Russell's book on happiness, Hitler took power and authoritarianism with a pro-Nazi or pro-Fascist tilt spread from Portugal and Spain to Greece and the northern Balkans. All of this took place against the background of the Great Depression and just before the deadliest global war. How could the individual possibly remain oblivious to tyranny spreading across Europe, economic disaster conquering the world, and the reality that Hitler and Mussolini would spread destruction on a massive scale in Europe, Africa and the Middle East? How could any individual with a modicum of social conscience possibly remain oblivious to such developments and focus only on the self as though there is no society? Even Russell the pacifist intellectual who realized that happiness goes beyond the narrow boundaries of philosophy as Plato and John Stuart Mill envisioned it, made an exception when it came to European democracies uniting to defeat the Axis Powers that were clearly a threat to humanity.
Classical Liberals and neoliberals of our time advocating globalization and privatization of any public service deplore the idea that the state must a role in the domain of human happiness. This is an interesting position, considering that public policy impacts the material lives of people, making the privileged in society more content while keeping the less privileged into a state of misery. If happiness is the selfless act of doing beneficial things for others, regardless of whether the activity is voluntary or paid, then the laissez-faire proponents have no problem. But what if government policy from fiscal measures that are a means of wealth redistribution, to labor policy, to social policies are detrimental for the harmony of the citizen? Another dimension to consider about societal happiness and public policy is its absence in those countries that lacked national sovereignty which advanced countries simply assume is a given.
Happiness and public Policy in the Interwar Era
Is it possible for the state to conduct public policy in such a manner as to advance societal happiness or positive emotions of people even if this is a mere illusion on the part of the masses? According to Nicolo Machiavelli, people are invariably judging everything at the surface level, rather than its essence. Therefore, projecting an image in public policy intended to encourage greater positive emotions is all that matters.
The utilitarian theory of Jeremy Bentham as articulated in "A Fragment on Government" (1776), established the axiom: "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Bentham's axiom became one of the moral and legal bases for representative democracy. If the best society is where people are happiest, then Bentham was correct that it stands to reason the best policy is the one producing the greatest happiness. But is such a goal possible in a class-structured society, and is it possible in those countries that are externally dependent as are many in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and even the periphery countries of Southern and Eastern Europe?
Achieving happiness in the secular sense and linking it to societal institutions became a concern of the European intelligentsia representing the middle class in the 18th century. Intellectuals of the Enlightenment influencing the 19th century as well believed that a "scientific" method can be applied as much to solve social problems as all others. However, Enlightenment thinkers had different ideological positions that determined their views on human happiness and the role of institutions, including the state. Intellectuals reflecting on the concept of happiness were in essence reflecting the fundamental change in the social structure that the Industrial Revolution transformed and which in turn necessitated changes in the political arena, gradually bringing the capitalist class closer to imposing its will on public policy.
The interwar era brought to the consciousness of the masses around the world the government's role in societal happiness (Jose Ortega y Gasset, Revolt of the Masses, 1930. This was especially so during the Great Depression that ruined the lives of millions, while mainstream politicians and apologists of the market economy asked people to simply wait until thing improve. The US and many other countries adopted New Deal type of policies based on the economic theory of John M. Keynes who advocated using the state to absorb the surplus capital from the private sector and combine it with deficit financing in order to stimulate jobs growth. Intended to rebuild decaying capitalism under the weakened parliamentary system in which the masses had lost confidence, Keynesian economics aimed to provide a safety net for the disgruntled masses. The state could not engender societal happiness amid the Great Depression, unless it alleviated misery on a wide scale.
In some countries, it was indeed too late to save the parliamentary system in which people lost faith. Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and authoritarian regimes in southern and Eastern Europe resulted because the market economy was dysfunctional and generated misery on a broad social scale. The majority of the Germans during the Third Reich believed that Hitler and his regime were capable of delivering the utopian dream of a superior race. Masters at propaganda, the Nazis argued that if only the nation rid itself of Jewish profiteers and exploiters, Communist and gypsy parasites, other lesser humans impeding the racial superiority of Germans, only then would the pure Aryan race achieve its dream of societal happiness.
Although in reality the Nazis delivered destruction for Germany and Europe on a massive scale, their followers believed that was the correct path "racial and national happiness". Sixty-five percent of the German citizens who voted for Hitler and millions more around the world, entertained positive feelings for Nazism as the solution to societal problems. They felt good and happy about the Nazi regime, regardless of the illusory promises it was making to induce those positive feelings and regardless of the destruction it was delivering to its declared enemies. Nazism is one of the most glaring examples of mass illusions about societal happiness and public policy.
Coming to power at the same time as Hitler in January 1933, Franklin Roosevelt had to cultivate positive feelings on the part of the American people not demonizing "enemies" of the nation-state but asking for altruism, communitarian disposition and comforting people that their enemy was fear that they must overcome. In short, FDR approached the issue of mass psychology and inducing positive feelings across society by trying to convince the masses to rid themselves of illusions they entertained about the other as the enemy, about atomism as the solution, because the problem of the economic depression would be solved collectively and the enemy was the culture of greed and individualism of the 1920s.
A scholar who devoted her life to the study of totalitarianism in Germany, Hannah Arendt was influenced by classical Liberalism and the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Arendt argued that the first time we encounter the convergence of the concept of happiness with politics is during the French Revolution. While it is true that in their euphoria of the Revolutionaries raised the happiness theme to contrast the new regime with the old one under absolutist monarchy, it is a stretch to claim that the core of the French Revolution under the brief Jacobin rule rested on the concept of public happiness. Nevertheless, Arendt is correct to stress that never had a regime linked the concept of happiness with politics, considering that this was primarily the domain of religion.
Arendt's work represents the sensitivity of a scholar who wrote about the horrors of the holocaust and at the same it reflects Western classical liberal assumptions that carry all of the bourgeois values of society and politics. Arguing that anything more progressive that trying to integrate the masses through a public policy safety net in order to engender greater equality constitutes a form of totalitarianism reflects both Arendt's justifiable fear of Nazism and preference for classical European Liberalism as the only alternative. Coming out of the era of Hitler and Stalin, the era of the Cold War when totalitarianism meant both Nazism and Communism, she was very much a product of her era and found it unable to transcend it.
Contemporary Views on Public Policy and Happiness
There is growing evidence that rising levels of prosperity in Western economies after 1945 have not been matched by greater incidences of reported well-being and happiness. Indeed, material affluence is often accompanied by greater social and individual distress. A growing literature within the humanities and social sciences is increasingly dedicated charting not only the underlying trends in recorded levels of happiness, but to consider what factors, if any, contribute to positive and sustainable experiences of well-being and quality of life. Increasingly, such research is focusing on the importance of values and beliefs in human satisfaction or quality of life; but the specific contribution of religion to these trends is relatively under-examined.
Although money is not necessarily the thing that makes people happy, neither is abject poverty where there is lack of clean water, basic foodstuffs for survival and essential medical services. While the Western World and richer nations may not think about such things and demand better health care and education for their countries, we still have more than two billion people, mostly Africa, Latin America and Asia that lack the basic needs of life and that is a matter of public policy at the local, national and international levels as it touches the entire planet one way or the other. I want to stress that societal happiness in many parts of the Third World or developing nations depends on external forces that dominate national economy and influence public policy.
For merely propaganda reasons and to secure voter support, politicians are interested in finding ways that the voters believe they are "happy" with their candidate, even if they may disagree with parts of the candidate's policy agenda. Emulating the behavior of the church, regimes from the Age of Absolutism to the present have tried to inculcate into the minds of the masses that happiness is synonymous with identification with the regime. Not just the cult of personality, but the cult of a regime has the ability to manipulate public opinion so that the majority believes their happiness hinges on strength of the leader and regime.
In a public opinion poll with the ranking of countries with the most negative emotions about their lives Iraq ranked at the top in 2013, followed by Iran, Egypt, Greece, and Syria, while African countries rank among the lowest in all such polls. In fact the top ten "least happy nations" have political regimes that are not tolerant of diversity as in the case of Middle East countries, or they face monetary austerity as in the case of Greece and Cyprus where half of the population is now below poverty or near it. OECD surveys dealing with the issue of "life satisfaction", which is actually a better method of measuring responses than using the term "happy", southern and eastern European countries under austerity policies (economic contraction) rank the lowest, while northwest Europe ranks highest.
While no one is surprised about the rankings of African and Middle Eastern countries, or India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, one may be surprised that the US has ranked just above or below Mexico in similar surveys. One would expect the world's superpower to occupy a spot in the top five, but actually it is not even in the top twenty in many polls, indicative of the growing dissatisfaction with life under existing policies and institutional structures. Although polls are manipulative and the issue of "happiness and life satisfaction" is very subjective, the empirical evidence based on opinion polls shows the correlation between human misery and public policy.
Without a doubt, the existing evidence shows that the Libertarian argument of non-government interference in individual happiness is not relevant because people do not live in isolation inside caves but in organized society under common laws and policies. If we assume that human beings that draft laws do so knowing that those laws will benefit some and not others, and if we assume the justice system is as political as the legal system, and if we assume that the wealthy and powerful receive preferential treatment from the judicial system, then we cannot expect that society is based on a sense of equality for all.
Realistically, people in the Western World especially, would oppose the idea of legislating happiness even if government promised it would improve their lives. Because they are immersed in atomism, they assume that their free will determines their state of being, not realizing the limits of free will and the enormous influence of public policy in everyone's life. From very young age when children attend school that government provides, to very old age when they may enter a public nursing home for the elderly, public policy follows people in every aspect of their lives and determines the level of satisfaction of lack thereof.
When the state legislature votes down same-sex marriage, it impacts the lives of those interested in legalizing gay marriage. Interestingly enough, those in favor of legislating morality are adamantly against legislating happiness, unless it is in matters pertaining to their own interests. At the same time, the mainstream politicians, journalists, and most intellectuals would have no problem with the state legislating well-being through mass consumption of processed foods that make people ill, but they have a problem legislating to lift the structural obstacles of poverty that keep millions in misery.
While the concept of happiness in the Western world has been linked to public policy, that concept is not at the core of political movements and regimes in many non-Western World countries. While there is recognition that it is not the role of government to promote happiness through public policy, people understand when government can impede public happiness with its policies especially in fiscal and economic policy. Because there is greater attachment to traditions and customs, and because there tends to be a greater sense of collectivism than there is in the West, there tends to be a higher sense of satisfaction than in individualistic societies, at least according to a study by John F. Helliwell, Haifang Huang and Shun Wang who published their finding in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
With all emphasis on "efficiency" and competition, code words that apologists of market economics use to mean maximizing profit and cutting wage costs and taxes, the culture of "maximization" leads to greater unhappiness for the majority so that a minority may derive greater material benefits. The question is whether the "maximization principle", as one scholar describes it leads to happiness as it promises or creates more problems and greater unhappiness in society. (Hilke Brockmann and Jan Delhey, eds. Human Happiness and the Pursuit of Maximization: Is More Always Better? (2013
Along the "maximization principle" that leaves the vast majority aspiring to what the minority has, there is a value system of atomism that goes along with it as part of the same ideology promising happiness. The privatized or atomistic notion of happiness in Western pluralistic societies is quantified against the framework of the "cash-value" culture and interpreted in terms of hedonistic value system. Immersed in atomism and hedonism, people subconsciously accept such assumptions but never aware of what makes them behave in a specific manner toward the pursuit of happiness as it is defined by the dominant culture. The notion of privatized self placed rather than the individual as an integral part of a community with a social conscience predisposed to consider the welfare of the community instead of the self raises serious ethical questions about the ethics of the concept of happiness in modern hedonistic society that the market economy and public policy reinforce.
Atomism keeps people in perpetual absence of happiness while altruism provides a sense of satisfaction, positive feelings and a deep connection between the individual and the community. Atomistic tendencies go hand in hand with the age of materialism in which the individual consumer is valued far above the citizen, the billionaire valued far above the humanitarian doctor working with the poor in sub-Sahara Africa, the famous movie star far above the soup kitchen volunteer. These values are constantly reinforced in everything from mass media to schools, popular books, and motions pictures that make up the dominant culture. These values are rooted in the political economy of consumerism that is a black hole leading nowhere, and certainly not to happiness because there is no end to the appetite for consumption that the public and private institutional structures push on citizens as the religion of our modern era.
Government leaders know as they have throughout modern history that forging consensus is the key to governing successfully. To deliver social justice through public policy that would in turn account for a happier population is a difficult task because this goal clashes with the interests of the various elites especially those who own most of the wealth, a problem that Solon faced more than 21 centuries ago when he took over Athens. One strategy of governments has been and remains that citizens must suspend happiness (their personal welfare) in the present in return for a better future for themselves and their children. This has been a standard strategy of Communist China, but also Western democracies as well as authoritarian regimes in the non-Western World.
As long as people see evidence of broader national progress they are willing to suspend a better life for the present in exchange for a better future – the prospect for upward mobility or the equivalent of achieving the American Dream. Because capitalism as an economy promises the "possibility of riches" for anyone who plays by the rules of the game, people suspending disbelief of their own reality and identify with the millionaire, aspiring to become him and vicariously living through him. Because people live with the dream of becoming instead of assessing their present condition and future prospects realistically, and because the state and institutional structure constantly plays the theme of hope in the media, the illusion of happiness in society becomes a reality. It is not the case that people do not know their own interests, but that they place faith in their aspirations. How can we blame a coal miner in West Virginia for dreaming of becoming a millionaire and trusting the media and politicians that someday soon he too can make it in a system that he knows is essentially very hierarchical and the odds are against him?
Another strategy the state adopts to keep people perpetually immersed in illusion is a Machiavellian solution, namely, appearance is reality in politics. The state delivers the message that the status quo is best suited for society and that any change would be detrimental, even if the majority of the people are not happy under the existing system. In this case, governments invoke everything from democracy and expression through the ballot box to patriotism, asking citizens to sacrifice for the greater good, and not to risk opposing the system that would entail threat to political stability.
This is to suggest that the cynical and propagandistic approach is the one that government adopts, instead of opting for the road to social justice that would deliver greater societal happiness. The only way to change an institutional structure rooted in inequality and unfairness is to take the advice of English philosopher John Locke, namely, if the system is tyrannical, then the people eventually overthrow it because they decide as subjects that it is not in their best interests. As long as people entertain the illusion of happiness, whether it is because of the mass media that propagates, through churches and schools, through businesses and social clubs, etc., the government does not have to be concerned about public policy that aims toward social justice and happiness of its citizens.


text:
Links Sort by: Hits | Alphabetical
|Flower Pots - http://www.rogersgardens.com/
Roger's Gardens located in Newport Beach, Orange County, is THE place to get gardening inspiration with its gorgeous displays of plants, flowers, outdoor furniture & accessories, gifts, books, and holiday merchandise. The staff is incredible too -- knowledgeable, experienced, informative, well-trained and willing to go the extra mile to provide excellent customer service. I even take out-of-state visitors to Roger's as a tourist attraction -- it NEVER disappoints
|Bananas - http://bananasweb.com
Extensive and detailed information about bananas. Banana health benefits, nutrition facts, recipes and history
|ponds - http://www.waterfeatures.co.uk
Specialist natural water gardens and comfortable relaxing gardens by "Hands On" Chelsea Flower Show Designer since 1992. Personal Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal + Eleven More for/with Exhibitors.
|Black Walnut - http://walnutsweb.com
All you ever wanted to know about black walnuts: how to grow walnuts, nutritional facts, health benefits and plant history
|Black Currants - http://black-currant.com
Detailed information about black currants,black currant shrub, how to plant them and black currant recipes.
|Kiwifruits - http://kiwi-fruit.info
Detailed information about kiwi fruit, kiwifruit vines, how to plant them and serve them.
|The Dry flower gifts - http://dryflowergifts.com
Now make unique and special gifts on your own and mesmerize the beloved ones on festive occasions. With the exclusive tips we serve you, you can jolly well create various kinds of dried flower articles and gain appreciation. As a layman you may have wondered how people make a few things just like that. But now with us you can actually make a lot of them rather at ease. We are glad to help you learn the making procedure of a host of dried flower stuffs.
|Dry flower specials - http://dryflowerspecials.com
Here's bringing you the facts about diverse methods of making special dried flower arrangements. Whether it is just a candle-light dinner with the beloved or a birthday of a cousin, we can help you decorate with flowers for any occasion. Once it comes to dried flowers we have it all, from drying to pressing to making nice arrangements out of them. Juts a click and you enter an exotic world of extensive info that regards just flowers and flowers. Anything you can think of, we have the answer.


text:
Fats, in modern nutrition context,
|Fresh raw coconut milk
does not cause artery blockage.
attracts a lot of negative remarks.
Modern degenerative diseases are closely linked to fats.
To name a few: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancers.
Fats has been caught in between
the dilemma of being good and evil.
On the dining table,
it enhances the tastiness and flavours of food;
in the operation theatre,
it's the culprit for arterial blockage, insulin resistance and inflammation.
Given the situation,
some people choose to
indulge in temporary palatal pleasure,
totally ignore the consequences of
high fat consumption in their diet.
Some people,
for the sake of their healthfulness,
will altogether avoid fats,
to the extent of not even
touching a drop of oil in their daily meals.
Some people would think,
mid path should be the way,
and constantly juggle for the right dosage of fat intake..
However, from nutrition point of view,
all above are not appropriate.
Plain ignoring of the consequences of fat intake
is definitely not a rational approach.
Avoiding all fats in diet,
may avoid the bad consequences of fats,
but will eventually leads to malnutrition
– because fat is an essential nutrient
which does not only provides calories,
but also balances hormones and
upkeeps the agility of the brain etc.
why would a mid path approach to fat consumption
be inappropriate?
The critical point is that,
many people do not know
how to differentiate in between good oil and bad oil.
If it's good oil,
it can be taken more,
to reduce cholesterol,
to prevent cardiovascular diseases,
to manage weight and
to improve immunity.
If it's bad oil,
even a little bit will cause
hormonal imbalance,
accumulation of subcutaneous and visceral fats,
destruction of gut flora etc.
Therefore, in this context,
moderation intake of fats indiscriminately
does not truly solve the problem.
What is good fat and what is bad fat?
Good fats must comprise of
the following properties altogether concurrently:
(A) Plant-based:
Plant based oil does not contain cholesterol and
is rich in unsaturated fatty acids
which balance hormones and fortify immunity.
Although some plant oils (e.g. coconut and avocado)
contains saturated fatty acids,
these saturated molecules are of short and medium chains.
They are easily combusted and metabolized in the body
and will not accumulate in blood vessels, organs and under the skin,
leading to health hazards.
In fact, these short and medium chain fatty acids
can uplift metabolic rates for internal balances.
Conversely, animal based fats
are rich in long chain saturated fatty acids
which are very difficult to metabolized and
are easily deposited in the body
causing obesity and internal blockages.
Moreover, animal fats is concentrated with toxins
such as stress hormones, pesticides residues, antibiotics etc.
(B) Non-high heat treated:
Once unsaturated fats are subject to high heat (above 120C),
the molecule will either
be destroyed, leading hormonal and immunity imbalance,
be transformed into transfat, leading to metabolic disorder, or
become a carcinogen!
Some people think that plant oils are always safe,
but when plant oils are subject to high heat stir-fry or deep fried,
the consequences may be worse than that caused by animal fats.
(C) Non-processed:
This is specifically referring to man-made margarine.
When plant oil is subject to processing,
transfats will be generated.
Transfat is not digestible and
cannot be metabolized by the body.
It is treated as a toxin by the body and
hence will cause hazards to the body.
Therefore, the appropriate way to consume plant oils,
is to avoid high-heat stir-fry, deep fry, baking and grilling.
To consume plant fats safely,
it's recommended that
we consume raw nuts and seeds,
apply cold pressed oils in salad, boil,
double boil, blanch, steam and stew.
Now that we know how
to differentiate bad and good fats,
there is no need to be fearful about fats,
and we can confidently consume fats to nourish our body!
With metta,
Kee Yew


text:
One of the most valuable and often overlooked benefits of email marketing is the ability to collect and analyze large amounts of data. This data can help determine what is working and what isn't, what you should keep and what you should change. It allows you to tailor your email so that it has the highest chance of being read and acted upon.
Analytics in email marketing range everywhere from the very simple to the extremely complex, but even the most basic information can be quite helpful when developing your campaign.
In this article we're going to take a look at some of the "easier" tests that you can do on your email to discern some interesting information about what's working for you and what isn't. Some may seem almost too self-explanatory, while others might be a bit surprising
Timing: The timing of your emails can have an unexpectedly large impact on whether they are opened or trashed. One of the easiest ways to test timing is to run an A/B split of emails. Send one round in the morning and another in the afternoon. See where you get the most response. Then do it again and try to discern a pattern.
Text or HTML: While HTML email is almost always a little more appealing to the eye it can also have surprising drawbacks. Many modern email clients block images, and will often misinterpret HTML in a way that makes messages confusing and ugly. Try sending both HTML and text emails to test the feedback you get from each.
Resend?: Although it may seem counterintuitive (and goes against some of this authors previous advice) it is not always a bad idea to resend an email. Tests have shown that the response will often be higher on the resend or – if you're very bold – the reresend.
Careful with Images: One image in an email is great, two can be eye-catching, but be very careful not to go overboard. Send test emails with varying numbers of images if you're trying to push the envelope. Sometimes an email with a lot of images will set spam filters off left and right.
"Free, free, free!": Again, you will often see this listed as a major "do not" because the word "free" is supposed to make spam filters go nuts. However, in just the right instances it can be very effective. Offering savings and special deals can be an excellent motivation tactic. Still, even if you manage to get past the first spam filter, you have to consider the spam filter between your reader's ears. They might immediately hit delete when they see "free".
Testing can help you gain valuable insight into what works and what doesn't in your email marketing. By following utilizing these tips and paying careful attention to the results you will be able to tailor your email to make it even more effective.


text:
Governors Park
Governors Park honors the five North Dakota governors who called Casselton home: Andrew Burke, William Langer, William Guy, George Sinner and Jack Dalrymple.
Located on the 600 block of Front Street in Casselton, Governors Park features a picnic shelter, community events sign and a tribute to the five governors. It is a frequent site of community events.


text:
How do we build long-term digital archives that are economically sustainable and technologically scalable? We could start by building five essential components: selection, submission, preservation, retrieval, and decoding.
Selection may be the least amenable to automation and the least scalable, because the decision whether or not to archive something is a tentative judgment call. Yet, it is a judgment driven by economic factors. When archiving is expensive, content must be carefully vetted. When archiving is cheap, the time and effort spent on selection may cost more than archiving rejected content. The falling price of digital storage creates an expectation of cheap archives, but storage is just one component of preservation, which itself is only one component of archiving. To increase the scalability of selection, we must drive down the cost of all other archive services.
Digital preservation is the best understood service. Archive content must be transferred periodically from old to new storage media. It must be mirrored at other locations around world to safeguard against natural and man-made disasters. Any data center performs processes like these every day.
The submission service enters bitstreams into the archive and enables future retrieval of identical copies. The decoding service extracts information from retrieved bitstreams, which may have been produced by lost or forgotten software.
We could try to eliminate the decoding service by regularly re-encoding bitstreams for current technology. While convenient for users, this approach has a weakness. If a refresh cycle should introduce an error, subsequent cycles may propagate and amplify the error, making recovery difficult. Fortunately, it is now feasible to preserve old technology using virtualization, which lets us emulate almost any system on almost any hardware. Anyone worried about the long term should consider the Chrome emulator of Amiga 500 (1987) or the Android emulator of the HP 45 calculator (1973). The hobbyists who developed these emulators are forerunners of a potential new profession. A comprehensive archive of virtual old systems is an essential enabling technology for all other digital archives.
The submission and retrieval services are interdependent. To enable retrieval, the submission service analyzes bitstreams and builds an index for the archive. When bitstreams contain descriptive metadata constructed specifically for this purpose, the process of submission is straightforward. However, archives must be able to accept any bitstream, regardless of the presence of such metadata. For bitstreams that contain a substantial amount of text, full-text indexing is appropriate. Current technology still struggles with non-text bitstreams, like images, graphics, video, or pure data.
To simplify and automate the submission service, we need the participation of software developers. Most bitstreams are produced by mass-market software such as word processors, database or spreadsheet software, video editors, or image processors. Even data produced by esoteric experiments are eventually processed by applications that still serve hundreds of thousands of specialists. Within one discipline, the number of applications rarely exceeds a few hundred. To appeal to this relatively small number of developers, who are primarily interested in solving their customers' problems, we need a better argument than "making archiving easy."
Too few application developers are aware of their potential role in research data management. Consider, for example, an application that converts data into graphs. Although most of the graphs are discarded after a quick glance, each is one small step in a research project. With little effort, that graphing software could provide transparent support for research data management. It could reformat raw input data into a re-usable and archivable format. It could give all files it produces unique identifiers and time stamps. It could store these files in a personal repository. It could log activity in a digital lab notebook. When a file is deleted, the personal repository could generate an audit trail that conforms to discipline-specific customs. When research is published, researchers could move packages of published and supporting material from personal to institutional repositories and/or to long-term archives.
Ad-hoc data management harms the longer-term interests of individual researchers and the scholarly community. Intermediate results may be discarded before it is realized they were, after all, important. The scholarly record may not contain sufficient data for reproducibility. Research-misconduct investigations may be more complicated and less reliable.
For archivists, the paper era is far from over. During the long transition, archivists may prepare for the digital future in incremental steps. Provide personal repositories. Work with a few application developers to extend key applications to support data management. After proof of concept, gradually add more applications.
Digital archives will succeed only if they are scalable and sustainable. To accomplish this, digital archivists must simplify and automate their services by getting involved well before information is produced. Within each discipline, archives must work with researchers, application providers, scholarly societies, universities, and funding agencies to develop appropriate policies for data management and the technology infrastructure to support those policies.


text:
Seven Things I learned as a Career Mom
By Hanan Awaad "How do you do it?", This is how the young woman asked me when we sat down
Who We Are
Welcome to Corporita Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to working women. Whether you are a full-time or part-time employee, entrepreneur, business woman; working in the private sector, not-for-profit or a government agency; have a young family, single or an empty-nester, Corporita Magazine is for you.
The Corporita Magazine family is a team of extraordinary and charismatic women – and sometimes men – who all have one primary goal: to revamp and take over the publication world geared towards women. We're building a platform and an active online community which is intended to be the go-to place for working women of all backgrounds to directly share their experiences, ideas and wisdom with other like-minded business and career women. We believe that we all have a lot to learn from – and to share with- each other, and Corporita Magazine is the medium we can all use to do just that. We are also building an extensive business directory of services and businesses for working women.
Our contents are relevant, compelling and oriented towards all working women – because today's work is done in all kinds of places and various career models. Whether she works in an office environment, farming her garden, working from her home office or selling her hand-made crafts, Corporita Magazine is just for every woman … come and join our community!


text:
You are about to enter a website that may contain content of an adult nature.
Hello everyone, this is AmazingAyda here. I'm 23 year old Female speak English in the live sex chat action. I`m a petite babe with very, very tight holes - and they are all Yours.... I`m a petite babe with very, very tight holes - and they are all Yours.... 69, Oral, Dildoing, Licking, Cameltoe, Close up, Dancing, Fingering, Live orgasm, Long nails, Role-play, Shaved, Snapshot, Stockings, Striptease, Zoom is my expertise and also what I will do in private show. I have Brown eyes, Long Brown hairs and my measurements are 34-23-34. For Turn ons: Kind, smart men with good sense of humor can glamour me. If You are one of those I definitely want You to visit me. For TurnsOff: Nothing can turn me off about You - and now click on Private Show button... ;o) That`s my boy!. If you prefer kinks, then Shaved, are mine. I'm just hungry for a HARD cock, can't wait to see u! :)
Find your favorite latina from the thousands connected online every day! Young and sexy latinas are ready to start a sexy videochat with you! Latina Live Sex Webcams, Hot Latina Cam Girls, Latina Webcams Live. Strips, masturbations and other sex games in front of the webcam! Start now a sex webcam session with one of these latina girls! Hello, my name is Tatiana, i'm 23 years old and i'm from United States, you can access directly to my live sex cam shows or choose one of my beautiful latina girlfriends to start a videochat with her. Chat with hot latinas live on webcams! Free sex latin webcams, latin live sex shows, chat with sexy latin girls on cam, webcam sex for free! True amateur latin girls addicted to sex will chat with you on cam doing all you want! Feel free to make your fantasies.
This website contains latina webcam babes xxx cams, latin cam girls live sex chat related sexually explicit content.
You must be at least 18 years of age to enter this website. © 2015 All Rights Reserved
sitemap1 - sitemap2 - sitemap3 - sitemap4 - sitemap5 - sitemap6 - sitemap7 - sitemap8 - sitemap9 - sitemap10 - sitemap11 - sitemap12