•  ON COMMON SENSE SAFETY:  A quarter of annual road deaths “are now linked to phone use,” according to the Nat’l Safety Council. While driving, some 660,000 still hold a phone to their ear, and 170,000 still text messages – the principal cause of ‘carnage on the roads.’ Even with hands-free systems, “a deeper problem is the extra cognitive workload a driver takes on when talking… and texters who are even more likely to kill someone or die in an accident” whether typing or ‘speaking’ messages, according to a Dep’t of Transportation funded study. Until/unless ‘self driving’ autos become widespread, this will get worse. Be smart and safe.  [THE ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QTRLY – Nov 30, 13]
  • ON HAPPINESS:  “WHAT SETS HUMAN BEINGS APART FROM ANIMALS is not the pursuit of happiness, but the pursuit of meaning… Happiness is simply about feeling good, without stress or worry. People become happy when they get what they want; from a social perspective, pursuit of happiness is associated with selfish behavior – being a ‘taker’… getting joy from receiving benefits from others.”   According to Gallup, some 60% of Americans fit these criteria; however singleminded pursuit of happiness ironically thwarts happiness.  Purpose and Meaning in lifeare what “increases overall well-being and life satisfaction, improves mental & physical health, enhances resiliency & self esteem, and decreases chances of depression.”  Research suggests up to 40% of Americans do not think their lives have “a clear sense of purpose” and 25% don’t have “a strong sense of what makes their lives meaningful… Meanwhile, the uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to existence has a bearing on creative work… since he/she knows the ‘why’ for their existence and will be able to bear almost any ‘how’… By putting aside selfish interests to serve someone or something larger than ourselves – ‘giving’ rather than ‘taking’ – we are not only expressing fundamental humanity, but also acknowledging that there is more to the good life than the pursuit of simple happiness.”   [THEATLANTIC.COM – Jan 9, 13]
  • ON LONGER-TERM GOALS:  “Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a year… One of the surest ways to get more done is to shorten your daily to-do-list and retain laser-like focus on long-term goals…to avoid getting bogged down in a seemingly unmanageable present.” Among the newest approaches is Time Blocking – “making ‘appointments’ with yourself for all the important long-term goals in your life… allowing you to prioritize and be proactive.” One tool is an excel spread sheet which estimates number of hours it will take per task, and facilitates ‘scheduling’ time for work on the things that matter, versus letting day-to-day demands preempt your life. [RIA CENTRAL – Nov 19, 13]
  •  ON THE ENVIRONMENT:  “The human impact on biodiversity can be characterized as a mindless juggernaut fuelled by the life it destroys…through habitat destruction, harmful alien species, pollution, and over-harvesting of wild species… The fauna and flora of an ecosystem are far more than a collection of species. They are a complex system of interactions, where the extinction of any species under certain conditions could have a profound impact on the whole… Estimates of undiscovered invertebrates, fungi and micro-organisms range to a hundred million … of which new species are being diagnosed and named at about 20,000 per year… So the earth’s biodiversity is a dilemma wrapped in a paradox: the more species humanity extinguishes, the more new species scientists discover; the dilemma is whether to stop destruction (for the sake of future generations) or go on changing the planet to our immediate needs… The remainder of this century will be a bottleneck of growing human impact on the environment and diminishing biodiversity.”  [THE ECONOMIST – THE WORLD IN 2014]
  • ON INTERNATIONAL STABILITY:  The cause of social unrest and protest varies from economic distress, to dictatorships, to aspirations of living like the better off. But underlying features usually include high risk of instability from “wide income-inequality, poor government, low levels of social provision, ethnic tensions and, particularly, erosion of trust in institutions.” The risk of social unrest is further fuelled by response of many governments to ongoing economic stress (essentially ‘austerity’) and, according to rankings by Economist Intelligence Unit, 65 countries are currently at very high risk of imploding to some degree, including Argentina, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Venezuela and, especially China – “where authorities are perennially nervous about the risk of mass protests.” Don’t be surprised when they implode.  [THE ECONOMIST – THE WORLD IN 2014]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR:  ‘If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you’re old.”
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