A survey by Gallup on the relationship between well-being and community service shows a direct positive correlation. The overall pattern cut across income and age group. The Gallup analysis also found a connection between community service and key indicators of emotional health, such as stress and worry. Sadly it seems that many more U.S. adults …
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Category:Living
Toxins in your drinking water?
It happens regularly now. Tonnes of agricultural fertiliser and sprays running off the land in to the water system causing eutrophication. Algae bloom and everything else dies. And even massive municipal treatment plants can’t clean the water. Farming practices and climate change cause the problem, which will not go away until we all choose to …
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Happiness = …
This is the equation for happiness: What does all that jibberish mean? Basically that expectations determine happiness. That is why looking over the garden hedge at the grass on the other side (the lawn that you can’t have because to belongs to someone else) is a sure way to be unhappy. And why appreciating the …
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Even big brother thinks big brother can be dangerous.
The UN has warned against the dangers of too much data and too much surveillance. In a report, the UN body said more needed to be done to ensure that surveillance was balanced against its harm to personal privacy, noting that: mass retention of data to aid surveillance was “neither necessary nor proportionate”. “disturbingly little” …
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A world without growth – IMF.
Well that doesn’t seem natural because the plants grow every year and add to the planet’s biomass. When the IMF talks about no economic growth for years, it should raise concern. The head of the IMF talks technically about inflation and capacity but irrespective of accounting, laws and economics, the natural resources of the planet …
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Sad but true: Violence against females is pervasive.
A broad based survey indicates that 1/3 of women in the EU are affected by violence. That should surprise you, but if you’re female, maybe it doesn’t. Clearly unfair prejudices still dominate modern, rich cultures. For example, it is saddening to still see and hear behaviour which puts down women. Clearly there are economic differences …
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There’s nothing wrong with hard work, unless …
Working hard is fine, and many people have to work hard just to get by, but whether it’s by choice or necessity when it makes you sick, stressed, stupid, off-balance and disengaged, the balance is wrong. The Washington Post offers 5 reasons why you shouldn’t work too hard, at least from an American perspective. What …
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A minimum wage stimulates the economy?
I’ve always been against the hand of the state in private decisions and forcing a minimum wage is one of those interferences which has always grated. However, in a world where technology is raising productivity and reducing the demand for labour there ought to be a popular desire for everyone to have the ability to …
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Farming in the city.
It’s a cute idea and seems to have much merit. Put a fish farm in a shipping container, plonk a hydroponic greenhouse on top and “hey presto” you have a self-contained, eco-efficient food production system that can sit in a small garden or yard behind your house or urban industrial/commercial building. ECF Farmsystems Containerfarm claims: …
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A “Tidal Wave” of Cancer.
Those are the words used by the World Health Organisation to describe the trajectory of the growth of new cancer cases. They predict a jump from 14 million a year now to 24 million new cases per year by 2035 – about 2.5% growth a year (compounded). That better be faster than the growth of …
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