Warning: This post contains pictures of a monster tearing to pieces a dead carcass. This is a long needed departure from nerdy search engines, weekend trips to the coastal towns and the German beer-vacations. This is a picture from a far more adventurous undertaking. Back in 2005 my friend Jon and I went to the little island of Rinca to see some of the most ferocious animals on the planet - the Rinca Dragons.
This is from a really short weekend trip down the New South Wales coast of Australia. Seen with local eyes, this isn’t a very large outing, but for me most everything down under has something exotic or at least interesting to it. Actually, it might not be that everyday for the locals either: With every weekend trip I’ve done the last month, the Sydney Morning Herald has had someone create a so ecstatic tribute to the same location even the local tourist bureau would blush of shame. This trip was no different.
While this is low on the science and psychology, hopefully the pictures may bring forth some warm and fuzzy feelings to replace those deep thoughts. The intention of this was to give a presentation of Sydney’s famous Manly surf beach, but it turned into a meditation over thongs (Aussie language for flip-flops), seagulls in the sunset and heavy photoshopping. Bear with me.
This sunday The Rocks Aroma Festival played out in Sydney’s old historic quarter. For anyone not familiar with Sydney, this is not as niche as it may sound. Rather it is the local code name for the annual Coffee and Chocolate fest, a seven hour hedonistic splurgaton of chocolate fountains, chocolate covered strawberries, rocky roads, honey-dipped popcorn, creamy pavlovas, hot chocolate shots, roasted nuts, chocolate cakes, cupcakes and, my favourite, the honey energy drink - to mention some of the treats (that we actually tried..).
The HR consultants in Mercer releases a yearly report on the best and worst cities in the world, according to quality of life. This year the list is topped, as usual, by Germanic and Australian-Pacific cities, all in peaceful and pleasant countries (Zürich on top for the 7th time). And while all the top 10 cities differ in some ways, they have in common one thing: they are thoroughly boring. How come they always come out in top of lists like these? And when Adelaide, Australia comes out above Paris, France, something must be wrong, right?
Based on personality data collected on “hundreds of thousands” of people, Richard Florida and colleagues has developed maps showing the distribution of the personality dimensions of the five factor model of personality. The five factor model is a statistical model of human personality traits that gives five dimensions of personality traits that put people apart: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extravertion, agreeableness and neuroticism (OCEAN for short). And the map, not surprisingly, mostly adds up with what you would think. For example, openness to experience and neuroticism fits well with the stereotypical view of the states: (more…)
This is the map everyone should consult when looking to relocate. Adrian G. White has made a world-map projection of self-reported well-being, showing the anglo-saxon world, Northern Europe, Venezuela and Costa Rica as the hotspots of happiness. Apparently, income, health services and access to basic education are the best predictors of happiness.
