Happiest State 2 drive your Monte Carlo : )
#1
12-18-2009, 06:18 AM
Happiest State 2 drive your Monte Carlo : )
Happiest States Revealed by New Research, Oh it's always happy 2 drive a Monte Carlo in Canada 
Play Video CBS 2 New York – CDC Survey: New Yorkers Unhappiest In U.S.
Jeanna Bryner
Managing Editor
LiveScience.com jeanna Bryner
managing Editor
livescience.com – Thu Dec 17, 2:05 pm ET
Ever wondered if you'd be happier in sunny Florida or snow-covered Minnesota? New research on state-level happiness could answer that question.
Florida and two other sunshine states made it to the Top 5, while Minnesota doesn't show up until number 26 on the list of happiest states. In addition to rating the smile factor of U.S. states, the research also proved for the first time that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being.
Essentially, if an individual says they're happy, they are.
"When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable," said Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. "This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies," Oswald said.
The happy-states list, however, doesn't match up with a similar ranking reported last month, which found that the most tolerant and wealthiest states were, on average, the happiest. Oswald says this past is based on raw averages of people's happiness in a state, and so doesn't provide meaningful results.
"That study cannot control for individual characteristics," Oswald told LiveScience. "In other words, all anyone has been able to do is to report the averages state-by-state, and the problem with doing that is you're not comparing apples with apples because the people who live in New York City are nothing like the individuals living in Montana."
Rather, Oswald and Stephen Wu, an economist at Hamilton College in New York, statistically created a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.
"Not much point in looking at the happiness of a Texas rancher compared to a nurse in Ohio," Oswald said.
The happiest states:
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida <~ : ) me `Happy : ) I'd be happier `if I had your Monte : ) 4-Sure : )
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
The scientists caution, however, that the top spot, Louisiana, might not reflect current levels of well-being since the data were collected before the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. They are confident that data for the other states does accurately reflect happiness levels.
See the full list of 50 states (and the District of Columbia) here.
Happiness measures
Their results come from a comparison of two data sets of happiness levels in each state, one that relied on participants' self-reported well-being and the other an objective measure that took into account a state's weather, home prices and other factors that are known reasons to frown (or smile).
The self-reported information came from 1.3 million U.S. citizens who took part in a survey between 2005 and 2008.
"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality - of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc - in their own state," Oswald said.
The results showed the two measures matched up. "We were stunned when it first came up on our screens, because no one has ever managed to produce a clear validation before of subjective well-being, or happiness, data," Oswald said.
They were also surprised at the least happy states, such as New York and Connecticut, which landed at the bottom two spots on the list.
"We were struck by the states that come at the bottom, because a lot of them are on the East Coast, highly prosperous and industrialized," Oswald said. "That's another way of saying they have a lot of congestion, high house prices, bad air quality."
He added, "Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."
Would you be happier in another state?
Using both the subjective well-being results, which included individual characteristics like demographics and income, and the objective findings, the team could figure out how an individual would fare in a particular state.
"We can create a like-to-like comparison, because we know the characteristics of people in every state," Oswald said. "So we can adjust statistically to compare a representative person hypothetically put down in any state."
This new research will be published online on Dec. 17 by the journal Science.
or "State of Mind" ?
Post & let us know & fill in some empty `spaces on the MCF : ) Thanks
Play Video CBS 2 New York – CDC Survey: New Yorkers Unhappiest In U.S. Jeanna Bryner
Managing Editor
LiveScience.com jeanna Bryner
managing Editor
livescience.com – Thu Dec 17, 2:05 pm ET
Ever wondered if you'd be happier in sunny Florida or snow-covered Minnesota? New research on state-level happiness could answer that question.
Florida and two other sunshine states made it to the Top 5, while Minnesota doesn't show up until number 26 on the list of happiest states. In addition to rating the smile factor of U.S. states, the research also proved for the first time that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being.
Essentially, if an individual says they're happy, they are.
"When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable," said Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. "This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies," Oswald said.
The happy-states list, however, doesn't match up with a similar ranking reported last month, which found that the most tolerant and wealthiest states were, on average, the happiest. Oswald says this past is based on raw averages of people's happiness in a state, and so doesn't provide meaningful results.
"That study cannot control for individual characteristics," Oswald told LiveScience. "In other words, all anyone has been able to do is to report the averages state-by-state, and the problem with doing that is you're not comparing apples with apples because the people who live in New York City are nothing like the individuals living in Montana."
Rather, Oswald and Stephen Wu, an economist at Hamilton College in New York, statistically created a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.
"Not much point in looking at the happiness of a Texas rancher compared to a nurse in Ohio," Oswald said.
The happiest states:
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida <~ : ) me `Happy : ) I'd be happier `if I had your Monte : ) 4-Sure : )
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
The scientists caution, however, that the top spot, Louisiana, might not reflect current levels of well-being since the data were collected before the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. They are confident that data for the other states does accurately reflect happiness levels.
See the full list of 50 states (and the District of Columbia) here.
Happiness measures
Their results come from a comparison of two data sets of happiness levels in each state, one that relied on participants' self-reported well-being and the other an objective measure that took into account a state's weather, home prices and other factors that are known reasons to frown (or smile).
The self-reported information came from 1.3 million U.S. citizens who took part in a survey between 2005 and 2008.
"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality - of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc - in their own state," Oswald said.
The results showed the two measures matched up. "We were stunned when it first came up on our screens, because no one has ever managed to produce a clear validation before of subjective well-being, or happiness, data," Oswald said.
They were also surprised at the least happy states, such as New York and Connecticut, which landed at the bottom two spots on the list.
"We were struck by the states that come at the bottom, because a lot of them are on the East Coast, highly prosperous and industrialized," Oswald said. "That's another way of saying they have a lot of congestion, high house prices, bad air quality."
He added, "Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."
Would you be happier in another state?
Using both the subjective well-being results, which included individual characteristics like demographics and income, and the objective findings, the team could figure out how an individual would fare in a particular state.
"We can create a like-to-like comparison, because we know the characteristics of people in every state," Oswald said. "So we can adjust statistically to compare a representative person hypothetically put down in any state."
This new research will be published online on Dec. 17 by the journal Science.
- Top 10 Things that Make Humans Special<~
- 5 Keys to Happiness <- Do you have the `key
- Original Story: Happiest States Revealed by New Research
or "State of Mind" ?
Post & let us know & fill in some empty `spaces on the MCF : )
Thanks
Last edited by Space; 12-18-2009 at 06:36 AM.
#2
12-18-2009, 06:46 AM
How to Remove Oil Stains from Concrete
How to Remove Oil Stains from Concrete
BONUS POST: A Clean Drive or Garage Floor should make you
Happier : )
By Susan M. Keenan
No matter how careful we are or how hard we try, eventually oil stains magically appear on our concrete driveway or sidewalk. Obviously, the stains did not appear there by some magical feat, nor are they going to disappear by feats of magic.
Fortunately for consumers, several commercial products have been designed to clean and degrease our concrete floors, driveways, and sidewalks. Unfortunately, many of these products contain acid. This one simple ingredient alone makes the task of using a commercial degreaser a bit of a challenge to use for many of us.
If you prefer not to use a commercial product for whatever reasons, other options are available to remove or at least to lighten oil stains on your concrete surfaces. Read the following suggestions for less toxic solutions to your oil dilemma.
Strategies for Removing or Lightening Oil Stains
BONUS POST: A Clean Drive or Garage Floor should make you
Happier : )
By Susan M. Keenan
No matter how careful we are or how hard we try, eventually oil stains magically appear on our concrete driveway or sidewalk. Obviously, the stains did not appear there by some magical feat, nor are they going to disappear by feats of magic.
Fortunately for consumers, several commercial products have been designed to clean and degrease our concrete floors, driveways, and sidewalks. Unfortunately, many of these products contain acid. This one simple ingredient alone makes the task of using a commercial degreaser a bit of a challenge to use for many of us.
If you prefer not to use a commercial product for whatever reasons, other options are available to remove or at least to lighten oil stains on your concrete surfaces. Read the following suggestions for less toxic solutions to your oil dilemma.
Strategies for Removing or Lightening Oil Stains
- Kitty Litter to the Rescue - Kitty or cat litter has almost as many uses as cats have lives. If you have a fresh oil spill, then you can sprinkle a healthy dose of kitty litter onto it. Allow the litter to sit overnight so that it will absorb the oil as it soaks into the litter.
In the morning, sweep up the kitty litter. The oil is now absorbed into the litter and will be swept away. Unfortunately, if you did not place enough litter onto the oil spill, you may have to repeat the process. - WD-40 - Spray the oil spill liberally with the WD-40. Immediately use a rag to wipe up the mess. Place the rag inside a bag and throw it away. Repeat this process once if it hasn't met your expectations.
- Baking Soda or Dishwasher Detergent Bath - For this method, you will need to lightly wet the area with water first. Sprinkle the area liberally with baking soda or dishwasher detergent. Allow the area to sit undisturbed for several minutes. While you are waiting, boil a pot of water.
Once the water is piping hot, pour it over the area, taking the proper precautions not to burn or scald yourself with the water. Once the water has cooled sufficiently to avoid any scalding, scrub the area with a scrubbing brush that has stiff bristles. Repeat this step as many times as you need in order to achieve the results that you want.
- Purchase a small bag of cat litter and store it in the garage for fresh oil spills.
- Kitty or cat litter absorbs odors as well. Use it on antifreeze spills in a similar process.
- Purchase a box of baking soda and store it in the garage for easy access.
- Purchase some rags that can be stores in the garage for easy use in wiping up spills.
#3
12-18-2009, 11:18 AM
Does driving in a state of bliss count?
I enjoy my days off from work. So I can just take the Monte out and drive! I find myself quickly getting it over the speed limit though. Which is kind of a bummer. Because as you guys all know, our Monte's don't like to stop at the speed limit. They want to keep going.
Or maybe it's just me and my lead foot.
I enjoy my days off from work. So I can just take the Monte out and drive! I find myself quickly getting it over the speed limit though. Which is kind of a bummer. Because as you guys all know, our Monte's don't like to stop at the speed limit. They want to keep going.
Or maybe it's just me and my lead foot.
#6
12-19-2009, 12:36 PM
I would figuer a state with clear n sunny skies would be the perfect state to drive my monte with the sunroof open windows down and music blasting enjoy the road no matter wut kinda road it is.... and i love it here in texas almost never raining always great weather
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