Cold.

Gold.

This year’s skating competitions have been excellent. The performances by singles and pairs have been great to watch. It really shows the complexity and hard work that goes into their training. Congratulations to all winners, and everyone that made it to the Olympics. That is no small feat.

In an op-ed by Nicholas D. Kristof, the act of giving is equated to food or sex in their ability to provide human pleasure. It is a post that introduces the premise of a new book titled, “The Happiness Hypothesis“, and it’s one that I can agree with.

Throughout time, people have given to help those in need. They still do, as is seen in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. People also give to feel good about themselves. It’s a euphoric feeling that is not only one-sided, but has benefits for the receiving end.

Kristof ties this to a humanistic need to be social and to contribute to society. It’s an old idea, but it’s always a good read.

Update – 02/13/2010

I’m in the process of reading The Happiness Hypothesis. Will post a review soon after completing it.

Gmail – ‘Where I enter my cloud in the sky and hop about for e-mail, chat, suggested news, and online documents. I don’t know why I don’t use iGoogle. Yes, I do. It’s the look and feel of iGoogle. Of course, I can change it, but the default Gmail settings- with a slight modification by moving my chat contact list to the right-hand side and enabling docs and calendar- is all I need. It’s simple and it works.

The New York Times – I find the front page of the New York Times to be very effective in getting me the latest news and the most popular as read by other visitors. Whether it’s educational, international, technological, political, etc. I can always find news that’s important to me. Their op-ed section also make for good reading with Friedman, Krugman, Kristof, and Dowd.

ESPN – I love sports. ESPN delivers.

VGChartz – I love video games… and numbers. VGChartz is where I go for the latest sales numbers. Sometimes, I go there for news, but I prefer IGN for video game news, even though it didn’t make it in my top 6. The news at VGChartz is sufficient.

GoNintendo – Even though I don’t play much of Nintendo-branded games, nowadays, I’m still interested in what they have in store for their key franchises. I think a lot of their third-party games on the Wii are fun and go unnoticed by the general consumer. This is where I go for my Nintendo fix.

Reddit – Recently, I’ve been annoyed with the Reddit submissions that pop up on the homepage, but I keep coming back. Visiting the site is more entertainment than intellectual but, every now and again, you can find a gem that is worth reading. I hear that subscribing to sub-reddits is better than visiting the homepage.

Those are the top 6 websites that I visit daily. Here are others that I get to once a week or, at least, once a month.

• The Economist
• Hulu
• YouTube
• IGN
• Forbes
• BusinessWeek
• Idealist
• The Chronicle

What’s your top 6?

Here is Hulu’s collection of 12 musical numbers from the show. The first number, “Don’t Stop Believing”,  is from the pilot episode.

The movie was about love- a story we’re use to seeing retooled and delivered year after year- but it delivered it in a fantastic way. The movie is classified as a musical, but it didn’t feel like a musical. However, it wouldn’t have been the same movie without the music. The characters are charming and live ordinary lives, and that’s a part of the draw.

You connect with the two main characters and want the best for them because they want that too. Both play musical instruments- a piano and a guitar- and are doing their best to get by. Music is their love and distraction from life. I love music as well and have always wanted to learn how to play an instrument- ironically, the guitar or piano. But after just watching the first original song by the male lead, I felt an urge to go out and buy a guitar. I felt the same way when the female lead played the piano for the first time. And their first song together is beautiful.

For me, music is a distraction as well. I love to be immersed in it because it takes me to another place. But after watching this movie, I’m starting to wonder more and more: if I love music so much, why just let it be a distraction in my life?

I emailed my niece’s dad who is in a band ’cause the movie reminded me of him. To all music artists out there: Thanks for sharing. To all aspiring musicians: Keep going.

If you haven’t seen it, rent or buy it for the holidays. You won’t regret it.

For the original source and more comics from XKCD, click this link.

Unless you are a United States (U.S.) citizen, it’s not going to count. I was, however, impressed by what I saw at roughly 3pm on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. Now, let’s keep in mind that this is still new and the word hasn’t been spread all over the world yet, so the numbers will definitely be updated.

It’ll be fun to see what the final results are after November 1st.

Will it have any impact on the U.S.? I doubt it.

Is it supposed to? I don’t think so.

Do people know all of the issues and where the candidates stand on them before voting? I’m going to have to say, “Some do, and some don’t.”

Do U.S. Americans know all of the issues and where the candidates stand on them before voting?, I’m going to have to say, “Some do, and some don’t.”

Do I know all of the issues and where the candidates stand? I’ve read a summary once, having been following the race as best as I can, but I will most likely review everything again before casting a vote.

When we’re voting, we vote based on our preferences and how we feel a candidate can best serve us. Some people’s preferences are based on a single issue while others span many issues. Past experience and current conditions can also affect a vote, as well as emotions.

One of the funny things I found was a comment made by someone that probably echoes what’s on everyone’s mind when it comes to elections, in general.

To find out more about the Economist’s World Vote, click here: http://www.economist.com/vote2008/

The above screenshots were taken while visiting the Economist website. All copyrighted material of The Economist obviously belongs to The Economist. On a side-note, great use of the map and colors; nice Flash skills. I like that.

Copyright of the New York Times. For info, click here.

More monkey pictures, here.