While the idea of Becoming a Contagious Christian has always kind of offended my OCD-ish sensibilities, I was extremely interested to learn that, according to recent research, happiness really is catching.
According to researchers from Harvard and UC San Diego:
With more BPM (that’s Blips Per Minute) than your last Galaga marathon, the 8-Bit Jesus Christmas album by Doctor Octoroc is sure to nerdify your holiday, for free!
Songs like Super Jingle Bros., Ryu the Red Nosed Ninja and The Legend of Noel combine old school NES nostalgia with good ol’ fashioned holiday nostalgia. Toss in an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle and you’re good to go.
Sounds Familyre, home of everyone’s favorite melodramatic popular song folk minstrels Danielson Familie, has a free Christmas compilation out for your holiday enjoyment.
Of note, Sufjan Stevens returning from the future, bringing back a rendition of Good King Wenceslas unlike any you’ve heard before (unless, of course, you are a robot).
My favorite title from the vast Sufjan Christmas catalogue has to be Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!).
… but this is getting out of hand.
Check out this enormous, year-end meta-/mega-list from Time magazine, aptly titled Top 10 Everything of 2008. In case you were wondering, Time says there’s a difference between the Top 10 Quotes and Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans.
If you have some time to meander through this list, you might find gems like this one: Aerial Duo Parachute Into Wrong Stadium or the oddly compelling video, Western Spaghetti. You can also learn a thing or two about nuking the fridge (hint: it’s not good).
I might just write in this video as my Top Ten of awesomeness for the year. Seriously, I dare you to watch it and not be totally psyched for working your lats:
… and yet so far!
I recently heard this story on Morning Edition on NPR:
Scientist Douglas Prasher isolated a glowing jellyfish protein gene. When he lost his research funding, three other scientists built on that work. In October, it was announced that two U.S. and one Japanese scientists had won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
The crazy this is, after Prasher lost his funding he ended up driving a courtesy van for a living. But, perhaps even crazier, he says he’s happy doing it. According to him, research is sort of a lonely enterprise. However, driving a van gives him the opportunity to connect with people all day long and hear their stories. Then again, maybe that’s just the story he has to keep telling himself to keep from losing his mind over being that close to winning a Nobel Prize!
There’s sort of a happy ending to this story:
The U.S. scientists who won the prize this week invited Prasher and his wife to Stockholm for the Nobel ceremony. They will thank him in their acceptance speeches and will pay for the trip.
headsparks* 