Last week was not the best for me - mainly due to some cranky bosses. A well-deserving friend emailed me to let me know that she had gotten engaged, and it totally lifted my day. I even told the story to several other people. (I’m a girl…I spread news faster than Apple sells I-phones).

An immense British Medical Journal study analyzed 4,700 individuals over 20 years and determined that happiness is indeed infectious. The “Framington Heart Study” looked at each individual’s social network of friends and family to find out whether one person’s happiness could influence that of the other.

They found that being surrounded by many happy people was more likely than not to make people they know happier over time. Indeed, even if your friend’s friend has something to celebrate, it can increase your own level of happiness.

The study also says that: “A friend who lives within a mile and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25%.”

[Read more →]

Check out our new “Living Well Page” from all of us at Still Good News.com

Every month or so, we’ll be putting up a major feature page full of links, videos, articles and reviews. They’ll be about everything from health to entertainment.

This month - we’re hoping you want to learn more about Yoga. (no we’re not asking you to do it, just read about it…and maybe do it, too, for like…a minute or so….)

We’ve all found a lot of serenity in yoga, and even the cynical side of us has to admit it’s a good thing. For articles about “Online Yoga at Home”, “Laughing Yoga Videos”, “Finding Serenity in Yoga” and more- head to our Living Well Tab (or click here if you forgot your glasses and can’t see it next to “About”).

So everyone is concerned about swine flu and such, but I really think this a great opportunity to make Great Television people!When the inevitable zombie outbreak happens due to the swine flu I’m going to create and star in a new reality series for VH1 called “Apocalypse of Love”

I’m going to live in a specially fortified commune hidden deep in Alaska with 14 sexy ladies. These ladies will compete for permanent residency within the commune walls. These women will be from diverse backgrounds and all bring unique skills to the table. They will include; a doctor, farmer, athlete, mechanic, Mensa member, carpenter, painter/poet, solider and of course six drunken party girls. They will compete in numerous challenges like creating a melee weapon from household items, making pizza from scratch, fixing generators, and of course an obstacle course. [Read more →]

Next time you go to squish that spider in your room, remember this - that spider may have super powers.

20 years ago David Manteca was in a motorcycle accident which took the use of both legs away from him. Confined to a wheelchair since then, 8 months ago a Brown Recluse Spider bit him and sent him to the hospital. While there a nurse noticed his leg spasms and now BAM he can walk. Crazy right?

I’ve done some investigating of my own and Manteca doesn’t appear to live near any biological research labs, waste dumps, or in a nuclear power plants. So what could possibly account for his sudden recovery? Well unless he’s been faking it for the last 20 years, just to prevent his wife from asking him to take out the trash (which is a possibility, us guys HATE that) I think it is obviously the Spider-god “Anansi” DUHH.

Manteca says that he “can’t wait to walk his daughters down the isle” That’s sooo selfish. When a spider gives you abilities be they super or not you have to use them to fight crime or your Uncle Ben will get shot. Its the Rules!  I’m sure once that happens he will be swinging from roof tops in pajamas and fighting crime. Until then I guess that mechanical 6 armed man running amuck downtown will just be the polices’ problem.

Weta, the company that created armies of plastic-rubber beings for the Lord of the Rings movie recently made a woman into a mermaid.

Nadya Vessey (now the second most famous Nadya of 2009) who had to have both her legs amputated before she was 16 asked the ingenious design team to give her a tail.

Two years, a bunch of 3D modeling, some poly carbonate things later – voila, she can glide through the water just like a real mermaid (well, if mermaids were real).

So cool!

Anyone who has spent time with the LOTR DVD extras will recognize the quasi famous people in the video

"Sexploration" column writer Brian Alexander from MSNBC.com gives us one of the most interesting op-eds of the week.

Around the 1st of November, 2008, a study came out titled "Coping with copulation may help calculate diabetes risk." The study found that deer mice participating in monogamous-mice-love (as opposed to hopping around the cage with any old rat) led to calmer rats and a stronger ability to regulate blood sugars.

Since deer-mice are so like men, the researchers concluded that this means that men in monogamous relationships deal better with stress and lower their risk of diabetes. [Read more →]

In Mexico City, chiles are not the only necessary spice to life. Mayor Marcelo Ebrand believes that sexuality “has a lot to do with the quality of life and our happiness.” And so, the city will be handing out free Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills to under-overly-excited men over 70.

Article on www.msnbc.msn.com

I know you don’t want to believe it (ALL YOU TALL PEOPLE, that is…) but there are many advantages to being short. And isn’t the whole point of building auditorium seats on a slant so that you can SEE the stage?

From Short Person’s Support.Org

1. Shorter people have faster reaction times and greater ability to accelerate body movements (this is why it was so crazy that Usain Bolt could run fast - usually sprinters aren’t so dam tall)
2. Short people are less likely to break bones falling and so can excel at things like gymnastics and martial arts.
3. Short people are less likely to break hips wen falling due to a stronger back structure. (I’ll remember that when I’m old and gray)
4. Shorter people live longer - according to the World Health Organization study in 1992 - bigger bodies have more cells, and fewer potential cell doublings to replace defective or dead cells.
5. Shorter people create less waste and less pollution.

Now there, didn’t that perk you up a bit today!

Disclaimer - to all you tall people - this is NOT an excuse to hunch over - that’s just NOT attractive.

Well this is not very scientific and definitely not very journalistic, but in my opinion it falls under the category of “plain old good news”: people are dieting less and eating more!

According to this New York Times article, eating good, healthy and tasty food is becoming acceptable again! Since there is not much proof that eating low-fat, and sugar-substitute filled products help people keep the weight off, it seems that the general public is embracing the idea of cooking with natural ingredients (apparently this is also because prepared food is expensive).

The other interesting thing about this article is it gave me a reason to like Rachael Ray. Ray believes that cookbooks should not come with calorie information. As someone who was recently shocked by going to Chevy’s and finding out that even ordering an appetizer required going over my recommended daily caloric intake, I fully support Ray’s decision to omit that information from her cookbooks. I also think that calorie information should not be listed next to hot-dog and beer vendors at baseball stadiums. That is just plain wrong.