Talk Deeply, Be Happy?

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing the state of the world and the meaning of life — and less time talking about the weather?

It may sound counterintuitive, but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a study on the subject. ...

... “It’s not that easy, like taking a pill once a day,” Dr. Mehl said. “But this has always intrigued me. Can we make people happier by asking them, for the next five days, to have one extra substantive conversation every day?” [more ...]

The Ides of March

Today! March 15.

From The New York Times' "Et Tu, British Museum? Coin Commemorating Caesar's Murder Goes on Display"

... On Monday — the Ides of March, naturally — the British Museum put on display a gold coin given to one of Caesar’s assassins, which may have been worn as a memento by the boastful killer, The Guardian reported. ...

NY Times' Photo

The Guardian's article uses a photo of a different coin, also attributed to the British Museum, which makes it clear how the coin could have been "worn":

The Guardian's Photo

The Times' story indicates that the coin they have depicted is believed by experts to be a fake. The Guardian's story makes clear that such coins existed:

The swaggering imagery displayed on the coin was already famous in antiquity. In the second century AD, the Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote: "Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted in his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland."

The Times' story does state: "The Guardian said that some 60 silver versions of the coin have survived, but only two were believed to exist in gold — one of which is now believed by experts to be a fake." So, we have photos of all the gold versions, if the experts are correct.

Interestingly, in The Guardian's photo, the coin's image is cropped. Was that to make it difficult for counterfeiters?

COINLINK's "Possibly Unique 'Ides Of March' Gold Coin to be Displayed at British Museum" has another interesting story.

Driving Dioramas -- Redo

Car & House

The Set

Michael Paul Smith builds scale models. His collection of 1/24 scale scenes from mid-20th century America can be seen at his Flickr, where he wrote:

Our past is a powerful draw and in so many ways we try to capture it in order to explain it to ourselves.

What started out as an exercise in model building and photography, ended up as a dream-like reconstruction of the town I grew up in. It's not an exact recreation, but it does capture the mood of my memories.

And like a dream, many of the buildings show up in different configurations throughout the photos. Or sometimes, the buildings stay put and the backgrounds change.

There is also a New York Times' story, "Lots of Web Traffic in such a Tiny Town," about his work.