Well, here you go, the answer to all of our problems, the Happiness Hat:

http://www.lauren-mccarthy.com/happinesshat/

So, all we need to do is to make the wearing of happiness hats compulsory and we will achieve our goal of "Making Everybody Happy"...

Compulsory happiness is not the goal, I don't think anybody would want to live in a world with happiness police. And I suspect that is one possible side effect of governments measuring happiness, with any kind of measurement there is the temptation to massage the figures, find an easy way to make the numbers better.

Artcile on the BBC:

Happiness revisited: Does money make us happy after all?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8484368.stm

Looks like the people at Davos have been looking at the issue of happiness and welath - but not very closely as far as I can tell. Funnily enough, I have been planning an article about this very subject as it is absolutely fundamental to the whole issue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/6195370/Happiness---the-new-currency-i...

Yes, even the Telegraph are starting to take notice, Happiness is set to become an unstoppable force in world politics.

Richard Layard talking about how happiness should be the main goal of society and individuals:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8254000/8254249.stm

The alternative is to not take the happiness of the population into account, which sounds like the stance of a dictator!

We live in an age of celebrity. Our heros are seen as special people towering above the rest of us mere mortals and entitled to the lavish lifestyles we see paraded before us.

These are people out for themselves, for what they can get. They are special after all, why shouldn't they have a guitar shaped swimming pool and an all red snooker room with a stuffed camel? Or German themed prison nights with expensive prostitutes, or their own private island or a multi million pound farmhouse for the weekends. Or all their expenses paid for by the taxpayer...

More news on the BBC relating to happiness.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/companies/8008057.stm

It's not how much you have that counts, it's your attitude towards what you have. We have monkey brains which are set up for a completely different world, no wonder we are all in such a mess!

It's the 20th anniversary of the birth of Darwin so there is a lot of talk about "The Genius of Evolution" at the moment. Evolution has changed the way we see ourselves and the world. Since Darwin's time we have moved from being divine souls at the center of a world created by God solely for our amusement, to being monkeys on an insignificant rock in an unremarkable galaxy which itself is no more than an insignificant speck in an infinite universe.