Before I studied psychology, I used to think that people would laugh when funny things occurred. While I was right about that, I discovered there are lots of other psychological factors that make people laugh other than the funny part of a joke. When someone laughs at a joke, there will usually be more than one reason that makes him laugh—and the more reasons there are, the more powerful the joke will be.

    I was attending a stand-up comedy show in Egypt, and when the man started to make fun of pedestrians crossing streets, everyone laughed their hearts out. The main reason those people strongly laughed was that almost all of them felt angry towards pedestrians who crossed streets carelessly. The joke wasn't only funny, it also made the audience feel that they were right about being angry at those pedestrians. That is, people were laughing both because of the funny joke and because of the happiness experienced as a result of the psychological support they got.

    The better a joke makes a person feel, and the more it includes other psychological factors, the more the person will like it. For example, if you envy one of your friends, and someone tells a joke that is funny and, at the same time, makes your friend seem stupid, then you will probably laugh at it louder than if you weren't jealous of him.

    In short, we don't laugh only when we hear something funny; we also laugh when we experience some kind of happiness that results from the other psychological factors involved in the joke. I strongly discourage making fun of anyone or belittling someone to make someone else laugh. All I want to explain is that if your joke supports a person's emotions, he will certainly like it a lot.

    To start a conversation about the secret to happiness, ABC News' health editor Dr. Richard Besser hosted a Twitter chat Tuesday.  Experts from the National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Harvard University and TEDMED, as well as clinicians and people from across the country, joined the one-hour discussion. There are countless ways to measure happiness. With research on the topic increasing, researchers have carried out surveys to study people's sense of well-being.

    Angela Haupt, health and wellness editor for U.S. News and World Report, said, “Happiness indicators include life satisfaction, health and community engagement.”

    @toddkashdan added that, “despite problems with self-reports, there is no better way to measure happiness than focusing on personal thoughts and feelings.”

    While scientists try to find out what caused happiness, others often believe that true joy doesn't exist. Dr Friedman, a psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Hospital, said that “happiness is hard to measure, but easy to recognize.”

    Still, common themes about satisfaction come up in these conversations. Finding meaning in daily work was important. Indeed, researchers have found that having creative and purposeful work to do is a key factor in happiness.  But people were quick to state the importance of balancing work and family obligations.

    Chat participants(参与者) agreed that money does not surely bring happiness. And studies agree once people's basic needs like food and housing are met, higher incomes do little to improve your happiness.  At last, people found value in their connections with others.  Research shows that having support through friends, family, and social networks can bring happiness.  Many agree with @drmommy, who said “I measure my happiness by the loving people that are around me.”

    So, can we increase our happiness?  Expressing gratitude(感激) is a possible way of feeling happiness. Researchers have found that people who regularly write down things for which they are grateful in “gratitude journals” have increased satisfaction in life, higher energy levels, and improved health.  In one study, people who read a letter of appreciation to someone in their lives prove happier almost one month later.  Performing acts of kindness can raise your moods

    Data show that our relationships matter, too. People who are interested in meaningful conversations with friends or family are reported to be happier than those who don't. Close interpersonal ties and strong social support are important for happiness.

    The city of Amsterdam is one of the best preserved in all of Europe. When visiting this remarkable city, you tend to forget your troubles just for a moment. With this travel guide, you will be able to discover the real Amsterdam.

    Best Time to Visit Amsterdam

    To see the tulip(郁金香)flowers you can visit from mid-April to early May. For the New Year's celebration, there're a lot of parties going on then. However, if you want to enjoy a quieter and more relaxing Amsterdam, visit from October to March.

Getting Around Amsterdam

    You can rent a bike to go wherever you want to go. Public transportation is also convenient. You can get a chip card for about$9.

    What You Should Know Before Visiting Amsterdam

    Plan ahead since most of the attractions are usually busy and be careful with your wallets as the city is well-known for pickpockets. Also be cautious when you are buying something in the markets.

    The Best of Amsterdam

    Rijksmuseum

    This museum is one of the finest in the world. Make sure you arrive before 10 am to avoid big crowds.

    Vondelpark

    If you are looking forward to relaxing and enjoying some peace and quiet, make a trip to this top choice park in the city.

    Van Gogh Museum

    The Van Gogh Museum is very fascinating; you will definitely be moved as you see Vincent van Gogh's life and how he developed through art.

    A'DAM Tower

    If you want to get the inspiring views of Amsterdam, take the lift to the top of this tower. You can also climb aboard the giant four-person swing for some fun rides.

    Whales, like all mammals(哺乳动物),need air, and come to the surface to breathe through a blowhole. A drone(无人机)that floats over the blowholes of humpback whales as they are making annual journey along Australia's east coast is being used by Australian scientists for collecting nasal mucus(鼻腔粘液)of whales.

    Vanessa Pirotta, a biologist at Macquarie University says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale. "It is the biological mixture that you see as a whale takes a breath as it surfaces from the water," she said. You can hear sounds of sharp breaths as a whale breathes because, after all, they are animals like you and I. So as they take a breath it is a lot of lung bacteria coming out from their lungs, which we can collect to provide a brief idea of whale health.

    Australian researchers have attached a special dish that is used in scientific tests to a drone which flies through the whale's nasal mist. As a whale comes to take a breath—you can actually see it coming to the surface on really good weather days —the drone then lowers, the dish is then opened, collecting nasal mucus for later research.

    The research could help to solve one of the secrets of another impressive creature of the deep —the Southern right whale. Its numbers have recovered on Australia's west coast since hunting became suppressed but its population on the eastern seaboard remains stubbornly low.

    In the past, studies into whale health had to rely on examining whales that were either killed or those whales that had been trapped on a beach. Drones allow scientists to collect nasal mucus from free-swimming whales to gather information in a safe way.

Plants may tell us when they're in trouble.Thirsty tomato and tobacco plants make clicking sounds,researchers have found.The sounds are ultrasonic (超声波的),meaning they are too high-pitched for human ears to hear.But when the sounds are transformed to lower pitches,they sound like popping bubbles (爆破的泡泡).Plants also make clicks when their stems (茎) are cut.

"It's not like the plants are screaming," says Lilach Hadany,an evolutionary biologist working at Tel Aviv University in Israel."Plants may not mean to make these noises.We've shown only that plants create informative sounds."

Hadany and her colleagues first heard the clicks when they set microphones next to plants on tables in a lab.The microphones caught some noises.But the researchers needed to make sure that the clicking was coming from the plants.So,the scientists placed plants inside soundproof boxes in the basement,far from the noise of the lab.There,microphones picked up ultrasonic pops from thirsty tomato plants.Though it was outside humans' hearing range,the clicking made by plants was about as loud as a normal conversation.

Cut tomato plants and dry or cut tobacco plants clicked,too.But plants that had enough water or hadn't been cut stayed mostly quiet.Wheat,corn and grapevines also made sounds when stressed out.

The researchers don't yet know why plants click.Bubbles forming and then popping inside plant tissues that transport water might make the noises.But however they happen,pops from crops could help farmers,the researchers suggest.Microphones,for example,could monitor fields or greenhouses to detect when plants need to be irrigated (灌溉).

Hadany wonders whether other plants and insects already tune into plant pops.Other studies have suggested that plants respond to sounds.And animals from pests (害虫),moths to mice can hear in the range of the ultrasonic clicks.Sounds made by plants could be heard from around five meters away.Hadany's team is now studying what the living things near the plants will do after hearing the sounds.

Is forgiveness against our human nature? To answer our question, we need to ask a further question: What is the essence of our humanity? For the sake of simplicity, people consider two distinctly different views of humanity. The first view involves dominance and power. In an early paper on the psychology of forgiveness, Droll (1984) made the interesting claim that humans' essential nature is more aggressive than forgiving allows. Those who forgive are against their basic nature, much to their harm. In his opinion, forgivers are compromising their well-being as they offer mercy to others, who might then take advantage of them.

The second view involves the theme of cooperation, mutual respect, and even love as the basis of who we are as humans. Researchers find that to fully grow as human beings, we need both to receive love from and offer love to others. Without love, our connections with a wide range of individuals in our lives can fall apart. Even common sense strongly suggests that the will to power over others does not make for harmonious interactions. For example, how well has slavery worked as a mode of social harmony?

From this second viewpoint of who we are as humans, forgiveness plays a key role in the biological and psychological integrity of both individuals and communities because one of the outcomes of forgiveness, shown through scientific studies, is the decreasing of hatred and the restoration of harmony. Forgiveness can break the cycle of anger. At least to the extent the people from whom you are estranged accept your love and forgiveness and are prepared to make the required adjustments. Forgiveness can heal relationships and reconnect people.

As an important note, when we take a Classical philosophical perspective, that of Aristotle, we see the distinction between potentiality and actuality. We are not necessarily born with the capacity to forgive, but instead with the potential to learn about it and to grow in our ability to forgive. The actuality of forgiving, its actual appropriation in conflict situations, develops with practice.