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.

    First published in 2001, the book Life of Pi written by Canadian author Yann Martel won the Man Booker Prize and an Asian American Prize for Literature. It is the story of a young boy named Pi who spends 227 days at sea with a small group of animals after disaster strikes their ship and is an account of his journey of survival and hardship.

    Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel, on whom Life of Pi is based, is a young boy living in Pondicherry, India, where his father owns a zoo. The story starts when Patel's family decide to move to Canada, along with their zoo animals for their new home.

    However, because of the bad weather, the ship sinks. Pi along with an orangutan (猩猩), an injured zebra, a hyena (鬣狗) and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker are the only survivors who take shelter in a small lifeboat. Both the injured zebra and the orangutan are soon killed and eaten by the hyena. The tiger in turn kills and eats the hyena, leaving just the two of them alone on the boat now.

    In an effort to avoid being eaten by Richard Parker, Pi acts himself as the head of the group and remains safe from harm. Since he does not want the tiger to die for fear of going mad by being alone on the boat, he fishes and feeds the two of them in order to stay alive.

    The life of Pi then enters its third stage when their lifeboat washes up on the shores of Mexico and the tiger escapes into a nearby forest leaving Pi alone. After the Mexicans refuse to believe Pi's story, he changes his tale by replacing the animals with his mother, a cook and a sailor and asks the Mexicans which one they prefer. They prefer hearing the first story though they do not believe a word of it.

    In my view, Life of Pi is a must read book for all those who love reading.

    When life takes you away from home, take technology to help guide and entertain you. APPs can help make your trip easier and more fun.

    Trip It

    Trip It is a helpful APP to organize travel plans. Sign up for a free account at the Trip It website and download the APP to have all of your travel plans handy in one place.

    Google Translate

    When traveling outside your home country, you may need some language assistance. Google Translate is an APP that can help you understand a language other than your native tongue. The Google Translate APP translates between 103 different languages. Copy and paste text into the APP to see a translation. You can also handwrite text onto the screen.

    Fotor

    The Fotor APP lets you edit your photos and add filers for special effects. The APP has been updated recently with new editing features so users can edit their photos more easily. Fotor has added a slider to give users greater control of the edits. Editing effets can be saved as favorites to use them easily later.

   Offline APPs

    Traveling often means you are offline and away from the Internet. When camping in the wild, flying on a plane, sailing on a boat or riding in the car, you may not have an Internet connection. If you are traveling outside your home country and away from Wi-Fi, you should use Offline APPs to avoid large bills for using international data.

    One day a few years ago, a very funny thing happened to a neighbour of mine. He is a teacher at one of London's big medical schools. He had finished his teaching for the summer term and was at the airport on his way to Russia to give a lecture.

    He had put a few clothes and his lecture notes in his shoulder bag , and he had put Rupert , the skeleton (人体骨架）to be used in his lecture , in a large brown suitcase. At the airport desk, he suddenly thought that he had forgotten to buy a newspaper. He left his suitcase near the desk and went over to the shop.

    When he got back he discovered that someone had taken his suitcase by mistake. He often wonders what they said when they got home and found Rupert.

    Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

    Visitor Information

    How to Get to Holker

    By Car: Follow brown signs an A590 from JB6, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere-20 minutes, Kendal-25 minutes, Lancaster-45 minutes, Manchester-1 hour 30 minutes.

    By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Cartmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

    Opening Times

    Sunday-Friday (closed on Saturday)11:00 am-4:00pm,30 March-2nd November.

Admission Charges

    Special Events

    Producers: Market 13th April

    Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

    Holker Garden Festival 30th May

    The event celebrate its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

    National Garden Day 28th August

    Holker once again opens is gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

    Winter Market 8th November

    This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifs while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

    Imagine yourself on a boat looking out at the horizon and all you can see is the water meeting the sky with no land in sight and you are sailing straight ahead to meet the world. Jesse Martin does not have to imagine: he is living in it.

    On Dec. 7, 1998, at 17 years old, Jesse set sail from Melbourne, Australia on his boat, attempting to become the youngest person to sail alone and nonstop around the world. He sailed south of New Zealand, through the South Pacific, around South America, north on the Atlantic, back south past Africa, through the Indian Ocean and back to Melbourne. Even as a young child, Jesse had been an adventurer who traveled all over Europe and Asia with his parents. Born in Munich, Germany in 1981, he moved to Australia with his family when he was only two years old. They moved close to a rainforest in Cow Bay, about 3, 500kms north of Melbourne, where they built a small house with no electricity or running water. Jesse grew up at the beach enjoying the outdoors to its fullest. At 14, he sailed for the first time with his father and brother, Beau. It was after this trip that he began to dream about sailing around the world.

    Jesse's family played an important role. "I was made to believe I could do anything, although there were others that were not so encouraging or supportive" he says. "People that I looked up to, respected and trusted told me I couldn't. Thankfully, I trusted myself. There were people that said that the boat couldn't be ready by the time I had to leave." However, through perseverance (坚持不懈) and belief in himself, he was able to do what many told him was impossible.

    On Oct.31, 1999, more than 10 months after he set sail, Jesse Martin went down in history as the youngest person to sail around the world alone, nonstop and unassisted.