What is happiness?

I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equatehappiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorousparties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness".
But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children, profound loneliness.
The way people clingto the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually diminishes their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with happiness, then pain must be equated with unhappiness. But, in fact, the opposite is true: More times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very endeavors that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, civicor charitablework, and self-improvement.

Top Audrey Hepburn Films

The humble and poised Audrey Hepburn made a great impact on film history with her memorable screen presence. Here are the top picks every fan--old and new--should see.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Roman Holiday awakened the world to the budding star. In this romantic film, Hepburn plays a cooped up European princess who escapes her confinement. Once her character is discovered by an American journalist (Gregory Peck), he takes her on a comical journey in Rome. Yet unbeknownst to the princess, his intentions are to get the interview of a lifetime.

Sabrina (1954)

Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden create a tense love triangle in this classic movie. Bogart and Holden play wealthy brothers, and Heburn portrays their soft-spoken chauffeur's daughter.
After a life-changing stay in Paris, Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn) takes her newfound sophistication back to her childhood home. Spoiled David Larrabee notices the changes in Sabrina and falls for her. But so does his thick-skinned older brother, Linus (Bogart).Sabrina also established a Hepburn's life-long relationship with famous designer Hubert de Givenchy who created her timeless ball gown in the film.

Funny Face (1957)

Lanky, but intelligent, Jo Stockton (Hepburn) attracts the eye of fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire). After he discovers the unique look of Stockton, she gets offered a modeling contract but quickly becomes swept up in the egotistical world of fashion.
In the movie, both Astaire and Hepburn provide the main entertainment with their dancing skills in this Gershwin-infused musical comedy.


Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Hepburn creates legendary film and chic style in Breakfast at Tiffany's where she plays dabbling Holly Golightly, the "call girl" with a complicated past. Golightly meets the pragmatic writer Paul Varjak (George Peppard) whom she unashamedly calls Fred. Throughout the movie, based on the novel by Truman Capote, the two characters experience life in New York City's social scene.
This feel-good movie continues to capture audiences with its quirky characters and that "little black dress" (designed by Givenchy) every woman seems to want.

Charade (1963)

Suspense is successfully captured in this film starring Hepburn and Cary Grant. Throughout the movie, Hepburn's character attempts to escape the results from the former schemes of her murdered husband. Charade is truly an experience full of surprising twists and unexpected turns.

My Fair Lady (1964)

While Hepburn did not perform her own vocals in the film, her character, Eliza Dolittle is perhaps one of her most eccentric of all. The musical, based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, takes audiences through the shenanigans of Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) in his wry and egotistical attempt to make the ill-mannered Dolittle into a woman fit for nobility.

Wait Until Dark (1967)

In this film, Hepburn plays a blind woman tormented by a group of crooks, led by Alan Arkin's character. The criminals are determined to find heroin they are convinced is hidden in her apartment. When one thinks of Audrey Hepburn, Wait Until Dark, typically doesn't come to mind, but this film shows her ability to create depth within a role.

Always (1989)

Audrey Hepburn's last role was in Always starring Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter. She played an angel who consoled Dreyfuss' character in the afterlife. While her time on the screen was brief, her presence shows through as it always has.

Obama to unveil $300 bln jobs package

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a 300-billion-dollar plan on Thursday, including tax cuts and spending for 2012 to boost job creation and stimulate recovery, U.S. media reported late Tuesday.

The new plan, which will be unveiled in Obama's address to Congress on Thursday night, will cover programs such as tax incentives for businesses, investment in infrastructure, special assistance to dislocated workers and a continuation of payroll tax relief for middle-class workers.

At recent press conferences, White House spokesmen stressed that the president has put job creation at the top of his agenda.

U.S. unemployment remained at 9.1 percent more than two years after the recession's official end in June 2009.

The jobless rate and the sluggish recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression will be central issues as Obama runs for re-election next year.

"We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Republicans, who control the U.S. House, have signaled resistance to new spending that would add to the federal budget deficit.

Still, the GOP indicated that there might be common ground for the two sides to join their efforts to create jobs.

In a letter to Obama on Tuesday, U.S. House Republican leaders said they are going to find potential opportunities for Congress and the White House to work together this fall on jobs.

Speaker John Boehner and House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said although the two parties continue to debate and discuss on different approaches to job creation, "it is also critical that our differences not prelude us from taking action in areas where there is common agreement."

"We should not approach this as an all or nothing situation," they said.

The letter says Republicans could agree to spend on public works projects under certain conditions, and support changes in how jobless benefits are dispensed.

U.S. economy grew only 1.3 percent in the second quarter after a slower pace of 0.4 percent in the first quarter. The White House projected that the economy will increase at a rate of 1.7 percent for the year of 2011. Unemployment rate is expected to keep at 8.3 percent to 9 percent in 2012.

With jobless rate hovering at stubbornly high level, President Obama's public support has dropped to a new low in recent polls.

Pakistan's flood death toll rises to 123

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the authorities to immediately activate the National Health Emergency Response Unit to urgently deal with the outbreak of water-borne diseases in the floods-hit areas in southern parts of the country as the death toll from flood-related incidents reached 123 in the country, said officials said Tuesday.

Most of the people died as a result of drowning in flood waters, falling roofs, snakebites and water-borne diseases including gastroenteritis, said health officials and aid agencies.

Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in southern Sindh province have so far destroyed nearly 500,000 mud houses, said Zafar Qadir, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA

The NDMA chief informed the Prime Minister in a briefing in Islamabad on Monday that about 80 percent of standing crops have been swept away by floods only in Sindh province. He said that floods have so far affected 400,000 acres of agriculture land while 100,000 cattle-heads are dead or missing, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office.

According to NDMA, 80 percent of bananas, dates, chili, sugarcane and cotton crops has been destroyed. This could cause a shortage of fruit and vegetable this year in Sindh and other parts of the country.

On Monday heaviest spell of rain also occurred in many parts of southern Sindh province. The meteorological office has forecast more rains this week.

Prime Minister Gilani took serious notice of the spreading of water-borne diseases in the flood-hit areas of Sindh and directed the relevant authorities to extend full support to the Sindh government for prevention as well as cure of these diseases, said the PM office.

The Prime Minister directed the NDMA chairman to start immediate aerial spray in the affected areas to stop the further spreading of these diseases.

The NDMA chairman apprised the Prime Minister that one hundred hand spray pumps are being provided for their utilization in the flood-affected areas to prevent the water-borne diseases.

According to NDMA's estimate, some 2.2 million people have been affected since heavy rains started in the first week of August and 300,000 displaced by the floods only in Sindh province. Thousands more have been affected in eastern Punjab province.

Many affected people have complained about shortage of food, clean drinking water, medicines and tents.

As the monsoon spell continues to inundate more areas, NDMA said that flood water may take up to two to three months to dry up. Officials fear an outbreak of water-borne diseases due to polluted domestic water supplies and standing water.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned in a report of possible outbreak of endemic disease in the wake of recent floods in southern Sindh.

Prepared in view of the survey of relief camps and flood-hit areas in the affected districts, the report said that skin diseases are fast spreading among the displaced people of the affected areas.

Acute shortage of clean drinking water, safe sanitation, shelter and healthcare facilities are likely to trigger serious health diseases, particularly among women and children, said the WHO report.

WHO has urged the government authorities to administer vaccination to the children, so that they are protected from falling victim to disease, particularly in the areas where there are inadequate safe drinking water and sanitation facilities and proper drainage arrangements.

Officials said that hundreds of people with diarrhea and other related problems have attended public health facilities over the past few weeks.

Health authorities have started a health awareness campaign across the province using the electronic and print media to encourage the use of boiled water for drinking and cooking purposes.