Here are just a few things in Chad’s Pile that you will hear on Lubbock’s First News this morning. Give Chad your feedback on the steaming topics.

1. Newt wins!

Newt Gingrich crushed his competition and won the South Carolina primary on Saturday. The race now moves to Florida and if you thought South Carolina was full of attack ads and fights, just wait. A Gingrich win would be huge and could knock Rick Santorum out of the race. A Romney win would be huge for his campaign because it could shift momentum back to Romney. One thing is clear, this race isn't close to being over. By the way, if you missed watching debates on TV, Monday night brings yet another debate. The gloves are off.

2. Preppers (link)

Are you concerned about the collapse of civilization? Some American's are preparing for the worst.

Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as "preppers." Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.

They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.

Preppers, though are, worried about no government.

Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a "survival center," complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.

Better to be safe than sorry I guess. Personally, I'm not too worried.

3. Dumb story of the morning (link)

Facebook can make you sad.

There are plenty of reasons to feel down in today’s fast-paced, hectic world, and you wouldn’t think that the world’s most popular social networking site would be one of them. But that’s exactly what a new study at Utah Valley University has found.

According to the study, Facebook is making us sad. Why? It’s all about the kinds of pictures people to post on their pages.

Facebook photos generally depict smiling, cheerful people having good times, conveying a sense of happiness. Of course everyone likes to smile for the camera, so that good cheer may be inflated or false. As others view the photos, they may believe this conveyed sense of  intense happiness is real, making them think that their friends are much happier than they are.

Sociologist Hui-Tzu Grace Chou said the study was inspired by her own experience: “Several years ago I started using Facebook because people invited me,” she said in a telephone interview, “and I started to realize my friends on Facebook looked really happy. That made me curious.”

Chou and Nicholas Edge interviewed 425 students, asking them whether they agreed or disagreed with such statements as “Many of my friends have a better life than me,” and “Life is fair.”

They also asked about the students’ Facebook usage, including how many “friends” they had on the site, and how many of those friends were really people they knew.

After controlling for race, gender, religious beliefs and whether the volunteers were unattached or in a relationship, the researchers saw a pattern: The more time students spent on Facebook, the more they thought others had it better than they did.

“Those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives,” wrote Chou and Edge. “Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook “friends” agreed more that others had better lives.”

How about this. Go out and meet people. Get out of the house and be happy.

These and many more topics coming up on Monday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.

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