According to Newsweek magazine, the Best Country in the World is…
1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
And we're number
11. United States
"Why do cold, dark, small, and depressive nations top the rankings?"
--author Andrei Codrescu
... when you read about America in European newspapers, what you are likely to find is a tone bordering on pity. The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war. Sure, the iPad is cool, but it is evidence of what America was, not what it will be again. The stories are not angry, accusatory, or even ideological. It’s worse: they are condescendingly elegiac.
Newsweek: Europeans can't be bothered to hate America
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Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
Life on the edge
1000+ Haitians live on an 8' wide highway median, having no place else to go.
The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water by adopting a resolution.This world day for water was to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development contained in chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21.
Today is World Water Day. More at the Big Picture.
The world marks International Women's Day [today], an annual celebration that highlights their economic, political and social achievements.
"International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men," the United Nations says.
"Unfriend" is the New Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2009.
Breathing Earth
Breathing Earth is a map of the earth that shows, in realtime, births, deaths, and carbon dioxide consumption of the world's countries.
Requires flash
Let it run for awhile - it's fascin
A Tragedy
The Denver Post reports that 80 children die EVERY DAY in Darfur, Western Africa. Can anything be done to save Darfur? Here is a link to Doctors Without Borders so you can see what that organization
