10 happiest countries in the world

10. Luxembourg – 7.6 points

Living in the worlds richest country inevitably puts a smile on your face! This small landlocked European country has an army of 800 people (yes, 800). They don’t have a navy nor an air force but together with Belgium they can afford to own 1 military cargo plane. Beat that US!

According to the Guinness Book of World Records Luxembourg holds the world record as the country that consumes most alcohol in the world per citizen.

9. Guatemala – 7,6 points

This Central American country borders with Mexico in the north and is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. This location makes it a very difficult country to stay happy in – Guatemala is frequently ravished by hurricanes and earthquakes that often kill thousands of people. Main exports of Guatemala include coffee, sugar and bananas. The latter is probably why they are so happy – have you ever seen someone that can stay sad while eating a banana? 56% of all Guatemalans live in poverty. If you ask me, they can use the cheap bananas!

8. Canada – 7,6 points

Many people have no idea that Canada’s head of state is actually Queen Elizabeth II – the head of the British Monarchy. This meant that when Britain declared war on Germany in World War I, Canada was automatically at war with the soon to be Nazi country. Unlike the neighboring US, Canada has never cancelled its relations with Cuba and has declined to take part from the Iraq War – instead, it has played a leading role in the United Nations peacekeeping missions and helped to launch a $1.5 billion initiative to help develop vaccines that could save millions of people in poor countries. It seems that happy people make a happy country!

7. Sweden – 7,7 points

This “welfare state” model is an excellent example of effective national taxes. Among other things the state provides universal tax-funded childcare, parental leave, health care, education (including university), retirement pensions and sick leave. Including value added tax (VAT – kind of like sales tax), it is possible to pay up to 80% of your income as taxes. Contrary to popular belief, Swedes are quite OK with their high taxes – after all it gives them tons of high quality services and they almost never need to take drastic action like taking quick payday loans just to make ends meet. In fact, most of the services for the public are free, so what’s not to be happy about?

Sweden is also the home of IKEA – the worlds largest furniture store. IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kampard is famous for being the 7th richest person in the world (Net worth $31 billion) and driving a 15 year old Volvo station wagon. It has been claimed that more people read the Ikea catalogue than the Bible – and that one in ten Europeans have been conceived on an Ikea bed.

6. Australia – 7,7 points

The name “Australia” comes from the Latin word “Australis”, meaning “Southern”. Australia is the only country in the world, that consists of an entire continent. Between 1788 and 1868 the British used Australia as a colony to deport their convicted criminals – these people are the predecessors to many of today’s citizens. Australians are famous for playing rugby and calling each-other “mates”.

5. Finland – 7,7 points

This is the country that brought us Nokia – the worlds largest manufacturer of mobile phones. In 2003 Nokia accounted for about a quarter of Finland’s exports and in 2006 it generated more revenue than the entire budget of Finland. Before starting to make mobile phones Nokia made (yes, it’s true) rubber boots! Finland was also home to Simo Häyhä – considered to be the most deadly sniper through history with 542 kills. According to World Economic Forum Finland has the most competitive economy in the world. Plenty to be happy about!

4. Iceland – 7,8 points

This geologically active country is rich in volcanoes and geysers (A geyser is a hot spring that erupts water in certain intervals). Thanks to geothermal power Iceland gets its electricity and hot water dirt cheap. There have been occasions where steel has been shipped for processing from Australia or Africa and when finished shipped back to the originating country. Cheap local energy actually makes this cost effective. According to the Human Development Index, Iceland (together with Norway) is the world’s most developed country.

3. Austria – 8,0 points

Austria is the home to the popular energy drink Red Bull. This country is also one of the few in the world, that allows legal voting beginning from age 16. Upon turning 18, all Austrian males have to take part of a 6 month military service. The country has declared itself formally a neutral country or a “perpetual neutrality” as they say it, but in reality it has taken part of various peacekeeping missions and also took part of the UN sanctions against Iraq. Thanks to the wide use of wind-, solar- and hydropower Austria produces around 80% of its energy from renewable resources. Education is mostly free, with the exception of an average semester fee of 583 dollars (370 eur) in universities. As you probably guessed – student loan debts are not an issue in Austria.

2. Switzerland – 8,1 points

This cheese and chocolate producing land is the world’s 10th richest country. Switzerland’s neutrality helped their banks to raise some serious cash – for decades it was possible to open a bank account without having to identify yourself. Upon opening an account, you were given a special number that anyone could use to deposit or withdraw money. This law was later changed since it attracted illegal money. Switzerland is also one of the top garbage recyclers in the world (66% to 96% recyclable materials recycled). They achieve this by keeping recycling free, but asking money for regular garbage – thus giving people a financial incentive to recycle.

1. Denmark – 8,2 points

Just like Sweden, Denmark is a Nordic welfare state with most of its services free to the citizens. Expect to pay 72% of your money to the government on the highest income tax bracket. According to Wikipedia Denmark has the worlds highest taxes! When buying a car in Denmark one has to pay 25% VAT to the import price of the vehicle and then a 180% registration tax on top. That means when a car sells for $20 000, you have to pay an additional $45 000 as taxes for the government (total of $65 000). That’s why people in Denmark ride bikes or use one of the best public transport systems in the world. Denmark also has 2 autonomous provinces – the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The latter is over 50 times larger than Denmark but has about 100 times less people.

20 WORDS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

25 Amazing People in History HONORED By Google, on it’s LOGO. Very Artsy!!!

It seems that since 2002, Google has honored 25 historical and amazing figures on it’s customized logo on Google.com. It’s an elite collection of highly influential scientists, artist and architects who have made their mark on human history and culture.

it’s a list collaged by royal at pingdom, and i thought it was a nice read, with artsy kind of pictures too.

Here’s 25 of them, in their Google’s glory.

(mosto f them probably won’t expect that they will be honored in such a way, lol)

1-René Magritte
(1898 – 1967) Belgian surrealist artist, famous for his often witty and amusing images.

Shown on the Google homepage on November 21, 2008.

2-Marc Chagall
(1887 – 1985) Russian Jewish modernist artist. He was a pioneer of modernism and one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century.

Shown on the Google homepage on July 7, 2008.

3-Diego Velázquez
(1599 – 1660) Spanish painter and portrait artist, many of his famous paintings depicting scenes of historical and cultural significance, royalty and notable European figures of the time.

Shown on the Google homepage on June 6, 2008.

4-Walter Gropius
(1883 – 1969) German architect, founder of Bauhaus and a pioneer of modern architecture.

Shown on the Google homepage on May 18, 2008.

5-Alexander Graham Bell
(1847 – 1922) Scientist and inventor famous for, among other things, inventing the telephone.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 3, 2008.

6-Luciano Pavarotti
(1935 – 2007) Italian opera singer, part of “The Three Tenors” and one of the world’s most famous vocal artists.

Shown on the Google homepage on October 12, 2007.

7-Yuri Gagarin
(1934 – 1968) Soviet cosmonaut who was the first man in space and the first to orbit Earth.

Shown on the Google homepage on April 12, 2007.

8-Edvard Munch
(1863 – 1944) Norwegian symbolist painter, known for his expressionistic art. His painting The Scream is one of the most recognizable in all art (and indeed the one Google used as basis for the themed logo).

Shown on the Google homepage on December 12, 2006.

9-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859 – 1930) British author mostly known for his novels about Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous fictional characters of all time.

Shown on the Google homepage on May 22, 2006.

10-Percival Lowell
(1855 – 1916) American astronomer (among other things) famous for his study of Mars and founder of the Lowell Observatory, which after his death discovered Pluto.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 13, 2006.

11-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756 – 1791) Austrian musical prodigy and one of the most popular classical composers of all time.

Shown on the Google homepage on January 27, 2006.

12-Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929 – 1968) African American minister, probably most famous for his work against racial segregation and discrimination, which also earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shown on the Google homepage on January 16, 2006. Google has a themed logo every Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

13-Louis Braille
(1809 – 1852) The inventor of braille, a widely used reading and writing system for the blind and visually impaired (he was blind himself).

Shown on the Google homepage on January 4, 2006.

14-Frank Lloyd Wright
(1867 – 1959) American architect and interior designer. The American Institute of Architecture has named him “the greatest American architect of all time”.

Shown on the Google homepage on June 8, 2005.

15-Leonardo da Vinci
(1452 – 1519) Italian polymath, doing groundbreaking work as a scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter and more. Often described the archetypal Renaissance man and one of the most widely talented people of all time.

Shown on the Google homepage on April 15, 2005.

16-Vincent van Gogh
(1853 – 1890) Dutch Post-Impressionist artist and a pioneer of Expressionism. And yes, he’s the one who cut off part of his own ear.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 30, 2005.

17-Ray Charles
(1930 – 2004) American pianist and soul singer. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him as number two on its list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

Shown on the Google homepage on September 23, 2004.

18-Gaston Julia
(1893 – 1978) French mathematician who devised the formula for the Julia set, common for generating fractals.

Shown on the Google homepage on February 3, 2004.

19-Alfred Hitchcock
(1899 – 1980) British film director and producer, a pioneer of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He is one of the best-known filmmakers of all time.

Shown on the Google homepage on August 13, 2003.

20-M. C. Escher
(1898 – 1972) Dutch graphic artist, famous for his mathematically inspired images of impossible constructions and geometric figures.

Shown on the Google homepage on June 16, 2003.

21-Albert Einstein
(1879 – 1955) German theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity but contributed greatly to multiple fields within physics, for which he also received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is regarded as one of the most influential people in human history.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 14, 2003.

22-Michelangelo
(1475 – 1564) Italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. Together with Leonardo da Vinci, he is often cited as the archetypal Renaissance man.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 6, 2003.

23-Pablo Picasso
(1881 – 1973) Andalusian-Spanish painter and sculptor. Famous for (among other things) founding the Cubist movement. He also has one of the longest full names we’ve ever seen. Try this on for size: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

Shown on the Google homepage on October 25, 2002.

24-Andy Warhol
(1928 – 1987) American artist and illustrator and a well-known figure in the Pop Art movement. In addition to his many works of art, he is also famous for being the originator of the concept of “15 minutes of fame”.

Shown on the Google homepage on August 6, 2002.

25-Piet Mondrian
(1872 – 1944) Dutch painter and an important contributor to the abstract De Stijl art movement.

Shown on the Google homepage on March 7, 2002.

Sad Love Story Song- Sonata Love Movie

The 29 Saddest Pictures in The World

Humans are best creations; they are most intelligent in all existing species on the earth. With this intelligence they ruled the world and destroyed it too. Here are the 29 pictures which tell our sad past.

1- 9/11 Attack:

In the morning September 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. This was no accident, but rather a series of attacks done by suicide bombers engaged with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.

The attacks killed all the passengers on board the hijacked planes, and took away 2,974 innocent lives at the World Trade Center. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attack, and the stock market was closed for a week.

2- Abu Ghraib:

Beginning in 2004, accounts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. These acts were committed by personnel of the 372nd Military Police Company of the United States Army together with additional US governmental agencies.

3- An Afghan Refugee Child Hides From a Dust Storm:


4- Bhopal India – Methyl Isocyanate Spill:

More than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate spilled from a Union Carbide-owned pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing more than 20,000 people in the world’s worst chemical disaster.

After the spill, these skulls were researched, presumably for the specific effects the gas had on the brain, at the nearby Hamidia Hospital. The chemical injured not only the people who inhaled it, but also nearby animals (at least 2,000 of them) and trees, whose leaves went yellow and fell off within days.

Twenty-five years later, with people still claiming injury from the disaster yet little corrective action having been taken, the government of India has called for a study into the long-term effects of the spill.

5- Biafra:

When the Igbos of eastern Nigeria declared themselves independent in 1967, Nigeria blockaded their fledgling country-Biafra. In three years of war, more than one million people died, mainly of hunger. In famine, children who lack protein often get the disease kwashiorkor, which causes their muscles to waste away and their bellies to protrude.

6- Boston Fire:

On July 22, 1975, Stanley J. Forman was working in the newsroom of the Boston Herald American newspaper when a police scanner picked up an emergency: “Fire on Marlborough Street!” Forman rushed to the scene, where multiple fire crews were battling an intense blaze. There was a distress call for a ladder team to the rear of the building to help a stranded woman and child. Forman followed.

7- Buchenwald Camp:

In 1937, the Nazis constructed Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany. Placed over the camp’s main entrance gate, was the slogan Jedem das Seine (literally “to each his own”, but figuratively “everyone gets what he deserves”). The Nazis used Buchenwald until the camp’s liberation in 1945. From 1945 to 1950, the Soviet Union used the occupied camp as an NKVD special camp for Nazis and other Germans. On 6 January 1950, the Soviets handed over Buchenwald to the East German Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death. These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to SS documents, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944 many were listed as “transferred to the Gestapo”. Furthermore, from 1941 forward Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed in SS documents.

8- Burial Of an Unknown Child:

Burial of an unknown child. This picture shows the world’s worst industrial disaster, caused by the US multinational chemical company, Union Carbide.

9- Burning Monk:

As a protest to the This Monk slow and unreliable reforms in Vietnam, the Buddhist monks have resorted to immolation, such as this Mahayana Buddhist monk, He burned himself alive across the outskirts of Saigon, mainly because of the harshness done by the South Vietnam government to his fellow Buddhist monks.

He was re-cremated after he burned himself; his heart meanwhile remained in one piece, and because of this he was regarded as a Bodhisattva by the other Buddhist monks and followers. His act of self-immolation increased the pressure on the Di?m administration to implement their reform laws in South Vietnam.

10- Bushmeat:

Animals from primates to snakes are valuable commodities in the thriving, albeit illegal, worldwide trade of bushmeat, defined as wildlife killed either by commercial or subsistence hunters. With one million tons of bushmeat taken from African forests every year, the already endangered gorilla population-a primary victim of the trade-is in dire straits.

This photo shows a gorilla family in southeast Cameroon (minus the alpha male silverback, who managed to get away) that had been slaughtered in their nests by a bushmeat hunter early one morning.

11- Execution Of a Viet Cong Guerrilla:

This picture was shot by Eddie Adams who won the Pulitzer prize with it. The picture shows Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s national police chief executing a prisoner who was said to be a Viet Cong captain. Once again the public opinion was turned against the war.

12- Hector Pieterson:

Hector Pieterson an icon of 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa. Dying Hector being carried by a fellow student. He was killed at the age of 12 when the police opened fire on protesting students. For years, June 16 stood as a symbol of resistance to the brutality of the apartheid government. Today, it is known as National Youth Day – a day on which South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

13- Last Jew Of Vinnitsa:

Picture from an Einsatzgruppen soldier’s personal album, labelled on the back as “Last Jew of Vinnitsa, it shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1941. All 28,000 Jews from Vinnitsa and its surrounding areas were massacred at the time.

14- Lynching Of Young Blacks:

This is a famous picture, taken in 1930, showing the young black men accused of raping a Caucasian woman and killing her boyfriend, hanged by a mob of 10,000 white men. The mob took them by force from the county jail house. Another black man was left behind and ended up being saved from lynching. Even if lynching photos were designed to boost white supremacy, the tortured bodies and grotesquely happy crowds ended up revolting many.

15- Nagasaki Hiroshima Masroon Clouds:

This is the picture of the “mushroom cloud” showing the enormous quantity of energy. The first atomic bomb was released on August 6 in Hiroshima (Japan) and killed about 80,000 people. On August 9 another bomb was released above Nagasaki. The effects of the second bomb were even more devastating – 150,000 people were killed or injured. But the powerful wind, the extremely high temperature and radiation caused enormous long term damage.

16- Napalm Girl:

The photo shows Phan Thi Kim Phúc (a Vietnamese-Canadian) at about age nine running naked on the street after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

17- Nile Perch in Lake:

One of the 100 most invasive species in the world the Nile perch was introduced to East Africa’s Lake Victoria in the 1950s, and has wreaked environmental havoc ever since. It’s illegal to possess or sell in some parts of the world, and is thought to have caused the extinction or endangering of hundreds of native species in Lake Victoria.

After the fish eliminated much of the algae-eating population, the lake became choked with algae. The perch has also increased local demand for firewood, because their higher fat content drives people to smoke them rather than dry them. Adult perch can grow to weigh more than 440 pounds, and are fierce predators that feed on insects, crustaceans, and other fish-even those of its own species.

Pictured here are dead Nile perch on a butcher table waiting for transport to local markets.

18- Nilgunyalcin Child Vulture:

Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture nearby. It is quite obvious that the child was starving to death, while the vulture was patiently waiting for the toddler to die so he can have a good meal.

Nobody knows what happened to the child, who crawled his way to a United Nations food camp. Photographer Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this shocking picture, but he eventually committed suicide three months after he took the shot.

19- Palestine Father Saving Son:

Images from the video footage of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah being shot dead in the Gaza Strip. The scene was filmed by a France 2 cameraman.

20- Palestinian Refugees:

World Press Photo of the Year: 1976 Françoise Demulder, France, Gamma. Beirut, Lebanon, January 1976. Palestinian refugees in the district La Quarantaine. About the image She was the first woman to win the World Press Photo, and did so on the 20th anniversary of the award. Demulder stated at the time that she hated war, but felt compelled to document how it’s always the innocent who suffer, while the powerful get richer and richer.

21- Palm Oil Deforestation:

Indonesia is home to the world’s third largest tropical forest, but it’s disappearing quickly. Though often illegal, the forests are cut down both for a booming pulp and paper industry as well as to clear land for oil palm plantations, which supply diverse industries from biofuel to soap to cosmetics.

Because of deforestation, Indonesia is also the world’s third largest greenhouse gas contributor, behind only the U.S. and China; after the forest is cut down, the carbon normally sequestered in the peatland soil is no longer shielded from being released into the atmosphere.

22- Pollution and Power Lines:

China’s economy has exploded in recent years; so has its pollution problem, leaving no aspect of the country’s environment unaffected. Solid waste often lacks proper disposal, waterways have been polluted, and the air quality has plummeted, largely due to the coal-fired power plants that serve as the country’s primary source of energy.

Environmental degradation has gotten so bad that the Chinese government, which doesn’t easily take-or allow-criticism, has admitted that birth defects in the country have increased as a direct result of it, particularly in coal-producing regions like the north, where this picture was taken.

23- Second Largest Oil Spill Ever:

The Ixtoc I exploratory well suffered a blowout on June 3, 1979, in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas. The well was not brought under control until the next year, by which time 140 million gallons had spilled into the bay. The only larger spill occurred during the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq dumped-deliberately-up to 462 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf.

24- Segregated water Fountains:

A segregated water fountain with a vastly larger and more desirable fountain for whites, and a small fountain for minorities.

25- Sludge Kingston Tennessee:

More than 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge were released into a Tennessee community when a dam collapsed last December, causing a massive coal-ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-burning power plant owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Coal ash is known to contain dangerous elements including arsenic, lead, and selenium, yet the TVA refused at first to issue any health warnings about contamination from the spill. The agency, which weeks later admitted prior leak problems at the plant, also refused initially to declare as uninhabitable the houses in the area, like the one pictured here, that were physically relocated by all the sludge.

26- Starving Boy:

World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980. Starving boy and a missionary. About the image Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death.

27- The American Bison:

A product of U.S. Army-sanctioned mass slaughter of American bison in the 1800s, these bison skulls are waiting to be ground for fertilizer, most likely in the American midwest. The slaughter was so “effective” that the population of bison in the U.S. is estimated to have dropped from around 60 million in 1800 to as few as 750 in 1890.

28- Tsunami Dead Bodies:

The Boxing Day Tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 caused approximately 350,000 deaths and many more injuries.

29- View of Floods:

An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008. Haiti’s civil protection office said 37 of the 90 Hanna-related deaths had occurred in the port city of Gonaives.