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Denmark world’s happiest country,
survey finds
enmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers says. Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world’s richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the US government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists. It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analysed. “I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness,” said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, who directed the study. And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy. “Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings,” Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis. “Denmark is prosperous — not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous.”
Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden. “Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good,” Inglehart said. “The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom.”
The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:
“Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?” And, “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?” Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart’s team said they have surveyed 350,000 people. “Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives,” Inglehart said.
An ‘out of this world’ wedding
A Japanese wedding planner and an American aerospace company have teamed up to offer couples the chance to get married in space. The ceremony will be conducted during an hour flight on the Rocketplane XP, at an altitude of 100 kilometres (60 miles) above Earth. Included in the package are an original wedding dress, a photo and video album and certificate.
After four days of rehearsals, the couple – with two guests and a priest – will take a private flight to the spaceport, and guests at a reception hall on the ground will be able to watch a live broadcast of the ceremony. First Advantage, the Japanese company, and Rocketplane, an aerospace firm in Oklahoma City, are scheduled to launch the wedding service in 2011. Couples can begin applying for it from next month if they can pay the £1 million fee.
Cindy Cashman and Mitch Walling, who are Americans, aim to become the first couple to book the service. “I came up with the idea over a year ago,” Ms Cashman said.
“While I was meditating, an idea popped in my head to be the first person to be married in space, so I started taking action to make my dream a reality. What I needed first was the right man.”
She met Mr Walling in cyberspace, through an online dating agency.
Japanese students schooled
in Nintendo
Nintendo is banned everywhere but the classroom at Tokyo Joshi Gakuen school in Japan as the ubiquitous DS consoles become the latest tool in English instruction.
Junior high school teacher Motoko Okubo has used the handheld DS and textbook software since May in weekly sessions focusing on vocabulary, penmanship and audio comprehension.
With years of games such as Super Mario on the prohibited list, she says students weren’t expecting the Nintendo welcome.
“They’ve been using it at home playing games, so at first they were surprised they can use it at school,” Okubo said.
Still early in a one-year free trial period, vice principal Junko Tatsumi says results so far have been encouraging in Japan’s long struggle with English language education. “The students are really concentrating and have fun in gaining skills such as spelling,” she said.
“Our school policy is English education should be fun.” Japan has around 15,000 middle and high schools and in 2000 launched reforms to create a more ‘relaxed’ environment aimed at fostering creativity and reducing rote learning.
Nintendo was not envisioned as part of that plan and remains a rare find at most Japanese schools, while an OECD educational survey of 57 nations last December showed Japanese 15-year-olds falling in rankings for science, mathematics and reading.
‘Green Car’
Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi state, poses inside an electric car at its launch on Wednesday. In an attempt to promote an environment-friendly option to consumers, the state government has decided to offer a 30 per cent subsidy on the purchase of the car. Ms Dikshit said:
It is a green letter day for us as we are introducing for the first time the car of the future.She urged people who own several cars to purchase at least one electric car too.
Boy, four, obsessed with
lawn mowers
When this child started showing more then a passing interest in lawn mowers, his parents probably thought he would grow out of it. But now Samuel Buswell, four, is a confirmed enthusiast, sated only by a trip every Saturday to the DIY shop with his mother to peruse the latest models.
‘He can instantly tell which mowers have been sold and which are new,’ said mother Natalie. ‘He frequently has customers watching in amazement as he explains what each machine can do.’ His parents have no idea what inspired his obsession a year ago but it has made birthdays easier.
His last present was…yes, a rotary mower, which he pushes around most days at home in Falmouth, Cornwall.
‘People often look horrified when we tell them he has a full-on working mower,’ said Mrs Buswell, 35. ‘But he knows not to ever touch the blades. He empties the grass box himself and keeps the garden looking lovely.’
And now Samuel’s brother Alex, 16 months, is developing a similar interest. Mrs Buswell said ‘He is always playing with his toy mower. I think he may go the same way.’