New Zealand, Australia, Singapore happiest countries in Asia Pacific

The U.N. has released a new list ranking countries in terms of happiness, based on Gallup polls taken from 2005-2011. The World Happiness Report is edited by economists John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs.

Denmark is the happiest country in the world followed by Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland in the top 10. The United States ranks 11th. “It is no accident that the happiest countries in the world tend to be high-income countries that also have a high degree of social equality, trust, and quality of governance,” says the report.

Singapore is the happiest country in Asia-Pacific after New Zealand and Austrlia. Singapore ranks 33rd overall. Several countries in the Middle East rank higher: Israel is 14th, United Arab Emirates 17th (one place above the United Kingdom, which is 18th), Saudi Arabia 26th, Kuwait 29th and Qatar 31st.  Turkmenistan is 32nd, one spot above Singapore. Japan is 44th, Taiwan 46th, Malaysia 51st, Thailand 52nd, South Korea 56th, Vietnam 65th, Hong Kong 67th, Indonesia 83rd, Philippines 103rd, and China 112th.  Pakistan is 85th, India 94th, Bangladesh 104th, Nepal 121st, Sri Lanka 130th and Aghanistan 131st. Continue reading

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China and India send largest number of students to UK

China sends the largest, and India the second largest, number of students for higher studies to the UK.

Countries outside the European Union send more than twice as many students for higher studies to the UK than members of the European Union.  Nigeria had the third largest number of students in the UK for higher studies in 2010-11. Ireland, a member of the European Union, had the fourth largest number, followed by Germany, another EU member. Americans made up the sixth largest group followed by the Malaysians and the French. Continue reading

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Two lovely poems and a Singapore state of mind

People talk of a New York state of mind (below are the lyrics of the song by Billy Joel). Surely, there’s a Singapore state of mind, too. Continue reading

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Twitter and the 2008 Mumbai blast

Twitter turned six years old on March 21. On March 21, 2006, Twitter creator  Jack Dorsey published his first tweet: “just setting up my twttr”. But at first it appealed only to techies. It became a major source of news only two years later, when Pakistani terrorists attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, says Mary Cross in her book on social media. Continue reading

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Reading The Road Not Taken on Robert Frost’s birthday

Today is the birthday of two poets, Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) and A.E. Houseman (March 26, 1859 – April 30, 1936), and the playwright, Tennessee Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983). Here are three poems by Frost. Continue reading

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Twitter turns six

Twitter is now six years old. The microblogging site claims to have 140 million active users sending out 340 million tweets a day. Continue reading

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India world’s biggest arms importer, Singapore fifth biggest

India is the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 10 per cent of global arms imports. The four next largest arms importers in 2007–2011 were South Korea (6 per cent of the global arms imports), Pakistan (5 per cent), China (5 per cent) and Singapore (4 per cent), reports the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Continue reading

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Checking Portnoy’s Complaint on Philip Roth’s birthday

Yesterday was John Updike’s birthday and today is Philip Roth’s. Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was exactly a year older than Roth (born on March 19, 1933). Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Roth in Newark, New Jersey. Updike is one of my favourite writers. I read Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus last year (or was it the year before?). He is, of course, best known for Portnoy’s Complaint. Goodbye, Columbus, published in 1959, earned a National Book Award, but Portnoy’s Complaint in 1969 made him famous. This is how it begins: Continue reading

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Remembering Updike on his birthday

John Updike

John Updike

Has anyone written better than John Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009)? Today is his birthday. He was a wonderful writer to the end of his days. I loved The Widows of Eastwick .He could make even adultery lyrical, as in Marry Me . And here is the beginning of Rabbit, Redux, the second book in the Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom saga: Continue reading

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Reading William Gibson on his birthday

William Gibson

William Gibson

I just read on The Writer’s Almanac that today is the birthday of William Gibson (born on March 17,1948).  No mention of that on his @GreatDismal Twitter account. His new book, Distrust that Particular Flavour, takes its title from the essay, Time Machine Cuba, contained in the book. Click on the link to read the essay. “I learned of history and science fiction in a single season,” it begins. He sneaked into an empty house where he found photos of Second World War planes in a trunk and science fiction books on the racks.

Here’s another Gibson essay, Rocket Radio.

The Writer’s Almanac says:

His first novel, Neuromancer, was published in 1984, and in it Gibson popularized the term “cyberspace,” having coined it in a short story two years earlier. Neuromancer earned him a role as a prophet of the information age, since it predated the Internet by about 10 years. Continue reading

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