Just because I'm proud of it ...

[Bjorn]

Norway is once more on top of the list ...

Iceland is in second place on the United Nations development plan of the countries with the highest standard of living. Norway is in first place, for the fifth year in a row, and Australia in third.

The United Nations report will be published in its entirety on September 7th, reports the Icelandic Broadcasting Service, RÚV.
But my wife still won't listen to me, so I have to face the harsh Southern Californian climate a while longer. :)

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=151928

[Freakshow]

Originally posted by Bjorn
Norway is once more on top of the list ...

But my wife still won't listen to me, so I have to face the harsh Southern Californian climate a while longer. :)

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=151928

Just because I'm too lazy to look it up myself...what do they actually measure to determine "standard of living"?

[TragicMonkey]

Norway's monkey population, outside of zoos, is practically zero.

Who would have a use for such a monkeyless place is beyond me.

[rikzilla]

Meaningless really. Take Iceland for instance. Did you know that it's ridiculously ethnicaly homogenous there? Lots of lilly white Euro types enjoying their free geo-thermal energy and whinging about the high price of car repair and lack of trees.

I went on a tour of Reykjavic ten years ago. The guy giving the tour was quite proud of the fact that Reyjavic had no street people. (as if street peple could survive in such a climate for more than a day or two!) He also gushed pride about how immigration was heavily restricted to those who either had wads of $$ or highly prized skills. (such as car mechanics I suppose)

No wonder Iceland has the highest standards. Their immigration standards (if adopted by the USA) would have the entire world crying "racist"!! It's absured! You cannot take a teeny tiny place like Iceland and compare it to other much more massive nations with any sense of fairness or perspective.

Puhleese!
-z

[Ryokan]

Originally posted by Bjorn
Norway is once more on top of the list ...

And still people want to vote in the reddest administrations that has ever governed Norway, including the Socialist Left Party who are anti-NATO and anti-USA. :(

[TragicMonkey]

I saw a documentary on PBS about Iceland's severe soil erosion problem. I don't think a high standard of living is much good weighed against imminent catastrophic environmental disaster.

Also: Iceland? Not known for its forests teeming with monkeys.

[Freakshow]

Originally posted by rikzilla
Meaningless really. Take Iceland for instance. Did you know that it's ridiculously ethnicaly homogenous there? Lots of lilly white Euro types enjoying their free geo-thermal energy and whinging about the high price of car repair and lack of trees.

I went on a tour of Reykjavic ten years ago. The guy giving the tour was quite proud of the fact that Reyjavic had no street people. (as if street peple could survive in such a climate for more than a day or two!) He also gushed pride about how immigration was heavily restricted to those who either had wads of $$ or highly prized skills. (such as car mechanics I suppose)

No wonder Iceland has the highest standards. Their immigration standards (if adopted by the USA) would have the entire world crying "racist"!! It's absured! You cannot take a teeny tiny place like Iceland and compare it to other much more massive nations with any sense of fairness or perspective.

Puhleese!
-z

I know one thing, and one thing only about Iceland: I had a good friend from Iceland...and she was HOT!!! ;)

I hear that's kinda par-for-the-course there. Does anything else about a country really matter? :D

[rikzilla]

Originally posted by Freakshow
I know one thing, and one thing only about Iceland: I had a good friend from Iceland...and she was HOT!!! ;)

I hear that's kinda par-for-the-course there. Does anything else about a country really matter? :D

I don't know man...the finest looking woman I ever had the joy to meet was from Oslo. Gawd what a babe!

There's something about those blue-eyed blondes from nordic regions.....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

-z

[Bjorn]

Originally posted by Freakshow
Just because I'm too lazy to look it up myself...what do they actually measure to determine "standard of living"? I'm lazy myself, but the short version goes like this:

The Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the UN, ranks nations according to their citizens' quality of life rather than strictly by a nation's traditional economic figures. The criteria for calculating rankings include life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income.

[Freakshow]

Originally posted by rikzilla
I don't know man...the finest looking woman I ever had the joy to meet was from Oslo. Gawd what a babe!

There's something about those blue-eyed blondes from nordic regions.....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

-z

That works, too! :)

One of the many things I love about the US: If you live in a big city, you get to meet people (women) from all over the world. :)

[Bjorn]

Originally posted by rikzilla
No wonder Iceland has the highest standards. Eerm, you mean second highest. After Norway. :p

[RandFan]

Originally posted by rikzilla
I don't know man...the finest looking woman I ever had the joy to meet was from Oslo. Gawd what a babe!

There's something about those blue-eyed blondes from nordic regions.....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

-z :( The stopped the swedish bikini team.

http://www.lacreativeclub.com/images/SBT%20playboy.jpg

[rikzilla]

Originally posted by Bjorn
Eerm, you mean second highest. After Norway. :p

ahh well...yeah....

Damn! you guys are sooooo spoiled! :mad:

-z

[pmurray]

Australia is almost always in the top 5 or so. And unlike Norway and Iceland, the weather doesn't suck.

[Ryokan]

Originally posted by pmurray
Australia is almost always in the top 5 or so. And unlike Norway and Iceland, the weather doesn't suck.

There's the dangerous fauna, though ;)

[Orwell]

Canada was number 4 last year. It was number one for most of the nineties, but I guess our mediocre politicians finally managed to ruin that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#2005_report

Sierra Leone was at the bottom of the list.

[The Fool]

Originally posted by Orwell


Sierra Leone was at the bottom of the list.



Sierra Leone life expectancy
male 40.13 years
female: 44.98 years (2005 est)

unbeleavable.....in 2005?? this is medieval life expectancies....

[Mycroft]

Originally posted by The Fool
Sierra Leone life expectancy
male 40.13 years
female: 44.98 years (2005 est)

unbeleavable.....in 2005?? this is medieval life expectancies....

They had that civil war that lasted more than a decade, where soldiers were going around snatching people to use as slaves or hacking off limbs just to intimidate people. That's the conflict that convinced my wife and I to forgoe diamonds for our wedding rings so we wouldn't inadvertently fund the continued escalation of the conflict.

Last I recall things had stabalized, some, but the UN is involved so I'm sure it will get all pocked up again somehow.

[SwissSkeptic]

Originally posted by The Fool
Sierra Leone life expectancy
male 40.13 years
female: 44.98 years (2005 est)

unbeleavable.....in 2005?? this is medieval life expectancies....

Actually that's about the same length as it was in industrialised countries 100 years ago.

link (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus04trend.pdf#027)

[PogoPedant]

Originally posted by Ryokan
And still people want to vote in the reddest administrations that has ever governed Norway, including the Socialist Left Party who are anti-NATO and anti-USA. :(
When people have the fewest problems, they complain the loudest. I'll vote for the Natural Party, 'cause I want levitation taught in high school! :D

[Jaggy Bunnet]

Originally posted by Freakshow
Just because I'm too lazy to look it up myself...what do they actually measure to determine "standard of living"?

From memory, they take life expectancy less 20 and compare it to an arbitary "maximum" to give a percentage figure, look at the level of participation in education (expressed as a percentage) and GDP above an arbitary minimum measured on a logarythmic scale against an arbitary maximum. There's probably another couple of bits and pieces thrown in that I can't remember as well.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by rikzilla
The guy giving the tour was quite proud of the fact that Reyjavic had no street people. (as if street peple could survive in such a climate for more than a day or two!)

....which is why they don't have street people.

Logic sure doesn't come easy, eh? :p

Originally posted by rikzilla
No wonder Iceland has the highest standards. Their immigration standards (if adopted by the USA) would have the entire world crying "racist"!! It's absured!

They also have a remarkably high standard of educational skills. Like spelling. :p

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by Ryokan
And still people want to vote in the reddest administrations that has ever governed Norway, including the Socialist Left Party who are anti-NATO and anti-USA. :(

I do believe that the current head of government is a right-wing Prime Minister from the Christian Democratic Party, forming a government between the Christian Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.

Ain't facts grand?

[Ziggurat]

Originally posted by TragicMonkey
Also: Iceland? Not known for its forests teeming with monkeys.

That's why in the post-apocalyptic future, mankind will make its last stand on Iceland against the invading monkey legions, before it enters its long twilight of enslavement under the cruel ape-lords. And humanity shall live in misery from that day forth, until the coming of Charlton Heston, or Marky Mark (the prophecies are unclear).

[Zep]

We still came third, our weather doesn't suck, we will let just about anyone (i.e. non-Mulsim) in unquestioned, our "monkeys" are really slow and docile and no competition, and there's oodles of space for more poo-flinging. Just look - they do it professionally in Canberra!

And dangerous fauna? Hardly! Anything dangerous here is quickly syndicated as a tourist attraction, with some fake outback nerk hugging it or chasing it or something, and going "CRIKEY! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT LITTLE (specially imported) BUGGER!!". Dangerous? Peh. The only thing dangerous about a funnelweb spider is the Toyota Landcruiser driven by a tourist that might inadvertantly back over the poor little bugger.

*sigh*

(And we could have come first if we tried a little harder, but we have to give Norway and Iceland SOME pride in something! :) )

[rikzilla]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
....which is why they don't have street people.

Logic sure doesn't come easy, eh? :p



They also have a remarkably high standard of educational skills. Like spelling. :p

Ga feck yoosealph! Nobody likes a pedant!

Besides my kid spilled a soda on that particular computer's keyboard...it's amazing it works at all....

-z

[Orwell]

Originally posted by PogoPedant
When people have the fewest problems, they complain the loudest. I'll vote for the Natural Party, 'cause I want levitation taught in high school! :D
You have those kooks in Norway too?

[TragicMonkey]

Originally posted by Ziggurat
That's why in the post-apocalyptic future, mankind will make its last stand on Iceland against the invading monkey legions, before it enters its long twilight of enslavement under the cruel ape-lords. And humanity shall live in misery from that day forth, until the coming of Charlton Heston, or Marky Mark (the prophecies are unclear).

The monkeys laugh at Charlton Heston. We found his plagues silly and his monument-inspired angst risible. And Marky Mark? Well, it will take more than a jerk with three nipples to topple the mighty monkeys.

[Bjorn]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
I do believe that the current head of government is a right-wing Prime Minister from the Christian Democratic Party, forming a government between the Christian Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.

Ain't facts grand? And he has strange choices to make:

How do you unseat the leader of a country that tops the United Nations' "best country to live in" league table for the fifth consecutive year? With less than a fortnight until Norwegians vote in a general election, the oil-rich country's leftist opposition -- which has a comfortable lead in the polls -- appears to have found the answer: focus on the future, but don't neglect the present. http://about.upi.com/products/upi_scitech/UPI-20050902-023710-1298R

[Ryokan]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
I do believe that the current head of government is a right-wing Prime Minister from the Christian Democratic Party, forming a government between the Christian Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.

Ain't facts grand?

Indeed, our PM is from the Christian People's Party. However, it's not a right-wing party, but a center/green party.

[Ryokan]

Originally posted by Orwell
You have those kooks in Norway too?

Indeed, one of their grand ideas is to mothball the Royal Air Force and use yogic fliers instead.

Can't you just see the face of the enemy fighter pilots when they come flying over Norway and are met with opposition from a bunch of levitating New Agers?

[plindboe]

Originally posted by Orwell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#2005_report

What the smeg is Denmark doing at a 17. place? We always used to be in the top5, in all these kinds of lists. *Sigh* those were the days. :(

[Beerina]

Originally posted by Bjorn
Norway is once more on top of the list ...

But my wife still won't listen to me, so I have to face the harsh Southern Californian climate a while longer. :)

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=151928

Well, the US would be top if we didn't include all our poor people! >:-(