Category Archives for Society
Happiest Cities in the U.S. – 2010 Well-Being Index
Do you live in one of America’s happiest cities? The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released the results from the interviews with more than 353,000 Americans during 2009, and the happiest city in the U.S. is Boulder, Colorado!
Yeah, not a single city from South Dakota!
Scores were based from these six indexes:
Why the Philippines missed the World’s Friendliest Countries List
If only. Oh if only. If only the criterion in the selection of the World’s Friendliest Countries by Forbes is the “ability to make friends,” the Philippines would have made it to number 1. In December 2009, Forbes released its annual listing of the “World’s Friendliest Countries” and the Philippines, known to have the friendliest of smiles, missed the top 10. What happened? Where were we short of? Thailand and Malaysia placed comfortably in the top 4 and 5 spots, respectively.
According to the research company FreshMinds, there were 23 factors used to rate each country, with more than 3,100 expatriates surveyed between February and April 2009. Each factor was weighted to arrive at a score. Scores were integrated and the final eight measures were selected. The measures were: organizing school for my children, organizing my finances, organizing my health care, finding somewhere to live, making friends, making local friends, setting up utilities, and joining local community groups. Based on these criteria, the top 10 World’s Friendliest Countries were revealed:
Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes
Atheist Ireland publishes 25 blasphemous quotes after the new Irish law on Blasphemy took effect on New Years day 2010. The group, Atheist Ireland, wants the law repealed:
This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.
We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.
Chocomangrous Recipe – Choco and Mango Sweets
My housemate and I were experimenting on the sweet mangoes we had on our table and came up with an idea of turning the mangoes into a sweet, tasty dessert. We took some milk, pour in some sugar and chocolate bars and peanuts and, voila, the Chocomangrous sweets were made! Alright, alright, it was not that easy. The Chocomangrous recipe involves 3 parts and I will detail the steps below.
Chocomangrous is our way of combining chocolate and mango together. Since we love the taste of the final product so much, we want the name of our new sweet discovery to be massive, so we added the suffix ‘rous’ – like the word monstrous. In other words, we wanted the name to sound a bit unique. There you go — Chocomangrous!
Fr. Andrew Dickinson of SDSU rejects “Merry Christmas”
Fr. Andrew Dickinson is the new chaplain of the Catholic church located at the Newman Center, South Dakota State University. For the past Sunday masses, and in a number of daily masses, Fr. Andrew Dickinson has been condemning the “Merry Christmas” greeting.
The first time I’ve heard Fr. Dickinson asking people to avoid saying the “Merry Christmas” greeting before December 24th, was that afternoon when I felt, for the very first time, the very spirit of Christmas. The moment I thought Christmas was already in the air, Fr. Dickinson cut the happy moment short. That was sad. He said in his homily that people should not use “Merry Christmas” but rather say “Have a good Advent.” He further said that whenever someone will say “Merry Christmas” to him before the 24th of December, he will not answer the same.
I understand his argument. He contended that “Merry Christmas” is often said minus the real meaning that comes with the words. In short, people who utter the greeting without knowing what it truly carries, are hypocrites and pretenders. He said that Catholics must instead prepare themselves for Christ’s birth and start the “Merry Christmas” greeting on the 24th and on each day for 12 days thereafter (like the 12 days of Christmas).
CNN Susan Candiotti: Disrespecting US National Anthem
What was CNN National correspondent, Susan Candiotti, thinking today while reporting live at the protest in NY by 9/11 families who are against terrorist trials?
I was watching CNN around 11 A.M. central time, Saturday, when the news segment about the protest came. Susan Candiotti was with the protesters, covering the event on the field. When Candiotti went live on TV, it was the U.S. National Anthem that was played on the background with protesters around her standing still. What the news reporter, Candiotti, did next was totally beyond incomprehensible. She tapped one of the protesters (later named Geraldine Davie) on the shoulder and then began saying she was sorry for disrupting her in the middle of the anthem. WTF!
While the anthem was played, and while everyone surrounding her was showing the level of respect the National Anthem deserves, Susan Candiotti acted disrespectfully by starting the interview right then. The anthem that’s supposed to represent the United States of America was disrespected by a veteran reporter!
Filipino Efren Peñaflorida – 2009 CNN Hero of the Year
A Filipino was declared the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year! His name is Efren Peñaflorida. I watched the short video clip with Peñaflorida tonight as CNN reported the winner during the ceremony at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood Saturday night. Congrats!
Efren Peñaflorida won the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year award through online voting (and I voted for this guy last week). According to CNN, Peñaflorida received 2.75 million online votes, the highest among the 10 finalists. He was honored for his “Kariton Klassroom”, which brings education to poor Filipino children.
