Best Country To Live In Is...!

Iceland Named Best Country to Live In

BRASILIA (Nov. 27) - Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to an annual U.N. table published on Tuesday that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.

Rich free-market countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year in the U.N. Human Development Index.

But the index, blending 2005 figures for life expectancy, educational levels and real per capita income, finds that all 22 countries falling into its "low human development" category are in sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone last.

In 10 of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40, said the compilers at the U.N. Development Program. Last year's report said HIV/AIDS had had a "catastrophic effect" on life expectancy in the region.

The index ranks 175 U.N. member countries plus Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories. It does not include 17 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, because of inadequate data.

Norway had held top spot for six years but was edged into second place by Iceland this year because of new life expectancy estimates and updated figures for gross domestic product, or GDP, the report said.

U.N. officials played down the significance of minor short-term shifts in the rankings including the slide in the U.S. position. They said if subsequent data for the year in question been available for last year's report, the United States would have been in 10th, not eighth place.

The United States scores high on real per capita GDP, which at $41,890 is second only to that of Luxembourg ($60,228), but less well on life expectancy -- joint last in the top 26 countries, along with Denmark and South Korea, at 77.9 years.

Japanese have the longest life expectancy -- 82.3 years -- and Zambians the lowest, at 40.5.

The report said most countries had seen their human development index rise over the last 30 years, but in 16 it was lower than in 1990, and in three -- the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe -- lower than in 1975.

Per capita GDP is 45 times higher in Iceland than in Sierra Leone.

The United Nations has published its human development index every year since 1990.

I have been saying for awhile now that Iceland is the place to be. However, if I lived there, I would certainly have to have a place in Florida, Hawaii or the Caribbean somewhere. Yes, I do plan on visiting there one of these days sooner than later.

The top ten places to live are: 1) Iceland 2) Norway 3) Australia 4)Canada 5)Ireland 6) Sweden 7) Switzerland 8) Japan 9) Netherlands 10) France. The good ole USA came in at number 12. So, when are we moving? lol

Iceland Rocks,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Dragon, Book of Shang

World's Fastest Residential High Speed Uplink?

Swedish Woman, 75, Gets Superfast Net

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed.

Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said.

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer - many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

Jonsson and Lothberg's son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.

The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said.

"We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed," he said.
Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.

"She's a brand new Internet user," Lothberg said by phone from California, where he lives. "She didn't even have a computer before."

His mother isn't exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

Now doesn't this make your computer seem like a dinosaur? However, just think, "if your computer were this fast, would YOU ever leave the house"? Just think of the movies you could watch? Just think of the internet gaming and gambling YOU could do? In other words, "for some, this would be a boon". For others, "the beginning of the end".

However, it is coming. Just a matter of time. What YOU do with it, "is on YOU".

"The more YOU know, the more YOU grow,

The more YOU grow, the further YOU go"

Bobby SharpeBobby Sharpe's "Animalz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe