WEF - 2005 competitiveness rankings

World Economic Forum 2005 competitiveness rankings:

"Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the third consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006, released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The United States is in second position, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan of China and Singapore, respectively.

Altogether 117 countries and areas are included in the rankings. Researchers place particular attention on elements of the macroeconomic environment, the quality of public institutions which underpin the development process, and the level of technological readiness and innovation.

'The Nordic countries share a number of characteristics that make them extremely competitive, such as very healthy macroeconomic environments and public institutions that are highly transparent and efficient, with general agreement within society on the spending priorities to be met in the government budget,' said Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and director of the WEF's Global Competitiveness Program.

According to the report, the United States demonstrates overall technological supremacy, with a very powerful culture of innovation. However, technological prowess is partly offset by a weaker performance in other areas measured by the index. The country's greatest weakness concerns the health of its macroeconomic environment, where it ranks a low 47th overall."

Read the full article at People's Daily

Increasing global interest in Confucius

"After being criticized for nearly 100 years in the 20th century, why has Confucianism become popular again? Why have Western wise men call for absorbing Confucius' intelligence to safeguard the survival of mankind? The world today is not in peace, this is mainly because of hegemony and terrorism. World peace requires treatment and cure of such modern world maladies. 'Harmony without uniformity' proposed by Confucius can be taken as a good medicine for treating the illness.

Confucius said, 'A gentleman gets along with others, but does not necessarily agree with them; a base man agrees with others, but does not coexist with them harmoniously'."

Click to read the full article in People's Daily Online

China: Gray-haired population hits 130 million

"The number of senior citizens above the age of 60 has reached 130 million in China, or more than one tenth of the country's total population.

And China's gray-haired population has kept an annual growth rate of three percent, according to information from a recent forum on the country's old-age care trends and countermeasures held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The birth rate has kept falling, while the average life span has continued to rise in China, thanks to social, economic and scientific progress and improvement in medical and health conditions.

It is estimated that by the year of 2015, the population of senior citizens above the age of 60 will exceed 200 million yuan in the country and the figure will rise to 280 million by 2025."

Source: People's Daily/Xinhua

"The 100-minute bible" - and 3-minute version :-)

"A new version of the Bible which its author says can be read in less than two hours has been launched.
The 100-Minute Bible, written as a page-turner for those who do not have the time to read the full version, was unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral. "

Source: BBC, Sep. 21st, 2005

- And for those in an even bigger hurry...:

"God created heaven and earth in six days. He then made Adam, quickly followed by Eve when he saw that Adam was bored. Their descendants proved a real disappointment, so he flooded the world and started again.

But God continued to have a lot of problems. Abraham was OK, but Jacob cheated on his brother and Joseph was such a prima donna that his brothers sold him into slavery. Moses tried to lay down the law but it took an almighty strop for anyone to notice. Joshua killed a lot of people; so did Gideon; in fact most of the judges and kings were lying psychopaths. Understandably the Jewish people needed to relax, so they sang psalms to the tune of Kumbaya.

Back in the action and it was still looking grim. A few grumpy prophets apart, it was bloodletting on a grand scale all the way. Things improved when an angel got Mary pregnant in 1BC. Joseph was very understanding about this and nine months later Jesus was born. Various shepherds and wise men paid their respects before Jesus was whisked out of town to escape Herod. He spent the next 30 years chilling out before beginning his ministry when John the Baptist was arrested. Jesus tried to avoid publicity but it was hard to keep a low profile when he was pulling off stunts like raising the dead. So it wasn't long before he collected some disciples, and from these he chose his main crew, the apostles.

Much of Jesus's teaching was captured when he spoke about the meaning of humility during the Sermon on the Mount. Apart from forgiving sins, he also said that anyone who divorces and remarries commits adultery. These views made him extremely unpopular, but calling himself the Messiah was the last straw. When he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he knew his days were numbered. On the Thursday night he was betrayed by Judas and taken before Pontius Pilate, who offered the Jews a chance to reprieve him. They refused and he was crucified and buried.

He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. Jesus reassured his followers he was for real and over the next 40 days he made a number of other appearances before going up to heaven."

Source: The blue room

Meet Mr. Neandertal

Perhaps a bit smelly, extinct in Europe around 25-30.000 years ago, but said to be a family guy, and possibly among the first to make clothes

:-)