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Kyoto: Sakura, originally uploaded by micpohling.
Learning Japanese: The Verb Forms
May 3, 2007 at 2:23 am (Japanese)
Europe: Happiness Score
May 3, 2007 at 1:51 am (OECD, Social, Statistic)
The data below here shows the score of happiness. The question asked was: How happy are you? And a scale runs from 0 to 10, 0 being extremely unhappy and 10 being extremely happy is used.
Danes are always the happy fellows! Finnish are doing not bad, although I could not understand why: the weather always gloomy/dark for half of a year, as a matter of fact, a lot of people commit suicides (the data is coming soon), but may be they have something to cherish about: a lot of booze (may be I should get the data on alcohol consumption?)! May be the same explanation goes for Icelanders too. It is funny to note that the subjective happiness scale here show a pattern: the more sunshine the place is, the less happy the people is, e.g. Italy, Greece, Portugal. And wait till you see the suicide rate among these countries too, you would be suprised to note relationship between happiness and suicide rate. Stay tuned.
The graph above shows the change in the happiness scale between year 2002 and 2004.
Source:
Gene: Dementia
May 3, 2007 at 1:43 am (Gene, Health)
Source: Dementia gene is identified, 17-07-2006
A gene that may underlie the second most common form of dementia has been identified, offering new insights into the origins and treatment of the brain condition.
Two groups of scientists have found a link between a mutation in a gene called granulin and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the most frequently diagnosed form of the neurological disorder after Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings, which are published in the online version of the journal Nature, will open a new approach to researching FTD, as no one had previously imagined that the granulin gene might be involved.
micpohling