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A milestone for my blog!

10,018 hits on June 30, 2007, starting from March 15, 2007. After 289 posts and 152 comments, and here is the top 10 posts in the past 30 days:

Worth of celebration?

In the World Values Survey, a series of questions on attitude towards work such below was asked:

Attitude towards Work: Humiliating to receive money without having to work for it

There are 5 categorical answers: “strongly agree”, “agree”, “neither agree nor disagree”, “disagree” and “disagree strongly”. Selected OECD countries’s result is shown in 3 forms: a) the percentage (%) of people strongly agree with the statement, b) the percentage (%) of people strongly disagree with the statement, and c) mean score of the statement, by assigning value 5 for ”strongly agree”, 4 on “agree”, 3 for “neither agree nor disagree”, 2 for “disagree” and 1 for “strongly disagree”. The graphs depicted the result are shown as below:

a) the percentage (%) of people strongly agree with the statement: “Humiliating to receive money without having to work for it”

45.4% of Turkish strongly believe that it is humiliating to receiving money without you have to work for it, followed by 30.2% Italians, 28.1% people in Luxembourg, and 23.6% people in France. On the other hand, only 6.0% Dutch, 8.7% British, 9.6% Icelander and 10.8% Americans opine that it is humiliating. On average, only 17.7% people in all these countries strongly agree with that statement.

b) the percentage (%) of people strongly disagree with the statement: To Humiliating to receive money without having to work for it.

21.2% people in France, 18.0% people in Belgium, 13.7% in Denmark and 12.8% in Germany west strongly disagree with the statement whereby it is humiliating to receive money without having to work for it. On the other hand, the relatively lower GDP per capita countries like Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Greece have less than 5.0% object strongly to the same statement.

c) mean score of the statement. 5 for “strongly agree” and 1 for “strongly disagree”

Overall, people in countries like Turkey, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg believe that it is humiliating to receive money without having to work for it compared to lower score (towards more disagree with the statement, middle point=3) countries like Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. Social Welfare states?

Kyoto: Greenhouse at Kyoto Botanical Garden, originally uploaded by micpohling.

When i was kid, I always want to collect this and keep them in my book. I was even willing to pay my sister so that she could spare me some of hers…Oh, this really brought back the good old memory ^_^

In the World Values Survey, a series of questions on attitude towards work such below was asked:

Attitude towards Work: To develop talents you need to have a job

There are 5 categorical answers: “strongly agree”, “agree”, “neither agree nor disagree”, “disagree” and “disagree strongly”. Selected OECD countries’s result is shown in 3 forms: a) the percentage (%) of people strongly agree with the statement, b) the percentage (%) of people strongly disagree with the statement, and c) mean score of the statement, by assigning value 5 for ”strongly agree”, 4 on “agree”, 3 for “neither agree nor disagree”, 2 for “disagree” and 1 for “strongly disagree”. The graphs depicted the result are shown as below:

a) the percentage (%) of people strongly agree with the statement: “To develop talents you need to have a job”

Almost half of the French interviewee, along with strong 45.6% Turkish, 42.3% Hungarian and 37.9% people in Luxembourg strongly agree that in order to develop your talent, you need to have a job. On the other hand, only handful of Icelander (8.4%) and 9.7% Dutch strongly agree with the statement. May be they are counting on someone else to support those who dream to develop their talents?

b) the percentage (%) of people strongly disagree with the statement: To develop talents you need to have a job.

So 11.4% of people in Belgium, 8.0% Icelander and 7.0% of people in Luxembourg strongly disagree that to develop your talent, you need to have a job.

c) mean score of the statement. 5 for “strongly agree” and 1 for “strongly disagree”

On the average, people in Turkey, Portugal, Hungary and France think that to develop a talent, you need to have a job. On the end of another spectrum, only people in Netherlands and Iceland have their opinion shift towards disagreeing with that statement. However, most of the interviewee in the participant countries would agree that to this statement, judging from the average score (more than middle point 3).

Kyoto: Greenhouse at Kyoto Botanical Garden, originally uploaded by micpohling.

… in Kyoto Botanical Garden’s greenhouse

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Lying

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

People in France, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands are more okayed with lying as justifiable act compared to countries like Iceland, Denmark, Ireland and Italy.

Kyoto: Greenhouse in Kyoto Botanical Garden, originally uploaded by micpohling.

In Kyoto Botanical Garden’s greenhouse.

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Casual sex

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

Among the selected countries, there were more people in Iceland think that casual sex is justifiable, followed by Sweden, Greece and France. On the other hand, people in Ireland, Belgium, Hungary and Portugal disagree that casual sex is justifiable.

Kyoto: Hydrangea viewing at Fujinomori, originally uploaded by micpohling.

yes, before its season ends…

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Adultery

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

There were more people in France think adultery is justifiable compared to others, followed by Greece, Germany and Czech. On the other hand, people in Iceland, Ireland, Hungary and Denmark think the otherwise. Well, it is interesting to compare their opinion to the self-reported extra marital affair, as reported in Durex Sex Survey 2005:

* Very weak (or not significantly correlated) between the opinion of adultery is justifiable and self-reported extra marital affair.

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Kyoto: Hydrangea viewing at Fujinomori, originally uploaded by micpohling.

More hydrangea from Fujinomori

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Speeding the limit

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

More people in Iceland, Luxembourg, France and Finland think that speeding the limit is justifiable compared to others. However, on the other hand, Netherlands, Austria, Ireland and Hungary do not share the same opinion. The number of persons killed in various traffic accidents can be found here.

Kyoto: Heian Jingu, originally uploaded by micpohling.

Fern for summer…

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Driving under Alcohol influence

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

Among the selected countries, people in Luxembourg think that driving under alcohol influence is slightly justifiable compared to others. This is followed by France and Portugal. On the other hand, people in Denmark, Hungary, Sweden and Finland think that driving under alcohol influence is never justifiable. May be this has something to do with their high fatality rate for traffic accident which involved alcohol as shown in the previous post here.

Kyoto: Hydrangea Viewing at Fujinomori, originally uploaded by micpohling.

Our lunch set at Fujinomori, looks yummy, rite?

Today, my Japanese friend passed me the result of the emoticon experiment which he gathered from his friends. Talking on the same subject, he showed me some of the usual emoticons which Japanese used in their handphones. Can you tell what does the emoticons featured below mean?

(^0^) - happy
(*^_^*)- shy, blushing, but happy
(;_ - sad, cry
(T_T) - crying, the tear drips
(ToT) - crying out loud
(>_&lt - no eye see?
(¬_¬) - suspicious
(‘_^) - winking
(`ε´) - angry, mad at
(`Λ´) - very angry
(~”~ - frowning upon
0(`Λ´#)0 - very angry, with the hands waving, and seeing the veins
(`ω´#) - still angry, but more like lover type anger
(^_^ - sweating
(~.~ - sweating, relief
f^_^; - sweating, with the handkerchief on the right side
(;-_-)=3 - sign of relief
(*_*) - blur, surprised
(?_?) - what?
m(~ ~)m - am truly very sorry (bowing 90 degree)
(~.~) zzZ - sleepy
v(^_^)v - victory!
(ρ . -) - sleepy, with one hand rubbing the eye

Do you think they look like what they mean? I was having some hard times to guess though :P 

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Smoking in the Public Places

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

For this question, people in Luxembourg think that smoking in public places is justifiable (5.11 out of 10 point), followed by Greece, Denmark, and Austria. On the other hand, people in Hungary, Belgium, Finland and Iceland do not like the idea of people smoking in the public places.

Here is the stat on tobacco use among OECD countries.

Kyoto: Heian Jingu, originally uploaded by micpohling.

…in Heian Jingu, 08-June-2007. Special opening for heia Jingu, free admission

In World Values Survey, this question was asked:

Justifiable: Taking soft drug

However, only selected OECD countries were asked in the questionaire. The answer in the scale form was given, running from 1-10, 1 being “never justifiable” and 10 being “always justifiable”. The mean score given from all the participants in the respective country is shown in the graphs below:

Surprisingly people in UK are more okayed than Netherlands on the justification of taking soft drug, which as far as I know, only Netherland legalized soft drugs like cannabis or LSD. Or rather it can be said I am a bit surprised to find out from this questionare is that why there is still quite a number of Dutch people think that soft drug is not “always justifiable” even after legalization. However, bear in mind that this questionare was conducted in 1999-2000 period.

The other countries which have relatively relaxed opinion on taking soft drug are: Greece, Denmark and Luxembourg. The countries which have the lowest score on this issue included Hungary, Czech Rep. and Finland.

Kyoto: Flower in Macro, originally uploaded by micpohling.

With simple colour and simple pattern, it caught my eyes and my hearts…