Philippines Takes 24th Spot In World's 'Happiest' Countries Ranking

Philippines, 24th happiest country (Photo: Mylot)

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has released on Thursday its Happy Planet Index (HPI), which ranks the "happiest" countries in the world based upon the health and happiness produced per unit of environmental output.

NEF ranked 151 countries using a global data of life expectancy (LE), experienced well-being (WE) and ecological footprint (EF). Each country's HPI was computed by dividing the product of LE and WE with EF.

The data for experienced well-being is taken from the Gallup World Poll, ‘life expectancy' is based upon the 2011 UNDP Human Development Report and ‘ecological footprint' is calculated from data provided by the WWF.

Costa Rica topped the list with its 64 HPI while Vietnam, which has an HPI of 60.4, ranked 2nd.

Columbia, Belize, El Salvador, Jamaica, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Guatemala completed the top 10.

Meanwhile, the Philippines scored an HPI of 52.4 and was ranked 24th in the list. The Philippines' low per-capita ecological footprint helped the country score a better HPI than more than 80% of the countries ranked.

The complete ranking can be viewed on the Happy Planet Index website.

Coca Cola Security Cameras (Viral Video)

A new viral video is encouraging viewers to "look at the world differently."

Titled "Coca Cola Security Cameras," the video features coca-cola security camera footage from different countries which captured  random acts of kindness, heroism and some happy moments which often go unreported.

The feel-good clip is actually an ad from Coke Latin America.

"People tend to associate security cameras with negative events, but we wanted to disprove that assumption by demonstrating the abundance of happy events and actions they capture," said creative director Martin Mercado.

Check out below the said video, which has amassed more than 2 million hits on Youtube as of posting time:

Charlene Tilton Appears On New 'Dallas' (2012)

Charlene Tilton on revamped "Dallas"

Charlene Tilton is back on "Dallas."

The actress made the fans of the show excited when she appeared on the pilot episode of the new "Dallas" series on Wednesday, June 13, 2012.

Charlene Tilton, now 53, played the role of Lucy Ewing, the sly, vixenish, frequently frustrated granddaughter of Jock Ewing, in the original "Dallas" series from 1978 to 1985 and from 1988 to 1990. The portrayal made Tilton incredibly popular. She even landed on the cover of People magazine several times.

However, it is not yet certain if Tilton's appearance on the revamped "Dallas" on Wednesday was just a one-time cameo or not.

Meanwhile, the "Dallas" reboot has proved a hit in the US. Its debut episode on TNT attracted an average of 6.8 million viewers, securing the highest ratings for the premiere of a scripted series on a cable channel this year.

X-37B 120614: Secret Mini Space Shuttle May Land Today

X-37B 120614 (Youtube)

X-37B, a clandestine mini-space shuttle of the US Air Force, is likely to land this week. Some reports say the much anticipated return of X-37B is happening today, June 14, 2012 (June 15 Manila Time).

Air Force officials, however, said the landing day for the unmanned space plane depends on weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors.

The X-37B spacecraft has been in orbit since March 5, 2011 but the Air Force has not issued any information of what the craft is doing or where it is orbiting as they are considered as classified.

X-37B is about 29 feet long (8.8 meters) 15 feet wide (4.5 m), and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. It is powered by a solar panel that allows it to stay in orbit for months at a time.

Earthquake In The Philippines June 15, 2012

Gensan/Davao Earthquake June 15, 2012 Map

A 5.5-magnitude quake struck Mindanao, Philippines on Friday, June 15, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

According to a USGS bulletin, the temblor hit at 09:14 a.m. local time and centered at 152 km east southeast from General Santos (185 km south southeast from Davao).

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quake.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin, causing frequent volcanic activity.

Update: The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology measured the eartquake at magnitude 5.9. It said that it was of tectonic origin and was 64 km deep.

Aftershocks are expected, it added.

'Game Of Thrones' Creators Explain Decapitated George W. Bush Head

"Game Of Thrones" scene featuring fake head of Bush

"Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said they were not making any political statement when they featured a decapitated head resembling former US President George W. Bush in a scene.

"It's not a choice, it's not a political statement. We just had to use whatever heads we had lying around," they explained. "We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etcetera. We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush."

They added: "We meant no disrespect to the former president and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise."

Home Box Office (HBO), meanwhile, has released a statement addressing the graphic prop choice.

"We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste," the network said. "We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake."

HBO added that the scene would be removed from future DVD production.

Vacuum Climber Device Lets You Climb Walls Like Spider-Man (Video)

Vacuum Climber Device (Youtube)

A vacuum climber device, invented by a team of engineering students from Utah State University allows one to climb walls a little like Spider-Man.

The PVAC, short for personal vacuum assisted climber, consists of two hand-held paddles attached to a vacuum pack that creates a powerful suction force — enough to scale a wall with. A stirrup hang beneath the pads, where users can place their foot.

The device also has a gauge which indicates safe vacuum levels and a volt meter that let climbers know if they were about to run out of juice.


The students, who call themselves the Ascending Aggies, presented the technology to the U.S. military during the  2012 Service Academy and University Engineering Challenge, where it took the first prize and won $100,000 grant. The competition required teams to design gadgets that would allow soldiers to safely and quickly ascend vertical surfaces. The devices also had to be reusable, permit multiple pitches within one climb, allow the operator to keep one hand free for using other equipment, and be capable of getting three people each carrying 300-pound (136 kg) loads up a 90-foot (27.5-meter) vertical silo within 20 minutes.
 
But using the PVAC in a military setting could prove somewhat problematic, depending on the context: Those powerful vacuums give off an equally powerful, ear-piercing engine noise.