Where are the Best Countries to Reside?

Broken in the USA, Economics, Education, Perspectives

Where are the Best Countries to Reside?

Where is the best Country to live? As a citizen of the USA, it is only appropriate to say “the USA”. I decided to do some investigation and take a more objective approach. I identified six factors that combined to form an overall ranking. Five of the factors are lifestyle, and one is financial.

The Lifestyle Index factors: Global Health (ranked by the healthiest), Citizen Happiness Index (ranked by happiest), Safety Index (based on crime & ranked by safest), Democracy (ranked by the most democratic government), and the ratio of GDP to Family Income (highest first on how much is shared with families) . The Financial factor is the one that counts: Purchasing power (ranked by the country where you get the most bang for your buck!).

The top 50 countries for five of the factors were considered, and the top 45 for the other one. For the combined rating (overall best), no country was considered if it did not rank in the top 45 on at least four of the factors. If it did not rank in the top 50, they were given a score of 50 for that factor. As a result, only 35 countries remained (see the combined chart). The combined result shows the combined rank for all six factors. The country with the lowest score would be considered the most desirable. The Scandinavian countries tend to dominate the list.

RankCountryCombined Score (lower is better)
 
1Iceland50
1Switzerland61
3Denmark64
3Netherlands80
5Norway77
6Sweden87
7Finland113
8UAE127
9Tiawan128
10South Korea128
11Germany131
11Austria137
13Canada143
14Saudi Arabia145
15Ireland147
16Chechia147
17New Zealand149
18Hong Kong152
19UK158
19Israel165
19Australia166
22Cyprus170
23USA180
24Spain191
25France195
26Belgium215
27Estonia226
28Latvia241
29Lithuania242
29Slovenia247
31Italy248
32Poland258
33Slovakia263
34Croatia269
35Serbia289

The Pyramid of Khafre

Education, History, Just for Fun

The Pyramid of Khafre

The pyramid of Khafre or of Chephren is the middle of the three Ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza, the second tallest and second largest of the group. It is the only pyramid out of the three that still has cladding at the top. It is only slightly smaller than the Great Pyramid but gets much less attention.

While mainstream Egyptologists claim that it was the tomb of the Pharoh Khafre there is no evidence that it was a tomb, as with all of the other Egyptian pyramids. My guess it that it was built circa the same time as the other Giza Pyramids. There is speculation that they were built many thousands of years earlier than the reign of the Pharaohs and could have been power plants. I have no idea, but they are amazing, and despite their age, they are far superior to any constructed later. Like the Great Pyramid, the interior does not contain any hieroglyphs or colorful images like the tombs in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

The Brookings Report

Education, Just for Fun

The Brookings Report

The Brookings Report, officially known as the “Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs,” was commissioned by NASA and created by the Brookings Institution in 1960. It was submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics of the United States House of Representatives on April 18, 1961. The report’s significance lies in its thoughtful consideration of the possibility of encountering extraterrestrial life during space exploration missions and the potential impact of such a discovery on public attitudes and values. It proposed that if the discovery of extraterrestrial life were to be made, it might be advisable to withhold that information from the public to avoid societal disruption. The report is highly significant due to its forward-thinking approach, especially considering the nascent state of space exploration at that time.

I’m not sure that the report served the best interests of our citizens since it was based primarily on the perceived disruption to “Belief systems”. The truth would suffer, and that is seldom good. Assuming the considerable proof that we have been contacted, it seems the report is still in full force.