Friday Fun: Never Old To Be Happy in New Zealand

Take a look at this excellently charming video by the residents and staff of the Diana Isaac Retirement Village in Christchurch, New Zealand: 

Monday Therapy: Shelved

It's Monday and it's back to work for us all, so here's a brilliant video from Auckland's Media Design School. Slight language warning.

New Zealand Environmentalist Wants to Ban Pet Cats

Via Alessandra, this bit of lunacy:  Some guy named Gareth Morgan wants to stop New Zealanders from keeping pet cats. Good luck with that, pal.  You can have my kittens ... when you pry them out of my cold, dead hand!

I also give you the incomparable Grumpy Cat herself, memed for your entertainment:

Quote of the Day: Naval Exercises in Hawaii

A memorable quote from a recent news story:

"By the time everyone else gets there, the New Zealanders will have drunk all the beer."

The Sport of Sheep-Shearing

I'm taking a break from my SOPA sermonizing to give you more of the silly/quirky/amusing content that you've come to expect ... Here's a tale of New Zealand farmers who want sheep-shearing to be an Olympic sport!

The 2012 Index of Economic Freedom Is Out

We're not doing so well?  The US is out of the top tier at #10. What would Milton Friedman say?  By the way, the top tier rated "Free" consists of Hong Kong at #1, followed by Singapore,  Australia, New Zealand, and (the first non-Asian country on the list) Switzerland.  Taiwan is #18.  C'mon, guys, we can do better than that.

Disgustingly Cute: A Christmas Baby

No, that's not a snowball.  That's a newly hatched white kiwi chick.  White kiwis are rare, and this adorable ball of fluff hatched in New Zealand just in time for Christmas!

The Seal Who Came In From The Cold

... and curled up on the sofa.

The Least Corrupt Nation in the World Is ...?

The winner is New Zealand.  The most corrupt?  Take a wild guess, people.  Why, yes, Somalia and North Korea!

Rule, Britannia: the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, and the British Empire

Via Neatorama comes this intriguing (and humorous) explanation of terms and places.  Here's a link to the text too.

Fun Video of the Day: An Aussie Explains the World Economic Collapse

Samizdata has this humorous link. The collapse of Greece is just the opening gambit.

The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom

The new rankings are now available. (Insert here my usual caveat that all rankings are a bit subjective and methodologies open to scrutiny and debate, but this is a useful rough sketch of different nations' economic freedom status.)

The US is still in the top 10, but we've slipped in the rankings. (Technically the US ranking is no longer fully "Free" but "Mostly Free," and Canada's ahead of us now. Really?! HopeChange!)

Number 1 in the world for economic freedom? Hong Kong.

In fact, Asian/Pacific nations rule supreme: HK, followed by Singapore, then Australia and New Zealand.

Dead last in the list is also an Asian nation. North Korea, natch. I do mean DEAD last. It's even worse than Zimbabwe.

The survey has this useful little definition of "economic freedom":

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

Oh, yes.

Cheery Kiwi MPs Bring the Funny to the Environmental Debate

This is the funniest bit of New Zealand Parliament business you'll see!

Kitchen Notes: Per Capita Meat Consumption Around the World

MEAT MADNESS! Oh, man, it's lunchtime in Nerdworld, and I am now suddenly thinking of every possible kind of yummy meat dish.

By the way, Denmark leads the world in meat consumption with the massive statistic of 321.7 pounds per capita annually! I salute you, carnivorous Denmark! The Danes are closely followed by New Zealand, Luxembourg, and Cyprus. The US comes in at #4 with 275.1 pounds of delicious dead animal per capita.

Oh, and do check out the completely awesome graphic. It's even got the title "LET THEM EAT MEAT." Golly, I am so hoping it gives some of those obnoxious PETA activists nightmares. Because I am evil and unrepentantly so!

PS: All this reminds me -- I'm supposed to post an excellent (and meat-based) recipe soon from a friend of mine. Tomorrow I'll give you the delectable secret of "Alessandra's Bowling Daisies Sauce."

The 2009 Failed States Index

Foreign Policy has published its annual listing of the world's basket cases. If you have the stomach for it, you can take a look at the parade of failed states.

You know, it seems to me that people spend a lot of time fretting about why states fail. How about also spending some time on how states succeed -- and then following suit? On a related note, perhaps we can take a look at the cautionary tales of once-successful states that have become failed miseries and be honest enough to say how and why (*cough* Zimbabwe! *cough*).

One complaint already: on the interactive map that classifies states by their health (or lack of it), Taiwan isn't even included. It's simply a white blank dot, a non-entity, a non-factor. China, however, is colored orange, "in danger." I know we're better than THAT! (for now, anyway)

Also, take note! According to this new survey, the four most stable, successful states in Asia are . . . (drum roll, please) South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand -- all of which are vibrant democracies. (Indeed, Oz and the Land of the Kiwis rank as among the most stable states in the world.) Worst off in Asia -- the thugocracy of Burma/Myanmar.

Monday Therapy: Air New Zealand Has Nothing to Hide

Since I'm flying today, I thought I would post an amusing airline commercial. Here is a rather cheeky ad by Air New Zealand. (Via AdFreak.) Rated PG-13 for lots of body paint and strategically placed objects!

Taiwan: Press Freedom Declining in China's Shadow

Read the 2009 edition of Freedom House's annual press freedom report (if you like charts, look at this PDF) and then read this analysis.

On the Taiwan front, there is disturbing news indeed. Last year, Taiwan was rated as Asia's freest press; this year the honor goes to New Zealand (if you want to argue about ethnic Asianness, then I can tell you that Japan is the freest large Asian nation). Last year, Taiwan was ranked 32 in the global survey; this year it falls to 43.

(For comparison, the US is 24, the UK and Canada are 27, and Australia is 38. #1 went to -- drum roll, please! -- Iceland. Dead last on the list? North Korea.)

See this editorial by Leon Chuang, chairman of the Association of Taiwan Journalists. He writes, among other things:

The lesson is that if Taiwan’s media cannot resist penetration by China, Taiwan will before long go the same way as Hong Kong.

President Ma Ying-jeou and his government should bear full responsibility for this black mark on the record of their first year in office.

Hong Kong's press freedom rating, by the way, has dropped from "free" to "partly free." China, in case you're wondering, is rated "not free" by Freedom House.

Things do not look good at all for either HK or Taiwanese media. Wake up, people.

Quirky Asia Files: New Zealand's Penguin Sports Tournament

Take a look. The video has no audio. May I suggest "Eye of the Tiger"?

Friday Fun Video: Aussie Humor -- Let's Invade New Zealand!

I first found the following delightful bits of Australian humor via a link from Ninme. A little exploration revealed some background, but what you really want are the actual videos promoting an Aussie invasion of New Zealand. Enjoy!

(OK, now before anybody rushes off to accuse me of being a blood-soaked, Kiwi-hating warmonger -- this is all a JOKE!)

PS:
Check out the large version of the tourism-ad parody here: http://www.invadenewzealand.com/