The annual United Nations human development index, released today, names Norway the best country in which to live. The list of 182 countries is based on 2007 statistics on life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment, gross domestic product, and other criteria.

The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.

The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.

China wins the most-improved award, moving up to number 92. Niger was at the bottom, and Afghanistan came in second to last. Link -via Digg

Listen to French artist Thomas Bloch demonstrating a glass harmonica, or armonica, at the Paris Music Museum. From Wikipedia:

Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval at Cambridge in England in 1758.[6] Franklin, who called his invention the "armonica" after the Italian word for harmony, worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies.

In Franklin's treadle operated version 37 bowls were mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot pedal. The sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers.

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Hey baseball fans! As we head into post-season play, test your memory of past World Series with today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Do you know how many World Series titles each of twelve players earned? Keep in mind that some went all the way with more than one team. I scored 7 of 12, so any real baseball fan should beat that! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/36140

This list, researched by a cheese fan, encompasses a great portion of the history of cheese as well as the different varieties and how they are made. Who knew you could buy cheese made from moose milk?

A farm in Bjurholm, Sweden actually makes moose cheese. The lactation period of moose is short, lasting from about June to August, and the farm, owned by Christer and Ulla Johansson, keeps three moose that produce only 300 kilograms of cheese per year. The moose cheese sells for roughly US$1000 per kilogram.

Before you faint over the price, remember that a kilogram is more than two pounds! Link -via Unique Daily

Old age in itself is no barrier to fitness. Many people in their 80s and 90s stay fit with regular exercise, and some put many younger folks to shame! Imagine competitive swimming in your 90s.

92yr old Ladislav Nicek has been competing in the annual Winter Swimming Championships in the Vlatva River for over half a century, and has until this point only missed a few events. Up to 70 ‘otuzilci’ (hardy fellows) brave the icy waters in an event which attracts a huge amount of media coverage, a large percentage due to the efforts of Mr. Nicek. He even organises the event every year before jumping in himself.

Nicek is one of five elderly athletes profiled at Vitabits. http://www.vitabits.co.uk/health-blog/health-freaks/ -Thanks, David!

7-year-old Wyatt Wilke was looking forward to entering his best sunflower in a competition at the Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana.

"He loved growing his sunflowers," said his mother, Cathleen Wilke. "Every year we talked about coming into La Porte for the Sunflower Fair, but we never got around to it. Wyatt really wanted to be part of the contest."

That's what they had planned -- a day at the fair, to enter his sunflower. He was a healthy, constantly laughing boy -- he loved school, where he was in the second grade, he loved horses, he loved his big brother John, with whom he shared a bedroom. The Wilkes lived in the tiny town of Hamlet, about 15 minutes from La Porte; Wyatt would look out the back window, watching for blue jays and cardinals.

"He planted his sunflowers in our garden," Cathleen Wilke said. "He was so careful with them. A few weeks before the fair, there was a heavy windstorm that knocked his biggest sunflower over. He called to me: 'Mom, it's on the ground -- my flower, it's down.' He was afraid it was ruined. But he managed to save it."

But a bacterial infection struck Wyatt and he died in just a few days. His stunned parents realized the fair had started the same day he died and took Wyatt's sunflower to the competition, just as he had planned. They had never been to the Sunflower Fair before.

They waited together as all the categories were judged. No one around them had any idea.

And then, through the loudspeaker system at the fair, the winner of his category was announced:

"First place. . .Wyatt Wilke."

There is more to the story, but you’d better have your handkerchief ready if you go read it. Link -via Fark

Mama always told us that is a secret is no longer secret when you tell even one person. Here are seven cases where it seems to have worked out just fine -so far. The reasons that the secret must remain a secret vary, but the reason two people must know it are understandable: if one dies, the other will retain the secret information, and if one reveals the secret, the other will know who is to blame. Pictured is Carly Simon, who knows who she wrote the song “You’re So Vain” about. The other person who knows will probably surprise you. It’s not the person the song is about! Link

Nite Kongtahworn created this pixeled artwork using Benjamin Moore paint samples. Squint your eyes if you don’t immediately recognize the famous face. Link -via Buzzfeed

Personally, I can’t imagine signing a lease that would allow a landlord to conduct a surprise apartment inspection when the tenant is out. That’s what happened in this scenario from David Thorne, the writer who brought us the picture of a spider and the coffee cup cleaning chart.

Thankyou for the surprise inspection and invitation to participate in the next. I appreciate you underlining the text at the bottom of the page which I would otherwise have surely mistaken for part of the natural pattern in the paper. I was going to clean the apartment but had so many things on my 'to do' list that I decided to treat them all equally and draw pictures of sharks instead. I have attached one for your honest appraisal.

I have read through your list of chores and intend to rectify the situation by wrapping my entire body in eighteen rolls of super absorbent Thick'n'thirsty® paper towels, hosing down the apartment, then rolling around on the floor and rubbing myself up and down walls. I will cover the more stubborn marks with Liquid Paper. I will also get back to you in regards to the premises being inspected in another two weeks, my agreement to do so will depend on availability and not wanting to.

The string of correspondence between David and Peter the manager gets more surreal from this point. Link -via reddit

While we were waiting for Zubbles, I completely missed the development of black light bubbles! Tekno Bubbles are the creation of Byron and Melody Swetland. They glow blue or gold under ultraviolet light, available in one ounce or gallon sizes. You don’t even have to blow bubbles to enjoy this -you can paint the bubble mixture on a surface to make glowing decorations! Link -via Random Good Stuff

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The People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1st, 1949. To celebrate the 60th anniversary, a three-hour parade was held in Beijing. This video by Dan Chung shows the highlights in both time-lapse and slow motion. -via reddit

Among the scientists, inventors, engineers, and leaders who left their mark on the world are some who were mentally ill or even downright insane. The ten men in the list showed signs of paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, crippling introversion, and other disorders. For example, you know Samuel Morse as the inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code, but there was more to him.

He was a little paranoid. He was determined that the Blacks, Jews, Catholics and the entire nation of Austria were working to destroy the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of America. He wrote several books on the subject in which he talked about how the immigrants and lesser races were oppressing all the white people, how the Jews and Catholics were working together to kill Protestants, and how all of these groups met on a regular basis in the basement of an orphanage in Ireland. Oh, and Austria's in there too somewhere.

Link -via Unique Daily

The 2016 Olympic summer games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 2012 games will be in London, England. Since the first modern Olympics in 1896, 22 cities have hosted the summer games, some more than once. Can you name all those cities in five minutes? That’s the challenge of this Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Good luck -I could only name 16. Link

The 19th annual Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded Thursday night at Sander’s Theater on the Harvard campus. The awards are given to “honor achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think.” A few of the winners:

PEACE PRIZE: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

LITERATURE PRIZE: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means "Driving License".

See the entire list of winners at Improbable Research. Link

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so you’ll see a lot of items produced in pink. Some product tie-ins will make you scratch your head and smile trying to figure out how they might have anything to do with breast cancer. Most likely, the people in charge of these companies are committed to the cause and this is the best way they can show it. Still, how can you see a pink cement mixer and not do a double take? http://whipitoutcomedy.com/2009/09/30/15-strangest-breast-cancer-awareness-products/ -via Gorilla Mask