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BBC Poll: Germany most popular country in the world

AroundTheWorld — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:52:42 GMT

BBC poll: Germany most popular country in the world

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service.

More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll.

They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".

Germany came out top, with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Global views of Europe's biggest country have improved significantly in 2013, according to the poll.

It was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly selected people in 25 countries.

Of those countries, 22 have been surveyed two years in a row, so become the tracking countries on which the average ratings are based.

These averages exclude the target country's rating of itself. So for example, the opinions of Germans on Germany are excluded, meaning the country's average rating is based on 21 tracking countries.

A three-point increase in Germany's average rating returned it to the top of the BBC list, displacing Japan, which saw its positive ratings drop from 58% to 51%, and fell from first to fourth place overall.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the poll results may be a reward for diligent German diplomacy. Government ministers frequently tour countries with markets for German goods, or countries like Mongolia with raw materials for German products, he says.

There were high positive ratings for Germany in recession-hit Spain and France - though not in Greece - despite the well-publicised placards depicting Chancellor Angela Merkel as a Nazi, paraded during anti-austerity protests in Europe.

The UK saw a bigger increase in positive ratings than any other country and climbed to third place in the table, in the wake of its hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The poll also indicates that positive views of China and India have fallen sharply around the world over the last year. After improving for several years, views of China have sunk to their lowest level since polling began in 2005, putting it in ninth position.

India is ranked 12th, with negative views (35%) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34%) for the first time.

But Germany, whose economy has done better than almost every other in Europe in recent years, scored well across the world.

In Ghana, 84% of people polled said Germany's influence was mainly positive, while 81% in neighbouring France and 76% in Australia felt the same. But in debt-laden Greece a majority of people polled gave Germany negative ratings.

Positive views of the EU dropped to their lowest level last year but have stabilised this year, rising one point to 49% on average.

But this figure masks significant changes. There has been a sharp drop in positive ratings by Germans, down 14 points to 59%. Canadians and Americans both give significantly lower ratings to the EU. In the UK, positive views of the EU continue to fall steadily and, for the first time this year, more Britons rate it negatively (47%) than positively (42%).

Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally. Only 15% of respondents said they saw Iran as having a mainly positive influence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22624104

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My English girlfriend couldn't believe it. Her reaction: "Umm...what? Maybe the economy? But the culture?!?!" :p

In b4 the hataz :cool:.

Cops Go Undercover at High School to Bust Special-Needs Kid for Pot

sew — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:52:00 GMT

http://www.alternet.org/cops-go-unde...2C1&paging=off

Entrapment? This **** is retarded.

Quote:

In a video segment on ABC News, they say they were "thrilled" when their son -- who has Asperger's and other disabilities and struggled to make friends -- appeared to have instantly made a friend named Daniel.

�He suddenly had this friend who was texting him around the clock,� Doug Snodgrass told ABC News. His son had just recently enrolled at Chaparral High School.

"Daniel," however, was an undercover cop with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department who "hounded" the teenager to sell him his prescription medication. When he refused, the undercover cop gave him $20 to buy him weed, and he complied -- not realizing the guy he wanted to befriend wanted him behind bars.

[movie] Delivery Man - Vince Vaughn

sew — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:37:51 GMT

James Harden named to All-NBA Third Team

J.R. — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:12:24 GMT

2012-13 All-NBA First Team: @kingjames, @kdtrey5, Tim Duncan, @kobebryant (record tying 11th time), & @cp3.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

2012-13 All-NBA Second Team: @carmeloanthony, @blakegriffin32, @marcgasol, @tonyparker & @russwest44.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

2012-13 All-NBA Third Team: @dlee042, @paul_george24, @dwighthoward, @dwyanewade & @jharden13.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

All-NBA teams

J.R. — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:07:47 GMT

2012-13 All-NBA First Team: @kingjames, @kdtrey5, Tim Duncan, @kobebryant (record tying 11th time), & @cp3.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

2012-13 All-NBA Second Team: @carmeloanthony, @blakegriffin32, @marcgasol, @tonyparker & @russwest44.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

2012-13 All-NBA Third Team: @dlee042, @paul_george24, @dwighthoward, @dwyanewade & @jharden13.
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2013

Minute Maid Park vendor fired for putting food on floor of bathroom

RKREBORN — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:28:50 GMT

http://www.click2houston.com/news/lo...z/-/index.html

EWWWWWWWWWWW :mad:

Grizzly Adams DID have a beard

dachuda86 — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:22:06 GMT

Friend of mine turned me on to this TV show called grizzly adams... turned out it was based on a novel that was in turn based on a real man who trained freakin' bears. This is the most manly dude in the history of manliness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_%22Grizzly%22_Adams

federal pell grants

peleincubus — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:16:25 GMT

Can anyone tell me if you are eligible for a grant for summer semesters if you are only going part time for the fall/spring? From what I have been reading it seems you have to be full time for fall/spring at 12 hours each.

But then I'm not sure if that is implying that you have used up the maximum $5500 a year. But that does not make sense either because you would not use that full amount regardless if you were part time.

[TheOnion] Dwight Howard Interested In Ruining Rockets

horns fan — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:06:46 GMT

LOS ANGELES�Ahead of his impending free agency, Lakers center Dwight Howard told reporters Thursday that he is �very interested� in moving to Houston and completely ruining the Rockets. �They have a great young core of players with James Harden and Jeremy Lin, so I�d obviously love the chance to go shatter their chemistry and tear the entire locker room apart,� said Howard, adding that he would �relish the opportunity� to totally undermine Rockets head coach Kevin McHale. �There are a few teams on my radar right now. Dallas has a really solid roster too, and I�m definitely intrigued by the prospect of clashing with Dirk Nowitzki and running that whole franchise into the ground. We�ll just have to wait and see what happens.� Howard did stress to reporters, however, that he has not yet ruled out remaining in Los Angeles to continue destroying the Lakers for the foreseeable future.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/dwi...adline:default

Not trying to start anything, I just love me some Onion and thought I would share.

PS: I did a find on threads and didn't see anything, but please remove if already posted.

Paying Off Loans

Johndoe804 — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:55:55 GMT

I'm paying off four separate loans with balances of approximately $5000 each. I'm currently making double payments on each every month in an effort to pay them off quickly. However, in two years I don't feel like I'm making much headway. Is there a better way to pay these off quickly? Perhaps I should be making minimum payments on three of the loans and then paying the minimum plus what I was paying on the other three on the one that has been accruing interest for the longest (or the one with the highest rate). Can anybody advise on this? I need to free up some income for some business ventures I've been planning with others.

Minor League Open Thread: 5/23/2013

tellitlikeitis — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:45:36 GMT

Astros took 2 of 3 from the Royals for their 2nd series win of the season. After the 3-1 win last night, they have today off.

I might shelve the open threads after this one, considering that all the other ones are mostly me talking to myself. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

All times Central.

Audio links

Oklahoma City (27-18) @ Fresno (26-21), 9:05

The series finale presents a pretty good pitching matchup, as Jarred Cosart will face off against Mike Kickham. Kickham is the #5 prospect in the Giants' system, according to Baseball America. Cosart's looking to rebound from an outing in which he only lasted 4 1/3 innings, an outing in which he ran up a high pitch count early.

Corpus Christi (26-19) vs. Northwest Arkansas (14-29), 7:05

Bobby Doran and Nick Tropeano will be tonight's pairing for the Hooks. Their counterpart for NW Arkansas will be Brooks Pounders. Doran and Tropeano have really struggled as of late; they'll look to get themselves back on track.

Lancaster (25-20) vs. Inland Empire (25-19), 9:00

The Jethawks are welcoming the team ahead of them in the standings to The Hangar for 3 games; the 66ers have a 1/2-game lead over them in the California League South.

The series opener will have 3 southpaw starters. Blair Walters and Tom Shirley will take the hill for Lancaster, and Inland Empire will be sending out Eswarlin Jimenez.

Quad Cities (23-21) vs. Wisconsin (20-21), 7:00

The River Bandits will look to snap a 5-game losing streak in the middle game of their series with the Timber Rattlers. Tag team match here, as both teams will be employing the tandem approach tonight. QC is sending out Jamaine Cotton and Vince Velasquez, while Wisconsin will go with Jorge Lopez and Ryan Gibbard.

Chandler Parsons invited to Team USA minicamp

cyberx — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:35:37 GMT

What an honor for a guy picked 2nd round... It will really help him develop his game.

Fegan helped work this.

How much room the entire world population would take up if standing side by side

Outlier — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:24 GMT

http://snapzu.com/geoleo/how-much-ro...g-side-by-side

Wow.

Did Google Change Your Primary Account to a GMail Account?

hotballa — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:25:13 GMT

I just wanted to do a PSA for my fellow CFers.

A couple months ago, Google somehow took my Google account (which I used for Google Wallet, Google Play, etc.) and linked it to a dummy gmail account I had setup for my son's Android phone (needed it to access Google Play). In the process it relegated my regular account to alternate email status and set the dummy gmail account as the primary.

I was back and forth with Google support to try to correct the problem and after 3 weeks of correspondence they basically gave up and said I'd have to get used to the dummy account as my primary google account now. :(

Today, however, I discovered that I could simply delete my gmail account, and that during the process, it will ask you if you want to use your alternate email address as the primary Google account. YES!

Hope that helps anyone else who got their Google account hijacked by a GMail account.

(sorry for the convoluted post, I'm not very good at explaining stuff sometimes.)

REDDIT user gets schooled by Sikh woman ( LOL! )

SwoLy-D — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:21:39 GMT

LOL! :grin:

Bad title by Jezebel.com:
Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled

Quote:

REDDIT
LINDY WEST
9/26/12 2:20pm

Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled

[picture of

A Reddit user going by the handle "european_douchebag" posted a surreptitious photo of a Sikh woman with the caption "i'm not sure what to conclude from this." The user's apparent confusion stems from the fact that the woman�bound by her religion not to cut her hair or alter her body�has an abundance of dark, untrimmed facial hair. The mind of european_douchebag was SO INCREDIBLY BLOWN by the fact that women have hair on their bodies�and, yes, faces�and that some women are bold, self-assured, and pious enough not to cave to western beauty standards (and gender expectations), there was nothing for him to do but post her photo online and wait for the abuse to flood in.

But then something totally lovely and unexpected happened. The woman in the photo responded:

Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn't know about this until one of my friends told on facebook. If the OP wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled :) However, I'm not embarrased or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it's who I am. Yes, I'm a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body - it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn't reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying 'mine, mine' and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn't important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. :-) So, if anyone sees me at OSU, please come up and say hello. I appreciate all of the comments here, both positive and less positive because I've gotten a better understanding of myself and others from this. Also, the yoga pants are quite comfortable and the Better Together tshirt is actually from Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that focuses on storytelling and engagement between different faiths. :) I hope this explains everything a bit more, and I apologize for causing such confusion and uttering anything that hurt anyone.
And then, THEN, something even more miraculous happened�the original poster apologized:

I know that this post ISN'T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you're making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.

/r/Funny wasn't the proper place to post this. Maybe /r/racism or /r/douchebagsofreddit or /r/intolerance would have been more appropriate. Reddit shouldn't be about putting people down, but a group of people sending cool, interesting, or funny things. Reddit's been in the news alot lately about a lot of cool things we've done, like a freaking AMA by the president. I'm sorry for being the part of reddit that is intolerant and douchebaggy. This isn't 4chan, or 9gag, or some other stupid website where people post things like I did. It's ****ing reddit. Where some pretty amazing stuff has happened.

I've read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant.

So reddit I'm sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity.
Balpreet, I'm sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am
Sikhs, I'm sorry for insulting your culture and way of life.
Balpreet's faith in what she believes is astounding.
Holy ****, internet, I don't even know you anymore! I never thought something would come out of the seeping necrotic abscess that is Reddit that would actually make my day better, but wow. MY HEART GREW THREE SIZES THIS DAY.

Woman:

FAIL attempt at being funny by the guy on reddit. :p