Finland tops world happiness rankings, South Sudan bottom — UN

HELSINKI, Finland — Finland ranked as the world's happiest country for the second year running while war-torn South Sudan sank to the least contented in a United Nations report released on Wednesday.

The Nordic nation of 5.5 million people, known for their love of forests, lakes and saunas, topped the study which used survey data asking citizens in 156 countries how happy they perceive themselves to be, as well as measures such as life expectancy, income and social support.

The other Nordic countries, as well as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand and Austria also made the top ten.


As well as performing well on all the indicators, the most content countries all tended to have very stable societies, with happiness levels changing comparatively little since 2005.

Despite the political turmoil brought by Brexit, Britain rose four places in the rankings to 15th.

The United States, meanwhile, continued its slide of recent years, dropping one spot to 19th place.

"This year's report provides sobering evidence of how addictions are causing considerable unhappiness and depression in the US," said professor Jeffrey Sachs, one of the report's authors.

The unhappiest nation was South Sudan, where the UN recently said 60 percent of people face food insecurity following a bloody civil war which has claimed the lives of an estimated 400,000 people.

Other conflict-ridden countries, such as Yemen, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic, also featured at the bottom of the table.

Released on the International Day of Happiness on March 20, the report warned that world happiness has declined in recent years, driven by a sustained fall in India, which this year ranked in 140th place.

This has coincided with a rise in negative feelings, "comprising worry, sadness and anger, especially marked in Asia and Africa, and more recently elsewhere," it said.

This year's publication also looked at how countries have performed in the happiness rankings since 2005.

Of the 20 largest gainers, half are in Central and Eastern Europe, five are in sub-Saharan Africa, and three in Latin America.

The five largest declines since 2005 were in Yemen, India, Syria, Botswana and Venezuela.

source: philstar.com

Nokia signs its first official 5G equipment deal with NTT DoCoMo

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Finland’s Nokia said on Friday it signed its first major deal to supply new 5G wireless radio base stations to Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMo, which boasts nearly half of the country’s mobile subscribers.

The contract marks Nokia’s first sizeable deal for its flagship mobile base station equipment based on official global New Radio (NR) standards for the fifth generation of wireless networks, which were only finalised in December 2017.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal contemplates DoCoMo starting commercial 5G network service by 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympics, Nokia said. Initial installations are expected in greater metropolitan Tokyo with a national roll-out to follow in subsequent years.

Nokia, a major supplier to DoCoMo in both the 3G and 4G network eras, has been working with the Japanese operator since at least 2014 on trials of 5G equipment, which promises far faster data rates, greater capacity and quicker response times.

The 5G antennas and related base stations act as the local connections between users of mobile phones and computing devices with the backbone of any operator’s network.

The new equipment also promises to enable DoCoMo to provide new services for autonomous driving, industrial automation and smarter homes by providing wireless links to millions even billions of wireless sensors. Nokia said it will work with DoCoMo to ensure a smooth transition from existing 4G networks.

source: interaksyon.com

Fire safe mobile charger invented in Finland

HELSINKI — A fire caused by an unplugged mobile charger destroyed a house in Finland in 2013, and then triggered an invention that can prevent such tragedy from happening again.

The newly invented ASMO mobile gadget charger can shut off automatically when the gadget is no longer connected to it, Finnish national radio Yle reported on Monday.

The charger has been ready for production, and the Finnish developers said their product was the first of its kind worldwide.

Chargers warm up and reach high temperatures and thus can cause a fire. The new ASMO charger will eliminate the fire hazard when the charger remains plugged, said the report.

The name of the new product is the first name of its main designer Asmo Saloranta. He got the idea in the wake of a fire where a charger that had not been unplugged damaged the childhood home of his fiance in Oulu, northern Finland.

The prototype was produced in 2014 and got a patent. Saloranta told Finnish national radio Yle that orders were being awaited.

source: interaksyon.com

Nokia revives the brand with launch of iPad lookalike

HELSINKI — Finland’s Nokia launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer on Tuesday which is designed to rival Apple’s iPad Mini, just six months after the company sold its ailing phones and devices business to Microsoft for over $7 billion.

Nokia, a name which was once synonymous with mobile phones until first Apple and then Samsung Electronics eclipsed the Finnish company with the advent of smart phones, said the manufacturing, distribution and sales of the new N1 tablet, will be handled under licence by Taiwan’s Foxconn.

The aluminium-cased N1, which runs on Google’s Android Lollipop operating software but features Nokia’s new Z Launcher intelligent home screen interface, is due to be in stores in China in the first quarter of next year for an estimated price of $249 before taxes, with sales to other markets to follow.

Sebastian Nystrom, the head of products at Nokia’s Technologies unit, said the company was looking to follow up with more devices and will also look into eventually returning to the smartphones business by brand-licensing.

“With the agreement with Microsoft, as is customary, we have this transition and we can’t do smartphones … We have a time limit, in 2016 we can again enter that business,” Nystrom told Reuters.

“It would be crazy not to look at that opportunity. Of course we will look at it.”

Microsoft last week dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535 smartphone, which runs on its Windows Phone 8 operating system, but still uses the brand for more basic phones.

After the Microsoft sale Nokia was left with its core network equipment and services business plus its smaller HERE mapping and navigation unit and Nokia Technologies, which manages the licensing of its portfolio of patents and develops new products such as the N1 and the Z Launcher.

Asked about rumours that Nokia was looking to re-enter the handset market, Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said last week he was looking into ways to bring the brand back into the consumer market through licensing deals.

source: interaksyon.com

Nokia launches tablet to join Microsoft gadget push

ABU DHABI — Nokia has unveiled its first tablet and large-screen smartphones, which will form part of Microsoft’s global push to become a leading player in consumer devices when it takes over the Finnish company’s handset business.

The Lumia 2520 tablet, along with the Lumia 1320 and 1520 phones are among the last products Nokia developed before deciding to sell the devices unit to Microsoft in a deal that is due to close in the first quarter of next year.

Nokia, once the global leader in mobile phones, arrived late to the smartphone race and has struggled to catch up with Apple and Samsung, who dominate the increasingly crowded market for large-screen smartphones, known as phablets.

The Lumia tablet, which has a 10-inch screen, will also face tough competition from the likes of Apple, which is expected to unveil slimmer, faster iPads on Tuesday. The phablets, which both have 6-inch screens, will take on a multitude of similar devices from Samsung.

Analysts said the new products, which will retain the Nokia brand after the Microsoft handover, are priced low enough to attract interest.

The Lumia 2520, which comes in glossy red and white as well as matt cyan and black versions, is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter for about $499.

“The tablet is a nice design, it’s a good-value proposition,” Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said, though she doubts that Nokia’s first foray into the tablet market will bring billions in sales.

Possible clash

Others also questioned whether the new launch is enough to lure consumers back to Nokia and Microsoft, while Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said the Lumia 2520′s position for Microsoft is unclear, particularly after the software giant launched its own tablets.

At midnight on Monday, Microsoft started selling its Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets. Still feeling its way in the computer hardware business, the company is banking on the lighter and faster models boosting the lackluster sales of its touch-screen devices.

“Despite a more affordable price, the respective positioning of Nokia’s tablet versus the Surface 2 is not obvious and will have to be dealt with after the Nokia acquisition,” Husson said.

The new devices will help Microsoft to increase the number of Windows users, but Husson said he expects it to remain a long way from “a significant installed base of consumers”.

Nokia’s former chief executive Stephen Elop, hired in 2010 to turn round the company, decided in early 2011 to drop Nokia’s own operating system in favor of the Microsoft’s untested Windows Phone software.

The Lumia devices have been well received by technology blogs and critics, but sales have been slow to pick up, partly because of a lack of Windows Phone apps and a limited marketing budget.

source: interaksyon.com

New world record set at mobile-phone throwing contest

HELSINKI — A Finnish teenager has smashed the world record — and probably his phone — in this year’s annual mobile-phone throwing contest in Finland.

Eighteen-year-old Ere Karjalainen launched a phone the “amazing” distance of 101.46 metres (332 feet 10 inches), Finnish public television network YLE said after Saturday’s event.

Second place went to South African Jeremy Gallop, who threw a phone 94.67 metres.

According to contest organisers, the competition offers mobile phone users a unique opportunity to “pay back all the frustrations and disappointments caused by these modern equipments.”

Finland is the home of Nokia and is awash in obsolete phones, organizers said.

“There will be no doping tests,” organisers said on their English website.

“However the jury can rule out the contestant if his/her mental or physical preparedness is not adequate for full a performance.”

The event has been held in the southeastern town of Savonlinna since 2000.

article source: interaksyon.com

Finland On A Plate

Will she be serving reindeer?" That was the buzz at Edsa Shangri-La's Heat restaurant when American-Finnish celebrity chef Sara La Fountain held her one-day exclusive lunch and dinner food festival recently.

The perky and pretty "cooking sensation" confessed that this was her original intent but alas, she could not source reindeer meat in our part of the world. And lugging it around from Finland throughout her tour wasn't quite practical. Sorry, no Rudolph today. Nonetheless, she did cook up a storm, serving Finnish comfort food that warms the soul on those frigid Norse winters.

To ease the creaking of bones, of course, there's steaming soup. Sara ladled Salmon Soup with Fresh Egg Roe, accompanied by a sliver of Archipelago Bread. This dark sweet bread flavored with malt and topped with herbs is for dipping into the soup. She had been carrying pieces baked from her grandmother's original recipe, yet the bread was as soft and moist since the day she left Finland.

For her next dish, Sara offers a comment: "Finnish food is all about seasonal flavors." The countryside abounds with produce, fruits, fresh vegetables and root crops. During the long months of summer and seemingly endless sunshine, they enjoy these fruits of the earth; to stock up for winter, these same crops are preserved by pickling or smoking. A bite of summer in deep dark winter was Vorchmack with Marinated Beets, a traditional dish served at weddings; it highlights minced beef, lamb and herring settled on a row of marinated and pickled vegetables.

A fusion of the old and new worlds arrived via Crayfish Salad with Boiled Quail Eggs, Radish, Avocado and Asparagus served with Dill Mayonnaise and Cilantro-Ginger Dressing. This summer salad starring Finland's ubiquitous but tiny crayfish complemented with creamy avocado is best eaten with toast.

The main dish of Karelian Stew was another treasured recipe Sara learned from her grandmother. Made with lamb, beef, cabbage and carrots and refreshed with sour cream, this stew originated from Finland's Karelian region.

For a flourishing Finnish finish, there’s a Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake. While rhubarb is not commonly found in the Philippines, Filipino taste buds need not be totally fazed, as its caramelized pinkish flesh on this cake tastes a lot like sweet pineapple.

For more of Sara's Finnish classics, check out her program New Scandinavian Cooking on the Asian Food Channel. For details and show schedules, visit www.asianfoodchannel.com.

source: mb.com.ph