SAN JOSE (AFP) - Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth, and one of the most environmentally friendly, according to a new survey by a British non-governmental group.
The New Economics Foundation looked at 143 countries that are home to 99 percent of the world's population and devised an equation that weighed life expectancy and people's happiness against their environmental impact.
By that formula, Costa Rica is the happiest, greenest country in the world, just ahead of the Dominican Republic.
Latin American countries did well in the survey, occupying nine of the top 10 spots.
Australia scored third place, but other major Western nations did poorly, with Britain coming in at 74th place and the United States at 114th.
The New Economics Foundation's measurements found Costa Ricans have a life expectancy of 78.5 years, and 85 percent of the country's residents say they are happy and satisfied with their lives.
Those figures, taken along with the fact that Costa Rica has a small "ecological footprint," combined to push the small nation to the top of the list.
A 2006 New Economics Foundation study designated Vanuatu the world's happiest nation, with Costa Rica at second place. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Sociologist Andrea Fonseca said Costa Rica gives its citizens the "tools" to be happy, but cautioned that happiness cannot be calculated just by looking at life expectancy and environmental practices.
She added that the country's rise to the top of the Happy Planet Index "has a lot to do with social imagination." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Costa Rica has a peaceful reputation because it does not have an army, and is also known for its protected ecological zones and national slogan "pure life," she said.
There's a mass influx of hippies coming into South Park, and Cartman is intent on putting a stop to them.
Cartman arrives at an old woman's house looking for parasites. He thinks that she may have hippies. Cartman tells the woman that hippies have been showing up all over the neighborhood lately. Cartman shows Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire her that there are some hippies getting high in her attic and in her backyard, they formed a drum circle. The old woman said that she did not think they were hurting anything but Cartman tells her that if it is not stopped, the drum circle could go four miles in diameter. He is going to gas the drum circle and fumigate the attic with polymerethane. If left unkempt, they could bring 'college know-it-all hippies'. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Meanwhile, Stan, Kyle, & Kenny are selling magazine subscriptions for the community youth program. They meet some hippies who are celebrating Spring Break. They tell them they 'are playing into the corporate game'. The hippies convince them that the corporations fooled them and the three of them get mad. In Cartman's house, he has hippies locked up in his basement. To keep them occupied, he gives them joints and a guitar. The other three boys become hippies. At a City Council meeting, all of the people are discussing pot holes. Cartman comes rushing in to warn them about the hippies. He tells them that now two hippies are coming per hour, which only means one thing: a hippie music festival. Nobody listens to him and the mayor sends him away.The hippies convince Stan, Kyle, & Kenny that the corporations take their profits and invest it in the war machine while keeping everyone blind. To get back at them, they want a week long music festival to tear them down. Cartman over hears this and finds out his friends are hippies. If he must, Cartman will take them out as well. Officer Barbrady shows up and arrests Cartman for locking up 63 people in his basement (he let them go). In jail, Mayor McDaniels shows up to see if the problem is under control. She then tells Cartman that she is letting them have the music festival in the town. Cartman thinks that she sold out the town. Hippie Jam Fest 2005 begins. Randy & Sharon Marsh remember what they were like at Woodstock and run to go get Stan away from the people that acted like they used to. The whole town hates the music festival. The mayor, after seeing what she had done, shoots herself.The townspeople go to jail asking Cartman's help in stopping the hippies. They apologize for how they treated him. Cartman tells him he will only help if: He gets a Tonka radio-controlled play bulldozer; gets to play with it in the school parking lot; Kyle must never get one and be jealous watching him play with it; gets all of these things even if he does not stop the hippies. They agree to these terms. In the festival, Stan & Kyle start to realize that they are not really doing anything to the corporations. In Park County Community Center, Cartman tells everyone what will happen. Cartman tells them that in less than three days, the town will be consumed. They need to reach the stage and put in a Slayer CD (the hippies can't stand it). To get to the stage, they will build a vehicle (called the Hippie Digger). Inside it, the pilots will be protected from the pot smoke and bad music. He needs a scientist, an engineer, and a black guy to sacrifice. Randy Marsh (Scientist), Linda Stotch (Engineer), and Chef (Black Guy) join Cartman. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire After saying goodbye to their families (or toys in Cartman's case), they go on their mission.The drill on the Hippie Digger goes through the hippies. The townspeople (including a bandaged up Mayor McDaniels) watch them on the navigation system. Stan is angry about doing nothing and goes to the stage. The Hippie Digger stops because it is out of fuel. On stage, Stan tells all the hippies that they are not doing anything to the corporations. The hippies think that meant to play more music. Being black, Chef goes outside. After a hard time with dealing with the smoke, he presses the booster switch. The energy immediately brought the machine on stage where they played the Slayer CD. All the hippies leave and the town is saved. As for Cartman, he got his wish and starts teasing Kyle about his new toy.
Satan is throwing the world's biggest Halloween costume party, and no one is getting in without a blue wrist band. Unfortunately, even Satan can't plan for everything as a religious organization and the antics of the most notorious serial killers of all time might ruin his good time.
Satan plans to opens the gates of hell and go up to the surface, rent the W hotel in Los Angeles and have an awesome “Super Sweet 16 Halloween Party.” To get into the party, you’ll need to RSVP and get the blue wrist band in advance that will get you in the door. No one is allowed to dress like “The Crow.” Meanwhile, the boys are in the bathroom, where Kyle has been challenged to say “Biggie Smalls” in front of the mirror three times in a row. Kyle won’t say it a third time, and he turns the challenge around on Cartman. Just as Cartman is about to say it for the third time, Jimmy interrupts, but Cartman gets so scared he craps his pants. Back in hell, Satan’s advisor tells him that so many celebrities are coming to his party that the people of hell can’t get any wrist bands. His advisor warns him not throw this party at the cost of alienating his friends. The priests plot to destroy Satan’s party; they plan on calling in a complaint to the Fire Marshall, after the party has started. After Butters brushes his teeth, he tries to summon Biggie Smalls and is surprised when he succeeds. At the W hotel, Satan checks out the venue and comes up with an idea for a party cake that is unlike anything that Diddy ever did. A demon calls upon Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy to pick up Satan’s Ferrari cake. Biggie Smalls demands that Butters get him to Los Angeles for the party.Satan is trying out his “The Crow” costume, but since he has to look the hottest, he demands that his minion turn over his hot school girl costume. The pastry chefs have completed the Ferrari cake, when The Three Murderers, a la “The Three Stooges” arrive to pick it up. Only Gacy and Dahmer start a killing spree, which leaves them with no one to help them load the Ferrari cake onto the flatbed. The boys find out that Butters has disappeared after summoning Biggie Smalls, they ask Stan’s dad for confirmation that a dead rapper can’t be summoned back from the dead. Randy, as a geologist says it can’t happen. Meanwhile, Butters is on a jet bound for Los Angeles with Biggie Smalls, but Butters is left on his own, when Kyle and the boys summon Biggie back to South Park. In Los Angeles, the party is in full swing when Satan arrives. Outside the hotel the priests try to call the Fire Marshall, when they find out that the Fire Marshall has been invited to the party. When a guest arrives dressed as “The Crocodile Hunter” Satan Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire wants to throw him out because it is too soon after Steve Irwin’s death and some people are offended. When it turns out that it really is Steve Irwin, Satan throws him out for not wearing a costume. The Ferrari cake hasn’t arrived at the hotel yet. “The Three Murderers” are trying to get the cake loaded on the flatbed, when Gacy’s senseless killing on Dahmer’s behalf distracts them and the Ferrari is gets ruined.Satan is anticipating midnight and the arrival of his big surprise, meanwhile at the Denver Airport the boys try to get Biggie Smalls onto a plane to Los Angeles. Only Stan’s dad intercedes when he summons Biggie into his bathroom and is surprised at the result. “The Three Murderers” only have 20 minutes to bake a new Ferrari cake, but there Stooge-like antics get in the way and they kill each other. At midnight, the Ferrari cake hasn’t arrived, but Satan’s advisor has come up with a backup. The cake is revealed, but it is shaped like an Acura. Satan Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire is pissed and he has a hissy fit, saying that the party wasn’t for all his guests, it was all for him. Satan realizes that he has become like on those spoiled rich girls on MTV. He apologizes to everyone present and allows everyone into the party. Outside the party, Butters borrows a woman’s compact and summons Biggie Smalls to the party, because he’s got Biggie’s back, yo.
Stan and Kyle are being held captive at the Pentagon until they tell the government exactly how they got into Imaginationland. Elsewhere…Cartman will not give up his quest to make Kyle follow through on their bet to suck his balls.
The events of last week are recounted and then Butters wakes up in his bed, but it is only a dream, he’s still in Imaginationland, where the evil side has begun their invasion of the good side. At the Pentagon the government wants to know how Kyle and Stan got into Imaginationland. They speculate that the Chinese might have helped them. The government admits that they have also built a portal to Imaginationland and they decide to show it the boys. Meanwhile, Cartman has a nightmare about his dry balls. Stan and Kyle are brought into the lab where “Project Imagination Doorway” is being housed. Only the doorway doesn’t work; the technician knows that it needs a resonance code to get it open. Stan and Kyle tell them that they got into Imaginationland after the strange man sung a song. Kyle and Stan start trying to sing the song and the doorway shows some signs of responding. The Mayor of Imaginationland (the strange man from episode I) tells Butters and the others to get through the gumdrop forest and make their way to Castle Sunshine. The evil imaginary characters begin to argue amongst themselves about who is in charge and what they should do next. Then the Woodland Critters from Cartman’s Christmas story appear on the scene and make some really heinous suggestions. In Washington Cartman is on the phone, demanding that the government tell him where Kyle is and a government official stupidly conforms. Stan and Kyle figure out the song and the gateway to Imaginationland opens up. On the way to Castle Sunshine, Butters and crew find Strawberry Shortcake being tortured by evil and the woodland critters again have more heinous suggestions. Troops, including Kurt Russell, are being readied for deployment through the portal, when there is a security breech; Cartman has broken into the lab. After Cartman shows why he is there, the general wants Kyle to honor his agreement. Cartman and Kyle are in a conference room, Kyle wants to get it over with, but Cartman takes his time getting ready for the big event. The troops are sent through the portal and they report encountering some cute woodland critters, but the critters rape them, savagely. Cartman’s delays Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire result in him losing the chance for Kyle to suck his balls when alarms start sounding and everyone is being evacuated. Butters and crew get to Castle Sunshine, but Butters’ ability to get in is questioned, when he is revealed to be from the real world. Back in the lab, something comes through from the other side “ManBearPig” and begins slaughtering everything in its way, including Kyle, who he has a death grip upon. The doorway is reversed and Stan is sucked into it, as is “ManBearPig” who’s lost its grip on Kyle. Butters is being brought before the Council of Nine, a collection of the highest regarded characters in all of Imaginationland including: Aslan; Zeus; Morpheus; Glinda, the Good Witch of the North; Jesus, Wonder Woman, Luke Skywalker, Popeye and Gandalf. Back in the lab, Kyle appears to have died from his injuries; but Cartman fights hard for Kyle’s life and manages to bring him around. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The Council of Nine decides that Butters might be the key to them taking back Imaginationland from the dark forces. Meanwhile the US government has decided that their only course of action is “to nuke our imagination” and Cartman is at Kyle’s hospital bedside, holding the ball sucking agreement in his hand just waiting for it to payoff. End of Part Two.