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Straight out of Hollis, Queens, Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl McDaniels (backed by Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell) turned the entire world on its ear with their literate rhymes, hard-edged delivery and social consciousness, paving the way for Public Enemy, N.W.A and everything that followed. The group’s signature sound—booming beats hitched to heavy-metal guitars—ignited hip-hop’s explosive chart domination.

At 17 she won an amateur-night competition at the Apollo Theater, and for the next six decades Fitzgerald was the voice of American jazz—first as a swing goddess, then as a bebop scat queen and finally as the smoothest interpreter of gold standards. Her classic albums devoted to such tunesmiths as George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen prove that the Great American Songbook is still required reading: Listening has never been easier.

One conclusion to be drawn from the Yale-Columbia project is the need for better data, which requires funds.

Experiences like the recent biofuels surge, which is driving up food prices, show how treacherous even well-intentioned decisions about the environment can be when they're uninformed.

The same holds for consumers, who sometimes think paying somebody to plant a few trees will compensate for flying around the world in airplanes.

For such decisions, data are essential. If we're going to avoid squandering our natural resources, the quicker we begin to rely more on facts and less on assumptions, the better.

Some countries simply lie or make up the facts.

Today's Russian bureaucrats may still be fudging its environmental figures.

Among the worst offenders were Japan, South Korea, Brazil, the United States, Italy and Paraguay.

(While there are good comparative data on ozone, smog also includes nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides and other components that are poorly tracked in most nations.) Among the best industrial countries were Malaysia, the United Kingdom and all of Eastern Europe (a legacy of the Soviet nuclear program).

Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which have more severe water problems.

Brazil is another country whose high rank—34th—is deceptive.

Brazil is a vast land blessed with an abundance of water, which yields energy relatively cheaply with no carbon emissions

Brazil is now the world's fourth biggest emitter of carbon, mainly due to the felling of trees.

By contrast, Belgium and the Netherlands, which share much in terms of population and geography with their neighbors, suffer from neglect of the environment—particularly in protecting native habitats.

Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and the third-largest economy in the world after the US and China, measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

Some fear that a rise in taxes could endanger the current economic recovery. Debate also continues on the role of and effects of reform in restructuring the economy, particularly with respect to increasing income disparities.

China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting

Starting in the 12th century, military administrations called shogunates became the usual form of government.

It took until the end of the 1500s for order to be restored under the Momoyama shogunate, but the government's three famous warriors eventually battled among themselves, breaking up their alliance in 1600.

His rule was marked by the near-elimination of Christianity from Japan in an effort to prevent the conquest of the country by Spain, the expulsion of all Spaniards in 1624, and the deportation of the Portuguese in 1639. All contact with foreigners was then outlawed.

Japan enjoyed a period of blossoming culture, and art, literature, and theater thrived despite the Tokugawa shogunate's strict, repressive control.

After this point, known historically as the Meiji Restoration, true authority rested with a small group of veteran politicians.

Such improvements led to the creation of a considerable export trade as Japan's leaders decided to work with the foreigners, since their efforts to expel them had not succeeded

Continued incursions into China in 1931–1932 secured a Japanese puppet monarchy in China's Manchurian region under Emperor P'u-i, China's last emperor.

plunged into World War II with its attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.

an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6

Japan signed the United States-Japan Security Treaty (1951) in San Francisco

Japanese politics after World War II has been dominated by the powerful Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

become a major global financial power and ranked as the world's largest aid donor and overseas investor.

His bold move paid off when the LDP gained a two-thirds majority in the Diet's lower house, thereby gaining for Koiziumi a wide popular mandate for his reforms. Koizumi left office in September 2006, having completed two full terms—a rarity in modern Japan.

17-year-olds typically strained or sprained their lower limbs

. But in terms of catastrophic injuries like neck breaks, it ranks right up there with ice hockey