Inspired by the Winter Olympics currently being played in Vancouver, the Daily Beast decided to give out virtual medals—for not the most athletic countries, but the laziest. Starting with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s member countries with extensive data available (24 developed countries), the site took four factors into account: calories per day, television viewing, aversion to playing sports, and Internet usage. After weighing the factors, the Daily Beast found that the United States took home gold as the laziest developed country in the world. “America always goes big, or doesn’t go at all,” the site says. “[G]luttony is as American as an entire apple pie, and apparently all that downtime in front of the television and computers translates into lots of sports viewing, not much sports playing.” Rounding out the top five: Canada—the host of this year’s Winter Olympics—Belgium, Turkey, and Great Britain.
From Slate. Read original story in The Daily Beast | Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010
