The old oak chair that J.K. Rowling used while writing the first two Harry Potter series was sold in a heritage auction sale in New York for USD394,000. A mismatched dining room chair that was actually given free to this little known writer then in 1995 later went on to be one very expensive chair when Rowling shot to fame with the world’s best-selling literary series.

J. K. 罗琳撰写哈利波特首2个系列时使用的老橡树椅子，在纽约文物拍卖会以39万4000美元脱售。这个不匹配的饭厅椅子，其实是早年默默无名的J. K. 罗琳免费获得的，1995年后，当罗琳成为世界上最畅销小说作家时，却变成一张非常昂贵的椅子。

Image(s) courtesy of Heritage Auctions & harrypotter.wikia.com

Price Over The Moon 欣喜月亮

A blue and white moonflask, Ming Dynasty from the Yongle period inspired in shape and decoration by Middle Eastern models was hammered for a cool USD12.7 million. Although the hammered price exceeded a lot from the high estimatation of USD4.5 million, the complex geometric design had no precedent in Chinese art making this piece very unusual and rare.
明朝永乐年间的蓝与白“抱月瓶”，造型和设计受到中东影响，很酷地被敲定价格1270万美元。虽然敲定价格比估计的450万美元高出很多，但是其复杂的几何设计，在中国艺术创作中史无前例，显得不寻常及罕见。

Sold for a Song 宋朝买卖
An outstanding ‘Guan’ octagonal vase from the Southern Song Dynasty was sold for USD14.6 million to the Long Museum in Shanghai, China. This is the third highest price for any Song ceramics at auction.

中国上海龙美术馆以1460万美元买下了南宋官窑八角花瓶，这是拍卖会上第三高价的宋朝陶瓷。

Sealed and Sold 印玺出售
Bearing the inscription “Revere Heaven and Serve thy People”, this most powerful seal carved for the Kangxi Emperor was sealed during auction with an impressive sales price of USD11.9 million. This result is also a world record for a Kangxi imperial seal in auction.
康熙皇帝的“敬天勤民”玺，拍出惊人的1190万美元，这也是康熙皇帝印玺的世界拍卖纪录。

Shirley Temple’s… Blue Diamond Ring… Pass! 秀兰邓波的蓝钻戒…
Highly anticipated Shirley Temple’s 9.54-carat ‘Fancy Deep Blue’ diamond ring was failed to be sold in Sotheby’s recent auction in New York. The ring was bought by the actress’s father in 1940 around the time of her 12th birthday and was estimated to worth up to USD35,000,000. The bid started at USD19,000,000 and went quiet at USD22,000,000 that was below the reserve price. The auction house later issued a formal statement saying that it is confident to find a buyer for this magnificent piece.
备受瞩目的秀兰邓波9.54克拉“花式深蓝”钻戒未能在苏富比最近于纽约的拍卖会脱售，这枚戒指是由女明星秀兰邓波的父亲在1940年买给她的12岁生日礼物，估价高达3500万美元。投标从1900万美元开始，并于2200万美元静止下来，低于底价。苏富比拍卖行随后发表正式声明，表示有信心找到这个高贵精品的买家。

Switzerland used to be the world’s happiest country according to United Nation World Happiness Report, but in the latest 2016 report, Denmark has again topped the happy list. The ranking was primarily based on six key categories, namely a nation’s gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy-life expectancy, personal freedom, charitable giving and perceive corruption with 157 countries being evaluated.

The report found that inequality strongly contributed to unhappiness. Hence, rich countries such as United States, where rising contrast in health, wealth and income have created political discontent. However the survey also showed that countries like Japan, Ireland and Iceland were able to maintain their happiness levels despite external shocks such as the 2011 earthquake and the post 2007 financial crisis, mainly because of its strong social support and solidarity.

The western countries with strong social society nets filled the top spots with Denmark leading followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. On the other hand, the war-torn countries such as Syria, Togo, Benin, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Madagascar were the least happy country with Burundi finishing last. Many of these nations are politically unstable mostly due to war and conflict. Not to mention already impoverished and disease-stricken.

Other powerful countries such as Russia is ranked 56, China 83 and India 118. Smaller South East Asian countries such as Singapore is at 22, Thailand 33 and Malaysia 47 respectively.

This survey was conducted between 2013 and 2015. A lot have changed since, especially when it comes to issues of corruptions and terrorism but overall still a good indicator.

根据联合国世界的幸福感调查报告，瑞士曾是世界上最幸福的国家，但在最新2016年的报告中，丹麦却再次高居榜首。这项排名是基于6项关键类别，列表中的国家人均生产总值(GDP)、社会支援、健康寿命、个人自由，慈善捐赠和贪腐感知，以157个国家状况进行评估。

该报告发现，社会的不平等摧毁了幸福感。因此，即使富裕国家如美国，由于在健康，财富和收入的对比差距也酿成政治不满。而日本，爱尔兰和冰岛等国家尽管受到外部冲击，如2011年大地震和2007年后金融危机，依旧能够维持幸福水平，这是因为强大社会支持和声援的基础。

拥有坚固社会支援网络，幸福感领先的西方国家依次是瑞士、冰岛、挪威、芬兰、加拿大、荷兰、新西兰，澳大利亚，瑞典与丹麦。而叙利亚、多哥、贝宁、几内亚、利比里亚、坦桑尼亚、阿富汗，卢旺达，马达加斯与布隆迪这些饱受战争蹂躏的国家，却是最不幸福的国家，上述国家常年战争和政局冲突，加上受到贫困和疾病缠绕。

至于其他强大的国家，如俄罗斯排名56位，中国83和印度118。至于较小的东南亚国家，如新加坡是22位，泰国33和马来西亚分别47。

这项在2013与2015年间进行的调查，虽然已产生变化，尤其涉及贪腐课题与恐怖主义，但总体还算是最佳指标。