Military staff members of the German Bundeswehr check an Eurocopter Tiger military attack helicopter at the Eurocopter plant on March 8, 2012 in Donauworth, Germany. EADS, the parent company of Eurocopter as well as airplane manufacturer Airbus, is scheduled to announce financial results for 2011 today. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.

A stunning variety selected by Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer and breeder, from several traditional corn varieties. Given to NS/S by one of his students, Greg Schoen. Produces a diversity of gorgeous translucent, jewel-colored ears, each one unique. A popcorn, the kernels may be ground into cornmeal or popped. This corn became an Internet sensation in 2012.

Protesters shield themselves as police beat them with sticks during a violent demonstration near the India Gate against a gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus last week, in New Delhi, India, December 23, 2012. The attack last Sunday has sparked days of protests across the country. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Associated Press)

This image is NGC 6543 known as the Cat's Eye Nebula as it appears to the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble Telescope. A planetary nebula is a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now, when it expands to become a red giant and then sheds most of its outer layers, leaving behind a hot core that contracts to form a dense white dwarf star. This image was released October 10, 2012. (Photo by J. Kastner/NASA/CXC/RIT)

“Car2go fleet is located throughout the greater downtown area and can be accessed on-demand or booked 24 hours in advance. The members may use the vehicle for as long as they like, without committing to a specific return time or return location”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A car2go employee shows how members can use a smartphone or iPad app to locate and reservec car2go vehicles March 22, 2012 in Washington, DC. Beginning March 24, car2go will offer the first free-floating car-sharing service in Washington and Portland, Oregon, where customers can use the smartphone app within the 34-square-mile “Home Area”. After paying a one-time $35 membership fee, drivers can then rent the Smart Fortwo vehicles by the minute, paying only for the time they use the vehicle, with discounted rates for hourly and daily use. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“The young adult humpback could have a plot waiting for it at a whale graveyard hidden in bushland at Garrigal Garigal National Park”. – Janet Fife-Yeomans via AdelaideNow

Photo: People gather on the beach to see the carcass of a male sub-adult humpback whale that washed up at New Port Beach overnight at Newport Beach overnight on August 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne)

A boat, center, is surrounded by Japan Cost Guard's patrol boats after some activists descended from the boat on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. Regional tensions flared on the emotional anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender as activists from China and South Korea used Wednesday's occasion to press rival territorial claims, prompting 14 arrests by Japanese authorities. The 14 people had traveled by boat from Hong Kong to the disputed islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. (Photo by Yomiuri Shimbun/Masataka Morita/AP Photo)