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Iceland was the typical example of an economy that was ruled by bad economics
A conversation with Olafur Margeirsson, 28, author of the "Icelandic Economics" blog and Ph.D. student at the Business School of the University of Exeter, UK, researching financial instability. He is writing a book titled Bad Economics to be published by Searching Finance. He was an analyst at Kaupthing Bank Research Department, in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 2006 to 2008. Kaupthing was the largest bank in Iceland before de crisis.
[This article is quite long. You can skip directly to the interview]
REMEMBERING A COLLAPSE AND THE ADJUSTMENT PROCESS – Lessons from "Icelandism"
«If the austerity had been as unforgiving as the one that is in mainland Europe the Icelandic economy would not have been given the breathing space to recover from the shock.» — Olafur Margeirsson
Iceland got the headlines recently for a unique financial and fiscal adjustment process praised by the IMF. Two years ago the island was in the breaking news because of a cloud of ashes from Eyjafjallajokull volcano that spread travel chaos in the European air space in April 2010.
But the worst story was four years ago, in October 2008. The Icelandic banking system just collapsed and people came to the streets in fury in a revolution of pots and pans. The financialization excesses of Kaupthing Bank, Glitnir Bank and Landsbanki Islands proved ruinous. The banks grew to about 10 times the nation's GDP before defaulting on $85 billion in 2008. In the middle of a financial major earthquake, on October 6, 2008, live on national television, the then-prime-minister Geir H. Haarde ended his speech by asking God to "save the island." He has nothing to offer. Government and Parliament went down. Even the Central Bank went bankrupt.
The big financial world crisis impacted an island Republic in the up icy North Atlantic with 103,000 square km and a population of 320,000 (less than the Agarve sunny region of Portugal with 450,000). Iceland, which was the world's third- richest nation per capita in 2005, just slumped to rank 20th by 2011. Less than Ireland, but anyway, 1.5 plus than Portugal. Its GDP is 5.5 percent of Portuguese GDP. In the adjustment process, 2009 was the worst year: total domestic demand fall 20.3%, gross fixed investment 51.6% and imports of goods and services 24%.
Iceland is a passionate subject and "Icelandism" is up again. Twice, analysts and some schools of economists refer the island as a "guide" or a "lighthouse." In the 1990s and 2000s as a "Viking" economic miracle like the Irish Celtic "tiger"; now, post-crisis, as a contrarian approach for crisis management and structural adjustment, even praised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A 33-month program with the IMF comprising a US$ 2.1 billion Stand-By Arrangement finished in August 2011. Daria V. Zakharova, IMF mission chief to the island, said August this year that Iceland is an "example." International media hyped: "The Island of Recovery." The $13 billion economy will expand 2.4 percent this year, the IMF said. That compares with a contraction in the 17-member euro area or with 1% for Germany and near stagnation for France and the UK, refers the IMF World Economic Outlook Update of last July. Last year Iceland economy expanded by 3%, after a contraction of 6.8% in 2009 and 4% in 2010. So, the economy is out of the cycle trough. Also, the government has regained access to international capital markets in two sovereign bonds auctions so far. The fiscal deficit was cut from 13.8 percent of GDP at the end of 2008 to 5.7% at the end of 2011.
Three main official lessons
Daria Zakharova considers "lessons" from the Iceland crisis management the decision to push losses on to bondholders, shareholders and other owners of bank debts instead of taxpayers and bank depositors and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury in the face of a very size-able fiscal consolidation, quoted Bloomberg. The financial news agency pointed also that Iceland shield itself from a capital outflow by restricting currency movements, which allowed the government to ward off a speculative attack.
So, as a summary, with the benediction of the IMF: 1) financiers can't access people's bank deposits to mitigate their losses when things go wrong; 2) welfare system must and can be preserved – "more or less" (will remark ironically Olafur Margeirsson in the interview below) – by the State during an adjustment process; 3) Strict capital controls can be a useful tool on those circumstances (A permission is needed from the Central Bank of Iceland to move money out of the country. And, if you're in the exporting business, you have to sell your foreign currency income to the Central Bank). Naturally it avoided the credit flights during the sovereign debt euro crisis that hit Greece, Ireland and Portugal after the end of 2009, and now Spain and Italy.
The results of these medicines are "impressive". Gross external debt peaked at 605.9% of GDP in 2007, the hottest year of the financial bubble, and during the consolidation process went down to 207.1% projected for 2012, said the IMF in the last Article IV Consultation with Iceland published in April. It is projected to fall to 150 percent of GDP in 2016. Assets of the banking system went down from almost 1000% to 200% last year. Iceland's exports reached 59% of GDP (compare with 35.5% for Portugal and more than 40% for the Eurozone as a whole).
Capital controls expire next year, when new elections will be held in the spring. Probably they will be extended until 2015. The IMF Staff analysis suggests also that the krona (the Icelandic currency) is undervalued relative to medium term fundamentals in the range of 5-20 percent. So, 2013-2016 will be critical years for consolidation of the adjustment process.
Lessons from Main Street
We interviewed the young economist Olafur Margeirsson to "dig" in the Icelandic miracles and data. His blog "Iceland Economics" is a reference nowadays.
Olafur refers two ingredients of the so-called Icelandic miracle of the last decades: extreme financialisation of the economy – from 4.6% of GDP in 1997 to 9.4% in 2005 and 2006; and "credit created out of thin air by the banking system, either foreign banks or the newly privatised Icelandic banks that sometimes the entrepreneur himself or his friends had a controlling share in." There's no secret formula. On the contrary, paradoxically all these "successes" were signals of Bad Economics.
Again, Iceland is a near-miracle. Some analysts talk of "Icelandism," a new way for systemic financial crisis management, an alternative to bail-outs and "austerian" medicines from the troika in peripheral Europe. "Yes, there is growth again in Iceland, but there is unfortunately not much behind it. When we dig deeper into the national account figures they kind of lose their surface charm," says Olafur Margeirsson.
For the economist, although the structural problems remain: "The structural deficits that got us into the hole we're still trying to dig us out of are still there and that is what makes the long-term difference. We have to fix those if we are ever to have a stable economy."
One true miracle during the crisis was due to the Central Bank of Iceland – the centralization of the automatic and credit system. "The fundamental lesson for other nations: channel the whole payment system through the Central Bank and no bank is too big to fail when it comes to every day commerce and citizen daily life."
Another important institutional "lesson" is Justice – there's not too big to jail (TBTJ). The man for the job appointed by the new government from the 2009 elections to the Althingi (Parliament) was Olafur Hauksson, an unknown police commissioner in Akranes, a small port town fifty kilometres from the capital. This Special Prosecutor is investigating the cases of banksters and government officials involved. He is currently working on "a hundred priority cases."
One undersecretary of Finance was already jailed. Two former officials of the Byr bank, the first to be brought to trial, are now serving prison sentences of four and a half years. More recently, Sigurdur Einarsson, former CEO of the Baupthing Bank, was sentenced to reimburse the bank 500 million Icelandic kronur – 3.2 million euros – and had his assets frozen. Others are awaiting their day in court. Jon Thorsteinn Oddleifsson, former head of treasury at the Landsbanki, should soon discover his fate, as should Làrus Welding chief executive of the Glitnir Bank. Even the former Prime Minister, Geir H. Haarde, was in Court with criminal charges of negligence regarding the financial hyper-bubble. He says he talked about the issue with the Central Bank of Iceland several times at the time without anything being done about it. He was found not guilty on all major counts in last April.
As a summary: 1) There's no miracles on Earth, including Mystical Viking Iceland, the birth of Sagas, a rich legacy of dramatic storytelling; 2) Central Bank of Iceland centralization of the automatic and credit system was critical during the crisis – a lesson very useful for the troika; 3) There's not too big to jail. Banksters and other financial criminals must be brought to justice; 4) Most of the increased tax burden was carried by the richer part of the population (a special net-wealth tax was adopted, taxes on capital gains, now 20% instead of 10% before); 5) Be aware of the downside risks of the depreciation of a currency as a tool for crisis management; 6) Some proposals of the IMF were slowed down.
There's some big differences with the troika adjustments in the Euro zone. Certainly, some "lessons" do not apply because the bailed-out countries in the European Union have a common currency, the euro.
Currently there's a motion to the Icelandic Parliament to stop banks using state-backed deposits to finance risky investments and to force banking conglomerates to split their business, something akin to the 1933 North-American Glass-Steagall Act at the times of "Rooseveltian resolve."
«Iceland was the typical example of an economy that was ruled by bad economics»
by Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues (c) 2012
Q: Analysts and economists all over Europe praised a lot the "Iceland miracle" of last decades. Until the Great Recession came. Iceland was in the 2000s the extreme example of the financialisation of the economy and the society, worse than the US, Ireland and Spain?
A: It depends on how you look at it. Financialisation in the sense of just trading financial instruments in between the more or less same market participants was certainly more prominent in the case of say the US than in the case of Iceland. However, at the height of the bubble, the Icelandic financial industry share of GDP topped at 9.4% in 2005 and 2006. That's a higher ratio than even in the US. That fact becomes even more shocking when one realises that in 1997 the share of the financial industry of the GDP was 4.6%. So in less than 10 years, the finance industry more than doubled its share of the GDP and reached higher levels than even in the case of US. So yes, from that point of view the financialisation of the Icelandic economy was probably even more extreme than in the case of many other countries.
Q: Another aspect of the "miracle" that is intriguing. What was behind the so-called "entrepreneurial neo-Vikings" and the entrepreneurial economy of last decades?
A: Credit! Credit created out of thin air by the banking system, simple as that. We of course fooled ourselves into thinking that it had something to do with the Icelandic Viking spirit, the energy of the young (and inexperienced) leaders of the leading companies, the free-market movement of the 1990s, and even the rugged and "therefore" hardening Icelandic natural environment. But there was in essence no secret formula about the temporary prominent status of the Icelandic entrepreneurial Viking. He had credit, created by nothing by either a foreign bank he managed to fool into his scheme or the newly privatised Icelandic banks that sometimes he himself or his friends had a controlling share in. And, that was that.
Q: You are writing a book about Bad Economics and the impact in the Iceland economy. Iceland was the typical example of an economy that was ruled by bad economics?
A: Yes, and it still is! But I must be absolutely clear on the point of the "bad economists". I do not believe that any of the leading economists were or are "bad" in any sense of that word. I believe all of them were acting in absolutely good faith, trying to improve the economy and society. But intentions are not enough if you don't have the tools.
Q: Which theories and schools of Economic thought must be blamed?
A: The tool that failed spectacularly was the neoclassical school of economics. Only a small handful of economists did not rely on this, unfortunately, globally ruling way of doing economics. They were the only ones that were not blinded by neoclassical theories when the bubble began to expand beyond point of no-return. But when they tried to warn the community about what was happening the neoclassical economists ridiculed them, not because they were "bad" but because they were blinded by their faith in neoclassical economics.
«I must say that the Icelandic case was a quintessential example of the Minskyian theory»
Q: Can we say there were signals of a "Minsky moment" – from the name of the North-American economist Hyman Minsky that from early 1980s talked about a systemic financial process risking a new big Recession like the Great Depression of the 1930s – coming for Iceland in the end of the 2000s?
A: It's always tough to pinpoint accurately when the exact Minsky moment arrives. But Minsky "Financial Instability Hypothesis" was certainly proved to be the most accurate economic thesis in existence when the Icelandic boom-and-bust cycle took place. I must say that the Icelandic case was a quintessential example of the Minskyian theory.
Q: How?
A: When it comes to the downturn especially we can, e.g. notice that the stock index topped above 9000 points during the summer of 2007 before finally collapsing below 500 in 2008. The liquidity shortage was also very much as Minsky predicted and the margin calls became more and more prominent. In 2008 the Central Bank stepped in and tried to supply liquidity into the market, but it didn't suffice to stop the avalanche.
« Yes, there is growth again in Iceland, but there is unfortunately not much behind it.»
Q: As you know today Iceland is a near-myth again because the island is returning to "broad based growth," said the IMF mission chief to the Icelandic program. Are we assisting to an adjustment "miracle" praised by the IMF?
A: Yes, there is growth, but there is unfortunately not much behind it. The reason I say this is that when we dig deeper into the national account figures they kind of lose their surface charm. Gross investment is, e.g. still meagre 12-15% of GDP, which is hardly enough to maintain the base of productive capital in the economy. The present 4.7% unemployment rate [from a peak of 9.3 percent two years ago] does not include those who have given up on looking for a job and have either moved out of the country [in 2011, Census reported that 8% of population migrated mainly to Norway] or decided to go back to school, sometimes just to do something. As a signal of the stagnant labour market, the average number of worked hour per individual in the working force has been stagnant since 2009. And, interest rates are still too high, which is an especially poisonous goblet when the indexation of mortgages is mixed with it. Also, the banks and the State sponsored Housing Financing Fund (HHF) are not very eager to liquefy their stock of empty houses and flats, due to their fright of crashing the housing market by doing so. As a clear sign of that, the HFF repossessed 501 flats and houses during the first six months of 2012, but sold only 58 flats at the same time. Finally, the number of individuals with severely delayed repayments of their debts is still rising.
Q: But there's no reason for optimism, more than in Ireland or Portugal, the so-called "good pupils" of the troika medicines?
A: There is growth, but it is froth. I do not see much reason for any spectacular optimism about the long-term future of the Icelandic economy. The structural deficits that got us into the hole we're still trying to dig us out of are still there and that is what makes the long-term difference. We have to fix those if we are ever to have a stable economy.
Q: What you mean by "structural" problems?
A: The structural problems that I have in mind are specifically the indexation of mortgages and the pension system, which not only has a huge funding hole but influences the financial market strongly due to its size. The effects of those problems push up the rate of interest and introduce structural financial instability into the economy, instability that does not have to be there and is not caused by anything else. Fixing those structural problems would strengthen the financial stability in Iceland to a significant and notable extent. But work is going too slowly in that field, those problems are still around.
Q: In Iceland there was not TBTF (too big to fail) banks and TBTJ (too big to jail) banksters or government officials?
A: I cannot comment much on the TBTJ, the Special Prosecutor is investigating the cases that end up on his table and we must be patient and allow him to do his job. He has landed some victories though, such as the conviction of the ex-finance ministry undersecretary Baldur Gudlaugsson [This was the first time an insider dealing case has ever been tried at the Supreme Court of Iceland. Baldur was found guilty by the Reykjavík District Court on 7th of April 2011 and sentenced to two years behind bars. An appeal against that decision fails in Supreme Court in February 2012] and the "Exista case" [Exista is a financial services firm founded in 2001 by a consortium of Icelandic savings banks as a vehicle to hold shares in Icelandic Kaupthing Bank. A controlling shareholding in the firm was sold to a holding of the brothers Ágúst and Lýdur Gudmundsson in 2002. An IPO went on 2006 in Iceland Stock Exchange for €2.6 billion, the biggest IPO in the country's history. By October 2008, Kaupthing Bank was forced into government receivership, it was nationalized de facto. In July 2009 Wikileaks exposed a confidential 210 page document listing Kaupthing's exposure to loans. The bank had loaned billions of euros to its major shareholders, including a total of €1.43 billion to Exista and its subsidiaries which own 23% of the bank. In January 2010 law enforcement agents from Britain and Iceland searched the premises of Exista in a probe related to the trading of shares in other companies].
«The whole Icelandic financial system went down the drain, but the payment system was maintained thanks to tremendous efforts by the staff of the Central Bank.»
Q: And regarding the TBTF banks?
A: The question of TBTF banks is very interesting in the case of Iceland, however, and I think it deserves more attention than it has gotten. The definition of a TBTF bank is that it is too systematically important to be allowed to fail since otherwise the financial system would collapse, general commerce in the wake of that and consequently the whole economy. But that didn't happen. Yes, the whole financial system went down the drain, but the payment system was maintained thanks to tremendous efforts by the staff of the Central Bank. And, since the payment system was kept intact, commerce kept on and the economy did not crumble entirely. We could still buy our pints of milk and bakeries still baked their breads. And, they kept on accepting card payments.
Q: How it happened the "miracle"?
A: The reason for why the payment system did not collapse was that it is centralised entirely through the Central Bank itself. That means that the Central Bank can allow a bank, no matter how big it is, to go under since it isn't a clearing bank for any of the general every day commerce that everybody expects to be able to do. This is not the case in many countries, such as the UK. This structure of the payment system – the Central Bank is the only clearing bank of the whole payment system of everyday commerce – was the essence of why the payment system did not collapse even though 90% of the banking system, by assets, went bankrupt in a time span of only a week. This is the fundamental lesson for other nations: channel the whole payment system through the Central Bank and no bank is too big to fail when it comes to every day commerce.
Q: What kind of fiscal austerity measures were adopted that permitted the fiscal deficit cut from near 14pc of GDP at the end of 2008 to 5.7pc for 2011?
A: Well, the 13.8% fiscal deficit in the last quarter of 2008 was a one-off cost: it includes the new equity injection into the Central Bank (yes, the equity of the Central Bank of Iceland was wiped out in October 2008 – the Central Bank went bankrupt!). So let's make sure not to think that the politicians have managed to cut the deficit from 14% of GDP to 5.7% by austerity alone. The austerity measures in Iceland were in fact not as severe as in say Spain, Portugal or Greece. The welfare system was more or less maintained, beside extensive cuts in health care to such a level that they have had to use sticker tape to temporally fix some of the cancer treating equipment in the main hospital in Reykjavik. Health service outside the capital has also been guillotined quite severely. Taxes were raised as well. A special net-wealth tax was adopted, VAT was raised, now commonly 25.5% though lower steps exist as well, and the tax rate on wages was increased. Same goes for taxes on capital gains, now 20% instead of 10% before. Personal tax return for individuals was increase as well however, having the effect that most of the increased tax burden was carried by the richer part of the population.
«But the currency crash – the depreciation of the krona – also caused inflation and that led to higher principals of our debts, debts that many people will never be able to repay.»
Q: The depreciation of the krona was the main tool for the adjustment?
A: Yes, the crash of the krona was the main tool of the external adjustment. It however, lead to even further internal imbalance since the crash of the exchange rate lead to increased inflation and that increased the principal of the inflation-indexed mortgages and many other debt instruments. This imbalance is still being dealt with and it will take a while.
Q: Can you explain better that downside risk?
A: Yes, this needs some explanation. The mortgage system in Iceland is such that the monetary value of the principal increases hand in hand with the inflation. So if one borrows say 100,000 kronas mortgage and the inflation rate is 5% over next year, the debt increases up to 105,000 kronas. Then, the repayments are made, but the repayment of the increase of the principal is spread out over the whole remaining loan period. The currency crash therefore had the effects of increasing the competitiveness of Icelandic goods, thereby allowing us to rebuild the economy on the basis of exports and tourism. But the currency crash also caused inflation and that led to higher principals of our debts, debts that many people will never be able to repay.
Q: It would be better if Iceland defaulted in its sovereign debt and implemented a full restructuring debt process?
A: No, it would not. It would, however, be a good idea to carry out some sort of debt jubilee for the private individuals and enterprises in the economy. And, that can be done, the only thing that is needed is the political will to do so. But if the State defaults on its debts we would probably have even more serious problems on our hands. Yes, national States have defaulted on their debts before and later arisen out of their economic ashes like the phoenix, but it is a high risk and absolute last resort measure. But in some cases, for example some present economies in the Eurozone, such last resort measures are exactly the ones that are needed. But the finances of the Icelandic State are not, yet that serious. So sovereign default is probably not a good idea for Iceland, at least not yet.
Q: Would you refer specific "growth policies" pursued by the government?
A: Not in particularly anything else than those that aimed at lessening the hit of the financial crisis immediately after it happened. The fight against IMF-demanded austerity should be highlighted though. There is a plan to get government funded investment going during the years of 2013-2015. Included in that plan is, e.g. general road network maintenance and increased subsidies to high-tech and technology development funds, etc. The financing of this plan is meant to come from road tolls and fees on fish catches, born by the fishing industry. This may not become realised, however, as there are general elections next spring.
«The question about who are the real owners of the Icelandic banks is very good: we do not know! People have speculated a lot about this. Foreign shark hedge funds are one theory, the old domestic "entrepreneurial Vikings" is another and on the theories go.»
Q: If the sovereign debt skyrocketed after 2008 can we say it was for a good reason, for the relief of the households and corporations debt? Or the so-called debt forgiveness is another myth?
A: The severe increment of government debt after the 2008 was first and foremost due to the rescue of the Central Bank of Iceland which lost the equivalent of about 20% of GDP when it lent money to the banks against lousy collateral. When the banks went bankrupt, so did the Central Bank. The cost of injecting new equity into ended on the shoulders of the taxpayer. That cost was around 400 billion ISK according to The Icelandic National Audit Office. The so-called debt forgiveness of household and corporate debt did not cause any severe, if any when everything is taken into account, cost for the State. The banks bore all the "cost" but it effectively did not impair their equity at all. The reason for that is that when the new banks were established on the foundations of the fallen ones, the assets were booked in the new banks at about 40% discount. A 100,000 krona loan became a 60,000 krona loan on the books of the new banks. This magic did not, however, continue to the borrower himself, he still owed the bank 100,000 krona. It was this discount that was used to cancel the majority of the debt that was actually cancelled. In February, the households had been forgiven 196 billion ISK (12% of GDP) but that was pretty much all outweighed by the indexation of mortgages, so the net cancellation was rather limited. Firms got a lot more cancelled, around 550 billion ISK. And, of course, not everybody got the equal amount cancelled. Eight firms got cancelled the total of 205 billion ISK. In fact, most of the firms that got debt cancelled were asset holding firms, many of them totally empty of assets after the collapse. So their debts would have had to be cancelled anyway, simply due to the liquidity process behind their bankrupt itself.
Q: After the banking restructuring, who benefited most from it? Who are the real owners of the Icelandic banks today?
A: I think this must have been the most indebted firms that benefited the most, simply because they got the most of the debt cancellation. And, the question about who are the real owners of the Icelandic banks is very good: we do not know! People have speculated a lot about this. Foreign shark hedge funds are one theory, the old domestic "entrepreneurial Vikings" is another and on the theories go. But quite frankly, we simply do not know.
«If the austerity had been as unforgiving as the one that is in mainland Europe the Icelandic economy would not have been given the breathing space to recover from the shock.»
Q: What are in your view the main differences of the Icelandic strategy relative to the adjustment programs adopted by the so-called troika EU/ECB/IMF in the Eurozone?
A: The Icelandic austerity was not as severe and the increment in taxation was more directed towards the richer end of the populace. I believe that was the right thing to do, if the austerity had been as unforgiving as the one that is in mainland Europe the economy would not have been given the breathing space to recover from the shock. Socially, it was probably healthier as well to let the rich carry most of the austerity burden, otherwise we could have had general riots and another "pots and pans" revolution. Another important difference was that we were capable of allowing the currency to devalue and that helped although the homemade structural deficits of indexing debt to the level of consumer price probably just switched out the problem of external imbalance with an internal one. Being able to allow the banks to go under while maintaining the payment system was a huge advantage as well.
Q: That is one of the "lessons" that you think universal…
A: Yes. The Troika could learn tremendously of the Icelandic experience in that case, it would save them the problem of having to save the whole banking system repeatedly. Banks should, as any other firms, be allowed to go bust! Finally, there were some debt cancellations although they were more or less just to wind down part of the indexation problem when it comes to the households in particular. But debt cancellations are doable; one just has to find the political courage to carry them out.
Q: How did Iceland deal with the IMF?
A: IMF did propose more austerity and did for example propose more severe cuts in the welfare system. That was refrained and probably for the good. The adjustment process, especially the cut in fiscal deficit, was slowed down in comparison to the IMF proposal.
Q: Will Iceland abandon the krona and adopt the Euro, or it will choose a different strategy searching a non-European currency?
A: I cannot say. The official stance is to gain entry into the EU and adopt the Euro. But to fulfil the Maastricht guidelines on Euro could take us as long as a decade and the EU will have transformed significantly in as short time as half that. So to adopt the Euro will probably take us a while, given that there will be political will after the 2013 elections to finish the EU entry process.
Olafur Margeirsson by himself
«Finished my BSc. degree in Economics in the spring of 2008 from the University of Iceland. I completed my MSc. degree in Money & Banking from the University of Exeter in the autumn 2009 (distinction & Dean's Commendation) and continued directly into Ph.D. with the prospect of handing in my thesis in autumn 2012. The emphasis of my research is on foreign direct investment (FDI) in banking and financial services and its effects on financial stability.
My interests in banking can to a large extent be traced to my former work as an analyst at Kaupthing Research Department from 2006 to 2008. There I was amongst other things responsible for following and analysing the Macroeconomy, with special emphasis on the banking system. My BSc. dissertation dealt with the Icelandic banks and their expansion in comparison with other Nordic banks.
Later on, my interests developed towards the theory of the Lender of Last Resort which was the central thread in my MSc. dissertation. The idea of an international lender of last resort and the (dramatic) collapse of the Icelandic banking system sparked my interests in the workings of the international financial system, which in short is the realm that my research at the moment is concentrated in.»
Olafur's blog «Icelandic Economics»
Geographically, the nearest country is Greenland 287 km faraway. Mean temperature in July is 12.5 ºC in Reykjavik, the capital, two centigrade above the mean of 1961-1990. Curiously, males are the majority in the population. In a century the population almost quadrupled. In the capital, in the same period, the population multiplied by more than 10. The total labour force is only 180,000. Health services and social work is the largest industry in employment; second is wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service; third is education. Iceland is a service country of a new kind and it is world first in renewable energy as a percentage of gross final consumption, more than 80%, ahead of Norway and Sweden. Real estate activities are 10.7% of gross domestic product and the fishing industry is 7.1%, as the two single most important sub-sectors. The three most important export markets are the Netherlands (1/3), Germany and the UK. Main imports come from Norway and the US. Americans are the first foreigner passengers through Keflavik airport; British are second and Danish third. More than 90% of households has Internet access. The elections of 2009 gave the victory to the Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) with 29.8% of valid votes. The present government is a coalition of the SDA with the Left-Green Movement (the third in the polls). The prime minister is a woman, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, 70, former Office Worker at The Central Packaging, in Reykjavík and former Stewardess at Loftleiðir Icelandic Airlines.


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More than 800 motorists had their vehicles randomly tested at the roadside last year in East Dunbartonshire as part of a crackdown on pollution.
East Dunbartonshire Council is one of 13 local authorities in Scotland who carry out the roadside tests.
The remaining 19 of 32 councils in total have failed to adopt the measure - despite the new powers being given to them more than a decade ago by the Scottish Government.
Last year in East Dunbartonshire, nine motorists were issued with £20 fixed penalty notices after their vehicles failed the test.
The fine is waived if drivers have the emissions defect fixed before completing an MOT inspection within two weeks.
The tests are carried out on diesel vehicles by asking drivers to rev their engines, while in petrol vehicles sample probes are inserted into exhaust tailpipes.
Ann Davie, director of customer service and transformation, said: "East Dunbartonshire Council has adopted these powers and carries out roadside vehicle emissions testing.
"Our environmental health officers work with neighbouring local authorities and Police Scotland to stop and test vehicles in a safe manner.
"In 2014-2015, a total of 809 vehicles were stopped for this testing, with nine vehicle owners being issued fixed penalty notices.
"This means they need to take their vehicle to a garage for further testing and repair."
An investigation by BBC Scotland discovered only 13 of the country's 32 local authorities carry out roadside emissions testing.
Glasgow tests about 3,000 vehicles a year, but other large councils such as Dundee and Aberdeen do not test at all.
Edinburgh, which has some of Scotland's most polluted streets, has never tested.
Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: "Emissions and clean air is more of a topic now and I hope local authorities reflect on that.
"There are a range of powers that can be deployed to make an impact locally, and I'd encourage leaders to take this very seriously."

subset: commoncrawl


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We hope you have a great trip, Susan. Take care.
Megan K, Mount Laurel
April 8, 2015 04:26:08 PM


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"Crazy Rich Asians" follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young (Golding), to his best friend's wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick's family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country's wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors. Being on Nick's arm puts a target on Rachel's back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick's own disapproving mother (Yeoh) taking aim. And it soon becomes clear that while money can't buy love, it can definitely complicate things.
Duration : 2 hrs
Rating : PG
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"Yikes, where did my last grocery list end up?" is the question you'll be asking after viewing this online collection of over 3,700 found grocery lists. Collected by founder Bill Keaggy since 1997, these lost, discarded, and incredibly personal scraps of paper are shared by random strangers and immortalized forever, and it's charmingly uncomfortable to scroll through them.
Keaggy even wrote a book about the collection, Milk, Eggs,Vodka, which is about as much effort as I put into my grocery list each week. Written on shredded envelopes, dollar bills, receipts, holiday stationery, and iPod (yes, iPod?) screenshots, you will be convinced you've found one of you own by the second or third page and consider investing in a paper shredder–do you really want anyone to know about the time you put ____ , ____, and ____ in the same cart all at once? On the bright side, you could end up as the title of Keaggy's next book. We're hoping "cat litter, snacks, a new man" (see top photo) is in the running.
The hilarity of these lists aside for a moment, these grocery lists are a striking tribute to humanity's capacity to care for one another in little ways each day. Some of these lists say "cereal for Mom" or "clementines for Nancy." Imagine that time you went to the store for Valentine's day candy and came out empty handed, only to inform your s/o at home that they were out. Or the time you persevered and went to three stores because you simply knew how her face would fall with disappointment.
The decisions we make at the grocery store reveal a lot about who we are as people and what we're willing to do, spend, feed, and sacrifice for both ourselves and the ones we love. These lists also offer an intimate peek into life events, the way we eat, and even how we were feeling at the time…
Yet the true MVP's of this collection are the well-organized, neatly-handwritten, grocery-list love letters that took longer to compose than your last 10 text messages combined. The elaborate calligraphy and the perfect check-off squares look like they came straight off a Pinterest study blog.
As for the more anthropological merits of this collection, collector Keaggy speaks to some of his findings:
More people than I thought like onions. Mayonnaise is difficult to spell. So is banana, apparently. And anchovies. And yogurt. A lot of people cannot spell very well. I try not to make fun of them too much. That's not true. I make fun of them. A lot.
To spare others the embarrassment of writing "manaise" and accidentally ending up on his site, Keaggy has created his own fully comprehensive grocery list, with everything from kiwis to "random impulse buy." You can download it here–it comes in vegetarian, PDF, and excel format. And last but not least, this little guy:
Ain't life a mystery, folks?


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The 2016 Team & Dell's Children Survivor Challenge: Week 4
This week, many of the kids couldn't make it because they are such studious little souls, so we volunteers teamed up to motivate the youngsters that could make it. My teammates and I paired up with A, who could hardly concentrate on running because she was so excited about her upcoming Halloween party. So we made a deal; every time we stopped to take a break while running around the lake, A would practice her ghost stories on us. And I daresay we were an excellent audience! There was plenty of oohing, ahhing and breathless gasping. I asked A if I could share her original ghost story with the world, and she benevolently granted her permission. So here is A's favorite ghost story, an original piece transcribed by yours truly. Imagine it spoken by an eight year old girl, eager for her Halloween costume to come in the mail and whose favorite time of day is dusk:
Once upon a time, there was a girl who turned 13. But it wasn't just ANY 13th birthday, it was on the 13th day of the mystical thirteenth month called Fluflenda of the year 2013. She wakes up and she sees a giant cake made special just for her, but she slips and the cakes goes ALL over her. And then her hair dryer floated over to her and started blowing hot air on her, too. And THEN later that day she was eating food and texting, and she dropped her phone into her soup. And then she went to the pond and was talking to the ducks-did I mention she has the magical ability to talk to ducks? (Let the record show that this part of the story was told suspiciously near the ducks on the lake!) Anyways, she told the ducks, "I'm having the strangest day! First I fell in a cake and then my hair dryer attacked me and then I dropped my phone in my special birthday soup!" And the ducks didn't say anything because they didn't have the magical ability to talk to humans, so instead they all charged her at once BUT they went straight through her! Then she started to text someone because her phone got better and her phone went right through her hand. And she asked Siri where she should go eat and Siri said, "there are ten pizza places near you, because I know you love pizza and they don't even have mushrooms because I know you hate mushrooms." And so she said "wow thanks Siri!" And then she ate a banana. And then she asked Siri "Siri, what should I get my best friend for her birthday?" And Siri said, "you don't have to get me anything." And she said "no silly my REAL best friend." And Siri said, "…oh don't you worry about that, I'll take care of it. I'll get her something REAL nice." And so the girl was really a ghost all along and her phone turned all her real friends into ducks and then took control of her, all because her birthday was in the mystical magical thirteenth month called Fluflenda.
The end!
I don't know about you, but I for one cannot wait for next week's installment. Happy October!
Written by Dana Moore


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Aisha (MPS IV)
Aisha has MPS IVA, Morquio disease.
Aisha was born in 1997 and her diagnosis came when she was seven months old. We lived abroad at that time. These were no doubt the 'happy days' for us because Aisha did not know about the complications of her disease and we always hoped that she would get better as any parent facing a diagnosis does.
We remember the day very well when the MPS Society visited us. It was the turning point in our life and one thing that keeps me going even today is the comfort that we received from the Society at that time. We were given the 'yellow Morquio booklet' and some other literature. For the first year we kept it hidden in our bedside drawer and when we went through the booklet we tried not to look at the pictures. Until one day it became easy to pick up the booklet and read it for information, as by then we were actually relating some of the things our daughter was starting to go through. Now we give the booklet to anyone who is interested in her condition.
In 2004, Aisha had a neck fusion at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. She was placed in halo traction for eight months (a unit that supported her head after the operation and restricted sideways or up and down movement). The doctors and nurses looked after Aisha excellently and made her four-week stay at the hospital really comfortable. It was a very difficult time, as Aisha needed a lot of care and having a younger sibling who needed equal attention added to our pressures.
Aisha has a Statement of Special Educational Needs and she attends mainstream school. Aisha accessed the services of The Hospital School whilst in her halo. She was on the outreach service, which enabled her to be taught at home every day for a few hours. She did so well even in the first few months when she had no balance and could not walk. She was awarded with an achievement certificate and was given the opportunity to carry on with her education, which no doubt she would have missed out on if this service had not been available.
Looking back, we had passed the first hurdle but there were many more to come. As parents we have battled on fighting for Aisha's needs. We have been told, as Aisha attends mainstream school and does not having learning difficulties, the resources available to us are minimal. We have no respite for Aisha and we have had endless meetings regarding housing adaptations.
One year, Aisha's school nominated her for the Lord Mayor's Young Person of the Year Award. She was the youngest nominee and one of the eighteen finalists out of thousands of applications. This was a very positive turning point for Aisha after a very difficult year.
She uses a manual wheelchair to get her around, as her mobility is restricted. She is unable to wheel herself. She will need to use a powered wheelchair for the sake of her independence. We have problems buying clothes for her because of her size. This is another difficult concern which we face, as her sibling, who is younger than her, is much taller than her. Aisha always felt that by having the neck fusion she would grow in height. She always talks of getting taller. She admires all tall things. It is painful to hear this even though we knew from the start that her stature would be affected.
After so much time, you could say we are still in the process of accepting her illness. The process is not easy and accepting it does not happen all at once. Acceptance is not about being happy with Morquio Disease. To us it means that we have made room for Morquio in our lives.


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Bike Component Reviews
From the major bike components of frames, forks and wheelsets through to the smallest and often unseen components such as bottom brackets, brake pads and bearings, we review as many aftermarket components, hidden or otherwise, to ensure a bike becomes much more than the sum of its shiny exterior parts.
There are the contact points too: tyres that grip the road or trail to ultimately define your ride. Saddles that cost the earth but carry you to success. Handlebar grips that you cling to for dear life, or the squidgy bar tape that helps absorb the worst of Belgian cobbles. There's no end of components designed to enhance the quality of your bike or ride experience, but give us a little time and we'll happily review all the bits that really count.


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The Massachusetts Senate is hosting its annual Commonwealth Conversations, a state wide listening tour of grassroots forums designed to connect state legislators directly with constituents to hear their ideas, concerns and suggestions.
The series kicks off on Tuesday, January 31 in the Metro Boston region, and continues through Tuesday, April 11 in the North Shore region. See full schedule below.
The Massachusetts State Senate is "bringing Beacon Hill to you with Commonwealth Conversations 2017," said Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, who called the initiative "part of the next step in our ongoing efforts to make your government even more responsive and accessible to you."
Here is a schedule of the upcoming forums:
|January 31
|Metro Boston
|February 7
|South Coast
|February 28
|South Shore
|March 7
|March 14
|Central Mass
|March 21
|March 28
|Western Mass
|April 4
|April 11
|North Shore


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Three Keys doctors qualify to prescribe medical marijuana – legal in one month
With the passing of Amendment 2 on Nov. 8, Florida residents suffering from debilitating medical disease may seek out medicinal marijuana as a form of treatment. Beginning on Jan. 3, physicians who have completed training with the Florida Medical Association, and are qualified by the state, will be able to prescribe patients medical marijuana. In Monroe County, there are three so far.
Key Largo's Dr. Bobbie Krause Leben and Dr. Ian Rae, and Tavernier's Sandra Schwemmer, can use medical marijuana to treat such diseases as cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, PTSD, ALS, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. It also is said to help anxiety and a variety of depression symptoms. Statewide, about 200 doctors have qualified to prescribe medical marijuana.
"I view it as another option for treating people with pain," said Dr. Leben, who specializes in non-surgical orthopedics. "For example, arthritis causes inflammation. If a patient couldn't take anti inflammation medication because of kidney disease, they now have another tool for fighting pain. It's also a way to treat pain without the side effects that opioids might have, like constipation and dizziness."
But there are steps in place to assure only patients who truly need medical marijuana receive it. Leben said she is required to submit patient dosing records and other record notes every quarter. And, patients shouldn't expect to walk into a doctor's office and walk out with a prescription; there could be up to a three-month period where patients are monitored. The patients must be listed on a "Compassionate Use" registry.
The Compassionate Use registry is sort of like a paperless prescription registry.
While the amendment has passed, the rules and regulations that would govern it have not. Here's what is known: According to the Department of Health, three entities have qualified to cultivate marijuana, and three have qualified to dispense marijuana, including Miami's Modern Health Clinics. While Surterra Therapeutics has a storefront in Tampa, and Trulieve has two locations open, the dispensing clinics are authorized to mail the product. The product will never be "whole flower" — medical marijuana is not a bud. Instead, the dispensing clinics offer sprays, oils, capsules and vapors.
The widening scope of qualifying patients will allow patients with a more generalized diagnosis to be treated. Leben said she expects the transition from amendment to reality to go smoothly.
"Research also shows low abuse potential in marijuana users compared to opioids. I'm optimistic the new policies should roll out smoothly because of the extra oversight and low abuse rates," said Leben.
For more information about medical marijuana, visit floridahealth.gov, click on programs and services, and then click on Office of Compassionate Use.
If a patient is suffering from a condition determined to be terminal by two physicians, he or she may qualify for medical cannabis. This product can contain significant levels of the psychoactive ingredient THC and may produce the "high" commonly associated with cannabis. Current law states that says a municipality may determine the criteria for the number and location of dispensaries.


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The Wildcats will face the Connecticut Huskies on Wednesday, February 28, 2007, at 7 PM at Gampel Pavilion, on the University of Connecticut's campus in Storrs (in contrast to the Hartford Civic Center, where many home games are played). A comprehensive preview…
The Viewpoint on the Connecticut Huskies
Coach: Jim Calhoun, 21st season at Connecticut
Calhoun won his 750th game this season (including both UConn and Northeastern, his previous stop), when the Huskies defeated hapless Rutgers at the RAC on Wednesday, February 21, 2007. The victory put him at 12th place on the all-time list, and fourth among active coaches. Depending upon how long the odious Bob Knight continues to coach, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that Calhoun might catch him someday, if UConn continues to succeed and if he coaches long enough. Knight currently has a lead of 136 victories. Although it was seemingly in VU's best interest for Connecticut to lose at the RAC, it's actually better, because this way, there is no longer a possibility of the Wildcats becoming a footnote in the UConn annals, as the opponent when Calhoun attained his 750th-victory milestone.
2006-07 Season Analysis - 6-8 Big East, 17-11 overall, RPI rank #94 (as of CollegeRPI.com's Sunday, February 18, 2007 rankings, it will be updated on Monday, February 26, 2007, when the new numbers emerge).
By the standards of any other program, this would just be written off as a rebuilding year. However, the Huskies are scuffling badly, and after a terrible start in BE play, they faced overwhelming odds as they sought to return to the NCAA tournament (where they made an Elite Eight run last year, prior to – gloriously – serving as the foils for George Mason, the lowest-seeded team ever to reach the Final Four, in one of the most thrilling college basketball games I've ever seen.) UConn last missed the Big Dance in 2001.
As it turned out, the Huskies' long shot at an at-large bid has now completely evaporated. Their tight home loss to #20 Louisville on Sunday, February 25, 2007, extinguished Connecticut's flickering NCAA hopes entirely. The only way that the Huskies will be heading to the NCAA tournament for a sixth straight appearance will be by winning the Big East tournament.
Nonconference Schedule
As its weak SOS indicates, Connecticut did not play a particularly difficult non-Big East schedule this season. Let's look at the nonconference schedule in detail:
The season started with a surprisingly difficult victory over in-state Quinnipiac at Gampel on November 10, 2006 – the Huskies won just 53-46. From November 17-19, the Huskies hosted their holiday tournament in Hartford, the guests being Mississippi, Central Arkansas, and another in-state school, the Jesuit-run Fairfield. Unsurprisingly, the Huskies won the tournament, blasting all three opponents by margins of 18 points or more. The Huskies concluded November by returning to Gampel for a pair of cupcake victories over Albany and Sacred Heart (also in-state) and whom they defeated by 31 and 43 points, respectively.
Connecticut opened December the same way they had ended November – with a high-cholesterol diet of five cupcakes: the first three were at Gampel and the final two at the HCC. They crushed Texas Southern, Northeastern (where Calhoun spent many years as a head coach before moving up to a then-moribund Connecticut program), St. Mary's (CA), Pepperdine, and Coppin State: their margin of victory in all five December cupcakes was at least 16 points (St. Mary's), with the other four all by 22 points or more. The Huskies' record stood at a perfect 11-0, and Connecticut took its traditional place in the national rankings, thanks to all of these lopsided victories. It should be noted, however, that all of these games were at home, and only Mississippi was from a power conference.
Big East/Intersectional Schedule
When Big East play began, the Huskies' glittering record suddenly began to nosedive, much to the shock and dismay of its huge and fanatically loyal fan base. They began the conference slate @ West Virginia, and were handed their first loss of the year. They returned to Hartford and had no trouble with terrible South Florida. But the Huskies began to gradually founder; after splitting their first two conference games: they would lose seven of their next eight.
The first sign that something was seriously amiss, came when they stepped out of conference play to visit LSU, on January 6, 2007. The West Virginia loss could be chalked up to the fact that Morgantown is arguably the toughest home court in the conference, and an undefeated team coming in there had a bull's-eye on its back. And the Mountaineers are a legit team that will almost certainly be back in the NCAA tournament. LSU was coming off a Final Four appearance in 2006, but that having been said, the Tigers crushed the Huskies, defeating them by 17 points, and holding the Huskies' offense to just 49 points. Next, Marquette arrived in Gampel and emerged with a 73-69 victory. The Huskies made the short trip to Madison Square Garden and topped St. John's, 68-59, and the Huskies now stood at 12-3 overall, 1-2 Big East.
But disaster would soon strike, for the remainder of January 2007. The Huskies went into free fall, losing five straight: @ Pittsburgh, Indiana at the HCC, @ Louisville, Providence at the HCC, culminating with a loss at DePaul. Connecticut fell out of the rankings with an overall record of just 12-8, but Calhoun now had an even bigger problem on his hands: just qualifying for the Big East tournament. The Huskies were just 2-5 in Big East play and were in mortal danger of not even reaching New York, something which would induce apoplexy among their fervent supporters. Moreover, although the Huskies were about to enter the soft part of the Big East schedule, the end held no promises: the final three opponents were Louisville at Hartford, Villanova at Gampel, and at Georgetown, all three highly losable. Nobody wanted to see the season end on March 3, 2007, at the Verizon Center, but there was a real danger of that taking place.
February 2007 has turned out to be better, with one of the chief reasons being that the Huskies would have the golden opportunity to play Rutgers twice. They opened the month by beating the Scarlet Knights in Hartford, and then saved their season by defeating Syracuse by seven at Gampel. At 14-8, 4-5 Big East, the NCAAs would still be a long shot, but they were now probably at least going to reach Madison Square Garden and draw a NIT bid (not that going to the NIT would be considered a major feat in Storrs, but it would certainly beat not playing at all, which was a real danger at the end of January).
The Huskies, however, have only muddled through, since then. They traveled down to Georgia Tech and lost by 13 points on CBS. They defeated Seton Hall (a team now assured of not reaching New York) at Gampel, but fell @ the Carrier Dome in the rematch with Syracuse. They traveled to the RAC on Wednesday, February 21, 2007, with Calhoun sitting on 749 career victories. In addition, a victory would mathematically assure the Huskies of finishing in the top dozen schools and getting to New York (that's, obviously, not a sentence that I ever anticipated writing…) The Huskies slew the Scarlet Knights by ten, thus sweeping Rutgers. They put up a good fight vs. Louisville on Sunday in Hartford, but succumbed, 76-69.
What have doomed Connecticut's NCAA chances, are two facts. One is that they demonstrated virtually no ability to win, outside of the state of Connecticut. Their only road victories, during the entire season, were at Rutgers and St. John's (and at Madison Square Garden, they were probably the de facto home team, due to the proximity of their fan base and the poor season by St. John's.) They did schedule some reasonably difficult power-conference opponents: two SEC teams (Mississippi and Louisiana State), plus Georgia Tech and Indiana. However, those intersectional games were a disaster, outside of the win over Mississippi. They lost by double-digits @ LSU and @ Georgia Tech, and they lost to Indiana at Hartford by four points. The blowout @ LSU doesn't look as bad, with the Tigers' stunning upset of former #1- Florida this weekend, but the fact remains that UConn went 1-3 against significant OOC opponents.
Connecticut Starters/Rotation
Note: all individual statistics are taken from the UConn Game Notes for the Sunday, February 25, 2007 hosting of Louisville, and so do not reflect that final game.)
#11 Jerome Dyson - 6-3 - Freshman - Guard - 13.2 points/3.8 rebounds /29.6 min per game (Rockville, MD)
#4 Jeff Adrien - 6-7 - Sophomore - Forward - 13.0 points/9.9 rebounds/32.6 min/per game (Brookline, Mass.)
#12 A.J. Price - 6-2 - Sophomore - Guard - 9.7 points/3.0 rebounds/23.9 min/per game (Amityville, NY – the same high school that produced former Wildcat Jason Fraser)
#21 Stanley Robinson - 6-0 - Freshman - Forward - 5.5 points/4.6 rebounds/17.8 min/per game (Birmingham, AL)
#34 Hasheem Thabeet - 7-3 (yes, 7-3, according to the UConn media guide) - Freshman - Center - 6.4 points/6.4 rebounds/4.0 blocks/24.1 min per game (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Off the Bench
#24 Craig Austrie - 6-3 - Sophomore - Guard - 6.0 points/1.8 rebounds/19.4 min/per game (Stamford, CT)
#1 Marcus Johnson - 6-6 - Sophomore - Guard/Forward - 5.8 points/3.1 rebounds/17.0 min/per game (Los Angeles, CA)
#3 Doug Wiggins - 6-1 - Freshman - Guard - 7.2 points/2.2 rebounds /18.3 min/per game (East Hartford, CT)
#14 Curtis Kelly - 6-9 - Freshman - Forward - 2.7 points/2.6 rebounds/9.1 min per game (Queens, NY)
#33 Gavin Edwards - 6-9 - Freshman - Forward/Center - 2.2 points/1.7 rebounds/7.0 min/per game (Gilbert, AZ)
Overall Analysis of the Huskies
The Huskies have led the nation in blocked shots for five straight seasons (a record), and they will make it six, thanks to Thabeet. Thabeet already has over 100 blocks (more than all of UConn's opponents, combined!) He leads the conference in blocks, with 4.0 per contest, and ranks third nationally. And it's not just Thabeet: 11 different Huskies have blocked a shot this year. Perhaps not surprisingly, during that five-year (soon-to-be six-year) reign over opponents' shots, the Huskies have won four regular-season Big East titles, two Big East tournaments and a national championship. The Huskies are averaging 8.7 blocks per contest, and this presents a serious problem for small Villanova, which does not have an intimidating post presence, and also likes to play a lot of wing players.
A similar pattern emerges with regard to defense, at least as measured by opponents' field goal percentage. The Huskies have consistently ranked among the top 10 nationally in field goal percentage defense, and even this year's mediocre team is still ranked among the top 10 nationally in that department.
However, basketball teams do not live upon blocked shots – or even field goal defense - alone, as they will be leading the nation in blocks once more and are probably heading for the NIT. What has hurt the Huskies this season is that it is, plain and simple, a rebuilding year – as a matter of fact, a textbook rebuilding year. They have no seniors or even juniors, of any consequence: the ten-man rotation is entirely comprised of freshmen and sophomores. In light of that fact, it really is remarkable that Connecticut was ranked #18 in the preseason poll in November 2006, and was nationally ranked throughout the fall and winter of 2006. And they kept those rankings by winning their first 11 games, the majority of them by blowout margins, and even reached as high as #12 at Christmas time. The Huskies actually spent ten weeks in the polls this season (all AP polls, as the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll is unreliable):
Preseason: #18
November 13: #21
November 20: #18
November 27: #20
December 4: #19
December 11: #14
December 18: #14
December 25: #12
January 1: #18
January 8: #24
The Huskies fell out of the rankings for good, after the January 8, 2007, poll. They were in the "Also Receiving Votes" category for the next two polls, January 15 and 22, but have not received a single vote since then.
Series History
The teams did not play regularly, until the creation of the Big East. The schools faced each other just four times, beginning in 1941, until the formation of the conference – the Wildcats and Huskies split those four pre-Big East meetings.
Connecticut was the perennial cellar-dweller during the Big East's Golden Age of the 1980s. They did not emerge as a power until Calhoun's arrival, and have now been among the league's titans, virtually every year, since 1990. Villanova still leads the all-time series by a 30-26 margin (28-24 as Big East members), due to all of those easy victories under Rollie Massimino in the 1980s, but the Huskies have drawn far closer over the years. The Huskies have won eight of the ten contests in the series, during the Jay Wright era, which began in 2001-02:
February 13, 2006 - Villanova 69, Connecticut 64 (Wachovia Center)
February 26, 2006 - Connecticut 89, Villanova 75 (Gampel - one of Villanova's two BE regular-season losses)
Groundhog Day, 2005: Connecticut 81, Villanova 76 (HCC)
February 28, 2004: Connecticut 75, Villanova 74 in OT (Wachovia Center – that one was heartbreaking)
March 12, 2004: Connecticut 87, Villanova 64, Big East tournament (not as heartbreaking)
January 25, 2003: Connecticut 74, Villanova 65 (HCC)
February 15, 2003: Villanova 79, Connecticut 70 (Wachovia Center)
January 13, 2002 – Connecticut 70, Villanova 65 (Wachovia Center)
February 11, 2002 – Connecticut 46, Villanova 40 (HCC – the memorable throwback to "Rollie-ball", where the Wildcats simply held the ball for as long as possible, in Wright's maiden season)
March 7, 2002 – Big East tournament – Connecticut 72, Villanova 70 (a gallant effort by Wright's overmatched Wildcats in New York)
One of the greatest games in Villanova's illustrious history took place on February 10, 1994, in the old Spectrum in Philadelphia (the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia Center was not opened until the 1996-97 season, and even that year, Connecticut made what would be its final appearance in the "old building"). Thirteen seasons ago, the nucleus of Kerry Kittles, Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams, Eric Eberz and Jonathan Haynes upset the mighty, top-ranked Huskies, 64-63; it was the signal of the revival of the team's glories, after a last-place Big East finish in 1992-93. That team, coached by Steve Lappas, would go on to win the NIT.
Villanova hasn't won at Gampel since February 18, 1995, when the same team (minus Haynes) crushed the Huskies, 96-73, en route to the school's only Big East tournament title, before or since. In fairness, though, VU has only gone to Gampel twice since then, including last year's defeat. Villanova's last win at Hartford was on January 24, 2001, the year prior to Wright's arrival, when the Wildcats triumphed 70-59.
In summary, the inescapable fact is that Villanova still has to travel to Gampel, a tougher venue, for UConn's home finale and Senior Night. I would never like VU's odds under those circumstances. Villanova hasn't beaten UConn, away from the Wachovia Center (@ Gampel, the HCC, or MSG) since 2001.
In addition, last year's season split doesn't offer a lot of clues, since Villanova lost three players, plus Fraser, to the NBA, and Connecticut is loaded with freshmen in its rotation.
Villanova Update
Villanova is coming off a feel-good, crowd-pleasing Senior Day celebration on Saturday, February 24, 2007, when they routed Rutgers 74-51, in a contest that was over, nearly as soon as it began. Jay Wright was able to completely empty his bench over the last five and a half minutes, giving each of Villanova's four departing seniors – Curtis Sumpter, Will Sheridan, Mike Nardi, and walk-on Ross Condon – a dramatic exit, without concern over the lopsided score. The Wildcats began the game with a 13-2 run, raced out to a 45-18 lead at halftime and never needed to look back – except to honor the quartet of seniors who were playing their last game in the Pavilion.
I believe that the Wildcats probably (not definitely, but probably – if I had to quantify it, I'd say 85%) secured a NCAA bid with the victory, which placed them at 7-7 Big East, 19-9 overall. Villanova's sky-high RPI, rooted in the teens, and strength-of-schedule (in the top 10 all season) will not change much for the rest of the year, as so many games have already been baked into the cake, so to speak. Even if the Wildcats lose @ Gampel and at the Wachovia Center against Syracuse and in the first round in New York, there would need to be a great deal of bad news from conference tournaments around the nation. And that's the worst case scenario. If they win any of those three games, they are 100% certain of a bid, as they'd be either 8-8 in Big East play with a great RPI, or 7-9 in Big East play with a victory in New York and a chance to pick up another good loss to one of the top four BE teams on the second day.
Villanova did benefit tremendously from Louisville's victory on Sunday. First, it means that the atmosphere in Gampel, even on Senior Night, will not be what it would have been had the Huskies upset the nationally-ranked Cardinals and thus maintained some fleeting hopes of an at-large bid. Moreover, Louisville's victory means that the #20 Cardinals will stay ranked – thus making Villanova's victory over them look better in the Wildcats' tournament profile.
I'll have a full recap after the game.
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text: John Horner of the Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, has a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from UC-Santa Barbara, as well as a deep love of history. He is an award-winning playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild of America. He lives in Independence with his wife, two pianos, and their multitude of books.


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GF Orange Oat Muffins: Sample recipe from Ricki Heller's cookbook, Naturally Sweet and Gluten Free, a healthy and delicious collection of Allergy Friendly Desserts - GF vegan, low GI, LF, with CF & SF option.
Ricki says, "Although I no longer eat oranges very often, these remain one of my favorite muffins. They come together easily in the food processor, and in no time you've got some moist, hearty muffins for breakfast or snacks."
These muffins are so delicious, we strongly recommend doubling the recipe!
Total prep & cook time: 45 min
9 Servings
Nutrition Data, 85g Serving: 203 cal, 49 cal. from fat, 24g carb, 6g fat, 1g Sat. Fat, 233mg sodium, 3g fiber, 2g protein, 9g sugars, low Saturated Fat, Low Cholesterol. Estimated glycemic load 13
Ricki created this mix to approximate the same ratio of protein to starch as all purpose wheat flour. This mix of grain, legume, and starches matches the values of wheat flour almost perfectly. She usually makes a double batch, then stores it in a covered plastic food container for easy scooping.
Directions: Sift all ingredients into a large bowl, then stir with a whisk or spatula until very well combined and all flours are equally incorporated. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer. Will keep, refrigerated, up to 6 weeks, or frozen up to 3 months.
Check for seeds in your orange before processing - seedless doesn't always mean 100% seedless. I had a small orange, which was very sweet, so I added 1 Tbsp lemon juice for more liquid and more acid in the recipe.
I used all 12 muffin cups - my muffins were smaller, but it worked fine. Another time I added 1/4 cup more each of oatmeal, flour, and milk, plus 1 tsp more baking powder and 1/2 tsp more baking soda. That made 12 good sized muffins.
Substitute Ricki's GF Flour Mix by volume, not by weight, for all-purpose wheat flour in most recipes. Then add xanthan gum (or other binder such as ground flax seed) as the recipe directs.
You can also use packaged all-purpose gf mix in this recipe. Because each all-purpose mix contains its own blend of gluten-free flours, some of which absorb more liquid than others, you may also need to adjust the liquid measurements if you use a different all-purpose gf flour mix. Some mixes also contain xanthan gum.
I used garbanzo (besan) flour for the flour mix as I couldn't find garfava flour. I also used 1/3 cup arrowroot starch, 1/3 cup sweet rice flour and 2/3 cup tapioca starch for the mix as I didn't want to use potato flour. I was out of millet flour, so I used sorghum flour instead. I had to add another 1/4 cup of almond milk to the recipe because of the substitutions.
Your comments & questions help improve our recipes, so don't be shy! Contact Us


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|You seen on saguaro, you seen 'em...hey, you seen my nest?
I headed for Tucson Mountain Park and a nearly-sure bet to see one. Crested (cristate) saguaros are a special kind of weirdo, but I'm pretty fond of all these desert oddballs.
|This cactus is not named Russ.
|WHAT THE...nevermind. I don't want to know, and you don't, either.
I'm not a long-distance hiker (yet), but Pam estimated 1.6 miles one way to the crested. Three point two miles - I can still do that, right? Right? There was a lot of self pep-talk going on inside my bonnet.
The first part of the hike is in sight of civilization, although not much of civilization was hiking the trail that day. I don't mind being alone on a trail. I prefer it, except when I want someone there to carry me the rest of the way.
Once around the bend, the trail becomes pure wilderness beauty. A jet overhead will remind you that you're not all that far from the 21st century, but the jet passes and you're alone again. An hour later, a helicopter passes directly overhead, reminding you that he's not there to rescue you, keep walking slacker.
I pass a cardio-hiker and I make him stop. Did you see a crested saguaro back there? Indeed he had, and he told me where to look for it.
It's funny how a lazy mind works. If Pam had told me the Great Crested was two miles into a trail (it is), I would have gone to see the one in the Sonora Desert Museum parking lot. But, 1.6 miles? No problem! This is the power of always forgetting to take a map because you're pretty sure you've memorized the way.
|I may or may not have been on the ground here. I don't like to say.
At last!
|Parking lot
I decided to walk into the labyrinth. It's a symbolic thing. I kicked down the walls to leave. It's an exhaustion thing.
THIS JUST IN: Lisa from Metamorphosis Road says:
It's funny how almost every hike we've done in the Tucson area has turned out to be longer than the posted mileage...don't believe everything you read!
ARG! There is no way to know how far I really walked. I estimate 22 miles.
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Jacki Zehner / Goldman Sachs / Women Moving Millions #MarchForERA
I emphatically agree with Jacki Zehner, chief engagement officer of Women Moving Millions, when she speaks about the benefits and needs of corporations to understand "how to advance a gender equity agenda more seriously." The financial services have a huge opportunity to take their years of research on gender equality and make a difference.
Having been a dealer in the art world for quite a few years I have had the opportunity to spend time with some powerful people in the finance world, many great supporters of feminism and feminist artist. This is a dialog we do have, that does need to move to action, and in my opinion, it can be put into effect now, if only the effort is made by the financial services sector in general, benefiting everyone in the process.
"In the early 2000s there were some studies out there making the business case for women, but nowhere near where we are today," Zehner says. "Now, the case has been made."
Zehner goes on to to say, "This case holds that companies with more gender diversity on their boards, leadership teams, and workforces do better in multiple ways. As well, researchers stress the growing wealth in the hands of women investors and also the critical ways in which women entrepreneurs drive new business creation and job growth. More broadly, there's now widespread understanding that empowering women is a key to any nation's overall economic growth and dynamism."
Check out the full article from Inside Philanthropy, written by writer Kiersten Marek. http://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2016/6/20/the-case-has-been-made-a-philanthropist-pushes-business-on-g.html


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L'Arte del Gelato produces artisanal gelato in the full respect of the real Italian tradition. Our flavors are made fresh and genuine every day. This is the way we like it: just a small number of excellent raw materials that we pick up straight from the best producers, both local and from Italy.
Autenticity is the word we love most. Autenticty is not only the wish to follow traditional recipes or to seek for the best ingredients. Autenticity is the way we express the truth of a heritage we belong to, and the way we envision our world.
We sell our artisanal gelato in coppetta or cono, but you can also pick up a bit more of it and bring it home, for Gelato is better if enjoyed in company.
For more information call (212) 366-0570 or visit us online here.


text: In her latest Masters of Time book, Joyce introduces Allie Monroe, a young woman of 25 who can heal just about anything. But dark forces want to use her powers for evil and it is up to Royce to stop them. What they didn't plan on was falling in love. In a tragic accident, Royce is killed and so Allie begs Aidan (another warrior) to take her back to 1430. Royce is none too pleased to see her and Allie will have to use all her wiles to show him she really does love him while staying away from the evil that stalks her. An intriguing look at time travel, this is a new look at historical, fantasy romance.


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As is common to many large organizations, my employer has many sites that ask for your Windows logon credentials, using a process often referred to as "NTLM authentication". On Windows, the idea is that the credentials will be passed through to the requester and you won't have to enter them yourself. Firefox can support but does not by default allow this out of security concerns, but annoyingly does not provide a GUI way to change it. Instead, you will need use the infamous about:config page to fix this.
If you've never used it before, you simply open a tab and type about:config where you would normally enter a web site address. You may get a warning; that's ok, just click the I'll be careful, I promise!! button. You'll then get a slew of options that control pretty much everything about Firefox. Fortunately, there is that Filter text box – enter ntlm in there. You should now see an entry below named network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris; double-click that. Firefox checks this string for a match with the host name portion of the site wanting to authenticate – that's the part between the http:// or https:// and the first solitary /. You can have multiple sites separated by a comma and space. So let's say you have two internal sites, https://first.example.com/ and http://last.example.com/. In the text box, you would enter first.example.com, last.example.com. Unfortunately, as far as I know there is no way to specify a wild card such that everything ending in say example.com authenticates. Update: actually, I just experimented with this a bit. It turns out it only appears to match a substring. So if you use just example.com it would match both first.example.com and last.example.com.
When you have what you need in the text box, click OK. If you want to test it out but have already authenticated to the site, close Firefox and re-open it. Just closing the tab will likely not test it, as Firefox will cache the credentials you provided when prompted. When you re-open the site, you should no longer be prompted to enter your credentials.


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An old wood floor adds character to a home, but when it is left uncared for over the years, it develops buildup and residue that is difficult to remove through normal cleaning procedures. A vacuum or dust mop may remove light dust, but old wood floors with years of built up residue require a much more thorough cleaning that cuts through the residue and restores the natural appearance of the wood floor. This can be done with a few inexpensive cleaning tools.
Step 1
Pour 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of white vinegar into a cleaning bucket. Add 2 tbsp. dish soap also to remove sticky buildup.
Step 2
Dip a nylon scrub brush into the mixture, tap against the side of the bucket to release excess water and scrub over the old flooring.
Step 3
Continue your way across the flooring, scrubbing in small circular motions until all residue is removed.
Step 4
Rinse the bucket and refill with plain water.
Step 5
Swish a mop in the bucket, squeeze it out and wipe it over the old wood floors. This removes the lifted buildup and cleaning solution.


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RSS activists, including its chief have become very vocal since BJP came to power. I wish they had used their voice FOR India rather than for dividing the poor people of this once great nation. Some people have defended Bhagwat's tirade against Mother Theressa by blaming media that had "ignored" good work of RSS. But let them remember that BJP came to power because of the same biased media! I feel, even if media had ignored their good work, Mohan Bhagwat's tirade against Mother Theressa is unwarranted! We were taught in school that two wrongs never make a right! We were also taught that in stead of singling other person's sins, you should project your own good deeds! I am sure Bhagwat studied in the same schools. How can he forget these gems?
As regards media, they have totally eclipsed Bhagat Puran Singh. Even recently when the SGPC and other Sikh organizations put in their effort for J&K floods , the media totally ignored them. However, whenever a misguided youth brandishes a sword he is projected every where, even out of context. Sikhs have paid a heavy price for media bias. IN fact Punjab problem of 1980s was the creation of a particular media group. Many friends here may not agree with me but that is the truth as Sikhs see it! Indian history , even modern, has a lot to straighten. Not likely to happen in our lifetime! In fact minorities' view is often colored by the media negatively and most of the majority population accepts it as the gospel truth!
It is the duty of of the saner members of every group.community/ religion to educate the masses who get carried away by the likes of Bhagwat without even understanding what he is saying! I believe people like Bhagwat in all communities should practice the old gem "think before you speak!"


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"What did Sir Peter Hall put in his children's tea? I want some of it. Rebecca Hall is currently the toast of the British film industry after her assured performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Meanwhile, her half-brother, Ed Hall, is consolidating his position as one of our most successful theatre directors. Last year he directed Greta Scacchi in the finest Deep Blue Sea I have seen on stage and last Saturday I went to his all-male production of The Merchant of Venice at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. It is not my favourite Shakespeare play but the imaginative set and inspired casting made me realise that this boy will run and run."
My blog has quite a lot of posts about Samuel West (Julius Caesar, On Chesil Beach and Darkest Hour) and Charles Edwards (My Fair Lady Australian tour and Henry IX).
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Rebecca Hall
From the Evening Standard:
Labels: film, Peter Hall, Rebecca Hall, theatre
at 10:42 pm
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Rigid flex circuits have been used in the military and aerospace industries for more than 20 years.Rigid flex circuits combine the best of both rigid boards and flexible circuits integrated together into one circuit. The two-in-one circuit is interconnected through plated thru holes. Rigid flex circuits provide higher component density and better quality control.
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