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Lonely Planet Hotels & Hostels relaunches in partnership with Expedia & Hostelworld.com
Lonely Planet, the world's most trusted travel information company, has joined forces with two of the world's leading accommodation providers, Expedia and Hostelworld.com, to deliver a unique accommodation booking service.
The new service provides travellers with tens of thousands of author reviews and recommendations written by Lonely Planet's 360 authors around the world. From backpacker hostels in Adelaide to boutique designer hotels in Zurich, travellers can evaluate properties and book securely online with Expedia and Hostelworld.com.
"Combining the vast number of Lonely Planet's author accommodation reviews with the depth of inventory provided by Expedia and Hostelworld is a real win for our travellers. They get trusted advice, great pricing and wide availability in one easy to use website" explains Troy Suda, Lonely Planet's Global Head of Hotels & Emerging Online Business.
For the new service, Lonely Planet looked globally for partners where there was strong alignment between Lonely Planet's author reviews and the bookable properties of prospective partners.
"Lonely Planet has built its business on the quality of its author reviews and recommendations, and we're delighted to be partnering with a company that is as renowned in its field as Expedia is," said Tamer Tamar, Vice President and Managing Director for Expedia Distribution.
"Partnering with a company such as Lonely Planet further demonstrates Expedia Distribution's white labelling expertise and commitment to broadening the base of partners we work with in the travel arena. We have developed a tailored offering for Lonely Planet that is perfectly in tune with its users' needs and utilises our world class hotel product," said Tamar.
Lonely Planet's authors travel the globe reviewing accommodation options covering the needs of all travellers, hence two partners were selected to provide bookable properties across a wide range of destinations and accommodation types.
Feargal Mooney, CEO of Hostelworld.com added "As the leading provider of online reservations to the budget accommodation sector our hostel coverage is the biggest in the world. This partnership builds on the long-standing relationship between Hostelworld.com and Lonely Planet and enables us to leverage the independent and authoritative reviews of the world's most experienced and trusted travel writers, further enhancing the customer experience and creating a service unlike any other."
The service is available now at lonelyplanet.com/hotels.
About Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is a leading independent global travel information company. It is renowned for its first-hand approach, up-to-date maps and commitment to providing the best information for travellers. Lonely Planet currently has over 360 writers, researcher and photographers and produces around 500 trustworthy and inspiring books, innovative downloadable digital guides, an award-winning website, wireless applications and cutting-edge television programmes. Lonely Planet was founded after Tony and Maureen Wheeler left London and hit the road in search of adventure in 1972. They travelled overland across Asia and landed in Australia where, due to incessant questions from would-be travellers, they compiled their journey notes and stapled together their first travel guide; Across Asia on the Cheap. www.lonelyplanet.com
About Expedia Distribution
Expedia Distribution, part of Expedia Inc, provides full-service travel products to more than 8,000 private label partners globally, including many of Europe's pre-eminent airlines, top train companies, portals and market-leading online travel agencies including Greenbee, Eurostar, Alitalia, BMI, Virgin Express and Iceland Air. Expedia's Distribution platform allows these partners to distribute Expedia's highly competitive travel products, and benefit from Expedia's robust technology, unrivalled supply quality, and leading merchandising tools. Expedia Distribution offers hotels, dynamic packages, car hire, flights, insurance and destination services to partners in more than 20 EMEA markets.
Expedia, Inc. is the world's leading business and leisure travellers with the tools and information they online travel company, empowering need to easily research, plan, book, and experience travel. Expedia, Inc.'s companies operate internationally with sites throughout EMEA, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and Japan, as well as China, through its investment in eLong™. Expedia, Inc.'s portfolio of brands include: Expedia.com®, hotels.com®, Hotwire®, Expedia® Corporate Travel, TripAdvisor™ and Classic Vacations®. For more information, visit http://www.expediainc.com/ .
About Hostelworld
Hostelworld.com is a leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market. It offers confirmed online reservations for over 18,000 hostels and budget hotels in 168 countries worldwide. Hostelworld.com is based in Dublin, Ireland and is fully owned and operated by Web Reservations International Ltd (WRI).
WRI provides technology, distribution and marketing solutions to accommodation and other travel suppliers worldwide through a network of owned sites and affiliate partners. Founded in 1999 WRI and is headquartered in Dublin has representative offices in Shanghai, Sydney and New York. WRI has developed award winning websites including Hostelworld.com, Hostels.com, boo.com and trav.com and has successful affiliate relationships with many of the world's leading brands. For more information visit www.webresint.com or www.hostelworld.com


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Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a group of inherited conditions. These conditions affect the connective tissues. This type of tissue is found all over the body. There are at least 6 different varieties of EDS. They are classified by the type of tissue most affected and how it is inherited.
EDS is caused by a problem in the genetic material. It mainly affects the genes that create connective tissue.
Most types of EDS affect the production of collagen. Collagen is an important part of connective tissue. It gives the tissue strength and allows it to stretch.
The symptoms of EDS can vary. Some may have mild symptoms. Others may have severe and life-changing symptoms.
The most common symptoms of EDS include problems with the joints and skin. Joints are loose and unstable which can lead to:
- Swelling
- Sprains
- Dislocations
- Joint pain
- Flat feet
Kyphosis |
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc. |
Skin is soft, fragile, and can stretch far too easily. This can lead to problems such as:
- Easy bruising
- Minor injuries turning into gaping wounds
- Slow and poor wound healing
- Difficulty suturing skin because skin tends to tear
- Skin scarring from wounds or stretching
- Fleshy outgrowths on top of scars
- Calcified nodules under the skin
- Increased risk of surgical complications
Other symptoms depend on the type of EDS you have. EDS can cause problems with
Eyes, such as:
- Nearsightedness
- Epicanthic fold—fold of skin on either side of the nose may cover the inner corner of the eye, which is common in children with EDS
- Fragile sclera—the white outer coat of the eyeball
- Hole in the globe of the eye—rare
- Lungs—due to loss of normal elastic tissue
- Bones and muscles—such as chronic pain
- Blood vessels—weak tissue can lead to aortic aneurysms and rupture of blood vessels
- Blood clotting—can lead to easy bruising and bleeding
- Heart valves—such as mitral valve prolapse
- Gums—bleeding and diseases
Gastrointestinal system, such as:
- Hernias
- Diverticulosis
- Perforation or bleeding along the gastrointestinal tract
Hiatal Hernia Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc. -
Pregnancy, such as:
- Premature birth
- Early rupture of membranes
- Bleeding during pregnancy and excessive bleeding during or after childbirth
- Uterine rupture
- Higher complications from procedures
- Muscles—low muscle tone with delayed motor development
You will be asked about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. This is usually enough to diagnosis EDS in most people. When the diagnosis is uncertain, tests may include:
- Skin biopsy —to look for abnormalities in the connective tissue
- Detection of specific biochemical defects—available for certain types of EDS
There is no known cure for EDS. Treatment may be needed to manage symptoms and or to try to prevent complications.
Treatment of Symptoms
Treatment will depend on your type of EDS and how severe it is.
For complications of the skin:
- Vitamin C supplements may be helpful in certain subtypes of EDS. It may help to decrease skin bruising and improve wound healing.
- Special care will be taken when repairing skin wounds. This may help to prevent or decrease scarring.
For musculoskeletal complications:
- Medication may help control pain.
- Surgery may be done to repair joint damage.
Some potential problems will need to be monitored. This includes people at risk for blood vessel complications. Your doctor may ask for regular testing to examine major blood vessels.
Blood transfusions may be needed for severe bleeding.
Treatment to Reduce the Risk of Harm
Certain steps may help you reduce the chance of complications. The following may help you:
- Wear joint braces.
- Do muscle strengthening exercises.
- Consider physical therapy to help strengthen muscles and joints.
- Wear sunscreen daily.
- Avoid activities that may cause injury, bruising, or over-extending your joints.
- Children may be asked to wear protective gear during activity.
- Talk to your doctor about possible pregnancy complications.
There is no known way to prevent EDS. If you have EDS or have a family history of the condition, consider genetic counseling when deciding to have children. The counselor can talk to you about the risk of your child having EDS.
Ehlers-Danlos Society https://www.ehlers-danlos.com
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases http://www.niams.nih.gov
The Arthritis Society http://www.arthritis.ca
Health Canada https://www.canada.ca
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.dynamed.com/topics/dmp~AN~T116705/Ehlers-Danlos-syndrome . Accessed January 29, 2021.
Questions and Answers about Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases website. Available at: http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health%5FInfo/Connective%5FTissue/default.asp. Accessed January 29, 2021.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board Chelsea Skucek, MSN, BS, RNC-NIC
- Review Date: 03/2020
- Update Date: 01/28/2021

subset: commoncrawl


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National Signing Day is for college football fans what the NFL Draft is for pro football fans. It has become one of the biggest days – not just of the college football year – but of the sports year.
NSD injects drama into the offseason and gives every fan hope that their team is making progress. College football recruiting news has evolved into one of the most intriguing cottage industries in sports.
In many ways, it's even more intriguing: For months, there has been speculation, rumor, breaking news of how "visits" went, oral commitments (which has always sounded pretty randy) and – most dramatically – commitments that are rescinded.
And, of course, the money question: "How many 5-stars [players] did you get?" (Or, alternatively: "Where is your class ranked?")
It all culminates today, when recruits officially – finally – sign their commitment letters and end the dance. If you were in a fraternity or sorority in college you will understand and appreciate the following analogy:
The recruits go from rushees -- being wined and dined (and god knows what else) -- to being pledges, which means the program owns their ass.
You will not be able to escape the so-called "experts" today, with their rankings. You may even find it unseemly when player after player goes on national TV to announce his decision. And you'll probably find it lamest that so many fans are breathlessly waiting on the results. I happen to love all this recruiting stuff.
Keep an eye on three NSD developments:
(1) Rich get richer. This is where CFB turns 180 degrees from the NFL's system to encourage parity.
(3) Illini fans' best day: As you scan the top classes, one "Hunh?" name stands out:
UPDATE: Here's a storyline -- UNC's Butch Davis is apparently bringing in a haul. This goes to the heart of what we're debating in the Comments section: Is a great class enough to help turn a historically mediocre program around? Next year? Probably not. But a few years down the line, when this class creates momentum for future classes and legitimizes UNC as a place to pick over traditional powers and this year's talent develops? Absolutely. You also see that with Steve Spurrier's class he's picking up at South Carolina, which typically isn't a recruiting powerhouse. The common thread? Coaches matter.
More of today's biggest storylines:
UPDATE! NFL Rumor of the Day/Week/Month: Was a certain player hung over for the game after a night of SB-eve partying? Kissing Suzy Kolber posts a rumor. Just a rumor...
NBA: Celtics lose 15th straight, but the Grizzlies refuse to relax their grip on "NBA's worst record," losing to the Rockets. It's a race to the bottom!
More NBA: Yes, I neglected to talk about the John Amaechi story. Pretty big, considering that you rarely hear about pro athletes coming out. Expect a lot of columns and analysis about sexuality and sports and the usual "what it all means."
College Hoops Parity Watch: Was it just a month ago when I was calling Air Force the top contender to be this year's George Mason? Ugh: AFA got walloped by San Diego State, 62-41. Pretenders!
Meanwhile, outstanding Ohio St freshman PG Mike Conley Jr. had his best college game (23 points, 6 assists), but you have to wonder how much it helps to play with Greg Oden (15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 blocks).
NFL Pro Bowl: LaDainian Tomlinson and Bill Belichick made up in
Meanwhile, I'm not sure there's a more worthless rule than the "Merriman Rule" about players who test positive for 'roids not being able to play in the Pro Bowl? So many players duck out of the Pro Bowl anyway, how will this serve as a real deterrent? It won't.
(Update: Commenters are right. I'm discounting the financial gain of being selected for the Pro Bowl. I have a question: How will the NFL keep players from being picked by the fans? Isn't the rule that they can't PLAY in the Pro Bowl? But if selection is based on a fan vote, who's to say the fans won't vote in a Merriman? Will they take the player's name off the ballot? Just curious.)
NFL Coaching: Are the Cowboys serious about hiring Ron Rivera? I have nothing beyond my own speculation to guide me, but I think it'll be a choice between Rivera and Norv Turner -- with Turner getting the job.
(Here's the dilemma: I have long thought -- "long" being "a few weeks" -- that Jerry Jones really wants Jason Garrett as his head coach, but can't bring himself to elevate him right now. Garrett needs more experience. Bringing in Rivera would block Garrett's eventual elevation. Turner would serve as a convenient place-holder.)
Britt Reid: The Eagles coach's son is the new Bengals.
MLB: Aaron Harang gets 4Y/$36.5M deal from the Reds. He led the NL with 216 Ks last season en route to 16 wins.
Varsity Letters Reading Series tonight! If you live in NYC, I highly recommend you check out the Varsity Letters series, hosted by Gelf Magazine's Carl Bialik. Tonight's lineup is great, headlined by SI's SL Price, who wrote that amazing Dwyane Wade "Sportsman of the Year" piece. Anyway, it's at 8 at Happy Ending (


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Adult Glass Fusing Classes – Register Now!
Bullseye Resource Center New York offers classes for all levels—from glass fusing beginners to advanced kilnformers—in a supportive and inspirational environment.
The Resource Center is a one-stop destination for glass fusing supplies: the full line of Bullseye sheet glass, stringer, frit, and powder—plus all the tools you need to work with them.
Resource Center hours: Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
Event Location and Ticket Information
Loading Map....
Bullseye Glass Resource Center
115 Hoyt Ave
Mamaroneck, New York
Handicap Accessible? Yes
Date: Monday, July 4, 2016
Times: All Day
Ticket pricing:
Get tickets now
Presenter: Bullseye Resource Center - New York
Presenter Phone: 914-835-3794
Presenter Website: www.bullseyeglass.com


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Recently I had come across several posts about pipian which was new to me and it sounded and looked really good. Pipian seems to be similar to a salsa verde with the addition of ground pepitas (pumpkin seeds), radish leaves, romaine lettuce and a touch of cinnamon. I liked the sound of the ground pumpkin seeds in a salsa verde and since salsa verde is one of my all time favorites and I knew that I would have to try it. I held off on making it as I had some trouble finding the tomatillos and the green pepitas but as soon as I did it was on the menu.
With the holidays just behind us, turkey was still on my mind and I thought that a poached turkey breast covered in pipian would be a nice way to try it. To round off the meal I added a bit of red to the plate with a simple Mexican rice . Since I had used the radish leaves in the pipian I served the radishes on the side.
I decided to start with the pipian recipe from Homesick Texan as the base as it sounded really good. The pipian was easy to make, though it took a bit longer than salsa verde as it had to be simmered. While the pipian was simmering I had the chance to poach the turkey breast and make the rice so overall the meal did not take too long to make. The pipian turned out to be every bit as good as it promised to be! It was just like a salsa verde though the flavours were a lot deeper and more complex. The pumpkin seeds and the hint of cinnamon made me think of it as a cross between a mole sauce and a salsa verde . I left my pipian a bit chunkier and I really enjoyed the texture of the bits of pepitas in it. The pipian went well with the turkey and the rice on the side. Now I have some leftover pipian and I will have to come up with some interesting ways of enjoying it.
- 2 roasted poblano chilies
- 6 roasted jalapeno chilies
- 1 cup pepitas/pumpkin seeds (toasted and ground)
- 1 pound tomatillos (husked and cooked in water for 10 minutes, or canned)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1/4 cup onion (chopped)
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 1 small bunch of radish leaves
- 2 romaine lettuce leaves
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- Puree the poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, pumpkin seeds, tomatillos, chicken stock, cumin, pepper, garlic, onions, cilantro and radish leaves in a food processor
- Simmer the pipian, chicken stock and cinnamon for 30 minutes.
Egg Enchiladas in Pipian
Salsa Verde
Tilapia Baked in Salsa Verde
Mole Sauce
Grilled Chicken with Mole Sauce


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Wood floors and laminated floors are hard to tell apart and can be quite deceptive for the casual onlooker. It is only by touching or examining closely when you will be able to tell the difference between the two. Both of these flooring options have their own pros and cons, still both are in high demand and enjoy a healthy market share in their own individual capacities.
Here are a few differentiating characteristics which might help you in making up your mind as to which of the two would best suit your flooring needs.
Life Span
Hard wood floors in comparison to Laminated Floors have a longer life span. A properly installed wooden floor preferably done by a skilled hardwood flooring installer can last for ages. Whereas laminated floors have a relatively short life span and tend to lose their original hue and color over time.
As compared to wooden floors laminated floors are easier to install and even a homeowner with some experience of carpentry could have a good go at it. However, installing wood floors could be a challenging proposition even for the most enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer. So it is best if you leave their installation to the expertise of a hardwood flooring installer.
Laminated floors lack the ability of being reconditioned once they reach the end of their useful life, and cannot be revived back to their original form. So the only possible alternative left is to replace them with new ones. Wood floors if maintained properly last much longer before they need any re-conditioning, and if required a good hardwood flooring installer can easily treat them to be as good as new.
Lamination floor products are comparatively cost less than wooden floors and some qualities start as low as under 1$ per square foot. So for the budget sensitive these floors would be a better choice.
Choice in Style Design and Color
When it comes to the range of style design and color laminated floors have an upper hand as compared to timber floors. Laminated floors come in a variety of different styles, designs and color shades giving you much more freedom of choice and home décor options. Timber floors though limited to some classic designs and color tones can be refinished to a different color tone or design by an expert hardwood flooring installer.
Value Addition
Timber floors are considered to be traditional, and have been around for centuries. They give your house a classic and expensive look. Considering their durability you can consider such flooring as a value addition to your house.
Taking all these distinctive points into consideration, the overall layout of your home and your personal preferences you can take a decision as to what type of flooring suits you the best.
If you are not sure what type of flooring would best suit you, and you are having trouble choosing between laminated floors or Maryland wood floors. Or you are in the midst of deciding to do it by yourself or hiring a hardwood flooring installer read this article to make up your mind.
Hardwood or Laminated Floors – Which Ones Are Better?
By Mike Lawwson


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The G-20 meeting in London earlier this year set the direction for reforming the regulation of financial services to prevent a recurrence of the present crisis. Still to come is the hard work of hammering out the details, which will determine if a new regulatory system can succeed—without imposing excessive costs or triggering unintended consequences.
The causes of the current crisis resemble those of many previous ones: banks that didn't have enough capital lent too much, too easily, relying on wholesale funding that disappeared when the inevitable concerns about asset quality arose. Yet there are important differences this time. The current problem started in what were regarded as the world's safest and most sophisticated markets and spread globally, carried by securities and derivatives that were thought to make the financial system safer.
If regulators working on solutions resist the reflex to build incrementally on conventional wisdom and existing structures, we now have an opportunity to reshape the global regulatory system fundamentally. That will require a dispassionate assessment of the reasons for the current system's failure. The difficult issues regulators must address include the appropriate degree of protection for financial institutions, the regulation of nonbank entities (such as hedge funds), and the determination of adequate capital levels. Brave—even radical—changes may be necessary.
Tackling 'too big to fail'
A large bank's failure poses risks to other institutions, the financial system, and the broader economy. For this reason, regulators often step in to protect not only the bank's depositors but also all its creditors (and sometimes shareholders) from losses they would otherwise face. Banks for which governments are likely to intervene are seen as "too big to fail" (TBTF). While this kind of protection solves the immediate problem, it increases longer-term systemic risk because creditors or investors have less reason to monitor banks they see as TBTF, and the managers of these banks have a greater incentive to take risks. Governments tried to mitigate this element of moral hazard by being deliberately ambiguous about which banks they would rescue and on what terms, but the recent rescues obliterated this ambiguity, and the world now believes that no large financial institution—bank or nonbank—will be allowed to fail in the way nonfinancial companies do.
Most proposals to address the TBTF problem, from the G-20 and others, recommend regulating and supervising large, complex financial institutions more tightly. Yet the clear message of economic history is that incentives overpower regulation. Measures are needed to prevent, or at least discourage, institutions from becoming too big to fail in the first place and to wind them down if they do. Several actions could be taken to prevent them from becoming so big that they create systemic risks. It may be possible to use antitrust approaches originally designed to prevent markets from becoming too concentrated. Additional capital charges or insurance fees on institutions could be levied in proportion to the level of systemic risk they pose—in effect, charging them a market price for the TBTF guarantee. Stronger national-level regulation of the subsidiaries and branches of international banks could ensure that the impact of their failure was contained. Finally, investment banking and commercial banking could be kept more separate than they are now.
Besides prevention, we need a cure—a system for liquidating large banks in a way that controls systemic risk but still ensures that investors, creditors, and managers bear sufficient pain to eradicate moral hazard. The United States has a tried-and-tested bank wind-down process, but it is designed for straightforward domestic commercial banking and would need to be adapted for more complex and global institutions. Lessons from the troubles of AIG and Lehman Brothers could help to design such a process. Creative ideas have been proposed for handling failures by immediately transferring good assets to a new, smaller but shiny "bridge bank." That would leave uninsured creditors with not only a "bad bank" holding troubled assets but also some equity in the new institution.1
It is not clear whether governments coping with the present crisis were right to rescue and continue to support so many banks. But incentives matter: no matter how big banks are regulated, there will be many more failures if they always expect to be bailed out.
Mitigating universal-bank risks
Conducting commercial- and investment-banking activities in a single institution is a variant of the TBTF problem, but one that requires its own remedies. Commercial and investment banks have different risk profiles. Commercial banks create credit vital to the real economy yet are inherently fragile: if all depositors want their money back at the same time, any bank will go broke. Governments therefore insure retail depositors, central banks act as lenders of last resort, and banks submit to regulation, supervision, and the maintenance of minimum levels of capital. Investment banks too support the economy by helping companies raise capital and maintaining liquidity. But to do so, these institutions trade actively in the capital markets, where bubbles and crashes are endemic and, as a result, the rewards and risks are commensurately bigger than those of commercial banks.
There are economic advantages to be had from combining commercial and investment banks, and the prevailing wisdom has been that any risks from doing so can be controlled. The current crisis has presented no evidence that combined (or "universal") banks are more vulnerable or blameworthy than pure investment or pure commercial ones. But the crucial point is that combining the two kinds of institutions extended the protection given to commercial banks to investment banking, artificially reducing its cost of capital. That encouraged the growth of larger, more complex institutions and transferred to taxpayers costs and risks that no one had contemplated.
Ignoring this downside would be a mistake, as would peremptory regulation to separate investment and commercial banking. We need a balanced reappraisal of the advantages and disadvantages of universal banking. Even if there is no justification for untangling commercial- and investment-banking activities, stronger firewalls may be required between them, at least for deposit insurance and government guarantees.
Regulating nonbanks
One thrust of the G-20 agenda is the extension of regulatory oversight to institutions in what has become known as the "shadow banking system," such as hedge funds, private-equity funds, insurance companies, and off-balance-sheet vehicles. Such moves are undoubtedly necessary but should be made cautiously.
First, regulation imposes real costs on society. In particular, prudential regulation creates anticompetitive economies of scale, impairs innovation, adds costs, helps preserve weak management and business models, and passes the pain on to taxpayers if institutions falter. Second, few if any hedge and private-equity funds actually present systemic risk. The unique feature of banks (and some of their off-balance-sheet vehicles) is that many of their liabilities must be repaid on demand and that any failure to do so has a falling-domino effect. Virtually all other financial institutions, by contrast, tend to borrow for a specific term or against collateral. If they fail, investors and creditors lose money but not immediate access to cash. For this reason, the same level of supervision and regulation is not appropriate for both categories of institutions.
Finally, it is debatable whether regulation actually makes institutions safer or sounder. Markets, not regulators, first identified and acted upon the problems in the present crisis, and the failure rate of regulated institutions isn't clearly lower than that of unregulated ones: Citigroup, after all, is probably the most heavily regulated and supervised institution on the planet. The current safety-and-soundness regulation of commercial banks has failed. Proposals for other kinds of institutions must take into account both their different risk profiles and the shortcomings of the way commercial banks are regulated.
Improving product transparency
So far, proposals for managing systemic risk lean toward a more vigilant monitoring of the global financial system and tighter supervision of institutions deemed systemically important. What is also needed is a much better understanding of how systemic risk develops and spreads. It may well be that risk is caused as much by products as by institutions.
At the heart of the current crisis were a clutch of products carrying opaque three-letter acronyms, such as ABS, CDO, CLO, SIV, and CDS. Neither the people who designed these products nor their purchasers fully understood them. Yet they poisoned the financial system, spreading silently but virally across the globe, mutating as they went, and reaching system-threatening size without attracting attention. Regulators have resisted interfering in the development or dissemination of these products, fearing that doing so would dampen the dynamism of capital markets. Yet much so-called innovation is aimed more at exploiting loopholes and skirting regulation than at meeting the needs of customers. Products of this kind are unnecessarily—deliberately—complex and opaque. The world of finance, as the economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted, "hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable form."
Controls on product innovation don't stifle other industries with potentially dangerous products. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, can't sell products—even to professional buyers—until they are rigorously tested and the trial results become available.
Perhaps the best way to manage the financial sector's systemic risk is to put a brake on its carriers and require all products over a certain volume to be traded on an exchange rather than over the counter or, at a minimum, to create a mandatory central clearing house for them. This approach would make products simpler, more standardized, and more transparent, reducing the latent liquidity and counterparty risks that come to the fore in financial crises.
Determining 'adequate capital'
By common consent, banks should hold more capital. How much and in what form are less straightforward questions. More capital makes the industry safer but also lowers returns and, by extension, probably raises prices for customers. It is critical to balance the need to control risks with the need for attractive returns.
Many proposals to strike that balance are encouraging. There is general agreement, for instance, that capital levels should be set counter-cyclically—in other words, institutions should build up higher levels in good times to form a bigger buffer in recessions. There are also ideas to complement the conventional risk-weighted capital targets with limits on leverage (assets divided by equity). Two metrics, whatever their individual merits, are better than one, since asking a bank to optimize on a single metric invites unproductive regulatory arbitrage.
Some proposals to replace the underlying risk models used to calculate capital are a matter of concern. The existing models, sophisticated as they are, couldn't cope with the multiplicity of risks in the financial system—they underestimated counterparty, liquidity, and market risk, as well as the risk of rare, so-called Black Swan events. Consultants, academics, and economists have suggested ways to make such models even more sophisticated. While internal risk management might benefit from these ideas, it is more important to make the models for setting regulatory capital easily understood, objective, and, as John Maynard Keynes put it, "vaguely right rather than precisely wrong."
The form of capital that banks should hold has been much less debated than the amount. Yet it may not be appropriate or efficient to carry equity capital against genuine "tail risk" (or extremely low-probability) events. After all, individuals don't put aside sums of money in case their houses are struck by lightning. What's more, when a bank suffers a sudden capital shock, it is very difficult to raise equity quickly, and the only real option is to sell assets, which in a nervous mark-to-market environment can weaken the capital ratios or collateral positions of other banks, creating a general fire-sale effect. What makes sense for a single bank is harmful for the system. We should explore how banks can protect themselves against tail risk by holding "contingent capital"—for instance, hybrid securities that start as debt and then convert automatically to equity if certain low-probability events occur.
Rethinking the supervision model
Regulating and supervising banks is difficult. Moreover, the greatest systemic risks occur in boom times, when the industry's political support is strongest and oversight less popular. The answer is not just to hire additional regulators and pay them more. The model of supervision must be rethought fundamentally.
One possibility could be moving to enforcement based on rules rather than the prevailing "guidelines" approach. Particularly at the height of an economic boom, guidelines are very hard for regulators to enforce. In a system based on rules, the burden would be removed from regulators—for instance, if banks breached capital requirements, a set of previously agreed upon, nonnegotiable escalating responses could be triggered, starting at an earlier stage than they do today. They could include imposing tighter supervision, restricting dividends or bonus payments, or requiring debt-to-equity conversions until proper ratios were restored.
Another change of model could involve what Daniel Roth in Wired magazine called "radical transparency."2 Financial institutions and other public companies now disclose their activities to investors after the fact, in lengthy reports that are neither granular nor synthesized enough to be insightful. Every year, the US Securities & Exchange Commission's public-document database, Edgar, catalogs 200 gigabytes of filings, roughly 15 million pages of text—up from 35 gigabytes a decade ago. Regulators have greater access to information about companies than investors do but are even more overwhelmed by complex data. Despite all this disclosure, when market liquidity dried up in late 2007, nobody knew what institutions held which toxic assets. Roth's proposal is to exploit the "wisdom of crowds" by forcing companies to report more detailed data, online, in real time, and—critically—uniformly tagged so they can be exported into spread-sheets for exploration and analysis. The massive, parallel-processing, and number-crunching power of curious, interested, and directly motivated people around the world would then undertake much of the supervision required.
Neither of these specific ideas may be right, but in the information age the supervision of a vital global industry should not depend on the herculean efforts of a few well-intentioned officials drowning in data and outnumbered and outgunned by profit-seeking bankers. The system can be smarter than that.
Achieving international cooperation
Financial markets have outgrown national boundaries and domestic regulatory systems, to the point where no nation can control its own fate. International claims on banks rose to $35 trillion last year, from $6 trillion in 1990. Massive flows take place not only in the well-understood international bond market but also in the interbank, securitization, derivatives, and cross-border-lending markets. Many of the effects are positive, but there is a high risk that problems will spread from country to country and that regulation's unforeseen consequences in one will have an impact on another.
For these reasons, global regulation and supervision remain many years away—a reality the G-20 recognized when it refrained from calling for a global regulator. Instead, it proposed the creation of national colleges of supervisors to develop regulatory rules and of a financial stability board, the successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), to monitor the global financial system and make recommendations to regulators and national governments. Pragmatic and quick agreement is needed to make this kind of cooperation work—for example, to decide how the colleges of supervisors will together develop common solutions and how individual countries will adopt them.
There must also be an honest debate about why existing monitors of systemic risk—the International Monetary Fund and the FSF—failed in their task. Were they unable to see the risk until it was too late, or were alarm bells drowned out by the bull market's euphoria? Either way, changing the name of the FSF and exhorting it to be more vigilant or vocal will accomplish little. We need to decide if it needs greater scope to detect potential crises, more teeth, or both. Finally, despite fears of economic nationalism, there may be a need for greater regulation and supervision of foreign subsidiaries and branches by host countries until genuinely international regulation emerges. Few if any of the new regulations suggested for banks can be imposed in some large countries but not in others without triggering massive and counterproductive arbitrage. The mechanics of coordination and cooperation must be determined quickly.
A once-in-a-generation opportunity to redesign the global financial system is at hand. The broad direction of reform is clear, but the details are important and getting them wrong will prepare the way for the next financial failure. The design of reform should be careful and deliberate, based on a thorough analysis of the underlying problems. It should be sufficiently creative and innovative to provide solutions for the next 20 years instead of revising approaches that haven't worked for the past 20. And it should tackle issues that are difficult politically, such as the protection of TBTF institutions.


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BEIJING (AP) — China has started slaughtering all poultry at a Shanghai market after a new bird flu strain that has killed five people was detected in pigeons being sold there.
The mass bird killing is the first so far as the Chinese government responds to the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has sickened 14 people, many critically, along the eastern seaboard in its first known infections of people. The first cases were announced Sunday.
Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there has been no evidence so far that the virus is spreading easily between people. However, scientists are watching closely to see if the flu poses a substantial risk to public health or could potentially spark a global pandemic.
The Agriculture Ministry confirmed late Thursday that the H7N9 virus had been detected in live pigeons that were on sale for their meat at a produce market in Shanghai. The killing of birds at the Huhuai market in Shanghai started Thursday night after the city's agricultural committee ordered it in a notice also posted on its website.
State media on Friday ran pictures of animal health officials in protective overalls and masks working through the night at the market, taking notes as they stood over piles of poultry carcasses in plastic bags.
The area was guarded by police and cordoned off with plastic tape.
Experts urged Chinese health authorities to keep testing healthy birds, saying the H7N9 virus can infect birds without causing disease, making it harder to detect than the H5N1 bird flu virus that is more familiar to Asian countries. H5N1 set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.
"In the past usually you would see chickens dying before any infections occurred in humans, but this time we've seen that many species of poultry actually have no apparent problems, so that makes it difficult because you lose this natural warning sign," said David Hui, an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Pigeon is a common type of poultry in Chinese cuisine and the birds are sold live in markets around the country. The Chinese also raise pigeons as pets, but those tend to be a different type.
Hui said the pigeons were probably infected by wild or migratory birds, whose droppings can carry viruses. He said they were likely not the only species of poultry to be carrying the virus.
While health officials caution that there are no indications the virus can be transmitted from one person to another, scientists who have studied its genetic sequence said this week that the virus may have recently mutated into a form that spreads more easily to other animals, potentially posing a bigger threat to humans.
The latest deaths from the virus confirmed by the government Thursday were a 48-year-old man who transported poultry for a living and a 52-year-old woman, both in Shanghai. The man is one of several among the infected believed to have had direct contact with fowl.
Guidelines issued Wednesday by the national health agency identify butchers, breeders and sellers of poultry, and those in the meat processing industry as at higher risk.
Experts only identified the first cases on Sunday. Some among the 14 confirmed cases fell ill several weeks ago but only now are being classified as having H7N9.
Xinhua said six cases have been confirmed in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui.


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Clay Shirky
Full-Time Faculty
Clay Shirky is today's leading voice on the social and economic impact of internet technologies. Considered one of the finest thinkers on the internet revolution, Clay provides an insightful and optimistic view of networks, social software, and technology's effects on society. Writing extensively about the Internet since 1996, he is the author of the best-selling Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus. In Here Comes Everybody—selected by Guardian as one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of all time—Clay explored how organizations and industries are being upended by open networks, collaboration, and user appropriation of content production and dissemination. Cognitive Surplus reveals how new technology is changing us from consumers to collaborators, unleashing a torrent of creative production that will transform our world.
Clay holds a joint appointment at New York University, as an Associate Arts Professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the Journalism Department. He is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and was the Edward R. Murrow Visiting Lecturer at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in 2010.
Over the years, he has had regular columns in Business 2.0 and FEED, among other publications, and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Wired, Computerworld, and Foreign Affairs. In addition to writing, Clay has a consulting practice focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client/server infrastructure that characterizes the Web.
Prior to his appointment at NYU, Shirky was a partner at the investment firm the Accelerator Group, an international investment company. Shirky was the original Professor of New Media in the Media Studies department at Hunter College, where he created the department's first undergraduate and graduate offerings in new media and helped design the current MFA in Integrated Media Arts program.
Ccourses Taught:
Hacking Higher Ed
Conversation, Cooperation, Collaboration
Design Expo
Social Software
Design for UNICEF
Thinking about Networks
Network Effects
Studio (Social Software)
Social Facts: Trust
User Generated
Designing Conversational Spaces


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You Can Use Your CrockPot as a Smoker
I was trying to figure out how to get a smoky flavor without turning on the barbecue because I've got to be honest with you, that thing scares me.
[originally posted in 2008, during my year of slow cooking. :-)]
Day 220.
Alternative title: CrockPot Smoked Brisket Recipe
I have been reading Jared's blog, the CrockPot Alchemist, with interest this year.
He has the same think-out-of-the-box (crock!) mentality I seem to have when it comes to crockpotting, and not only does he come across as an awfully nice guy you'd like to have dinner with, he is quite funny.
Jared likes things to taste smokey. He uses Liquid Smoke, and has written about how it isn't a super-scary-chemical-concoction.
But I can't find it. I've looked in about 6 grocery stores around here, and just. can't. find. it. I've emailed a few people who have given me liquid smoke recipes and they can find it at Walmart.
We don't have Walmart here. I guess I need to take a Walmart field trip, which is fine by me, because they have the most comfortable tank tops I've ever worn, and I'd like to stock up on layering options for fall. (in case you were wondering. you may have been.)
(PS -- this was written a long time ago. I now know where Liquid Smoke is at my grocery store. ;-) )
Anyways---since I couldn't find any liquid smoke, and because I was spurred on by the Last Food Network Star when the comedian guy built a smoker, I turned the crockpot into a smoker yesterday.And it totally worked.
The Ingredients.
3 to 4 lbs beef brisket or comparable hunk o' meat
1 to 2 cups mesquite wood chips (depends on size of crockpot), soaked
--favorite spice rub. I used McCormick's Roasting Rub.
--1/2 cup of water. or beer. or wine. or broth.
--parchment paper
The Directions.
Soak your wood chips in water for at least 30 minutes, and drain the water.
Spread out a good-sized length of parchment paper on the counter, and put the wood chips inside.
Fold over the edges of the paper to enclose the wood chips and make a packet, similar to a foil packet (I was worried foil would rust), that fits inside your crockpot completely.
Put it in.
With scissors, cut teeny tiny holes here and there in the top level of the parchment paper to let smoky steam escape.
Rub all sides of your meat with spice rub. Put it in the crockpot, directly on top of the parchment paper packet (lots of Ps, there).
Cover with whatever liquid you are going to use. I stuck with water.
Put the lid on and cook on low for 8-10 hours. The meat is done when it is cooked through and has reached desired tenderness. I wanted ours to fall apart, and cooked it on low for 9 hours.
The Verdict.
It worked!
The parchment didn't disintegrate, and the wood chips never touched the meat. The brisket was flavorful and had a definite smoky flavor in each bite.
My spice rub was quite peppery, so after the first few bites, I mostly tasted pepper, but the smoke was infused.
The kids loved it, and called it "the best steak my mom has ever made in the crockpot." It cracks me up that they included the "in the crockpot" part.
I have POUNDS of mesquite chips left, and am interested in smoking some salmon.


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I know. You saw it coming, right? You saw it coming a mile away, speeding toward us at 75 miles per hour, blasting a trumpet and waving a large, flashing neon sign that said "DANGER DANGER TURN BACK." And I'm a fool and deserve what I got, right?
In my defense, I must say that we made all arrangements in light of previous travels with Dolores. We picked an early, less crowded flight. We arrived at the airport hours prior to take-off. And when going through security, we pretended we didn't know the sheep. We were just two perfectly normal gay guys and a ball of sock yarn.
I was removing my shoes when I heard the tell-tale bellow from two lanes over.
"Lady," the red-faced security guard was saying, "listen to me. I'm not gonna say this again. You gotta take off the overcoat before you go through. No exceptions."
"You listen, Barney Fife," said Dolores, tapping her hoof on the terrazzo. " I already told you three times. This is not a coat. It's a fleece. It does not come off. Now be a good little monkey and clear the path between me and the Admiral's Club because my second mimosa is wearing thin."
"Should we be concerned?" asked Tom, nervously.
"No," I said. "But he should. Keep moving."
We were on the other side, double-checking our carry-ons, when a call came over the loudspeaker for emergency medical assistance at the private screening area.
A second later the medics rushed past, pushing a gurney.
"She bit him where?" shouted one.
"On the ass!" said that other.
"Told you," I said. "Care to split a Cinnabon?"
"I want two," said Harry.
Honestly, at this point a little thing like Dolores sinking her teeth into an impertinent guard's gluteus maximus is not enough to derail my holiday. I'd already put her favorite bail bondsman on alert and figured she could clean up her own messes.
Don't ask me how she did it–would you really want to know?–but she cleared security and stumbled onto the plane with only seconds to spare. Tom, bless his Platinum-for-Life heart, had arranged for us all to sit in First Class; so by the time we touched down in Boston, six complimentary vodka-and-tonics later, Dolores was feeling like a friend (or more) to all mankind. We had a spot of trouble rolling her down the gangplank to the Provincetown ferry, but after she slumped into a chair and fell asleep we were able to pass her off as a whimsical and capacious weekend tote. "Fabulous!" said a fellow passenger from Palm Springs. "Bettina Duncan, no? Do you think I could pick one up at Fred Segal?"
"Oh, you can pick her up lots of places," said Harry.
After three days of quiet, I dared to hope that we might after all have a tranquil stay in Provincetown. Honestly, strolling down Commercial Street in the evening, surrounded by throng of drag performers, gentlemen with outré taste in resort attire and portly, eccentric ladies of a Certain Age, Dolores almost blends in.
And then we met Rutger.
"He looks so very lonely," tutted Dolores.
"Don't worry," said Tom. "In this town he won't be alone for long."
"He might," said Chuck. "Don't you know Rutger? He's a local. He owns Pilgrim Parasailing. And he's straight."
"Oh," said Dolores, falling off her stool. "Is he now?"
"And single," said Andrew, before I could kick him under the table.
Fifteen minutes later Dolores was back, gasping for breath.
"Well," she said, "remember how was saying that no trip to Cape Cod is complete without a parasailing expedition?"
"No," said Harry.
"Shut up," said Dolores. "Anyhow, it turns out that Rutger actually owns Pilgrim Parasail!"
"No kidding," said Tom.
"And guess what I'm doing tomorrow afternoon at one o'clock?"
"Taking a pottery class?" said Andrew.
"Pretty," she said to him. "You're so pretty. And it's a good thing."
"Dolores," I said, "If you're thinking of putting this on my credit card you can forget about it."
She cackled. "Don't fret, cupcake. We've arranged a little barter. He's giving me a ride after lunch, and I'm giving him a ride after dinner. A ride for a ride. If you catch my drift. You catch my drift?"
"We just floated all the way to Boston on your drift," said Chuck.
"I wanna parasail too," said Harry. "If Dolores gets to go I wanna go!"
"Maybe tomorrow would be a swell day to drive to Wellfleet," said Tom. "Or New Hampshire."
"Do whatever the hell you want, pookie," said Dolores. "I'm outta here. I need a new bathing suit and a pedicure if I'm going up in the air. Harry, come with me. I have an assignment for you."
"I'm not done with my Shirley Temple," said Harry.
"I'll buy you the I GOT SCROD ON CAPE COD t-shirt you wanted from the souvenir store."
"Bye!" said Harry, jumping off the table.
"So," Andrew said to me, "what made you decide against just getting a dog, like everybody else?"
Harry wouldn't spill the beans, even when we tried to bribe him. He met the offer of a deluxe dipped double cone of Fudge Ripple and Chocolate Chip with a stiff-lipped, "I can't tell you. It's official business."
We double-checked the ferry departure schedules and moved the suitcases near the door. Just in case.
And there was another surprise. The evening ferry brought us Victorine, Dolores's French-Canadian cousine. She said nothing to us but "allo" before locking herself in the bedroom with the other two, but at the best of times she's not exactly chatty.
At ten the next morning, they all left in a pedicab for the pier. Dolores looked like a firework, decked out in a brand-new in a star-spangled bikini with little mirrors that spelled AMERICA across the fanny.
Around noon the gang snapped up a table at the Boatslip with a view of the bay. Andrew and Chuck were quite excited about the whole thing.
"I've never watched a sheep go into space," said Chuck. "Have you?"
"No," I said. "But over the past few years I've often fantasized about it."
"Will we be able to see her from here?" asked Andrew.
"Fairly well," said Tom. "Of course, for safety reasons the boat won't come too near the shore."
At about five after one, I spotted her. In the far distance, a blue-and-yellow parachute caught the sun and beneath it swung a white, fluffy speck.
"Ahoy!" said Tom.
"Gentlemen," said Chuck, "A toast to the maiden flight of the Dolores."
We clicked our glasses.
The parachute slid gracefully through the air in slow arcs, hither and thither.
"Funny," said Tom. "It looks like she's coming closer."
She was. Much closer. All over the Boatslip deck, cell phones began to ring. We heard a siren. I snagged a passing waiter and asked what was going on.
"Sounds like some crazy Canadian separatist hijacked the parasailing boat," he said. "And she's heading for the inner harbor. Look, here they come!"
We heard the roar of the motor, and then above us, like a Thanksgiving Day balloon gone terribly wrong, was Dolores dangling from the end of the cable. Victorine was screaming "A nous la victoire!" as she drove the boat nearer and near the beach, and suddenly from up above came a shower of paper.
"What the hell?" said Andrew, snatching one of the pamphlets that were raining down on our heads.
"What's a Fibertarian?" said Chuck, reading over Andrew's shoulder.
"Get the suitcases," I said to Tom.
The harbor police were now in hot pursuit of the parasail boat. Victorine tore mad circles around the other craft while Dolores, having completed her tour as a propaganda bomb, started screaming to come down. And then Victorine made a sudden, sharp starboard turn and with a nerve-shattering SPROING! the cable snapped. Dolores, freed from her tether, took off upwind.
"Holy crap," gasped Tom. "She's heading for Truro."
By now every siren in Provincetown was going off and we could hear people screaming in the streets. The parachute careened from current to current and the breeze brought to us a faint but emphatic stream of obscenities.
"Dolores!" I shouted. "Dolores! Try to make it to Hyannis and land in the Kennedy compound! And for God's sake steer away from Kennebunkport!"
She couldn't hear me. She was high now, up among the seagulls. A million thoughts raced through my mind. Would Harry be traumatized by all this? What would I say to her fan club? How long should I wait before clearing out her half of the closet?
And then a downdraft grabbed the chute and dragged her down, down, down. I screamed. Tom screamed. The boys screamed. The gulls screamed. And in the nick of time her star-spangled bikini bottom snagged the aerial on the top the Pilgrim Monument. And there she stuck, like the angel on the Christmas tree, except this angel was half naked, and yelling FUCK at the top of her lungs.
"Do you think if I asked nicely they'd just leave her there?" I asked Tom.
Alas, they did not. They got her down, fined her a couple of bucks for disturbing the peace and trespassing, then paid her fifty because the aerial had ripped a hole in her fancy swimsuit. By the next day she had five offers to appear in local cabaret acts.
Victorine, last I heard, was holed up in the Canadian embassy in Boston hoping to evade conviction for tying up a captain and stealing his boat.
And Rutger keeps calling the house.
Oh, yeah. Provincetown was really relaxing. How was your week?


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Thank you all for the birthday wishes! You guys are the best! ♥
I turned 32 a couple of days ago, and this blog turns 4 today – for this double celebration I baked a lemon cake (and please let's pretend you are surprised with the flavor choice). :D
Lemon-poppy seed cake with vanilla-cream cheese frosting
slightly adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
3 cups (420g) cake flour*
2 cups (400g) caster sugar
4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, room temperature, coarsely chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 ¼ cups (300ml) buttermilk
5 egg whites
1/3 cup (80ml) water
Vanilla cream cheese frosting:
2 vanilla beans
5 cups (700g) confectioners' sugar, sifted
224g (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter three 20cm (8in) round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper.
Combine the flour, 1 ¾ cups (350g) of the sugar, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed to blend the ingredients and break up any lumps, about 30 seconds. Add the butter, lemon zest and 1 cup of the buttermilk to the flour mixture. Beat on low – be careful, the flour may fly everywhere – until completely mixed. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1-2 minutes to lighten and aerate the batter.
In a medium bowl, combine the egg whites with the remaining ¼ cup buttermilk; whisk to blend thoroughly. Add this mixture to the batter in 2-3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only enough to incorporate. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
While the cakes are cooling, make the lemon syrup: in a small nonreactive saucepan, combine the remaining ¼ cup (50g) of sugar, the lemon juice and the water. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Turn out the cake layers onto wire racks and generously brush them hot lemon syrup over the warm cakes to moisten evenly. Let cool completely.
Make the frosting: split the vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the sugar with the back of a knife. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Continue to beat until very fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and beat well.
Assembling the cake: place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake plate and spread about a fifth of the frosting over the cake to cover evenly. Repeat with the second cake layer + another fifth of the frosting, then place the third layer on top. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish with whatever strikes your fancy.
* homemade cake flour: 1 cup (140g) all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons corn starch
Serves 12-16 – I made the exact cake recipe above but only 2/3 of the frosting and it was enough to fill and frost the entire cake


text:
AF Sizes:
1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 3/4
Metric Sizes:
8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 17mm
Forged from Chrome Vanadium Steel (CR-V), hardened, tempered, chrome plated and polished with a light satin finish for corrosion protection.
Ring and jaw offset at 15?
Thinner head for hard to reach fasteners.
For heavy duty application.
Increased torque capacity.
Exceeds international ASME & DIN standards.
The KINCROME Spanner Range
The new range of Kincrome Spanners has undergone exhaustive
testing is now 80% stronger than the ASME
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