[Quote]:

Iceland, which the IMF estimates was the world’s third- richest nation per capita in 2005 before slumping to rank 20th by 2010, ended its 33-month program in August last year. The $13 billion economy will expand 2.4 percent this year, the IMF said April 17. That compares with an estimated 0.3 percent contraction in the 17-member euro area.

Iceland’s growth “is driven by private consumption, investment has picked up strongly and even though, when you look at net exports, those have a negative contribution to growth, it is mainly because imports have been strong, reflecting strong consumption and an increase in income and the healthy expectations of households,” Zakharova said. “Still, exports have been increasing very strongly. Last year was a banner year for tourism. These are all really positive things.”

So basically if  you stop bailing out banks and put bankers in jail for their crimes your economy will recover? No shit!

[Quote]:

Gawker has obtained a large cache of confidential internal financial documents from more than 20 secretive hedge funds and other investment vehicles in which Mitt Romney has stashed his considerable wealth. All told, the partnerships and limited liability corporations detailed below accounted for, at minimum, $10,069,000 of Romney’s assets in 2011 and yielded $913,300 in income, according to his 2012 financial disclosure (those figures are derived from adding up the low end of ranges Romney disclosed; the actual numbers could be astronomically higher).

Most of the entities are affiliated in one way or another with Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney ran from 1984 through 1999. According to his financial disclosures, the investments “were made pursuant to an agreement with Bain Capital regarding Romney’s retirement…. The agreement has expired but [Romney] retain[s] certain investments…made prior to the expiration of the agreement.” In other words, they are his retirement package from more than a decade ago, and continue to make him nearly a million (at minimum) dollars per year.

Ongoing attempts to find stuff in these files.

I wonder how many Bothans died bringing us this information…

[Quote]:

It’s a flagship consumer electronics store on Sydney’s George Street with smiling blue shirt-wearing sales staff, a minimalist design and smartphones and tablets that invite customers to pick up and play.

But according to Samsung, the new store – just a block from Apple’s Sydney store – was all its own idea. The company, renowned as a “fast follower” of the market leader, is doing little to dispel the notion that it is an Apple copycat.

[..]

Apple’s stores look similar to the new Samsung store but have wooden tables.

[Quote]:

Energy Source              Death Rate (deaths per TWh)
Coal – world average               161 (26% of world energy, 50% of electricity)
Coal – China                       278
Coal – USA                         15
Oil                                36  (36% of world energy)
Natural Gas                         4  (21% of world energy)
Biofuel/Biomass                    12
Peat                               12
Solar (rooftop)                     0.44 (less than 0.1% of world energy)
Wind                                0.15 (less than 1% of world energy)
Hydro                               0.10 (europe death rate, 2.2% of world energy)
Hydro - world including Banqiao)    1.4 (about 2500 TWh/yr and 171,000 Banqiao dead)
Nuclear                             0.04 (5.9% of world energy)

[Quote]:

There are a lot of people out there that really like Nikola Tesla. And what’s not to like? The handsome mustachioed scientist invented the modern alternating current system that powers our offices and homes, poured the foundation for wireless communication technology, and used to hang out with Mark Twain in his laboratory. (That’s Tesla, above, sitting in his lab hanging out with some lightning.) Over the years, however, Tesla’s largely lived in the shadow his lauded nemesis, Thomas Edison, who not only gets most of the credit for pioneering electricity but became filthy rich in the process. So when Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal put out a call to raise money to buy the scientist’s old lab and turn it into a museum, Tesla fans showed up in droves. They hit their goal of $850,000 on Wednesday morning, and the money’s still rolling in.

[Quote]:

A man and his wife were treated as potential terrorists and kicked off a Delta Airlines flight over a satirical T-shirt because it made passengers and employees feel “very uncomfortable”.

[Quote]:

The researchers were studying ancient soil composition in an exposed Siberian riverbank in 1995 when they discovered the first of 70 fossilized Ice Age squirrel burrows, some of which stored up to 800,000 seeds and fruits. Permafrost had preserved tissue from one species—a narrow-leafed campion plant—exceptionally well, so researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences recently decided to culture the cells to see if they would grow. Team leader Svetlana Yashina re-created Siberian conditions in the lab and watched as the refrigerated tissue sprouted buds that developed into 36 flowering plants within weeks.

[Quote]:

In December 2011, the German newspaper Heise described what it was like to be contacted by U+C. The first time the lawyers reached out, it said, they asked for a tidy sum of €650 to drop the case and offer the accused a confidentiality agreement. The second time, the fee went up to €1286.80.

Three strikes and you’re out, says U+C, which now says it plans to publish the names of some of the alleged offenders on its website.

In an added twist, the firm says it will start with those names whose IP addresses might suggest they are “touchy cases.” Porn downloads to internet connections located in church rectories and police stations might be the first to be identified, the lawyers have hinted, along with downloads to embassies of Arab countries.

U+C says it is within its legal rights to publish the names, even though the accused have not stood trial, thanks to a 2007 ruling of the German Constitutional Court that found it was permissible for law firms to publish the names of potential “opponents” for advertising purposes.