Here’s an excellent article from Vanity Fair about the Icelandic banking system.
It’s a 7 page article that gives insight into what happened in Iceland, how they came about banking, and how they approached it.
The author seems to have some bias against Iceland, but the article is still good nonetheless.
Some interesting points:
– The Gov’t regulates fishing. Each fishermen are given a limit of how many fish they can catch per season. That limit can be used as collateral to get a loan from a bank. ( i found that interesting )
– Icelandic male & females have an odd chemistry
– Icelandic banks bought companies they knew nothing about
– The folks in charge of financial services in Iceland had no financial background. Many were fishermen who randomly started trading
– Iceland pays their youth to study abroad and to get PhDs. Upon coming back to Iceland, they couldn’t find a use for their PhDs.
It is really interesting to see how their mentality costed them a nation.
India’s space program has been slowly gaining momentum. After launching numerous sattellites for commerical use, they have set their sights on the moon, literally. Their latest mission is to launch a probe to the moon. Specfically, they will jettison a device to the moon to create an impact that will result in moon dust flying around. The dust will be captured by the probe for analysis. The scientists hope to find minerals that may result in a new energy source.
Apparently, India’s space program has proven to be a positive investment. They claim they get a good return. This Newsweek article describes their remote sensing satellite and how it helped the people.
It argues that its space program has earned a return of $2 on every dollar invested by the government, according to Nair. For example, its remote sensing satellites, which map the Earth’s surface at a resolution of close to one meter, have helped find well water in dry regions, saving the government’s drill boring program $100 million.
That is very cool. Pres Abdul Kalam would be proud.
Random(e)pics 