Human Error Disasters
There is no simple way to completely eradicate human error from your business. Humans are not perfect; to expect 100% accuracy is unrealistic. However, accuracy is critical in many fields like healthcare or construction. When people in these fields make mistakes, not only are they putting individuals at risk, but the company is often also subject to a large fine or penalty. If your company doesn't have tools and systems in place to catch and correct human mistakes as well as ensuring proper training, you become vulnerable to a higher likelihood of workplace accidents, errors, and the corresponding fallout. By setting contingency plans to catch mistakes and fix them, your business is better protected.
Below, we share some of the more shocking human error disasters we've encountered, and the steps businesses can take to overcome them. Our intent is not to poke fun or make light of the tragedy, but to illustrate the importance of accuracy.
The Institute of Medicine estimates that at least 40,000 deaths per year are the result of medical errors. Though there may be multiple factors contributing, human error accounts for the majority of mistakes made including miscommunication between care team members, misreading patient files, inaccurate recording, or worst of all, illegible handwriting. When handwritten prescriptions thrived 7,000 deaths per year could be directly related to doctors' sloppy handwriting in the United States alone. Accurate handwriting now becomes a life-or-death issue for patients. Many countries have moved to digital methods of prescribing and authorizing prescriptions in order to overcome this, but not all countries can afford the luxury.
Famous engineering disasters such as the Hindenburg airship explosion, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster and fallout, and the sinking of the Titanic can all be attributed to forms ofhuman error: poor training or insufficient knowledge, incorrect math, and poor design that fails under stress.
These fatal disasters are well-taught in history books to illustrate the true potential of human errors. However, the daily hazards involved in constructing our bridges, roads, and homes didn't make it into the history books.
In the last five decades, construction made huge strides to safeguard employees from the hazards of the job. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, OSHA, is largely responsible for these changes. While construction site managers dread OSHA inspections and fines, the reality is that the administration's goal is to make workplaces safe.
[Related: The Real Life Importance of Training and Compliance]
In July of 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a supersonic airplane, crashed almost immediately after takeoff. The plane crashed into Gonesse, a suburb of Paris, killing all 109 passengers and 4 other people in the neighborhood. How? A strip of metal fell off a different plane and was left on the runway, blowing out one of 4590's tires. A large piece of rubber from the tire shot into the fuel tank under the wing, which is believed to have caused the full fuel tank to rupture from within. The leaking fuel ignited, and the fire brought the plane down.
Airplane security processes have tightened significantly in the last decade, including the steps that air traffic controllers must take to ensure that flight lanes are cleared. However, Boeing estimates that 70% of commercial airplane hull-loss accidents are the result of human error, so stronger training systems to check error and limit mistakes may be warranted.
Cybercrime is a newer threat affecting industries such as healthcare, security, and data information. Cyberattacks often result in users being locked out of their programs until they pay a ransom, or in other cases, private client information is sold on the black market. In July of 2019, Capital One announced that more than 100 million people's personal information was hacked: credit scores, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and income information.
Much of cybercrime relies on human error. In fact, 99% of targeted cyber attacks in 2018 relied on an inside person's interaction to execute. From clicking on an unsecured link from a stranger to leaving yourself logged in on a secure server, many cyber attackers wait for a human mistake that leaves the system exposed. By creating strong training programs and updating your team on the latest trends in cybercrime, a business can prevent many of the mistakes that cyber attackers rely on to execute their attacks.
Human error is inevitable but can be overcome. Putting plans in place to double-check for errors is critical, but it's just as important for your business to have contingency plans in place for when mistakes are made. Proper training is a crucial component that can help prevent and reduce human error disasters. By using a tool such as Training Tracker you can ensure that all training requirements are met and documented, and accurate reports can be generated in the event it is ever needed for official inspection. Try Training Tracker risk-free for 30 days and see how it can help reduce the risk of human error for your team.
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Posts Tagged	→ music
Coachella Could Be Headed To New York City
posted in Music	on	 September 30, 2015	 by	Jim	0 Comments
According to multiple reports, AEG, the guys behind Coachella, are vetting a park in Queens for a brand new musical festival called "Panorama".
This isn't AEG's first dip into the NYC festival market. They launched "All Points West" festival back in 2008 but ended up shutting down the fest after just 2 years.
Reports say the festival would kick off in June of 2016, which put its right on the heels of fellow NYC festival "Governor's Ball". We'll have to wait and see if two festivals can co-exsist with such little time between them.
We'll be keeping an eye out for any more details, including a lineup, as they become available.
Read more at Consequence of Sound
Q101 Has More Than One Alternative
posted in Alternative Rock, Music	on	 September 24, 2015	 by	Sal Amato	0 Comments
Why listen to just one version of Q101 when you can get so much more.
Q101.com features all the classic Q101 you remember from all the different generations of its existence.
Enjoy any of them in the Q101 app or listen below
Classic Alternative (90s)
All Alternatives (Today's modern rock alternative and Q101 classics)
All Hard Rock (Godsmack, Pantera, Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold Etc.)
Corey Taylor Plays Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake & More On Q101
posted in Music, People	on	 September 23, 2015	 by	Jim	0 Comments
Remember when Corey Taylor took over Q101? We sure do and we have video in case you don't.
Taylor is known for turning up the volume with his bands Slipknot and Stone Sour but when he comes to Q101 he's known for…MJ?
Believe it or not Corey's iPod is full of one thing and one thing only…Jams.
Check out the video and let us know what you think about Corey's music selection below:
Muse Announces World Tour, New Stage Set-Up
English Electro-rockers Muse has quickly earned the reputation of pushing the boundaries of stage set-up and production.
Announced today, the band's latest tour will start off with a tour of the west coast and feature the band "in the round" for the first time ever.
"In the round" means the band will perform from the middle of the arena, allowing for 360 degrees audio/visual experience.
There's no Chicago date just yet…but we're confident the band will get close enough to the city to check out this already intriguing show.
Here's the announced tour dates:
December 13, 2015 Portland, OR Moda Center On Sale 9/25
December 15, 2015 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena On Sale 9/25
December 16, 2015 San Diego, CA Valley View Casino Center On Sale 9/25
December 18, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center On Sale 9/25
Check out www.muse.mu for more information.
R.E.M Bans Donald Trump For Using One Of Their Songs
Photo via Twitter
It may not be the "end of the world as we know it" but it certainly is the end for Donald Trump using R.E.M songs during his Presidential campaign.
Trump recently used R.E.M's 1987 hit "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" at one of his campaign rallies…but neglected to get permission for it.
The band took to Facebook and posted a response asking the candidates to stop using their music.
"While we do not authorize or condone the use of our music at this political event, and do ask that these candidates cease and desist from doing so, let us remember that there are things of greater importance at stake here. The media and the American voter should focus on the bigger picture, and not allow grandstanding politicians to distract us from the pressing issues of the day and of the current Presidential campaign."
-R.E.M."
While the band's Facebook message was kept PG, frontman Michael Stipe took to Twitter with some thoughts of his own.
"Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you–you sad, attention grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your 1)
— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) September 9, 2015
…moronic charade of a campaign."–Michael Stipe — Mike Mills (@m_millsey) September 9, 2015
Twitter Photos Hint At New Radiohead Album
posted in Music	on	 September 9, 2015	 by	Jim	0 Comments
Photo via Consequence of Sound
A string of vague, and now deleted, twitter photos has fans speculating over a new Radiohead album.
The photos were tweeted by composer Robert Ziegler, who worked with the band on their last album "The King of Limbs" in 2011.
It has been rumored that the band is getting ready to release their 9th studio album this fall and a recent interview with drummer Phil Selway seems to confirm that rumor.
The photos, which feature a full orchestra, could be the all the evidence fans need.


Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/f/pst596.html
My authors Follow this author
Iryna Stewen
First Name: Iryna
Middle Name: S.
Last Name: Stewen
RePEc Short-ID: pst596
Terminal Degree: 2010 Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre; Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakutät; Universität Zürich (from RePEc Genealogy)
Volkswirtschaftslehre-Lehrstühle
Gutenberg School of Management and Economics
Mainz, Germany
http://wiwi.uni-mainz.de/vwl.html
RePEc:edi:vlmaide (more details at EDIRC)
Jump to: Working papers Articles
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen & Michael Stiefel, 2021. "Growing like Germany: local public debt, local banks, low private investment," ECON - Working Papers 380, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jul 2021.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Stewen, Iryna & Stiefel, Michael, 2021. "Growing Like Germany: Local Public Debt, Local Banks, Low Private Investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 15912, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen & Michael Stiefel, 2021. "Growing Like Germany: Local Public Debt, Local Banks, Low Private Investment," Working Papers 2103, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Maslov, Egor & Sørensen, Bent E & Stewen, Iryna, 2018. "Are Banking and Capital Markets Union Complements? Evidence from Channels of Risk Sharing in the Eurozone," CEPR Discussion Papers 13254, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Mathias Hoffmann & Egor Maslov & Bent E. Sørensen & Iryna Stewen, 2018. "Are banking and capital markets union complements? Evidence from channels of risk sharing in the eurozone," ECON - Working Papers 311, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
Stewen, Iryna, 2016. "Banking Deregulation and Growth: A Reappraisal," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145586, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen, 2014. "Holes in the Dike: the global savings glut, U.S. house prices and the long shadow of banking deregulation," ECON - Working Papers 183, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen, 2020. "Holes in the Dike: The Global Savings Glut, U.S. House Prices, and the Long Shadow of Banking Deregulation," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 2013-2055.
Stewen, Iryna & Hoffmann, Mathias, 2015. "Holes in the Dike: the global savings glut, U.S. house prices and the long shadow of banking deregulation," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112834, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen, 2015. "Holes in the Dike: The Global Savings Glut, U.S. House Prices and the Long Shadow of Banking Deregulation," CESifo Working Paper Series 5332, CESifo.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Stewen, 2016. "Holes in the Dike: the global savings glut, U.S. house prices and the long shadow of banking deregulation," CAMA Working Papers 2016-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Stewen, Iryna, 2015. "Holes in the Dike: the global savings glut, U.S. house prices and the long shadow of banking deregulation," HIT-REFINED Working Paper Series 27, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
Stewen, Iryna, 2014. "Is Real Exchange Rate Hedging Motive Still Important in Determining Equity Home Bias?," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100571, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Shcherbakova, 2009. "Consumption Risk Sharing over the Business Cycle: the Role of Small Firms' Access to Credit Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 2544, CESifo.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Shcherbakova-Stewen, 2011. "Consumption Risk Sharing over the Business Cycle: The Role of Small Firms' Access to Credit Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1403-1416, November.
Mathias Hoffmann & Iryna Shcherbakova, 2008. "Consumption risk sharing over the business cycle: the role of small firms' access to credit markets," IEW - Working Papers 363, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
Mathias Hoffmann & Egor Maslov & Bent E. Sørensen & Iryna Stewen, 2019. "Channels of Risk Sharing in the Eurozone: What Can Banking and Capital Market Union Achieve?," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 443-495, September.
Many of the citations below have been collected in an experimental project, CitEc, where a more detailed citation analysis can be found. These are citations from works listed in RePEc that could be analyzed mechanically. So far, only a minority of all works could be analyzed. See under "Corrections" how you can help improve the citation analysis.
Cited by:
Morais, Bernardo & Perez-Estrada, Javier & Peydró, José Luis & Ruiz-Ortega, Claudia, 2021. "Expansionary Austerity: Reallocating Credit Amid Fiscal Consolidation," CEPR Discussion Papers 16511, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Morais,Bernardo,Perez-Estrada,Javier,Peydró,José-Luis,Ruiz Ortega,Claudia, 2021. "Expansionary Austerity : Reallocating Credit Amid Fiscal Consolidation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9655, The World Bank.
Bernardo Morais & José-Luis Peydró & Claudia Ruiz-Ortega, 2021. "Expansionary Austerity: Reallocating Credit Amid Fiscal Consolidation," International Finance Discussion Papers 1323, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
Gaetano Basso & Francesco D'Amuri & Giovanni Peri, 2019. "Immigrants, Labor Market Dynamics and Adjustment to Shocks in the Euro Area," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 528-572, September.
Gaetano Basso & Francesco D'Amuri & Giovanni Peri, 2018. "Immigrants, labor market dynamics and adjustment to shocks in the Euro Area," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1195, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
Gaetano Basso & Francesco D'Amuri & Giovanni Peri, 2018. "Immigrants, Labor Market Dynamics and Adjustment to Shocks in the Euro Area," NBER Working Papers 25091, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Joseba Martinez & Thomas Philippon & Markus Sihvonen, 2019. "Does a Currency Union Need a Capital Market Union? Risk Sharing via Banks and Markets," NBER Working Papers 26026, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Martinez, Joseba & Philippon, Thomas & Sihvonen, Markus, 2019. "Does a Currency Union Need a Capital Market Union? Risk Sharing via Banks and Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 14220, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Badarau, Cristina & Carias, Marcos & Figuet, Jean-Marc, 2020. "Cross-border spillovers of macroprudential policy in the Euro area," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-13.
Herzberg, Valerie & McQuade, Peter, 2018. "International bank flows and bank business models since the crisis," Financial Stability Notes 5/FS/18, Central Bank of Ireland.
Jokivuolle, Esa & Virén, Matti, 2019. "Cross-border loan portfolio diversification, capital requirements, and the European Banking Union," BoF Economics Review 3/2019, Bank of Finland.
Daisuke Ikeda & Toan Phan & Timothy Sablik, 2020. "Asset Bubbles and Global Imbalances," Richmond Fed Economic Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 20, pages 1-4, January.
Daisuke Ikeda & Toan Phan, 2019. "Asset Bubbles and Global Imbalances," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 209-251, July.
Daisuke Ikeda & Toan Phan, 2018. "Asset Bubbles and Global Imbalances," Working Paper 18-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Mathias Hoffmann & Lilia Ruslanova, 2020. "Softening the blow: U.S. state-level banking deregulation and sectoral reallocation after the China trade shock," ECON - Working Papers 365, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Apr 2021.
Mathias Hoffmann & Lilia Ruslanova, 2021. "Softening the Blow: U.S. State-Level Banking Deregulation and Sectoral Reallocation after the China Trade Shock," CESifo Working Paper Series 8913, CESifo.
Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," Working Papers Series inetwp124, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Bartscher, Alina & Kuhn, Moritz & Schularick, Moritz & Steins, Ulrike, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," CEPR Discussion Papers 14667, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," CESifo Working Paper Series 8273, CESifo.
Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 015, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," Staff Reports 924, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Torsten Ehlers & Mathias Hoffmann & Alexander Raabe, 2020. "Non-US global banks and dollar (co-)dependence: how housing markets became internationally synchronized," ECON - Working Papers 374, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
Torsten Ehlers & Mathias Hoffmann & Alexander Raabe, 2020. "Non-US global banks and dollar (co-)dependence: how housing markets became internationally synchronized," IHEID Working Papers 18-2020, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
Torsten Ehlers & Mathias Hoffmann & Alexander Raabe, 2020. "Non-US global banks and dollar (co-)dependence: how housing markets became internationally synchronized," BIS Working Papers 897, Bank for International Settlements.
Catão, Luís A.V. & te Kaat, Daniel Marcel, 2021. "Capital account liberalization and the composition of bank liabilities," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
Luís A.V. Catão & Daniel Marcel te Kaat, 2018. "Capital Account Liberalization and the Composition of Bank Liabilities," Working Papers REM 2018/53, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
Mathias Hoffmann & Egor Maslov & Bent E. Sørensen, 2021. "Small firms and domestic bank dependence in Europe's Great Recession," ECON - Working Papers 397, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Maslov, Egor & Sørensen, Bent E, 2019. "Small Firms and Domestic Bank Dependence in Europe's Great Recession," CEPR Discussion Papers 13691, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Mathias Hoffmann & Egor Maslov & Bent E. Sørensen, 2019. "Small firms and domestic bank dependence in Europe's great recession," CAMA Working Papers 2019-76, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Maslov, Egor & Sørensen, Bent E., 2022. "Small firms and domestic bank dependence in Europe's great recession," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
Mathias Hoffmann & Egor Maslov & Bent E. Sørensen, 2019. "Small Firms and Domestic Bank Dependence in Europe's Great Recession," CESifo Working Paper Series 7897, CESifo.
Mathias Hoffmann & Bent E. Sorensen, 2015. "Small Firms and Domestic Bank Dependence in Europe's Great Recession," European Economy - Discussion Papers 2015 - 012, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
Franziska Bremus & Thomas Krause & Felix Noth, 2021. "Lender-Specific Mortgage Supply Shocks and Macroeconomic Performance in the United States," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1936, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
Bednarek, Peter & Ma, Chang & Rebucci, Alessandro & Te Kaat, Daniel Marcel, 2019. "Capital Flows, Real Estate, and Local Cycles: Evidence from German Cities, Banks, and Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 14187, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Peter Bednarek & Daniel Marcel te Kaat & Chang Ma & Alessandro Rebucci, 2020. "Capital Flows, Real Estate, and Local Cycles: Evidence from German Cities, Banks, and Firms," NBER Working Papers 26820, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Bednarek, Peter & te Kaat, Daniel Marcel & Ma, Chang & Rebucci, Alessandro, 2019. "Capital flows, real estate, and local cycles: Evidence from German cities, banks, and firms," Discussion Papers 45/2019, Deutsche Bundesbank.
Peter Bednarek & Daniel Marcel te Kaat & Chang Ma & Alessandro Rebucci, 2021. "Capital Flows, Real Estate, and Local Cycles:Evidence from German Cities, Banks, and Firms," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(10), pages 5077-5134.
Elena Carletti & Steven Ongena & Jan-Peter Siedlarek & Giancarlo Spagnolo, 2019. "The Impact of Stricter Merger Control on Bank Mergers and Acquisitions. Too-Big-To-Fail and Competition," Working Papers 16-14R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
Carletti, Elena & Ongena, Steven & Siedlarek, Jan-Peter & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2020. "The Impacts of Stricter Merger Legislation on Bank Mergers and Acquisitions: Too-Big-To-Fail and Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 14449, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Carletti, Elena & Ongena, Steven & Siedlarek, Jan-Peter & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2021. "The impacts of stricter merger legislation on bank mergers and acquisitions: Too-Big-To-Fail and competition," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
Alexander Raabe & Christiane Kneer, 2019. "Tracking Foreign Capital: The Effect of Capital Inflows on Bank Lending in the UK," IHEID Working Papers 10-2019, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
Christiane Kneer & Alexander Raabe, 2019. "Tracking foreign capital: the effect of capital inflows on bank lending in the UK," ECON - Working Papers 326, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
Kneer, Christiane & Raabe, Alexander, 2019. "Tracking foreign capital: the effect of capital inflows on bank lending in the UK," Bank of England working papers 804, Bank of England.
Bremus, Franziska & Krause, Thomas & Noth, Felix, 2021. "Lender-specific mortgage supply shocks and macroeconomic performance in the United States," IWH Discussion Papers 3/2021, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
Markus Leibrecht & Johann Scharler, 2009. "Banks, Financial Markets and International Consumption Risk Sharing," Economics working papers 2009-14, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
Markus Leibrecht & Johann Scharler, 2012. "Banks, Financial Markets and International Consumption Risk Sharing," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 13(3), pages 331-351, August.
Markus Leibrecht & Johann Scharler, 2009. "Banks, Financial Markets and International Consumption Risk Sharing," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp128, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
Leibrecht Markus & Scharler Johann, 2012. "Banks, Financial Markets and International Consumption Risk Sharing," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 331-351, August.
Leibrecht, Markus & Scharler, Johann, 2009. "Banks, financial markets, and international consumption risk sharing," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 128, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Ho, Chun-Yu & Ho, Wai-Yip Alex & Li, Dan, 2015. "Intranational risk sharing and its determinants," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 89-113.
Fratzscher, Marcel & Imbs, Jean, 2007. "Risk sharing, finance and institutions in international portfolios," Working Paper Series 826, European Central Bank.
Fratzscher, Marcel & Imbs, Jean, 2009. "Risk sharing, finance, and institutions in international portfolios," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 428-447, December.
Fratzscher, Marcel & Imbs, Jean, 2007. "Risk Sharing, Finance and Institutions in International Portfolios," CEPR Discussion Papers 6496, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Esposito, Federico, 2019. "Demand Risk and Diversification through Trade," MPRA Paper 99875, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Federico Esposito, 2019. "Demand Risk and Diversification through Trade," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0833, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
Esposito, Federico, 2020. "Demand Risk and Diversification through Trade," MPRA Paper 100511, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Halla, Martin & Scharler, Johann, 2008. "Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing," IZA Discussion Papers 3744, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
Martin Halla & Johann Scharler, 2012. "Marriage, Divorce, and Interstate Risk Sharing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(1), pages 55-78, March.
Martin Halla & Johann Scharler, 2008. "Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing," Economics working papers 2008-16, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
Martin Halla & Johann Scharler, 2008. "Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing," NRN working papers 2008-03, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
Mathias Hoffmann & Thomas Nitschka, 2008. "Securitization of Mortgage Debt, Asset Prices and International Risk Sharing," IEW - Working Papers 376, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
Mathias Hoffmann & Thomas Nitschka, 2009. "Securitization of Mortgage Debt, Asset Prices and International Risk Sharing," CESifo Working Paper Series 2527, CESifo.
Esposito, Federico, 2020. "Demand Risk and Diversification through International Trade," MPRA Paper 100865, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Buch, Claudia M. & Körner, Tobias & Weigert, Benjamin, 2013. "Towards deeper financial integration in Europe: What the Banking Union can contribute," Working Papers 02/2013, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
Buch, Claudia M. & Körner, Tobias & Weigert, Benjamin, 2014. "Towards deeper financial integration in Europe: What the Banking Union can contribute," Working Papers 02/2013 [rev.], German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
Buch, Claudia M. & Körner, Tobias & Weigert, Benjamin, 2013. "Towards Deeper Financial Integration in Europe: What the Banking Union Can Contribute," IWH Discussion Papers 13/2013, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
Claudia M. Buch & Tobias Körner & Benjamin Weigert, 2015. "Towards Deeper Financial Integration in Europe: What the Banking Union Can Contribute," Credit and Capital Markets, Credit and Capital Markets, vol. 48(1), pages 11-49.
Thomas Nitschka, 2012. "Banking sectors' international interconnectedness: Implications for consumption risk sharing in Europe," Working Papers 2012-04, Swiss National Bank.
Nitschka, Thomas, 2011. "Banking sectors' international interconnectedness: Implications for consumption risk sharing in Europe," VfS Annual Conference 2011 (Frankfurt, Main): The Order of the World Economy - Lessons from the Crisis 48684, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
Dennis, William J, 2008. "Small Business Access to Credit: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," Working Papers 2008:1, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum.
Gilles Dufrénot & Jean-Baptiste Gossé & Caroline Clerc, 2021. "Risk sharing in Europe: new empirical evidence on the capital markets channel," Post-Print hal-02978130, HAL.
Dufrénot Gilles & Gossé Jean-Baptiste & Clerc Caroline, 2020. "Risk Sharing in Europe: New Empirical Evidence on the Capital Markets Channel," Working papers 781, Banque de France.
Gilles Dufrénot & Jean-Baptiste Gossé & Caroline Clerc, 2021. "Risk sharing in Europe: new empirical evidence on the capital markets channel," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 262-276, January.
Stephen Teng Sun & Constantine Yannelis, 2016. "Credit Constraints and Demand for Higher Education: Evidence from Financial Deregulation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(1), pages 12-24, March.
Teng Sun, Stephen & Yannelis, Constantine, 2013. "Credit Constraints and Demand for Higher Education: Evidence from Financial Deregulation," MPRA Paper 48726, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Curatola, Giuliano, 2017. "Optimal portfolio choice with loss aversion over consumption," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 345-358.
Nitschka, Thomas, 2010. "Securitization, collateral constraints and consumption risk sharing in the euro area," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 197-199, March.
Rangvid, Jesper & Santa-Clara, Pedro & Schmeling, Maik, 2016. "Capital market integration and consumption risk sharing over the long run," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 27-43.
Mathias Hoffmann, 2014. "The Consumption–Income Ratio, Entrepreneurial Risk, and the U.S. Stock Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(6), pages 1259-1292, September.
Christian Beer & Walter Waschiczek, 2018. "Capital markets union: a more diverse financial landscape in the EU?," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q2/18, pages 71-86.
Vidhi Chhaochharia & George M. Korniotis & Alok Kumar, 2020. "Prozac for depressed states? Effect of mood on local economic recessions," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 245-274, April.
Prakash Loungani & Davide Furceri & Mai Dao, 2015. "Regional labor market adjustment in the United States," 2015 Meeting Papers 733, Society for Economic Dynamics.
Mai Dao & Davide Furceri & Mr. Prakash Loungani, 2014. "Regional Labor Market Adjustments in the United States," IMF Working Papers 2014/211, International Monetary Fund.
Davide Furceri & Ms. Aleksandra Zdzienicka, 2013. "The Euro Area Crisis: Need for a Supranational Fiscal Risk Sharing Mechanism?," IMF Working Papers 2013/198, International Monetary Fund.
Davide Furceri & Aleksandra Zdzienicka, 2015. "The Euro Area Crisis: Need for a Supranational Fiscal Risk Sharing Mechanism?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 683-710, September.
Federico Esposito, 2017. "Entrepreneurial Risk and Diversification through Trade," Working Papers w201714, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
Curatola, Giuliano, 2016. "Optimal consumption and portfolio choice with loss aversion," SAFE Working Paper Series 130, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
Federico Esposito, 2016. "Risk Diversification and International Trade," 2016 Meeting Papers 302, Society for Economic Dynamics.
Mai Dao & Davide Furceri & Prakash Loungani, 2017. "Regional Labor Market Adjustment in the United States: Trend and Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(2), pages 243-257, May.
Cimadomo, Jacopo & Gordo Mora, Esther & Palazzo, Alessandra Anna, 2022. "Enhancing private and public risk sharing: lessons from the literature and reflections on the COVID-19 crisis," Occasional Paper Series 306, European Central Bank.
See citations under working paper version above.
Hannes Böhm & Julia Schaumburg & Lena Tonzer, 2022. "Financial Linkages and Sectoral Business Cycle Synchronization: Evidence from Europe," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 70(4), pages 698-734, December.
Marius Clemens & Stefan Gebauer & Tobias König, 2020. "The Macroeconomic Effects of a European Deposit (Re-) Insurance Scheme," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1873, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
Kohler, Wilhelm & Müller, Gernot J. & Wellmann, Susanne, 2021. "Risk sharing in currency unions: The migration channel," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 144, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
Kohler, Wilhelm K. & Müller, Gernot & Wellmann, Susanne, 2021. "Risk Sharing in Currency Unions: The Migration Channel," CEPR Discussion Papers 16178, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Wilhelm Kohler & Gernot Müller & Susanne Wellmann, 2021. "Risk Sharing in Currency Unions: The Migration Channel," CESifo Working Paper Series 8982, CESifo.
Antonia Díaz, 2020. "Common Fiscal Capacity Is Needed to Strengthen Risk Sharing," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 55(4), pages 215-219, July.
Alessandro Ferrari & Anna Rogantini Picco, 2022. "Risk Sharing and the Adoption of the Euro," Papers 2205.07009, arXiv.org.
Hoffmann, Mathias & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "'By a silken thread': Regional banking integration and credit reallocation during Japan's lost decade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
Mathias Hoffmann & Toshihiro Okubo, 2012. "'By a Silken Thread': regional banking integration and credit reallocation during Japan's Lost Decade," ECON - Working Papers 102, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised May 2021.
Kleimeier, Stefanie & Sander, Harald, 2022. "Twenty years with the Euro: Eurozone banking market integration revisited," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
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Case Result
Truck Accident Brain Injury Case Results in $5.5 Million Settlement Our Virginia truck accident injury law firm settled multiple cases stemming from a collision between our clients' car and a tractor-trailer. We obtained $5.5 million for one girl who suffered traumatic brain injuries and developed intellectual impairments.
$340,000 Arbitration Award for Man Who Suffered Traumatic Brain Injury From Crash Caused by Distracted Driver Our Virginia traumatic brain injury and car accident law firm secured a $340,000 injury and disability award for a human rights advocate and attorney who suffered traumatic brain injuries in a crash caused by a distracted medical van driver.
Boy's Brain Injury From Virginia Beach Drunk Driving Accident Results in Sizable Settlement Our Virginia car accident and brain injury law firm helped a family secure a large settlement from the insurance company of a second-offense drunk driver.
Brain Injured Client Receives $60M Following Train Derailment A jury awarded $46 million to our client, who suffered a life-altering brain injury and will require a long-term care. With interest, the total judgment came to $60 million.
$600,000 TBI Settlement for Norfolk, VA Woman After Crash With Car and Truck The at-fault driver's insurance and two forms of underinsured motorist coverage were tapped to secure our client total settlements of $600,000, the maximum allowed under each policy.
?What are some long-term consequences of a closed head injury?
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?What is a closed head injury?
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I would highly recommend Mr. Shapiro to any victim of a traumatic injury who is in need of an attorney they can trust. Mr. Shapiro will give your case the attention it deserves, regardless of the complexity of the legal issues, severity of the injuries or the final reward. L.M.
$10 Million TBI Sledding Lawsuit Filed in WA
A family from Bellingham, Washington (WA) is suing a local school district for $10 million after their son suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other injuries in a sledding accident on school property in 2011.
The boy, who was 10 at the time, was sledding on a hill behind the school when he slammed into a concrete barrier that is part of a baseball dugout. The school was closed at the time, and the boy was with a parent. In addition to a serious concussion, the child suffered facial fractures, broken teeth and kidney and liver lacerations.
He was flown to a local hospital and was treated for 30 days. The lawsuit states that the boy's brain injuries have caused him academic and social problems.
As TBI personal injury lawyers in Virginia, we know how devastating a traumatic brain injury can be to an adult or child. We have settled TBI cases many times, in one case for $46 million after a client suffered a TBI when a train derailed and smashed into his place of work. That changed his life forever, and his extensive brain damage meant that he needed a nurse for the rest of his life. Luckily, we were able to get him the financial compensation he needed and deserved.
Our Traumatic Brain Injury Guide is useful for those who have suffered a TBI and are not sure of the legal path forward.
We hope that the case above is reasonably settled; while the parent bears responsibility for allowing his child to sled at a closed school, the child does have medical needs that must be addressed.
by Randall E. Appleton


Starbucks, Emmet Place, in Cork City, is housed in the very elegant 'Queen Anne House'. This has unusual cornice shaped keystones over the windows which are interspaced with fine gauged brickwork. Inside, much of the detail is gone, and most rooms are stripped back to the brickwork. However it has character and an elegant period staircase remains. The building has been claimed to date from 1730.
In recent years, a large shopping centre has been built around and to the rear of the building which swamps its setting and makes it look a bit incongruous. The development also encroaches along its side in the form of a narrow glazed extension to the coffee shop and is attached at the rear. The effect is reminiscent of the extreme contrast between old and new found in places like Boston Massachusetts.


Kidney: Renal cell carcinoma: an overview
2003-06-01 Eva van den Berg , Stephan Storkel Affiliation
1.Clinical cytogeneticist, Department of Clinical Genetics, Academic Hospital Groningen, Ant. Deusinglaan 4, 9713 AW Groningen, the Netherlands
Renal cell cancer (RCC) constitutes a group of epithelial tumors that are highly heterogeneous with respect to morphology and clinical behaviour.
The major morphological classifications (WHO/AFIP; modified Mainz classification, and the Heidelberg classification) discriminate eight subtypes of renal cell tumors related to the basic cell types of the nephron from which they are derived, and in line with the genetic facts as presently understood:
1) metanephric adenoma and metanephric adenofibroma,2) papillary adenoma,3) renal oncocytoma, all three benign parenchymal neoplasms.
Malignant parenchymal neoplasms are:4) common or conventional (clear cell) renal carcinoma,5) papillary (formerly chromophilic or tubulopapillary) renal carcinoma,6) chromophobe renal carcinoma,7) collecting duct carcinoma, and8) renal cell carcinoma, unclassified.
Although common RCC and papillary RCC both are derived from the same part of the renal tubule and have a similar antigenic phenotype, they differ in genetic changes. This might be explained by the fact that common RCC arises from mature renal tubular cells, whereas papillary tumors are from embryonal origin.
Embryonic origin
In former times it was believed that certain clear cell epithelial renal tumors are derived from ectopic adreno-cortical elements as expressed by Virchow and advocated by Grawitz. This has led to the term hypernephroma or Grawitz tumor. Nowadays, there is evidence that the usual (nonembryonic) RCC in all its variants derives, in principle, from the mature uriniferous tubule (nephron). This evidence is corroborated by animal experiments and observation of pre-stages and early stages of epithelial renal tumors in human kidneys.
A specific factor in the etiology of RCC is not known at the moment, although a number of dietary, environmental factors, hormonal, celllular and genetic factors associated with increased risk. RCC consists of a number histologically defined entities which may occur either non-hereditary or hereditary, e.g. the influence of genetic factors in VHL disease, in hereditary papillary RCC and familial RCC.
RCC is the most common malignant tumor arising in the kidney and accounts for 2% of all new cancers diagnosed, representing 85% all primary renal neoplasms in adults. RCC affects males twice as often as females and shows a peak in the sixth decade. Although rarely, RCC can occur in children and adolescents. There is no clear geographical or ethnic preference. An increased incidence of RCC has been associated with end-stage renal disease and with acquired cystic kidney disease. RCCs are often large at detection and frequently already have metastasized.
The present classification is primarily based on cytologic appearance and the cell type of origin in combination with growth pattern and genetic alterations.
Common (or non papillary or clear cell) RCC is the most common form of RCC, comprising 70-75% of cases.They show a male preponderance of 2:1. The tumor mass of common RCC is multicolored, with a predominantly yellow cur surface with white or gray foci. The tumor shows a solid growth pattern, but in some cases cystic appearance is seen. The cytoplasm is clear, due to an intensive intracytoplasmatic accumulation of glycogen and lipids. Usually, the nuclei are condensed and hyperchromatic. Electronmicroscopical features resembling the proximale tubule can be found i.e. brush border formation and basal infoldings. Tumor cells express antigens of the proximal tubule.
Papillary (or chromophilic) cell tumors (thought to arise from the proximal tubule) comprise 10-15% of RCC cases. Papillary RCC can be devided in adenomas and carcinomas. The adenomas tend to beige- to white colored small tumor masses whereas the carcinomas show an extensive greasy-brown colored central necrosis resulting from consecutive hemorrhages. The tumor cells exhibit centrally located small nuclei and the cytoplasm is contains few organelles only, especially endoplasmatic reticulum. As a rule the tumor cells are arranged in a (tubulo) papillary architecture.
For both common and papillary RCC, hereditary as well as sporadic cases of papillary RCC have been found. Hereditary RCC is characterized by the appearance of multiple and bilateral tumors and an early age of onset.
The chromophobic type (2-5%) resembles the intercalated cells type B from the cortical collecting duct. The antigen profiles of the chromophobic tumor exhibit collecting duct phenotypic features. No male preponderance is found. Chromophobic RCC consists of one or more solid tumor nodules with a slightly lobulated surface and the cut surface appears orange. The tumor cells are polygonal with a transparent, not clear, but reticulated cytoplasm. Nuclei are moderate with clear nucleoli. Ultrastructurally, the cytoplasm is crowded with glycogen deposits and numerous, sometimes invaginated, vesicles. Chromophobic RCC is diagnosed by a positive Hales acid iron colloid stain and is positive for carbonic anhydrase C, but does not express band-3 protein.
Renal oncocytoma (thought to arise from the distal nephron) comprises 5% of RCC and shows a 2.5:1 male to female ratio. Renal oncocytomas are solitary, well circumscribed, slightly lobulated solid tumors with a tan-brown cut surface and in larger tumors a central scar. The tumor cells show abundant granular eosinophilic cytoplasm and arranged in solid nests.The nuclei are generally round. Ultrastructurally, the cytoplasm is packed with numerous mitochondria. Renal oncocytomas find their origin in the intercalated cells type A of the cortical collecting tubule, which is substantiated by the shared expression of carbonic anhydrase C and band-3 protein.
Collecting duct (duct Bellini) RCC comprises 1% and is closely related to the princi-pal cells of the medullary collecting duct. These tumors are usually localized in the renal medulla and white colored. The growth pattern is mainly tubular. The tumor cells have a basophilic cytoplasm due to pronounced formation of endoplasmatic reticulum and glycogen deposits. Nuclei are anaplastic.
Variants can be assigned to all these basic types which are characterized by augmentation of mitochondria leading to a stronger eosinophilia or granularity, respectively, of the cytoplasm. Spindle-shaped/pleomorphic variants as a result of sarcomatoid transformation can also be deduced from all the basic types.
The differential diagnosis between renal cell adenomas and carcinomas has been a matter of controversy for long time. Although initially Bells rule generally was followed (3 cm: carcinoma), this appeared unreliable and is still a matter of debate.
The standard treatment for RCC is surgery by radical or partial nephrectomy. At present there is no effective therapy for metastatic RCC and patients with irresectable disease have a poor prognosis.
About 50% of patients with localized disease progress with distant metastasis.
The anatomic extent of the disease represented by stage of disease is the single most important indicator of prognosis in RCC.
Cytogenetically, no differences are observed between hereditary tumors (usually presenting as multiple/bilateral tumors at an early age of onset) and sporadic papillary tumors.
Increasing evidence exists on the presence of clonal, mostly numerical, chromosomal changes in apparantly normal kidney tissue from patients with a normal constitutional karyotype like trisomy 7, 5, 8, 10, 18 and loss of the Y chromosome. These changes are not an in vitro artefact and are independent of the length of cell culture. The presence of clonal and non clonal aberrations in apparantly normal kidney tissue merely indicates a chromosome instability pattern or mosaicism, and this condition should not be considered as strictly neoplastic.
The most frequently encountered RCC subtype is common or conventional type renal cell cancer characterized by loss of (part of) the short arm of chromosome 3 due to (a) deletion(s) or unbalanced translocation(s). Regions frequently lost are are 3p12-14, 3p21 and 3p25. Loss of at least two of these regions are necessary for kidney cells to develop into common type renal cell carcinoma, and loss of 3p21 is obligatory. Therefore, if a tumor shows only one deletion at 3p, either 3p14 or 3p25, it should be designated common type renal cell adenomas.
Other aberrations frequently found incommon RCC are (partial) trisomy of chromosome 5, especially the 5q22-qter segment. Trisomy 12, and 20, and loss of chromosomes 8, 9, 13q, 14q, and structural abnormalities of the long arm of chromosomes 6 and 10 are also found and correlated with progression.
Most papillary renal adenomas and carcinomas are characterized by a unique combination of autosomal trisomies with trisomy 17. Papillary adenomas specifically show a -Y,+7,+17 chromosomal pattern as well as trisomy 3 or gain of the long arm of chromosome 3, probably reflecting malignant transformation. Trisomy of chromosomes 12, 16, 20 as well as loss of the extra copy of chromosome 17 or loss of 17p are associated with progression from the adenoma into the carcinoma stage, i.e. papillary renal cell carcinomas. The high incidence of loss of the Y chromosome combined with the strong male preponderance suggests that loss of specific sequences harboured on the Y chromosome probably is important for developing this subtype.
A small subset of papillary RCC is characterized by X; autosome translocations. The t(X;1)(p11.2;q21), resulting in a fusion of the transcription factor TFE3 on the X chromosome, with a novel gene, designated PRCC, on chromosome 1, appears to be a specific primary anomaly characterizing a distinct subgroup of papillary RCC with common RCC like features as clear cytoplasma. These tumors occur preferentially in young (male) adults and children.
Metanephric adenoma or adenofibroma shows gain of chromosomes 7 and 17 with Y chromosome loss suggesting a relationship with papillary renal cell adenomas and carcinomas.
In renal oncocytoma several genetic subsets can be distinghuished: one with mixed populations of normal and abnormal karyotypes without any cytogenetic similarity (yet), a group defined by (variant) translocations involving 11q13, and one with specifically defined numerical anomalies, in particular loss of chromosomes 1, and Y/X.
The finding of mitochondrial DNA changes and the loss of Y/X in both renal oncocytoma and chromophobe carcinoma might indicate progression from renal oncocytoma to chromophobe renal cell carcinomas through additional chromosome losses, also explaining the occasionally malignant behavior of renal oncocytomas.
Chromophobe renal carcinomas show multiple losses of entire chromosomes, i.e. loss of chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 10, 13, 17, 21, and the Y or X chromosome, leading to a low chromosome number.
Collecting duct carcinomas do not show consistent chromosomal abnormalities as yet: probably involvement of the short arm of chromosome 8 related to poor prognosis and loss of the long arm of chromosome 13 as well as loss of part of the long arm of chromosome 1q32.
Losses of chromosome1 material seem to be a hallmark for all distal nephron tumors.
Sarcomatoid transformation in RCC represents the highest form of dedifferentiation and can in principle be derived from all the basic cell types. Cytogenetic data on sarcomatoid RCC is scarce: some show structural abnormalities of chromosomes 1, 5, 16, and 19 and losses of 3p, 4(q), 6q, 8p, 9, 13, 14, 17p, and gain of 5, 12, and 20 as well as TP53 mutations.
The most frequent occurring RCC is common RCC characterized by loss of (part) of the short arm of chromosome 3 due to a deletion or unbalanced translocation and restricted to this type. Until today no tumor suppressor gene responsible for, or at least contributing to, cRCC has been identified -except for VHL-, in the different regions, although many candidate genes have been suggested such as FHIT(fragile histidine triad); TTRC1 (two-three-renal-cancer-1); DUTT1 (deleted in U-twenty twenty); locus NCR-1 (nonpapillary renal cell carcinoma 1) and RASSF1A (RAS association family 1).
In papillary RCC, the TP53 gene most likely does not play an important role, since no mutations of TP53 have been observed in this subtype. Microsatellite analysis revealed allelic duplications a.o. at 20q11.2 and 20q13.2 suggesting new tumor genes in papillary renal carcinoma. The MET proto oncogene, assigned to 7q31 and encoding the hepatocyte growth factor receptor/scatter factor implicated in the proliferation and invasiveness, has been found mutated in germline and somatic mutations in papillary renal tumors.
PTEN/MMAC1 (chromosome 10) inactivation may play a role in the progression of cRCC.
To be Noted
Animal model Eker rats with a germline inactivation of the TSC-2 tumor suppressor gene, develop RCC. Using this model, it was found that overexpression of transforming growth factor a is an early event in the development of RCC as it is seen in dysplasia and adenomas.
10723130 2000 Combined LOH/CGH analysis proves the existence of interstitial 3p deletions in renal cell carcinoma. Alimov A et al
11691851 2001 Identification and classification of differentially expressed genes in renal cell carcinoma by expression profiling on a global human 31,500-element cDNA array. Boer JM et al
12511666 2003 Hereditary renal cancers. Choyke PL et al
11390984 2001 The candidate tumor suppressor gene, RASSF1A, from human chromosome 3p21.3 is involved in kidney tumorigenesis. Dreijerink K et al
9390023 1997 The Heidelberg classification of renal cell tumours. Kovacs G et al
12407697 2002 Renal cancer: cytogenetic and molecular genetic aspects. Meloni-Ehrig AM et al
12404056 2002 Genetic progression of renal cell carcinoma. Moch H et al
8778606 1996 Renal-cell carcinoma. Motzer RJ et al
11493766 2001 The genetic basis of renal epithelial tumors: advances in research and its impact on prognosis and therapy. Phillips JL et al
12475646 2002 Molecular genetics and histopathologic features of adult distal nephron tumors. Polascik TJ et al
11832771 2002 Allelic loss on chromosomes 8 and 9 correlates with clinical outcome in locally advanced clear cell carcinoma of the kidney. Presti JC Jr et al
9307203 1997 Classification of renal cell carcinoma: Workgroup No. 1. Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). Störkel S et al
11493696 2001 Gene expression profiling of clear cell renal cell carcinoma: gene identification and prognostic classification. Takahashi M et al
11144893 2000 Precancerous lesions in the kidney. Van Poppel H et al
12011252 2002 Intragenic PTEN/MMAC1 loss of heterozygosity in conventional (clear-cell) renal cell carcinoma is associated with poor patient prognosis. Velickovic M et al
11337362 2001 Expression profiling of renal epithelial neoplasms: a method for tumor classification and discovery of diagnostic molecular markers. Young AN et al
10597377 1999 Classification of renal cell cancer based on (cyto)genetic analysis. van den Berg E et al
OMIM database
Eva van den Berg ; Stephan Storkel
Online version: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/solid-tumor/5021/kidney-renal-cell-carcinoma-an-overview


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Napoleon defeated, God dead, confidence up: How one London church reveals our secret history
This is a short story about what really happens to the things we think are permanent and powerful. And how they may not be at all what they seem.
In 1818, the British Government announced a bonanza of one million pounds to be spent on celebrating victory over Napoleon. Buildings, events, whatever. But make it impressive.
One result was a rash of 'Waterloo churches' such as Holy Trinity Church in Marylebone – designed and built by Sir John Soane, and completed in 1826.
(The picture shows its second, outdoor pulpit: a ballsy move amid the noise and thoroughfare, like a rock band promoting a new album by playing loud from the back of a truck. Turn heads, stop traffic. Or perhaps it was a desperate move. More of that in a moment.)
Yet once it was finished in 1826, the church saw service for barely100 years.
By the 1930s, it was derelict. By 1936, it had been retooled as a warehouse for Penguin Books, who figured they could store inventory for longer in its dry, dark crypt. The crypt was down some stairs, lower than delivery vehicles or wheeled trolleys could get. So they put a slide from a children's playground going from the street down into the darkness below, and used that as a book chute.
Since the second world war, it's been an art installation space (once exhibiting a piece involving a crucified ape), and a Christian publishing office. There are currently proposals to redevelop the building's interior, and turn it into a shopping arcade.
The building itself is a blank page. Every age has written its own narrative of very different kinds of redemption and salvation on it.
First, relief at the defeat of Napoleon and the need to manifest the national feel-good factor. Then, with the addition of the street pulpit, the crisis of faith and the urgent need for 19th-century Anglicanism to attract new adherents out there – to propagandise against Darwin and Owen and the ebbing of the tide, to save the religion itself by street preaching to the masses.
It was a books warehouse for Penguin amid the great rise in literacy, with the boom of state education, and the pressing need to serve affordable books to this new, empowered readership, lifted from the slums.
Post-war, as attendance lapsed, it became offices – a manifestation of the property developer phenomenon that promised to take all that was old and make it new. The regeneration of space.
And finally, the new national mission: shopping. Lift yourself and benefit the nation through consumer spend. Retail therapy as patriotic duty. Self service, customer service and service industry as the new national service; religious service, even.
After all, the term for converting money and credit into goods has always been "redemption".
Posted in History, Journalism	| Tagged History, London, politics	| 1 Reply
Zombies, punks & immigrants: What J.G. Ballard's 'High Rise' says about Britain in 2015
It's there if you look for it, snaking like mist around the tower blocks of West London, from Acton to Ladbroke Grove. An atmosphere. A message for us, maybe.
This part of London was the inspiration and setting for JG Ballard as he wrote his 1975 dystopian novel High Rise.
In the book, life for residents of a luxury high-rise development degenerates as they turn inwards, shutting off the world outside. Soon, the usual (1970s) assortment of malfunctioning elevators, power cuts, small annoyances, neighbourhood frictions, and petty tiffs spiral into terrifying violence along class and block floor lines. As factions develop and amplify, the block tumbles into savagery and eventually, cannibalism and total isolation.
So what? High Rise is a dystopian novel; one from 40 years ago. That's what they were like. What has it got to do with reality? And more to the point, what does it have to do with us?
The '70s was a time of huge anxiety around social cohesion. In Britain, it was the heyday of Class War, Punk, the National Front, and heightened paranoia about immigration, domestic and international terrorism and Britain's relationship with Europe. Fear of Armageddon was measured by the Doomsday Clock's minutes-to-midnight time. The Left, with the Labour Party having seemed so powerful, with a charismatic, modernising leader (for Tony Blair, read Harold Wilson) until so recently, was fragmenting, running out of steam, and turning on itself.
Across the developed West, recession and stagnation combined with high rates of urbanisation and urban development (all those high rises) to put fear of urban crime at an all time high. Ballard's Britain in the early 1970s was beset by power cuts, strikes, and shortages of everything from bread to water. Industrial action caused backlogs of refuse (striking binmen) and cadavers (striking cemetery workers). In 1975, New York City was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – so close that emergency services faced the prospect of paralysis. Public blocks went unrepaired, living conditions degenerated. The following year, West London saw the second wave of Notting Hill race riots. By 1977, New York had descended into lawlessness amid a blackout. The same summer saw the Battle of Lewisham, with National Front, locals and antifascists in pitched battles across South east London.
The social fabric, the contract we made with each other, seemed to be letting us down just when we needed it to protect and comfort us.
To those who remembered it a decade on, it must have seemed that Margaret Thatcher's "There is no such thing as society" was less a credo than a statement of fact. The masses were fundamentally hostile; or at least, they were in competition with us, for whatever we wanted to take for ourselves and our family. They were everywhere, and they wanted to raid our pockets: communists pushing redistribution of wealth at home; criminals on our streets; strikers on the shop floor; immigrants at the gates; Europeans around the negotiating table.
In this context, the Conservatives' famous Saatchi & Saatchi-produced 1979 General Election campaign poster, with its advancing, shuffling queue, looks very different.
This fear of the hordes, the masses – the Other, who looks like us but means us harm – was also behind the high 1970s' other big cultural explosion: the zombie movie.
A slow trickle had started a few years before against a backdrop of student riots, assassinations and impending anarchy with Night of the Living Dead (1968). But with the high '70s, the flood broke. Zombies were everywhere. Suddenly, they were overrunning shopping malls, rural farms, homes, city streets. Unintelligible, irreducible, shambling and inelegant, ragged but unstoppable, they were the perfect metaphor for the invasive, alien masses Mr & Mrs Average saw moaning at the gates. In just under a century, those "poor… huddled masses" had gone from being beckoned by the Statue of Liberty to being decapitated by full-blood American heartlanders with shovels.
(The zombie movie explosion arrived in perfect sync with its twin, the other great, quintessentially 1970s American cinema phenomenon. Blaxploitation movies attempted to deal with precisely the same anxieties of lone citizens standing alone against a rising tide of violent and degenerate Other, only from the other side. We can read in Shaft's urbanity and Superfly's threads an analogue to the British Mods' emphasis on style as an outward expression of 'clean living under difficult circumstances'.)
No wonder politics got so beleaguered and panicky. No wonder Reagan's winning 1980 manifesto was called 'Morning In America'.
The mid-1970s was a dream from which it seemed we were trying to awake. A dystopia, narrowly averted. As Ballard wrote High Rise, he channeled this feeling. The block was a metaphor for society, its tribal split by floor – upper, middle and lower – mirroring the strata outside. But others were picking up on the mood too.
Think about that mood. Zombies – immigrants, the poor, the Other – were all over popular culture. Terror and immigration were all over the news. Urban high-density development was driving out residents. Atavism as politics, driven by a deep anxiety about the future, and about securing what we have. It was all very 1970s.
And in its own way, it's all very 2010s, too. It's no surprise that High Rise is being made into a film by Kill List director Ben Wheatley. So what does the rise of that old hysteria, those old anxieties mean? What do The Walking Dead, World War Z, I Am Legend and Zombie Apocalypse say about us? Who are our shambling, malevolent hordes, in ragged clothes, destroying the brains of young people and advancing on our gates?
And just as importantly, who are the people promising us easy answers, this time around? Answers that involve barricades, and turning inwards, and everyone for themselves? Or even turning our guns on these "unstoppable cockroaches" and crying "show me the dead bodies"?
And if we know that, then might we begin to change what happens next, in our very own luxury fortress-like High Rise?
Posted in Comment, History	| Tagged History, Journalism, London, politics, terrorism, Writing	| 1 Reply
Crime & corruption: Are you a terrorist? If Yes, please tick box below…
Ever get the creeping feeling that the fight against corruption, money laundering and tax avoidance are doomed? Well, you'd be right. And here – in one phone call – is why.
I had a conversation with my bank about money laundering today.
I denied everything, naturally. Well, you would, wouldn't you? These are tough times for money-launderers. We know they are because the government tells us, the police tell us, and the news media tells us.
Somali remittance services like Dahabshiil are getting the third degree amid claims they are conduits of funds to Al Shabaab. David Cameron recently "pressed the EU" on tax evasion, and has committed to a public register of company owners. "Those who want to evade taxes," he thundered after this year's G8 summit, "have nowhere to hide".
Let's leave aside for the moment the fact that the Prime Minister's cherished City of London is one of the leading global hubs for money laundering licit and illicit (and if you haven't read Nicholas Shaxson's eye-opening book Treasure Islands: Tax Havens & The Men Who Stole The World, I would urge you to do so): the overall message is clear. Money laundering by the rest of us is a Very Bad Thing, and Inspector Cameron, HMRC and the G8 are totally on it.
So it was that, having announced I wished to make a deposit with my bank (actually switching some money from another account somewhere else), I was made to feel what it's like to have nowhere to hide. Here's how it went.
Me: "Hello, I'd like to make a deposit, please."
Bank: "OK. Now, I do need to ask – in accordance with the new money-laundering regulations – where this money is from?"
Me: "It's mine."
Bank: "OK, that's great, I'll tick 'savings'. Thanks."
And that was it. That was the full extent of the change wrought by the new money laundering regulations.
So if you're a Mexican drug lord, Al-Shabaab fighter or common-or-garden tax avoider from the UK, remember: you have nowhere to hide. Except, y'know, a mortgage or current account. So long as you don't confess under thorough interrogations like this.
As the Monty Python sketch says: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition…
Posted in Comment, Somalia	| Tagged Corruption, crime, finance, politics, Somalia, tax, terrorism	| Leave a reply
Comment: Reign of Errors – The Merchant of Death story ends the way we all figured. Or does it?
Posted in Comment, News, Russia	| Tagged Corruption, crime, politics, Russia, Viktor Bout
Comment: Duwayne Brooks and the London riot story that never got written
Some stories write themselves. Some never get written, though they're better by far. There's something irreducible about them, too many loose ends. They don't have neat beginnings and endings. They don't fit our (journalists', readers') idea of the arc. Sometimes they're just collected impressions.
This one's like that, and I'm setting it down here simply because I think someone should write the story that never got written. Maybe it isn't a story after all, but a diary of sorts. You tell me.
It starts (though I didn't know it at the time) nearly 20 years ago. As a newly arrived, young, white Londoner, I followed the Stephen Lawrence case through the 1990s, then the 2000s, if not avidly then certainly with an odd mixture of horror, casual compulsion, mounting disbelief at the catalogue of establishment errors or worse, and something… what was that other thing? I guess it was a bit like shame, only less easily pinned down. It was a vague, nagging, sticky discomfort that came and went. Something I didn't like feeling, but knew it wasn't to be shied away from. It was an itching unease about what might, for others, lurk beneath the surface of a society that I, white, lower-middle-class and male, may not always have liked, but had always, personally at least, experienced as fair and neutral in its justice.
I knew names, places, details from the news. I remember Martin Bashir's documentary on the Dobson-Norris gang as a consensus TV moment: the one we all knew we'd all watched, whatever our age, background or colour. That photograph of the teenage Stephen Lawrence – striped top, grin, one arm folded upwards – was one of the defining images of 1990s Britain. Printed and reprinted, flickering on screens from electrical shops and pub TV sets, for a generation it became as ubiquitous, as powerful, as any shot of Neville Chamberlain, heavy-eyed, monochrome Myra Hindley or triangular, flag-topped Iwo Jima.
I knew the names of the gang members. Acourt, Acourt, Norris, Knight, Dobson. The first two sounding posh and French, then the three identikit English names. They took on a strange voodoo, these names. Bad luck to utter them. Creepily average. I looked at the faces, and tried to remember them too.
There was one name I did not know. The other person who'd been present – Stephen Lawrence's friend, the boy who managed to escape. I'm not sure how I missed it, but somehow it never registered. Eventually, that boy faded from my memory altogether, and only the crime – the innocent victim, the actions of the mob – remained.
By 2011, I was living in south-east London. It's a big, open, hilly place. A few train stops and two decades separated my neighbourhood from early-1990s Eltham. Still, some things bubble and blister beneath the surface, and occasionally they rise. The London riots, when they came that summer, tore through the High Street, smashing faces and homes and shops and trust, then slipped round quiet neighbourhood corners and into evacuated parks, until the following day.
I wasn't watching it on TV this time. Walking home, passing groups of people heading the other way, I took it all in. There were fights, screams and the sound of car doors. There were chases, and mock-furtive, too-loud talk of where was next, which houses were marked for tonight, and who was doing what. Like everyone, I was on edge, cautious, rattled. But I was curious too. So sometimes I followed as close as I could, to see what happened next. I set up multiple TweetDeck feeds, to monitor the streets, neighbourhoods and tags I suspected would see action. I began examining coverage, mapping claim against reality.
And what I saw, on the streets, in the galloping updates on my Twitter feeds, and when I turned on the TV that night, was fear. Any journalist knows TV cameras can do that – point a camera at a burning car or smoking Tube station from enough angles, and that night it will look like the whole city is ablaze. But somehow, those flickering black-and-orange images leaped off the screens and captured the popular imagination.
Fear bowled along the streets of Lewisham, even when nobody else did. Rumours spread. More riots would be coming tonight. The freesheets ran with it. Offices buzzed with it. A group of 1,000 rioters had been spotted heading North along the next road. EDL members were marching now. A race riot was about to kick off. Shops were being looted.
There were no police. Senior members of the Government were all caught out, still on holiday, as was Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. Tracked down by broadcast news, they looked lost, floundering, and smaller somehow. So did London. I knew it wasn't an apocalypse, and that cover of Time was just silly, but the speculation, more than any fires or smashed windows, quickly lay waste to a lot of the residual trust people there felt, not just in the police and government, but in fellow Londoners.
There was one public figure in the city who seemed to be playing a blinder, though. I'd never even heard of him before – or at least I didn't think I had. He was a Lib Dem Councillor in Lewisham, and suddenly he was everywhere. He seems, at one point early on, to have made it his personal mission to take on the misinformation, the rumour-mongering, the panic and the suspicion. His tweets tell the story today if you care to look back over them. He went from place to place and tweeted what he saw. When even the normally reliable Alex Tomlinson of Channel 4 News repeated an unverified rumour about a brewing race riot near Eltham, the Councillor debunked it. He replied publicly to people who claimed they'd witnessed improbable acts of mass violence, and asked them for details over the 3G airwaves. Where was this? Had they seen it? Because he was there now and the shop window looked intact. He asked Londoners to refrain from indulging rumours and retweets of things they could not personally verify. One tweet said simply: "No fighting no riots no looting no NF in #lewisham. Please stop tweeting nonsense. This is not a game. People are scared. #fixup please."
He went further. He put his personal mobile number on his site, and tweeted it, so people could call and ask him what was happening, anywhere in the area, when they had no reliable information. He became, briefly, the single most trustworthy medium for news on developments in South London's melting pot turned bubbling cauldron. He replied to enquiries and appeals on Twitter – all of them, publicly or individually. Again and again, he damped wild speculation about the racial demographic of rioters, and quashed rumours about white racist vigilante groups.
His huge presence, his championing of perspective and truth, was quite a contrast to the vacuum the Met and the Cabinet had left us inhabiting those first few hot, suspicion-filled, dangerous days. I remember tweeting his details at the time, "[Councillor's name] – he's on fire. This is what politicians are for!"
And all the while, in the midst of the chaos, I had two images in my head. One was of something this local politician reminded me of, an image drawn from the book I had just finished. It was Boris Yeltsin clambering up on a tank in front of Moscow's Parliament building during the attempted Russian coup of 1991, and facing down the crisis with sheer presence (and reportedly some vodka too). It made me laugh with its bathos even then, but on some level it was true too.
The other image?
That didn't make me laugh, it made me tense. It was an image of the worst that can happen in South London. It was a picture of what the city had to avoid, at all costs. It was a picture from 1993, of what happens, of what is lost, when people let themselves hate and mistrust, blindly. It was that shot of Stephen Lawrence, and I kept it in mind every time something immoderate appeared on a front page, or crackled over the airwaves.
The riots ended with the run of hot weather, and with the late, slow arrival of the police. I meant to thank the Councillor. I'd heard phrases like 'community leaders' before, and I'd always sort of thought they referred to self-appointed spokesmen or religious elders among discrete, probably ethnically or culturally homogeneous communities. Muslim community leaders. Black community leaders. I suppose for the first time I saw leadership being shown, rather than claimed, and I realized that I was part of one of those communities experiencing a degree of leadership. So I thought about composing a quick email – maybe a tweet – just to say how much of a difference his work for those few days had made.
But I never did. I left it just too late. And by then, the man I wanted to thank was in the news again, for very different reasons, and probably receiving more emails than anybody could be expected to handle.
I saw the Councillor in the news during this winter's trial of two of the men who had killed Stephen Lawrence. His name was Duwayne Brooks, and back on that evening in 1993, he'd been the friend who'd escaped from the gang. I felt stupid for not having remembered the name's significance that summer. Then I thought: wow.
Over the past couple of months, I've read more about Duwayne Brooks – the terrible impact of the murder itself; the long campaign of intimidation, prejudice and smears against him by the Metropolitan Police; his treatment at the hands of the law and, often, the media; his transformation from frightened, suspicious virtual fugitive to politician; and his dignity and perseverance at the final reckoning for two of the murderers.
And here's what impressed me most. If there was ever anyone who had the right to feel hate, or suspicion, or to welcome some form of blowback against the power structures of a city that had let him and his friend down so badly, it was Duwayne Brooks. If anyone could have been forgiven for succumbing to paranoia about a police vacuum and rumours of racial conflict in South London, it would have been him.
But that wasn't what happened. Instead, for those long, hot days in South London, when those structures let everyone down and fear threatened to take over the streets, he was as a powerful force for tolerance, truth, reason, calm, and – more than anything – trust. He was markedly less speculative, panicky or paranoid than most of the better journalists I know.
What I started out wanting to say was this. I don't usually write praise for politicians, but in this era of photo opps, press briefings and presubmitted questions, It's worth remembering Duwayne Brooks was there for the people he represented. On his mobile, on the streets, and on the case.
And yet this is not really about politics either. It's about how we let ourselves feel as people, as Londoners, and about how we react to what shapes us. Because if a city like this can't learn more from Duwayne Brooks than how to survive a terrible ordeal and come through, then we miss the point. And if we can't learn from his incredible presence during that week of madness how to help others through their troubles and suspicion and fear too, then we've got no-one to blame but ourselves.
So… So what? I don't know the rest. Like I said at the start, it's not really a story, and this is too messy to be an ending. But in the years to come, I hope we – Londoners, people, whatever – can give it an ending, and make it a proper story. And I really hope we make it a good one.
Update 16th January 2012: After receiving a copy of this piece for syndication, the London Evening Standard ran it, originally changing the byline to one of their staffers. That issue has now been rectified, and you can read their shorter edit of the piece here.
Posted in Comment, Journalism, News	| Tagged Journalism, London, News, politics, Riots, Society
Video: "Cocaine coffee tables?!" CNN bosses, the craziest cop in Brazil, and me
It started perfectly innocently. I was out with a friend on Thursday, and the phone rang. I didn't pick up – it was ten o'clock, and I'd worked my way through six large glasses of what I remember being an increasingly smooth Italian red, and a couple of bottles of Grolsch for good measure. I'm not a big drinker, and it's not my usual style, but this guy was over from Sierra Leone, he's an old friend, and, and… and it explains why I didn't pick up.
It was a New York number.
The second time it rang, less than a minute later, I picked up. It was CNN. Could I make it to their London office? They had some story kick off with Brazilian smugglers in a plane, they'd been brought down by a cop using only his cujones and a Toyota corolla, and could I comment?
Not a chance. I'm a little tipsy. No way. Nope. Find someone else, someone who isn't afraid, I mean really afraid, of making a lemon of himself on a prime-time network news show. I gave them my final 'No'. Put the phone down. That was a close call.
Well, here's the interview. I guess they got more than they bargained for, and the show's bosses sent out a tweet within the hour hashtagged #justtobeclear, clarifying that they do not condone the use, possession, sale, purchase or production of "coffee tables made of cocaine".
What can I say? They're persuasive people.
Posted in Journalism, Matt, News, Press	| Tagged aircraft, Aviators, crime, Drugs, Interview, Outlaws Inc, Planes, politics, USA
Analysis: Chewbacca, Kurt Cobain & cheap thrills, or life in a post-Soviet West
What if…? is a popular parlour game among historians. How would the world look had World War Two ended differently? What would a Confederate-won Civil War have meant in a parallel 21st-century USA? What if the DDR's army hadn't wavered, and the Berlin Wall had never fallen?
This week brought a chance to play a different, even more tantalizing game. Truthdig Radio and the KPFK network in Los Angeles devoted a half-hour segment of their weekend show to discussion with Matt this week, talking Outlaws Inc., the 20th anniversary of the Soviet collapse, and its continuing aftermath.
Titled 'Dodging Missiles With Russian Smugglers', the segment looked at the way in which everything from free trade to terrorism, our own governments' foreign and fiscal policy, and even our own view of democracy, society and the world continues to be affected by what Soviets called the Cataclysm of 1991. While we in the West were all obsessing about a Reagan/Lucasfilm showdown with the Evil Empire and its Politburo of Darth Vaders that never materialized, should we have been watching instead for the thousands upon thousands of demobbed, unaccountable and nigh-untraceable Han Solos and Chewbaccas in their rusty old Millennium Falcons that suddenly swamped the skies? And what, from Afghanistan to Iraq and Colombia to Haiti, might have been different if we had?
Were we distracted by our own propaganda into believing a Cold War could be won outright, to the point of ignoring the aftermath of cheap AK-47s and Strela rocket launchers flooding the market? Is the War on Terror floundering precisely because it's based on the fatal assumption that the War on Communism ended nice and neatly? Where would Rumsfeld and co have found all the 'non-state actors' to fly materiel to Iraq and Afghanistan without all the cheap ex-military Russian labour? How did we not predict the USSR's military-assisted heroin pipelines suddenly redirecting through Europe and America as its newly freelance – and impoverished – ex-servicemen strove to make a buck out of their old infrastructure?
Could it be that, as well as arming a rash of conflicts from Somalia to Afghanistan and Armenia to Liberia and creating the generation of highly educated software dabblers who more or less invented the DDOS and spawned the download and piracy industry, the suddenness of the Soviet collapse was what killed Kurt Cobain and that guy from Alice In Chains?
So, how much of all our lives in the West 20 years on is secretly, subtly, Soviet-influenced? Are we ourselves living inside one of those 'What if…?' games after all? You can listen to the interview here, read the book if you want to, and make your own mind up…
Posted in Comment, Journalism, Press, Russia	| Tagged Corruption, crime, Downloads, politics, Press, Russia, USA
Comment: "A chilling indictment of worldwide regulatory failure" – or, the book beneath the book
Five newspapers in the UK have given a unanimous four-star thumbs-up to Outlaws Inc. – and with some hearteningly perceptive reviews that took me a little by surprise. The Liverpool Echo, Edinburgh Evening News and Yorkshire Post among others, and especially this review (below), from the Manchester Evening News, hit the nail on the head in a way that a lot of the gung-ho stuff misses.
Because for all the adventure, the anecdote and the fist-person element, I suppose I think what I might have ended up writing, without trying to really, was a book about what happens when governments take their hands off the wheel.
I trace the journey of Mickey and the rest of the now-stateless 'outlaws' whose country – along with all its certainties and the future it offered them – was snatched away by economic crisis. But somewhere deep down I know, as does the guy from the MEN – that it's also a book about everything that's happening now, to us. Read the review below, read the first chapter for free here, and let me know what you think.
Posted in Press	| Tagged Economy, Outlaws Inc, politics, Press, Reviews
What makes you think it's not me, officer?
No, officer, I haven't been drinking
Just a small post today, happy memories of shopping for fake driving licences in the Urals while out there researching the book in 2007. Though it's fair to say this one is not the best likeness of me, it certainly seemed to work whenever I flashed it at hotel reception check-ins. Serious question, though. This was a £5 readymade. I also bought Russian PM Vladimir Putin's (clean licence, St Petersburg citizen, currently a Moscow resident – and Roman Abramovich's. Others were bespoke, with the correct picture and whatever else ($10). If you really had a problem and needed to disappear – let's even say you were someone like the guy on the licence – how hard would it be? It might cost more that $5… but not that much more.
Posted in About the book, Corruption, Crime, Journalism, Matt, Outlaws Inc, Russia	| Tagged Corruption, crime, Outlaws Inc, politics, Russia, terrorism	| Leave a reply