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Top Down
Get your motor running – Head out on the highway.
Monterey Motor Week — a feast for the insatiable car freak.
For the car nut, the auto aficionado, the gearhead, the motorhead, whatever you want to call those of us whose heads turn quickly at the unmistakable sound of a V12 Ferrari engine, or an unmuffled Ford V8 in a low-slung Ford GT40, the coming week of cardom on the Monterey Peninsula is nirvana. There are [Read More]
Military-themed Mustang auctioned off at air show
Ford's Air Force Thunderbird Mustang fetched nearly $400,000 at the Experimental Aircraft Association. The money will be donated to the EAA Young Eagles program. [Read More]
How to survive 9 driving emergencies
These nine emergencies happen every day on the road, but do you know how to deal with them?
If you follow these tips, you can avoid a wreck or a ditch. [Read More]
If you follow these tips, you can avoid a wreck or a ditch. [Read More]
Wagons and wagons — the SUV pales by comparison.
It used to be that when you wanted to cart stuff around, and you didn't have a pickup truck, you opened the back of a station wagon and loaded it up. A wagon, properly described, looked like the extension of a four-door sedan, with a big space in the back and a constant, flowing roofline. [Read More]
Lamborghini introduces 562-hp Gallardo
Lamborghini introduced a new spin-off to its high-end Gallardo model. The Gallardo Squadra Corse comes with a 562-horsepower V-10 engine that can accelerate to 60 mph in just over three seconds. Its top speed is near 200 mph. The race-derived model comes with a quick-release carbon-fiber engine cover, a matte-black carbon rear wing and the [Read More]
2013 Nissan Altima — a distant choice in the crowded midsize field.
Picture a pond. Into the pond, you throw all the midsize sedans for sale in the United States. One by one, they get hurled into the water, tons of steel and glass splashing about. Soon the pond is pretty full. This is, after all, the most crowded segment of the new car market. These cars [Read More]
Silverstone Classic — more than a thousand vintage race cars.
They held the Silverstone Classic in England last weekend (July 26-28, 2013) and some 1,100 cars showed up to grace the greensward and the race track. Among the field were 361 Aston Martins (it's the Silverstone Classic marque this year), along with the odd Porsche 917K, Ford GT40, Lola T70 and others. Sir Jackie Stewart, [Read More]
How much did you pay for your last vehicle?
Business reporter David Kaplan writes that sales of new vehicles priced under $30,000 have gained market share in Houston for the first time in three years, suggesting increased economic confidence among lower-wage workers, analysts say. Sales are relatively flat, but the lower end is doing better. [Read More]


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Our special coverage of the closest race for years
Fault Lines on the city's homelessness crisis
18 Dec 2012 12:10 GMT | Sport, Cricket, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka
Seamers Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc skittled Sri Lanka's last six wickets in a dramatic final session to give Australia a 137-run victory in the last hour of the first Test on Tuesday.Siddle, who finished the match with figures of 9-104, and left-armer Starc, who took 5-63 in the second innings, caughtfire after tea to bowl the tourists out for 255. Having been stymied in similar circumstances by a brilliant rearguard action from South Africa in Adelaide last month, Australia were desperate not to repeat the experience in Hobart.However, it looked like it might be a case of deja vu at tea after some resilient Sri Lankan batting and a couple of rain breaks frustrated the hosts for two sessions. Captain Michael Clarke, whose team will take a 1-0 lead to Melbourne for the second match in the three-Test series, said he never doubted his bowlers.
"If everyone's got the heart that (Siddle) has, we'll get back to being number one in the world no doubt"
Australia captain Michael Clarke
"We knew we had to be patient," said Clarke, who was confident he would be fit for the second Test despite a hamstring injury."No doubt I was confident that if we could bowl the balls in the right area for a long period of time that we would have success."It was going to be day's work to get so many good batsmen out but take nothing away from the bowlers, they had to execute their plans and their skills."If everyone's got the heart that (Siddle) has, we'll get back to being number one in the world no doubt."Siddle had already taken the key wickets of captain Mahela Jayawardene (19) and ICC Cricketer of the Year Kumar Sangakkara (63) around lunch but the tourists reached tea on 186 with six wickets still in hand.In a sign of Australia's growing desperation, wicketkeeper Matthew Wade shed his pads and gloves to bowl the final over before the break and claimed a maiden in his first spell in senior cricket.Sri Lanka, set a victory target of 393, could still conceivably have won the match but a paltry return of 42 runs in the second session clearly indicated they were batting for a draw rather than a first win in Australia."Disappointed that we lost the game," said skipper Jayawardene. "It was a tough Test match in the sense that we were chasing the game probably after the third or fourth day but we kept fighting."Today we knew we had to bat through a couple of sessions sensibly, see what happens, and up until tea we were on target."
Aussie Star-cThe Australian bowling unit, a man down after local quick Ben Hilfenhaus suffered a side strain, never gave up, even if Siddle looked like the only man who might break through for much of the day.The 28-year-old struck again on the first ball of his second over after tea to dismiss all rounder Angelo Mathews for 19 and then removed the last of the Sri Lankan top order with a sizzling delivery which trapped Thilan Samaraweera lbw for 49.With Sri Lanka reduced to 218-6, Siddle took a rest but left-arm quick Starc picked up the baton and had soon removed Prasanna Jayawardene for 21.A fullish inswinger nearly took the wickekeeper's hand off and the ball flew off his glove to Mike Hussey at second slip to leave just three tailend wickets standing with around 90 minutes of play remaining.
"I said the other day that I got lucky and got the results and someone else would get it in the second innings and Starcydid today"
Man of the Match Peter Siddle
Another peach of a delivery from Starc sent Nuwan Kulasekara back to the pavilion for nine and a perfectly delivered yorker soon afterwards removed Rangana Herath for eight.With Siddle now bowling from the other end, it was a straight fight between the two for who would take the five wicket haul and win the match for Australia.Starc took the honours when he had Shaminda Eranga caught behind for six, sparking huge celebrations among his team mates and the disappointingly small crowd of some 2,000."As a group, I think we've been outstanding since lunch on the second day and we got our rewards," said Siddle. "I said the other day that I got lucky and got the results and someone else would get it in the second innings and Starcy did today." Siddle was named Man of the Match but was also at the centre of a ball-tampering row after a picture of the bowler apparently picking at the seam in Sri Lanka's first innings circulated on social media. The Sri Lankan team had not made an official complaint but spoke to match referee Chris Broad. The ICC later said no charges would be laid."Why would I jeopardise that when we can go out and win in the spirit of the game?" a surprised Siddle said.
Source: Reuters
Hosts need eight wickets to win first Test after setting Sri Lanka a victory target of 393 as England win India series.
Sport, Cricket
Australia on top despite brilliant fifth-wicket stand of 161 by Tillakaratne Dilshan on day three against Sri Lanka.
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Activists in the Czech Republic demand that a pig farm built over a former WWII era concentration camp be shut down.
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Department: Physics
Resource Type: Text
Collection: UNT Scholarly Works
Common Threads in Research Across Disciplines: A Reflection
Date: April 15, 2004
Creator: Matteson, Samuel E.
Description: This University Scholars Day keynote address discusses common threads in research across disciplines. Research lies at the heart of scholarship in all academic disciplines. The author identifies common threads of thought and practice that run through what is called "research". The author identifies six phases that are common to all such scholarly activities (observation, vision, logistics, experiment, assessment, and communication), exploring by example, anecdote and analysis this taxonomy of research as a proposed heuristic for aspiring researchers.
Contributing Partner: UNT Honors College
Publisher's Note: Beyond the Death of Linear Response: 1/f Optimal Information Transport [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105,040601 (2010)]
Date: August 3, 2010
Creator: Aquino, Gerardo; Bologna, Mauro; Grigolini, Paolo & West, Bruce J.
Description: This is a Publisher's Note for the article 'Beyond the Death of Linear Response: 1/f Optimal Information Transport' [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 040601 (2010)].
Contributing Partner: UNT College of Arts and Sciences


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Wrought 'Iron' Railings
The contract for our new house specifies aluminum deck railings. The builder is having trouble locating someone that can supply them in something other than white or bronze without a massive upcharge for custom powder coating. Neither white nor bronze will go well with our color scheme.
He has floated the idea of custom wrought iron railings instead. His wrought iron guy will paint them any color we want. Unfortunately, wrought iron is something that rusts and requires frequent repainting, at least in our mind's eye.
Anyone have any experiences or thoughts regarding wrought iron deck railings? We need about 140 feet of railing.
I have used componants from kingsmetal.com as detail in a ipe rail system combined with alum balusters but I am thinking your project requires a complete metal hadrail.
I painted the fancy steel balusters at the shop with several coats of high solids industrual black paint but it is what it is , they will require paint as needed.
I use a local steel guy for post brackets and such He builds rail systems all week long but the cap rail is thin. That would be the trick geting a wide cap rail to shelter the actuall balusters and bottom rail from
colecting rain as well as the conections not offering a place for water to colect.
Usually the conection to the deck is a bolted little plate a person should be sure its painted all around with a rubber gasket.
I bid and did a refinish welded steel rial around 300 ft 4 years old it had started to rust in all those 3 places. We built a plastic tent around the whole thing,taped off everything, sprayed it black with an airless,four coats. $3,800. J.
We are going through the same procress for just 11 intermediate support posts on a porch /deck. Ive used cable rail( to preserve the lake views) with stainless steel cable and stainless turnbuckles at each end with an Ipe handrail and white pvc trim board attached to the underside. The wrought iron even poweder coated was going to rust at some point so we had aluminum posts ( powdercoated) ( 1/2" x 2") with top and bottom plates to screw it down and to the rail. We picked up the last of the screws, brackets etc today to get ready for install next weekend! We looked at it being a bit more now and yours beling a bunch more Im sure but painting every 2-3 years wasnt an option. Johns got some great ideas on the rusting points being where to focus on the best water protection.
I had a good friend in the iron business. It's steel and it will require maintenance. On the bright side, they can typically build anything you want and paint it any color you want.
I guess it really comes down to how much you're willing to pay up front to avoid the maintenance and associated costs down the road.
Some of that stuff at kingsmetal makes a wild rail detail.
They have alum as well but the cost is higher than the normal alum pipe with conectors. And the stuff comes from Dallas so the shipping cost to me is small. They can also plasma cut anything you want out of steel flat stock like a rose vine,a sunset,your girl riding naked on a white horse, your harley. Could make for a very cool detail.
I was using the same paint my steel guy had,it was like spraying little rocks real heavy content. Paying attention to detail while runing that airless the finish is better than power coat. If the steel rail was well thought out and conected a little better than normal to the decking it would be very possible to get 8 / 9 years out of it with no rust at all.
Of course there is always the high cost, on the other hand the handrail is what showes the most and if you could get anything you want in it.... not have it look the same ol same ol....might be worth it. JonMon
Thanks to everyone who posted. Based on what we anticipated and has been confirmed here, we have declined the wrought iron railings.
Happily, an aluminum railing vendor with more than two color choices has been found and the samples look good. Hopefully, we will have our matching aluminum railings after all.
Thanks again.


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NAOHSM Celebrates 50 Years At 2003 Convention
February 1, 2003
The National Association of Oil Heating Service Managers will celebrate its 50-year anniversary at its 2003 convention May 18-22 in Hershey, Pa. It invites all its regional chapters to share their history for inclusion of a massive collage of the association's history that will be displayed at the convention.
During the show, dozens of antique oil trucks and service vans will be on display, and attendees are invited to cast their vote for their favorite. NAOHSM will also unveil the Museum of Oilheating, which will feature vintage burners, antique tools, advertising memorabilia and more.
Awards will be presented in two categories: oil trucks and service vans. Winners will receive plaques and special recognition at the awards banquet on May 20.
If you have a restored truck or van you'd like to enter, contact NAOHSM at 888/552-0900.


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This option can be used to combine two contacts. It will add the details of both contacts together to form a new contact. Note: You can only merge 2 contacts at a time.
Nokia 700 - What does the option "Merge Contacts" do in my Symbian^3 phone?
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- How can I recover/reset/restore my phone software?
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- Where can I find information about WhatsApp, Skype, Angry Birds, Twitter, NimBuzz, Viber, Fring, or some other non-Microsoft application (3rd party application)?


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Home Decor Print Fabric-French General Camilla Indigo
Item # 12229050
$49.99 $29.99 40% off Home Decor Print Fabrics
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- Guest Commentary: the Rockford Apartment Association
- State Roundup: NIU employee improperly reimbursed $30K
- State Roundup: Governor signs budget fix bills
- Rauner, Democratic leaders shake hands and make law
- State roundup: National guardsman and cousin arrested in terror plot
- Lawmaker says license plate readers a privacy threat
- Bryant not the first to feel impact of free agency rules
- State Roundup: Parents' group calls for standardized test opt-out bill
- Hononegah Mack: 'The best woman in the county'
- The tip of the iceberg: Human trafficking in America
The Fabulous 50s Show! opens at Jubilee April 16
With hits from Elvis to the Everly Brothers, and Little Darlin to Little Richard, Shake, Rattle & Roll! The Fabulous 50s Show! takes the Jubilee Theatre (at the Clock Tower Resort) stage like a spring storm with tight harmonies, high-energy dancing, comedy and audience participation. The show celebrates the 50s era of bobby socks, duck tails, and rock and roll.
Opening April 16 and playing through May 29 each Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., this six-person revue takes the audience on a rock and stroll down memory lane. Featured hits include Venus, You Belong To Me, At The Hop, Earth Angel and 16 Candles. Starring Don Grant Zellmer (whose credits include Vegas shows and Branson); Phil Masterton (who appeared in Broadway tours of Cats, A Chorus Line and Showboat); Jacob Bailey, Debbi Torri, Katy Morehouse, and Carm Rongere, a nod to 50s guy groups and girl groups takes the stage. Also included are the love songs, the fads, the dances, a cappella doo wop and even an Elvis impersonator contest (starring audience volunteers).
April marks the Jubilee Theatres one-year anniversary. Jubilee opened last season with a 1950s show, Bandstand USA. Producer Zellmer said: Its only fitting to celebrate our first anniversary with the type of show we first produced. The audiences really enjoyed the high-energy fun of the 50s, so we decided to jazz up the season by including another similar revue with lots of new surprises… and Shake, Rattle & Roll! was born.
Shake, Rattle & Roll! The Fabulous 50s Show! plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $26 for Friday and Sunday performances and $28 for Saturday performances. The Jubilee Theatre Box Office is open for reservations from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and noon until 6 p.m. Saturdays at (815) 229-4033.


text: Trac Jobs 2 were found based on your criteria Post a job. It's free! Need Help Setting up Jira Agile for a new project Hourly – Less than 1 week – Less than 10 hrs/week – Posted March 26 2015 I need help setting up Jira Agile for a project. This session will be done on skype. You you should have good internet connection with voice chat. agile-software-development atlassian-confluence atlassian-jira git github trac Administrative Assistant for Learning Center Hourly – More than 6 months – 10-30 hrs/week – Posted March 18 2015 MUST BE ABLE TO WORK ON EASTERN TIME ZONE . We run a christian Accelerated Learning Center that includes tutoring, mentoring and leadership program for children K-12. This program supplements the child's primary education (private, public or home schooling). We are not a school. Our programs are run online and onsite. This position is a backup to our primary VA in the Philippines. We are looking for someone outside of the Philippines (preferably India). You must have all of the ... google-docs microsoft-excel microsoft-word presentations trac


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The home's original drive, repaved with pea gravel, leads to a gracious cedar-shaded side entrance and flagstone walkway.
More in Blog Cabin
Replacing the home's original tree-trunk foundation, a sturdy brick-faced, cement-block foundation elevates the home eight feet above sea level. Bricks, inscribed "Built by Pake July 1895" and playfully embedded within the foundation, were sourced from the home's chimney.
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Tool expert Chris Grundy highlights the transformation from beginning to end.
Interior designer Alison Victoria surprises shoppers and creates fabulous new kitchens.
Licensed contractor Matt Muenster shares amazing bathroom design tips.
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I stand at the same dresser whenever I change my infusion set. My bedroom has no overhead light, so this task is often lit by a small lamp.
Looking at this picture after I took it made me feel less like the diabetic herself and more like a spectator in this disease. The small drop of life coming from the tip of that needle struck a chord in me - I noticed at how intricate these tools are.
There are days when the needles sting and cause brusing, on both my skin and my heart. But there are also days when I see these tiny needles and the amazing technology of my insulin pump and think, about how far I've truly come.
January 17, 2008
amylia.grace.photos, garden beth, and 1 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Wow. Great photograph. This is where an SLR shines, with the ability to switch lenses and produce photographs with awesome bokeh.
Great shot!
Off to google bokeh :)
Yes. Great bokeh.
You make some really beautiful images for this set!
Ditto to the other comments. What an awesome shot.
It is an amazing shot. Diabetes treatment has come a long way -- from testing urine & using pig insulin! I hope we're on the verge of another leap in treatment & technology. Artificial pancreas, anyone?
this photo makes pumping seem beautiful. the infusion set almost looks like a delicate flower!
nice macro! even makes the infusion set look poetic!


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Coverage and insight from College Station.
Ogbuehi, Everett and Kaser to speak on Aggies' behalf at SEC media days
COLLEGE STATION – Southeastern Conference media days serve as a signal for football-starved fans in the South that their favorite game is right around the corner. Texas A&M is offering up a well-rounded trio to represent the Aggies this year, with offense (tackle Cedric Ogbuehi), defense (cornerback Deshazor Everett) and special teams (punter Drew Kaser) […] [Read More]
Touted QB prospect: Manziel made him pay attention to Aggies
COLLEGE STATION – Johnny Manziel only used up half his eligibility at Texas A&M, but his two years of setting records and thrilling crowds continue paying dividends for the Aggies. Allen High senior quarterback Kyler Murray, who's verbally committed to play for A&M, told NFL.com this week that Manziel, now a rookie quarterback with the […] [Read More]
A&M finishes work on college football's largest videoboard
In 2015, when the $450 million renovation project on Kyle Field is expected to be complete, Texas A&M will be home to the largest college football stadium (102,512 attendance capacity) in the state. Right now, the Aggies have national bragging rights in another category. On Tuesday night, the school tweeted a photo to announce that […] [Read More]
Junction Boys to hold 60th Reunion in — where else — Junction
COLLEGE STATION – The Junction Boys have long grown into the Junction Geriatrics, but there's still something special about that South Texas tale that draws so many people in. The famed Junctions Boys will gather for a 60th reunion in, you guessed it, Junction, August 15th and 16th, and the get-together includes an event open […] [Read More]
John David Crow, who once offered Manziel some heady advice, turns 79 today
COLLEGE STATION – I first heard about running back John David Crow while growing up in South Montgomery County from my father, who's the same age as Crow and who always admired Crow's success story as Texas A&M's first Heisman Trophy winner in 1957. So it was pretty neat to get to know Crow over […] [Read More]
Texas A&M purchases 12thMan.com domain for athletics
When Tennessee businessman Eric Arnold started his football-oriented marketing business in 1993, he selected what he thought was a logical company name – 12th Man Distribution. Three years later, because it happened to be available, Arnold acquired a website to promote his company – 12thMan.com. Arnold's company rocked along for two decades before ceasing operations […] [Read More]
Three local athletes named to U.S. Youth Olympics squad
Hurdler Amere Lattin of Fort Bend Marshall, two-time 800 meters champion Myles Marshall of Kingwood and girls rugby player Whitney Wilson of Kingwood were named Monday to the 94-member team that will represent the United States at the Youth Olympics game next month in Nanjing, China. The three Houston-area athletes are the only representatives from […] [Read More]
World Cup TV ratings stay strong through quarterfinals
World Cup ratings continue to be strong despite the departure of the United States team. Here are the ratings for the four quarterfinals last week in Houston. Each Nielsen ratings point represents about 22,000 households in Houston. Teams […] [Read More]


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2002 Chevy Corvette Coupe Only 39314 miles More info coming soon!... More
2002 Jaguar XJ8 sedan, 94,272 miles. Light blue exterior and cream interior. To be auctioned April 11-12. For more detailed listing head to http://antiques.alexcooper.com/auctions#auction55... More
To be auctioned at the Lucky Collector Car Auction Spring "Jackpot" Collector Car Auction at the Snoqualmie Casino in Washington on April 4th, 2015.... More
2002 996 Carrera Cabriolet for sale at only $24,000. Only 63,000 miles. Top in perfect condition. Upgrades include: 19" Wheels (black) with newer tires IPD Intake Plenum... More
To be auctioned at the Lucky Collector Car Auction Spring "Jackpot" Collector Car Auction at the Snoqualmie Casino in Washington on April 4th, 2015.... More
2002 Mercedes Benz SLK32 AMG. Magma Red on Black leather. 1 of 1,182 built for the US market. Only 36,222 miles since new, 2... More
2002 Porsche Turbo in Silver on Black leather. Only 16,127 miles. 3.6L Flat-Six with Twin K25 Turbochargers Produces a Neck-Snapping 450hp. 6-speed manual trans,... More
It is obvious that the owner babied this vehicle.... More
This 2002 Mercedes Benz S 55 is in Brilliant Silver with Charcoal Nappa and has LESS THAN 15k miles. This S 55 was sold new... More
This car is as high as the Eclipses go in this year! It is the GT Spyder Convertible. This car will get you from... More
We are pleased to present this 1 owner 2002 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph Last of the Line Edition, with an amazingly low mileage of... More
2002 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 T-Tops35th Anniversary Edition13,810 Original MilesChrome Factory WheelsGood TiresIce Cold A/CPower WindowsAll Original and Clean as brand new .pristine in everywayinvestment... More
SELLING AT AUCTION - 2002 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 SS "35th-Anniversary" Convertible To be SOLD at the Toronto Spring Collector Car Auction May 1-3, 2015 ccpauctions.com. 9,300... More
2002 Honda Scooter... More
Gorgeous 2002 Chevy Corvette. Burgundy/Beige Leather. 5.7L LS1 V-8. 6-speed manual, fully loaded w/ 123k lifetime miles.... More


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Identity and inclusion: when do digital identities help the poor?
[From Brookings Institution´s Tech Tank blog, with David Porteous, 10 March 2015]
We tend to think of having a formal identity as an enabler for social and economic inclusion, but in fact identity can have entirely the opposite effect. Once socioeconomic interactions are based on a standardized notion of identity, it is likely that social status based on past achievements, family histories, personal connections, political backing, wealth and education levels will influence socioeconomic outcomes — thereby potentially reinforcing the established class hierarchy. Systems that are based on anonymity might in fact be the most equitable and inclusive, in the sense of ensuring equal participation by all, by systematically stripping out social status.
But anonymous systems carry a high cost in terms of efficiency. Reputations would be impossible to establish, contracts would be hard to enforce, and there would be more insecurity as it would be much harder to track and clamp down on illicit activities. It is therefore not at all certain that the poorer segments of the population would be better off in absolute terms if the economy worked on the basis of anonymity.
The need for digital identities for inclusive access
In fact, giving lower-income people digital identities would make it possible for them to participate in the modern digital economy in many ways: to open accounts and receive moneys from anyone, assert their rights over digital services they have contracted and digital assets they have purchased, settle disputes, etc. But establishing a formally recognized identity can be a major hurdle in itself, especially in countries that do not have digitized national ID schemes.
It is ironic that the difficulty of establishing formal identity in the first place often prevents so many lower-income, and especially rural, people from accessing digital services. Identity systems with selective coverage of the population create a double whammy of inequality: on the one hand, these partial systems help the haves to carry their social and economic status symbols and reputations into every market interaction they are engaged in, and on the other they negate digital visibility and access to digital services for the have not´s.
We argue in a new research paper that it should be the government´s responsibility to ensure that every citizen in fact has a digital identity, not merely to create a platform that enables people to have digital identities. The Indian government´s Aadhar push to provide everyone in India with a unique number ID linked to biometrics is a good example of such a policy.
The demands of identity verification systems
The problem is that different policy agendas converge on the issue of identity and have different requirements for a digital identity platform. What works as an identify standard for financial systems may not be good enough for law enforcement agencies. The risk is that governments adopt the highest standard, with the result that the inclusion agenda and the needs of the poor are ignored.
If there is no centralized government system for identity, then what we need is a system that:
This is the notion of social identity. Let people with meager resources help each other overcome their limitations: each may have very little voice, but collectively they represent a potentially vast information system for official identification purposes. That is hard to reconcile with the way governments and formal institutions tend to handle identity verification: in silos, contained within databases and cards. We need more flexible notions of identity, which build layers of identity information and verification through social networks – as well as bureaucratized ID-seeking processes.
Pulling financial services, through business and social networks
[From Business Fights Poverty blog, 6 February 2015, with David Porteous]
The limitations of what may be termed the push era of digital financial inclusion are becoming increasingly apparent. We have seen strong outreach by a relatively small number of very powerful players —mostly telcos and some large banks— to recruit customers onto their digital transactional platforms. In some cases, where the client proposition has been strong enough and the provider has invested sufficient resources, there has been dramatic uptake (e.g. M-PESA). However, in most cases, actual usage of digital services lags, dormancy is very high, and usage profiles are quite narrow. Across the developing world, 70% of registered mobile wallets in 2014 had not been used during the last 90 days, according to the GSMA.
As digital channels become more widely available, and in particular as smart phones become accessible and affordable to far wider sections of the population, there is a need and an opportunity to develop stronger pull propositions which cause customers to want to use digital transaction services. Since financial services are rarely if ever desired for their own sake, these pull propositions will likely be oriented towards solving daily problems which people experience as consumers, as members of communities and social networks, or as they conduct their business.
We believe that the key to creating these pull propositions is to embed the digital financial service capabilities within software tools (i.e. smart phone apps) that directly address these broader needs. An adequate software solution can help contextualize the need for the financial service and improve its presentation, thereby greatly enhancing the customer experience.
The appropriate package of digital transactions plus software can drive more systematic use, and usage creates data. Thus, in the process of solving narrower problems, opportunities are created to offer new financial possibilities to those customers based on new insights gained.
We can summarize the general approach to financial inclusion thus:
transactions + software tool = Customer usage patterns + data analysis
If the push era was about stand-alone financial transactional services, the pull era will be about software solutions that can weave through transaction patterns and data. This much is clear, but the harder questions are which specific customer problems these solutions will be trained on, and what sorts of insights the corresponding data will generate.
In a recent paper, we have set out three different pathways in which this future can unfold: (i) through advanced data analytics that shed light on individuals´ needs and characteristics; (ii) by supporting small businesses through which financial services can propagate into local communities; and (iii) by supporting social and peer networks so that individuals who are better known to financial service providers can channel services to others within their networks.
We are particularly intrigued by the latter two pathways, which create a fuzzier distinction between users and channels. In the lower income segment, where the amount of available data is likely to remain low for a long time, training big data resources on networks seems more promising than focusing it entirely on individuals.
Taking down the (entry) barriers to digital financial inclusion
[From Brookings Institution´s Tech Tank blog, 22 January 2015]
Recent reports have highlighted how mobile-based financial services are transforming banking and payments in Kenya, Bangladesh, and Peru, and all the hype about how they are about to explode everywhere else. For all of the promise that digital financial systems have for lowering costs and helping people all over the globe, it is unfortunate that their development is hampered by regulation that protects the interests of the largest providers. These regulations create significant barriers and raise the total costs to achieve universal financial inclusion.
It is indeed conceivable that purely digital financial transactions could be handled at vanishingly small unit costs, from anywhere. But the cost that won´t go away is that at the interface between the new digital payment system and the legacy payment system – hard cash. Cash in/cash out (CICO) points are like tollgates at the edge of the digital payments cloud.
Cash is Still King
Even in areas with flourishing mobile banking usage, people tend to cash in every time they want to make a mobile payment, and to cash out immediately and in full every time they receive digital money. Rather than displacing cash, digital platforms have made local cash ecosystems more efficient. Without full backward compatibility with cash, digital payment systems could not take root.
The bigger issue is not the size of the CICO toll, but the fact that small players cannot expect to have the transaction volume to sustain a widespread CICO network. The incumbent banks and telecommunications firms have built in competitive advantages. They can quickly form agreements with brick and mortar shops, attract users from the current customer base, threaten new entrants, and aggregate enough transactions to induce CICO outlets to maintain sufficient liquidity on hand.
Therefore, the competition in digital financial services will not be determined primarily by what happens within the digital payments market itself, but rather by what happens in the contiguous cash market. The power of digital services is their ability to transcend geography, and yet success in the digital payments space will go to whoever has the best physical CICO footprint.
Regulators treat the digital payments service and the CICO service as conjoined twins: each digital financial service provider must have its own base of contractually bound CICO outlets. When the two services are bundled it is not surprising that the tough economics of CICO —and, therefore, the incumbent— dominates.
A Two Market Regulatory Approach
In a recent paper, I argue it is necessary to split up these two markets, from a regulatory point of view. The market for effecting electronic payments (issuing payment instructions and debiting and crediting electronic accounts accordingly) is logically distinct from the market for exchanging two forms of money (hard cash versus electronic value).
Most regulators approve of stores receiving electronic money from customers in exchange for packs of rice on a store shelf. But, if that same electronic money was exchanged for cash then it would violate the law in many countries.
In the latter case, the store is presumed to be an agent of the customer's financial service provider, and the store cannot offer the CICO service without an agency contract from that provider. But why? The cash that was offered was the store's as is the account that would receive the electronic payment, and the transaction would have occurred entirely through a secure, real-time technology platform that banks offer all their clients.
A Regulatory Fix
Of course, purely financial transactions are usually held to higher consumer protection standards than normal commercial transactions. My proposal is not to deregulate CICO, but to create a new license type for CICO network managers. Holders of this license would carry certain consumer protection obligations (such as ensuring that tariffs are explicitly posted at all CICO outlets, and that they have a call center to handle any complaints that customers may have on individual CICO outlets) – entirely reasonable expectations for retailers, even if we normally don´t ask them of rice sellers.
But once you have a CICO license, then you could sign up any store you wanted and crucially, offer CICO services on the platform of any financial institution in which you have an account. In other words, you wouldn't have to beg the incumbent to give you a special agent contract. All you would need to do is to open a normal customer account with them, which the incumbent couldn´t deny you.
This one little change would completely shift the competitive dynamics of digital financial services. Under the current direct agency model, incumbent firms have no incentive to make it easier for competitors to create CICO outlets. Whereas under the independent CICO network manager model, all licensed CICO networks would have the incentive to offer CICO services for all providers, no matter their size: with a full suite of available services, they will find it easier to sign up stores to work for them, and these stores will find it easier to convince more users to walk into their stores.
Incumbents would still be free to establish their own proprietary CICO networks, as today. But they would have to compete with independent CICO networks that are now able to aggregate business from all financial service providers, creating true competition.
All players could then claim a comparable physical presence as the incumbent. They would all benefit from the same branded competition between CICO networks. They could compete strictly on the basis of the quality of their digital financial services offering.
Unbundling the regulatory treatment of digital financial services would help competition reach every segment of the business; the current integrated model only serves the interests of the largest telecommunication companies and banks in the land.
Credit for the people, by the people
[From NexBillion blog, 13 January 2015, with David Porteous]
In Spent: Looking for Change, the recent documentary about financial exclusion in the United States (embedded below), there is a moving segment about a young man named Justin who is determinedly rebuilding his life after having obliterated his credit rating by failing to repay his credit card debt. He says (from the 16:00 mark): "People often judge me on the choices I've made, not knowing the options that I had." Maybe if we knew the limited options Justin had when he decided not to repay his debt, we would agree with him that he had taken the most appropriate, even responsible, action by not repaying. If that were the case, wouldn´t that make us want to trust him more rather than less? Years later, when his situation and options had changed, we would likely feel positive about offering him a new loan for a new beginning.
Economists say that credit bureaus are about solving information asymmetries between creditors and borrowers. But which asymmetries are the economists talking about, exactly? No credit bureau helps Justin explain to financial institutions that he was forced to scratch out a living entirely on his own from age 16, that his earnings didn´t always last to the end of the month, but that those days are now behind him. All the credit bureaus do is to propagate information on his past non-repayment.
As David Graeber argues compellingly in his sweeping history of money Debt: The First 5000 Years, we now take for granted that all loans must be repaid, fully and on time, as if that was a natural societal imperative - but that has not traditionally been the case. Debt moratoria, renegotiations, substitution for tokens of assets or labor, even wholesale cancellation of debts, are recurring themes everywhere. It is only fairly recently that debt repayments have become an absolute test of character, often summarized in a three digit score. Credit scoring has become something about you, disconnected from your circumstances and options.
With the digitization of finance, we face the daunting prospect of "the system" having an unforgiving and unforgetting memory of poor people´s formal debt repayments while knowing little else of any real significance about them. Credit providers will build a profile of you based on disjointed circumstantial evidence, slowly and painfully crossing datasets, almost accidentally – you have $20 in your savings account, a mobile ARPU of $1.70 per month, demonstrated successful repayment of a $10 instant mobile loan – but you can blow whatever positive attributes you've demonstrated all on one unpaid debt. One strike, you´re out. Big Data can become the basis for a new exclusion.
Exclusion is often the result of ignorance. Ignorance creates prejudice: in the absence of concrete information, you generalize. And big data is fundamentally about drawing big generalizations - excuse me, correlations. I can easily believe that these correlations will work increasingly well on average, giving new financial opportunities to many. But in the process, many Justins will be pushed further into financial untouchability, silent casualties of the unfathomable wisdom of the machine. Something that demonstrably works on average may be commercially satisfactory, even socially impactful, but may fall short on inclusiveness – in the sense of helping those who need help the most.
A way to prevent these unfortunate side effects is for financial service providers to avoid single prescriptions and actively work towards enabling multiple avenues for credit, so that people like Justin can have several shots at getting the credit they need. Providers should recognize that they might never get close enough to poor customers living in marginalized communities to fully understand their evolving circumstances and options.
So in addition to seeking ways of collecting more data on prospective borrowers with which to make individual credit decisions, lenders should also seek ways to build more trusted relationships with local players in each community, who they can count on to make credit recommendations and help channel credit within their network of friends, customers, savings circles, and business associates. Justin´s credit need not come directly from a bank, it could come from a local store that understands the true nature of his troubles, or a neighbor who knows how he´s turned himself around.
In a recent paper, we develop this theme by exploring three different Pathways to Smarter Financial Inclusion: by serving poor people directly, reaching poor people indirectly through the businesses within their communities where they work and buy things, or using social networks as (informal) distribution channels. Note that all three pathways rely heavily on clever analytics, but the objective of each is subtly different: the first draws credit inferences from the little data that is specifically available on poor customers, the second creates sufficient business intelligence and data flow to be able to underwrite local traders´ and entrepreneurs´ credit decisions, and the third creates incentive structures for peer screening and monitoring.
Finance will reduce people´s sense of vulnerability only if it creates a hierarchy of options in people´s minds. It´s not necessarily the case that people want more credit, they just want more options. By moving beyond traditional methods of collecting and interpreting borrower data, financial service providers can help provide those options to people who are often excluded.
How the spread of smartphones will open up new ways of improving financial inclusion
[From Brookings Institution´s Tech Tank blog, 2 December 2014 (with David Porteous)]
It's easy to imagine a future in a decade or less when most people will have a smartphone. In our recent paper Pathways to Smarter Digital Financial Inclusion, we explore the benefits of extending financial services to the mass of lower-income people in developing countries who are currently dubious of the value that financial services can bring to them, distrustful of formal financial institutions, or uncomfortable with the treatment they expect to receive.
The report analyzes six inherent characteristics of smartphones that have the potential to change market dynamics relative to the status quo of simple mobile phones and cards.
Customer-Facing Changes:
1. The graphical
user interface.
Service Provider Changes:
4. Greater freedom
to program services without requiring the acquiescence or active participation
of the telco.
Taken together, these changes may lower the costs of designing for lower-income people dramatically, and the designs ought to take advantage of continuous feedback from users. This should give low-end customers a stronger sense of choice over the services that are relevant to them, and voice over how they wish to be served and treated.
Traditionally poor people have been invisible to service providers because so little was known about their preferences that it was not possible build a service proposition or business case around them. The paper describes three pathways that will allow providers to design services on smartphones that will enable an increasingly granular understanding of their customers. Each of the three pathways offers providers a different approach to discover what they need to know about prospective customers in order to begin engaging with them.
Pathway One: Through Big Data
Providers will piece together information on potential low-income customers directly, by assembling available data from disparate sources (e.g. history of airtime top-ups and bill payment, activity on online social networks, neighborhood or village-level socio-demographic data, etc.) and by accelerating data acquisition cycles (e.g. inferring behavior from granting of small loans in rapid succession, administering selected psychometric questions, or conducting A/B tests with special offers). There is a growing number of data analytics companies that are applying big data in this way to benefit the poor.
Pathway Two: Through local Businesses
Smartphones will have a special impact on micro and small enterprises, which will see increasing business benefits from recording and transacting more of their business digitally. As their business data becomes more visible to financial institutions, local firms will increasingly channel financial services, and particularly credit, to their customers, employees, and suppliers. Financial institutions will backstop their credit, which in effect turns smaller businesses into front-line distribution partners into local communities.
Pathway Three: Through Socio-Financial Networks
Firms view individuals primarily as managers of a web of socio-financial relationships that may or may not allow them access to formal financial services. Beyond providing loans to "creditworthy" people, financial institutions can provide transactional engines, similar to the crowdfunding platforms that enable all people to locate potential funding sources within their existing social networks. A provider equipped with appropriate network analysis tools could then promote rather than displace people´s own funding relationships and activities. This would provide financial service firms valuable insight into how people manage their financial needs.
The pathways are intended as an exploration of how smartphones could support the development of a healthier and more inclusive digital financial service ecosystem, by addressing the two critical deficiencies of the current mass-market digital finance systems. Smartphones could enable stronger customer value propositions, leading to much higher levels of customer engagement, leading to more revelation of customer data and more robust business cases for the providers involved. Mobile technology could also lead to a broader diversity of players coming into the space, each playing to their specific interests and contributing their specific set of skills, but together delivering customer value through the right combination of collaboration and competition.
Free the cash networks!
[From NextBillion blog, 13 November 2014]
Consider for a moment three hypothetical missed business opportunities.
You are an experienced, confident entrepreneur with a cool new idea for an electronic financial product that you are sure will catch the interest of the mass of poor people who are still unconvinced about banking. You get an e-money license from the central bank, and that gives you license to form your own cash in/out agent network. But you see yourself as a digital venture, and as a start-up you know you are too small to develop your very own dense, reliable network of stores. The other licensed players out there will not let you use theirs. Why should they? You are a competitor. Sure, you could sign up the same stores in their networks as your own agents, which would make it easier - but you want to spend your time creating great digital experiences, not cajoling shopkeepers. You figure it´s just too hard, so you don´t enter the market.
You come from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, and you have years of experience building retail channels. You see an opportunity in managing the cash in/out requirements for all bank and mobile money issuers. You are thinking of creating a shared agent network; surely those companies will all jump at the opportunity to outsource that irksome function to you? You have no trouble signing up all the desperate, small players who know they can´t make it work on their own. You also sign up some bigger banks that don't really have much interest in financial inclusion anyway, but want to report large agent numbers because it makes them look good. But the big fish — those that can bring the transaction volume that you need — avoid you like the plague. After all, your value proposition to them is to dilute their competitive advantage. You can´t get over the irony that mobile operators — native corporate children of the digital age — insist on competing on the basis of who has the biggest physical cash network. You realize it´ll take years of going up the issuer food chain, to convince the bigger guys that they need you more than you need them. So you give up and go back to distributing soft drinks.
You are a local entrepreneurial shopkeeper, and you see that you can extend your product range virtually and become the interface for your clients to do all their cashing in and cashing out. But then you learn that you need to sign a contract with each bank and mobile money issuer in sight. After you sign up some, others don't want to give you a contract at all, because you are tainted as being with one of their dreaded competitors. Now you can no longer aim to serve all your customers, which doesn't sound like good business to you. And those that do give you a contract expect you to have a separate pool of money dedicated to them. Each wants you to put all their signage on your storefront. Each has a different system that your employees need to learn. Each sends someone to supervise you; who are these nosy busybodies? This feels crazy: You want one system that helps you serve all customers from one inventory. Forget it, you shelve these plans.
Given these stories — all of which are based on very real impediments facing would-be entrepreneurs around the world — are you surprised that most agent networks are struggling, except perhaps for those of the biggest telcos and banks in the land? And the consequences of these struggles reverberate far beyond the agent networks themselves. In fact, there isn't a competitive supply of digital financial services because few find a way to overcome the tough realities of cash distribution.
It does not need to be like this. Just one regulatory change — creating a new license category for cash in/cash out agent network managers who are authorized to operate independently of account issuers — would go a long way to eliminating the barriers to entry, operational pain and duplication of efforts that we suffer from today. (Read this paper for a fuller articulation of this proposal.)
Would this change give a second chance to our three hypothetical entrepreneurs? Consider these alternate scenarios:
The entrepreneurial FMCG guy gets this license from the central bank, then starts facilitating cash in/out for any and all banks and mobile money operators simply by opening a corporate customer account with each. Once he´s got his own money in their system and has access to their mobile or online banking interface, he can then exchange it for his cash. Now the situation is flipped: he chooses whom he wishes to do cash in/out for, and the banks and mobile money issuers have no say in the matter. (Just like if I have money in a bank account, the bank can´t tell me how I can and cannot use it.)
The entrepreneurial FMCG guy then approaches the entrepreneurial shopkeeper. Love at first sight: with one contract and one system, the shopkeeper can serve all of his clients. There's no need to seek out anyone else.
Then the entrepreneurial digital financial product guy comes along with his cool product idea and convinces the (now licensed) FMCG guy to open an account with him; he might even give the FMCG guy a small monetary incentive for the trouble. Now he can boast the same agent coverage as everyone else. Overnight. He can finally start proving that his digital product idea is really as good as he thinks.
One regulatory change, three dramatically changed stories. Note that the nature and content of agent regulations (on publicizing a customer care line, pricing transparency, documentation requirements on retail outlets, etc.) need not change at all; the only thing that would change is the party that is responsible for them. All we´ve done is to shift the locus of some of the regulatory provisions from licensed issuers to the new category of licensed agent network managers.
That will bring branded competition to agent networks, and therefore, to digital services as well – a big payoff for such a simple change.
Squeezing financial inclusion between regulatory pillars
[From MFW4A´s Africa Finance Forum blog, 10 November 2014]
In a panel in a recent IFC/MasterCard Foundation conference in Johannesburg, Mark Flaming of MicrCred reminded us that there is a tension running deep in all regulatory discussions of digital financial services (DFS) for financial inclusion, and that is between the banking and payments traditions. These are differentiated regulatory pillars that are deeply ingrained institutionally as separate departments within every central bank, and as separate committees within the Basel structure at the top of the global regulatory food chain. The two traditions are increasingly encoded legally, as more developing countries are passing payments systems laws distinct from banking laws.
Payment system departments within central banks have an instinctive understanding of network effects, so they tend to be friendly to an inclusion agenda that promises to connect more people to payment networks. Also, their general aspiration is to increase the share of transactions that happen in real time and reduce credit and counterparty risk, so digital financial inclusion platforms are in fact supportive of their system stability objective.
Banking supervision departments, on the other hand, tend to take a much more cautious approach. They tend to worry much more about financial depth relative to the volume of economic activity rather than the size of the population. Their supervisory resources are much more overworked given the inherently more complex and untransparent business of banking, and tend to look at technology, service and business model innovation with more suspicion, as things that could potentially get out of hand. The global financial crisis has of course given them ample evidence to support this instinct. They are more focused on protecting what is (risks) than on pushing the frontiers (opportunities).
So which side of the regulatory house should own, or at least take the lead on, financial inclusion for the masses in developing countries? Things have moved fastest in countries that have given it to the payments side, which tends to be more in tune with infrastructure-light digital service platforms and more comfortable dealing with a broader range of players. Under a new type of e-money issuer (EMI) license, they are letting non-banks (and in particular mobile operators, but also electronic top-up specialists and independent retailers), offer basic transactional services to those for whom traditional banking services are too costly, inconvenient, or simply unavailable.
But this has been the problem: payments people very reasonably worry that this foray into proto-banking risks tipping their side down a regulatory slippery slope that may lead to the kind of burdensome prudential and consumer protection regulation that mires the banking side. One way to avoid this has been to sharpen the differences between electronic money and banking services - so that putting money in an electronic money account is made to feel very different to putting money in an electronic bank account.
Accordingly, EMI licenses in many countries carry tough restrictions such as precluding payment of interest on saved balances, imposing lower account caps, banning their marketing as savings accounts or using the term banking at all, banning the bundling of credit offers even if they are funded externally to the EMI, and excluding them from deposit insurance. But this just seems like an overly limited banking option for the poor: financial inclusion ought to be more than payments.
This sharp distinction between EMIs and banks has also introduced regulatory arbitrage opportunities between banks and EMIs, insofar as the payments and banking supervision departments set different standards for service functions common to both, such as requirements for account opening, e-channel security, and contracting of retail stores as cash in/out agents. In some countries, this has made it easier for mobile operators rather than banks to offer basic financial services to the (traditionally excluded) mass market.
I argue in a new paper that the next round of regulatory reforms for financial inclusion needs to address both these issues. By neglecting savings, the current practice does not serve a full enough vision of financial inclusion.
Firstly, EMIs licensed under payments system frameworks need to be unencumbered from unjustified restrictions. In particular, they should be able to offer savings services on the same basis that banks do. For the essence of banking is not the mere act of taking deposits (which is easy to supervise), but rather the reinvestment of those funds in a way that entails credit and liquidity risk (which is not so easy to supervise). Accordingly, EMIs serving the poor should be reinterpreted as narrow banks - institutions that take deposits from the public and manage customer accounts on the same terms as banks do, but that do not intermediate the corresponding funds. Because narrow banks don´t themselves place bets with depositors´ money, they should remain firmly in the payments pillar.
Secondly, regulation should aim not only to introduce new types of competitors, but also to create a more level playing field between players licensed under banking and payments pillars when they perform similar functions in similar fashion. Banking regulators need to be much more open to adopting the kinds of regulatory practices that payments regulators employ routinely when real-time technology platforms are used in a way that minimizes credit and counterparty risks. A key element here is cash in-cash out (CICO): it should not be any more difficult for banks to engage third-party CICO outlets than it is for EMIs, provided that all transactions happen securely on the bank´s technology platform in real time.
The great competition and innovation deficit
[From Center for Financial Inclusion blog, 29 October 2014]
Have you noticed how narrow the interventions of the chorus of financial inclusion supporters have become? Academic researchers are immersed in proving whether an SMS message sent at the right time can push people to repay their loans more promptly (a.k.a. nudges), or whether someone with more savings is likely to be happier and more empowered in some way (a.k.a. impact evaluations). NGOs fund numerous papers and conferences to promote the idea of seeking early and frequent customer feedback in product design (a.k.a. human-centered design), or of looking into customer data for some clue as to what interests them and how they behave (a.k.a. big data). Donors set up round after round of tenders with subsidized funds to spur fully-grown banks and telcos to try out a new product feature (a.k.a. challenge grants), or to prop up the marketing and distribution wherewithal of selected players (a.k.a. capacity building).
All this buzz surely is positive and the things that come out of these activities may well be part of the answer to the financial inclusion challenge. But this begs the larger question: why aren´t these rather obvious and incremental things done by interested market participants themselves? Why don´t they already experiment with customer communication modes and new product features? Why don´t they eagerly seek out impact data that can drive effective marketing and PR, or more routinely seek customer feedback to improve their products and operations? Why don´t they systematically leverage customer insight as a core asset, and why do they underinvest in novel customer promotion techniques?
In other words, why is there such an inherent innovation deficit within the very commercial ventures that we think are going to drive financial inclusion forward? Do market players really need this very granular level of handholding to getwhat academics, NGOs, and donors so clearly believe in?
To put it more bluntly: do we really need to continue subsidizing sustaining innovation like this? Or is the problem, rather, that there isn´t enough of a competitive push to drive them to want to innovate as a key source of market advantage? Would more competition for and within the market drive the kinds of innovations that are being promoted from the sidelines?
I think the latter. Consider the current innovation frenzy in digital financial services in the US. Google, Amazon, and Apple all want to join early mover PayPal in getting inside or becoming people´s electronic wallets. Facebook and smaller start-ups like Dwolla and Venmo all want to revolutionize how money is sent online. Players like Smartypig, Simple, and Moven want to reinvent how you deal with the money sitting in your bank account. Established players like MasterCard and new ones like Square want to change how you pay for goods at the store. Not to mention, of course, the slew of bitcoin start-ups.
Now ask yourself: why are none of these players vying for the blue space that is the billions of people who are excluded? Aren´t these companies the ones who are best placed, with their high-volume, low-cost digital platforms and viral marketing savvy, to radically transform the economics of financial service delivery? Why isn´t the chorus of financial inclusion supporters simply putting their desire for innovation at the feet of these corporate digital natives?
And let me tell you, they are right not to do so. That´s because there are three things none of these digital players want to deal with – and never will. They do not want to get a banking license that embroils them in onerous regulation. They do not want to conduct primary identity checks on their customers (Know Your Customer, or KYC), which require physical customer contact. And they do not want to touch their customers´ cash. That´s why all digital financial players, exciting as they may seem when you look at their wares online, sit parasitically on top of banks. You will not have access to their services if you do not already have a bank account: to deal with regulatory aspects, to conduct primary KYC, and to do cash in/out through them.
It follows that these digital players will not lead the charge on financial inclusion in developing countries. At most they will wait tactically in the sidelines and pick up customers as they trickle into the formal financial system. But most won´t even do that: these businesses´ DNA is all about scale and network effects, so if they can´t go for size then they may not go there at all.
Unless. Unless we give them an alternative path to delegate, or even avoid, these three things that they don´t want to do. A way into developing markets that does not make them entirely dependent on banks to first open up the space for them. Here´s how. First, give these players the opportunity to get a more lenient e-money license which does not constrain them in what services they can offer customers, but bars them from loaning out or otherwise speculating with (i.e. intermediating) customers´ funds. Second, allow them to offer an entry-level account that requires noidentity checks; cap usage of that appropriately, so that more onerous KYC procedures kick in only when customers are ready to give the account more serious use. And third, delink cash in/out networks from specific account issuers, so that a breed of independent cash in/out network managers emerge with the vocation to serve all issuers, all stores, and all customers. All they should be required to have is a customer account, but not an agency contract, with each issuer. (If you are thinking that this is the standard branchless banking regulatory prescription, think again, or, better yet, read this.)
You will have noticed that these points are all about regulation. Regulation holds the key to creating a competitive environment that is more welcoming of innovative digital players. In the end, the chorus of financial inclusion supporters are getting involved in the supply of innovation simply because they want to avoid the morass that is regulatory reform. But if they truly want to make an impact on financial inclusion, they should go back to focusing on basic market enablement rather than merely filling innovation gaps.
Financial inclusion histories
[From MicroSave´s Financial Inclusion in Action blog, 15 October 2014]
We do most of our work in a historical vacuum. We tend to think of today's problems and opportunities as unique. That's a natural bias in an age imbued with a sense of inexorable progress reliant on technological solutions. But if we lift our gaze over historical time, we find numerous references to issues and debates that are not unlike those prevailing today. There's nothing like historical perspective to temper one's excitement about the latest idea or trend. Maybe that's why we shy away from probing too deeply in our history books.
Let me share three things about the past that I've recently become aware of that relate to contemporary discussions of financial inclusion.
Big history: G2P payments and the origin of coinage
In his sweeping historical account of the development of credit and money systems, David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 Years, makes the claim that it was governments, not markets and the spirit of enterprise they embodied, who had the burning need that led to the invention of coinage. Markets could function just fine with credit arrangements when people bought stuff from one other, with trusted parties clearing (or discounting) debts between people from different localities who didn't know each other and were not likely to meet again. Hence the observation, which I wrote about in this blog a year ago, that money has always been largely virtual.
But governments of the time had a specific need for a readily exchangeable, portable, tokenized form of value that could be used for mass micropayments: for the victualing and quartering of troops as they marched and spread across the territory. Governments then stepped up taxation as a means of getting those coins back from the people, so that they could be recycled. So markets worked on ledgers, but armies needed cash. Of course, once coins became widespread, markets readily adopted them, but the vector for mass adoption lay elsewhere.
I am struck by the similarity with the situation today. The new burning micropayment need of most developing countries is the distribution of cash-based social welfare payments to a rising share of the population. And indeed we see that in many countries –and for many donors— it is the need to make G2P payments that is driving the agenda around digitizing money, for finding something that is Better Than Cash. These schemes may help many needy people, but at its core it is about meeting a pressing government need.
Family financial histories
We often go out searching for financial tidbits in poor people's lives, but have you wondered about the financial history of your own family? Try asking your parents and grandparents the kinds of questions we so mechanically ask total strangers in foreign lands.
I asked my parents, who grew up in an impoverished, conservative, isolated, economically mis-managed, post-civil war Spain. They were the first in their families to go to college. I learned that their parents didn't have bank accounts, but neither did most everyone else they dealt with. When my parents were growing up, cash was hidden around the house, and some of it was spread over several envelopes. What if they needed money? My father made the gesture of a finger slipping in and out of a ring: my grandmother's wedding ring doing regular financial duty at the pawnshop. Both my parents agreed that in case of need within their respective families, the main option was to scramble for more work. It's almost like their parents were purposely holding back from doing more work regularly in order to leave some room for extra income in case of need.
All this may sound familiar. But what really struck me was how uncomprehendingly my parents looked at me when I insisted on knowing how their own parents managed without a bank account. It just didn't seem that important to them, at the time. My parents both became doctors, and learned to avail themselves of the convenience of modern banking. But they are clear in their minds that the account came with their economic and professional success, not the other way around.
Do you know your family's financial history? When and how did a bank account first enter your family's life, and how momentous did that seem to them?
150 years of financial diaries
It is said that writing evolved from the need to record debts. We tend to look at money matters like they hold an important key to understanding broader personal and societal matters, which may be why we have such fascination for understanding how others manage their money.
It should be no surprise, then, that there is a long tradition of conducting financial diaries. In her study spanning the period 1870-1930 in the United States, Viviana Zelizer discovered numerous instances of "household-budget studies" that "richly documented how the working class and lower-middle class spent their money," at a time when the consumer society was being established. Even our research methods are not so new.
Research on innovation in digital finance
[From Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation´s Impatient Optimists blog, 12 August 2014]
Digital finance encompasses the notions of: (i) electronifying poor people´s monetary holdings; (ii) creating end-to-end cashless payment ecosystems reaching down to the base of the pyramid;(iii) pushing financial transactions outside of costly bank branches and into normal retail shops; and (iv) inducing a shift from riskier, traditional, informal financial practices into structured financial services (savings, credit, insurance) from formal, regulated institutions.
That´s a tough combo.
If I were grading the performance of the developing world as a whole on these four dimensions, I´d only give a comfortable passing score on (iii). Of course it´s still early days, countries have been on this agenda for anywhere between 0-10 years, and it will no doubt take another decade or two before we see substantial inroads. I do think there is an inevitability about this journey that will ultimately carry us through. But the hype about all the progress on the ground is, in my view, exaggerated.
Still, are the efforts well directed? I am certainly impressed with the number of providers that are having a go at it, though I´d like to see more banks and third parties joining the telcos in this club. But the main worry I have is the very limited extent of innovation and differentiation that I see as I go from country to country, and from provider to provider. It is hard to imagine, in these early days, that anyone has fully figured out the magic formula, and yet we seem to be trying very few formulas.
Over the last year, I have been looking at the pace and constraints on innovation in digital finance, under research I have conducted under a Gates Foundation-funded Fellowship at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. In a sequence of four papers, I have looked at it from different angles:
· Client view. The paper "Digitizing the Kaleidoscope of Informal Financial Practices" contrasts the psychological and cultural richness of informal savings mechanisms with the simpler, more rigid and yet less intuitive format of digital savings products. The paper argues that financial inclusion should not imply a rejection of informal financial practices but a synthesis of the informal and the digital.
· Provider view. The paper "Product Innovations on Mobile Money" (co-authored with former BMGF colleague Mireya Almazán) contains a thorough review of the state of product development and innovation on mobile money platforms. We find that the range of product categories such platforms support is still rather narrow, but the specific ways in which services are defined and packaged do vary significantly across operators and markets.
· Technology view. The paper "Why You Should Care about Bitcoin – Even if you don´t Believe in it" explores what a truly innovation-friendly electronic currency system and payments infrastructure might look like. A software-protected currency operating with a public ledger system –the key technology elements behind bitcoin— has the potential for supporting the development of more open, contestable and interconnected ecosystems for the delivery of payment and financial services, much like the internet did for the delivery of communication and content services.
· Regulatory view. The paper "Shifting Branchless Banking Regulation from Enabling to Fostering Competition" argues that regulations on e-money issuers, retail agents and account opening need to be recast so as to reduce the cost of entry and give much more scope for service and business model innovation. In addition, there is a growing need for policymakers to ensure there is a level playing field across all players, and that mobile operators do not exploit their dominance in the mobile communications market to gain advantage in the new market for mobile financial services.
My main take-out from this work is that there is still much we need to learn and many approaches we need to experiment with before technology-based approaches can become a reliable tool for financial inclusion across the developing world.


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Street Address:
1020 E. Perrin Ave.
Suite 101
Fresno, CA 93720
Mailing Address:
1020 E Perrin Ave Ste 101
Fresno, CA 93720-5024
NE Corner of Champlain & Perrin
Phone: (559) 433-3733
Mobile: (559) 513-9370
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Over the past two days the Concert Choir has been busy traveling, singing, and developing our community with time spent during meals and on the bus. On Saturday afternoon after a free morning to sleep and grab some lunch in Dallas, the choir said goodbye to Texas and loaded the bus for the journey to Tulsa, Oklahoma. That evening the Choir performed at a Cathedral in downtown Tulsa, after eating a delicious Italian meal at a local restaurant that Bethel provided. The Cathedral provided an incredible rich housing for our sound to occupy. We sang our music and each piece sounded different from what it used to be. The sound echoed for what seemed like forever after a crisp release. Although the crowd was not as large as it had been for previous concerts, the Choir sang just for the pleasure of singing in such a glorious space. This concert, at least for me, was one of the most vocally rewarding experiences during the tour, and I believe others share my opinion.
After our concert we loaded the bus for a shorter drive to Enid, Oklahoma where we would perform Sunday morning at Grace Mennonite Church. The next morning, after spending their final night outside of Kansas, the tour headed to the church for the final performance before the home concert. The Choir engaged in the worship with the congregation at Grace and then offered the congregation a shorter, but still a high quality performance designed to fit into the worship. The program was very engaging and the choir enjoyed singing to such an attentive and involved audience. After the service the Choir was fed a delicious potluck meal provided by the church and were able to engage in conversation with the people of the Grace Mennonite congregation.
The Choir is currently back on the road for the last time together with this group and headed back to Kansas. The tour has been deeply moving and one of the most powerful experiences of my short college career. As a freshman in this group I was unsure of how I would fit in with this group or how a ten-day trip would really go. Before this trip these people were my friends and acquaintances of my college career, however, after traveling with them and giving all these performances together I can without a doubt say that this is my family. And as one of our songs asks "Where is the road that will lead me home?" I can honestly give a reply to this question: I am at home in the Concert Choir.
-Reece Hiebert


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Blood In Mouth Scared I Have HIV
Here's a taste of what TheBody.com has to offer on this topic:
Ask the Experts
bed riddin from fear (my GP scared me again)Hi Dr Bob I hope your doing well.I'm the guy who's doctor told me I needed pep for having a HIV exposure through a kiss on the mouth while I had bleeding gums.I took your advise and didn't go on it.Life has been ok until 3 and a half months...
Response from Robert J. Frascino, M.D.
The Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation...has ruined my marriage.Response from Dr. FrascinoHello,Welcome back to the forum, but sorry to hear you are still living in fear of HIV, despite your nonexistent HIV risk. Certainly it's possible you have sinusitis. It's an extremely common... Read more »
scared of testing (WHAT YOU DONT KNOW CAN KILL YOU, 2009) ( IS IT BETTER TO GET HIV TESTED OR NOT TO KNOW, 2010) (CONSEQUENCES OF LATE DIAGNOSIS, 2010)Hey....I am thirty years old..have never done an hiv test.....found someone who is just... Read more »
Scared to go to the doctor or get tested (WHAT YOU DONT KNOW CAN KILL YOU, 2010) ( IS IT BETTER TO GET HIV TESTED OR NOT TO KNOW, 2010)Dr Bop please, please, please I need your help.I've written to you many times over the past few... Read more »
What Are the Symptoms of HIV and AIDS?...TheBody.com's "Ask the Experts" forum on safe sex and HIV prevention is flooded with tons of questions every day. It's normal to be scared, especially if you don't know much about HIV. But that is why it is important to educate yourself: so you... Read more »
HIV Transmission...insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it bites. There also is no reason to fear that a mosquito or other insect could transmit HIV from one person to another through HIV-infected blood left on its... Read more »
Understanding HIV-Related Lab Tests I: Complete Blood Count and Blood Chemistry... Lab Tests Are Important Tools The Basics Complete Blood Count (CBC) Blood Chemistry (Chemistry or Chem Screens) The Bottom Line Lab Tests Are Important Tools Having regular Read more »
What Do You Think Is the Best Way to Fight HIV/AIDS Stigma?...believe the more that people are educated about HIV, the less stigma there is. Once people are aware and they know what they are scared of, or fearful of, you know, they open their hearts. Chivuli Ukwimi, International Gay... Read more »
Connect With Others
scared. PLEASE answer
Posted by jkkljhklj, 1 Reply...today at lunch, i got some corn nuts out of the vending machine and ate them from my palm. what would be the risk if: 1. hiv + blood was on the corn packet, got on my hand then on the corn nuts, and in my mouth? 2. what would would be the... Read more »
scared still
Posted by Anonymous, 2 Replies...they are still swollen in a month he wants to send me for a biopsy. I'm terrified. HIV crosses my mind and I try to chase the fear away with the neg test results at hand. Should I test again, as I am at the 13 weeks, or would that be irrational?... Read more »
scared what if driving me nuts...
Posted by sadman, 3 Replies...prior) but there was a band aid on ti. The cut finger never touched her. The reason I ask is 15 days out I got a dry mouth a sore throat and a swollen lymph node on my neck. I got all the STD screens I could this early on and all came... Read more »
Posted by Anonymous, 2 Replies...had an encounter in april and tested ngeative in may and then I had someone perform oral on me again a week ago and now im afraid and I keep making these stupid mistakes.. please help . Read more »
Resource Centers
Guides for People With HIV


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Anuvahood is a 2011 British urban comedy film directed by Adam Deacon, who also plays the film's lead character. It also stars Paul Kaye, Wil Johnson, Ollie Barbieri, Femi Oyeniran, Jocelyn Jee Esien, and Ashley Walters. Anuvahood was released on 18 March 2011; though critics received it negatively, it had a strong box-office opening and ended up a moderate success.
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The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States- General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It is often considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stock.
Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.
Having been set up in 1602, to profit from the Malukan spice trade, in 1619 the VOC established a capital in the port city of Batavia (now Jakarta). Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory. It remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.
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Dienerstrasse 12
We at Cloudia Chen Photography believe that women of all ages and walks of life are beautiful and should be reminded of that. Life can be hectic – in between everything we do – be it...
In white leather, like new. 50.-
red, in good condition. To be picked up in 8004 Zürich. All together for 200.-
Perfect condition, located in Luzern, selling because we are moving away.
270 chf for 4 chairs (originally 320 chf) (you save 50 chf)
150 chf for coffee table (originally 200 chf) (you...
1 bedroom available for single occupancy in big 3 bedroom flat with balcony, only minutes away from Enge station and Sihlcity. Zurich HB 10 mins away by tram.
Spacious and quiet...
A black sofa bed from Ikea "Lugnvik" is for sale.
Bought in November-2014, but the sofa is barely used, as good as new.
The price is 120 CHF (the price for a new is...
I am renting out my room in a very central and good located 3-room apartment. Nicely furnished with a big living room and sunny balcony.
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The flat is very spacious (97 square meters) and sunny (south-west oriented on 4th floor - reachable through stairs or lift) with 2 large bedrooms, a living room, a modern kitchen and a...
Do you also love Afternon Teas in high-end hotels and enjoy brunches in Eden au Lac, The Dolder Grand or going to a nice hotel bar in the evening? You feel like in heaven when you are...
We are leaving the apartment and leaving furniture. To be picked during the weekend. In Seefeld, Neptustrasse.
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An almost new sofabed, which has never been used as a bed before so you can class it as new ;) and a two mirrored door wardrobe for sale.
Sofabed - 80 CHF
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I'm renting out my fully furnished 3.5 room apartment located in the heart of Zurich city from mid April (approx. 20th) to May 31st.
If you're interested, please e-mail me...
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Fom April or middle of April 2015 until end of July or more, I will rent 1 fully furnished room in a spacious 3.5 rooms apartment in Zurich Kr3 near Sihlcity and 5 min to Google Office....
I'm looking for someone to play squash with every now and then. I'm not particularly skillful at the game but I'm very fit, pretty cordinated with ball sports in...
1 x FREE mattress 1,5 year old 140 x 200 m - good condition.
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Dear city kid, it is my daily mission to inspire and connect city people. Now I would like to go one step further and with POPUP ensure that making connections in the city is even easier and that we can all give each other inspiration. Here's five from a million reasons why the new website can enrich your life too! Say hi to the city for me!
The new city network is called POPUP- it connects you with your city. I want to inspire you and here is the place for your inspirations. Inspire other Ronsters and become part of your city. POPUP is for your life, your thoughts, your ideas, your art, your sound, your blog, your project… Uncover yourself and be found!
Are you looking for an apartment, a job or your stolen bike? Then
place an ad here. It's free. Or have you got a job to advertise? Do you want to sell your sofa? Or find a travel partner? Exactly: place an ad! PS: You can view your ads here.
Are you a graphic artist, musician, artist, designer, journalist, freelance type? Then get discovered via POPUP. Expand your profile and show your skills (via personal description).
Then you are sure to find it at ronorp.net. Under Popup there is also a new area,
Love, (use the filter area) where you will find all the city kids who are on the look out for true love or real freedom. To appear here you just have to fill out your profile (personal description under love) and see what happens. If you are just looking for someone to accompany you to an event, then you'll find them at '
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Catherine Pappas
Catherine Pappas is a condensed-matter experimentalist with interests in chiral, frustrated, and disordered magnetism. Her expertise is in the fields of polarized neutron scattering and instrumentation. She received her Ph.D. in 1984 from the University Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and then moved to Berlin, first to the Free University and later to the Hahn-Meitner Institute, nowadays Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. Since 2009 she has been a professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Catherine Pappas Published March 5, 2012
A new state of matter involving twisting magnetic moments has been observed for the first time, possibly opening up novel applications in information technology.


text: After reading several reviews on several sites, I was a little hesitant about booking here. I was only going to be here one night and I wanted to stay close to my son, whom is a Marine currently at Corry Station. I arrived rather early on Saturday morning and there were no rooms ready yet. As expected because check-in was... More


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The Catalogue of Women, ascribed to Hesiod, one of the greatest figures of early hexameter poetry, maps the Greek world, its evolution and its heroic myths through the mortal women who bore children to the gods. In this collection a team of international scholars offers an attempt to explore the poem's meaning, significance and reception. Individual chapters examine the organization and structure of the poem, its social and political context, its relation to other early epic and Hesiodic poetry, its place in the development of a pan-Hellenic consciousness, and attitudes to women. The wider influence of the Catalogue is considered in chapters on Pindar and the lyric tradition, on Hellenistic poetry, and on the poem's reception at Rome. This collection provides a significant approach to the study of the Catalogue.
Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Ordering women in Hesiod's Catalogue Robin Osborne; 2. The beginning and end of the Catalogue of Women and its relation to Hesiod Jenny Strauss Clay; 3. Gods among men? The social and political dynamics of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Elizabeth Irwin; 4. Heracles in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Johannes Haubold; 5. Mestra at Athens: Hesiod fr. 43 and the poetics of panhellenism Ian Rutherford; 6. A catalogue within a catalogue: Helen's suitors in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (frr. 196–204) Ettore Cingano; 7. Pulp epic: the Catalogue and the Shield Richard P. Martin; 8. The Megalai Ehoiai: a survey of the fragments Giovan Battista D'Alessio; 9. Ordered from the Catalogue: Pindar, Bacchylides and Hesiodic genealogical poetry Giovan Battista D'Alessio; 10. The Hesiodic Catalogue and Hellenistic poetry Richard Hunter; 11. From genealogy to Catalogue: the Hellenistic adaptation of the Hesiodic catalogue form Helen Asquith; 12. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and Latin poetry Philip Hardie; 13. Or such as Ovid's Metamorphoses … Richard Fletcher; Bibliography; Index of passages discussed; General index.


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Clarion Collection Hotel Astoria Genova
Piazza Brignole, 4
Genoa, 16122
Phone: (39) 010 873316
Fax: (39) 010 8317326
Chiesa di N.S. della Consolazione e S.Vincenzo
This church was built between 1684 and 1706 for the Augustinian monks, and underwent further changes throughout the years up until the nineteenth century because of the construction of Via XX Settembre. It is situated in that part of the city between the fourteenth century bastions (later enhanced in the sixteenth century) and the Fronti Basse del Bisagno (The seventeenth century walls corresponding to Piazza della Vittoria). It has three large naves adorned with nineteenth century frescoes and a fourteenth century Crucifix over the altar by S.M. di Castello. It is said that until recently this crucifix was not hung as it was deemed to be offensive because of the transparency of Christ's loincloth. Next to the church is the Oriental Market, which has been located in the church's only cloister since 1899. It is a favourite of the Genoese messaie(but not only!). The Nickelodeon cinema is also situated within the convent on via della Consolazione.
Via Settembre 20
Genoa, 16121
+39 010 561 921
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