VICE

Hi! Just picked up a VICE mag while in Lund and wanted to tell you that you can too. And if not www.viceland.com will sort your ass out. Will be on my way to Belgium early tomorrow morning. Anyone living in Cph wanting to hang out until 5 am? Call me! (+354 698 2554).

Peace.

15:30 - 23:30

The truth is, I don’t really mind airplane delays. It ain’t that bad at airports and laptops with wireless have made it even better. But as most enjoyable experiences go, prolonged engagement will slowly take the fun out of it (with some exceptions). Flight FHE903 to Copenhagen is confirmed, on screen, to take off at 23:30. First, however, it was 15:30. Already had my complementary meal and the stores are closed. (Shouldn’t airport stuff be open 24/7? No law or something? Anyone?). Your boy is getting a little cranky. I do hope I get to sit next to a screaming child on the plane. I hope.

The reason for me being here is my move to Brussels. I’m stopping a few days in Lund to tie a few knots concerning my final thesis but will address onwards to Belgium on the 30th. It’s pretty damn exciting all of this. In Brussels I will be disbursing grants left and right. Evaluating and calculating, saving the world, although wearing a tie while at it. The dreads and the bongo drum will have to wait. Can’t have everything at once you see. Well, all this is good. But what’s even better is that my Anna (the spice of my life) is coming on the 22nd next month. And that’s the real reason why I don’t really mind waiting.

Clever activism

I few years ago I had an idea that didn't get much attention from anyone I mentioned it to. It wasn't anything fantastic or revolutionary really, probably something many have thought of before, but it was one of those ideas that in your head adds up to something really unflappable. The plot, so to speak, was all about reclaiming public space and reintroducing magic and playfulness to places that usually serve only one purpose, namely parking.

Renting a parking space is very simple. You park your car, stash the meter with coins and go about your business while your car waits. Cut the car from the equation and you’ve got an empty space. Add a sofa and you have a space for leisure, add a sound-system and you have a dance-floor. Anything goes actually as a chill approach to civil disobedience, ticking some frustrated motorists off in the process. “Hey man, I rented this spot just to hang out. Whatcha’ gonna do, pig!” Just make sure you don’t get a ticket and keep filling the meter up.

The reason that it came to mind again is that some group went ahead and did it in San Francisco and in Sicily too apparently. They even went as far as laying down grass on the pavement and everything, making it a “Park” space. Goes to show you're never alone.

Recommended

Surplus, by Erik Gandini.

a Walk in the Park...

... as always.

26

Blíð er lund og ljóst er hár
Lífið svona gengur
Tuttuguogsex nú eru ár
er áttu litli drengur

(For those of you who don't understand Icelandic this is an incredibly cheesy birthday poem).

This road/bridge/hospital/house/ swimming pool is used by terrorists.

Protocol 1
Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977
PART IV: CIVILIAN POPULATION

Section 1: General Protection Against Effects of Hostilities
Chapter I: Basic Rule and Field of Application

Article 48: Basic Rule

In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.

Protocol 1

Marine Science

A Sunday afternoon of hard-core scientific groundwork with my uncle Bjössi, cousin Tryggvi and a dog named Kolur.

Babel no more

So the weekend turned out pretty freaking great. No seriously, I'm not talking about my lame ass lugubrious weekend. I want to talk about Globish. Globish man! It's creating an international shyster as we speak. Globish is basically bad English that some French guy,Jean-Paul Nerrière, decided to intellectualize by giving it a cool name and talk about it a lot. Made up of about 1500 words it's supposed to help Swedes f.ex. and other non original anglophones where business and political dealings are concerned. The thought being that bad English just works no matter where you are in the world. Pretty nifty actually.

Rummaging around in some drawers I found a little treasure called, "Lead the Field" by Earl Nightingale. A 6 CD set making up a guide for success. I’m listening to it right now and expect to be successful in a couple of days. Don’t know how I did without Nightingale. Check this out: "Before we go running off to what we think are greener pastures, lets make sure that our own is not just as green or perhaps even greener."

I like my pasture. And I like the people partying on it.

Sheep

As you can see the number of sheep in Iceland has rapidly declined during the last 25 years or so. This is of course a very discerning development in light of the historical evidence about the sheep’s importance for Icelandic autonomy. But the reason for this reduction might not be the most palpable one. Through various observations of different time series datasets I have tried to find an explanation for this phenomenon. I seem to have narrowed it down to the increase in VHS movie rentals in Iceland during the same period. I know this might come as quite the surprise but the figures don’t lie. Quite startlingly the correlation between these two variables has the very high negative value of rho = -0,89 closing in on being perfectly negative. I have even made a couple of regressions on the econometric model Sheep(q,t) = autonomous quantity(q,t) + B(VHS-Rentals(q,t)), made inferences on the estimated parameter and it seems to hold up quite well. With an estimated parameter value of B = –0,11(VHS-Rentals) the results explicitly imply that for each additional thousand VHS-movies rented, the quantity of sheep declines by roughly 110. Let me further clarify. Each time you rent a movie you are in fact endangering the existence of one of Iceland’s most revered national symbols. According to my model (with R^2 = 0,79), sheep are, everything else being equal, only 6,5 milj. VHS-rentals away from distinction at every point in time.

The reason for this connection is puzzling. My best guess is that very few movies feature sheep and they are therefore going out of fashion. Further evidence for this explanation is a comparative look at dog ownership. Dogs are frequent stars of movies and dog ownership has quite convincingly increased in later years. I haven’t found any supporting literature concerning this specific explanation, although I have found some theories about why the sheep is loosing ground in Iceland. None, however, provide any probable or convincing arguments citing lower demand, declining market prices and lower government subsidies.

There is however no reason to panic. Further research into the matter has revealed that the decline in sheep has been leveling out recently as the number of VHS rentals has been dropping a number of years in a row. (VHS-Rentals in thousands)

I can assure all readers that all empirical evidence put forward here is genuine. Data can be confirmed at the website www.hagstofan.is . Raw data and regressions will be handed over at a request. Further information about the Icelandic sheep is available at Wikipeia

Shareware

Yes. I had an idea the other day involving famous people, farts, recording devices and charitable fundraising. Needless to say, it was about getting famous people to donate recorded acoustics of their farts to be sold in key-chain form for charity. Like: "Mel Gibson farts for freedom" or something like that. I'm not sure it would work though. But if someone would like to move on this you shall feel free to do so. Hell, Robbie, if you read this send me an e-mail. egill.eyjolfsson@gmail.com

...and I hereby declare this idea a shareware.

About this thing...

Then there is the matter of this blog. I’ve decided to have it in English so all my associates, near and far, can gather around and read self-centered half-truths about what’s going on with me…. I guess that’s what blogs are for and little purpose in trying to avoid it.

So, well… I’m writing a thesis these days, about debt write-offs, but more specifically about IMF’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative. I’m not so much writing it as struggling to find a good approach to tackle the damn thing but it will all come together eventually (“7,9,13 kow”). The plan is to have it ready and done by the end of August since I will be heading to Brussels to fill a trainee spot at EFTA:s Financial Mechanisms Office. That’s sort of where this blog comes in too. It has a half-arsed purpose you see. Too keep you from forgetting about me.

Here we go

OK, ok ok. Here's how this works. Whoever you are, I'm probably better than your mother. Seriously, let me adopt you. We could have picnics and go swimming and I could hold your forehead when you get sick and have to throw up. I'd buy you candy all the time, not only on Saturdays, and a new toy each Monday. And because we'll get so many friends from all over the world we'll speak and write to each other in English. That is until we develop other forms of communication. These forms of communication cannot be sexual because I'll be your mother, remember.

We will in time get very fat (from all the candy). That is why I'll buy us "Medline Striders", like the one in the picture. On those we'll attach balloons so they'll look cool and drive around supermarkets creating mischief. Most evenings I'll let you stay up and watch TV. This is because of my belief that television will make you smarter than any teacher ever could (except for me).

Well, all in all, you'll have a great time being my kid. So think about it.