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Peurto Lindo Panama to Cartegena Columbia on Tango

Puerto Lindo the tiniest sailing village was our home for 3 days whilst we waiting for our boat. Here we mingled with the sailors learning lots about boats lighthouses and round the world ship voyages Sunbathed on the beautiful surrounding islands. Ha




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Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul last night without too much trouble although our taxi unexpectedly went via a car ferry so we got a short trip across the Bosphorus from Haram to Eminonu. From there is was a short drive to our hotel which is in the heart of Sultanh




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Apple’s software updates are like changing the water in a fish tank. I’d rather let the fish die | Charlie Brooker

The all-new iPhones and Apple Watch can be easily avoided but there’s no escaping iOS 8

The past few weeks haven’t been great for Apple. First they were implicated in the stolen celebrity nude photo disaster, which reminded everybody how easily clouds leak. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the iPhone is generally marketed as a diabolical timewasting device with the potential to wreak a grotesque and devastating invasion of your personal privacy. They tend to focus more on all the cool colours it comes in.

Then they launched the horrible-looking Apple Watch, which does everything an iPhone can do, but more expensively and pointlessly, and on a slightly different part of your body. Only an unhealthily devoted Apple fanatic could bear to wear a Apple Watch, and even that poor notional idiot would have to keep putting their iPhone down in order to operate the damn thing. It’ll scarcely be used for telling the time, just as the iPhone is scarcely used for making calls. It’s not a watch. It’s a gaudy wristband aimed at raising awareness of Chinese factory conditions. Or a handy visual tag that helps con artists instantly identify gullible rich idiots in a crowd.

Continue reading...




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Monika Schnitzer: VW-Skandal wäre mit Frauen im Vorstand nicht passiert

In den Vorständen deutscher Firmen sitzen kaum Frauen - und deshalb fehle "eine Instanz für Zweifel", sagt die neue Wirtschaftsweise Monika Schnitzer. Männer unter sich einigten sich leichter auf "eine genehme Sicht der Dinge".




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Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Dellin Betances among Dominican stars helping Pedro Martinez with coronavirus relief

Dominican Yankees and Mets stars are working with Pedro Martinez to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in their homeland.




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Rich Lowry: Everyone deserves to live under the Biden standard




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Did the Paycheck Protection Program Hit the Target? -- by João Granja, Christos Makridis, Constantine Yannelis, Eric Zwick

This paper takes an early look at the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a large and novel small business support program that was part of the initial policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We use new data on the distribution of PPP loans and high-frequency micro-level employment data to consider two dimensions of program targeting. First, we do not find evidence that funds flowed to areas more adversely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic, as measured by declines in hours worked or business shutdowns. If anything, funds flowed to areas less hard hit. Second, we find significant heterogeneity across banks in terms of disbursing PPP funds, which does not only reflect differences in underlying loan demand. The top-4 banks alone account for 36% of total pre-policy small business loans, but disbursed less than 3% of all PPP loans. Areas that were significantly more exposed to low-PPP banks received much lower loan allocations. As data become available, we will study employment and establishment responses to the program and the impact of PPP support on the economic recovery. Measuring these responses is critical for evaluating the social insurance value of the PPP and similar policies.




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How to enforce social distancing: The NYPD is doing it all wrong

The beating of a young black man by police on the East Village last weekend should trouble all New Yorkers. Even more troubling is that the incident began with officers enforcing the city’s social distancing rules on the first summer-like weekend of the pandemic while white revelers lounged close together, unmolested, in parks nearby. Officers handed them masks instead.




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We could use a few more Good Samaritans

“The Parable of the Good Samaritan is about a Jewish man unexpectedly receiving help from a despised enemy with whom he had serious religious differences.”




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GREENE: Same profiling, same brutality, same disrespect — social distancing enforcement shows NYC ‘not as far as we think we are’

As much as Mayor de Blasio wants to pretend these arrests are just a drop in the bucket, from the point of view of those being constantly dropped in the bucket, the city’s heavy-handed coronavirus crackdown is just more of the same.Same profiling. Same brutality. Same disrespect.




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Readers sound off on struggling small businesses, social distancing policing and solving homelessness

Lynbrook, L.I.: The news outlets have not covered the way that the smallest small businesses have been overlooked during the pandemic. As a Schedule C tax filer, I am eligible to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance under the CARES Act. I applied for PUA on March 16. I have been certifying for benefits every week. This entire time, my online account with the state Department of Labor says that my case is still pending.




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Distance learning: Social-distance policing is racially skewed; how to fix it

Seen plenty of people on sidewalks or in parks gallivanting without masks and clustering less than six feet apart? Of course you have, no matter the racial, religious or ethnic composition of the neighborhood; it’s happening everywhere, especially on nice days.




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Plans for a Wu-Tang Clan theme park in Seoul

Jimmy S. Kang opens his laptop and shows the Wu-Tang theme park that he is negotiating in Seoul, which has special relevance to him as his family emigrated from South Korea when he was 4 years old.




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Ousted WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann selling Manhattan penthouse for $37.5 million

Billionaire Adam Neumann, who was ousted from WeWork after the company’s botched attempt to go public last year, is selling a swanky penthouse in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood for $37.5 million. The 41-year-old Israeli entrepreneur, whose unorthodox management style made shocking headlines in recent months, reportedly combined a four-bedroom penthouse and a three-bedroom apartment that he bought in 2017 into a massive three-story unit.




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Which Workers Bear the Burden of Social Distancing Policies? -- by Simon Mongey, Laura Pilossoph, Alex Weinberg

What are the characteristics of workers in jobs likely to be initially affected by broad social distancing and later by narrower policy tailored to jobs with low risk of disease transmission? We use O NET to construct a measure of the likelihood that jobs can be conducted from home (a variant of Dingel and Neiman, 2020) and a measure of low physical proximity to others at work. We validate the measures by showing how they relate to similar measures constructed using time use data from ATUS. Our main finding is that workers in low-work-from-home or high-physical- proximity jobs are more economically vulnerable across various measures constructed from the CPS and PSID: they are less educated, of lower income, have fewer liquid assets relative to income, and are more likely renters. We further substantiate the measures with behavior during the epidemic. First, we show that MSAs with less pre-virus employment in work-from-home jobs experienced smaller declines in the incidence of `staying-at-home', as measured using SafeGraph cell phone data. Second, we show that both occupations and types of workers predicted to be employed in low work-from-home jobs experienced greater declines in employment according to the March 2020 CPS. For example, non-college educated workers experienced a 4ppt larger decline in employment relative to those with a college degree.




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Vision uh-oh: Two more pedestrians killed by vehicles in Manhattan and Brooklyn, capping off deadly three days across NYC

The Friday morning deaths capped off a deadly three days across the city.




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Dozens of Brooklyn assistant DAs quit over new state law that adds to workloads

The new law requires prosecutors to hand over most evidence in criminal cases to defense lawyers within 15 days of suspects’ arraignments. Because of the law, lawyers who once clocked out in the early evening are now working late into the night, say multiple sources in the Brooklyn DA’s office.




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Social distancing to prevent coronavirus spread isn’t happening in NYC courts

While an increasing number of criminal suspects are being arraigned by video to prevent the spread of coronavirus, defendants’ families often sit on crowded courthouse benches waiting for their relatives’ arraignments.




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Manslaughter arrest for woman accused of fatally striking NYC hospital patient for violating coronavirus social distancing

Hospital police initially issued Lundy a disorderly conduct summons after the attack and released her. On Thursday NYPD cops arrested her for manslaughter and assault.




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Cops break up Brooklyn funeral for coronavirus victim as mourners ignore social distancing

The funeral was held for Rav Yosef Kalish, 63, an Amshinover rebbe who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last week and died Sunday morning, The Associated Press reported.




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Teen arrested outside Hasidic funeral in Brooklyn as cops seek to enforce social distancing

The scene on 43rd St. between 13th Ave. and 14th Ave. unfolded at about 4 p.m. Thursday as mourners flouted social distancing norms to attend what was supposed to be a private funeral at the home of Rabbi Cheskel Wagshel, 95, said a family friend.




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SEE IT: NYPD roughly arrests men defying social distancing in Brooklyn

Antonio Rivera, accused of getting high in East New York amidst a group of people ignoring the city’s pandemic policies, was sent tumbling to the street when he came at one of the NYPD cops making arrests. The video shows police placing Rivera in handcuffs as he was lying on the ground behind their car.




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Teacher pushes for resolution in long-standing lawsuit on school racism

Former principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American High School in Queens allegedly targeted black staffers from 2012-13, calling one a “gorilla” and “nappy-haired," according to a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the federal Justice Department.




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Advocates, public health experts urge NYC officials to begin ‘social distancing’ measures in response to coronavirus

In a letter, the group noted that past pandemics show large-scale social restrictions that keep people physically separated can make the most difference if done before the illness becomes widespread.




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Manhattan fifth-grader tops day one of Daily News spelling bee

Manhattan fifth-grader Vale Esposito took home top honors during the first day of the Daily News spelling bee Tuesday, despite being one of the youngest contestants on stage.




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Manhattan eighth grader wins second day of Daily News Spelling Bee

Ashwin Ranjan, a 13-year-old student at The Dalton School, correctly spelled “bauxite,” a type of sedimentary rock, to win the day and go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.




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Walsh: Empty stands wouldn't bother players

Tommy Walsh believes playing inter-county championships behind closed doors would be preferable to cancelling the 2020 season and that putting the players' health first is key.




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Income, Liquidity, and the Consumption Response to the 2020 Economic Stimulus Payments -- by Scott R. Baker, R. A. Farrokhnia, Steffen Meyer, Michaela Pagel, Constantine Yannelis

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the US government brought about a collection of fiscal stimulus measures: the 2020 CARES Act. Among other provisions, this Act directed cash payments to households. We analyze households’ spending responses using high-frequency transaction data. We also explore heterogeneity by income levels, recent income declines, and liquidity. We find that households respond rapidly to receipt of stimulus payments, with spending increasing by $0.25-$0.35 per dollar of stimulus during the first 10 days. Households with lower incomes, greater income drops, and lower levels of liquidity display stronger responses. Liquidity plays the most important role, with no observed spending response for households with high levels of bank account balances. Relative to the effects of previous economic stimulus programs in 2001 and 2008, we see much smaller increases in durables spending and larger increases in spending on food, likely reflecting the impact of shelter-in-place orders and supply disruptions. We hope that our results inform the current debate about appropriate policy measures.




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Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Dellin Betances among Dominican stars helping Pedro Martinez with coronavirus relief

Dominican Yankees and Mets stars are working with Pedro Martinez to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in their homeland.




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Five Sarries players breach social distancing rules

Five Saracens players have apologised after they were pictured breaking social distancing rules on Monday.




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Bring "Spooky Action at a Distance" into the Classroom with NOVA Resources

Quantum physics impacts the technology students use every day. Use these resources from NOVA broadcasts, NOVA Digital, and What the Physics!? to introduce quantum concepts to your classroom.




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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm animals are rising in low- and middle-income countries

That spells trouble for the entire planet.




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Editorial: The most important thing is to contain COVID-19. Then we can think about going back to work

It's legitimate to worry that the steps we're taking to contain the coronavirus are causing unnecessary damage to the U.S. economy. But the damage that the disease would cause if it isn't contained would be far worse.




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Editorial: Enjoying the clean air? Trump weakens car emissions standards just when we need them the most

It's especially galling that the Trump Administration chooses this very moment, in a pandemic, to rollback car emission standards.




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Editorial: Social distancing worked against the deadly 1918 flu. It will work against the coronavirus

The 1918 pandemic has lessons for the 2020. Namely, we got through it. And social distancing works.




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Clippers weigh trade options but some want to stand pat

The Clippers have made some trade inquiries but coach Doc Rivers and forward Paul George talk about the strength of the current roster.




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Team USA recognizes Clippers' Montrezl Harrell as gold standard in NBA

When USA Basketball announced last week 44 finalists in consideration for the 12-man team it will take to the 2020 Olympics, the Clippers' rising Montrezl Harrell was on the list.




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LeBron James changes his stance, says he would play games without fans

Lakers star LeBron James revises his stance on playing game without fans, saying he'd do so if it's in the best interest of the franchise and the NBA.




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7 ways to celebrate Mother's Day when you need to keep your distance

How do you honor Mom on Mother's Day when you can't get close enough to give her a hug? Here are a few tips for connecting on a meaningful level.




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USC parting ways with three defensive assistant coaches

USC will not retain defensive backs coach Greg Burns, defensive line coach Chad Kauha'aha'a, or inside linebackers coach Johnny Nansen for the 2020 season.




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USC standout Onyeka Okongwu declares for the NBA draft

Onyeka Okongwu, a former Chino Hills player and an All-Pac-12 first-team forward for USC, announced his intention to enter the NBA draft after one season in college.




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USC basketball adds transfer in former Long Beach State standout Joshua Morgan

Long Beach State center Joshua Morgan will become the fourth basketball player to transfer to USC since the end of the season.




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Column: Why did Trump push disinfectant as a cure for the coronavirus? He listens to quacks

Turns out a range of charlatans out there are peddling industrial bleach as a cure-all.




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Shohei Ohtani enjoying his newfound freedom behind the wheel

Angels star Shohei Ohtani picked up a new skill in the offseason, obtaining his California driver's license in November.




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After striking out as a ballplayer, Brandon Wood finds peace amid family in Montana

Power-hitting Angels prospect Brandon Wood was supposed to become the next Cal Ripken, but he couldn't handle the pressure. He found contentment far from Anaheim.




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New Angels catcher Jason Castro survived Astros' tanking, missed trash-can banging

New Angels catcher Jason Castro played for the Astros when they lost 106 or more games three years in a row. He left Houston a year before they cheated in 2017.




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Angels fire employee for allegedly furnishing illegal substances to put on baseballs

Angels have fired longtime visiting clubhouse attendant Brian "Bubba" Harkins for allegedly providing illegal substances to put on baseballs




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Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani continues to struggle at the plate this spring

Although Shohei Ohtani struck out twice Tuesday and is only two for 19 this spring, manager Joe Maddon isn't concerned, saying Ohtani needs "bright lights."




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Angels' Shohei Ohtani tries to kick-start his path to Joe Maddon's .300 vision

Angels manager Joe Maddon believes Shohei Ohtani can bat .300, and the Japanese two-way star has re-integrated a leg kick to help get him there.




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Former Angels standout Jim Edmonds hospitalized and undergoing COVID-19 tests

Former Angels and Cardinals standout Jim Edmonds announces on social media he's in the hospital and undergoing testing for the coronavirus.