When I arrived in Krabi ofcourse they didn't bring us to the pier. Instead they offered a mototaxi for a high price so I decided to walk. Along the way I put up my thumb and yes a crazy German guy stopped and brought me to the pier. There I bought my ti

Wednesday 26th June 2019Dark clouds greeted me this morning as I woke up on my 40th birthday in Japan. Not a great start for me as I had planned to commemorate this special day with a crossisland expedition between Honshu Shimonoseki and Kyu

It was quite an early start as a I retraced my steps from the previous day to Serdika Bus Station. As I got there far too early I headed over to the other bus terminal for a bit of a mooch around. This one was much better and had shops places to get food

After a hearty breakfast I headed out to join the free walking tour. I am definitely a bit addicted to these tours but I feel like it gives me a good overview of the city I'm in. This one met in front of Mother Teresa Memorial House. It was a beautiful m

.With a feeling of great relief we landed back in the ' Land of Smiles' i.e. Thailand. Phuket to be exact.We had originally intended to spend our last two weeks exploring new places in Thailand but what with the threat of flights being cancelled due to

Since I had covered everything that I had wanted to in the city I decided to head a little further afield. The two main places that are within easy reach of the city are Matka Canyon and Vodno Mountain. Whilst Matka Canyon is no doubt the prettiest. The b

If Dogs make you all warm and fuzzy inside Bangkok is the closest to heaven youll ever get. Add free Cheesecake Coffee and all the puppies you can carry and chances are youve transcended beyond heaven right into the pearly gates of Thailands Do

Thursday 27th June 2019It was raining in the morning as I made my way to the city of Kobe. The train ride to JR Kobe Station from Himeji took about an hour and very soon I was making my way out of the station towards the direction of Kobe Harbo

Friday 28th June 2019I headed to the city of Takamatsu on the eastern end of Shikoku island this morning. This is as far as my railway pass could take me given that I had only purchased the limited SanyoSan'in Area Pass rather than the all Jap

Friday 28th June 2019 From Yashima I made a trip back to the city centre where the Takamatsu Symbol Tower is located. Towering 30th stories above ground level there is a public observatory where free views of the city could be had. Following

I'd arrived in Veliko Tarnovo quite late the night before. The minibus driver had been kind enough to drop us near the centre of town instead of the West Bus Station which is about 5 kilometres out of town. It dramatically shortened the walk to my hostel.

Koh chang has been all about the relax and what a beautiful island to have picked. Its very laid back with lots of cute little towns to explore we defo needed a motorbike to do this as the taxi service is very expensive and seen no sign of a local bus ser

We left HCM at 8.30 by taxi and arrived in Mekong Delta around midday. We met our guide Nam and boarded a long wooden boat to take us down the river making several stops along the way.The first stop was a brick factory where Nam told me about how bri

We took the night boat to Ko Tao. At peak times it could be quite an experience as all the mattresses that are laid out on the boat deck are shoulder to shoulder for the western build. We arrived at 6 am in the morning and headed for the only open cafe on

Viele Bluetooth-Kopfhörer liefern gute Klangqualität, sagt Peter Knaak von der Stiftung Warentest. Worauf Sie beim Kauf achten sollten.

Maria Sharapova effortlessly managed to combine her life as a tennis player with that of a superstar. With the announcement of her retirement, we take a look back at her career.

We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries and over 100,000 respondents between late March and early April 2020 to study beliefs and attitudes towards citizens’ and governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most respondents reacted strongly to the crisis: they report engaging in social distancing and hygiene behaviors, and believe that strong policy measures, such as shop closures and curfews, are necessary. They also believe that their government and their country’s citizens are not doing enough and underestimate the degree to which others in their country support strong behavioral and policy responses to the pandemic. The perception of a weak government and public response is associated with higher levels of worries and depression. Using both cross-country panel data and an event-study, we additionally show that strong government reactions correct misperceptions, and reduce worries and depression. Our findings highlight that policy-makers not only need to consider how their decisions affect the spread of COVID-19, but also how such choices influence the mental health of their population.

In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, 53, criticizes the U.S., China and Hungary for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He also promises not to abandon Italy and explains why he doesn't want to say that he's actually in favor of corona bonds.

To help end the protests in Hong Kong, the Chinese government is pressuring foreign companies doing business in the country to toe the official position. Any firm that doesn't can expect punishment -- and even ostensibly progressive German conglomerates are playing along. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

The frequency of fatal helicopter accidents has slipped in recent decades.

The claim seeks damages in connection with the release of cellphone pictures taken by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the Jan. 26 tragedy in Calabasas.

The claim seeks damages in connection with the release of cellphone pictures taken by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the Jan. 26 tragedy in Calabasas.

Southern Legend denied Beauty Generation in a thrilling renewal of the FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin.

Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman is feeling "fit as a fiddle" after undergoing a heart procedure in Amsterdam at the weekend, the former Everton and Southampton boss confirmed.

European soccer leagues got a glimpse of what the future might hold after football finally returned with the start of the South Korean K-League on Friday.

We develop a multi-risk SIR model (MR-SIR) where infection, hospitalization and fatality rates vary between groups—in particular between the “young”, “the middle-aged” and the “old”. Our MR-SIR model enables a tractable quantitative analysis of optimal policy similar to those already developed in the context of the homogeneous-agent SIR models. For baseline parameter values for the COVID-19 pandemic applied to the US, we find that optimal policies differentially targeting risk/age groups significantly outperform optimal uniform policies and most of the gains can be realized by having stricter lockdown policies on the oldest group. For example, for the same economic cost (24.3% decline in GDP), optimal semi–targeted or fully-targeted policies reduce mortality from 1.83% to 0.71% (thus, saving 2.7 million lives) relative to optimal uniform policies. Intuitively, a strict and long lockdown for the most vulnerable group both reduces infections and enables less strict lockdowns for the lower-risk groups. We also study the impacts of social distancing, the matching technology, the expected arrival time of a vaccine, and testing with or without tracing on optimal policies. Overall, targeted policies that are combined with measures that reduce interactions between groups and increase testing and isolation of the infected can minimize both economic losses and deaths in our model.

The lack of reliable electricity in the developing world is widely viewed by policymakers as a major constraint on firm productivity. Yet most empirical studies find modest short-run effects of power outages on firm performance. This paper builds a dynamic macroeconomic model to study the long-run general equilibrium effects of power outages on productivity. The model captures the key features of how firms acquire electricity in the developing world, in particular the rationing of grid electricity and the possibility of self-generated electricity at higher cost. Power outages lower productivity in the model by creating idle resources, by depressing the scale of incumbent firms and by reducing entry of new firms. Consistent with the empirical literature, the model predicts that the short-run partial-equilibrium effects of eliminating outages are small. However, the long-run general-equilibrium effects are many times larger, supporting the view that eliminating outages is an important development objective.

We show a causal impact of immigration on innovation and dynamism in US counties. To identify the causal impact of immigration, we use 130 years of detailed data on migrations from foreign countries to US counties to isolate quasi-random variation in the ancestry composition of US counties that results purely from the interaction of two historical forces: (i) changes over time in the relative attractiveness of different destinations within the US to the average migrant arriving at the time and (ii) the staggered timing of the arrival of migrants from different origin countries. We then use this plausibly exogenous variation in ancestry composition to predict the total number of migrants flowing into each US county in recent decades. We show four main results. First, immigration has a positive impact on innovation, measured by the patenting of local firms. Second, immigration has a positive impact on measures of local economic dynamism. Third, the positive impact of immigration on innovation percolates over space, but spatial spillovers quickly die out with distance. Fourth, the impact of immigration on innovation is stronger for more educated migrants.

We propose a novel measure of bond market liquidity that does not depend on transaction data: the strength of the cross-sectional relationship between mutual fund cash holdings and fund flow volatility. Our measure captures how liquid funds perceive their portfolio holdings to be at a given point in time. The perceived liquidity of speculative grade and Rule 144A bonds is significantly lower than investment grade bonds in the cross section and deteriorated significantly following the 2008-9 financial crisis. Our measure can be applied in settings where either transaction data are not available or transactions are rare, including the markets for asset-backed securities, syndicated loans, and municipal bonds.

The cocktail includes three antiviral drugs and a different drug that boosts natural immune system chemicals.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was one of several NBA stars who developed a close relationship with Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who took pride in helping players.

Nearly one month after the death of Kobe Bryant, the NBA announced the Lakers and Clippers will play a rescheduled game on April 9.

Monday's schedule of events at Staples Center will begin with the Kobe and Gianna Bryant memorial and end with a Clippers game. In between comes plenty of work.

Lee Zeidman didn't know when Kobe Bryant's memorial would be but he knew there was only one place it should be held: Staples Center.

Kobe Bryant "walked the walk," as WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike said, in supporting women's sports, particularly basketball. Can his void be filled?

Hours after Kobe Bryant's death, speculators were registering domain names connected to the tragedy. Merchandise tied to the Lakers legend is in heavy demand.

In an attempt to keep the matter under wraps, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department quietly ordered deputies to delete any photos of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash scene after a citizen complained that a deputy was showing the gruesome images at a Norwalk bar, two public safety sources with knowledge of the events said.

The Los Angeles Times first reported allegations that deputies were sharing graphic crash photos. Vanessa Bryant's lawyer has asked for an investigation.

Kobe Bryant was never really interested in pursuing a Lakers front-office role because he wanted to be involved in the lives of his wife and daughters.

Lakers star LeBron James scored 37 points on 12-for-21 shooting and added seven assists and eight rebounds in a 113-103 victory over Milwaukee.

The towel that Lakers legend Kobe Bryant wore over his shoulders after playing in the final game of his NBA career sold for more than $30,000.

NBA greats Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are part of the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class.

The sports world has stopped, but the late Kobe Bryant was with us again as he was chosen for entrance to the Hall of Fame.

Vanessa Bryant took to Instagram on Monday, the fourth anniversary of Kobe's 60-point farewell game, to share some heart-wrenching thoughts about late husband.

Kobe and Gianna Bryant honored during WNBA draft Friday. Gianna and two of her teammates that died in the helicopter crash with them were honorary draft picks.

Vanessa Bryant celebrated the anniversary of her wedding to her late husband Kobe by posting a photo and a heartfelt message on Instagram.

NBA teams in states with relaxed or no stay-at-home orders will be allowed to open their facilities beginning May 1, but only for individual workouts.

La historia de Kobe Bryant y Michael Jordan compartiendo la cancha por última vez el 28 de marzo de 2003, cuando el muchacho anotó 55 puntos y el "G.O.A.T." tuvo 23

Freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu scored 18 points and threw down several highlight-reel dunks in USC's 75-55 win at Oregon State.