Sunday 26 April 202042 days down 14 to goToday is my mothers 71st birthday. I called her in the morning and was glad to hear that she has a beautiful sunny day in Boise and plans to go outside. Social distancing rules in Boise and com

Did you know that there was a connection between our large 7000 inhabitant village of Wingerworth Randolph Hearst and the a museum across the pond in St Louis No neither did I until I treated our village as if I were a visitor on a first visit . As a v

If you are going to nurse a hangover nurse one in New York City...yesterday became very spontaneous and boarded the Staten Island Ferry and had an opportunity to look at Lower Manhattan and Miss Liberty herself from a respectable distance. I am so amazed

300910 Cape Tribulation We hired a car today for a day trip to Cape Tribulation an area that Captain Cook ran aground on with 1 of his ships. On our way to Cape Trib we went up to the Daintree River and got on a crocodile spotting boat trip where we

After the excitement of the desert we then headed to Luderitz a small town sandwiched between the Namib Desert and the battered Atlantic Coast. There is little plant life here just dry barren rocks and colourful German heritage buildings.We drove to

280910 Port DouglasThe main beach here at Port Douglas is called the 4 mile beach and I have stupidly set the challenge to swim as much as possible one way and walk back the other. Bring on the 4 mile challenge...Well we didn't make the challeng

Hello helloWell we did it. 1 week down 11 to go in India. It took most of the first week but we now have a room in a flat a reliable internet connection sim cards in our phones skype set up and a few Indian friends to boot. Still no running wat

Hi allWell we're home now safe and sound and seem to have adjusted to the different time zone after a few nights of broken sleep We're both enjoying looking back on on the blog and on what a brilliant time we had in Oz so thought we would wrap it all

The past 6 weeks have flown by and tonight I'm off on Part 2 of my travel year. Although this is meant to be a travel blog it is also meant to document my 2010 journey. Let's just say that if I didn't record some of the highlights of being home I would mis

Okay so it's been a while but the last week and weekend were pretty well packed considering the combination of events and school work. The weekend before last the group attended an acrobatics performance which sadly I have no pictures from. There were

The head of Angela Merkel’s Chancellery has warned that people’s behavior this weekend will be pivotal in determining whether strict shelter-in-place curfews are imposed in Germany to control the spread of the coronavirus.

This paper investigates the effect of a large negative agricultural shock, the boll weevil, on black-white inequality in the first half of the twentieth century. To do this we use complete count census data to generate a linked sample of fathers and their sons. We find that the boll weevil induced enormous labor market and social disruption as more than half of black and white fathers moved to other counties following the arrival of the weevil. The shock impacted black and white sons differently. We compare sons whose fathers initially resided in the same county and find that white sons born after the boll weevil had similar wages and schooling outcomes to white sons born prior to its arrival. In contrast, black sons born after the boll weevil had significantly higher wages and years of schooling, narrowing the black-white wage and schooling gaps. This decrease appears to have been driven by relative improvements in early life conditions and access to schooling both for sons of black fathers that migrated out of the South and sons of black fathers that stayed in the South.

Employees at the Swedish unit of the German travel conglomerate TUI are volunteering to have a microchip implanted in their hands. The technology literally opens doors, but also raises numerous ethical questions.

Weather extreme enough to shatter records across large swaths of the U.S. is heading our way this weekend, just in time for Mother’s Day. A storm system heading into the Northeast on Friday will smash into the polar vortex as it makes swing down from the Arctic, reported NBC News. This might sock the region in with heavy, wet snow all the way into New England.

A week packed with US economic data is likely to provide investors with more evidence of the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has hit growth, sharpening the debate on whether a rebound in stocks has been justified amid an unprecedented slowdown.

We construct a quantitative model of an economy hit by an epidemic. People differ by age and skill, and choose occupations and whether to commute to work or work from home, to maximize their income and minimize their fear of infection. Occupations differ by wage, infection risk, and the productivity loss when working from home. By setting the model parameters to replicate the progression of COVID-19 in South Korea and the United Kingdom, we obtain three key results. First, government-imposed lock-downs may not present a clear trade-off between GDP and public health, as commonly believed, even though its immediate effect is to reduce GDP and infections by forcing people to work from home. A premature lifting of the lock-down raises GDP temporarily, but infections rise over the next months to a level at which many people choose to work from home, where they are less productive, driven by the fear of infection. A longer lock-down eventually mitigates the GDP loss as well as flattens the infection curve. Second, if the UK had adopted South Korean policies, its GDP loss and infections would have been substantially smaller both in the short and the long run. This is not because Korea implemented policies sooner, but because aggressive testing and tracking more effectively reduce infections and disrupt the economy less than a blanket lock-down. Finally, low-skill workers and self-employed lose the most from the epidemic and also from the government policies. However, the policy of issuing “visas” to those who have antibodies will disproportionately benefit the low-skilled, by relieving them of the fear of infection and also by allowing them to get back to work.

The closure applies to Catholic elementary schools in Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx, the area covered by the New York Archdiocese. It will last from March 16 through March 20, “with the possibility of a lengthier closure,” according to diocese officials.

City teachers and students will lose most of the annual public school pause this year after state officials announced remote learning would press on during the first half of April, officials confirmed Tuesday.

New findings suggest Neanderthals evolved their unusually broad fingers after they split from Denisovans, just 400,000 years ago.

In a new study, brain-like organoids made from human cells were slower to mature than their chimpanzee and macaque counterparts.

Another hit of blurry goodness.
( Photos: 41, Comments: 4 )

You can watch Anthill’s one and only sequel, Not2Bad, right now (and anytime for that matter) on Red Bull TV.
( Photos: 2, Comments: 4 )

The heartwarming reunion, which clearly made little Mila Sneddon's day, took the young girl completely by surprise.

This may well be the nation's "hardest, saddest" week yet of the coronavirus pandemic. But it may not be the last "worst" week.

Supervisors didn't permit public comment at their March 31 meeting, then failed to act publicly before admonishing the sheriff about his public statements.

Humans could physically come together to confront the worst crises the last century offered. Not this one, however, and our isolation has consequences.

Weeds are gardening's biggest downer, and the reason many people stay out of their yards, but if you act now you can reclaim your yard, increase your outdoor enjoyment this summer, and greatly reduce danger during fire season.

The situation practically begged for the young and inconsistent Trojans to fall apart. But instead, USC beat Washington, the Pac-12's last-place team 62-56.

L.A. Times Rams beat reporter Gary Klein recalls covering the 2005 BCS national championship game between USC and Texas, which is considered one of the greatest games ever played.

The COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled plans for college football. USC coach Clay Helton said the Trojans would need about four weeks of preparation before the start of fall camp.

Kaling talks about her new Netflix show, Never Have I Ever. John Powers reviews Hulu's Normal People. Mark O'Connell visited doomsday communities while researching his book, Notes from an Apocalypse.

Congress pushed employers to cut hours rather than lay off workers. Now some may get more in federal aid than if they had worked the lost hours.

The first loosening of coronavirus restrictions would be for 'lower risk' businesses, including some manufacturing and small companies.

The governor has described the next phase of his stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of coronavirus as allowing some lower-risk businesses to reopen in communities across California, including retail locations, manufacturing sites and small businesses.

The governor said bookstores, florists and others can reopen for pickup as early as Friday. More detailed guidelines will be released later this week.

From a mysterious toilet flush to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking from the hospital, here are the highlights — including audio clips — from a historic week for the high court.

The March 4 issue of the New Yorker includes a "Correction of the Week" from a familiar source -- the Los Angeles Times.

Jaweed Kaleem is joining the national staff of the Los Angeles Times, covering race and justice issues.

A player on the Ottawa Senators has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, the club said in a statement late Tuesday, the first NHL player known to have tested positive for the virus.

The heartwarming reunion, which clearly made little Mila Sneddon's day, took the young girl completely by surprise.

Among the challenges during the COVID-19 crisis is staying fit. Dodgers athletic trainer Brandon McDaniel is offering help by streaming workouts twice a week.

The Dodgers' Justin Turner shares his thoughts on his viral 'Tiger King' tweet and how he feels about the latest idea to save the MLB season.

The heartwarming reunion, which clearly made little Mila Sneddon's day, took the young girl completely by surprise.

Weather extreme enough to shatter records across large swaths of the U.S. is heading our way this weekend, just in time for Mother’s Day. A storm system heading into the Northeast on Friday will smash into the polar vortex as it makes swing down from the Arctic, reported NBC News. This might sock the region in with heavy, wet snow all the way into New England.

The heartwarming reunion, which clearly made little Mila Sneddon's day, took the young girl completely by surprise.

As coronavirus restrictions tighten, tips for walkers, hikers, cyclists and runners

Amid coronavirus restrictions, tips for walking, hiking, cycling, running near home

Amid coronavirus pandemic, these destinations have restrictions in place.