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Blockade Runner Minecraft In Space ?

Like Minecraft but looking for something a little different? Recently PC Gamer briefly reviewed a new game called Blockade Runner (Click here to see the PC Gamer review) essentially bringing something like Minecraft into space. Players currently are able to build their own spaceships, or space stations from scratch in much the same way Minecraft’s creative mode works, but in zero g. Unlike Minecraft however (unless your using a mod) you can attach different weapons to your creations and fly them around, blasting other ships and asteroids to pieces........................





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Who let the dogs out? A few Spaniards defy coronavirus lockdown

Under partial lockdown due to the spiraling coronavirus pandemic, Spaniards are allowed to leave home only for essential outings, walking a dog being one of them.




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'Darth Vader' enforces lockdown in Philippine village

Dressed as "Star Wars" characters, local officials in the Philippines are out and about to enforce strict quarantine measures while also handing out relief packages.





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Synchronizing moving GPS clocks

This article with drawings is in these links https://www.academia.edu/40876793/Synchronizing_moving_GPS_clocks Word, PDF https://pengkuanonphysics.blogspot.com/2019/11/synchronizing-moving-gps-clocks.html PDF 1. Light pulse synchronization Can we synchronize clocks of a moving frame? Let us see Figure 1 where we have stationary frame F1 and moving frame F’2. The 2 clocks in the frame F1 are synchronized with the master clock through a...




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Time relativity transformation of velocity

A discrepancy-free transformation of velocity is derived using the Time relativity transformation of coordinates because relativistic transformation of velocity creates a discrepancy. The relativistic transformation of velocity expresses the velocity u2 of an object q in frame 2 in terms of its velocity in frame 1. In frame 2 at time tq, the position of...




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Velocity, mass, momentum and energy of an accelerated object in relativity

Analytical derivation of relativistic velocity, mass, momentum and kinetic energy of an accelerated object. For Special relativity the momentum of an object of rest mass m0 and velocity u is expressed by equation (1) which is infinite when u equals c. Is it physically meaningful that the momentum of an object becomes infinite while its...




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Guest Post — Lockdown! An American in China Caught in the Corona Virus Emergency — by Evan Villarrubia

The following is a guest essay by Evan Villarrubia. “I feel stupid! And contagious!” — Nirvana The panic and lockdown state we are just exiting in Dali (southwestern China) has been by far the most intense historical episode I’ve ever experienced. I’ve gone through several deep emotional phase changes throughout this time. If I’d written more »

The post Guest Post — Lockdown! An American in China Caught in the Corona Virus Emergency — by Evan Villarrubia appeared first on Kunstler.



  • Speeches & Guest Articles

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Cops Didn't Enforce Law On Anti-lockdown Protesters, COVID-19 Spread

Remember the April 15th "Operation Gridlock?" in Lansing Michigan? In my piece on April 21st I said we needed to start tracking these protesters to show that they will spread the virus to other communities. Well, someone did.

Cellphone data shows 300 of the people who had gathered in Lansing for "Operation Gridlock" scattered throughout the state after the protest. The color of the dot represents device activity: yellow is more activity, red is lighter Image from: Doctors at the Committee to Protect Medicare

The people at the Committee to Protect Medicare released data which shows the protesters dispersing to smaller communities across Michigan in the following days. The map above shows that cellphones that were in Lansing on April 15 scattered across the state. (Link)

read more



  • anti-lockdown protests
  • coronavirus. COVID-19
  • First Lt. Darren Green
  • Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
  • michigan protests
  • Michigan state House
  • Michigan State Police
  • Robert Gordon

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BQM – BlockQuest Maker + SAMURAI ERA Is Now Available For Xbox One

Product Info: Developer: Wonderland Kazakiri inc Publisher: Wonderland Kazakiri inc Website: BQM – BlockQuest Maker + SAMURAI ERA Twitter: @BlockQuest_wk




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ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Technical Preview

Today we will be taking a look at the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard. While we are not allowed to tell you about performance of these parts, we are able to give you a technical preview.

The post ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Technical Preview appeared first on ThinkComputers.org.




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Book Week 2019: Gretchen McCulloch's Because Internet


Welcome to the final review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing. The 'week' has turned out to be eight days. If you're perturbed about that, I'm happy to offer you a full refund on your subscription fees for this blog.

On with the show. Today's book is:


Because Internet

Understanding the new rules of language (US subtitle)
Understanding how language is changing (UK subtitle)

by Gretchen McCulloch
Riverhead, 2019 (N America)
Harvill Secker, 2019 (UK)


Gretchen McCulloch describes herself as an internet linguist: writing about internet language for people on the internet. She actually does a lot more than that, with daily blogging at All Things Linguistic for years and being one half of the Lingthusiasm podcast team and writing on all sorts of linguistic themes for all sorts of publications. So, I expect many readers of this blog will already know her and have heard about this book. 

US Cover
I expected Because Internet to be good, knowing Gretchen's work, but I also probably (in my grumpy, middle-aged, oh-do-we-have-to-talk-about-emojis-again? way) expected it to be faddish. There have been too many just-plain-bad, (orig. AmE) jumping-on-the-bandwagon books about emojis, and I've got(ten) a bit sour on the topic. 

This book is so much more than I expected it to be. 

I should have known better. Having read and heard much of her work, I should have expected that this would be a truly sophisticated approach to language and to general-audience linguistics writing. So far in Book Week 2019, I've recommended the books as gifts for A-level students/teachers, science lovers, and language curmudgeons. This book is good for all those groups and more. 

UK cover
The key is in the subtitle(s).* This is not just a book about emojis and autocomplete (and, actually, autocomplete isn't even in the index). This is a book about the relationship between speech and writing and how that's changed with technology. It seamlessly introduces theories of why language changes, how change spreads and how communication works in a time when the potential for change is high and the potential for changes to spread is unprecedented. 

That seamless introduction of linguistic concepts is the reason I've started this book from the beginning and not skipped around (unlike for other books in Book Week—where the rule is that I don't have to read the whole book before I start writing about it). In most books about language for non-linguists, I'm able to skim or skip the bit where they talk about the basics of how language works and the classic studies on the topic and the ideas springing from them. McCulloch covers those issues and those studies (the Labovs, the Milroys, the Eckerts), but since this is intertwined with looking at how language is changing in the 21st century—because (of the) internet—it was worth my while to read straight through. The great thing about the language of the internet is: even when it looks really different from non-internet language, it's still illustrating general principles about how language, communication, and society work. But it also shows how society is changing because of technology, particularly in changing who we are likely to interact with or hear from, In the process, it gives a history of the internet that's enlightening even for those of us who've lived through it all. (I've just flipped open to a section about  PLATO at the University of Illinois. One of my student jobs was working in a PLATO lab, playing Bugs-n-Drugs [aka Medcenter] while signing people in and out. That game was not good for my hypochondria, but I have awfully fond memories of PLATO.)


Another thing to appreciate about McCulloch's book is how unreactionary it is. She doesn't set up her discussion as "You've heard people say these stupid things about the internet, but here's the TRUTH." (A style of writing that I can be very, very guilty of.) She mostly just makes her case gracefully, based on what the language is doing, rather than reacting to what other people say the language is doing. Rather than 'This, that and the other person say emoji are a new language, but they're not', she just gets on with explaining how emoji fulfil(l) our communicative need to gesture. It's a positive approach that academic linguists will have had trained out of them by the requirements of academic publishing.

This is a bit of a nerdview 'review'. Usually reviews tell you some fun facts from the book they're reviewing, whereas I'm telling you what I've noticed about its information structure. That's because that's what I really look for in books as I prepare to write a new one. In terms of information, in this book you'll learn, among other things:
  • which "internet generation" you belong to and how your language is likely to be different from other generations'.
  • what punctuation communicates in texting/chat and how that differs from formal writing
  • how language change can be traced through studying strong and weak social links and geographic tagging on Twitter
Inevitably, the book is mainly about English, in no small part because English rules the internet. But it does make its way to other languages and cultures—for instance, how Arabic chat users adapted their spelling to the roman alphabet and how emojis are interpreted differently around the world.  In the end, she briefly considers whether space is being made for other languages on the internet.

It's a galloping read and you'll learn all sorts of things.


So, on that happy review, I declare Book Week 2019 FINISHED.


* I love the transatlantic change in subtitles, since it completely illustrates the point of chapter 8 of The Prodigal Tongue: that Americans like to talk about language in terms of rules, and Britons in terms of history/tradition. I've also written a shorter piece about my personal experience of it for Zócalo Public Square.




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RFP now open for Fire Protection Research Foundation project on “Combustible Gas Distribution in Buildings and Detector Location Analysis”

Recent experiences with combustible gas releases in residential buildings have led to a proposal for NFPA Standards Development for locating combustible gas detectors and consensus on installation location requirements. NFPA is considering a proposed




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Sea turtles thrive on empty beaches during COVID-19 lockdowns

As more people around the world stay inside, more animals are able to thrive in places that are typically crowded by humans. In the southeastern U.S., sea turtles are enjoying a peaceful nesting season without pesky sunbathers, fishermen or boats.[...]




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Community collects locally sourced materials to construct a school in Vietnam

The Xuan Hoa commune in the Lao Cai province of northwest Vietnam is, like much of the surrounding area, a region that has suffered from economic hardships in the past. A large number of households in Xuan Hoa live in extreme poverty, including many of the school district’s 78 students aged 6 to 11 years old. The new Dao school by 1+1>2 Architects was completed in 2019 to provide provide education to the area’s children in first through fifth grades.[...]




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Superblock of Sant Antoni reclaims Barcelona streets for pedestrians

As part of Barcelona’s efforts to reclaim its car-congested streets for pedestrians, the city has tapped architects to create "superblocks” — groups of streets transformed into car-free public plazas. One such project was completed in 2019 by Leku Studio in the trendy neighborhood of Sant Antoni. Redesigned with attractive way-finding elements and street furniture, the Superblock of Sant Antoni is the second of six superblocks completed to date.[...]




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DigitalOcean Data Leak Incident Exposed Some of Its Customers Data

DigitalOcean, one of the biggest modern web hosting platforms, recently hit with a concerning data leak incident that exposed some of its customers' data to unknown and unauthorized third parties. Though the hosting company has not yet publicly released a statement, it did has started warning affected customers of the scope of the breach via an email. According to the breach notification




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Haiti: Govt. Formed an Electoral Commission to End Electoral Deadlock; Will the CEP Reschedule the Runoff?

BY WADNER PIERRE

Since the CEP published its tainted and most controversial results for the presidential, second round legislative and local elections early last November, thousands have been demonstrated in the streets of Haiti’s largest cities to reclaim a recount of their votes. Religious leaders and international human rights and advocacy groups have also urged the CEP to investigate irregularities and massive electoral frauds that are no longer mere allegations.

As protests widening, diplomatic talks failed and G8 candidates remaining steadfast in their position, to remedy the situation, Haiti’s PM Evans Paul in an one-page letter sent to the President Michel J. Martelly, proposed a formation of an electoral commission to ensure the credibility of the already festered electoral process.

The commission according to the Prime Minister’s letter will have three days to produce recommendations to the government and the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisional Council), known as the CEP. The head of the government stated,“ …it is necessary to organize credible, transparent, participative and inclusive elections,” as well as “to do whatever it takes” to create a climate of trust for the actors involving in the process.

The CEP shows no sign that it will abide by the recommendations of the government-formed commission. One of its members Marie Carmelle Paul Austin told a radio in the Haiti’s capital that the electoral council members are ready to depart in bloc should the commission interfere in their work. “If this commission’s purpose is to redo or verify the work that the CEP has already done, the council members will resign,” implied council Austin.

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Gates noch, Ken?, RKI beendet Pressekonferenzen, Overblocking

1. Das ist dran an Ken Jebsens großer Gates-Verschwörung (t-online.de, Jonas Mueller-Töwe) Ken Jebsen hat auf seinem Youtube-Kanal „KenFM“ einen halbstündigen Monolog veröffentlicht, der innerhalb von wenigen Tagen rund drei Millionen Mal angeklickt wurde. Das Opus heißt „Gates kapert Deutschland“ und gibt damit bereits die Marschrichtung vor. Jonas Mueller-Töwe hat sich die Mühe gemacht, das […]



  • 6 vor 9

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See this guy’s striking IKEA makeover during lockdown

With nowhere else to go, 34-year old Fiq Said rolled up his sleeves during quarantine (Movement Control Order) and gave his bedroom an extreme IKEA makeover. While nothing is “hacked” as we’re used to around here, the transformation is startling. It proves in true IKEA fashion, you just need to plan and pick your pieces […]

The post See this guy’s striking IKEA makeover during lockdown appeared first on IKEA Hackers.




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How Do I Keep Outlook.com From Locking Me Out When I Travel?

When your email is suddenly accessed from a new location, it could mean someone other than you is trying to log in. Email providers like Outlook.com watch for this.

How Do I Keep Outlook.com From Locking Me Out When I Travel? from Ask Leo!.
Get the newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com




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Like a Jackson Pollock

Mrs Clovis certainly hands out a series of sick burns in today’s page. These burns need to get to hospital, they’re powerfully unwell. Poor Maggie!




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Princeton University Relief Fund established to advance local community efforts in response to COVID-19

The Princeton University Relief Fund will provide direct support to community organizations that are working to alleviate economic distress related to COVID-19 among individuals and businesses.




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Lockdown Pacman




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Coronavirus Stories: How A Filmmaker At Aardman Has Kept His Stop-Motion Project Alive During Lockdown

Joseph Wallace spent almost six years developing "Salvation Has no Name." Weeks into the shoot, he had to shut it down.

The post Coronavirus Stories: How A Filmmaker At Aardman Has Kept His Stop-Motion Project Alive During Lockdown appeared first on Cartoon Brew.




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EPA Names City of Chesapeake Garage WasteWise Local Government Partner of the Year

PHILADELPHIA – (May 7, 2020) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the 2019 winners of the National WasteWise Awards this month. The City of Chesapeake Garage, in Chesapeake, Virginia, was recognized as Local Government Partner of the Year.




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EPA to Donate Personal Protective Equipment to State and Local Responders Fighting COVID-19 Across the Country

WASHINGTON (April 6, 2020) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has identified approximately 225,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) available to support the COVID-19 response.




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Skopje 1 Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia

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




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Derbyshire 79 Chesterfield A doffed capplans plans and more plans the only way to wisely use your allocated seconds in the day

I take a sharp intake of breath as I test what the air temperature is outside . The chill of the frosty night has not yet been burned away that frosty morning feeling. My breath comes out like a thick wisp of smoke. I need my gilet on today to keep me warm




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Derbyshire 82 Chesterfield Gabby is still parked up I spy Another three weeks of lockdown

The brain this morning does not want to function . One side is saying get up get moving get out . The other side replies in a negative fashion . Let me stay in bed a bit longer. My foot aches . Underneath and on top. Shoes are rubbing toes from so much




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Shiplife during lockdown

When the news came out that the pandemic had take over Europe I was still working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Now almost two month later we are still stuck on the ship. I know that this is a very hard time for everyone and while I would have lik




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Why tug our forelocks to Richard III, a king who’s such a diva that he needs two funerals?

For somebody who did less for Britain than, say, Olly Murs, we’re making a dreadful fuss of our late monarch

Who’s your favourite dead king? For me it’s a toss-up between King Henry VIII (likes: Greensleeves, beheadings) and Nat King Cole (likes: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose). Those are definitely my top two.

Below them, there’s King Kong, King George III, Good King Wenceslas, and about 500 other assorted types of king before you get to Richard III. Never warmed to him. Don’t know why. I’ve just never really been into Richard III. Maybe it’s his Savile-esque haircut, or the fact that his name is widely used as rhyming slang for fecal matter, or just the way he’s routinely depicted as a murderous, scheming cross between Mr Punch and Quasimodo; a panto villain with nephews’ blood on his hands.

Continue reading...




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Corona-Lockerungen in Italien nach dem Lockdown: "Rom erlebt die Stunde Null"

Sie hatten den europaweit härtesten Corona-Lockdown. Wie sich die erste Woche der "Phase 2" in Italien anfühlt, beschreibt unser SPIEGEL-Korrespondent vor Ort.




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Scientific Experts Release Proposals for Loosening the Lockdown

The Leopoldina National Academy, Germany’s academy of sciences, recommends that schools be reopened soon. Businesses and public authorities are also expected to be reopened gradually. Travel should also be permitted under certain conditions, according to the report, which DER SPIEGEL obtained in advance of publication.




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Corona Crisis: We Should Be Adopting Stricter Measures, Not Loosening the Lockdown

People are growing increasingly impatient over the coronavirus lockdown, and politicians are now debating whether to loosen measures. From a scientific point of view this is a disaster. Measures should actually be tightened until we know more about the virus.




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Utah gun lobbyist loses his appeal to block the ban on bump stocks




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Extreme lockdown shows divide in hard-hit Navajo border town




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Michelle Goldberg: Don’t shame those struggling in the lockdown




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A Multi-Risk SIR Model with Optimally Targeted Lockdown -- by Daron Acemoglu, Victor Chernozhukov, Iván Werning, Michael D. Whinston

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.




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Transgender woman housed with men repeatedly raped in Brooklyn federal lockup: lawsuit

A transgender woman awaiting trial on charges that she swindled elderly women out of their savings was raped repeatedly in jail after she was housed against her will with rowdy male inmates, according to a new lawsuit.




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Brooklyn fiddler serenades neighbors stuck in coronavirus lockdown

“It’s about the power of music and bringing music to people to get through very difficult times. I think we all really need to do that and really step up for each other," said Dr. Kari Groff.




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Cops bust thief trying to steal dozens of shoes and baseball caps from closed Brooklyn Foot Locker

Suspect Donte West, 28, broke into a side door of the shoe store on Pitkin Ave. near Bristol St. in Brownsville about 8:45 a.m. Saturday and loaded up a Chevy Trailblazer with more than three dozen pairs of sneakers and nearly 40 baseball caps as cops arrived, police said.




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Ex-prisoner fears coronavirus rampant at Brooklyn federal lockup, says early release likely saved his life

Inmates were coughing and sneezing, and guards wore no personal protective equipment, said Hassan Chunn, 46, who fears the disease is spreading through the Metropolitan Detention Center.




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Outraged staff, local residents say Brooklyn nursing home kept dead coronavirus patients in room cooled only by air conditioning

Outraged community leaders joined staffers Tuesday outside the Linden Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, where demonstrators complained as many as 10 bodies were stored in an unrefrigerated fourth floor dementia unit where the dead reside among the living — and ailing residents are reportedly free to wander.




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Caring New Yorkers increasingly lend a helping hand to neighbors in need as war against coronavirus gets local

While the COVID-19 pandemic keeps New Yorkers separated by face masks and social distancing and self-quarantine, a growing number of city residents are connecting through local mutual aid groups now sprouting across the shuttered boroughs.




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Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says coronavirus crisis has shifted his focus to releasing inmates, rather than locking them up

The fourth-year DA told the Daily News in an interview that his focus has shifted dramatically during the crisis, as trials and grand juries have been put on hold across the state.




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HOMETOWN HELPERS: Renowned Brooklyn clothier founded by Holocaust survivor now making masks to keep NYers safe from coronavirus

Martin Greenfield Clothiers, creator of Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” suit and tailor to the well-dressed from President Obama to Mayor Bloomberg, is taking on coronavirus. The venerable custom suit maker teamed with its union workers to start producing protective face masks, with local community groups first on their list of beneficiaries.




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Holocaust studies center at Yeshiva University gets new leader

Shay Pilnik, the new president of the Yeshiva center and himself the grandson of Holocaust survivors, said the recent spate of anti-semitic attacks in New York shows the urgency of coordinated, deep study of the Holocaust.




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Sen. Elizabeth Warren applauds NYC Council bills requiring pay hikes for local workers

Elizabeth Warren touted her own “universal workers’ bill of rights" and said of New Yorkers, "I’m glad to see people who are picking up this idea at the state level."