y Interview with Lawyer of Football Leaks Informant Rui Pinto By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:09:09 +0200 Rui Pinto is the whistleblower behind Football Leaks and has been in jail in Portugal for months. In an interview, his lawyer William Bourdon talks about how his client is doing and what he is doing to get Pinto out of prison. Full Article
y FC Barcelona, a Shell Company and Messi's Father By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:28:00 +0200 The London-based company Sidefloor was part of the tax-evasion structure for which Lionel Messi and his father Jorge were convicted. Now it has been revealed that FC Barcelona spent years paying agent fees to this letterbox company, payments apparently destined for Jorge Messi. Full Article
y Tennis Player Andrea Petkovic on Maria Sharapova's Retirement from Tennis By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Tue, 3 Mar 2020 16:03:03 +0100 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. Full Article
y How do you know what time it is? By blog.apnic.net Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 03:13:40 +0000 Guest Post: High precision time measurements depend on using multiple clocks to ensure redundancy and stability. Full Article <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/tech-matters/">Tech matters</a>
y Lessons from deploying DNSSEC in Mongolia By blog.apnic.net Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 02:00:53 +0000 Guest Post: The most essential part of deploying DNSSEC was to understand what it is and how it works. Full Article <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/community/">Community</a> <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/development/">Development</a>
y Measuring the IPv6 network periphery By blog.apnic.net Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 23:40:36 +0000 Guest Post: IPv6 network periphery is a new term to describe newly measured intricacies of IPv6 CPE and routers at the edge. Full Article <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/tech-matters/">Tech matters</a>
y Common setups to secure your networks from home By blog.apnic.net Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 01:25:38 +0000 Need help with setting up your network to allow your remote employees to access internal business services securely? Full Article <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/tech-matters/">Tech matters</a>
y SRv6: Deployed use-cases By blog.apnic.net Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 23:20:56 +0000 Guest Post: As of 2019, Segment Routing over IPv6 data plane (SRv6) has been deployed in eight large-scale networks; supported more than 25 hardware implementations at line rate; and implemented in 11 open-source platforms/applications. Full Article <a href="https://blog.apnic.net/category/tech-matters/">Tech matters</a>
y Germany: Supermarkets and Hospitals Hire More Security Guards By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:27:45 +0100 Amid the current public health crisis, hospitals and grocery stores have a growing demand for more security personnel. The guards will help to limit access to buildings -- and stop possible fights over goods. Full Article
y Corona: Germany Weighing Strict Curfews If Rules Violated over Weekend By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 10:19:25 +0100 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. Full Article
y Corona: "Saturday Is a Crucial Day" - Interview with Chancellor Merkel's Chief of Staff By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 15:36:13 +0100 Helge Braun, 47, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the rapidly rising number of coronavirus infections and about whether more stringent measures will have to be implemented. Full Article
y Germany: The Big Wave of Corona Cases Will Hit Hospitals in 10 to 14 Days By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 22:30:39 +0100 The German health-care system is considered one of the best in the world. But the coronavirus is mercilessly exposing its weaknesses, with some hospitals already facing difficulties. Can Germany prevent the kind of collapse seen in Italy? Full Article
y Coronavirus: Germany Imposes Tougher Restrictions on Public Life By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 12:48:36 +0100 Germany's federal and state governments have agreed to further tighten restrictions on public life. Here's an overview of what's now allowed and what's not. Full Article
y Corona: German Cabinet Agrees to 750 Billion Euros in Emergency Aid Measures By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 16:07:30 +0100 The German cabinet on Monday agreed to an unprecedented aid package to prop up the country's economy as the coronavirus pandemic takes hold. Parliament is set to approve the package later this week. Full Article
y Germany: Angela Merkel Governs From Home After Negative Test By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:17:53 +0100 The German chancellor is staying home after being exposed to a doctor who tested positive for the coronavirus. A first test came back negative, but Merkel will keep governing remotely for the time being. What does Germany's line of succession look like, and who would jump in if Merkel gets sick? Full Article
y German Ventilator Manufacturer: "Absolutely Mission Impossible" By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 18:30:58 +0100 Drägerwerk is a world leader in the production of ventilators. In an interview, company head Stefan Dräger, 57, discusses the challenges of keeping up with current demand as the corona crisis accelerates. Full Article
y What Next?: Attention Slowly Turns to the Mother of All Coronavirus Questions By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 20:13:56 +0100 The fight against the coronavirus has paralyzed society and the economy. Lockdown measures are fine for the short term, but they threaten to rapidly destroy the economy and erode our existing social order. What should the next steps be? Full Article
y Corona Challenge: Germany Reaching the Upper Limit of Testing Capacity By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Wed, 1 Apr 2020 12:19:01 +0200 Every day, tens of thousands people in Germany seek to get tested for the novel coronavirus. Often, though, they run up against a lack of testing capacity. And it is likely to only get worse. By DER SPIEGEL Staff Full Article
y Germany Is Failing in its Efforts To Obtain Protective Gear By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 6 Apr 2020 13:48:51 +0200 The German government failed to obtain enough protective masks for the country. That's one of the reasons Germany has so far refused to require its citizen's to wear them in public. But those facial coverings could be critical in lifting restrictions on public life. Full Article
y When Will Germany Begin Loosening Coronavirus Restrictions? By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 19:34:10 +0200 All of Germany is looking forward to Easter this year, with hopes that the government will soon be able to loosen coronavirus restrictions. But will it? And if so, which ones? By DER SPIEGEL Staff Full Article
y Capuchin Monkeys By encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 05:00:00 GMT Capuchins are highly intelligent monkeys that live in the tropical forests of Central and South America. In the wild, they use tools to crack open nuts and crabs and have learned to rub crushed millipedes on their backs as mosquito repellant. Easily trained, they are historically recognizable as the classic organ-grinder's monkey and are today widely used in lab experiments and occasionally as service animals. What sorts of tasks are monkey helpers trained to perform to assist the disabled? Full Article
y The February Revolution By encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com Published On :: Sat, 9 May 2020 05:00:00 GMT The February Revolution was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Though spontaneous and poorly organized, the revolution resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the start of a new, provisional government. It resulted from a number of factors—low confidence in the monarchy, a looming famine, and a series of failures in World War I, which Russia was ill-equipped to fight. How did Rasputin help to spur the revolution, even though he was dead? Discuss Full Article
y Health vs. Wealth? Public Health Policies and the Economy During Covid-19 -- by Zhixian Lin, Christopher M. Meissner By www.nber.org Published On :: We study the impact of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs) like “stay-at-home” orders on the spread of infectious disease. NPIs are associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. NPIs “spillover” into other jurisdictions. NPIs are not associated with significantly worse economic outcomes measured by job losses. Job losses have been no higher in US states that implemented “stay-at-home” during the Covid-19 pandemic than in states that did not have “stay-at-home”. All of these results demonstrate that the Covid-19 pandemic is a common economic and public health shock. The tradeoff between the economy and public health today depends strongly on what is happening elsewhere. This underscores the importance of coordinated economic and public health responses. Full Article
y Did COVID-19 Improve Air Quality Near Hubei? -- by Douglas Almond, Xinming Du, Shuang Zhang By www.nber.org Published On :: Ambient pollution is a byproduct of economic activity. It has been widely reported that COVID-19 and associated lockdowns have generated large improvements in air quality worldwide, including to China's notoriously-poor air quality. We analyze China's official pollution monitor data and account for the large, recurrent improvement in air quality following Lunar New Year (LNY), which essentially coincided with lockdowns in 2020. With the important exception of NO2, China's air quality improvements in 2020 are smaller than we should expect near the pandemic's epicenter: Hubei province. Compared with LNY improvements experienced in 2018 and 2019 in Hubei, we see smaller improvements in SO2 while ozone concentrations increased in both relative and absolute terms (roughly doubling). Similar patterns are found for the six provinces neighboring Hubei. We conclude that whether COVID-19 actually decreased pollution in China depends on the pollutant and reference period considered. Full Article
y Global Behaviors and Perceptions at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic -- by Thiemo R. Fetzer, Marc Witte, Lukas Hensel, Jon Jachimowicz, Johannes Haushofer, Andriy Ivchenko, Stefano Caria, Elena Reutskaja, Christopher P. Roth, Stefano Fiorin, Margarita G By www.nber.org Published On :: 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. Full Article
y Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes -- by Tatyana Deryugina, Benjamin M. Marx By www.nber.org Published On :: Do new societal needs increase charitable giving or simply reallocate a fixed supply of donations? We study this question using IRS datasets and the natural experiment of deadly tornadoes. Among ZIP Codes located more than 20 miles away from a tornado's path, donations by households increase by over $1 million per tornado fatality. We find no negative effects on charities located in these ZIP Codes, with a bootstrapped confidence interval that rejects substitution rates above 16 percent. The results imply that giving to one cause need not come at the expense of another. Full Article
y Generosity Across the Income and Wealth Distributions -- by Jonathan Meer, Benjamin A. Priday By www.nber.org Published On :: Despite widespread interest, there is little systematic evidence on the relationship between income, wealth, and charitable giving. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to provide descriptive statistics on this relationship. We find that, irrespective of specification, donative behavior increases with greater resources. Full Article
y Inequality and the Safety Net Throughout the Income Distribution, 1929-1940 -- by James J. Feigenbaum, Price V. Fishback, Keoka Grayson By www.nber.org Published On :: We explored two measures of inequality that described the full income distribution in cities. One measure is an income gini based on family incomes in 1929 for 33 cities and in 1933 for up to 48 cities in 1933 were spread throughout the country. We also estimated gini coefficients that made use of contract rents for renters and implicit rents for home owners for up to 955 cities throughout the country. We were able to expand to all counties when looking at a top-end inequality measure, the number of taxpayers per family. All three measures varied substantially across the country. We show the correlations between the various measures and also estimate the relationship between the measures and various relief programs developed by governments at all levels during the period. Full Article
y Dying in Solitude: First-Hand Accounts of the Coronavirus Horrors in Italy By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Tue, 24 Mar 2020 16:18:00 +0100 Family members aren't allowed into hospitals nor can they take part in funerals. Crematoriums are overloaded. The horrors of coronavirus still have a firm hold on northern Italy. Full Article
y Dutch Exceptionalism: Will Holland's Looser Corona Policies Pay Off? By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 09:14:10 +0100 One EU country after the other is moving to restrict public life. The Dutch government has opted for less drastic measures, hoping for herd immunity and relying on the common sense of its people. But the country has still had to make adjustments to its policies. Full Article
y Fighting Coronavirus: A New Infection Alarm System on Your Smartphone By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 12:44:33 +0200 European researchers have developed a new technology aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Called PEPP-PT, it has been designed to conform with EU data privacy rules. Its developers spoke with DER SPIEGEL about the app. Full Article
y Luigi Di Maio: "Italy Is Expecting a Collective Response to This Pain" By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 3 Apr 2020 18:04:59 +0200 In an interview, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio calls for greater solidarity among Europeans and for the EU to come up with an aid package comparable to the one recently passed in the United States. Full Article
y Germany Must Abandon Its Rejection of Eurobonds By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 3 Apr 2020 18:08:12 +0200 The German government's rejection of eurobonds is selfish, small-minded and cowardly. Existing mechanisms will not be enough to contain the crisis we are facing. We need to act now. Full Article
y Coronavirus: El rechazo alemán de los eurobonos es insolidario, mezquino y cobarde By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 19:08:00 +0200 Europa es más que una coalición de ególatras. En una crisis como esta no existe alternativa para los eurobonos. Full Article
y Interest Rate Uncertainty as a Policy Tool -- by Fabio Ghironi, G. Kemal Ozhan By www.nber.org Published On :: We study a novel policy tool—interest rate uncertainty—that can be used to discourage inefficient capital inflows and to adjust the composition of external accounts between short-term securities and foreign direct investment (FDI). We identify the trade-offs faced in navigating between external balance and price stability. The interest rate uncertainty policy discourages short-term inflows mainly through portfolio risk and precautionary saving channels. A markup channel generates net FDI inflows under imperfect exchange rate pass-through. We further investigate new channels under different assumptions about the irreversibility of FDI, the currency of export invoicing, risk aversion of outside agents, and effective lower bound in the rest of the world. Under every scenario, uncertainty policy is inflationary. Full Article
y EL Exclusive: Maintaining Connections, Reducing Anxiety While School Is Closed By www.smartbrief.com Published On :: 08 May 2020 09:18:57 CDT Teachers can play a huge role in helping students with anxiety or trauma histories feel safe right now -- even from a distanc -More- Full Article New from ASCD
y ASCD Express: Yoga and Mindfulness Tools for Managing Trauma By www.smartbrief.com Published On :: 08 May 2020 09:18:57 CDT When mindfulness tools become a regular part of the school day, students have productive strategies to deal with stress and e -More- Full Article New from ASCD
y Schools consider how to slowly reopen By www.smartbrief.com Published On :: 08 May 2020 09:18:57 CDT As some governors move forward with plans to reopen their states, there appears to be a disconnect between their plans and th -More- Full Article Teaching and Learning
y Data: More students planning gap year By www.smartbrief.com Published On :: 08 May 2020 09:18:57 CDT One in six high-school seniors report they definitely or most likely will alter their plans to enroll in college in the fall -More- Full Article Teaching and Learning
y The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy -- by Joseph S. Shapiro By www.nber.org Published On :: This paper documents a new fact, then analyzes its causes and consequences: in most countries, import tariffs and non-tariff barriers are substantially lower on dirty than on clean industries, where an industry’s “dirtiness” is defined as its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per dollar of output. This difference in trade policy creates a global implicit subsidy to CO2 emissions in internationally traded goods and so contributes to climate change. This global implicit subsidy to CO2 emissions totals several hundred billion dollars annually. The greater protection of downstream industries, which are relatively clean, substantially accounts for this pattern. The downstream pattern can be explained by theories where industries lobby for low tariffs on their inputs but final consumers are poorly organized. A quantitative general equilibrium model suggests that if countries applied similar trade policies to clean and dirty goods, global CO2 emissions would decrease and global real income would change little. Full Article
y China Eases Back Toward Normality Three Months after Outbreak By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 17:22:30 +0200 Twelve weeks after the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in China, leaders in Beijing are gradually reopening the country. But how can they be sure their decision won't backfire? Full Article
y New York City: Eight Days in the New Capital of Corona By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 16:48:00 +0200 Not a soul to be seen on Wall Street, cafés closing down in Brooklyn and a field hospital in Central Park: New York City is in the grips of coronavirus. Notes from a week that changed the city. Full Article
y The COVID-19 Battle: A Look at the Treatments Currently Being Used against the Coronavirus By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 18:14:31 +0200 In the fight against COVID-19, doctors and health workers are testing drugs and treatments whose efficacy has been proven against other illnesses. We take a look at the most prominent ones and the early findings. Full Article
y German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas: I Find It Appropriate that Every Member State First Acted Nationally By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 18:13:34 +0200 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. Full Article
y Corona: "You Need the Sledgehammer" To Bring Down Infections By www.spiegel.de Published On :: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 11:03:00 +0200 In an interview, Hong Kong-based epidemiologist Gabriel Leung explains why he considers a rapid lifting of contact bans and social distancing measures to be irresponsible. The corona crisis, he believes, will be with us for a long time. Full Article
y The Value of Time: Evidence From Auctioned Cab Rides -- by Nicholas Buchholz, Laura Doval, Jakub Kastl, Filip Matějka, Tobias Salz By www.nber.org Published On :: We estimate valuations of time using detailed consumer choice data from a large European ride hail platform, where drivers bid on trips and consumers choose between a set of potential rides with different prices and waiting times. We estimate consumer demand as a function of prices and waiting times. While demand is responsive to both, price elasticities are on average four times higher than waiting-time elasticities. We show how these estimates can be mapped into values of time that vary by place, person, and time of day. Regarding variation within a day, the value of time during non-work hours is 16% lower than during work hours. Regarding the spatial dimension, our value of time measures are highly correlated both with real estate prices and urban GPS travel flows. A variance decomposition reveals that most of the substantial heterogeneity in the value of time is explained by individual differences as opposed to place or time of day. In contrast with other studies that focus on long run choices we do not find evidence of spatial sorting. We apply our measures to quantify the opportunity cost of traffic congestion in Prague, which we estimate at $483,000 per day. Full Article
y Steering Incentives of Platforms: Evidence from the Telecommunications Industry -- by Brian McManus, Aviv Nevo, Zachary Nolan, Jonathan W. Williams By www.nber.org Published On :: We study the trade-offs faced by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that serve as platforms through which consumers access both television and internet services. As online streaming video improves, these providers may respond by attempting to steer consumers away from streaming video toward their own TV services, or by attempting to capture surplus from this improved internet content. We augment the standard mixed bundling model to demonstrate the trade-offs the ISP faces when dealing with streaming video, and we show how these trade-offs change with the pricing options available to the ISP. Next, we use unique household-level panel data and the introduction of usage-based pricing (UBP) in a subset of markets to measure consumers' responses and to evaluate quantitatively the ISP's trade-offs. We find that the introduction of UBP led consumers to upgrade their internet service plans and lower overall internet usage. Our findings suggest that while steering consumers towards TV services is possible, it is likely costly for the ISP and therefore unlikely to be profitable. This is especially true if the ISP can offer rich pricing menus that allow it to capture some of the surplus generated by a better internet service. The results suggest that policies like UBP can increase ISPs' incentive to maintain open access to new internet content. Full Article
y Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Dellin Betances among Dominican stars helping Pedro Martinez with coronavirus relief By www.nydailynews.com Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 16:58:06 +0000 Dominican Yankees and Mets stars are working with Pedro Martinez to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in their homeland. Full Article
y Yankees president Randy Levine is beating the drum for baseball’s return By www.nydailynews.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 19:32:50 +0000 Levine is making the rounds to make the case for baseball in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Full Article
y Joe Castiglione, a childhood Yankees fan turned longtime Red Sox broadcaster, talks about the great rivalry that is currently on pause By www.nydailynews.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 15:42:02 +0000 Joe Castiglione saw his first baseball game in the Bronx. Full Article