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• it's warm and you're not
• former mayor Bob Filner is under house arrest, so there's less of a chance you'll get harassed
• you want to ice skate outside but don't like the cold

Continue reading Because There Aren't Enough Reasons to Visit San Diego in Winter, Now You Can Ice Skate

Because There Aren't Enough Reasons to Visit San Diego in Winter, Now You Can Ice Skate originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 10 Dec 2013 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Facebook, Instagram Release Top Checked-in Locations of 2013

Facebook, Instagram Release Top Checked-in Locations of 2013 originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Sorry Indianapolis, You're No Longer the Sole Location Offering TSA PreCheck Enrollment Background Checks

Sorry Indianapolis, You're No Longer the Sole Location Offering TSA PreCheck Enrollment Background Checks originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 16 Dec 2013 15:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Business, Talking Travel

Skift Acquires Gadling Travel From AOL originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Donald Trump’s policies risk making the US dollar a source of global instability Expert comment LToremark 13 November 2024

Although Trump favours a weaker exchange rate, his policies are likely to have the opposite effect. The risk is that the US dollar could become too strong, which is bad news for the global economy.

President-elect Donald Trump has a dollar problem. In recent months he has shown a clear preference for a weaker exchange rate to support the competitiveness of US exports and help reduce the US trade deficit. And yet, as the market has sensed since the US election, the much more likely outcome is that his policies end up strengthening the greenback. The risk is that the US dollar – which is expensive already – becomes more obviously overvalued, and this could increase the risk of global financial instability. 

The dollar has been on a rollercoaster ride in the past few decades. From 2002 until 2011, for example, the dollar weakened by around 30 per cent in inflation-adjusted, trade-weighted terms, according to BIS data. Yet in the years since 2011, the dollar has strengthened and is now at a more appreciated level than at any time since 1985.

What shapes this rollercoaster, broadly speaking, is the global balance of economic vitality: when the US economy gains momentum relative to the rest of the world, the dollar tends to strengthen; and vice versa. 

After China joined the WTO in 2001, the balance of economic vitality shifted decisively away from the US, in favour of China and other emerging economies. This was the decade of the commodity boom: the longest, biggest peacetime increase in commodity prices in nearly 200 years during which a sustained surge in China’s economy supported GDP growth across the developing world. The dollar weakened as a result.

But after 2011, a combination of factors – including the eurozone crisis and its aftermath, together with the sagging of the Chinese economy – tipped the balance of economic vitality back in favour of the US. The dollar strengthened once again.

And since both the European and Chinese economies remain very fragile, the balance of economic vitality seems likely to keep favouring the US dollar.

Two more considerations also point to a stronger US dollar under a second Trump administration.

The first is the exchange rate implications of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports. When the US imposes tariffs on a trading partner, the foreign exchange market tends to sell that trading partner’s currency, forcing it to weaken to offset the dollar-price increase induced by the tariff. This helps explain why the Chinese renminbi depreciated by some 10 per cent in 2018 after Trump began imposing trade restrictions on China in January of that year. 

More widespread tariffs on a whole range of US trading partners should therefore strengthen the dollar more broadly.

A stronger dollar should also result from the macroeconomic framework Trump seems likely to deliver. He will certainly want to extend his 2017 tax cuts beyond 2025 when they are currently due to expire, so a more sustained loosening of US fiscal policy seems likely. Since boosting the US economy will create inflationary pressure, the market will expect interest rates to end up higher than they might otherwise be. The resulting combination of looser fiscal and tighter monetary policy tends to be a stronger currency.

The dollar probably has a fair amount of room to keep going up, since it is not obviously overvalued just yet. The US current account deficit – the broadest measure of a country’s trade deficit, and a rough but useful measure of financial vulnerability – was a little over 3 per cent of GDP last year. 

This is around half the level it reached in 2006, just before the 2008 global financial crisis, meaning the risks arising from an overvalued dollar may be for the latter part of Trump’s second presidency.

A strengthening dollar is also not great news for the rest of the world economy. A strong dollar tends to depress global trade growth, restrict developing countries’ access to international capital markets, and make it more difficult for countries whose currencies will be weakening to keep inflation under control.

If and when the dollar becomes unsustainably expensive, a further problem will present itself: how to deal with an overvalued currency without risking a lot of financial dislocation.

This problem last occurred in early 1985, when the dollar was universally reckoned to be dangerously dear. At that time the US was able to call on trading partners who depended on the US security umbrella – the UK, Germany, France and Japan – to negotiate the ‘Plaza Accord’, which coordinated a series of interventions in the foreign exchange market that allowed the dollar to decline in a measured way.  

It is virtually unimaginable that something similar could be negotiated today, not least because Chinese policymakers believe that the post-Plaza strengthening of the yen in the late 1980s led to an economic disaster for Japan. Beijing will not play ball.

Without much scope for a negotiated decline in the dollar, more chaotic alternatives seem likely. 

One is that the market decides suddenly that it no longer has an appetite for expensive dollar-denominated assets, and this might lead to a messy adjustment in the foreign exchange market. 

Implications of the new US presidency: what awaits Ukraine? 19 November 2024 — 2:00PM TO 3:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 13 November 2024 Online

After 1000 days of Kyiv’s resistance, experts discuss how to secure Ukraine’s and Europe’s future.   

The 19 November marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The country faces an ever-more ferocious fight for its future existence.

The 19^th November marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The country faces an ever-more ferocious fight for its future existence.

Having been given time to adapt, largely due to the slow release of Western military aid, the Russian army is pressing home its advantage. Along the entire eastern frontline, the Russians are simultaneously bombarding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and cities. With the election of Donald Trump in the US, it seems to many that the tide has turned definitively in Putin’s favour at the political, as well as the military, level.

Trump’s declared ambition to resolve the war in 24 hours implies a Russian-American deal, cutting Kyiv out of negotiations. Such an ‘agreement’ would endanger the country’s future and expose the rest of Europe.

This webinar will cover:

• Ukraine’s strategy of resistance in the context of Trump’s White House.
• The immediate risks during the transition period.
• How Kyiv sees Europe’s role in the new geopolitical environment. Will Kyiv completely give up on the US?
• The extent to which Germany, Ukraine’s second largest donor, can step in.  

Here are 10 players whose names you may know but who spent easy-to-forget days in Colorado.

Here is what you need to know about Rockies Spring Training, set to begin soon at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Infielder Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies' top-ranked prospect, headlined the 19 players announced as non-roster invitees to Major League Spring Training on Wednesday.

This time of year you read a lot about championship windows -- a way of thinking that seems to be standard operating procedure, whether clubs are in small or big markets. Well, the Rockies don't believe in that concept.

Left-handed reliever Mike Dunn's recovery from season-ending left shoulder surgery has gone well enough that the Rockies are cautiously optimistic he will be ready to open the season -- the final one in his three-year, $19 million contract.

MLB Network's countdown of baseball's best players at each position continued with the third installment of the "Top 10 Right Now!" series, featuring the game's top left and center fielders.

With new faces on the team, Spring Training is a time for excitement, but the Rockies had October in mind with their one big offseason signing: Daniel Murphy for two years and $24 million.

Here's an early look at how the Rockies' 25-man roster could shape up on Opening Day.

Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland plans to expand his arsenal and attack hitters in every quadrant of the strike zone this season.

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

Fans and analysts spend the entire offseason speculating where the top free agents could go, but sometimes an under-the-radar pickup can end up making a world of difference. As positional competitions begin to heat up at Spring Training camps this month, MLB.com's beat writers were asked to identify one potentially overlooked acquisition for each of the 30 clubs. Here's who they came up with.

Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon can identify with third baseman Nolan Arenado, which puts him in position to offer support rather than advice.

Familiar sounds of encouragement and needling filled a practice field at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Monday as Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and the infielders took grounders and Charlie Blackmon and the outfielders gathered their bats and spikes. Only a few faces that always seemed to be around are missing as Spring Training begins.

Somewhere within any conversation, Rockies catchers will note the team's strong starting pitching and 91 wins last season. But they understand that more offense from their position can facilitate more winning.

If German Marquez, Kyle Freeland and Jon Gray want to battle it out for tops on the staff, that's perfectly fine with Rockies manager Bud Black.

Having two pitchers of notable accomplishment and one of immense promise is a luxury for the Rockies. But it creates a decision nonetheless for manager Bud Black.

A year after looking for ways to move Charlie Blackmon out of the leadoff spot, Rockies manager Bud Black is counting the reasons to keep him up top.

Rockies shortstop Trevor Story knows a standout fielding second baseman when he plays alongside one. So Story is a good resource to assess the younger players who are trying to replace three-time Gold Glove Award-winning DJ LeMahieu, who signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Yankees this winter.

Rockies outfielder David Dahl spent last September signing his home runs with his bad dude sashay. He did it then, he'll do it again in 2019.

Who do the Rockies have in the pipeline? Get scouting reports, video, stats, projected ETAs and more for Colorado's Top 30 Prospects on MLBPipeline.com's Prospect Watch.

The next five weeks will see lots of shuffling on Major League rosters. Here are the most intriguing positional battles on each of the 30 MLB clubs.

Rockies manager Bud Black said the team prefers that longtime center fielder Charlie Blackmon move to right field, rather than left.

The Blue Jays will start determining who their catcher of the future will be when Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire battle it out behind the plate this spring.

No matter what happens this spring, the player everyone is going to be talking about on a daily basis is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

Fans and analysts spend the entire offseason speculating where the top free agents could go, but sometimes an under-the-radar pickup can end up making a world of difference. As positional competitions begin to heat up at Spring Training camps this month, MLB.com's beat writers were asked to identify one potentially overlooked acquisition for each of the 30 clubs. Here's who they came up with.

Here are the top players in each league who could get the opportunity to show what they can do at the highest level this year, perhaps even contending for Rookie of the Year honors

The Blue Jays were barely one hour into the official start of Spring Training when general manager Ross Atkins threw the first curveball of the year. The news wasn't so much who made the list, but rather who did not. Despite an impressive 2018 rookie season, lefty Ryan Borucki apparently hasn't been guaranteed anything quite yet.

MLB.com's beat reporters have you covered with the action from every team's training camp. Keep track of the latest highlights of Spring Training right here.

The Blue Jays officially added another veteran to their bullpen Saturday morning by signing right-hander John Axford to a Minor League deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Axford hasn't received any guarantees with the short-term contract, but he is a strong candidate to make Toronto's 25-man roster and head north at the end of camp.

Marcus Stroman made himself available to the media for the first time this spring on Sunday morning, and what followed was an eventful 21 minutes that touched on almost every aspect of his game and the Blue Jays roster.

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins declined to get into a back-and-forth with Marcus Stroman on Sunday afternoon, sidestepping criticism of the organization from his right-handed starter.

At one of my first meetings as an elected council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, we approved a report called Access All Ages. It encouraged less ageist thinking and bias among healthcare staff that might lead to them denying older people surgery.1 But sometimes an operation isn’t the best option. Among patients who have surgery, 14% express regret and 15% experience complications, which are at least four times as likely if they’re frail or physically inactive.2 The Centre for Perioperative Care has published information on the importance of exercise before surgery,3 but that alone may not be enough.We need shared decision making,4 including asking patients what matters to them. The public should be primed to ask about BRAN—the benefits, risks, and alternatives to surgery and the likely result from doing nothing.4 A slew of data supports this approach, especially from the POPS initiative (Perioperative Care of...

bmj;387/nov13_11/q2490/FAF1faDavide Bonaldo/SOPA/Sipa/AlamyThe devastating power and impact of the flash floods that swept through eastern Spain from 29 October is captured in this image from the city of Valencia. More than 200 people are known to have been killed—and around 100 are still missing—in floods caused by rivers and normally dry canals bursting their banks after torrential rain across the region.Medical sites have been severely hit, with several towns setting up temporary clinics in sports centres for essential services. A local GP told Medscape Network that because many roads were closed it was difficult for people to reach these makeshift facilities.In an effort to combat this the Valencia region’s health ministry has established a register of volunteer health professionals available to help in affected areas. It has also launched a public health campaign warning of the spread of infectious diseases made possible by damage to the sanitation infrastructure, including leptospirosis, tetanus,...

The current system for delivering NHS cardiovascular disease (CVD) health checks is not working effectively and must be reviewed to ensure that it reaches people with the highest risk, the National Audit Office has said.1In a review of the commissioning, delivery, and performance of CVD health checks the watchdog found that just over one in 12 people (8.8%) who were eligible attended a health check in 2023-24—which, if maintained, would equate to a five year coverage of 44%.Health checks were first introduced in 2009, with the aim of reducing ill health from CVD by offering everyone aged 40-74 without a pre-existing heart condition a check-up every five years. However, problems have arisen since the responsibility for commissioning these checks was transferred to local authorities in 2013, said the National Audit Office.The move led to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) losing its ability to influence local authority performance,...

Somatosensory coding in rodents has been mostly studied in the whisker system and hairy skin, whereas the function of low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) in the rodent glabrous skin has received scant attention, unlike in primates where the glabrous skin has been the focus. The relative activation of different LTMR subtypes carries information about vibrotactile stimuli, as does the rate and temporal patterning of LTMR spikes. Rate coding depends on the probability of a spike occurring on each stimulus cycle (reliability), whereas temporal coding depends on the timing of spikes relative to the stimulus cycle (precision). Using in vivo extracellular recordings in male rats and mice of either sex, we measured the reliability and precision of LTMR responses to tactile stimuli including sustained pressure and vibration. Similar to other species, rodent LTMRs were separated into rapid-adapting (RA) or slow-adapting based on their response to sustained pressure. However, unlike the dichotomous frequency preference characteristic of RA1 and RA2/Pacinian afferents in other species, rodent RAs fell along a continuum. Fitting generalized linear models to experimental data reproduced the reliability and precision of rodent RAs. The resulting model parameters highlight key mechanistic differences across the RA spectrum; specifically, the integration window of different RAs transitions from wide to narrow as tuning preferences across the population move from low to high frequencies. Our results show that rodent RAs can support both rate and temporal coding, but their heterogeneity suggests that coactivation patterns play a greater role in population coding than for dichotomously tuned primate RAs.

The prefrontal cortex is critical for decision-making across species, with its activity linked to choosing between options. Drift diffusion models (DDMs) are commonly employed to understand the neural computations underlying this behavior. Studies exploring the specific roles of regions of the rodent prefrontal cortex in controlling the decision process are limited. This study explored the role of the prelimbic cortex (PLC) in decision-making using a two-alternative forced-choice task. Rats first learned to report the location of a lateralized visual stimulus. The brightness of the stimulus indicated its reward value. Then, the rats learned to make choices between pairs of stimuli. Sex differences in learning were observed, with females responding faster and more selectively to high-value stimuli than males. DDM analysis found that males had decreased decision thresholds during initial learning, whereas females maintained a consistently higher drift rate. Pharmacological manipulations revealed that PLC inactivation reduced the decision threshold for all rats, indicating that less information was needed to make a choice in the absence of normal PLC processing. μ-Opioid receptor stimulation of the PLC had the opposite effect, raising the decision threshold and reducing bias in the decision process toward high-value stimuli. These effects were observed without any impact on the rats’ choice preferences. Our findings suggest that PLC has an inhibitory role in the decision process and regulates the amount of evidence that is required to make a choice. That is, PLC activity controls "when," but not "how," to act.

Basolateral amygdala (BLA) neurons are engaged by emotionally salient stimuli. An area of increasing interest is how BLA dynamics relate to evolving reward-seeking behavior, especially under situations of uncertainty or ambiguity. Here, we recorded the activity of individual BLA neurons in male rats across the acquisition and extinction of conditioned reward seeking. We assessed ongoing neural dynamics in a task where long reward cue presentations preceded an unpredictable, variably time reward delivery. We found that, with training, BLA neurons discriminated the CS+ and CS– cues with sustained cue-evoked activity that correlated with behavior and terminated only after reward receipt. BLA neurons were bidirectionally modulated, with a majority showing prolonged inhibition during cued reward seeking. Strikingly, population-level analyses revealed that neurons showing cue-evoked inhibitions and those showing excitations similarly represented the CS+ and behavioral state. This sustained population code rapidly extinguished in parallel with conditioned behavior. We next assessed the contribution of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a major reciprocal partner to the BLA. Inactivation of the OFC while simultaneously recording in the BLA revealed a blunting of sustained cue-evoked activity in the BLA that accompanied reduced reward seeking. Optogenetic disruption of BLA activity and OFC terminals in the BLA also reduced reward seeking. Our data indicate that the BLA represents reward-seeking states via sustained, bidirectional cue-driven neural encoding. This code is regulated by cortical input and is important for the maintenance of vigilant reward-seeking behavior.