NYT

Anthony Carter’s Agent Cost Him $3 Million. The Agent Paid Him Back. – The New York Times

by dldamore

Anthony Carter’s Agent Cost Him $3 Million. The Agent Paid Him Back. – The New York Times:

“Carter’s agent, Bill Duffy, failed to notify the Heat by the June 30 deadline that Carter was coming back. Instead of locking in another season in Miami, Carter accidentally became a free agent.”

 

As criticism rained down on Duffy, the agent offered to make it right. He would pay Carter $3 million out of his own pocket — through an agreed-upon payment schedule — to make up for the mistake, essentially the difference between his Spurs contract and the Heat salary he had forfeited. It was an unusual and virtually unprecedented move.

Alzheimer’s Researchers Study a Rare Brain – The New York Times

by dldamore

Alzheimer’s Researchers Study a Rare Brain – The New York Times:

“No one expected to have this brain so soon, and Aliria would likely have lived much longer if not for her cancer. Aliria’s daughter Rocío Villegas-Piedrahita said that her mother was aware that her brain would be donated to science, ‘and she was fine with it. We even joked that it was the ‘golden brain.’’”

Covid-19 Live Updates: Plans to Ship Vaccine Are Underway – The New York Times

by dldamore

Covid-19 Live Updates: Plans to Ship Vaccine Are Underway – The New York Times:

“With Pfizer’s vaccine cleared for emergency use on Friday, states eagerly began their own preparations to receive the vaccine within days. Up to 300,000 cases have been traced to a Boston Biogen conference in February.”

*This is an important next step.

Marvin Creamer, a Mariner Who Sailed Like the Ancients, Dies at 104 – The New York Times

by dldamore

Marvin Creamer, a Mariner Who Sailed Like the Ancients, Dies at 104 – The New York Times:

“Under cloud-massed skies, he could divine his location from the color and temperature of the water, the presence of particular birds and insects and even, on one occasion, the song of a squeaky hatch.

Skills like these, he long maintained, had let the master mariners of antiquity answer the seafarer’s ever-present, life-or-death question — Where am I? — and in so doing sail safely round the world.”

 

“It is believed that we rounded the Horn at noon yesterday and have amended our longitude accordingly. We were not able to sight any landmarks so have based our conclusion on (1) the presence of an extremely cold north wind of relatively short duration, and (2) the change of water color from blue to a fairly dark, transparent green to a lighter, less transparent green and back to a quite dark transparent green as we proceeded from west to east at an estimated latitude of 56°55’.”

 

On one occasion they sat, becalmed, bothered and bewildered, until his geographer’s ears came to their aid. As the wind started up again, a crew member happened to open a hatch. It emitted a loud squeak.
That sound told Professor Creamer unequivocally in which direction the boat was facing: Only dry air from the Antarctic, he knew, would have caused it. Moist air from the opposite direction would have lubricated the hatch, yielding a more congenial noise.

 

On May 13, 1984, as the Globe Star negotiated the Atlantic, the crew received a visit from a housefly. They recognized it at once as a humble emissary from land. Sure enough, they arrived back at Cape May four days later.

America Has Two Feet. It’s About to Lose One of Them. – The New York Times

by dldamore

America Has Two Feet. It’s About to Lose One of Them. – The New York Times:

“How big is a foot? In the United States, that depends on which of the two official foot measurements you are talking about. If it comes as a surprise that there are two feet, how about this: One of those feet is about to go away.

The first foot is the old U.S. survey foot from 1893. The second is the newer, shorter and slightly more exact international foot from 1959, used by nearly everybody except surveyors in some states. The two feet differ by about one hundredth of a foot (0.12672 inches) per mile — that’s two feet for every million feet — an amount so small that it only adds up for people who measure over long distances.”

*Really interesting article.

Feel Like You’re Going Out of Your Mind? Consider Your Mind-Set – The New York Times

by dldamore

Feel Like You’re Going Out of Your Mind? Consider Your Mind-Set – The New York Times:

“High school teachers in cities around Texas, including Houston, El Paso and Fort Worth, who had studied in a growth mind-set program, said students with more of that mind-set were able to adapt faster to online learning. And the teachers themselves are using what they learned to guide students; as one teacher said in an Education Week article, he tried to make sure his students were comfortable enough to discuss their struggles ‘That’s the big thing from growth mind-set. What do you do when you have that struggle? I try to push onto them, ‘you use it as a learning opportunity. You ask questions, you can’t just give up.’’”

‘Pure Hell for Victims’ as Stimulus Programs Draw a Flood of Scammers – The New York Times

by dldamore

‘Pure Hell for Victims’ as Stimulus Programs Draw a Flood of Scammers – The New York Times:

“Over the last month, 4,305 malicious website domains were set up to take advantage of people looking for new forms of government support, according to the security firm Check Point. The fake sites, with names like whereismystimulus and 2020reliefprogram, generally ask people to input their personal data with the promise that they can get information about their checks. But hackers then use the data against those who fall for the trick.”

Social Distancing for Coronavirus Has a History – The New York Times

by dldamore

Social Distancing for Coronavirus Has a History – The New York Times:

“The outcome of their research was startling. By closing the schools in a hypothetical town of 10,000 people, only 500 people got sick. If they remained open, half of the population would be infected.”

Early, aggressive action to limit social interaction using multiple measures like closing schools or shutting down public gatherings was vital to limiting the death toll, they found.