Police on Thailand’s resort island of Phuket charged three foreign Nationals with recklessness causing death after a 37-year-old Russian woman plunged to her death from a high-rise condo in the Patong district. Police said on Wednesday that American Jamaal Smith , 38, Jordanian Ahmad Alatoom, 28, and Russian Natalia Kosenkova, 35, have been charged. The charges come after, Ms. Evgenia Smirnova, 37, fell to her death from the eighth floor of a condominium on May 31 in Phuket’s Patong district Police said Ms.Smirnova was extremely drunk while in the company of three other foreigners at the high-rise condo. The three foreigners told Phuket police that Ms.Smirnova climbed an outside staircase between the seventh and eighth floors, while intoxicated. An autopsy found a very high alcohol level in her blood, Police said. Read: Australian Man, 22, Falls to His Death at Phuket Hotel Police said that after reviewing existing evidence and witnesses’ accounts they believed … [Read more...] about Phuket Police Charge 3 Foreigners Over Death of Russian Model
Tesla model 3 autopilot
How to Improve Your Credit Score Fast
Your credit score is one of the most important measures of your financial health. It tells lenders at a glance how responsibly you use credit. The better your score, the easier you will find it to be approved for new loans or new lines of credit. A higher credit score can also open the door to the lowest available interest rates when you borrow. If you would like to boost your credit score, there are a number of quick, simple things that you can do. While it might take a few months to see an improvement in your credit score, you can start working toward a better score in just a few hours. Key Takeaways It takes less than a couple of days to pull all your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus, and assessing your credit score is the first step to raising it. In just a few hours, you can set due-date alerts for bills, so you know when a bill is coming up. Paying your bills on time Is one of the most important steps in improving your credit score. Pay down … [Read more...] about How to Improve Your Credit Score Fast
Why Regulation Will Help The Buy Now, Pay Later Giants
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin After a meteoric rise during the pandemic, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) business is facing a future clouded by deteriorating economic conditions, competition from the likes of Apple and bank credit card issuers and a looming regulatory crackdown. At least, that’s the conventional wisdom. Since the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened an inquiry into the industry last year, regulation has generally been framed as a “ backlash ” and threat to the industry’s growth. A research note issued Sunday by Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng, which initiates coverage of Affirm Holdings with a neutral rating, observes that “the evolving US BNPL regulatory landscape results in the risk of potential regulation that could reduce the pace of consumer and merchant adoption.” Yet a deeper look suggests regulation could actually benefit the leaders in the American BNPL sector. While BNPL has been around in the US … [Read more...] about Why Regulation Will Help The Buy Now, Pay Later Giants
Alignment Healthcare Losses Narrow As Medicare Advantage Enrollment Rises
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Alignment Healthcare reported an $11.5 million loss in its second quarter as the startup provider of privatized Medicare Advantage coverage continues to grow. Alignment’s loss of $11.58 million, or 6 cents a share, compared to $44.7 million, or 25 cents in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, total revenue was up nearly 19% to $366.5 million in the second quarter ended June 30 compared to $308.9 million a year ago as the company continues to grow in the competitive business of providing health benefits to U.S. seniors. “Alignment Healthcare’s strong performance in the second quarter showcases the replicability of our model and resulted in one of our best quarters since taking the company public,” Alignment Healthcare founder and chief executive John Kao said. “The quarter marks our lowest medical benefits ratio since the IPO, where we once again beat guidance on four key performance indicators: membership, revenue, adjusted … [Read more...] about Alignment Healthcare Losses Narrow As Medicare Advantage Enrollment Rises
Even Mild Covid-19 May Cause Lasting Brain Fog (Part 3)
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This is the fourth article in a series focusing on cognitive dysfunction and inflammation. The first part can be read here , the second can be read here , and the third, here . For additional writings on inflammation and Covid-19, please see my website: www. williamhaseltine.com In previous installments of this series, we looked at new research that suggests even mild SARS-CoV-2 infection can impair cognitive function. The first step in this chain of events happens when the virus sets off an intense inflammatory response that eventually reaches the brain. Once there, inflammation triggers reactivity of microglial cells —the resident immune cells of the central nervous system— which produce yet more inflammation and interfere with the normal functioning of important cells, including oligodendrocytes and neural precursor cells (Figure 1). But given that all of this happens off the back of … [Read more...] about Even Mild Covid-19 May Cause Lasting Brain Fog (Part 3)
Even Mild Covid-19 May Cause Lasting Brain Fog (Part 1)
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This is part two of a series focusing on cognitive dysfunction and inflammation. The first article can be read here . For additional writings on inflammation and Covid-19, please see my website: www. williamhaseltine.com Although inflammation is a common feature of many infections, viral and otherwise, SARS-CoV-2 elicits a particularly intense inflammatory response. Exactly why remains unclear. What is becoming increasingly clear, on the other hand, is that much of the damage associated with Covid-19 can be traced back to this hyperinflammation. This holds true both in the short term, during acute infection, as well as the long term, during Long Covid, or Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC). Cognitive impairments such as “brain fog”, difficulty concentrating, and poor short-term memory make up some of the more worrying Long Covid symptoms. Often, these are severe enough to interfere with daily … [Read more...] about Even Mild Covid-19 May Cause Lasting Brain Fog (Part 1)
Inflation Reduction Act Won’t Help West Virginia
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Chuck Schumer (NY) recently agreed to a slimmed down version of the failed Build Back Better plan they are calling the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Manchin and other proponents of the IRA argue it will boost economic growth and reduce inflation, but this is unlikely, especially in states like West Virginia that face problems unaddressed by the IRA. The IRA spends nearly $400 billion on energy tax credits and about $100 billion on health care subsidies, primarily for people who buy Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans. This proposed spending would be paid for by increasing corporate income taxes, “better” IRS enforcement, increasing taxes on investment returns, and savings from implementing price controls on certain drugs purchased by the government via Medicare and other programs. The tax increases and costs savings are projected to generate $305 billion more than the spending, and … [Read more...] about Inflation Reduction Act Won’t Help West Virginia
Let’s Declare Our Independence — From Zoning
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Catch this podcast on the topic of ending zoning at Everything Urban. Today is the day Americans commonly consider our country’s “birthday,” the day which we officially declared independence from the United Kingdom. One could argue the other days would be appropriate, like the final ratification of our written Constitution on June 21, 1788, or even the burning of the ship Gaspee by a group of American tax evaders on June 9, 1722. But July 4 is now hallowed in our civil religion as the day, and it is also a good day for Americans to consider declaring their independence from another oppressive regime, the use of zoning to manage and control the use of land in American cities. The July 4 holiday is unique in that it doesn’t celebrate a battle or a person but a document, the Declaration of Independence , the central focus of which is shaking off the interference of a distant government in daily life. For people on … [Read more...] about Let’s Declare Our Independence — From Zoning
Higher Corporate Taxes Affect Everyone
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin President Biden’s recent infrastructure proposal has a $2 trillion plus price tag and he’s looking for a way to pay for at least some it. During his campaign, President Biden said he would not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 per year. Since direct tax increases on most people would break his campaign promise, Biden is looking elsewhere. One piece of his current plan is to raise the federal corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%. While this does not directly violate his pledge, there is plenty of evidence that raising corporate income taxes affects all workers by reducing wages, slowing employment growth, and impeding innovation. Federal corporate income tax changes are relatively rare, but with 50 states there is a lot of change and variation at the state level. Rates vary from a high of 11.5% in New Jersey to a low of 2.5% in North Carolina. Economists have studied state corporate tax changes for … [Read more...] about Higher Corporate Taxes Affect Everyone
How Google Unified Its Products With A Humble Index Card
If you hadn’t noticed, every Google service has been trending toward a certain understated elegance. The company’s infamous era of championing 41 shades of blue is long over, as the company has learned to embrace clean lines, airy typography, and liberal white space across their platforms. But amidst implementing these long-established good design practices, Google rediscovered an old idea: index cards. advertisement advertisement Just like index and business cards of yore (or at least the late ’90s), Google’s cards are plain, white rectangles peppered with nothing more than a little bit of type and maybe a photo. Are cards the epitome of flat modernism, or are they subconscious skeuomorphism? Even Google’s designers debated this point when I posed the question. Either way, these piles of pixels are revolutionizing the way Google simplifies increasingly deep information. Google’s cards represent the biggest of data in the smallest of packages. We … [Read more...] about How Google Unified Its Products With A Humble Index Card