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The traditional rubs up against the futuristic in South Korea’s capital, Seoul © uschools / E+ / Getty Images
Portugal has emerged from the long shadow cast by neighbouring Spain, seizing the spotlight as a dynamic centre for art, culture and cuisine. A spate of artfully designed museums have opened in the past two years, there’s now a celebrated microbrewery scene, and rock-star Portuguese chefs are creating culinary buzz from Lisbon to the glittering beaches of the Algarve (seven new restaurants received Michelin stars in 2017). Heightening Portugal’s appeal are its incredible affordability and its natural wonders: in 2016, more than 300 beaches earned the coveted Blue Flag rating and two new biosphere reserves were named. It’s no surprise everyone is talking about this small, seafaring nation.
Sintra’s hilltop Castle of the Moors was constructed in the 8th and 9th centuries © saiko3p / Shutterstock
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Positioned for dramatic effect, the petite nation of Djibouti is in the process of being ripped in three by diverging tectonic plates. Magma seethes beneath ever-thinning crust; Martian-like deserts spew steam from fumaroles; and sunken lake shores glisten with huge salt crystals. In geological terms, this is a sprint finish. But in human terms, this is spectacularly slow motion – a reason to make travel plans, not cancel them! Add intoxicating culture, beckoning beaches and incredible whale shark diving, and you have even more reasons to hop on a plane, or ride the brand new train, to witness Mother Nature at her brutal best in 2018.
Camel farmers haul palm tree leaves past Lake Assal, the lowest point on the African continent © VUSLimited / iStockphoto / Getty Images
Twenty-five years ago, long before it was retrofitted to resemble Middle-earth, New Zealand began actively attracting adventure-seekers. A sweet suite of trails, the Great Walks, encouraged exploration of the country’s exquisite topography, taking tramping travellers through some of the world’s most extraordinary wilderness. Now, for the first time since the nine-track network was launched, a new Great Walk is under construction. The Paparoa Track and Pike29 Memorial Track, which commemorates the 29 miners killed in 2010, will form a magnificent multi-day trail through the South Island’s wild and wonderful west coast. Hikers can get a taster of the walk’s dramatic scenery on four existing trails.
"That's definitely huge for me, because I feel like I'm the same body type and (have) the same style of play. So, hopefully Shea does well if he wins the job."
Cade McNamara highlights trio of Michigan commits at Nike's Opening
McNamara impressed at the Elite 11 quarterback camp earlier this month in Los Angeles.
McNamara declined to go into details about his decision to de-commit from Notre Dame, but says he remains firmly committed to Michigan. He plans on taking another visit to Ann Arbor this summer, and could very well return in the fall for a game.
A year from now, he intends on calling Michigan home.
"I mean, it was rated the No. 1 college town last year, so you can definitely get the vibe," McNamara said. "I couldn't ask for anything more."
As of Saturday, McNamara was one of two quarterbacks committed to Michigan for the class of 2019, with three-star prospect George Johnson III (Stuart, Fla.) listed as an athlete. Johnson plays quarterback and wide receiver at Martin County High School.
College coaches are not allowed to speak on the record about potential recruits until they sign a letter of intent, which could come as soon as December.
Shea Patterson turned heads last month when his name was called in the Major League Baseball draft.
Now, he's apparently gone one step further and signed a contract.
The Michigan quarterback has inked a deal with the Texas Rangers recently, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
Terms of the contract were not available, but Grant reports the deal would allow Patterson the option to make a run at professional baseball once his eligibility at Michigan lapses.
Patterson has two seasons of college-football eligibility left after transferring from the University of Mississippi, and he's expected to compete for the starting job at Michigan this fall.
Still, he was selected in the 39th round - No. 1,169 overall - by the Rangers in June's draft. A report from the Morning News then said Patterson, listed as a third baseman from Michigan, actually went through a pre-draft workout with Texas.
Patterson has no plans to play baseball at Michigan, and never played at Ole Miss. In fact, he hasn't played organized baseball since his junior year of high school.
Shortly after he was selected last month, the official Twitter account for the Michigan football team tweeted out, "Shea Patterson has been selected in the #MLBDraft. But we know he'll be with us this season. #GoBlue | #ProBlue"
Patterson got more good news earlier this week, when his younger brother, Nick, announced that
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Michigan players are currently taking part in summer conditioning ahead of the start of fall camp, about a month away.
Martin Perez will pitch Thursday for Round Rock.... Jax Biggers No. 9 pick has signed... 39th round pick Shea Patterson has signed a 2019 contract to play after he completes his football eligibility at Michigan
Trump fans are, obviously, touting this good news as proof that Trumponomics works, especially compared to Obamanomics; all the liberal and mainstream media naysayers who predicted the tax cuts would fail were wrong, they say. In not even a half term, in their minds, Trump has already made America pretty darn great again — at least as measured by economic stats.
The economic surge is an expected side effect of more than just tax cuts.
Yet that’s not quite right: The economic surge is an expected side effect of more than just tax cuts. Many economists had been predicting the big tax cuts
(about $150 billion a year
) combined with increased government spending (
about $300 billion over the next few years
) would boost growth, at least for a while. As the Congressional Budget Office
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in its recent forecast, “because the tax cuts boost after-tax incomes, they, along with the increases in federal spending, are expected to add excess demand in the next few years.”
And, not only is the surge no surprise, but the credit goes to both parties. While Democrats wanted no part of the tax cuts, the increased spending was a bipartisan affair.
But here’s the really weird thing: Republicans have traditionally touted tax cuts as a way to boost long-term growth by enhancing incentives to work, save and invest. This sort of juicing of the economy with tax cuts and spending increases is what Republicans used to dismiss as “sugar high” economics as recently as when Obama and the Democrats passed their big trillion-dollar tax and spending stimulus back in 2009. Nothing but a temporary boost that doesn't really alter the economy’s deep fundamentals, they called it.
Trump might be helping make America great again, but only for a little while.
And all those currently rosy forecasts show the Trump-led growth surge fading by 2020 or so (possibly just in time for the re-election campaign) and the economy returning to its boring 2 percent growth baseline. One reason for this is that the tax cuts and higher spending are generating massive, trillion-dollar budget deficits as far as the eye can see, which could hurt growth by crowding out private investment. (The importance of minding budget deficits are another issue on which the GOP has flipped since the Obama years.) So Trump might be helping make America great again, but only for a little while.
Nothing, of course, is set in stone. One sign that the effects of Trump’s economic policies could outlast his first term would be an increase in productivity growth, or output per worker. If each worker produces more — whether from better training, better equipment or doing their job differently — higher wages should follow.
But productivity growth has been moribund for more than a decade. Moreover, there’s little evidence yet that anything Trump is doing has helped much. And if even productivity does boom, as it did during the mid-1990s through early 2000s, it could be the result of everything that’s been happening for years in Silicon Valley, such as advances in artificial intelligence, rather than what Washington’s been doing more recently.