Stepping Off the Hedonic Treadmill: Individual Differences in Response to Major Life Events
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ife_Events
"Theorists have long maintained that people react to major life events but then eventually return to a setpoint of subjective well-being. Yet prior research is inconclusive regarding the extent of interindividual variability. Recent theoretical models suggest that there should be heterogeneity in long-term stress responding (Bonanno, 2004; Muthén & Muthén, 2000). To test this idea, we used latent growth mixture modeling to identify specific patterns of individual variation in response to three major life events (bereavement, divorce, and marriage). A four-class trajectory solution provided the best fit for bereavement and marriage, while a three-class solution provided the best fit for divorce. Relevant covariates predicted trajectory class membership. The modal response across events was a relatively flat trajectory (i.e., no change). Nevertheless, some trajectories diverged sharply from the modal response. Despite the tendency to maintain preevent levels of SWB, there are multiple and often divergent trajectories in response to bereavement, divorce, and marriage, underscoring the essential role of individual differences."
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Reading about a Dr. famous for separating the first "Siamese" twins (attached by the tops of their heads) and who died at the beginning of the Covid outbreak, had also been involved with leading many teams in subsequent operations. Even though he was a highly specialized pediatric surgeon he seemed to have not had any children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/obit ... virus.html
Conjoined Twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre : A Decade Later. (tons of photos)
https://www.lohud.com/picture-gallery/n ... /13464609/
https://mcufoundation.org/farewell-james-tait-goodrich/
Incidentally, I was looking up someone I bought a microscope from in 2015 and one thing stood out when he mentioned looking at marijuana strains through it, and apparently he worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Dallas, and retired and died two years after I purchased the microscope, from colon cancer. I tend to think he might have been sympathetic to marijuana use considering his cancer.
https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituar ... d=17175141
It's a little odd looking at the interior of the house from photos, as I had entered it when buying it and he went on about his son being a Doctor, and had a grand daughter as well as presumably his daughter in the same kitchen as shown in the photo, who I assumed worked on selling the house while he was probably getting ready for hospice care at the time.
I posted in rants about looking over closed restaurants and discovering a couple who died from covid, and it's kind of odd going through the apparent changes all around. This is typically nothing unique to various chronology as even going through Google Earth Pro you can discover a lot of changes to the real estate market, as you will notice stark differences in street vs satellite view.
The entire block was cleared out to make way for an apartment complex
And the entire right block had one century old home on the far corner, and presumably everything else was wiped out over time. Reading reviews on businesses that no longer exist is also really odd, and you start to get into the back story of them (and why people referencing a property management are still leaving reviews long after the building was clearly gone.)
Alternatively, the satellite view is not updated and the street view shows a tremendous change. I lived literally across the street from the Airport fence, which for the longest time remained wooded, and now the barrier is set back further with new gas stations, etc. My home address at this time was 2702 Rosemary Lane, Euless, TX 76039
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Vagabond manga in Chinese (I could use Google Translate app)
https://archive.org/details/collectorsu ... red%20v01/
I found a Sandmann comic link as well, and there was some odd British comic series which is basically just an inferior Mad comic, called Viz.
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(1994) John Mack Abduction Human Encounters With Aliens
https://www.academia.edu/35709654/_1994 ... ns_not_OCR_
Just think of it like a romance novel. . . "Harder! Deeper!" etc. You're welcome.
John Mack died in 2003 but a book he was writing, 'Passport to the Cosmos' was verging on some of what this recently published book below is getting into.
Potentially:
Origins Of The Gods: Transdimensional Beings, Skinwalkers, And The Emergence Of Human Civilization
by Andrew Collins, Gregory Little
https://grahamhancock.com/collinslittle ... DmbwtBdUvA
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The Super-Rich Are Stockpiling Wealth In Black-Box Charities
OCTOBER 3, 2018 • SUZANNE WOOLLEY
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/the-super-r ... 41159.html
It’s all the rage in charitable giving -- and it’s actually got some charities worried.
Donor-advised funds — money that grows tax-free in individual accounts — are reshaping the landscape of U.S. philanthropy. After creating their account, donors choose how it’s invested, and the money compounds until they decide where to dole it out. DAF assets mushroomed to more than $85 billion at the end of 2016 from $30 billion in 2010.
Not everyone thinks that’s good news. Critics say the approach may slow the flow of money directly into nonprofits that serve the needy on a daily basis. Moreover, it injects charitable affiliates created by for-profit financial players such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab deep into the big business of philanthropy -- a boon for them and their clients, but, some worry, not so clear a win for the causes.
The Salvation Army is grateful for DAF contributions, said Jeff Hesseltine, director of gift planning for the not-for-profit’s western territory. But “the best option is for donors to work directly with a Salvation Army fundraiser who can assess their charitable intent, decide on a giving strategy” and have gifts put to good use immediately.
The financial-service industry’s interest in giving is tied to a looming generational wealth transfer -- and a desire not to see assets walk out the door. (A common DAF marketing theme is the ability to leave a legacy of giving for heirs.)
The money in many of these accounts started out as highly appreciated, publicly traded stock and illiquid “complex assets” such as shares in closely held businesses, restricted stock, oil and gas royalties, and real estate interests. Then there’s the art, the cruise ship, the Bitcoin and bushels of wheat and soybeans DAFs have liquidated to fund accounts.
Huge Tax Bills
If the donor sold them, those assets could produce huge tax bills. If they’re donated to a DAF, they bring huge tax benefits and a bigger pool of charitable funds than if they’d been sold and the proceeds donated.
This tax-powered alchemy has been called “philanthropic fracking” — a way to tease out more dollars from rich people’s portfolios. Fidelity Charitable took in $1 billion last year in complex assets and will probably get another billion this year, said President Pam Norley. At Vanguard Charitable, more than 80 percent of 2017 contributions came from non-cash assets including securities, restricted stock and real estate.
DAFs offer advantages over private foundations. Donors who contribute privately held stock or real estate to their foundation must value it at cost basis -- likely to be low for depreciated property or businesses started in a garage. The income-tax deduction is capped at 20 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI), which can be carried forward five years.
No Capital Gains Tax
If instead that asset is contributed to a DAF, an appraiser determines its fair market value before it’s donated. That yields a bigger deduction, which can offset as much as 30 percent of AGI (and can also be carried forward five years). Since the DAF is a public charity, the donor pays no capital gains tax -- and neither does the DAF when it sells the asset.
The wealthier one is, the more illiquid and highly appreciated assets one probably owns, enhancing the appeal of these accounts.
“One reason for the extraordinary growth of DAFs is their ability to provide maximum tax benefits for complex assets: property other than publicly traded stock,” said Ray Madoff, a Boston College Law School professor and founder of its Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good.
DAF have another advantage: Even though donors yield legal control of assets they contribute, their financial advisers may be allowed to direct how the money is invested and earn management fees. The biggest accounts also may be allowed to invest outside a DAF sponsor’s usual menu of options.
DAF Advantages
DAFs have advantages for financial-services companies, too. Some 60 percent of the $21.2 billion in Fidelity Charitable, for example, is in Fidelity funds. Fidelity Investments parent FMR LLC is the DAF’s largest independent contractor and received $46.3 million for the year ended June 30, 2017.
Annual administrative fees for DAF accounts can be 0.6 percent, on top of investment management fees. Norley said Fidelity Charitable’s “complete overall fees” average 0.6 percent.
“Given the potential for philanthropic dollars to grow through investment in a DAF, the work we are doing creates a net positive in funds made available,” she wrote in an email.
Fidelity Charitable’s 2018 giving report noted that investment growth in its DAFs since inception created $6 billion more for giving.
Some have criticized DAFs because the money they accumulate far outstrips funds flowing in, prompting a recent report to label them “warehouses of wealth.” Private foundations must pay out at least 5 percent of assets annually, but DAFs don’t have a legal requirement for minimum payouts, and the big providers cite annual aggregate grantmaking of about 20 percent.
‘Big’ Policy Question
Payouts are “the big public policy question,” said Roger Colinvaux, a professor at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. “DAFs are set up to treat money like it’s still the donor’s money. It’s like having your own mutual fund at Fidelity: You get statements and watch it grow. You feel like if you spend it, you lose it.”
If the pace of grantmaking doesn’t increase, DAFs risk regulation, said Bryan de Lottinville, founder of Benevity, a corporate giving platform that partners with DAFs. “There’s this big corpus growing to no real benefit of anyone other than the people earning fees for managing it.”
Also, if non-cash contributions keep mounting, the rules should change so donors’ tax deductions equal the amount available for giving, Colinvaux said.
Now, a donor contributing an asset appraised at $1 million gets an immediate $1 million write-off. When a DAF sells the asset, it may fetch $900,000 and after carrying costs and fees, leave $800,000 for the DAF.
Even with the money in DAFs exploding, total charitable donations remain around 2 percent of disposable income, so it may be too early to judge whether they provide a societal benefit equal to the donors’ tax breaks. What is clear: The business of supporting charitable giving has never been so profitable.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
Pretty straightforward but I went ahead and saved the article as a pdf (by 'printing' I selected it.)
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Alien books (pdf collection to keep you moist at night.)
https://archive.org/details/DavidJacobs ... 3/mode/2up
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Ise Monogatari
https://www.academia.edu/27112877/Ise_M ... ranslation
A pdf with hand-painted drawings (but nothing in English)
https://archive.org/details/isemonogatari02
Ise predates Genji (which is a mid 12th-century texts which refers to Ise as "outdated," and apparently is from early Heian period (794–1185), written about 980)
https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/li ... atari.html
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Transhumanist Fairy Tale
https://archive.org/download/A.I.Artifi ... manism.pdf
Article
https://www.newworldai.com/a-i-artificial-intelligence/
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Arthur C. Clarkes books
https://archive.org/details/23ScienceFi ... thurClarke
Gentry Lee Co-wrote Cradle, and whenever you see any books with his name on it, you can be guaranteed he is the main writer (and it tends to show.) He did add additional books which can be found in an omnibus book compiling the entirety of the Rama universe, but much of what he wrote has not been republished (or at the very least he seems to have missed the train of digital ebooks. His Author profile on Amazon is limited
https://www.amazon.com/Gentry-Lee/e/B00 ... pop_book_2 and you can check his other list of books which also don't show up well online. . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentry_Lee )
I tend to side with the critical reviews, though I did enjoy messing with the Rama PC game (though it seems to have glitched up at the point when you reach the underground city after doing all the puzzles, and it basically had a guy saying F you and prevented me from finishing, so rather than play through earlier saves I just said fuck it and looked at a game playthrough to see what the city looked like, which might have been better tat 2x speed, which is probably how I would approach reading any of his books as they are just filled with crap for the most part and stereotyped behaviors.) From reading reviews you would have sworn someone was going around making their eyes squinty and playing Asian stereotypes, but also he seems really misguided, and until I played the Rama game did I get a slightly better sense of what his books were like, but it's very evidently incoherent (and not because it's brilliant, though I definitely notice his intellect when I play the game as no one dumber would have made a game like that.)