Good morning. Happy Friday.
(Source: Spotify)
The Great Gatsby
The highlight of my weekend is going to be taking my wonderful girlfriend to this movie of the year. I’m so excited I can hardly wait to be immersed in this theater spectacle.
My favorite new album. A good friend named Spencer turned me on to this band a few years ago. Casey Crescenzo’s voice.
So open up your mouth
And scream it out
To cast your voice
To the crowd.
Don’t let the world bring you down.
(Source: Spotify)
Tens of thousands of students in Chile have resumed their protests for free education with marches in major cities.
The march in the capital, Santiago, was largely peaceful, but there were isolated clashes, authorities say.
Riot police said that they had been attacked with petrol bombs. Police used water cannons and tear gas to break up one group of protesters.
Chilean students have been staging protests for free, high-quality education since 2011.
Wednesday’s action was the second nationwide protest this year.
The police estimated the number of protesters in Santiago at more than 37,000 but organisers say 80,000 people took to the streets. (via BBC News - Chile students resume protests for free education)
WELCOME TO SPRING (JAM)
(Source: Spotify)
Oceanic phytoplankton blooms imaged from space by Envisat. Plankton blooms occur in regions of the ocean that have optimal temperature, sunlight, and nutrient supply for marine algae to grow exponentially. Most blooms are composed of coccolithophores, single celled organisms which grow disk-like exoskeletons of calcium carbonate. Trillions of these disks color the water white, showing the phytoplankton density and beautiful fluid dynamics of ocean currents.
The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000
By: Robert Frank
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 7, 2010Gallup surveys of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009, suggested that there were two forms of happiness: day-to-day contentment (emotional well-being) and overall “life assessment,” which means broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world. While a higher income didn’t have much impact on day-to-day contentment, it did boost people’s “life assessment.”
Now we have more details from the study, conducted by the Princeton economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman. It turns out there is a specific dollar number, or income plateau, after which more money has no measurable effect on day-to-day contentment.
The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness.
That doesn’t mean wealthy and ultrawealthy are equally happy. More money does boost people’s life assessment, all the way up the income ladder. People who earned $160,000 a year, for instance, reported more overall satisfaction than people earning $120,000, and so on.
“Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood … but it is going to make them feel they have a better life,” Mr. Deaton told the Associated Press.
He added that, “As an economist I tend to think money is good for you, and am pleased to find some evidence for that.”
The results are fascinating, especially in this conflicted age of materialism. But I wonder how they would differ by region or city. Would $75,000 mark the ultimate day-to-day contentment in such high-cost cities as New York City, Los Angeles or San Francisco? I doubt it. Perhaps the salary number would be lower in South Dakota or Mississippi.
