9. WSJ-Turning Empty Offices Into Apartments Is Getting Even Harder
Only 3,575 apartment units were converted from office space last year. The already fraught process now faces even more challenges. By Konrad Putzier and Will Parker
Nobody wants to be criticized. It doesn’t feel good when people judge what you’ve done. We want the right people to like us, we want all people to like us. We want to be accepted, appreciated, and celebrated. So we try to be like other people, like the people that everyone likes.
But in the end, does this effort pay off? No, it doesn’t. You work hard to preempt criticism, to appeal to the trends, to make people like you and then what happens? They still criticize you. Somebody finds something to find fault with you about. Think of how Marcus Aurelius was savaged by critics in his own time, just as he is today by many academics and philosophers, written off by many historians.
Imagine if he had tried instead to conform to their expectations, to fit more clearly in the box they wanted him to be. Imagine if he’d tried to win the mob’s favor or the respect of future generations by conquest or dazzling deed. Imagine if he had written Meditations for an audience instead of from a far more personal and vulnerable place.
It doesn’t matter what you do, the criticism is always going to be there. So you might as well do what you think ought to be done. You might as well do what seems meaningful and important and fulfilling and right to you. People are going to say what they’re going to say, haters will find a way to hate. In the meantime, just be true to yourself, be true to the mission you have, fight for the respect (and praise) of yourself, not the mob, not the future.
8. Credit Card and Holiday Season Indicator…Amazon Right at Next Resistance Level from 2022
9. Weed may do way more damage to your heart than we thought-Business Insider
Smoking weed may have similar health consequences as cigarettes, and new research suggests cannabis use can be bad for your heart. Jamie Grill/Getty Images
Two new studies suggests marijuana use can be harmful for heart health.
Using marijuana may increase risk of issues like heart attack or stroke in frequent or older users.
More research is needed, but users should be aware of the risks, experts say.
Smoking pot, taking edibles, or unwinding with a cannabis-infused beverage have become increasing popular as more states have eased up on laws restricting recreational use. But a marijuana habit isn’t risk-free, new research suggests.
Regular marijuana use is linked to significantly higher risk of cardiovascular issues like heart attack or stroke, according to a pair of preliminary studies to be presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2023 Scientific Sessions. The findings suggest that marijuana may be more concerning for health than people suspect, particularly for frequent consumers and those with underlying health conditions.
Using marijuana every day may increase risk of heart failure In one study, researchers at Medstar Health in Baltimore looked at data from 156,999 people, who were initially free from heart failure, over four years of follow up to compare health outcomes with self-reported marijuana use. They found that people who used marijuana daily had a 34% higher risk of developing heart failure than people who never used marijuana.
The study defined marijuana use as any consumption that was not prescribed for a health condition. The findings suggest that more evidence on how marijuana affects health could help consumers and health professionals make more informed decisions, according to Dr. Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, lead author of the study and a physician at Medstar “Our results should encourage more researchers to study the use of marijuana to better understand its health implications, especially on cardiovascular risk,” Bene-Alhasan said in a the press release.
The long-term health effects of cannabis aren’t yet clear Along with evidence that smoking cannabis has similar risks as cigarette use, the findings warrant more caution around cannabis use and heart health, according to Robert L. Page II, professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Colorado and chair of the volunteer writing group for the 2020 American Heart Association Scientific Statement: Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis, and Cardiovascular Health. Page, who was not involved with either study, said that inhaling cannabis smoke increases blood concentrations of carbon monoxide, a toxic gas, as well as tar, both of which are linked to serious heart problems.
“Together with the results of these two research studies, the cardiovascular risks of cannabis use are becoming clearer and should be carefully considered and monitored by health care professionals and the public,” he said.Previous evidence also suggests that while other forms of cannabis use — like consuming edibles — may avoid some exposure to the toxins involves in smoking, they can still have negative effects on heart health. That’s because THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that gets you high, may be harmful to the heart.
· “Yes, dear, I put that important document in a very safe place.” (If only I could recall where.)
· “I was smart! I put an Apple AirTag on my keychain.” (Now, has anybody seen my phone so I can track it?)
We’ve all been there. And if there’s one common, existential fear I hear among successful business owners and other leaders when talk turns serious, it’s the worry that forgetting things like this might foretell even more memory loss when we get older.
If that sounds familiar, you’ll likely be interested in a new study from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine that found a correlation between a specific but common type of diet during middle age, and a remarkable 17 percent better memory outcomes decades later.
Writing in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, researchers said they tracked data related to 5,116 women in the NYU Women’s Health Study over 30 years, focusing on answers the women provided about their diets between 1985 and 1991.
The women were an average of 49 years old at the time, and the researchers were focused on how closely their diets adhered to the DASH diet, short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, hypertension being the more formal medical term for high blood pressure.
Short version, according to Yu Chen, a professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU and senior author of the study:
With more than 30 years’ follow-up, we found that the stronger the adherence to a DASH diet in midlife, the less likely women are to report cognitive issues much later in life.
So, what exactly is the DASH diet? As diets go, it’s fairly simple and tasty. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is a U.S. government resource, it includes:
· Eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains
· Including fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and vegetable oils
· Limiting foods that are high in saturated fat, such as fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, and tropical oils such as coconut, palm kernel, and palm oils
· Limiting sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets
Not too difficult, right? In fact, we’ve seen a lot of interesting research recently, suggesting things people can do that correlate with better memory, either in the near-term or more systemically as they get older. Some are easier than others:
· Drinking significant amounts of coffee, or possibly tea
· Eating specific foods, some of which would go right in hand with the DASH diet, such as porcini mushrooms, all sorts of other vegetables, and even dark chocolate and cinnamon
· Improving your work environment, specifically the lighting (“Dim lights are producing dimwits,” one study author said.)
· Engaging in brain activities like pleasure reading, having detailed hobbies that require you to process and recall information, and doing crosswords and other brain games.
Oh, and my favorite, backed by at least one study whose authors say they have no idea why it works–but that I’ve actually used myself to surprising effect: walking backward to trigger memory recall.
Maintaining and improving memory are at the top of the list for so many of us — and doubly so if the behaviors we’re talking about are simple, tasty, and frankly things you might consider doing anyway.
1. Just Amazon AWS Revenue was Higher than Revenue of 461 Companies in S&P 500
@Charlie Bilello Amazon’s AWS revenue over the last 12 months ($88 billion) was higher than the revenue of 461 companies in the S&P 500. From $3 billion to $88 billion in less than 10 years (>40% annualized growth).
Apple has bought back $604 billion in stock over the past 10 years, which is greater than the market cap of 492 companies in the S&P 500.
2. XLE Energy ETF Interesting Chart
XLE failed at 2 attempts to make new highs..then twice bounced off 200-day
3. Berskire Record Cash….Sold $5B in Stocks.
4. Dow Jones Railroads Holding Lows
5. Last Weeks Rally Led by Weakest Previous Performers.
Bespoke The rally this week has been broad based, but the best performing stocks have been the names that did the worst in the 10 days prior. Below we’ve broken the large-cap Russell 1,000 into deciles (10 groups of 100 stocks each) based on stock performance during the market’s decline from 10/17 to 10/27 (last Friday). As shown, the decile of the worst performing stocks during the 10/17-10/27 pullback is averaging the strongest gains during this week’s rally.
Looking at individual stocks, below are the 30 best performing names this week in the Russell 1,000. At the top of the list is Roku (ROKU), which is up more than 50%! Another eight stocks are up more than 25% this week, including names like DoorDash (DASH), DraftKings (DKNG), Pinterest (PINS), Paramount (PARA), and Palantir (PLTR). Other noteworthy stocks up big this week include Wayfair (W), Block (SQ), Avis (CAR), Warner Bros. (WBD), Coinbase (COIN), TopBuild (BLD), and even Peloton (PTON).
Capital Group-Patient investors who stay the course have often been rewarded. Since 1932, stocks have gained an average of 11.3% in the 12 months following the conclusion of the primaries (using May 31 as a proxy) compared to just 5.8% in similar periods of non-election years.
Bloomberg By Robb MandelbaumData Bloomberg Businessweek collected from highly ranked business schools in our survey indicates that applications to full-time MBA programs at most of those institutions have been falling since at least 2017, despite two good years during the pandemic. At least 17 of the top 26 programs have seen long-term application declines—which for most of them continued into 2023. (At press time, Columbia Business School had yet to publish data for its class of 2025. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business declined to provide application figures for the last two years.)
10. The U.S. Receives 1m Legal Immigrants Per Year….More than the Rest of World Combined.
Zero Hedge Why Immigrants Came to the U.S. in 2021
New arrival data in a given year includes non-tourist visas, new arrival green cards, refugees, and asylees.
Each arrival falls under a broad class of admission:
Work: Includes visas for specialty occupations or temporary agricultural work, as well as new arrival green cards issued for employment.
School: Includes student visas and families of student visa recipients.
Family: Includes immigrant visas and new arrival green cards issued for relatives of American citizens.
Safety: Includes refugees and asylees, as well as immigrant visas and new arrival green cards issued for fears of safety or persecution.
Diversity: Entry through the Diversity Visa Program—also known as the “green card lottery”—which accepts applicants from countries with low numbers of immigrants in the previous five years.
In 2021, the United States saw 1.53 million new arrivals. Here’s how the arrivals break down by class and origin:
New arrivals for work were the largest cohort of entries to America, totaling 638,551 people or 41.8% of new arrivals. The majority came from neighboring Mexico, which accounted for 55% of incoming workers and was the largest single country of origin.
School and education saw 492,153 people 32.2% of new U.S. arrivals, with the majority coming from Asian countries. China had the most school-related entries into the U.S. out of individual countries, accounting for 19.0% of total school-related entries, followed by India at 17.4%.
Family entries to the U.S. comprised just 23.2% or under a quarter of incoming new arrivals. In these instances, the largest cohorts came from India (17.6% of family entrants) and Mexico (15.2% of family entrants).
Compared to the larger classifications above, safety (1.9% of total entrants) and diversity (0.9% of total entrants) accounted for significantly fewer U.S. arrivals. The countries with the most citizens seeking refuge or asylum were the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4,876 refugees) and Venezuela (1,596 asylees) respectively.
WJS Latin America, Africa and developing markets in Asia now account for 36% of overall Chinese trade, compared with 33% for its trade with the U.S., Europe and Japan, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Chinese customs data. As recently as last summer, that trio of advanced markets accounted for a larger share of Chinese trade. Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.comand Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
Getting someone to do a thing you want them to do is one of the most challenging things about interacting with other humans. We all have our own agendas and desires and they are often informed by our individual values and perception of the world around us.
If you are in a job that involves persuading people–like sales, or leading a team–you know that one of the most important aspects of persuasion is creating the right expectations. If you want a person to do something, it’s helpful to start by getting buy-in from them, and expectations help to do just that.
For example, imagine you are sitting across the table from someone who is trying to figure out what to buy from you. For them, this is all new, and they’re having to make a series of decisions about whether all of the things you offer will be a good fit. You can see that they’re trying to sort through it all when you say, “Most of my customers…” followed by whatever it is that most of your customers choose.
“Most of my customers find that option ‘C’ gives them the flexibility they need, while scaling affordably as they grow.”
There’s a very simple reason this works. Most people want to be like most people, most of the time. That’s human nature. If someone is considering becoming your customer, they aren’t just buying a thing, they’re buying into the experience of being your customer. For them, knowing what that means creates expectations and makes them more comfortable.
Look, even though they may say otherwise, most people don’t want to be unique. They want to be like the rest of your customers and you can help by telling them what that means. That is, after all, the entire point of almost all marketing–to tell a story about what it looks like to use a product or service.
There are, of course, a few important caveats. The first is that whatever comes after those four words have to be true. If you just make stuff up, it might persuade someone for a short time, but, eventually, it will become obvious that you lied. Not only will they not be persuaded, they won’t ever trust you again. It’s just not worth it.
This is important because it can be tempting to try this trick to persuade people to spend more or to choose something that isn’t in their best interests. That’s a different four-word phrase altogether: “Everyone is doing it.” The difference is, that’s about putting peer pressure on someone to do something for your own benefit. Again, it might work for a little while, but it will cost you your credibility.
Second, this works best when the person you are persuading is making a decision to buy in. The key is that the person wants to be a part of the group, whether that’s your customers or your team. It’s not helpful to tell someone what all of your customers do if they aren’t in any way interested in being one of your customers.
Finally, those four words work even better when you follow them with an explanation of why. For example, “most of our clients choose option ‘C’ because it gives them the flexibility they need while allowing them to scale affordably,” gives your potential customer the information they need to see themself in that situation.
Obviously, this doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why I say “almost anyone,” because there will always be someone who resists any attempt to conform to whatever is normal. That’s okay. When you find that it doesn’t work, it’s probably a good sign that that customer wasn’t a good fit anyway.
The PEG ratio enhances the P/E ratio by adding expected earnings growth into the calculation.
The PEG ratio is considered to be an indicator of a stock’s true value, and similar to the P/E ratio, a lower PEG may indicate that a stock is undervalued.
The PEG for a given company may differ significantly from one reported source to another.
Differences will depend on which growth estimate is used in the calculation, such as one-year or three-year projected growth.
A PEG lower than 1.0 is best, suggesting that a company is relatively undervalued.
6. Households Long 60/40 Getting Worried After 2 Years Negative
The 60/40 portfolio continues to underperform and households are getting more worried about their retirement, see chart below.
Torsten Slok, Ph.D.Chief Economist, Partner
7. COST VS. TGT …
This chart shows big outperformance of Costco vs. Target
8. Uranium Making Run at Highs.
9. Home Remodeling=Rates Up Projects Down
10. Your Brain Is Incredibly Creative and Adaptable
Psychology Today The brain’s ability to keep us from becoming prey is a remarkable feat. Justin James Kennedy,
KEY POINTS
Popular narratives oversimplify the complexity of the brain as a three-layered structure.
The brain is designed to creatively coordinate actions to adapt to the environment and navigate challenges.
The brain shares a common foundation with mammals but has a unique, extensive developmental window.
Co-authored by Denise Cooper.
When we learn about the theory of evolution, we often envision a vast interwoven tree that culminates with humans at the end. This perception imbues the natural world with purpose, leading us to reverse-engineer everything and see all previous life forms as mere stepping stones toward humanity. The human brain is a remarkable organ designed to coordinate our actions, enabling us to adapt to our environment and navigate its challenges. However, it is crucial to maintain sight of what the brain is for and how it evolved.
The Brain’s Evolutionary Purpose
Similar to other mammals and vertebrates, the human brain has a common structural foundation. Its true distinction lies in the extensive developmental window through which it matures. Unlike other animals whose instincts primarily prompt flight, fight, or survival behaviors, human infants are born with a different set of questions in mind: “Where am I? What am I dealing with? And what do I need?” These inquiries have been instrumental in propelling human development to its current state.
The Brain’s Evolutionary Arms Race
The evolution of brains was propelled by the predator-prey dynamic, initiating a competitive race between species to outsmart one another. Consequently, the imperative for survival drove the evolution of heightened senses, agile muscles, powerful wings, and swift feet, all necessitating more advanced brains to support these adaptations.
The Brain’s Complexity
The common narrative often simplifies the human brain into three distinct layers: the “lizard brain” for basics, the “limbic brain” for regulation, and the “cerebral cortex” for rationality. However, this portrayal, while convenient, fails to capture the true complexity of our brains. In reality, all brains, regardless of complexity, are intricately designed to coordinate increasingly sophisticated functions.
The human brain, a marvel of complexity, governs our thoughts, emotions, movements, and coordination. What truly distinguishes the human brain is its remarkable creativity and adaptability. Constantly generating innovative ideas and problem-solving solutions, our brains enable us to invent, create art, and find novel approaches, even in challenging circumstances.
Our brains exhibit extraordinary adaptability. When confronted with new challenges, they can rewire themselves to help us overcome obstacles. For instance, when we learn a new language, our brains create fresh neural pathways to store the information.
If we experience the loss of a limb, our brains can remap sensory and motor areas to compensate for the loss. This inherent creativity and adaptability are the essence of our humanity, empowering us to learn, evolve, innovate, and thrive in an ever-changing world.
The Resilience and Brilliance of the Human Brain
Barrett, L. F., & Satpute, A. B. (2013) emphasize that the structure of our brains is not drastically different from that of other mammals or vertebrates. What sets us apart, though, is the extensive developmental phase during which our brains mature. As infants, our instinctive reactions are not solely focused on flight, fight, or hiding; instead, we inquire about our location, situation, needs, and desires.
While it may lack grandiosity, the most remarkable aspect of our brain is its ability to ensure our survival. Our brains have honed their adaptability through countless generations, enabling us to evade the threats. This resilience is a testament to the evolutionary success of our species.
Its adaptability and capacity to navigate complex environments have been pivotal in our species’ progression. As we continue to uncover the mysteries of the brain, it is crucial to appreciate its primal nature and the remarkable journey that has brought us to where we are today—safely and triumphantly evading the perils of our world and designing new and exciting realities.
Conclusion
It is essential to acknowledge that the narratives we construct to showcase our creative side are merely stories, and their accuracy cannot always be verified, as per Barrett, L. F., Mesquita, B., Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2007) The popularised story often told about our brain, which portrays it as a three-layered structure: the “lizard brain” responsible for basic functions, the “limbic brain” for regulation, and the “cerebral cortex” for rationality, is limiting. This storyline is attractive, aligning neatly with the familiar biology classroom poster. But it doesn’t explain the human mind’s extraordinary ability to envision new ideas and turn them into functional tools for our enjoyment and betterment.
Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett offers insights into how the brain processes emotions and the need for social interactions. However, it is crucial to remember the brain’s purpose and how it came into existence. The brain’s fundamental role is to coordinate our actions effectively, enabling us to adapt to our surroundings. Given that the world is filled with surprises, many of which threaten our well-being, possessing a brain is our best defense mechanism.
While it may not be the most glamorous tale or a blockbuster movie plot, let’s take a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of our brains. Keep up the great work, brain—you’re doing an exceptional job of bringing wonder and delight to the world and keeping us off the carnivore menu.
