rscortex

I'm a biologist (PhD etc) and I have been thinking how I know basically nothing of any earth science (always did physical, computational, biology). Are there any good online earth science courses, like what coursera do, that are recommended? I can't seem to find much.

It's just for general interest and fun.

Book suggestions would be great too.

I played Baldur's gate years ago and recently did bg1 as a mage and BG2 as a f/m, both on normal difficulty.

I find that although I cast spells I do rely quite a bit on auto attacking, and don't make full use of mage and cleric spells or theif abilities.

I am thinking about another run that would encourage me to get into these mechanics more. One option is increase the difficulty, but I was thinking I find 6 companions a bit overwhelming and maybe I should do a party of 3, like a cleric, theif, mage, to make it critical to really get into the detail.

Does anyone have any recommendations for getting into these mechanics more, and if difficulty or small parties might help? I think solo migh

Just wondering if anyone has any knowledge about whether a change in tax residency affects the ability to claim capital loss offsets.

My situation is that I may not be an Australian tax resident at the end of 2020 (been overseas for a while), and as I understand it, this will trigger a CGT event on the ETFs I own. 

Can I offset any capital gains from this CGT event with capital losses from this financial year? i.e. can a non tax resident offset capital gains with losses?

If I were to incur capital loses as part of that CGT event, could I carry them forward and offset them against the future capital gains of the CGT event if/when I return to Australia? i.e. can non tax residents carry forw

I am wondering if it is better to increase your allocation of AUD equities as you age, just like you increase your defensive assets allocation.

For example, say you just hold VGS, because it's well diversified across the world. You don't worry about an Australian allocation because we are only 2% and you are already have Australian super, job, house etc. You don't have concentration risk but you have currency risk, so the simplest thing is to also buy the hedged version of VGS, VGAD, say 50/50.

Would it really make sense to buy equal portions of VGS and VGAD right from the start, and keep it balanced over the years? Or, should you wait until you are closer to retirement before you buy VGAD

It seems to me that if your marginal tax rate (MTR) happens to be higher when you withdraw then you can lose out. This is because the tax saving going in is different to the tax paid going out.

As a rough example, say you contribute $10k when your MTR is 32.5%. You reduce your income tax by $3,250 but pay contribution tax of $1,500 so you save $1,750 straight away.

Then a year later, you have ~$8,908 in super ($8,500 + 4.8%, roughly the rate you earn in this scheme), but you pay (MTR - 30%) on withdraws.

If your MTR is still 32.5%, you withdraw $8,730, and with the $1,750 tax saving, you have in total $10,479.

If your MTR is now 37%, you withdraw $8,284, and with the $1,750 tax saving,

This is a bit of long shot, but has anyone ever seen music boxes that play AFL team songs? By music box, I mean one of these:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/finewoodworking.s3.tauntoncloud.com/app/uploads/2016/09/05234435/IMG_4234best_front_copy-main.jpg

In particular, I was after Essendon's song, as a gift. It seems it's possible to buy music boxes overseas but I don't know how to get them to create the specific song, since it's a bit obscure.