Beacon Links & Apps – May 2018
Leonard Bernstein centennial
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, the Library of Congress has made available online for the first time musical manuscripts and scrapbooks from the legendary composer’s personal and professional archives housed in the library.
The public can now access for free more than 3,700 items — including photos, writings, correspondence, scripts, musical sketches, scrapbooks and audio recordings.
New online content includes materials on Bernstein’s involvement in the civil rights movement, as well as West Side Story outlines, synopses and notes, including an early synopsis titled Romeo and Juliet
in which the gangs pit Jews against Catholics rather than Anglos versus Hispanics.
In addition to the expanded website, the library will celebrate the Bernstein centennial with a spring festival of activities from May 12 to 19.
http://www.loc.gov/collections/leonard-bernstein
Simplify your freelance life
A significant number of folks over 50 have decided to join the “gig economy,” driving for Uber or Lyft, or running errands and the like.
That means they’re also more likely to have the tax hassles that go along with earning freelance income — such as the complicated calculations to figure out how much you owe Uncle Sam, and the annoyance of paying quarterly estimated taxes.
Now there’s an app to automate the tax process. Track.Tax is a soup-to-nuts offering. You link your bank account to the service during the app setup, and Track.Tax scans for deposits that appear to be non-salaried employment income. It then estimates how much you’ll owe in taxes and automatically transfers the required amount to a dedicated savings account at its banking partner, Evolve Bank.
Track.Tax will also submit your estimated quarterly payments for you, once you’ve approved the amounts.
Cost: $10 a month after a free 30-day trial. AARP members can get tax calculations and withholding for free at www.track.tax/?partner=freelancehub&utm_medium=AARP, but will need to pay $30 per quarter if they also want their taxes submitted to the IRS and their state tax authority.
Mona Lisa in Camelot
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes center stage in the latest episode of “The 1600 Sessions” podcast from the White House Historical Association.
Margaret Leslie Davis, author of Mona Lisa in Camelot: How Jacqueline Kennedy & DaVinci’s Masterpiece Charmed and Captivated a Nation, sits down with association president Stewart McLaurin to tell the story of Kennedy’s ambitious plan in 1963 to burnish America’s international reputation and reinvigorate the country’s appreciation of the arts by bringing the Mona Lisa to the United States on an 88-day tour.
Davis describes the state dinner at which Kennedy convinced French Cultural Minister Andre Malraux to loan the painting, and its heavily guarded journey to the U.S.
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/1600-sessions/mona-lisa-in-camelot
Economic CheckUp
The Economic CheckUp from the nonprofit National Council on Aging matches your needs against more than 2,500 public and private benefits programs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since 2001, more than 5 million people have used the service.
Answer 23 simple questions, and you will get a personal report with tips on money management and budgeting, staying healthy, and protecting your financial information. All recommendations are designed to meet the needs of older adults. They will also include information on housing and employment.
http://www.economiccheckup.org/esi-questions
Technology 2025
