Academic grants can work in a lot of ways. It is common for a significant chunk to be taken as overhead by the university (20-40%). This is generally smaller for senior members of the faculty who bring in more grants. The PI (primary investigator, read: dude with a reputation) tends to get 5-10% to run the program, and then another 30-40% goes to salaries for researchers working under them (read: grad students). The rest, on the order of 20%, goes to capital costs like materials, time on expensive machines, or prototypes.

So this guy probably got paid $1-2M directly for the grants over maybe 3-5 years. Note I haven't looked into his specific situation.

For #3, I'll tell you how I learned to meditate.

Start with short sessions, maybe 10-15 minutes. If you prefer, start with an audio guide. Try to focus on the process and remove any other ingredients. Count breaths, find a comfortable sitting pose, and work through any intrusive thoughts until you have a clean slate. If you can get through to a point where the sounds, smells, and light around you doesn't pull you out of this "empty" state, you'll find a clearer, more balanced mental state waiting for you on the other side of the session.

Really excellent article with just the right amount of bizarre and nostalgic content.

Gonna need this reworked to include pachycephalosaurus.

This thread has some great ones, and quite a few of the folks I'd consider the best. But I haven't seen anyone mention Stuff Made Here! What gives?

I highly recommend Hype Machine for properly new and sometimes unexpected music. Downside is that you need to sort through some stuff you might not enjoy but upside is pretty solid when you find a new artist! More organic than any of the prediction-based discovery apps.