Living
Save on Heating Oil, but Spend on Electricity
Part of our efforts to save on heating oil and reduce the overall energy bill in the winter is use radiators in the evening so the temperature in the house can be kept low. While we may have lowered heating oil consumption so far this winter, the spending on electricity certainly went up, a lot, [...]
America’s Most Dangerous and Safest Cities
Morgan Quitno Press recently published its annual City Crime Ranking which ranks 384 cities with 75,000 population or more across the country based on per-capita crime rates reported by the FBI. Serious crimes considered in the study include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. According to the publisher, each crime is [...]
First Heating Bill of the Season
Last year, when I got our first heating oil bill after the summer, I was pleasantly surprised that from May to October, we only used 27 gallons of oil! Sure, the usage of heating oil probably dropped to the minimum in the summer (not the electricity bill though ), but still 27-gallon was [...]
Three Keys to be Happy
An article on Time a couple of days ago offered three pieces of advice from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on happiness. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Chick-Sent-Me-High-ee) is a leading researcher on life well-being and director of Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. He recently established what he called the world’s first Ph.D. [...]
My Most Expensive Ticket So Far
just cost me $220 yesterday, but didn’t buy me anything to enjoy because it was a speeding ticket!
Two months ago I was pulled over on my way to work after dropping off my daughter at day care. The officer asked if I had any idea how fast I was traveling and I said no. In [...]
My Microwave Sponge Experiment
Last night on my way home from work, I heard WCBS radio mentioned that the best way to kill bacteria in kitchen sponge isn't wash it in dishwasher, but put in microwave oven for 2 minute at full power. That sounded a fine and simple idea to me as we only use hot water and [...]
So Money Can Indeed Buy (Limited) Happiness
So much have we heard what money can buy and can't buy and top the list of can'ts is happiness.
Yesterday an article on USAToday, however, offered the opposite: Money can indeed buy happiness, though only to some limited extent. The conclusion (only one among many) is supported by findings from a research conducted by economist [...]
Chocolate Milk, the Next Sports Drink?
Apparently, chocolate milk not only tastes good, it can also speed up your recovery from strenuous exercises, at least that the conclusion of a study conducted by some scientists at Indiana University (the study, however, was supported in part by Dairy and Nutrition Council).
According to AP Health news, athletes who drank chocolate milk had [...]
Want to Live to Age 85? You Could if
you are
not being overweight
having low blood pressure
having low blood sugar levels
having low levels of bad cholesterol
not drinking alcohol excessively
not becoming overweight
not smoking
having a strong grip
achieving a high level of education
and finally
being married
according to a 40-year study of nearly 6,000 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii.
How Safe is Your City? Here’s the Best, Worst, and in Between
When buying real estate, everybody knows "location, location, location." However, the difference between locations shouldn't just be neighborhoods in the city, the city itself should also be on your mind. You certainly don't want to live in one of those "most dangerous" cities, even though you may find a perfect location in the city.
Morgan [...]
