Are all the spammers on vacation? Taking sabbaticals? Maybe spamming new territories? This morning I checked the comment section on my blog, prepared to do the usual nuking of spam comments and… Wowie — there wasn’t a single spam message there. Amazing! Even on the first day my blog went live, spammers somehow climbed out of the virgin woodwork and paid me a visit. So what happened? Where have all those link lugs with their tortured syntax and indecipherable English gone?

Actually for months now, my blog spam has been shrinking. I’ve been receiving less and less, sometimes only 5 to 10 spam comments a day.

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NYC Fire Department engine racing to fire

Salt water baths San Rafael, CA

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This is a story about mutant two-headed trout in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and two reports about those trout and the selenium that poisoned them. The first report was compiled by the J.R. Simplot Company, owners of Smoky Canyon Mine (see photo), an open pit phosphate mine in Idaho. For years the mine had been discharging selenium (video of toxic dangers) into tributaries of the Snake River, a world-class trout stream, on such a large scale it had been named a Superfund site. Simplot had already paid 3.5 million in restoration costs but they were still miles short of a complete clean up. The selenium — a metal by-product of mining that’s toxic to fish and birds — still measured 70 parts per billion in nearby waterways, a whopping 14 times over the federal limit. So Simplot called in consultants who compiled a report to show the mine’s selenium run-off was in fact quite safe and that allowing selenium levels to remain far above the national standard would not significantly impact the water or fish.

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People with a comfortable standard of living are obviously happier than people living in poverty. But research shows that once that level of comfort is reached, additional income does not buy additional happiness. Writing in the New York Times, psychology professor, Elizabeth Dunn, and Michael Norton, a business professor, claim that magic income number is approximately $75,000. So after that $75,000 is reached, neither $150,000 nor $300,00 will bring us a buck more of satisfaction or well being.

A national sample of Americans nevertheless indicates they still harbor the idea that their satisfaction would double if they earned $55,000 instead of $25,000. Data shows, however, that those earning that $55,000 are just 9% more satisfied than those making $25,000.

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Many Americans have equated the size of their homes with their status. But after the recent twin implosions of the housing and financial markets, homebuyers began looking at large, showy homes in a different light and thinking in a more minimalist direction. Enter the tiny house movement, which has steadily been gaining steam all around the world. Here are some reasons why:

• Tiny houses save money — TONS of money: on land, mortgage, furniture, utilities, etc.
• They’re MUCH kinder to the environment than anything in the McMansion gang.
• Once you furnish a tiny house you won’t waste a single minute mooning over what new stuff to buy since you won’t have an inch of vacant space to stow it.
• After-work hours or weekends won’t be shot on boring house maintenance tasks like mowing monster lawns or painting two or three stories or repairing things that break or leak or die (the bigger the house, the longer that maintenance list).
• And most importantly, once they’re no longer slaves to their homes, tiny house owners will be handed the lovely gift of freedom — lots of time (to go with all that extra money) to do whatever their heart desires.

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Yes, I know, my apartment ceiling in this 100-year-old brownstone exploded one night and crashed to the floor in a thunderous cloud of gray plaster dust. And yes, it was scary. And yes, it was a pain setting up camp in a nearby hotel for nine days while the joint was repaired.

BUT the fact remains I still like living in a building that is well over 100 years old. Why?

I like the sense of spaciousness. The ceilings on the first two floors are 14 feet tall. My upstairs ceilings are 12 feet — in contrast to most new regulation ceilings at a paltry 8 feet. My rooms are small, designed for maids, their first occupants in the 1800’s. But the high ceilings and double skylights give an illusion of airiness and open space.

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Just when I thought major cities were never going to build affordable housing again — boom — along comes an article in Reuters telling us YES, micro apartments are now part of a hot new trend. Located in happening neighborhoods, these hostel-style apartments may be super cozy space-wise, often less than 200 square feet, but they come with private bathrooms, prime locations and that rarity these days — affordable rent.

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It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s time to kiss the heat in your kitchen adios. So ta-ta to hot coffee. See you again in September.

And hello to refreshing iced coffee. This summer, thanks to a few changes, my cold-brewed iced coffee tastes better than ever.

Ingredients for 4 tall glasses of Iced Coffee:

3 cups cold water
2/3 cup ground coffee (most recipes call for coarse-ground. I prefer the full-bodied taste of expresso ground)
Sugar (to taste)
Milk (whole milk wins hands down) 

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Thanks to MIT, a new concept in prefab home construction has appeared in the housing market. Instead of being factory built in the traditional way with limited wall and ceiling heights, then shipped to home sites on wide-load trucks, an expensive proposition requiring escort cars, the MIT prefab design is based on hinged steel frames that can be folded. This allows for larger room sizes and soaring cathedral ceilings.  Because a house can now be folded into a smaller shipping size it can then travel at far less cost on 18-wheelers. When the modules reach the site, they are then unfolded, hoisted up by cranes and joined together.

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I’m always on the lookout for fast, inexpensive, healthful meals you can cook in one pot. Not much of a cook, I’m delighted to say I have come up with such a combo on my own – chick peas and zucchini – and it’s delicious. An excellent protein substitute for meat, chick peas are also packed with plenty of nutritional goodies. For this recipe I have no exact ingredient measurements. You can add more or less of just about anything. So if you’re a complete kitchen neophyte, wing it on the cautious side. Taste as you go along and you’ll come out fine.

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