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Why Your Next Home May Look More Like an Egg

Over the past decade, the world has watched in horror as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis and most recently, one of the largest typhoons on record, caused death and destruction in epic numbers. With meteorologists predicting even more intense storms in the future, some homeowners are finding a simple yet ingenious way to minimize their vulnerability: building a dome home.

The domes' balanced shape is self-supporting and strong enough to withstand the force of an EF5 tornado, a monster hurricane or a powerful earthquake. Dome buildings made of concrete can deflect falling buildings and flying debris, even airborne trees and cars. Plus, the roof won't blow off.

"People feel safer in a dome," says design engineer and Texas resident Nanette South Clark. "Domes have a double curvature like an egg so they're very strong. They're the buildings of the future."

To read full story, click HERE 

Full article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101297301

First-time Mom at 50: Menopause and Motherhood All at Once

At an age where most of her friends were sending their kids off to college or becoming grandparents, Sarah Frahm, 49, and husband Carlos Mora, 50, were just bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital.

“It’s kind of wacky and crazy, going through peri-menopause with a baby,” observes Frahm with a laugh.  “You’re so hot in the middle of the night you’re opening all the windows -- then you’re absolutely freezing cold.  So when the baby cries in the next room, you’re awake anyway.”

She shrugs.  “You think, I might as well go through babyhood and peri-menopause all at once.  You know?”

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WTF! Is your Workplace a 'Hotbed of Profanity'?

Does profanity belong in the modern workplace? Hell, yes, say some business insiders.

"Wall Street is a hotbed of profanity," said Dennis Gibb, a former trader at Morgan Stanley and junior partner at Bear Stearns. "You've got a lot of high-testosterone people with big egos making a lot of money. When you've just bought 100,000 shares of something, profanity is a pretty appropriate response."

Profanity reigns supreme in Director Martin Scorsese's latest movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street." Setting a record for f-bombs—506 by most counts—the film's portrayal is exaggerated, but only slightly, according to Gibb, now vice president of Sweetwater Investments in Redmond, Wash.

Swearing, especially when combined with humor, is an essential de-stressor in a pressurized work environment, he added.

"I spent 10 years in the Army. It's the same thing [as high-stakes commerce]—someone's trying to kill you," said Gibb. "I can swear now in 17 languages."

To read full story, click HERE  

Soul Spending: That Weird Hole in your Budget

"The way people spend money unmasks them," said Aaron Kipnis, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. "As Warren Buffett said, 'When the tide goes out, you can see who's swimming naked.'"

Kipnis has devoted much of his professional life to figuring out why people spend money the way they do.

"Freud said people are driven by a love of shiny things," he said. "There are certain objects that are imbued with a luminosity, as we call it in psychology. Advertisers try to generate that kind of gleam in their products, objects that represent deep longing."

Idiosyncratic spending—"soul spending"—reflects a lifetime of longing, fear, hope, love and memory. People spend money for reasons that are deeply personal and continually evolving—reasons as complex as the experiences that inspired them.

  To read full story, click HERE 

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