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Think Your Email is Private? Dream On!

In just the last several months, hackers have leaked emails belonging to some highly influential people — former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta – to name a few. Some of the hacked emails contain embarrassing tidbits and became a major theme in the U.S. presidential campaign.

The hacking problem, however, extends far and wide, hitting not only those with influence and power, but plenty of ordinary Americans, too.

In September, for instance, Yahoo confirmed that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts had been stolen from the company’s network in 2014 by what it suspects was a “state-sponsored actor.” The pilfered information may have included names, email addresses and answers to some security questions.

Such high-profile breaches serve as a reminder to take basic precautions when it comes to using email, whether it’s for work or personally. Don’t click on links or open attachments in unsolicited emails unless you have verified the sender’s identity.

Phishing emails — like the one that reportedly allowed hackers to access Podesta’s personal account — often contain links or attachments that can install malware on computers, allowing cybercrooks to get their hands on sensitive personal information, send spam and commit fraud.

Think twice about what you write in your emails, said Davia Temin, an executive coach and crisis manager who has worked with victims of hacks. Many business and government leaders, she said, have long known that they shouldn’t expect privacy with regard to email, which can be subpoenaed in lawsuits or government investigations or land in the wrong hands through forwarding.

“Folks who are in high levels of leadership within corporations or other organizations pretty much know intellectually that they should never put in an email something they wouldn’t want” covered by the media, said Temin. She noted, though, that many still find it difficult to censor themselves.

The Powell hack, like other recent high-profile breaches may have been conducted by parties with ties to the Russian government. The hack revealed that Powell considered Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a “national disgrace,” Hillary Clinton “greedy” and former Vice President Dick Cheney an “idiot.”

“People, no matter who they are, are human, and their need for self-expression, or to get things done efficiently, is great. They often get caught up in the moment and do things they shouldn’t do,” said Temin.

Like it or not, email messages, particularly work-related, should be innocuous, added Temin. They obviously shouldn’t contain corporate secrets, but snarky remarks about others, lewd comments, angry rants or complaints about the boss are a bad idea also.

More than a few workers, she noted, have been shown the door for writing a boss-bashing email that circulated widely, before somehow landing in said boss’s inbox. It’s also best to assume, noted Temin, that your managers have the ability to snoop on your emails, even if they aren’t actually doing so. “There are all kinds of monitoring devices that companies have on email,” said Temin.

You don’t have to be stilted or old fashioned, but the tone of your emails should be respectful and a bit formal, she explained. Don’t hit send, she added, unless you’ve taken the time to re-read what you’ve written and are fairly confident that you’ve chosen your words carefully.

“Pretty much all of us have to re-read our emails at least once after we’ve written them and think about how they would appear to people who don’t know us and don’t know what we are talking about,” said Temin.

Imagine a House Without Utility Bills

You no longer need to imagine living without utility bills or, for that matter, operating a commercial building without utility bills. In California it is a reality, a reality mandated by 2020 for all new homes and by 2030 for all new commercial buildings.

The California Energy Commission will require these structures to meet a “zero net energy” code. The code requires these new structures to consume no more energy over a year than the structure generates, such as by solar roof panels.

Some industry analysts believe the ultra energy-efficient goal is too ambitious. Builders are targeting tech companies to help them meet the goal, from Internet-connected thermostats, light dimmers and more gadgets that can help to reduce a home’s footprint.

“We have to figure out a way to deliver this without hiking the price,” Dan Bridleman, senior vice president for sustainability, technology and strategic sourcing at KB Home, told The Wall Street Journal.

Compliance with the ZNE code could raise the price of a $300,000 home by $23,000, according to Mike Hodgson, chairman of the California Building Industry Association’s energy committee. For each $1,000 increase in home prices, 14,000 families in California would be priced out of the market, according to a study by the National Association of Homebuilders. “We’ll have very efficient homes, but I don’t know who is going to be able to afford them,” Hodgson says.

The California Energy Commission, however, is banking on energy efficiency becoming more affordable with the costs of solar and other energy-saving features decreasing over the next few years. “You basically purchase an income stream in reduced energy bills,” says Andrew McAllister, the commissioner of the Energy Commission. “The barrier is getting the financial community to recognize the low operating costs.”

California legislators have set a goal that by 2050 the state will reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to 80 percent below the levels it produced in 1990. Buildings are becoming a primary target to reach that goal. Residential buildings currently account for about 32 percent of electricity usage across the state while commercial buildings use 37 percent.

Some builders already are pushing forward. Meritage Homes Corp. began offering its first ZNE-standard homes four years ago, priced at the median market price for the local market. So far, it has built and sold 100 of these homes in the U.S.; half of the homes have been in California. The company now looks to go beyond the ZNE standard by building homes sealed more tightly and that consume even less energy so they’ll need smaller solar panels to power them.

Adages, Meanings & Origins

Our language is filled with strange expressions that we often use and hear. Our understanding of these maxims usually is clear, but if you just look at the expressions some seem pretty strange.

Take the phrase “Bite the Bullet,” for example. Do we really know anyone who chews on bullets? Not likely, but we certainly know that it simply means to accept something difficult or unpleasant. In times past there was no quick access to anesthesia before emergency surgery during battle, or no time to administer it. The surgeon told patients to bite down on a bullet in an effort to distract them from the pain.

Paint the Town Red. One theory suggests this phrase was born out of the brothels of the American West, and referred to men behaving as though their whole town were a red-light district. A more common explanation is that the phrase owes its origin to one legendary night of drunkenness. In 1837, the Marquis of Waterford – a known lush and mischief maker – led a group of friends on a night of drinking through the English town of Melton Mowbray. The bender culminated in vandalism after Waterford and his fellow revelers knocked over flowerpots, pulled knockers off of doors and broke the windows of some of the town’s buildings. To top it off, the mob literally painted a tollgate, the doors of several homes and a swan statue with red paint. The marquis and his pranksters later compensated Melton for the damages, but their drunken escapade likely is why “paint the town red” became shorthand for a wild night out.

Give Him the Cold Shoulder. Rudely tell someone he isn’t welcome. In medieval England, giving someone the cold shoulder was a polite way to let guest know it was time to leave by giving them a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of beef, mutton or pork.

Go Cold Turkey. People once believed that during withdrawal the skin of drug addicts became translucent, hart to touch and covered with goose bumps – like the skin of a plucked turkey.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water. Today we accept this as meaning that family comes before everything else. In ancient Middle Eastern culture, blood rituals between men symbolized bonds that were greater than those of family. The saying also relates to “blood brothers” – warriors wjho symbolically shared the blood shed together in battle and who were said to have stronger bonds than biological brothers.

Break the Ice. Today this has nothing to do with ice. It simply means to initiate a friendship or start a project. But before the days or trains or cars, port cities that thrived on trade suffered in winter because frozen waters prevented ships from entering the city. Small ships known as “icebreakers” would rescue icebound ships by breaking the ice and providing a path for them.

Butter Someone Up. When we say this, we mean that we flatter someone to ingratiate ourselves with them. The phrase stems from an ancient Indian custom of throwing balls of butter at statues of the gods to seek their favor.

Cat Got Your Tongue? When someone is at a loss for words, we may utter this expression. This phrase has two possible origins. One might refer to the cat-o’-nine-tails whip used by the English Navy for flogging. The whip caused so much pain victims were left speechless. Or the phrase may have come from the practice of cutting out the tongues of liars and blasphemers and feeding them to cats.

Go the Whole Nine Yards. World War II fighter pilots received a 9-yard chain of ammunition. When a pilot used the whole chain on one target, it was said he gave it “the whole nine yards.”

Caught Red-Handed. An old law said that if soeone butchered an animal that didn’t belong tom, he had to be caught with the animal’s blood on his hands to be convicted. Being caught with freshly cut meat did not make the person guilty.

Wake Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed. Wake up in a bad mood. The left side of the body used to be considered sinister. To ward off evil, innkeepers made sure the left side of the bed was pushed against a wall so guests had to get up on the right side of the bed.

Eat Humble Pie. Today this simply means to make an apology and accept the humiliation that goes along with it. During the Middle Ages, the lord of a manor would hold a feast after hunting. Tjhe lord would receive the finest cut of meat at the feast, while those of lower standing were served a pie filled with the entrails and innards, known as “umbles.” Receiving “umble pie” was considered humiliating because it told the others at the feast of the guest’s lower status.

Kick the Bucket and Bucket List. To kick the bucket is to die and the bucket list outlines what one wants to accomplish before doing so. Used to be that when a cow was killed at a slaughterhouse, a bucket was placed beneath it while the cow was positioned on a pulley. Sometimes the animal would kick during the process and literally kick the buck before being killed.

More Than You Can Shake a Stick At. Farmers controlled their sheep by shaking their staffs to indicate where the animals should go. When farmers had more sheep than they could control, it was said they had “more than you can shake a stick at.”

No Spring Chicken. Chicken farmers in New England generally sold chickens in the spring, so chickens hatched in the spring yielded better earnings than the older birds that survived the winter. Sometimes the farmers tried to sell the old birds for the price of a new spring chicken. Clever buyers complained that the fowl was “no spring chicken,,” so the term came to represent anyone past their prime.

Pleased As Punch. In Punch and Judy, a 17th century puppet show for children, Punch always killed people and always felt pleased with himself afterwards. Hence today’s meaning of the phrase is to be very happy.

Rub the Wrong Way. Today’s meaning is to irritate, bother or annoy someone. It stems from colonial times when servants were required to wet-bub and dry-rub the oak floors each week. Doing the rubbing against the grain caused streaks to form, making the wood look awful and irritating the owner.

Saved By the Bell. Today’s meaning is simply to be rescued from an unwanted situation. But originally it literally meant life over death. Being buried alive once was a common occurrence and those who feard such a fate were buried in special coffins that connected to a bell above ground. Guards listened for bells in case they had to dig up a living person and save them by the bell.

Show Your True Colors. Reveal your tyrue nature. Warships once flew multiple flags to confuse their enemies. The rules of warfare, however, stated that a ship had to hoist its true flag before firing, thus displaying its country’s true colors.

Spill the Beans. Beans were used in ancient Greece to vote for or against candidates entering various organizations. One container was used for each candidate and group members would place a white bean in the container if they approved of the candidate and a black bean if they did not. A clumsy voter sometimes knocked over the container, revealing all of the beans and allowing everyone to see the otherwise confidential votes.

Halloween History & Origin

Halloween is the one of the oldest holidays we celebrate. It’s also one of the most popular holidays, second only to Christmas. The history of Halloween make the holiday more fascinating.

For many people Halloween is a time for fun, putting on costumes, trick-or-treating and having theme parties. Others see it as a time of superstitions, ghosts, goblins and evil spirits that should be avoided at all costs. Some see it as evil, but mostly it is celebrated with no reference to pagan rituals or the occult.

Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back more than 2000 years. It is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.

There are many versions of the origins and old customs of Halloween, some remain consistent by all accounts. Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same. Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead.
Samhain signifies “summers end” or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one. Many of the practices involved in this celebration fed on superstition.

The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating.

What Lies Ahead?

Writing on WorldHealth.com, Dr. Robert Goldman, M.D., PhD., took a look at some of the big changes facing mankind in the not distant future.

Health: There are pharma companies building a medical device (called the ‘Tricorder’ from Star Trek) that works with your phone. The Tricorder takes your retina scan, your blood sample and a breath sample. It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medicine, nearly for free.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All major shoe companies started 3D printing shoes. Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a 3D printer that eliminates the need for the large amount of spare parts they used to have in the past.

At the end of this year, new smartphones will have 3D scanning possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home. In China, they already 3D printed a complete 6-story office building. By 2027, 10% of everything that’s being produced will be 3D printed.

Business opportunities: If you think of a niche, ask yourself – in the future, do you think we will have that? If the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner? If it doesn’t work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed for failure in the 21st century.

Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time frame.

Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in third world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all days on their fields. Aeroponics will need much less water. The first petri dish produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces are used for cows. Imagine if we don’t need that space anymore. There are several startups who will bring insect protein to the market shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labeled as ‘Alternative protein source’ (as most people still reject the idea of eating insects).

Education: The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and Asia. By 2020, most humans will own a smartphone or a device that has access to world class education/information. Every child will have access to tools for learning art, engineering, design, languages, science, music, mathematics, etc.

Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by three months per year. Four years ago, the life span was 79 years, now it’s 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more that one year increase per year. So we all might live for a long long time, probably way more than 100.

A Peek at the Not Distant Future

Welcome to tomorrow.

Posting on WorldHealth.com, Dr. Robert Goldman, M.D., PhD., offers some exciting and sometimes frightening insight into what lies ahead for mankind.

In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years – and most people don’t see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that three years later you would never take pictures on paper film again? Digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels, but followed Moore’s law. So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and went mainstream in only a few years.

Now the same thing is happening with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs.

Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.
Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. AirBnB is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.

Artificial Intelligence: Computers are becoming exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected. In the US, young lawyers already don’t have jobs. You can get legal advice (more or less basic stuff) from IBM Watson within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.

Watson already helps nurses diagnose cancer, four times more accurately than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Automatic cars: In 2018 the first self driving cars will appear for the public. They will be mainstream just two years later. Around 2020, the complete automobile industry will start to be disrupted. You won’t want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kids will never get a driver’s licence and will never own a car. It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% fewer cars for that. We can transform former parking space into parks. Each year 1.2 million people die in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 100,000km (62,000 miles), with autopilot driving that will drop to one accident in 10 million km (6.2 million miles). That will save a million lives each year.

Cities will be less noisy because all cars will run on electricity, which will become incredibly cheap and clean.

Most car companies might become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will try the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels. A lot of engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are terrified of Tesla.

Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, the insurance will become 100x cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear.

Real estate business is bound to change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away from their job sites.

Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy stations were installed worldwide than fossil. The price for solar energy will drop so much that all coal companies will be defunct by 2025.

With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter. We don’t have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.

Learn much more about tomorrow at:
http://www.worldhealth.net/news/predictions-technology-health/

Triskaidekaphobia and 12 More Superstitions

THE NUMBER 13
The belief that the number 13 is unlucky is so widespread that its origins are unclear — different theories link it to Christian tradition (specifically related to the Last Supper, where Judas is said to have sat at the thirteenth place at the table); Viking lore (the trickster god Loki being the 13th god); and the Persian zodiac (in which there are 12 signs, leaving the number 13 to represent chaos.) The specific fear of Friday the 13th dates back to the 19th century, combining two old superstitions: the fear of the number 13 with the belief that Fridays are unlucky days.The morbid fear of the number 13 is technically known as “triskaidekaphobia”, and is so common that many buildings have no floor 13 — going straight from 12 to 14.

BLACK CATS
Black cats have long been seen in Western cultures as an omen of bad luck — they have long been associated with witches, and many cultures believe that a black cat crossing your path means you will suffer disaster or even death. Gamblers are especially fearful of the black cat curse — many of them believe that if they see a black cat while going to a casino, they should abandon their plans to gamble there. However, it’s not all bad news for the black cats; in some cultures, including in Japan, Great Britain and Ireland, the opposite is true, and black cats are seen as bringers of good luck.

THE SCOTTISH PLAY
Actors can be a superstitious group — and nowhere is that more apparent than around Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The superstition holds that saying “Macbeth” in a theatre (outside of actually performing the play itself) will bring misfortune on the production — instead, actors will simply call it “The Scottish Play”. Productions of Macbeth are said to have been magnets for disaster from its very first performance — when legend has it the lead actor was killed when a real dagger was used instead of a stage prop.

The other best-known actorly superstition is that wishing someone “good luck” before they go on stage will actually bring them the opposite — so instead actors tell each other to “break a leg”, on the grounds that wishing them bad fortune will presumably also bring about the opposite. The exact origins of this superstition are unclear, but it’s thought to have originated in the 1920s.

GARGOYLES
Having a series of grotesque statues and faces on the outside of your building might not seem like an obvious thing to do, but the frequency of them — from the “Hunky Punks” and rather obscene “Sheela na gigs” of Ireland and the UK to true Gargoyles. To get technical, it’s a form of “apotropaic” magic; something intended to scare away evil. And true gargoyles serve another, much more practical purpose as well — their mouths are spouts that channel rainwater off the roofs of churches.

DEAD MAN’S HAND
The Dead Man’s Hand — a pair of black eights and a pair of black aces, plus a fifth unspecified card — is widely held to be an unlucky hand in poker (even though it’s actually a pretty good hand). Why? Because legend has it that those were the cards held by Wild Bill Hickok, the famous Wild West lawman and gunslinger, when he was shot and killed while playing poker in Deadwood in 1876. There’s little actual evidence that the story’s true — no contemporary accounts say what cards he was holding — but that hasn’t stopped superstitious gamblers believing it. If you ever see a character in a film get dealt this hand, there’s a good chance they’ll meet a sticky end very soon.

CROSSING FINGERS
Crossing your fingers to wish for good luck (or, secretly, to get you out of keeping a promise) is common around the world — but its origins are unclear. It seems to be most common in Christian countries, suggesting that it’s related to the Christian sign of the cross. However, other suggestions include it being an old Pagan or Norse gesture, or possibly a good luck superstition created by archers during the “Hundred Year War” between England and France (archers used their two main fingers to draw back their bow).

BROKEN MIRRORS
It’s a common superstition that a broken mirror will result in seven years bad luck — it’s thought this belief can be traced back to the idea that a mirror captures part of your soul. So when a mirror breaks, part of your soul gets broken too. That’s also why some cultures cover up all mirrors and reflective surfaces in a house where someone has died — so their soul can leave the building without getting trapped in the mirror.

GROUNDHOG DAY
The superstition that a large rodent can predict the weather (if he sees his shadow, there’ll be an early spring; if he doesn’t, there’s six more weeks of winter) might seem ridiculous. But that doesn’t stop it being extremely popular in the U.S. and Canada — even more so since one of the most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania, was immortalized in the film of the same name. The tradition of animals’ shadows predicting the coming of actually dates back to an old German superstition around Candlemas Day, which was brought to the Americas by Germanic immigrants. But how good is Punxsutawney Phil’s record as a meteorologist? Pretty bad, actually — according to the Stormfax Weather Almanac, tracing his record for over a century, he’s only been right 39 percent of the time.

SPILLED SALT
It’s an old superstition that accidentally spilling salt is a bad omen: it’s said that it draws its origins from the Christian tradition, due to Judas Iscariot having supposedly spilled salt at the Last Supper shortly before he betrayed Jesus. In fact, its origins are probably much more pragmatic: until recent times, salt was really expensive, so spilling it was already rather unlucky. It was also used as a sign of friendship and hospitality — spilling salt offered to you by your host was a bad sign. Much like black cats, spilled salt can work both ways — another common superstition holds that throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder brings good luck and wards off evil.

666
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia — that’s the technical name for the fear of the number 666, otherwise known as the Number of the Beast. This superstition undeniably comes from Christianity — the number is mentioned as being representative of Satan in the Biblical Book of Revelations. It’s gained in popularity through being heavily featured in films like The Omen, and was taken so seriously by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan that when he moved into a private house at the end of his presidency, he had the address changed from 666 to 668. However, it might be that everyone’s got it wrong all this time — in 2005, a group of scholars announced that they discovered evidence that the number was originally supposed to be 616, not 666.

WALKING UNDER LADDERS
Walking underneath a ladder is widely held to be bad luck. Despite some theories suggesting that this is to do with the triangle formed by a ladder representing the Christian Holy Trinity, the most likely explanation is far more simple and obvious: walking under laddders is quite dangerous. It’s actually just sensible health and safety advice dressed up as a superstition.

CHAIN LETTERS
Chain letters are an old phenomenon, dating back to at least 1888 — letters that ask the recipient to copy them and pass them on, often warning the superstitious that some terrible fate will await them if they don’t (often giving examples of bad things that have happened to people who didn’t forward them). And the arrival of email and then social networks — making it even easier to pass messages along — has only increased the popularity of chain mail. While many chain letters are money-making scams, the reasons behind the more superstitious ones are unclear, beyond a simple desire to see how far something will spread.

THE BLACK WITCH
The Black Witch moth (Ascalapha odorata) is seen as an omen of death and misfortune in superstitions across the Caribbean, Central and South America. In Mexico, it’s believed that one of the moths flying into the house of someone who is sick means that their death is close. In Jamaica, where it’s known as the “duppy bat”, it’s thought to be a lost soul and bring bad luck with it. While this moth gets singled out for superstition, it’s not alone — moths of all kinds have long been associated with death in Central American cultures. The Black Witch was featured in a gruesome manner in the novel The Silence of the Lambs — but was replaced with the Death’s Head moth in the film version, presumably because that moth looks scarier.

Top 15 Home Design Features

What’s hot in the housing market today? Zillow looked at design features that sell homes at the best price and with the shortest listing time and turned up 15 features ranging from barn doors to outdoor kitchens, that topped the list. Anything craftsman-style, rectangular farmhouse sinks and solid surface countertops all proved to be hits.

Zillow Digs screened more than 2 million listings for homes sold between January 2014 and March 2016 and looked for the keywords that had the best effect on how much more than the expected price and how much faster they sold.
Here are the top 15 design features:
1. Barn Door – 13.4% of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 57 days faster than expected.
2. Shaker Cabinetry – 9.6% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 45 days faster than expected.
3. Farmhouse Sink – 7.9% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 58 days faster than expected.
4. Subway Tile – 6.9% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 63 days faster than expected.
5. Quartz Countertops – 6% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 50 days faster than expected.
6. Craftsman Style – 5.4% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 14 days faster than expected.
7. Exposed Interior Brick – 4.9% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 36 days faster than expected.
8. Pendant Light – 4.6% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 48 days faster than expected.
9. Frameless Shower – 4.6% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 38 days faster than expected.
10. Heated Floors – 4.3% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 28 days faster than expected.
11. Stainless Steel Appliances – 4.2% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 42 days faster than expected.
12. Granite Countertops – 4.1% of of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 38 days faster than expected.
13. Kitchen Backsplash – 4.1% of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 46 days faster than expected.
14. Tankless Water Heaters – 4% of homes sell for above expected values and homes sell 43 days faster than expected.
15. Outdoor Kitchens – 3.7% of homes sell for above expected value and homes sell 19 days faster than expected.

The Future Is Arriving

For the past three decades, we’ve been hearing forecasts of smart homes that will respond to our every need. The list of over-promised features includes such things as smart refrigerators that will order what you need from the grocery store, lighting that automatically turns on or off when you enter or leave a room, heating and cooling that adjusts itself constantly to your desires and even robot butlers.

Fantasy? Perhaps, but your smart phone actually is bringing the smart home future to you now. There are now ways to control every aspect of your nest from your palm, from how bright your bedroom is to how much energy you use every month.

Here are some of the ways you can control your home today, whether you’re there or not.

Music that follows you around. It now is easier than ever to throw what you’re listening to from your phone to your home speakers – even if those speakers aren’t internet-enabled. You probabaly have heard of Sonos, one of the market-leading connected speaker systems, and they undoubtedly put out beautiful high-quality sound with seamless syncing around the home. But, with speakers starting from US $199, it’s an expensive solution – and there are now much cheaper options providing you have some speakers already.

Gramofon is a classy-looking box that connects your speakers to your WiFi for US $69 and you can link them together to play the same or different music across your house using Qualcomm AllPlay. Similarly, Google’s Chromecast Audio is a smaller version of the same idea, though it can’t be wired into your home network with ethernet like the Gramofon.

There’s also the ingenious Vamp, which lets you turn any passive hi-fi speaker into a Bluetooth one – the tiny red box plugs into your normal black and red connections on the back of any speaker and even provides the power. With Vamp you could rescue any ancient working speaker and make it smart for about $60.

Appliances that do the hard work for you. Tea lovers’ dreams have come true with the iKettle (US $180), a Wi-Fi enabled kettle that you can turn on from your phone. It tells you when the water’s boiled and even keeps it warm until you get there. Th iKettle can send a message to your phone first thing in the morning or when you arrive home after a long day, asking if you’d like to turn the kettle on so the water will be boiled by the time you make it to the kitchen. The same firm also makes a connected coffee maker if that’s your caffeinated beverage of choice.

Other appliances are seeing similar features added, too. Forgetting to press “go” on the washing machine as you’re heading out the door ceases to be a problem with connected washers, which can be controlled from an app on your phone. Most manufacturers now offer this, with laundry apps from brands like LG and Samsung even diagnosing technical problems with your machine and telling you how to fix them without calling a repairman.

In fact, everything from your oven to your dishwasher can be controlled from your phone with appliance ranges like Hoover’s Wizard. Whether you want to ask how much cooking time’s left on your food, get an alert when your chilled drink’s reached ideal temperature or just remotely switch on the cooker hood light, it’s all a tap away. LG’s taken things even further with the LG Homechat, which lets you text your appliances.

Homechat responds to commands like “monitor all products,” (gives you a status update), “going to bed” (stops music after 10 minutes), and Siri-style “what is this song?” inquiries. It’s as zany as it sounds, but as AI and language processing improve, natural conversation will be the way we interact with everything.

While we’re waiting for robot butlers, we do at least have robot vacuums. Neato’s BotVac can be controlled not only from your phone but from your smartwatch too – Apple or Android. Cost is around $800 US.

Stopping the worries when out and about. What about forgetting to turn things off, such as the iron, hair rollers, the heating or air conditioning? All these things and more can be controlled from the cloud.

The Heat Genius system allows you to turn the heating and hot water on and off from a smartphone app, and even lets you control and schedule room heating individually. Similarly, Google has raised temperatures by buying out Nest and offering the Learning Thermostat through the Google Play store, alongside the Nest Cam home security camera and Nest Protect smoke alarm.

Nest products work seamlessly with each other, connecting to a range of third-party smart home tech including Philips Hue lights and Whirlpool washers. It’s an Apple-like approach, encouraging people to look out for the “Works With Nest” logo before making a purchase – much like the “Designed for iPhone” badge Apple uses.

The Nest range is facing tough competition from tado, though: a heating system that claims to pay for itself within a year. It uses your smartphone location to automatically turn the heating off when everyone’s left the house then turn it on again when someone comes back.

Smart plugs are the anxious user’s best friend, letting you check something’s switched off when you’re not at home. Belkin’s WeMo and D-Link’s Home Smart are two of the many branded versions of this handy product. Smart plugs can switch anything on or off from your phone.

Ambience and Security. The new connected showerhead from French firm Start & Blue uses Bluetooth to connect to an app that lets you set your ideal shower length. LED lights on the Hydrao Smart Shower then change from green through to amber and red to tell you when you’ve used too much water.

Systems like Philips Hue and LIFX have made a huge splash with their smart lightbulbs, which let you turn your lights on or off and change the colour with your phone or tablet. Other apps sync your lighting with the beat of your music or flash when you’ve been tagged in a Facebook photo. Wearables company Misfit has also taken on the smart bulb market with Bolt, a connected bulb that, can be controlled through your phone or, for extra futurism, by tapping on Misfit’s fitness wristbands

The Bolt isn’t the only smart bulb to do more than light up a million colors, either: the latest round of products can also boost your WiFi signal (Sengled Boost Wifi Bulb), and even play music (Mipow Playbulb).

You can put a Roost smart battery in your home fire alarm. The WiFI-enabled 9V battery hooks your alarm up to the cloud so it can tell your phone when your fire alarm’s blaring and you’re not there.

Despite the array of products noted above, the market is still pretty fragmented. In the future, products from disparate manufacturers may work together harmoniously. The future of smart homes isn’t just appliances talking to you, but talking to each other. Your washing machine vould let the dishwasher know it’ll be using the hot water for a while, your oven mighjt the ventilation fan know it’s burnt the chicken and might need some help with ventilation.

Spring Is In the Air

Spring fever is real. If you’ve noticed an extra spring in your step because of the weather, it’s not a coincidence. Warmer days directly influence mood and behavior.

Being outdoors in the sun is linked with a mood boost. A 2004 University of Michigan study that found people who spent at least 30 minutes outside in pleasant weather had happier moods. And a 2014 UM study found that being outside could lead to a better mindset and reduced stress.

The weather-mood connection is a positive one, but the original University of Michigan researchers found that positive attitudes seemed to melt in particularly sweltering weather Other studies back that up.

Thanks, Ben Franklin. Folks are generally happier when the days are longer as they are thanks to Daylight Savings Time. There’s grumbling about lost sleep when we make the annual time switch, but the positive is there is more sunlight and people feel better when there’s more sunshine.

And, yes, in spring a young man’s fancy does turn to love. Warm temperatures may put you in the mood, yeah, that mood. There appears to be a seasonal connection to an increase in human conception, according to Scientific American. In Europe, there seems to be a 10 percent above-average increase in births during the month of March, meaning the babies were conceived around June. Research also suggests that men’s testosterone and women’s hormones linked to ovulation spike to above-average levels in June, the publication reported.

Another way folks indulge in Spring fever seems is through a more active lifestyle, according to experts at the University of North Carolina. Exercise can lead to a boost in endorphins — the same feel-good chemical that may come from warmer weather.

Warm weather also may make you more inventive. The University of Michigan study found that being outdoors in enjoyable climates can improve memory and broaden cognitive style, which is linked to more creative thoughts.