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March | Volume 4, Issue 3
www.jigsawhomeinvestmentsinc.com | 941-807-4456 or 941-961-8683
Celebrating St. Patrick's Day
Welcome to all those who become Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,
March 17.
Join the fun by wearin' the green
clothes and drinkin' the green beer on
this day, which is bound to be a
brighter Monday than most.
The New York City's St. Patrick's Day
Parade is oldest Irish tradition in the
U.S., marching for the first time more
than 250 years ago, on March 17,
1762, 14 years before the Declaration
of Independence.
The Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade is held every year on the
Saturday before St. Patrick's Day. The Chicago River is dyed green
at 10 am, and the parade kicks off at noon.
We hope you enjoy this month’s
newsletter. It is a great time to
spend with your family!
We are looking forward to serving
you in any way we can.
All our best,
Kurt & Carolyn Arbogast
Don't Get Paranoid, But You
Are Being Watched
V-formation Helps Birds Conserve Energy
Not just the ducks, but most flying birds arrange themselves in a Vformation for their journeys. In North America, it's often duck formations
we see on their seasonal fights to the north or south.
Until now, no one knew why they flew in formation or how they could
form a perfect V. The first close-up of their formation is providing some
answers. Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature, have found that birds
position themselves and time their wing beats perfectly in order to
minimize their energy use.
Each bird monitors minute changes in its wingmates' flight and alters its
own path and stroke, according to Britain's Royal Veterinary College.
Lightweight GPS units have made it possible to find out exactly what the
birds are up to in a flight. The researchers used northern bald ibises
raised in captivity in Austria. Every year a flock of the ibises takes off
and is escorted by an aircraft known as a paraplane, says study author
Steven Portugal.
Using data from 14 ibises, researchers found that each flew in just the
configuration needed to catch the rising air generated by the wing
flapping of the bird in front of it.
Portugal was amazed at how quickly they can respond to any changes by
the bird in front.
If you use a cell phone, you are broadcasting
your presence and not just with calls and texts.
Cell phones continuously tell your location to
whoever is listening. And people are listening.
But, government listening aside, private
companies are listening and tracking cell phone
location data to find out the preferences and
activities of their customers.
A cafe owner knows his coffees are popular but
what else could he or she offer to customers that
they might want? If the cafe owner knows 80
percent of customers go to a gym, maybe a gym
shirt with the cafe logo might sell.
New location companies are starting up to
provide the cafe owner, or anyone willing to pay,
exactly this type of information.
It’s legal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, companies
in the US do not have to get consent before
collecting and sharing location data.
Singing in a Group Can Make You Healthier
It could be that singing exercises the lungs, or
maybe it's the camaraderie singers have with
each other.
Whatever the reason, cognitive neuroscientist
Julene Johnson, a professor at the University
of California, San Francisco, has found that
singing together promotes healthy aging.
According to AARP, singing allows people to use their bodies and minds
while creating something beautiful.
The message for former choir members, barbershop quartet singers and those
who join in at the piano bar: for a better, safer future, volunteer to sing in the
church chorus or get back to singing with your pals again.
Do you have a question about home
inspections or home maintenance that
you want answered? Let us know and
you could win a $25.00 Gas Card.
We randomly select a winner from the
questions you submit!
We love to hear from all of our good
friends and clients who enjoy reading our
monthly newsletter. If you have a
questions about anything related to your
home, feel free to give us a call or e-mail
us at:
[email protected]
941-807-4456 or 941-961-8683
The First Use of Anesthesia: 172 Years Ago
Pain-Free Surgery: A Human Achievement
Question: What is the outlook for home buying in
2014?
Answer: Even though the average price of both new
and existing homes rose last year, there's no
indication that they will fall any time soon. In fact,
they will continue to rise.
With the economy slowly improving and the shortage
of existing homes for sale, prices are still rising.
The average price of an existing home now
approaches $215,000 nationwide. Of course, it's not
the same everywhere. In some localities it's lower and
in big cities it's higher.
BUT, homes continue to be affordable in spite of
recent price increases. They are still 31.5 percent
below the 2006 price peak, according to Kiplinger's
Personal Finance.
The percentage of monthly family income consumed
by a mortgage payment (at 4.1 percent interest) is just
15.6 percent of monthly income, on average.
"Houses are very cheap," said David Stiff, principal
economist at CoreLogic, a property and mortgage
data analytics company.
Market observers agree that home prices will rise in
2014, but at a steady pace when compared with
historic trends. By the end of 2013, prices nationwide
rose by 10.9 percent, pushing the median price for
existing homes up by $30,000.
For people who wanted to sell or refinance their
homes, that's good news.
If you're renting a home or apartment, you may have
already experienced a rent increase of 3 to 4 percent
this year. The same increases are expected next year.
Mortgage payments will always stay the same. That's
a positive factor in buying a home.
So it would seem that if you buy a home now, some of
your rent money will go to principle. It would be a
smarter move than waiting a year or two.
Until the mid-1800s, the likelihood of surviving any malady that required
surgery was minimal. The surgeon was the local barber or a member of the
family. Besides lack of knowledge and sanitation, there was, more
importantly to the patient, no effective way to kill pain.
Surgery was torture.
For most of human history, a patient had the
choice of alcohol (if available), opium (if
lucky), or being strapped down (if possible or
if endurable).
For many centuries the main drugs for
surgery, if available, were opiates. Cocaine
was often used as a local anesthetic.
Herbal preparations were known throughout history to produce some
sleepy or pain killing effects, but as 16th century physician Fallopius
observed: "When soporifics are weak, they are useless, and when strong,
they kill."
By the 1840s, that began to change. Scientists began find ways to create a
lack of awareness of pain that was reversible -- anesthesia -- a word
suggested by poet and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes.
On March 30, 1842 -- 172 years ago this month -- an American surgeon in
Georgia, Crawford Long, used diethy ether to remove a tumor from the
neck of a patient. It is recognized as the first use of effective anesthesia for
surgery.
About the same time, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) came into use for dental
procedures. The colorless, odorless gas made short procedures painless,
which was a miracle in the day. But the gas was no good for long
operations. Breathing in too much for too long causes permanent brain
changes and death.
The first use of barbituates to induce drowsiness or sleep before surgery
occurred in 1934 when sodium pentothal (called a truth serum) was shown
to be effective.
Call us anytime, we’d love to help you 941-807-4456 or 941-961-8683
Why Is It Called 'March Madness?'
+The Polar Vortex Caused
Some Big Problems
Everything important in college basketball happens in March. The
winners win and the losers lose and the winners play the winners and at
the end of the month the NCAA champ is crowned. And until then the
thrill of victory and the agony of defeat light up cities all across the
country.
Unlike events like the World Series,
there is no pansy best out of 5 or best out
of 7. In the NCAA tournament, you can
be the favorite, but if you lose that first
game, you're out. It's sudden death every
night. Upsets. Shots at the buzzer.
Agonizing mistakes in the last three
seconds. Thrilling saves. March just has
a corner on maddening and enchanting
basketball.
So many games go on throughout the country during the month, usually
during the same time and in rapid succession. You've got a lot of team
spirit going on at institutions of higher learning. All month, college
students make a special effort to celebrate even more specially than they
usually do every weekend.
At the start of the post season in college basketball, there are 68 teams
that have a shot at the national title. If one gets hot, and others get cold,
anything can happen. Hence, March Madness generates a substantial buzz
because there is always that maddening uncertainty.
All across the U.S. and Canada, cities were
hitting all time low temperature records.
In the midst of it, Mark Fischetti of Scientific
American had these comments:
"Temperatures across half of the United
States are dropping like a rock. So what is it
invading America? The polar vortex is a
prevailing wind pattern that normally keeps
extremely cold air bottled up toward the
North Pole.
Occasionally, the vortex weakens, allowing
the cold air to pour down across Canada and
the U.S. In addition to bringing cold, the air
mass can push the jet stream that typically
flows from the Pacific Ocean across the U.S.
much farther south as well."
The jet stream normally brings warmer air to
the U.S., but it was absent during the polar
vortex move to the south. The jet stream was
also pushed to the south. The weather in
Australia was nice and warm.
The polar bear at Chicago's Lincoln Park
Zoo was taken inside after zookeepers
realized she lacked enough insulating fat to
keep warm in the subzero temperatures.
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4411 Bee Ridge Rd., #426
What was the name of the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was shot?
Sarasota, Florida 34233
941-807-4456
941-807-4456
or 941-961-8683
A) Superstition
B) Life in Louisiana
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www.jigsawhomeinvestmentsinc.com
C) Our American Cousin D) The Lion King
WhatCheck
TV detective
What’s Inside?
out lived on the estate of millionaire Robin Masters? a-Jim Rockford, bThomas
Magnum,
c-Remington Steele, d-Adrian Monk.
this month’s Newsletter
What was the name of the play Abraham Lincoln was
just for you!
watching when he was shot?
A) Superstition
B) Life in Louisiana
C) Our American Cousin
D) The Lion King
Give us 5% of your
confidence and
we’ll earn the
remaining 95%!
What Our Customers
Are Saying
What TV detective lived on the estate of millionaire
Robin Master?
A) Jim Rockford
B) Thomas Magnum
C) Remington Steel
D) Adrian Monk
What’s The Answer?
March Trivia Question
To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization that I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to criticize, or regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can do.
To let go is to fear less, and to love more.
In what year was an effective anesthesia
used for surgery?
a) 1832 b) 1842 c) 1852 d)
d) 1862
The first correct answer emailed or phoned into
our office will be the proud winner of
$25 off of your next complete home inspection!
Thank You for Your Referrals
We love referrals… Our business depends on
referrals. Thank you for spreading the word about
us.
P.S. I would love to hear about some of your experiences with letting go.
Please email me at [email protected]
941-807-4456 or 941-961-8683
Jigsaw Home Investments, Inc.
941-807-4456 or 941-961-8683