Senior Women Web

Julia Sneden wrote: The houses in my neighborhood have benefited from the Feng Shui principles, but I'm enough of a chauvinist to feel that there is a certain kind of American Feng Shui which needs no help, and old Southern houses (not mansions, just houses) abound in it. Wide porches; shady settings; big windows; double chimneys; an abundance of shrubs like crape myrtle and azaleas and rhododendrons; large yards and deep set-backs from the streets; basements and attics and wonderful closets; all these and more seem pretty harmonious to me. more »

The United States is considering a $1 trillion budget proposal to update infrastructure, including its crumbling bridges. An obstacle to spending the money wisely is that the current means of assessing bridges may underestimate their vulnerability. Case in point is a bridge along California's iconic Big Sur coast, which collapsed in March, isolating communities and costing local businesses millions of dollars. Although California's recent unprecedented rains were likely to damage infrastructure, standard risk assessments made it hard to identify which bridges were most vulnerable. more »

The tradition of Arbor Day began in Nebraska in 1872. Raising awareness of the importance of trees, people continue to use the day to plant saplings and improve the health of forests. Trees help clean the air, provide habitat for wildlife, help conserve soil and water, and are the source of an entire industry that support jobs and the economy. Land management agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Forest Service oversee hundreds of millions of acres of forests across the country. more »

When patients are too sick to go home but not sick enough to be admitted, observation care gives doctors time to figure out what’s wrong. It is considered an outpatient service, like a doctor’s visit. Unless their care falls under a new Medicare bundled payment category, observation patients pay a share of the cost of each test, treatment or other services. And if they need nursing home care to recover their strength, Medicare won't pay for it because that coverage requires a prior hospital admission of at least three consecutive days. Observation time doesn’t count. more »