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May 25, 2009

Permit to keep chickens in Portland, Oregon

Looking for the permit to keep more than three chickens in Portland, Oregon? It's not easy to find. The permit is located at the Multnomah County Health website. You can keep up to eight chickens if you file the permit and pay the $31 fee, and of course, comply with the requirements. 

May 13, 2009

What Makes Us Happy: 7 Primary Factors

Via The Atlantic

What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically.

Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called "happy-well" and only 7.5 percent as "sad-sick." Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up "happy-well" at 80. Even if they had been in adequate physical shape at 50, the men who had three or fewer protective factors were three times as likely to be dead at 80 as those with four or more factors.