Feeling down about Chicagoland’s housing costs? Well, there’s a community with more snow, wind, AND higher prices.

Finding a place to call home on our planet is quite the decision, fraught with lists and lists of considerations to make before settling in.

Mortgages are a pain. Should you go for 15-year fixed or 30-year? Not a fun question to answer, but people manage. What if, to move somewhere, you were required to have your appendix removed? Maybe not quite as painful as a mortgage? Maybe more? Well, boy do we have the place for you.

Thanks to a strong economy and consumer confidence, construction spending last year hit an all-time high of $1.2 trillion, so if you’re among the millions looking to break ground on some prime real estate, look no further. The only teensy catch is that you’ll have to go under the knife. But other than that, welcome to Villa Las Estrellas.

Technically a Chilean settlement, it’s nestled in the accommodating locale of Antarctica. There are 100 permanent residents who are divided amongst 24 houses, inhabiting one of the most uninhabitable places on the planet. For perspective, on a school globe, Punta Arenas is at the very southern tip of South America. Go 994 miles further south and you’ll find Villa Las Estrellas.

To live here, residents are required to go through a battery of physical and psychological examinations to prove their abilities to withstand the environment. Anxiety disorders are common in 50% of adults and, among a variety of psychological evaluations, the place can be extremely anxiety-inducing from sheer isolation. Oh, and apart from children under six years old, one of the physical requirements is an appendectomy. If that seems extreme, just wait.

The average daily temperature is a balmy -2 degrees Celsius, but can get down -47 degrees during the winter. It’s so far south that daylight isn’t really a thing, replaced by a sort of daytime dusk, if only for a few minutes. During the winter months, they’re enveloped in complete darkness and the temperature doesn’t surpass -20 degrees. One in three adults is considered obese, which is another physical consideration made for potential residents. Because of the lack of light, vegetables are very limited and the diets are high in fats, carbs, and proteins. In fact, residents comically dismissed a suggestion for the settlement to have a nutritionist on staff. Eat, drink, and be merry.

“It gets a little intense here in winter,” says Jose Luis Carillan, a Villa Las Estrellas resident of three years with his wife and two children. 

Because the summers are so much less intense? There are stretches of time that it’s impossible to go outside and it’s popularly compared to being a place that comes closest to living on another planet. The cherry on top? There’s one way in and one way out: C-130 military aircraft. They’re huge and built for lengthy journeys that can surpass 2,300 miles.

“We must be prepared to keep a person alive two or three days, the time it takes an airplane to get out of here,” says commander Sergio Cubillos.

Yes, just getting out can be a two to three-day process. Redefines a long flight/layover, doesn’t it? The mandatory appendectomy makes a little more sense when the closest hospital is 625 miles away. A distance and timeframe at which acute appendicitis would be fatal in the majority of cases.

Still, people are chomping at the bit to get there because of the economic kickbacks from the government and the opportunity to live somewhere few others can say they have. Plus, the neighbors are great.

“People in the rest of Chile are so afraid of thieves that they build walls around their homes. Not here in Antartica. This is one of the safest places in the world,” says resident Paul Robledo.

And, along with a lively penguin population, it’s a full community. Complete with a school, post office, Orthodox church (monks and all), bank, and — hilariously — an air-conditioned gym, this place has everything it needs for the doughty contingency of residents who, predictably, become quite close.

“Family life in Antarctica is very calm and pleasant because we spend much more time together than before,” says Macarena Villarreal, a mother of two.

So, we can officially put the expressions costs an arm and a leg to bed. This’ll cost an appendix, requires formidable physiological and psychological constitutions, and you should probably not be sensitive to the cold.

And any place where penguins outnumber people is pretty special.

Death is natural. We all must face it and experience it (in some form or another) during our lives, yet many Americans are terrified of the process; they choose ignorance and denial instead because the finality of death and all the unknowns attached to it are simply too overwhelming to think about. The emerging popularity of death doulas in U.S. society is changing that perception.

The word “doula” had previous associations with birth: the word itself loosely translates to a woman who helps another woman. Doulas were employed most commonly as midwives, helping mothers with the emotional, physical, and informational aspects of childbirth — before, during, and after it occurred. They were there to assist in any way the mother needed throughout the entire process. Death doulas do the same thing, only for those at the end of their lives rather than the beginning.

Death doulas tend to be employed by those who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have accepted the situation. They can provide a range of support, from running errands and cooking meals to talking about the things loved ones aren’t ready to hear — like the reality that this life will end, and soon. As one article described it, “Death doulas are more like traveling companions, there to walk with clients and families toward something wholly unknown.”

The National Funeral Directors Association found that 62.5% of consumers felt communicating their funeral plans and wishes to their families before their deaths was very important; death doulas provide an opportunity to do so. They can help arrange funerals and all the complicated necessities that go into them, as well as emotionally stand by all members involved.

“Death… is not a medical event,” says Tarron Estes, founder of the Conscious Dying Institute in Colorado.

She’s right; death doulas bridge the gap between doctors, families, and attitudes about dying. By offering continuous support to the dying and their families, doulas can make the journey to death much more peaceful.

As part of Flossmoor District 161’s initiative to increase school safety, they have hired two new security officers from a professional company who will be unarmed and stationed at Parker Junior High School. Parker is the largest school in District 161, with 927 students, and is currently the only one in the district to have security guards.

According to school district Superintendent Dana Smith, the decision to hire guards from a professional security company, the U.S. Security Associates, was born out of a need for consistency. While the current security staff at the school is made up of retired public safety personnel and a single state trooper, the new hires will have professional training in safety and will be full-time employees.

In addition to providing security during the school day, the new guards will also be on duty for after-school activities, such as soccer and basketball games. They are scheduled to start right away, and the other security guards will leave Parker in October.

The district’s $73,008 contract with the Georgia-based security company was approved on Sept. 10. The contract details that the district is hiring one security guard with an estimated annual wage of $34,128 and one supervisor with an estimated wage of $38,880. Both of these predicted wages exceed the average salary for a security guard of nearly $30,000 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Blue Line Security Solutions had put in a bid with the district for about $2,000 less, but Smith felt that U.S. Security Associates had more experience in school settings and aligned more closely with the needs of the district.

“If we have a really good experience with this group, we’ll maybe talk about the elementaries because we may want to add security guards,” says Smith.

Elementary schools in the Prince William County, Virginia, have recently take the step to hire two retired police officers as armed guards. The school board and county supervisors approved a pilot program back in April 2018 that would start with five community safety officers and a supervisor. The officers will rotate between the 60 elementary schools in the county.

Officials were spurred to make the decision in light of recent school shootings, such as the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Thanks to the developments in medicine, specialists from the site http://bostonavenue.org/buy-ativan-online/found out that improper use of an addictive drug can cause addiction, overdose, or death. Selling or distributing Ativan is against the law. School board officials hope that the presence of armed guards will simultaneously be a deterrent to any potential threats and build relationships with younger students to make them feel safe.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture was slow to get staffed since the 2016 presidential election. Things are finally picking up the past few months and crucial jobs are getting filled at national and state levels. This is according to Bill Northey, the USDA’s secretary for farm production and conservation. He visited Illinois recently and met with some local farmers who shared their concerns. Some concerns included the looming trade disruptions that could severely hurt American farmers. While corporate-owned farms are less concerned about the possibility of closing down due to their sheer size and power, around 87% of U.S. farms are individual or family-owned. They don’t have as much of a corporate safety net if things get tough. They have people like Northey.

Some government and state programs have been accessible for farmers, such as FSA loans and grants from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Now, the USDA is trying to introduce new programs like the Market Facilitation Program, which hopes to keep farmer paychecks consistent even with a spotty trade situation and tariffs.

Northey and his colleagues seem to be doing their best to support these farmers, and the farmers have expressed some faith in the new staff at the USDA. Still, more support is always needed for these oft-struggling Americans.

So how can YOU help support local Illinois family farms? Four big ways:

1. Buy food and goods directly from them.
2. Enjoy farm-sponsored activities like corn fields, apple picking, and hay rides.
3. Vote for representatives who back the interests of small farms, and let them know your concerns.
4. Encourage others to do the above, too!

Plenty of farms across the state make extra income by offering seasonal activities. Fall, of course, is a huge time of year for farmers. Not only do they have to finish harvesting and prep for winter, but those who dabble in hayrides, pumpkin picking, and other public fall activities have a lot to organize. Take for example the brand-new apple orchard at Royal Oak Farm Orchard in Harvard, IL. It’s taken around six or seven years, but the farm succeeded in making a unique apple-shaped maze formed out of over 3,000 crab apple trees! This is in addition to their usual autumn offerings of apple picking and kid-friendly activities.

The Bell family’s Royal Oak Farm is a perfect example of innovative local farmers. Find out who the small farms are near your community, even just outside city centers, and support them in whatever ways feel appropriate to you. The effort means the world to these farmers, and supports a healthier culture around food production in the United States.

The current retail value of the U.S. coffee market is estimated to be worth approximately $48 million dollars. Coca-Cola has historically done quite well without dipping into the coffee market, but the soda manufacturer and beverage titan just placed a large bet on coffee — a $5.1 billion bet.

According to The New York Times, Coca-Cola announced its plans to purchase Costa, one of the world’s biggest coffee chains, for $5.1 billion in cash.

Though it seems like Coke has been relatively quiet in recent years, this new acquisition is its largest in nearly a decade, proving that the company is willing to spend top dollar in order to stay atop the beverage market.

Coke’s sales have actually been falling for the past five years, but the company’s jump to coffee could be exactly what it needs to get back on top. People love coffee — and now that Coke is running Costa, they’ll be able to compete with some of the biggest coffee retailers in the U.S. and the world.

The U.S. imports around 27.5 million bags of coffee, accounting for about one-quarter of global un-roasted coffee imports, making it the world’s largest single buyer. These coffee beans are constantly being shipped across oceans in order to provide coffee-lovers with tasty and affordable drinks. Standard TEU shipping containers can hold about 3,500 shoe boxes and 40ft high containers can hold more than 8,000 — that’s a lot of coffee being shipped across nations. Now, a significant percentage of all those coffee shipments will have that iconic Coca-Cola label on the side.

“It’s more important than ever that Coca-Cola make a serious and significant investment in the category because it’s the right thing to do to serve our consumers with more of the drinks they want, which in turn helps our customers,” said James Quincey, Coke’s chief executive officer.

According to Business Insider, this deal clearly outlines Coke’s long-term plans, as the $5.1 billion purchase is actually 16 times more than Costa’s projected 2018 earnings.

“Hot beverages is one of the few remaining segments of the total beverage landscape where Coca-Cola does not have a global brand,” added Quincey. “Costa gives us access to this market through a strong coffee platform.”

This deal is likely to be seen as a direct challenge to the Starbucks dominance across the United States. Costa already has more coffee shops in the UK than Starbucks and has been expanding globally. In October, Costa bought out Yueda, the second most popular coffee chain in China (behind Starbucks).

“Coca-Cola doesn’t have a broad, global portfolio in this growing category,” added Quincey. “There’s a lot of coffee stores in the U.S. There’s more room for growth in Europe and Asia. This is a coffee strategy, not a retail strategy or a food strategy.”

Coca-Cola has been producing and distributing products since the 1880s. With this latest acquisition, they are certainly hoping to remain not only relevant within the global beverage sector, but the king of the caffeinehill.