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8:30 AM EST, Wednesday, May 23: Once it was called Global Warming and no one paid it any attention. Then it was called Climate Change and still no one paid it any attention. Now it's being called Extended Hay Fever Season and everyone is concerned. This is the year everyone has it -- even nice people (like my assistant Muriel) who've never had hay fever.

My favorite magazine is the Economist. My second favorite is BestLife.


The present issue first and some recent issues.

The May issue repeats what many people have said: Global warming is here. It is adversely affecting some real estate, with damage happening before the end of your 30-year mortgage. Hence, you should take global warning into account NOW. You should read the BestLife's piece called Hot Property. Here is a sidebar which the author, Nancy F. Smith, called "The Silver Lining."

Four spots where global warming spells opportunity

If Oregon and Washington are the new California, and British Columbia may someday rival Australia in producing fine wines, then global warming can't be all bad, right? In the spirit of balanced reporting, here are a few places where global warming could add value to your investment.

NORTHEAST Get ready to snap up all those chalets on the cheap, as ski resorts struggle to keep their slopes open. Longer, warmer summers will make the region a paradise for those who are into hiking, biking, fishing, and kayaking.

SAN FRANCISCO For those who agree with Mark Twain's description of the City by the Bay--"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"--global warming is long overdue. Of course, the foggy weather may be less a product of atmospheric temperatures than of the California Current, which flows from Alaska to the Bay Area, where it surfaces and cools the city. Whether the current will stay on course is uncertain, according to NASA's Rama Nemani. If it does, warming temps plus the current could make San Francisco's climate just right: not too cool, not too hot.

ALASKA This is a long-term investment. "Alaska may become more habitable, but the lifestyle will change," says Bruce McCarl, of Texas A&M. It will take a few decades for things to stabilize as the permafrost melts. For now, whole towns are losing their solid foundations and will have to be moved. Roads built on permafrost are slipping into mush. "Lakes are disappearing, and buildings are leaning," says University of Chicago's David Archer. But you may have a great summer getaway in 20 years.

SOUTHWEST Given the IPCC report's projection that precipitation patterns are moving poleward, this region offers investment opportunities for anyone who can buy up water rights. "Water is likely to be the oil of the 21st century," says Robert W. Corell, of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. And like oil, it may turn out to be more valuable than the land that surrounds it.

Shipping is booming. Danaos Corporation and Eagle Bulk Shipping merit attention:

Danaos is one of the largest owners of containerships in the world. They deploy all their vessels on multi-year, fixed-rate time charters
(typically 15 years). The company's modern fleet consists of 61 vessels (33 currently in operation and 28 being built, with service expected by year-end 2010). Danaos's main objective is to grow its business in order to increase its distributable cash flow and dividend. Long-term charters and the predictability of cash flow and dividends is nice. Both will grow as the new ships are delivered.

Eagle Bulk Shipping is a shipper of bulk cargoes, including iron ore, coal, grain, cement and fertilizer. It owns 16 huge ships, including this mother:

Summer travel with cell phones: Everybody wants to take their cellphone (or their BlackBerry) to Europe, Asia and Australia. I'm going soon. My friend Larry Rose has been and is going again. Here are our learned findings:

Many US cell phone companies now carry phones and BlackBerries that will work overseas. People here will call your local number and it will ring over there, with no need to know where you are, or what your new funny number might be. You can also call them. Some BlackBerries will work overseas. Verizon has just got a new BlackBerry 8830, which PC Magazine gave an Editors Choice. It's a superb machine. Buy the Verizon overseas data plan and you can receive (and reply to) your emails in most places for a flat monthly fee.

That's the good news. The bad news is using an American cell phone or a BlackBerry to make phone calls overseas is very expensive. For example, if you take a Verizon phone, You'll pay either $1.29 a minute or $2.49 per minute for the calls you make or receive. That's right, you'll pay for incoming and outgoing calls on a per minute rate. Those monies are in addition to the flat monthly rate you pay for calling in the U.S.

The low-cost solution is to buy an unlocked GSM phone and buy prepaid SIM cards for each country you visit. You'll pay pennies a call versus dollars a call. This also means you'll have a different phone number in each country. But you can easily call those numbers in.

I have not found a good place to buy unlocked GSM cell phones from. But there are many. Google "unlocked GSM phone." You'll see.

Most GSM cell phones are locked to one carrier, meaning they won't work with any other carrier's SIM card.. You can unlock many cell phones. The TravelInsider sells unlock codes and will also unlock phones for you. But not all phones can be unlocked, especially the newer ones. You need to check.

Larry's solution is to take his new Verizon BlackBerry 8830 (which is locked), use it for email and incoming calls, but to call everyone back on a cheap unlocked GSM, which he also carries. By the way, you don't pay for incoming calls if you're using an unlocked GSM phone with a local SIM card. If the person calling you from his U.S. landline has a decent calling plan, he'll be paying fewer than 5 cents a minute to call you. Compare that to $1.29 or $2.49 a minute and you'll see what I mean about huge savings with an unlocked GSM phone and a country-specific SIM card.

Why I love to receive press releases:

Harry--
I thought you would like to know about the groundbreaking for Aliana, the new 2,000-acre, master-planned luxury community. Below are more details and attached is a photo.

The details weren't interesting, but the photo sure was.

Why the baby is underweight
A woman and a baby were in the doctor's examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby's first exam.

The doctor arrived, and examined the baby, checked his weight, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed?

"Breast-fed,"she replied.

"Well, strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered.

She did.

He pinched her nipples, pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a very professional and detailed examination.

Motioning to her to get dressed The doctor said, "No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk."

"I know," she said, "I'm his Grandma, but I'm glad I came."

It pays to check
The photographer was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. He asked his home office to hire a plane. When he got to the airport, a plane was warming up. He jumped in. "Let's go." The pilot swung into the wind and took off. "Fly over the north side of the side and make three or four low level passes?"

"Why?" asked the pilot.

"Because I'm going to take pictures. I'm a photographer and photographers take pictures."

After a pause, the pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?"

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Claire's law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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