Thursday, August 1, 2013

UK Enterprise Branch Offers Low Rates, Free Pick-Up, Oral Relief

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/uk-enterprise-branch-offers-low-rates-free-pick-up-oral-relief/

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The View from 22 ? Twitter abuse wars, Theresa vs Boris and Egypt?s Arab winter

Will online abuse and trolling ever be stopped? On this week?s View from 22 podcast, Hugo Rifkind discusses his Spectator column on the subject with Helen Lewis of the New Statesman. They ask if trolling has got better or worse? What, if anything, can or should be done about ?morons? who mindlessly attack people? And should politicians ? like Stella Creasy ? be influencing the moderation policies of social networks like Twitter?

James Forsyth and Toby Young discuss the next Tory leadership battle: Theresa May vs. Boris Johnson. James reports that these two top Tories are jostling to succeed David Cameron, even though the PM is expected to be in situ after 2015: Boris isn?t even going to stand in the 2015 election. Who is most likely to be successful? And how might the EU referendum help Boris position himself to succeed Cameron?

Plus, the Telegraph?s Con Coughlin and Douglas Murray explain why Egypt?s deposed Muslim Brotherhood should have learnt from its own past and looked to Colonel Nasser on how to run the country.

You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the embedded player below:

The View from 22 ? 1 August 2013. Length: 36:43

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Tags: Boris Johnson, Muslim Brotherhood, New Statesman, Podcast, The View from 22, Theresa May, Twitter

Subscribe with our offer of the summer: three months? print and digital subscription to the Spectator ? including our apps for?iPad, iPhone and Kindle Fire ? for just ?12. Click here to join us.

Source: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/08/the-view-from-22-twitter-abuse-wars-theresa-vs-boris-and-egypts-arab-winter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-view-from-22-twitter-abuse-wars-theresa-vs-boris-and-egypts-arab-winter

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Home price gains bring sellers off the sidelines

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Robert and Emerald Oravec were itching to sell their condominium late last year to move closer to a favorite surfing spot, but they were stuck. They owed the bank $194,000 and figured the most they could get was $180,000.

When they put their San Diego home up for sale a few months later, they fielded five offers within two weeks. It sold for $260,000 in May, allowing them to invest profits in a new home that's more than twice the size on a large lot and 40 minutes closer to the surfing beach.

"We're stoked," said Robert, 50, a facilities engineer at Solar Turbines Inc., a maker of gas turbines that has employed him for the last 22 years. "It was better to be patient and wait it out."

Soaring prices are leaving fewer homeowners owing more money than their properties are worth, bringing them off the sidelines of the nation's surging housing market and offering relief to buyers who are frustrated by bidding wars. As more homes are put up for sale, price increases are expected to moderate.

Mark Fleming, chief economist at real estate data provider CoreLogic Inc., calls it "a virtuous circle."

"The fact that house prices have increased so dramatically ... has unlocked a lot of that pent-up supply," said Fleming, whose firm found that markets with the largest percentage of "underwater" or "upside down" mortgages often have the lowest supply of homes for sale.

From January to March, 19.8 percent of the nation's mortgaged homes were underwater, down from 23.7 percent a year earlier and 25 percent during the same period of 2011, according to CoreLogic. Gains spread across the country, though regions that rose high and crashed hard remained saddled with homeowners who bought near the peak.

Nevada had a nation-high 45.4 percent of mortgages underwater, followed by Florida at 38.1 percent, Michigan at 32 percent and Arizona at 31.4 percent. Montana had a nation-low 5.6 percent.

Among major metropolitan areas, Tampa Bay had a nation-high 41.1 percent of mortgaged homes underwater, followed by Miami at 40.7 percent. Dallas had a nation-low 8.3 percent.

San Diego, at 19.5 percent, was slightly better than the national rate and California's 21.3 percent. The region's median home sale price hit $406,500 in May, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier amid brisk sales, according to DataQuick.

Housing inventories remain unusually low. There was a 5.2-month supply of existing, single-family homes for sale in May, compared to 6.4 months a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. California had only a 2.6-month supply, compared to 3.6 months a year earlier and well below the six months that is considered a balanced market.

San Diego broker Colleen Cotter began knocking on doors this year after scouring property records to find homeowners who didn't owe money. If someone answers, she makes an all-cash bid on behalf of investors who don't even visit.

Nearly one of three homes sold in Southern California is paid for in cash, putting borrowers at a disadvantage. Some buyers write sellers about how they would cherish a home, hoping to spark a personal connection.

Josh Martin, 26, discovered homes he and wife considered buying had changed hands less than a year earlier at much lower prices. The first-time homebuyers lost nine bids since August? many to cash buyers ? until finally landing a home in May for $250,000 in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista.

"It was very stressful because the prices just kept going up," said Martin, who recently left the Marine Corps. "Our lease was about to end and we didn't want to sign another year."

Economists expect many homeowners will continue to resist selling because they think they can profit more by waiting.

Nancy Randazzo, a 38-year-old public school teacher who owes about $240,000 on an Anaheim condominium that she bought for $335,000 in 2005, figures she might be able to sell for what she owes but wants to rent to Disneyland tourists. One potential snag is that she and her fiancee would need to find a place to buy.

"Prices are going up so fast that I don't know if I can," she said.

The huge price increases produced an unexpected retirement gift for Larry and Diane Plaster, who were resigned in January to selling their San Diego home for less than they owed the bank, known as a short sale. They owed $352,000 but accepted an offer for $290,000.

Their bank rejected the deal four months later, leading the couple to put the home up for sale again. On the second attempt, they took an all-cash offer of $380,000, yielding a windfall of $6,500 after broker fees and closing costs. The Plasters, who live on Social Security income, fulfilled a dream of moving to a geodesic dome they built in Janesville, 130 miles north of Lake Tahoe.

The former Catholic social service workers were so angry when Chase rejected the short sale that they closed their account after more than 40 years.

"Now I guess I should send them a thank-you note," said Diane, 66.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/home-price-gains-bring-sellers-off-sidelines-140703042.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Japan Prime Minister in New Smartphone Game

At the headquarters of Japan's ruling party, there's a new plan for victory ahead of next month's national election.
?
This is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe like you've never seen him before.

He's the star of 'Abe Hop', a new free game for smartphones released by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) this week.

The game is to steer the Japanese premiere high into the sky, winning points to change his attire.

Skillful players can whisk Abe out of his grey business suit and into jeans or gym kit.

The ultimate prize is a bouncing Abe clad in a Superman costume.

Takuya Hirai is an LDP lawmaker and the brains behind the party's internet strategy.

[Takuya Hirai, LDP Lawmaker]:
"If you play over and over again you can win rosettes?they're like the ones candidates get when they win an election. The more you collect, the more costumes you can choose for Abe. We're also doing a version upgrade today to bring in rankings, so we're hoping the game will get people interested in politics in a way they never were before."

The party plans to have six apps in circulation before the country's July 21st upper house election, Japan's first to allow official campaigning online.

Abe has already made a name as a keen user of social media services, with more than 370-thousand Facebook followers.

As voting day approaches, Hirai says he now hopes 'Abe Hop' will help to draw in smartphone-savvy voters who might otherwise give the ballot box a miss.

Source: http://ntdtv.org/en/news/world/asia/2013-06-29/japan-prime-minister-in-new-smartphone-game.html

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

The future of natural gas is the car?

Rising use of natural gas in the transportation sector will offset a slowdown in other areas, says the International Energy Agency in?a new report. But don't expect natural gas vehicles to dominate roadways anytime soon.

By David J. Unger,?Correspondent / June 20, 2013

A man fills his truck with compressed natural gas at a filling station in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Jim Urquhart/Reuters/File

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The natural gas revolution is getting some wheels ? and just in time for the gas industry.

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Why It Matters

Energy: Natural gas is plentiful, cheap, and cleaner-burning than other fossil fuels.

Environment: Drilling for natural gas can release potent greenhouse gases and threaten local ecosystems.

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Rising use of natural gas in the transportation sector will offset a global slowdown in the growth of natural gas to produce electricity, according to a report released Thursday by the International Energy Agency. That timely boost will mean that America's boom in natural gas is likely to continue for several years, even if the focus begins to shift away from power plants and toward cars and trucks.?

Not everyone is convinced natural gas will do for auto companies what it did for utilities. Changing fuels requires an overhaul of existing infrastructure, and natural gas comes with its own set of environmental concerns. In many regions, it is difficult for natural gas to compete with the range, power, and price of gasoline. But natural gas has already proven itself a useful alternative for fueling large vehicle fleets and it's even more attractive in parts of the world where gasoline prices are high.

?Gas is already a major fuel in power generation, but the next five years will also see it emerging as a significant transportation fuel, driven by abundant supplies as well as concerns about oil dependency and air pollution," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in a release.?"Once the infrastructure barriers are tackled, natural gas has significant potential for clean-energy use in heavy-duty transport where electrification is not possible.??