This article in South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel newspaper describes the National Association of Realtors’ unprecedented $40 million dollar ad campaign to encourage potential buyers sitting on the sidelines. The real reason for this comes out at the end of the short article:

‘Obviously, a lot of agents are hurting,’ said Larson. ‘When agents don’t sell homes, [...]

I was looking at some real estate posts on the Internet and ran across this story about a guy pulling down and stealing the open house signs of his neighbors. An excerpt:

It’s now 1:55, and the Open House starts in 5 minutes. I question whether or not I should go down and check the [...]

This article in the New York Times describes periodic fluctuations in the Earth’s orbit that has resulted in mass extinctions of mammals in the past. And here’s the great news:

Dr. van Dam said the 2.5-million-year cycle “has entered the critical stage corresponding to a relatively circular orbit.” But any period of high turnover may [...]

I’m not a big fan of the Census Bureau as I think Congress has mandated that they collect far too much private informaton. As far as I’m concerned, all they need to know are how many people live in my home. Here’s what the Constitution says in Article 1, Section 2:

The actual Enumeration [...]

My wife and I have real estate on our mind. After a few web searches, I found that there is a real estate website for Madison Wisconsin, FsboMadison, which has grown to dominate 20% of the market. The website allows potential buyers and sellers to find each other and avoid the high commisions [...]

I ran across this article by Mark Morford, a SF Gate Columnist, and thought it had a lot of good things to say about the relationship Americans have with work. Here is a quote from its opening paragraphs:

Work hard and the world respects you. Work hard and you can have anything you want. Work [...]

Yeah, I gotta agree with Senator Graham. I’m scratching my head over this move as well. Although I understand that “Port Operations”, strictly speaking, is not responsible for port security, does it make sense to allow a company owned by a foreign country to control the operations of one of our country’s most [...]

I’ve been reading the Green Bay Press-Gazette on-line since making the decision to move to the area. I was moved by this article in today’s edition. While I’ve heard that some companies have stopped paying employees after Katrina, others have continued to support their employees through this difficult time. Two such supportive [...]

I wonder if attacking the algorithms used to secure traffic camera data would work with an American judge? From a recent C|Net News.com article:

It turns out that a Sydney magistrate tossed out a speeding ticket after the Roads and Traffic Authority, a government agency, failed to prove in court that the algorithm was cryptographically sound.

The August Issue of National Geographic arrived today. It contains an interesting photo essay about an intentional community in Missouri called Eastwind. Although the entire article is not on-line, the on-line feature does include a selection of photos, notes from the author, and some information regarding intentional communities (a term I first learned [...]