Oldie, but goodie...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
This is Really Cool!
(via Google Maps Mania)
Simon Ilyushchenko, a Site Reliability Engineer at Google, has used his 20% time to produce this Google Earth Browser mashup of CO2 emissions in the US.
Simon Ilyushchenko, a Site Reliability Engineer at Google, has used his 20% time to produce this Google Earth Browser mashup of CO2 emissions in the US.
Mark Cuban on the Future of PDA/Smartphones
and if they have the possibility of replacing the laptop/desktop all together...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday GREEN Links
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Closing in on the NAR Social Media Director
(via Drew Meyers @ Geek Estate Blog)
Tried my darnedest not to add (just in time for the death of social media) next to this post title...
Tried my darnedest not to add (just in time for the death of social media) next to this post title...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Killion Announces Additional Green Business Opportunities
A new program has been unveiled by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to direct $25 million worth of funding to promote energy independence, Rep. Thomas Killion (R-Delaware/Chester) announced today.
The program, which is known as the Renewable Energy Program, was established to support wind and geothermal projects in Pennsylvania and offers incentives for companies to manufacture such technologies.
Eligible geothermal systems include heat pumps that use the ground, groundwater and underground mine water as energy sources. Wind systems that qualify for assistance through this program include facilities that produce or distribute wind-generated energy as well as manufacturing facilities for wind turbines and other wind energy components.
Companies that manufacture components for renewable energy generation equipment may receive 10-year loans of up to $35,000 for every new job that is expected to be created within three years after approval. Grants of up to $5,000 are also available for each new job that will be created.
Eligible applicants include: businesses, economic development organizations and political subdivisions, including school districts. The maximum loan amount for a geothermal system or wind-energy project shall not exceed $5 million.
According to the Departments of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and Environmental Protection (DEP), which jointly administer the new program, evidence of at least $1 in matching funds must be provided by the receiving entity.
For more information regarding the Renewable Energy Program, such as an application or a full listing of eligibility requirements, individuals can visit Killion’s Web site at www.RepKillion.com
Rep. Thomas Killion
168th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
(610) 325-1541
(717) 772-0855
Member Site: RepKillion.com
Contact: Donna Pinkham
(717) 260-6452
Caucus Site: PAHouseGOP.com
Phila. School District unveils new master plan for poorly performing schools
(Via Young Philly Politics)
Friday, February 13, 2009
NAR’s “Right Tools - Right Now” Campaign
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NAR's "Right Tools - Right Now" Campaign
Get out of your feed reader and comment on this post- we PROMISE that the ShamWow guy won\'t pop out when you do...
Before We Get Started
I know that no matter how positive I think this campaign is, people will take this opportunity to take one more shot at NAR. No Association, company or person is perfect and often times the Association's blunders are bannered on very blog out there, and their successes are quieted away or totally ignored. I've got my own qualms about how things are done at NAR at times, but that's been covered elsewhere. In this case, NAR is releasing many fee-based programs and products for agents for free. They are hailing it as "free" but I'll the first here to point out two things. The first is that member's dues paid for this. NAR may have investment options and other income streams to run this program, but these resources and those investments still needed member support to get executed. Second, it's my opinion that these products and services should have always been available to members for free - just like I think realtor.com should be free.
I think it's sad that I have to start out with the disclaimer before even writing the post. Funny enough, I was trying to come up with a cleaver title, but I figured that using "NAR" would automatically trigger emotions either way…
The Meat
Yesterday, I was attending a Association Executives session at the Virginia Association of Realtors®. NAR gave a webcast introducing their "Right Tools - Right Now" Campaign. Part of the release to the CEO's had the following:
In response to these needs, NAR is proposing a program that will make valuable publications, education, services, resources and tools available to members for FREE, at cost, or at significantly reduced pricing. The intent of the program is to make NAR's robust roster of business-building resources more easily available by removing the financial barrier, thereby increasing the number of members who take advantage of these tools and information.
Nearly 300 previously 'for-sale' resources will be offered at discount or for free in the following categories: Education Tools & Publications, Conventions & Events, Technology Services, Research Tools, Enhanced Services, Online Training and Association & Board Resources. In some cases, new services have been created and offered at no charge to better help members in this time.
In this package are extensive assets and offerings for Local Associations and members, but I am just going to outline the items offered in the package that pertain to member-practitioners. All of these materials will be posted at www.realtor.org. However,...
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Temple University = Profitable Real Estate Investing
Considering investing in Philadelphia residential real estate? If you plan to purchase Philadelphia real estate and rent your property, you may want to invest in Philadelphia’s developing neighborhoods and one of the best, hot places is housing for Temple University students.
Consider these points about Temple housing:
- Temple can only house their freshmen class. This leaves a great demand for student housing in the city.
- Temple is located in the area of North Philadelphia that has gone through and is still in the process of revitalization. This creates great opportunities to purchase property as a great investment with monthly CASH FLOW.
- Temple students pay anywhere from $ 375 to $ 700 PER ROOM for rent, giving you positive cash flow every month.
- You must make sure your property is zoned properly.
- Students begin looking for housing from May to August.
We have available an investment property that falls into all of the criteria above. Now is the perfect time to take possession of an investment property near Temple University. The timing of rehab needed, will allow an astute investor to have this property ready for the fall housing period.
And not only do properties around the Temple area provide a nice cash flow and also appraise at a high After Repair Value (ARV) but the taxes are very low compared to other major cities. The annual real estate taxes on the above mentioned property is $ 119 per year - that's not a misprint. $ 119 PER YEAR!
With the recently announced 1.6 million dollar grant that Temple will receive to develop new technologies in pharmaceutical waste, the Temple area continues to play a major roll in Philadelphia's employment and education. Philadelphia residential real estate investors would be smart to consider this the area of Philadelphia real estate growth. Contact us at www.sellphillyproperty.com.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Can we stop kissing Arlen Specter's Butt?
Irritating.
Can we stop kissing Arlen Specter's Butt?
So, because Arlen Specter will vote for a 'compromise' stimulus bill, he is now getting all of the 'moderate,' election cycle press that he loves.
What a guy! These are the cuts that Arlen's compromise smartly made to the original stimulus package:
Billion dollar cuts
$40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization
$16 billion School Construction
$7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants
$5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity
$4.5 billion GSA
$3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)
$3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening
$2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)
$2 billion broadband
$2 billion HIT Grants
$1.25 billion project based rental
$1 billion Head Start/Early Start
$1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing
$1 billion Energy Loan GuaranteesMillion dollar cuts
$100 million FSA modernization
$50 million CSERES Research
$65 million Watershed Rehab
$30 million SD Salaries
$100 Distance Learning
$98 million School Nutrition
$50 million aquaculture
$100 million NIST
$100 million NOAA
$100 million Law Enforcement Wireless
$50 million Detention Trustee
$25 million Marshalls Construction
$100 million FBI Construction
$300 million Federal Prisons
$300 million BYRNE Formula
$140 million BYRNE Competitive
$10 million State and Local Law Enforcement
$50 million NASA
$50 million Aeronautics
$50 million Exploration
$50 million Cross Agency Support
$200 million NSF
$100 million Science
$300 million Fed Hybrid Vehicles
$50 million from DHS
$200 million TSA
$122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use
$25 million Fish and Wildlife
$55 million Historic Preservation
$20 million working capital fund
$200 million Superfund
$165 million Forest Svc Capital Improvement
$90 million State & Private Wildlife Fire Management
$75 million Smithsonian
$600 million Title I (NCLB)
Now, yes, I know, lets not kill the good for the perfect, yadda yadda yadda. But just because Democrats in the Senate may not have had a choice in compromising, that doesn't mean Specter, the Senator from a State that now keeps voting Democratic, deserves kudos for stripping over a billion d...
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Sunday, February 8, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Bad Week for Trulia
I think this is significant...
via Future of Real Estate Marketing by Joel Burslem on 2/5/09
First the news that they're getting beaten handily by their rivals Zillow in the traffic game (see John Cook's post on TechFlash).
According to Zillow's COO Spencer Rascoff, Zillow pulled in 7,529,360 visitors in January. A pretty impressive achievement.
Compounding the situation for the big T though, comes news yesterday that Trulia's city results have dropped out of Google's search results.
Sure enough, a search for "portland real estate" and "san francisco real estate" now returns zero Trulia results. A search for "seattle real estate" however still brings them up, but in a much lower position than they previously occupied.
No indication as to why the company was dropped from the index — though some bloggers are theorizing it was because they were penalized for their URL structure.
Regardless, dropping out of the Google index, even if it's only temporarily, can't be good for the company's traffic-building attempts.
The race to try and knock Realtor.com off its perch as the #1 place for real estate related eyeballs (see 3 sites join real estate top-20 rankings) has getting really interesting lately. Yahoo, for example, has made enormous strides in taking them on, even with all the turmoil that has surrounded the company lately.
And Zillow, as evidenced by its strong January showing, is obviously not content playing in third place either. They want a shot at the title.
Interestingly, their impressive January numbers were, according to John Cook, also as a result of some SEO fiddling undertaken by the company.
I heard from a real estate source this week that Zillow has figured out some new search engine optimization techniques, which are helping to build traffic…
Let's just hope it wasn't the same techniques Trulia were using.
photo by faeryboots
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Drink Beer, Make Fuel
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Drink Beer, Make Fuel
A brewing company in Chico, Calif. is adapting a new system at its brewery that will make its own high-quality ethanol fuel from discarded beer yeast.
The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., working with the E-Fuel Corporation, will start testing the system in the second quarter of this year, and hopes to move to full-scale ethanol production in third quarter.
"This has the potential to be a great thing for the environment and further our commitment to be becoming more energy independent," said Ken Grossman, founder and president, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Currently, Sierra Nevada resells almost 1.6 million gallons of unusable "bottom of the barrel" beer yeast waste to local farmers to be used as dairy feed. The waste contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol content, including enough yeast and nutrients to enable the ethanol system, the MicroFueler, to raise that level to 15 percent alcohol, allowing for an increased ethanol yield.
"Creating ethanol from discarded organic waste is an excellent example of how the MicroFueler can help eliminate our reliance on the oil industry infrastructure. This is especially true when considering Americans reportedly discard 50 percent of all agricultural farmed products," said Tom Quinn, E-Fuel founder and CEO. "Using a waste product to fuel your car is friendlier to the environment and lighter on your wallet, easily beating prices at the gas pump."
The Technology
The EFuel100 MicroFueler is the world's first portable ethanol micro-refinery system. The system also comes in a household appliance-sized unit, making it possible "for homeowners and small businesses to safely and cost-effectively create their own fuel, on-site," according to the company.
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Monday, February 2, 2009
President signs Two Executive Orders & Three Presidential Memoranda
via White House.gov Press Office Feed on 1/20/09
The President today signed two Executive Orders and three Presidential Memoranda. These five documents represent a bold first step to fulfill his campaign promises to make government more responsible and accountable, to launch sweeping ethics reform, and to begin a new era of transparent and open government.Surreal...
Sunday, February 1, 2009
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