2008 October 13 | money news blog

Archive for October 13th, 2008

13 10 2008

Esther Dyson To Train For Space Flight

Posted by: in Life and Science

DynaSoar writes “Esther Dyson, known to many as a founding and consistently guiding member of ICANN, and for working with the startups of Flickr, del.icio.us, Medscape and others, is now expanding her interests upwards. She recently announced that she will be heading to Moscow to train as backup astronaut for Charles Simonyi, who plans to fly aboard Soyuz TMA-14 next year. The US$3 million price tag won’t be her first cash contribution towards personal space flight. She’s already an investor in Space Adventures, the company that arranges the space tourist flights on Soyuz.”

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13 10 2008

Housing market continues to slow - Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Posted by: admin in Today News

Housing market continues to slow - Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The Real Estate institute of Western Australia (REIWA) states Perth’s housing market is continuing to slow with the median home price dropping by four per cent in the September quarter. The president of REIWA, Rob Druitt, says the median price fell

Pendleton fire forces evacuations of base housing - San Francisco Examiner
27 mins ago: Pendleton fire forces evacuations of homes » 53 mins ago: Pendleton fire forces evacuations of base housing « 1 hr 22 ago: Pendleton fire forces evacuation of base housing This story ranks # 2,601 of 5,179 Related Topics: CAMP

Surprise: Condos one of greenest housing options - Arizona Daily Sun
DEAR EARTHTALK: I’ve followed the trends in “eco-homes” now for many years. Are there equally encouraging things happening in the world of condos? — Charlie Anderson, Seattle, Wash. Believe it or not, condominiums may be some of the most

Where to look for housing lessons - AZCentral.com
Where should you look for signs of hope in the Valley housing market? West, all the way to Estrella Mountain Ranch. Not just the Estrella of today, where the bust has knocked home prices down 35 percent over the past two years, but the Estrella of

Public housing’s Comcast contract costs $15,000 a year in red ink - Marin Independent Journal
A “bulk services” contract with Comcast for public housing generates about $15,000 in red ink a year because it allows some tenants to ignore bills and get cable service for free. Marin housing officials are dropping the contract when it expires in

CORRECTION: U.K September Housing Sales Sentiment Down 2.4 Points - RTT News
(RTTNews) - Housing sales sentiment in Great Britain declined in September, according to survey results released Tuesday by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The RICS survey showed the seasonally adjusted net balance of member

Have I Got the Candidate for You! - Slate
TAMPA, Fla.—Driving central Florida’s foreclosure road is to see economic anxiety made concrete: miles and miles of concrete. Along the Interstate 4 corridor, aquatically named housing developments ( Bays , Beaches , Points , Isles , Vistas ) pile

Cash help coming, but for whom? - News.com.au
A SPECIAL Federal Cabinet meeting has signed off on a stimulus plan that is expected to include an increase in the first homebuyers grant. The Prime Minister will brief Labor MPs and senators on the stimulus package this morning. It is also expected

FEATURE-Oil dollars help Houston dodge U.S. economic woes - Reuters
HOUSTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Even after Hurricane Ike smashed thousands of windows in Houston’s skyscrapers last month, times couldn’t be much superior in the Petro Metro. While the ill wind of economic turmoil sweeps across America, Houston has been

Home price falls accelerate in Sept - MSN UK News
LONDON (Reuters) - The decline in British house prices accelerated in September and sales fell to the lowest level in at least 30 years, a survey showed Tuesday, in a sign the housing market slump might have some way to go yet. The Royal Institution of

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13 10 2008

Algorithms Can Make You Pretty

Posted by: in Life and Science

caffeinemessiah writes “The New York Times has an interesting story on a new algorithm by researchers from Tel Aviv University that modifies a facial picture of a person to conform to standards of attractiveness. Based on a digital library of pictures of people who have been judged ‘attractive,’ the algorithm finds the nearest match and modifies an input picture so it conforms to the ‘attractive’ person’s proportions. The trick, however, is that the resultant pictures are still recognizable as the original person. Here’s a quick link to a representative picture of the process. Note that this is a machine-learning approach to picture modification, not a characterization of beauty, and could just as easily be used to make a person less attractive.” Note: As reader Trent Waddington points out, the underlying research was mentioned in an earlier story as well.

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13 10 2008

Where money is safe — and insured — the new rules - Chester DailyLocal.com

Posted by: admin in Today News

Where money is safe — and insured — the new rules - Chester DailyLocal.com

Nashville City Paper

Where money is safe — and insured — the new rules
Chester DailyLocal.com,

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13 10 2008

Odd Planet Confuses Scientists

Posted by: in Life and Science

eldavojohn writes “While there’s been a lot of debate about what is a planet, there is a recent discovery that has scientists even more confused. COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) spotted an object that appears to be the size of Jupiter yet is 21.6 times larger … and orbits its star in a mere four days and six hours. Now, the other piece of the puzzle is that the star it orbits is larger and only slightly more massive than our Sun. But they can’t describe this thing orbiting it. So far they think it is more prone to be a ‘failed star’ but have settled with ‘member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars bigger than the sun’ to describe it accurately.”