Using Open Source for work and play
Market value is the amount prospective buyers are willing to pay at the time homeowners are ready to sell. Now you may ask - how do I find out the market value of my home? Well, the best way to ensure that you get the best price is to obtain an honest Comparable Market Analysis (CMA). You can get a CMA from your qualified, professional real estate agent.
Read the rest of this entry »
There is hot debate about stem cell use, their ethics and potential for curing diseases. Although promising, the application to disease states should not be overblown. We may all feel bad for Christopher Reeve, but injecting him with stem cells is simply not going to make him miraculously walk. Some cold water needs to be thrown on the loudest proponents, since common sense dictates that all advancements in science don’t always happen out of sheer will and hope. Like all medical experiments, we ask the question: will it work and is it safe, and this applies equally to stem cells.
Read the rest of this entry »
Starting after this month, you are going to see more of your year-over-year performance reports show gains, rather than losses. The strength in the market since March has finally overcome some of the weakness last fall. Once we are past the collapse last October, we will be ahead for the past year. Funny how that works, just like the rant last week on why the ‘lost decade’ tells us more about where it started than where it ends, the past year tells us more about last fall than this year. The decline in September last year was -8.9%. October fell -16.8%. November was a further -7.2%. We’ll have just gotten rid of that first bit in the short-term history when this month is over. After December’s gain of 1%, January fell by -8.4% and February dropped -10.7%. Add in the first 9 days of March and that put us down over 25% year-to-date from December 31st. Most of the whole big stock rally since then has only just recently gotten that 25% drop back and a little bit more. (Remember that you need to gain one-third to overcome a drop of one-quarter, up a half to get back a third, up 100% to get back a half.)
Read the rest of this entry »