Wednesday, January 30, 2013

12 ways to be a more better leader

Inc.com

Its Hump day! !!!

Good morning my raving fans! !
Its hump day and were getting closer to the weekend and I'm excited to hang out with great friends and watch the superbowl game. Who's winning 49ers or Ravens? Tough choice for me but it will be a game not to miss. Also I want to let everyone know that if you or if you know anyone looking to replace there old Ac system or needing to upgrade there old countertops to granite or marble and wanting new tile or laminate flooring please refer them to our company and we will take care of them as if they are our own family.   Remember be thankful for what you currently have and show lots of kindness and smile alot today. Be Great!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Luxury Home for sale!!!





Wholesale Property Information *
Property ID#38410
StatusWholesale
Address13221 N 17th PL
Phoenix, AZ 85022
Maricopa County
Get a Map!
Asking Price$610,000.00
TypeSingle Family Home
Beds7
Baths7
1/2 Baths1
Sq. Footage6183 sq ft
Year Built2001
Garage3 Car Attached
BasementNone
PoolIn Ground
Lot Size32738

luxury home on top of the mountain overlooking the Pint Golf Course 18th St. and Thunderbird
gated area


Beds: 7Baths: 7.5







Hill Top Home Overlooking the Pointe Golf Course, plus Mountain and City Light Views. 7 Bedrooms each with full baths and Jacuzzi tubs. Perfect Home for entertaining. Large kitchen with a long Island/Breakfast Bar, Formal Dining and Nook. Family room with Wet Bar overlooks large Deck with a view. Two Master Suites - one with Balcony and Sitting Area. Pointe Amenities . Gated Community at end of a cul-de-sac. Needs some work but a great property.
Short Sale - Lender has Approved
90 day bank deed restriction for transfer of deed - easy solution to deal with this.


buyer will need to put $180,000 down non-refundable with the balance in 90 days.

closest luxury properties to compare this to are in Moon Valley and Coral Gables as follows:

Price Analysis
Summary of Closed Listings
MLS #AddressList PriceADOMCDOMEncoded FeaturesApprox SQFTPrice per Approx SQFTSold DateSold PriceTotal AdjustsAdjusted Price
477229315223 N 12th ST, Phoenix AZ$949,00013913956.5FRDXPSQAO4G5,568$161.6410/26/2012$900,000-$900,000
4746320311 W Baltusrol CIR, Phoenix AZ$749,00017217243.5FRDXPSO2G2S4,383$165.4111/10/2012$725,000-$725,000
476794814645 N 15th DR, Phoenix AZ$725,000393934RDXP3G1C6,909$114.7810/05/2012$793,000-$793,000
47936561461 W Caribbean LN, Phoenix AZ$1,075,000464663.5FRDXPLO3.5G8S5,154$203.7309/30/2012$1,050,000-$1,050,000
470524014211 N MOON MOUNTAIN TRL, Phoenix AZ$799,90035435433.5FRDAO2.5G5S4,587$114.4501/10/2013$525,000-$525,000
Summary of Active Listings
MLS #AddressOrig. List PriceADOMCDOMEncoded FeaturesApprox SQFTPrice per Approx SQFTList PriceTotal AdjustsAdjusted Price
488023415237 N 12TH ST, Phoenix AZ$1,175,0000044.5FRDXPSQAO4G4S5,550$211.71$1,175,000-$1,175,000
483525915033 N 12TH ST, Phoenix AZ$895,00032231754RDXAO3.5G4,534$175.34$795,000-$795,000
4868742119 W TAM OSHANTER DR, Phoenix AZ$979,000<td align="right" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 4px; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-st< /span>

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A lot more homeowners remodeling their homes.

THURSDAY January 24, 2013 NEWS & COMMENTARY SALES & MARKETING LAW & ETHICS TECHNOLOGY HOME & DESIGN FOR BROKERS Home > News & Commentary > Daily News | -AA+A Home Owners Get Back to Remodeling Residences DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013 As the housing market rebounds, more home owners are remodeling their homes again,  according to industry reports.  Remodeling has been far from its peak in recent years as home owners delay projects due to the sluggish economy. In 2007, the remodeling industry peaked at more than $325 billion, but revenues in this sector fell 16 percent in 2011. So why the sudden upturn in remodeling?  The increase in remodeling activity is coinciding with a rise in home prices. “Just as falling prices discouraged home owners from repairing or expanding a house, rising prices have given them confidence to undertake a delayed project,” NBC News reports. More home owners are also looking to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, partially spurred by government incentives to do so and partly because they're seeking ways to offset rising energy costs. Also, older home owners reportedly are retrofitting their houses to prepare for retirement. Additionally, younger households are now taking on delayed projects to accommodate growing families. Furthermore, the high number of foreclosed homes in need of TLC is also causing remodeling activity to pick up, according to a report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.  “All those homes that have gone through foreclosure or short sales are now coming back on the market,” says Kermit Baker, a senior fellow at the center. “In a lot of cases these properties have been abandoned for the last few years. So you’ve got some properties in pretty tough shape.” As the economy continues to improve, remodeling is expected to increase, says Tom O’Grady, president of O’Grady Builders in Drexel Hill, Pa.

Dont do it Diamond backs!!!!!

All-Star outfielder Justin Upton has been traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Atlanta Braves, reports CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman. The deal is pending a physical, but is otherwise complete.

The full trade is the Braves getting Upton and third baseman Chris Johnson. The D-Backs get third baseman/outfielder Martin Prado, starting pitcher Randall Delgado, minor-league shortstop Nick Ahmed and minor-league pitcher Zeke Spruill.

Upton, 25, hit .280/.355/.430 with 17 homers, 67 RBI, 107 runs and 18 stolen bases last season for the D-Backs. In 2011, he hit .289/.369/.529 with 31 homers, 88 RBI, 105 runs, 39 doubles and 21 stolen bases, leading the Diamondbacks to an unlikely NL West title and finishing fourth in NL MVP voting. He appeared headed for superstardom, but fell out of favor with Arizona brass at some point in 2012.

The obvious storyline as Upton heads to Atlanta is that he'll join his brother, B.J. Upton, in the Braves' outfield. B.J. signed a 5-year, $75 million deal earlier this offseason with the Braves.

So the setup in the outfield appears to be a question mark on the corners. That is, we know it'll be Justin Upton and Jason Heyward, but both are right fielders by trade. So one of them moves to left (I'll guess Upton) with B.J. Upton manning center.

With Johnson at third, he'll join Freddie Freeman, Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons in filling out the Atlanta infield.

As for Arizona, once they signed free agent Cody Ross, we knew that either Upton or Jason Kubel were likely to be traded. This was no secret and Upton had already vetoed a potential deal to Seattle earlier this offseason. So now the Diamondbacks have an outfield of Ross (RF), Gerardo Parra (CF) and Kubel (LF). Remember, they also traded center fielder Chris Young earlier this offseason.

Prado, 29, hit .301/.359/.438 with 10 homers, 70 RBI, 81 runs, 42 doubles, six triples and 17 stolen bases last season. He can play almost anywhere on the diamond, but seems a natural fit at third base for Arizona. So he'll join Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill and Cliff Pennington in filling out the infield.

Prado is a pretty good return here, but let's keep in mind he's a free agent after the 2013 season.

Delgado, 22, went 4-9 with a 4.37 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 76 strikeouts in 92 2/3 innings last season for the Braves. Prior to last season, he was ranked as the 46th-best prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

Ahmed, 22, hit .269/.337/.391 with 40 steals last season for High-A Lynchburg. Spruill, 23, went 9-11 with a 3.67 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 106 strikeouts in 161 2/3 innings for Double-A Mississippi last season.

For more baseball news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnBaseball on Twitter, subscribe to the RSS feed and "like" us on Facebook. Also,

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Wholesale property for sale in Gilbert.

You can Google map to see a picture of this property.

CALL Coy WITH ANY QUESTIONS @ 6023996861, Address is 602 S. Bay Dr, Gilbert Az,    WholesalePropertyInformation *PropertyID#38405StatusWholesaleAddress602 S. Bay DrGilbert, AZ 85233Maricopa

Asking Price $210,900.00 Type Single

Family HomeBeds 4Baths 2Floors Sq. Footage 2204 sq ft Year Built 1989 Garage...2 Car AttachedBasementNonePoolNone4 BEDROOM , 2 BATH, 2 CAR GARAGE, FIREPLACE, PROPERTY IN GOOD SHAPE, NEEDS SOME UPDATING, LOCATED IN DESIRABLE LAKE COMMUNITY,  2,204 SF, SEE COMPS BELOW FROM NEIGHBORHOOD.OCCUPIED -- CALL OR TEXT Coy @ 6023996861 FOR ACCESS- All Prices based on cash sale with $5,000 non-refundable deposit to secure property.- All properties offered are either owned /under contract and selling equitable interest or offered in conjunction with business associate.- One or more of managing members are a licensed Real Estate Agent in the state of Arizona, see other important information on web site.- Our investors may list in MLS for reduced fee once the house is ready for sale. If estimated values are provided, they are based on interpretation of MLS and Tax Data. We encourage each investor to conduct their own due diligence. Members of selling entity are not tax or financial advisers. You should consult with a certified financial and/or tax adviser on any investment you are considering.1234458-0000-2178546* DISCLAIMER: This information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed.flippingaz.com Property ID

Monday, January 21, 2013

New Benz 2013

Daimler: Ride The Market In Style In 2013 - http://pulse.me/s/gXnd7

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Wholesale property in Scottsdale, Az for sale

Check Google maps to see home also.

CALL. Coy WITH ANY QUESTIONS @ 6023996861 Property

Information *Property ID#38261Status Wholesale....Address 5920 E. Juniper Ave Scottsdale, AZ 85254 Maricopa County Asking Price$275,900.00 Type Single family home

Surrounded tv vision in your home

Microsoft’s Epic Plan To Turn Your Living Room Into A Giant TV http://t.co/5LAQR7XA

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I want these glasses made by Google!

Watch "Google Glasses Project" on YouTube

Great news for investors that fix and flip properties

FHA Loan | Home Flippers Get Break FHA

« PREVIOUS NEXT »Print  Tweet  Rehabbers and real estate investors rejoice: You’ll still be able to sell houses to first-time buyers using low-down payment FHA-insured mortgages next year, even if you’ve owned the fixed-up property for less than 90 days.The Federal Housing Administration has decided to extend its rule permitting loans on quick “flips” of renovated houses beyond the scheduled Dec. 31 expiration deadline. The policy is widely considered one of the key federal government moves that has encouraged private investors in large numbers — often mom and pop, small-scale operations — to buy foreclosed and deteriorating houses from lenders, then repair them and resell within short periods of time.Since the plan was first put into place by the Obama administration in February of 2010, more than 65,000 renovated homes have been financed using more than $11 billion in FHA-backed loans, according to federal officials. Roughly 23,000 of these properties were acquired and resold with FHA loans within the past year alone.The idea, according to acting FHA Commissioner Carol J. Galante, is to help “stabilize real estate prices as well as neighborhoods and communities where foreclosure activity has been high” by making it easier for investors to buy, fix up and sell run-down homes that add to urban blight and depress values. The primary purchasers of the renovated properties are first-time, moderate-income families who might otherwise be frozen out of the market because they don’t have the down-payment cash required for a conventional loan. FHA down payments can be as low as 3.5 percent.The Obama administration’s initiative in 2010 represented a reversal of earlier restrictions on flips first imposed in 2003. After scandals in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, the District of Columbia and other large cities over widespread fraudulent flips — where houses sometimes resold for double their previous price within days or even hours — FHA stopped insuring loans on houses whose sellers had owned them for less than 90 days.Paul Wylie, a Los Angeles-area investor active in renovating distressed properties, welcomed the extension of the FHA policy because “it allows predominantly first-time buyers to compete with cash buyers, investors and others” for houses at affordable prices that have been professionally repaired. In some neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles, much of the inventory of homes that have been rehabilitated for resale within 90 days are what Wylie calls “foreclosure flips, short-sale flips or standard-sale flips.” FHA is pretty much the only financing available for moderate-income, owner-occupant buyers of these renovated properties.Bruce A. Calabrese, CEO of Equitable Mortgage Corp. in Columbus, Ohio, says the essential ingredients in FHA’s revised approach are its strict controls on appraisals, inspections and chain of title — all designed to ensure “that there is no funny business going on.”Indeed, FHA’s policy requires property sellers to comply with a detailed list of standards. Among the most prominent:• You can’t play games on ownership. All transactions must be arm’s-length with “no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties” involved in the sale. You can’t buy a house from your uncle at a bargain price, hire your brother to do a few quick repairs to it, then resell it for a huge profit to an unsophisticated buyer, supported by a hyped-up appraisal signed by a friend or partner.• The seller of the rehabilitated house must have clear legal title to it. This may sound elementary, but some flippers during the late 1990s never bothered to acquire title and record it. They took over the property one day, slapped a little paint on the outside and sold it the following day.• If the selling price is 20 percent higher than what the house cost the seller, a second appraisal, conducted by a member of FHA’s panel of approved appraisers, is mandatory to be certain the improvements made to the property justify the increased price.• An independent inspection report, conducted by a professional with no connection to other participants in the transaction, is also mandatory when the price jump is more than 20 percent. If there are repairs that are still needed that could affect the “health and safety” of the purchasers, they must be completed and a re-inspection conducted before the closing.Bottom line: Flipping under FHA’s rules should continue to be an important option for buyers of renovated, previously distressed houses and the investors who make it their business to find them and fix them up.Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated real estate columnist.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Will this coach give the Cards a winning season?

Cardinals hire Bruce Arians as their next coach - CBSSports.com

NSX!

Acura NSX steps closer to reality in Detroit (pictures) - CNET Mobile

http://m.cnet.com/photos/acura-nsx-steps-closer-to-reality-in-detroit-pictures/10015472

Galaxy 8.0 tablet on its way.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 may pop up in February

January 17, 2013 | Roger ChengAn 8-inch version of its Note line of tablets will reportedly make an appearance at Mobile World Congress next month.The Galaxy Note 10.1.CNETSamsung Electronics may add another member to its already large family of tablets.The company is set to unveil the Galaxy Note 8.0, possibly next month at the Mobile World Congress conference, according to self-described "fansite"SamMobile, which did not cite sources for the information.Among the mobile device vendors, Samsung has been one of the most aggressive in pushing its tablet lineup. It was one of the first to introduce an Android tablet in the original Galaxy Tab, and it releases new sizes and variants on a regular basis.The Galaxy Note line, which includes a stylus, is geared toward people looking to create their own media or content.The Galaxy Note 8.0, according to SamMobile, will feature an 8-inch 1280x800 Super Clear LCD display, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB to 32GB of internal storage with a slot for more memory. It also packs a 4,600 mAh battery.The tablet will be 8.3 inches long, 5.4 inches wide, and 0.3 inches thick, according to SamMobile. Software wise, it will run on Android 4.2, also known as Jelly Bean. As with other Note devices, it will feature a built-in S-Pen stylus.

Reason To Checkout Yancy Industries.blogspot.com

What you will find on my blog site is everything that I love and have a passion for. For example like business,  classic cars to high end sport's cars, fashion,  food, technology, women ;) Even story's and pictures of my family and friends. And please leave a comment on my blogs also if you like. If you have ideas or storys pictures please share them with me. Thanks to all of you and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and idea's,  feelings to you. Enjoy!! :)

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

5 Reasons You Should Have Granite Countertops in Your Kitchen








1. Granite countertops are the number one selling point if you ever decide to put your house on the market. No matter if it's going to be in a year or in ten years - your granite will look like new even then. It will provide beauty and elegance that will be appreciated for a lifetime.
2. Granite is made entirely of natural material. With today's trend to be "green," you will not only have a gorgeous kitchen it will also be environmentally safe. Since each piece of granite is different in color, your countertops will be unique and distinctive.
3. Granite is the most durable, chip and scratch resistant material. It is also heat resistant which means you can set hot pots directly on it. Natural stone is also immune to freezing, thawing, mold and mildew. In fact, no other material lasts longer. It even has a lifetime warranty! Try to beat that with laminate.
4. Granite is easy to clean and maintain. All you need to do is to clean the surface with mild household cleaners (a few drops of dishwashing detergent or Murphy's Oil Soap) and water. All adhered materials like gum, food, nail polish or paint can be scraped away with a plastic putty knife. It's that easy. Preserving your natural stone is even easier: wipe down a topical sealant once a year. It will also enhance the surface sheen.
5. It's the most popular kitchen countertop because it is affordable! When dealing directly with the factory, you pay wholesale and keep the change. With prices starting at $20 per square foot, you no longer need to buy cheap laminates every ten years. Even if you add a nice edge to it, you are still looking at the price that is within your budget. If you are not able to find a direct importer of granite in your area, you can always have your handyman do the drawing of your kitchen countertops and order custom made pieces online and have them shipped to you. Don't be afraid of the shipping cost. Even though the natural stone is heavy, the shipping is relatively low (approximately $350 within continental US).
There is no substitute for the dramatic effect that can be achieved by adding natural stone accents to your kitchen. You know perfectly well that every time you throw a party, most of your guests will be in the kitchen with you. Why not give them that atmosphere of relaxed comfort and elegance to enjoy? And as for you - you will love your new granite countertops and will have that ultimate satisfaction every time you enter your kitchen.
Author:Maryla Bosek


Sunday, January 6, 2013

Porsche Rolex 24

4
      
Daytona Beach – After what has seemed to be a very short off-season in the sports car world, it was back to work yesterday for the 60-plus teams entered in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Porsche customers filling 18 of those entry slots with Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars.

#44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3: Nicolas Armindo, Andy Lally, Richard Lietz, John Potter
Photo by: Eric Gilbert
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is the most successful race car in the world. Since 1998, 2,395 units of the near-street-stock race vehicle for customer sport have been produced, and since 2005, this Porsche has been the star of the Rolex 24 event, capturing the GT class of this race six of the last eight years including Farnbacher Racing (2005), TPC Racing (2006), Alegra Motorsports (2007), TRG (2009 and 2011), and Magnus Racing in 2012.
Porsches have won the Rolex 24 overall 22 times, and have earned 74 class wins. The first overall victory was in 1968, with the most recent wins in 2003 (with a GT car) and 2009 and 2010 with Porsche-powered Daytona Prototypes. Porsche’s first class win at Daytona was in 1966, with the most recent being the Magnus victory last year. Porsche 911-based race cars have 39 overall and class wins, while Porsche scored 11 consecutive overall victories from 1977 - 1987 in the iconic 24-hour event.
“This has to be one of the strongest line-ups our customer teams have ever fielded,” observed Porsche Motorsport North America president Jens Walther as he looked over the entry list during yesterday’s first testing session.
“Seven of our ten Porsche factory drivers are here, plus other international racing stars, to add to our top American teams who field cars during the American Le Mans and Rolex Grand-Am seasons,” said Walther.
While lap times are certainly an important part of how test days are going for the teams, Walther pointed out that most of entries have specific tasks they are looking to accomplish that are not linked to just speed.
“For teams that are using drivers who have never driven Daytona before – and this applies to many of the Porsche Junior and Carrera/Challenge Cup drivers from around the world – learning to get the most of the banked oval is a priority. Others have never driven at night – an experience they will get tonight during evening practice. Still others may only have sprint race experience, and will need practice with driver changes. And for crews and engineers, the challenges are the same. The size of the crew swells for a 24-hour event, so pit stop coordination is essential. New combinations of drivers will require challenging set-up issues which must be solve. Just making sure everyone has correct clothing and safety equipment can be a priority activity,” said Walther.
For casual race fans, perhaps the two most well-known names who will be driving Porsches this weekend are Tony Kanaan, IndyCar star, and his KV IndyCar teammate Rubens Barrichelo, who also boast 11 victories in Formula 1 during his career. Along with fellow Brazilians Nono Figueiredo and Ricardo Mauricio, the IndyCar drivers will be piloting one of the two Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racers fielded by the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Brazil series.
The seven Porsche factory drivers and two Porsche Junior pilots are spread throughout the field as follows (* denotes previous Rolex 24 winner):
--Marco Holzer – Alex Job Racing (with Cooper MacNeil, Jeroen Bleekemolen* and Damien Faulkner).
--Nick Tandy (newest Porsche factory driver) and Michael Christensen (Porsche Junior driver) - with Lance Willsey and Christian Englehart – Konrad Motorsports/Orbit Racing
--Richard Lietz* – Magnus Racing (with John Potter*, Nicolas Armindo and Andy Lally*)
--Marc Lieb* – Brumos Racing (with Leh Keen, Andrew Davis, and Bryan Sellers)
--Klaus Bachler (Porsche Junior driver) – Snow Racing/Wright Motorsports (with Melanie Snow, Sascha Maassen, and Marco Seefried)
--Joerg Bergmeister* – TRG (with Ben Keating, Dominik Farnbacher*, and Kuno Wittmer)
--Patrick Long* – Park Place Motorsports (with Patrick Lindsey, Jason Hart, Spencer Pumpelly* and Daniel Graeff
A long list of veteran Porsche drivers participating with Porsche teams for Daytona, including former factory pilots and series champions, not mentioned above include Martin Ragginger, Jack Baldwin*, Sean Edwards, Angel Benitez, Jr., Hugh Plumb, Charles Espenlaub, Emmanuel Collard*, Nic Jonsson, Tracy Krohn, and Kelly Collins.
“You could start a world-class sports car series just with the drivers who will be in Porsches for this race,” said Walther.
Porsche Motorsport

Saturday, January 5, 2013

90% world disaster

Risk: U.S. hit with 90% of the world's disaster costs in 2012 -- 01/04/2013 http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2013/01/04/1

RISK:
U.S. hit with 90% of the world's disaster costs in 2012
Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter
ClimateWire: Friday, January 4, 2013
The United States led the world in disaster losses last year as a massive drought seared Midwestern crops in the field and as superstorm-driven waves wreaked havoc and blackouts along the East Coast. They added up to one of the most expensive weather damage years on record.

Nearly all the world's economic damage from storms, drought, fire and earthquakes was centered in the United States as it experienced the highest temperatures ever recorded, according to Munich Re, a global reinsurance company. More than 90 percent of insured losses worldwide occurred in the United States, well above the 30-year average of 65 percent.

Half this house was left standing in Union Beach, N.J. Superstorm Sandy took the other half. Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Superstorm Sandy, a massive Atlantic storm that heaved ocean surges of up to 15 feet onto shorelines in New York and New Jersey, caused more economic damage worldwide than all its disastrous counterparts in a year with $160 billion in global costs.

Insurers are still tallying the October storm's impact, but it's expected to cost the industry $25 billion or more, surpassing the financial losses of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and perhaps even topping the wreckage of Florida's Hurricane Andrew of 1992. Sandy promises to be the second or third costliest disaster in U.S. history. Its total economic costs are estimated to be more than $50 billion.

The widespread drought that seared Midwest farm fields and stranded Mississippi River barges ranks as the second-most expensive disaster globally last year. It inflicted $20 billion in damage on the economy, most of which was insured through government crop insurance programs.

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Three different spurts of thunderstorms and tornadoes, including a derecho in June that traveled hundreds of miles, account for the rest of the five costliest events to affect insurers globally last year. Those storms caused about $7 billion in insured losses, making 2012 the second-most expensive year on record for thunderstorm damage.

Losses increase from climate disasters, but not from earthquakes

That illustrates a trend of increasingly damaging storms since about 1980, insurers say. Over that time, losses from thunderstorms have increased sevenfold. Much of that rise is the result of expanding development, but insurers also believe climate change is having an impact. That conclusion is based, in part, on the absence of rising losses from earthquakes, which insurers say would also be climbing if damage was driven exclusively by the construction of more buildings.

"What we can clearly see ... is that geophysical events like earthquakes and tsunamis have not really changed over this period of more than three decades," Ernst Rauch, head of Munich Re's Corporate Climate Center, said on a conference call yesterday. "However, weather-related disasters like windstorms ... and climatological events have increased over this period of time."

The world altogether experienced 900 major disasters in 2012, marking what experts describe as a steadily rising number of costly catastrophes as intensifying storms strike ever-denser areas. The average number of disasters worldwide since 1980 is 800. The toll makes 2012 the third costliest year for the insurance industry worldwide, following only 2011 and 2005. For U.S. insurers, only one year was more expensive: 2005, when Hurricane Katrina and other storms pulverized the Gulf Coast.

Despite its economic damage, 2012 proved to be relatively merciful with regard to human life. The death toll, at about 9,500 worldwide, is far below the 10-year average of 106,000 fatalities. The deadliest event occurred Dec. 4 when Typhoon Bopha crashed into the southern Philippines, killing 1,100 people. Reflecting the lack of development and insured property there, and across the developing world, Munich Re listed insured losses from the storm as "minor." Total economic losses are estimated at about $600 million.

Insurance is seen as one adaptive measure to climate change, which stands to affect poorer nations more deeply than industrialized countries. Richer nations have more resources to respond to rising oceans and other threats.

Insurers find 'attribution' to climate losses

But providing insurance, even in the United States, to homeowners in coastal regions comes with its own challenges. Some criticize the National Flood Insurance Program for encouraging development in peril-prone areas by charging premiums that are too low. Critics call that maladaptation. But the program is taking steps to raise its rates on vacation homes and other structures, a step that could give buyers and owners a better sense of the risks of living in floodplains.

The flood program, meanwhile, is on pace to extinguish the money it's using to pay Sandy claims within two weeks unless Congress raises its borrowing authority by $9 billion. The program is facing its second-highest payout since being created in the late 1960s, with about $7.5 billion in claims from Sandy, said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute.

A record drought eliminated the need to harvest this cornfield in St. Aubert, Mo. Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Despite the flood program's affordability, less than half the residents reeling from Sandy had flood insurance. That will increase the burden on taxpayers when Congress allocates emergency funding for rebuilding.

"Despite a history of flooding in these areas, unfortunately many people did not have flood coverage," Hartwig said. "And this is what is causing much of the urgency to get federal assistance to this area."

At the same time, Rauch said Munich Re researchers have submitted a paper for peer review that shows how climate change is resulting in intensifying storms in the United States. The forthcoming study, he says, points for one of the first times "toward an attribution of climate change to losses."

Despite the rising evidence of climatic impacts, the media's attention to these challenges tends to be intermittent. The Daily Climate, a website that aggregates climate news stories, found that climate-related coverage dipped slightly from 2011 to 2012. Its search found a one-year decrease in media coverage of 2.4 percent, resulting in 18,546 stories and columns by 7,194 writers worldwide in 2012.

That marks a sharp decline from 2009, when the site found 32,400 articles related to climate change. But there are some signs that attention to the topic is beginning to rise. Other analysts point to increasing coverage on network news shows and in the nation's largest newspapers in 2012.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Best buffet in Las Vegas

Bacchanal Buffet

Why? It was named the best buffet in Vegas by USA Today.
The Caesar’s Bacchanal Buffet underwent a $17 million chrysalis earlier this year, and the result is the city’s largest (at 25,000 square feet) buffet. With nine open kitchens, a nearly global representation of cuisine and an edgy design by the Japanese firm Super Potato, Bacchanal is arguably Vegas’ best buffet. Notable bites include: made-to-order omelets and red-velvet pancakes, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, Chinese dim sum, shrimp and grits, and even soufflés. It’s worth any wait you may experience.
 
ADDRESS: 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South
PHONE: 702-731-7110
WEB: caesarspalace.com/casinos/caesars-palace/restaurants-dining
 

Funny! !

Watch "Senior Citizen Choir takes on Hip-Hop" on YouTube