Investmentsandequity-blog - Investments And Equity

If there was any doubt that the US housing “recovery” is anything but the latest speculative play by deep-pocketed (namely those who already have access to cheap funding) investors, who are now engaged in rotating cash gains out of capital markets and into real estate, on their way hoping to flip newly-acquired properties to other wealthy investors, then the most recent, September, RealtyTrac report will put that to rest. To wit: Institutional investors (purchasing 10 or more properties in the last 12 months) accounted for 14 percent of all sales in September, up from 9 percent in August and also 9 percent in September 2012. September had the highest percentage of institutional investor purchases of any month since RealtyTrac began tracking in January 2011….All-cash purchases nationwide represented 49 percent of all residential sales in September, up from a revised 40 percent in August and up from 30 percent in September 2012. In other words, institutional purchases are now at all time highs, with all-cash accounting for half of all transactions!

Continued

THE MYTH THAT “MINORITIES” GET MORE SCHOLARSHIPS DEBUNKED SINCE 5EVER

This is something that comes up time and time again like clockwork.Here’s a”just the facts” post.

Racists LOVE this tired old saw. The problem is that it’s complete and utter bullshit, it always HAS been, and IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF REALITY.

Caucasian students receive more than three-quarters (76%) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62%) of the student population. Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students. These statistics demonstrate that, as a whole, private sector scholarship programs tend to perpetuate historical inequities in the distribution of scholarships according to race.

-The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race

BUT WHAT ABOUT FINANCIAL NEED BASED SCHOLARSHIPS????

OH HEY IS THERE ANOTHER SOURCE FOR THIS?

It debunks the race myth, which claims that minority students receive more than their fair share of scholarships. The reality is that minority students are less likely to win private scholarships or receive merit-based institutional grants than Caucasian students. Among undergraduate students enrolled full-time/full-year in Bachelor’s degree programs at four-year colleges and universities, minority students represent about a third of applicants but slightly more than a quarter of private scholarship recipients. Caucasian students receive more than three-quarters (76%) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62%) of the student population. Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students.

STOP PARROTING RACIST MYTHS INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY FACT CHECKING

Scholarships Go Disproportionately To White Students

White Students More Likely To Win Scholarships

White students get Minority Scholarships

Texas State Offers Scholarship EXCLUSIVELY FOR WHITE PEOPLE

One Million dollars’ Worth of White “Ethnic” Scholarships Don’t Trouble Student Group Protesting “Minority Scholarships

B-b-but what about the “Evils” Of Affirmative Action in Higher Education??? Oh yeah, WHITE WOMEN ARE THE #1 BENEFICIARIES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

So stop saying this shit. you’re just plain fucking WRONG. Also, racist.

New Technology to Watch as phones and audio devices expand into the watch world. 

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear: A Review

The Galaxy Gear smartwatch, with a 1.67-inch OLED display, serves as a watch, a pedometer, a voice recorder, and a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder. When paired with the Note 3 via Bluetooth 4.0, this wrist-strapped device can make and take phone calls, send and receive text messages, and access Samsung’s Siri-like S-Voice assistant to make appointments, dictate messages, and more.

The Note 3 offers significant improvements over its successor: a larger, higher-definition display; a faster processor; a higher-capacity battery; and all of the advanced wireless sharing and gesture controls available on the Galaxy S 4. 

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$NFLX reverses course after big gain following earnings. Reed Hastings during earnings videocast: ““Every time I read a story about Netflix is the highest appreciating stock in the S&P 500, it worries me because that was the exact headline that we used to see in 2003.” http://yhoo.it/1deOhGo

Researchers Re-Engineer E-Coli DNA to Make it Programmable

A team of synthetic biologists led by Farren Isaacs at Yale University [has taken] Escherichia coli cells and replaced all of the UAG stop codons with UAAs. They also deleted the instructions for making the release factor that usually binds to UAG, effectively rendering UAG meaningless…

The next step was to assign a new meaning to UAG during protein production. The team did this by designing molecules called transfer RNAs and accompanying enzymes that would attach an unnatural amino acid – fed to the cell – wherever they spotted the UAG codon…

By reintroducing UAGs at specific locations, as the Yale team have done, unnatural amino acids can be added into proteins at will.

"We now have an organism that has a new code, and we can reliably and efficiently open up the chemical diversity of proteins," says Isaacs.

For example, artificial amino acids could be added that give proteins unusual properties, such as the ability to bind to metals – resulting in novel adhesives. Or enzymes could be developed that are activated only in the presence of other molecules – which could be useful for drugs. “The genetic code is conserved for all of life, so this is a fundamental step forward,” says Philipp Holliger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He says that because so much of the genetic code is redundant, there might be other codons that could be reassigned to expand the chemistry of living organisms.

(via Reprogrammed bacterium speaks new language of life - life - 23 October 2013 - New Scientist)

Northwestern University unveils some shiny, new design proposals for the former Prentice Women’s Hospital site on its Chicago campus.

Designs submitted by Goettsch Partners and Ballinger, Perkins & Will and Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture and Payette made the final three and now the university wants feedback.

So, tell us: Which design do you like best?

American Airlines, US Airways Strike A Deal To Merge Into The World’s Biggest Airline: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-american-airlines-us-airways-162924491.html (via Business Insider)