Will The Housing Bubble Burst in 2007?

Sin ce early 2000, economists have been sounding the housing bubble alarm with increasing urgency. And while many markets around the country have seen prices drop in the last year, the dire, across-the-board correction that many predicted has yet to materialize

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Judging the WHO’s Reaction to the H1N1 (Swine Flu) Threat

Few global health decisions have created quite as much commotion as that on April 29, when the World Health Organization , responding to the escalating spread of the H1N1 flu, raised its pandemic alert level for the first time to phase 5, meaning that a full pandemic was considered imminent. As of May 11, the WHO has reported more than 4,600 cases in 30 countries — including 2,600 cases in nearly every state in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and the threat level remains at phase 5. But over the past two weeks, fears over H1N1 have cooled considerably, as the virus has failed to spread easily outside North America and the number of deaths from the disease has remained low, leaving the WHO fending off critics who questioned whether the international agency overreacted

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Despite Signs to the Contrary, Real Estate Will Get Worse

Warren Buffett said that the real estate business his company Berkshire Hathaway owns is seeing a small improvement in housing demand. The National Association of Realtors seemed to confirm his observations when it announced that the index for pending home sales went up in March

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Auto companies strive to end car ‘totaling’

Have you ever heard of someone having their car "totaled"? While the word might conjure images of a massive car accident, replete with broken glass and the Jaws of Life, the reality is sometimes far removed. In fact, there are many accidents that produce structural damage such that the vehicle’s frame is bent, even though the exterior of the car might even look drivable

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Facebook’s Big Move Toward the AfterWeb

Blow up your browser! The Next Big Thing is the AfterWeb. Facebook made a monumental announcement Monday that seemed like it was designed to one-up its supposed rival, Twitter. But in fact, the real news is that Facebook, like so many others these days, is morphing away from a website, to something far more evolved.

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Out-of-wedlock births hit record high

Had she been born a generation earlier, Kim Hoffman might have had a shotgun wedding. As it turned out, she and Steve Miller took the time to plan their dream nuptials — outdoors, on an organic farm, and with their 10-month-old daughter in tow. A pre-marriage birth certainly wasn’t what her father wanted for his only daughter, said Hoffman, of Oakland, California.

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Despite Naval Patrols, Somalia’s Pirates Are Busier Than Ever

Just when shipping companies thought it was safe to go back in the water — off the Horn of Africa in particular — Somali pirates last week nabbed two large chemical tankers within 24 hours, despite the presence of a bevy of Western and other navies prowling in search of the buccaneers. The Greek-owned MV Nipayia was snagged last Wednesday, followed within a day by the capture of the Norwegian-owned MV Bow-Asir. The attacks, which occurred at 380 and 490 nautical miles offshore, showed a willingness by the pirates to operate at great distances from their lairs along the Somali coastline

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‘Miracle fruit’ turns sour things sweet

The small fruit has the color of a cranberry, the shape of an almond and tastes like a flavorless gummy. But after chewing the fruit and rubbing the pulp against the tongue, the berry, known by a promising name — “miracle fruit” or Synsepalum dulcificum — releases a sweetening potency that alters the taste buds. For about 15 to 30 minutes, everything sour is sweet

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