Home prices dropped a record 12.4% in the final quarter of 2008

National Association of Realtors reports that home prices dropped a record 12.4% in the final quarter of 2008 - the biggest year-over-year decline in 30 years.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices fell 12.4% during the fourth quarter of 2008, the largest year-over-year decline since the National Association of Realtors began keeping comprehensive records in 1979.

The median price for a U.S. home sold during the fourth quarter of 2008 fell to $180,100, down from $205,700 during the last quarter of 2007.

Distressed properties, the foreclosures and short sales that have flooded the market, accounted for 45% of all deals. That has driven sales volume up in Nevada, California and other states hit hard by foreclosures, but these heavily discounted homes have also pushed median prices down.

"People are responding to discounted prices and are slowly absorbing the excess inventory," said NAR President Charles McMillan. "Buyers clearly see value in today's pricing."

Pain is widespread

The vast majority of metropolitan areas, 134 out of 153, recorded price declines compared with the last quarter of 2007.

"Home markets are weak just about everywhere," said Pat Newport, an analyst with HIS Global Insight, "but in a few states, distressed sales are driving transactions."

Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Fla., which has the third highest rate of foreclosure filings in the nation, according to RealtyTrac, prices fell a devastating 50.8% for the year, to $110,900 from $225,300. That was the most precipitous plunge for any metro area.

In Saginaw, Mich., prices fell 41.4%; Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., prices dropped 40.8%; and San Jose, Calif., prices declined 37.7%.

The Beaumont-Port Arthur area of Texas bucked the national trend. Its median home price jumped 16.7% to $132,600 - the highest increase in the nation. Other winners included Bloomington, Ill., up 9.6%; Dover, Del., up 6.5%; and Bismarck, M.D., up 6%.

The high number of distressed sales pushed prices down for several reasons, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR. For one thing, many sales were in low- and moderate-income housing developments where buyers during the boom years financed their purchases using subprime mortgages. In higher-end areas, fewer exotic mortgages were used.

"Take Orange County, Calif.," said Yun. "It's the lower-priced areas there where homes are selling. The high-priced areas along the coast are not. That has skewed the results."

And the high number of foreclosures means banks are willing to slash prices deeply to move inventory. Many of the properties they've obtained through repossessions now sit vacant, soaking up lender money for maintenance, heating, property taxes and insurance. The banks willingly take lower prices to end those cash outlays, which brings down prices even for normal sellers.

Then there's also what Yun calls a "frozen" jumbo-mortgage lending market, which has also slowed sales of higher-priced homes and reduced median prices.

The good news is that bargain prices are bringing many new buyers into the market." Many are first-time homebuyers who were priced out of the market during the boom," Yun said.

Stimulus help

NAR is hoping a piece of the stimulus bill before Congress will build on that momentum and provide an extra incentive for buyers.

"Assuming housing provisions in the economic stimulus package are quickly enacted and provide enough encouragement for homebuyers, we could see a quick lift in home sales for the critical spring home-buying season," said Yun.

On Thursday, it appeared that the final iteration of the homebuyer's tax credit, which had very different provisions in the House and Senate versions of the stimulus package, was shaping up to be closer to the House bill, according to Yun.

That means a credit of $7,500, perhaps $8,000, or 10% of home price for first-time homebuyers. This windfall will not have to be repaid by homebuyers and can be taken off 2008 taxes. NAR estimates that could draw in an additional half million buyers this year.

"It could help reduce the high inventory of homes for sale," said Yun, "and get housing markets moving again. It's hard to get the economy back to growth until that happened."

If God made the world, then who made God?

Written by: Sean McDowell
Date: Dec 16th 2008, 15:00

I remember lying in bed as a boy wondering about how God could have always existed. Maybe like me you have wondered, “If God made the world, then where did God come from?” This is actually a question that has been raised not only by kids, but also by some great philosophers and scientists. In his bestseller, A Brief History of Time, physicist Stephen Hawking asks the question about what started the universe, “Or does it need a creator, and if so, does he have any other effect on the universe? And who created him?”¹

When we consider the nature of God and the origin of the universe such questions are perhaps less difficult to answer than first imagined. Such questions need not puzzle us and detract our ability to trust God wholeheartedly. Rather, they can point us to appreciate the power and majesty of God, much like the prophet Isaiah, “‘To whom will you liken me that I would be his equal?’ Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their host by number, He calls them by name because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing” (40:25-26).

The Beginning of the Universe
The Bible stands alone as an ancient writing that claims the universe had a beginning. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In contrast to the biblical account past thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato as well as atheists agreed that the universe was eternal and needed no cause for its existence. Christians believed that the universe had a beginning and that God alone was eternal whereas atheists claimed that the universe was eternal. Scientifically speaking there was no way to adjudicate between the two. But this has all changed with recent scientific advancements proving that the universe in fact had a beginning.

The big bang theory states that the entire universe came into existence along time ago in the past. In other words, the universe is not eternal; rather, it had a beginning just like Genesis states! This leaves atheists in a dilemma: either accept a transcendent cause for the universe (namely God) or believe that something can come from nothing. But to believe that something can come from nothing defies a commonsense principle: “Out of nothing, nothing comes.” Some-thing simply can’t come from no-thing. Atheist professor Kai Nielsen admitted, “Suppose you hear a loud bang…and you ask me, ‘What made that bang?’ and I reply, ‘Nothing, it just happened.’ You would not accept that.”² If that is true of a little bang, then why not a big bang too?

So, Who Made God?
This brings us back to the question, “Who made God?” It is important to clarify that Christians do not believe everything that exists needs a cause. Rather, everything that begins to exist must have a cause. There are many things that exist that are uncaused such as mathematical truths and the laws of logic. Even if the world was not created it would still be true that 1+1=2. The universe had a beginning so it must have a cause. But God by definition does not need a cause, he is uncaused.

Philosopher William Lane Craig asks a penetrating question: “And this is not special pleading in the case of God. After all, atheists have long maintained that the universe doesn’t need a cause, because it’s eternal. How can they possibly maintain that the universe can be eternal and uncaused, yet God cannot be timeless and uncaused?”³

Finally, asking the question “What caused God?” commits a logical fallacy, namely the categorical fallacy. Two examples of categorical fallacies are: “What does the color red taste like?” or “How much does love weigh?” Clear the categories of color and taste are distinct categories that do not overlap, as are love and weight. Similarly, to ask what caused God is to commit a category fallacy, for God is by definition uncaused. Paul Copan explains, “If we reframe the question ‘Who made God?’ to clarify our categories, we will find that the question answers itself. Let’s rephrase the question this way, ‘What caused the self-existent, uncaused Cause, who is by definition unmakeable, to exist?’ Any further questions?”⁴

As a young boy I often wondered how God could be eternal. I concluded that if the universe had a beginning then something must have existed prior to it to bring it into existence. This thought boggled my mind as a young boy, and it still does today! While the human mind may not be able to grasp how God has always existed, we do realize that something had to exist prior to the beginning of the universe. God, it seems to me, is the most reasonable explanation.

---

¹ Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York, Bantam, 1988), 174.
² Kai Nielsen, Reason and Practice (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 48.
³ William Lane Craig was interviewed in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2004), 109.
⁴ Paul Copan, That’s Just Your Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Books, 2001), 72.

Facebook Connect Is Now Generally Available. Let the Identity Wars Begin

By Michael Calore December 04, 2008 | 4:14:16 PM

Facebook flipped the switch on its single sign-on technology Thursday. Facebook Connect can now be implemented by any site on the internet on a self-service basis through the company's platform for web developers.

The company says over 100 websites have added Facebook Connect during the testing period or will release it within the coming weeks. Several high-profile websites are on the list, including Digg, CNET, Gawker, Vimeo and several universities.

The system is a proprietary creation of Facebook, and it presents a challenge to the open source technology known as OpenID.

Facebook Connect lets Facebook's 125 million users participate on other websites using their Facebook IDs. Along with an easy login, the user gets the option of re-broadcasting whatever they do on the third-party site to all of their friends within Facebook. The user can also match existing friend relationships on Facebook with those on the third-party site.

For example, users who wants to vote on or leave a comment on a Digg story will be able to log in to Digg.com using their Facebook ID and password. They can participate on Digg just like a registered Digg user, voting, commenting and adding friends. As they click around on Digg, the fact that they dugg such-and-such story, or wrote a comment, will show up in their Facebook news feed in the same way it would if they had written on the Wall of one of their Facebook friends. The company promises there will be privacy controls, so only information approved by users gets re-broadcasted to their Facebook friends.

Click here to read the full story

The First Thanksgiving

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.

Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

What Was Actually on the Menu?

What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

Did you know that lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu? Learn more...

Seventeenth Century Table Manners:

The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.

In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.

Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.

Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.

More Meat, Less Vegetables

Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrims's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.

The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.

Surprisingly Spicy Cooking

People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.

Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.

Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:

The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.

In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns—breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
All Photos Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, Mass. USA. ca.

Architecture at its best....

Palm Jumeriah at Dubai, Every House Has a Beach...

This is taken from world's tallest building 'Burj Dubai' @2,620 ft/801m!

Look at the edge (uppermost right corner) of the picture, you can almost see the turn of the earth.

Study Finds Online Activities Help Teens' Development

Patricia Resende, newsfactor.com

Online games, social-networking Web sites, and chat rooms are empowering and motivating for teens and help with their development, according to a study released Thursday by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting. The study covered three years and 5,000 hours of observing teens online.

The report is part of a $50 million initiative to investigate how digital media affect the way teenagers learn and socialize. Twenty-eight researchers conducted the study.

"When adults look at teens today, they think what they are doing is different and seem to be wasting a lot of time online hanging out with their friends or playing video games, and these are activities that can seem quite foreign," said Mizuko Ito, the report's lead author and a researcher at the University of California Irvine. "But when we look closely at what kids are doing, it's not much different than what their parents did. They are hanging out with their friends, finding romantic partners, and trying to identify their status and identity."

Ito added that today's teens are being raised with technologies that allow them to pursue self-directed learning on their own terms, on their own time, and without the restrictions of a classroom setting. This gives the teens a feeling of freedom and autonomy.

"This is very different from how kids learn in school when they are handed a set body of knowledge they are asked to master and the expertise really resides in the teachers," Ito said.

Some Specifics

There were two significantly different categories in which the teens were motivated to engage online. They were either driven by interest or friendship, according to the 58-page report.

Four specific findings stood out from the rest of the research.

One major finding is that there is a generation gap in how parents and teens view the teen's online activities. Adults see the activities as a distraction and are left in the dark about what their teens are doing online. Teens, on the other hand, understand the value of the Internet and are motivated to participate.

Another finding shows that teens are not taking full advantage of the Internet. They are using the social networks to chat and post photos and make friends, which are important to their development, but they are not tapping into other existing opportunities and "geeking out" by learning about astronomy, foreign languages, and other subjects only a few clicks away.

Teens are also fine-tuning their social skills online by learning the basic social and technical skills needed to interact in today's digital world.

Peer pressure also takes on a new role online. Teens are reporting that they are more motivated by their peers online with public spaces that allow the teens to interact and provide feedback to one another.

The Challenges

While teens are using the Internet for both social and intellectual development, they are also facing significant challenges on how to manage their relationships online, according to the study.

Researchers say online media, messages and profiles posted by teens on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are often passed around through the Internet and are difficult to take back once they are posted. Controversial photos have been posted online for a specific audience, only to then filter through the Internet.

"Most parents knew very little about what their kids did online, and struggled to give real guidance and help," said Ito. In some cases, however, the researchers found that parents and their children came together around gaming or shared digital-media projects, where both kids and adults brought expertise to the table.

Safety on Halloween

Help Your Children Have a Safe and Fun Halloween
By Vincent Iannelli, M.D., About.com

Most people think of Halloween as a time for fun and treats. However, roughly four times as many children aged 5-14 are killed while walking on Halloween evening compared with other evenings of the year, and falls are a leading cause of injuries among children on Halloween. Many Halloween-related injuries can be prevented if parents closely supervise school-aged children during trick-or-treat activities.

Parents can help prevent children from getting injured at Halloween by following these safety tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Safety Council.

Children should:

• Go only to well-lit houses and remain on porches rather than entering houses.
• Travel in small groups and be accompanied by an adult.
• Know their phone number and carry coins for emergency telephone calls.
• Have their names and addresses attached to their costumes.
• Bring treats home before eating them so parents can inspect them.
• Use costume knives and swords that are flexible, not rigid or sharp.

When walking in neighborhoods, they should

• Use flashlights, stay on sidewalks, and avoid crossing yards.
• Cross streets at the corner, use crosswalks (where they exist), and do not cross between parked cars.
• Stop at all corners and stay together in a group before crossing.
• Wear clothing that is bright, reflective, and flame retardant.
• Consider using face paint instead of masks. (Masks can obstruct a child's vision.)
• Avoid wearing hats that will slide over their eyes.
• Avoid wearing long, baggy, or loose costumes or oversized shoes (to prevent tripping).
• Be reminded to look left, right, and left again before crossing the street.

Parents and adults should:

• Supervise the outing for children under age 12.
• Establish a curfew (a return time) for older children.
• Prepare homes for trick-or-treaters by clearing porches, lawns, and sidewalks and by placing jack-o-lanterns away from doorways and landings.
• Avoid giving choking hazards such as gum, peanuts, hard candies, or small toys as treats to young children.
• Inspect all candy for safety before children eat it.
• Parents and adults should ensure the safety of pedestrian trick-or-treaters
• Make sure children under age 10 are supervised as they cross the street.
• Drive slowly.
• Watch for children in the street and on medians.
• Exit driveways and alleyways carefully.
• Have children get out of cars on the curb side, not on the traffic side.
• And a few tips about pumpkins:
• Carve pumpkins on stable, flat surfaces with good lighting.
• Have children draw a face on the outside of the pumpkin, then parents should do the cutting.
• Place lighted pumpkins away from curtains and other flammable objects, and do not leave lighted pumpkins unattended.

Who Is Affected?

A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that during 1975-1996, the number of deaths among young pedestrians was four times higher on Halloween evening when compared with the same time period during all other evenings of the year. Halloween poses special risks to young pedestrians. For example, most of the time children spend outdoors is typically during daylight hours. However, Halloween activities often occur after dark. Also, children engaged in "trick or treat" activities frequently cross streets at mid-block rather than at corners or crosswalks, putting them at risk for pedestrian injury.

Many parents overestimate children's street-crossing skills. The pedestrian skills of children are limited by several factors related to their physical size and developmental stage. For instance, young children may lack the physical ability to cross a street quickly, and their small size limits their visibility to drivers. Children are likely to choose the shortest rather than the safest route across streets, often darting out between parked cars. In addition, young children do not evaluate potential traffic threats effectively, cannot anticipate driver behavior, and process sensory information more slowly than adults.

Are you ready for children ??

Are you considering having children?
To determine whether you are truly prepared for the experience, we suggest you take this set of simple tests...

MESS TEST:
Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Now rub your hands in the wet flower bed and rub on the walls. Cover the stains with crayons. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

TOY TEST:
Obtain a 55-gallon box of Legos. (If Legos are not available, you may substitute roofing tacks or broken bottles.) Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream (this could wake a child at night).

GROCERY STORE TEST:
Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop at the grocery store. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

DRESSING TEST:
Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all arms stay inside.

FEEDING TEST:
Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

NIGHT TEST:
Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8 to 12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 8:00 PM begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 PM. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 PM. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 AM. Set alarm for 5:00 AM. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for five years. Look cheerful.

PHYSICAL TEST (WOMEN)
Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove 10% of the beans.

PHYSICAL TEST (MEN):
Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT:
Find a couple who already have a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training, and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run riot. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers.