Vulture

First it was funds going after distressed land assets, now the second phase has begun, which targets the existing home market. The housing vulture investors have returned, but this could help provide a pricing floor to the market that so far Congress has been unable to address. From a CNNMoney.com story:Rock-bottom home prices have finally begun to lure vulture real estate investors into the fra

Am I allowed to get the main characters confused?Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Myers. Tor (New York): 2008. 333 pages. $24.95. ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1852-7. ISBN-10: 0-7653-1852-0.See the official homepage here.Science fiction is, supposedly, always looking to the future, yet much of it has a curious nostalgic streak. In stories such as Joanna Russ's "My Boat" (1976) or Harlan

A man from a rural part of Minas Gerais is making lots of money off of his pet urubu (vulture), Loira. Loira, which means blonde girl in Portuguese, appears at special events for R$1,200 per appearance. Loira's owner, Célio Luiz...

New from Neighborhood is a pair of Vulture glasses from their Eyeworks department.  Come correct with either a black/black or black/yellow colorway.  The NH initials are placed on the lense and a Neighborhood label is placed on the inside of the side frames. Images\Info: SlamxHype via Firmament   Tags: Neighborhood, Vulture, Sunglasses

In the last issue of EFS (V3#10), my Venture Capital article reflected the current experiences of three small Silicon Valley companies. My article generated comments from four Venture Capitalists. In essence, there are Venture Capitalists and there are Vulture Capitalists. Venture Capitalists fund one company in every 2,500 companies that query them. Their preferred exit strategy is the private

The Bottom LineConstructing both the Jedi Starfighter Ship and the Vulture Droid is tons of fun. Any child will love to do this, and as an added bonus, it is very exciting to play with the finished models and Anakin minifigure and enact a Star Wars battle in outer space. Lego has done a great job with this set, although one wishes the models were a little more stable, knowing how rough young boys can be. However, for the price, this is a good Star Wars set to pick up.ProsEasy to assemble Both starships are ultra cool looking Anakin minifigure makes pretend play funConsFragile - ships fall apart easilyMore than one minifigure would have been niceDescription Jedi Starfighter is done up in shades of gray, yellow and blackCool add-ons add style and flair to the spacecraftCockpit is spacious en

Hatteras Financial Corp. (NYSE: HTS) has priced its initial public offering of 10 million common shares and should open shortly after the open this Friday... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Louise Story, New York Times, tells a good story. The time to buy is when blood is running in the streets. Now, as red ink runs on Wall Street, the figurative heirs of the Rothschilds — bankers, traders, hedge fund gurus and takeover artists — are plotting to profit from today’s financial upheaval. These market opportunists — vulture investors is the Wall Street term — have begun to swoop. They

Cypress Sharpridge Investments, Inc. (NYSE: CYS) has filed to come public in an effort to raise capital. The company will operate as a REIT and plans to invest... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Yesterday we saw the annual report out of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), along with the letter from CEO Jeff Immelt. While we noted many issues that were... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Tiptree Financial Partners, L.P. has submitted a filing to sell securities, although this is not a traditional IPO. This is a limited partnership holding... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I have been in touch with a few private equity firms looking to make a bulk purchase of property in the Sarasota area. There are alot of "vulture funds" or "opportunity funds" looking to pick up Florida real estate at depressed prices. They typically seek out hurting condo developers who are sitting on a ton of inventory and make offers to purchase condos in bulk at reduced prices. Once they

Life is weird.I've recently been in touch with an old friend/boyfriend. The story regarding our "six degrees of separation" is weird enough, and I'm not going to go into it, so there's that.At any rate, this guy has had his share of hassles in life and now he's staring down the big "C".Yep...cancer.He had non-cancerous lesions on his pancreas, they got removed, and now the big "C" is back in his life and partying with his liver, one adrenal gland, and the aforementioned pancreas. He's only a year older than me...and while that's not exactly outside the realm of possibility it's still freaky to hear that someone my age is dealing with such a thing. He deals with all the aspects of his treatment well, finds things to laugh about, and is treating this as something that just...HAPPENS. He's waiting to hear back from his doctors to find out the next steps in treatment...and then who knows? Who, indeed?So when I start thinking about him, I start thinking about the general scheme

Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura - also known as Urubu à tête rouge (French), Vautour (French), Zopilote Aura (Spanish), Aura cabecirroja (Spanish), Aura Gallipavo (Spanish), Kalkoengier (Dutch), Truthahngeier (German), Avvoltoio collorosso (Italian), Kalkongam (Swedish).A very interesting (and HUGE) bird, the Turkey Vulture is almost shocking when seen "in person." The size and the look of this bird are quite striking when one is out taking pictures of larks and buntings!Via Cornell: The Turkey Vulture uses its sense of smell to locate carrion. The part of its brain responsible for processing smells is particularly large, compared to other birds. Its heightened ability to detect odors allows it to find dead animals below a forest canopy. Very cool!Males and females look similarly (females a bit larger).The Turkey Vulture is found in Iowa and the Midwest throughout the summer, and can be found in the Southern US (and parts of the southern-most areas of the Midwest) all year long.Taken

The novel Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf (creator of Roger Rabbit) and John J. Myers, the Archbishop of Newark, has a website, and you can visit it here to see the novel's cover and some laudatory quotes from big names, suggesting the book is going to be good. It's old-fashioned nostalgic space opera of the cheesy I'm-in-space-but-I-have-a-sword-and-I-don't-know-why variety, inspired by the pulpy Space Hawk by Anthony Gilmore (actually Harry Bates and Desmond Hall).Release date for the novel is March 2008. Catholic science fiction fans everywhere, you've got a bishop in the business!

A Minton Majolica teapot, modelled in the shape of a vulture attacking a serpent with a broken glued-on handle, made £17,000 at auction, £16,200 more than its reserve price!Auctioneer Michael Roberts said: “It was discovered during a routine probate of a house after the owner’s death.“The handle had broken off and been crudely stuck back on with glue so we never expected it to make that much.“It was sold to a bidder in the Far East and just goes to show that collectors are prepared to spend a lot of money for pieces they want.“Out of all the Minton Majolica pieces we have had this one has done the best – despite being damaged.“I imagine it will be professionally restored now.”In October 2005 a similar teapot sold on eBay for £31,894.56