Google Base FINDS CONDO , Housing

my first time using GOOGLE BASE to find housing.....quick and easy. 1333 Hornby St, Vancouver, BC, Canada $263,000

0 beds, 1 baths, 462 sqft, Posted Feb 8
All this in Downtown Vancouver. Walk to Granville Island, Yaletown, great restaurants & the Beach! This unit can be rented out at a premium rate. ...
vFlyer Inc.

1333 Hornby St, Vancouver, BC, Canada $263,000 0 beds, 1 baths, 462 sqft, Posted Feb 8 All this in Downtown Vancouver, walk to Granville Island, Yaletown's Brilliant Restaurants & the Beach! Whether you are a first time buyer, or just desire a ... vFlyer Inc.

308 1251 CARDERO, Vancouver, BC, V6G 2H9 $275,000 1 beds, 1 baths, 615 sqft, Posted Feb 14 Rentable home in the West end steps to all amenities, seawall, beach and transit. Outdoor balcony with view to English Bay. The Real Estate Book

Picnik Now Offers Premium Features For Free

Picnik Now Offers Premium Features For Free:

"We want to make everyone feel like a photo editing superstar. Picnik is already the world’s leading online photo editor, but there are still a lot of people living tragic, gloomy lives believing that powerful photo editing tools cost hundreds of dollars, come in unopenable boxes, and are impossible to use. By offering an ad-supported version of Picnik, we can make much richer, deeper, and ultimately better photo-editing functionality available to more people around the globe: Photo editing awesomeness for everyone."

The Carrot Revolution: A Blog About Art Education... and Vegetables.: 100 Architects to build a city

The Carrot Revolution: A Blog About Art Education... and Vegetables.: 100 Architects to build a city: "The Carrot Revolution is an art education weblog and a resource page for art educators, art students, and artists in the digital age. Our goal is to fight the tyranny of the ordinary and to liberate from the status quo."

Why Not to Book The Cheapest Cruise � Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

Why Not to Book The Cheapest Cruise � Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

Spiced Rum � Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

Spiced Rum � Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog: "So, for all my cruise ship friends, who’ve heard me talk about my “secret recipe” in my rum & sugar lecture, here’s the recipe:

* 1 liter golden rum or dark rum
* 1 vanilla bean cut up or � teaspoon vanilla
* 3 cinnamon sticks (3”)
* 4 whole allspice or a pinch of ground
* 1 whole nutmeg crushed
* 3 star anise
* pinch anise seed

Let sit 1 week more or less, depending on strength of flavor desired. You can experiment and get exactly what you like."

FT.com / Capital markets - Latest acronym VIEs for Wall St notoriety

FT.com / Capital markets - Latest acronym VIEs for Wall St notoriety

Latest acronym VIEs for Wall St notoriety

By Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: February 27 2008 21:17 | Last updated: February 28 2008 21:36

Banks working on injecting up to $3bn into Ambac, the bond insurer, in the hope of staving off ratings downgrades and preventing the need for writedowns, might face further losses indirectly related to bond insurers, analysts have warned.

The latest source of concern is variable interest entities (VIEs), another three-letter acronym that now holds toxic properties. This follows the failure of municipal auctions, known as auction rate securities (ARS) in recent weeks, while collateralised debt obligations and (CDOs) collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) continue to loom over the balance sheets of banks and investors.

VIE is an accounting term that covers a multitude of activities in almost any kind of special purpose vehicle – from conduits and structured investment vehicles (SIVs) to individual CDOs themselves. The term VIE refers to the way in which a bank’s economic exposure to a vehicle can change, which is key to whether it can be kept off-balance sheet.

Accounting for VIEs has been increasingly in the spotlight since US banks began to reveal more details about their exposure to various vehicles, such as the asset-backed commercial paper conduits used to fund investment in mortgage-backed bonds and other structured debt.

For example, Citigroup shocked investors when it took $11bn writedowns, much of which was on $25bn of previously off-balance sheet exposures.

According to analysts at CreditSights, banks could still face $88bn in extra losses linked to writing down the value of their VIEs, excluding any provisions already in place against monoline exposures.

“Some see VIEs as a new source of potential losses from the banks,” says William O’Donnell, strategist at UBS.

“Indeed, as the auction rate market begins to sort itself out, we now apparently have a new worry.”

The potential for losses and an escalation of selling pressure across already stressed markets stems from the fact that some VIEs hold assets that were insured by the likes of MBIA, Ambac and other bond insurers.

This week, MBIA had its AAA rating affirmed by Moodys, although it is ratings watch negative, while S&P affirmed both MBIA and Ambac on Monday, although it said the latter was still in danger of a downgrade.

....................................................... . . .

Of the major Wall Street brokerages, CreditSights says Merrill Lynch has $22.6bn in CDO exposure to VIEs via loans and real estate. Goldman Sachs has $18.9bn in exposure through mortgages while Morgan Stanley sits on $7.2bn in the form of mortgages and asset backed securities. Bear Stearns’ total CDO exposure across various asset classes linked to VIEs is $11.5bn.

Based on recent filings, Creditsights says Citigroup has roughly $84bn in total CDOs in its unconsolidated VIEs, while Bank of America has disclosed $13.6bn in VIE exposure.

However, complicating the issue for analysts and investors is the paucity of detailed disclosure by brokers and banks in relation to off-balance sheet holdings.

Additional reporting Paul J Davies in London

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

FT.com / Home UK / UK - EADS stuns Boeing with $35bn USAF contract

EADS stuns Boeing with $35bn USAF contract

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Hal Weitzman in Chicago and Peggy Hollinger in Paris

Published: February 29 2008 23:36 | Last updated: February 29 2008 23:36

EADS, the European defence company, scored a stunning victory in its campaign to penetrate the US defence market on Friday by winning a $35bn to supply the US Air Force with refuelling tankers.

EADS and Northrop Grumman, its US partner, beat Boeing in a competition that could ultimately be worth more than $100bn. The winning team will initially supply 179 air-to-air refuelling tankers using a modified version of the Airbus A330 passenger jet. But the Air Force may select the same aircraft to replace its entire fleet of about 600 tankers over the coming decades.

Louis Gallois, EADS chief executive, said on Friday night the contract was a ”breakthrough for EADS” in the biggest defence market in the world. ”To win against Boeing is just great,” he told the FT.

As recently as Friday afternoon the EADS team had been convinced that Boeing would take the contract. Mr Gallois, about to leave Paris for a mountain holiday, said he had simply not believed his ears when informed at 10.25pm local time last night. ”I think it is the best contract I have won in my life.”

The decision is a huge blow to Boeing. The Chicago-based company won the original contract to provide tankers, but Congress cancelled the deal in 2003 following a procurement scandal that sent a Boeing executive and Air Force procurement official to prison.

Many analysts had expected Boeing to win, given that it has supplied the Air Force for decades. EADS will manufacture the aircraft in France, and assemble it in Alabama.

”Obviously we are very disappointed,” Boeing said in a statement. “Once we have reviewed the details behind the award, we will make a decision concerning our possible options, keeping in mind at all times the impact to the warfighter and our nation.” Shares in Boeing fell 3.7 per cent in after-hours trade, while shares in Northrop rose 5.6 per cent.

Even before the announcement, however, officials raised concerns about a protest by the losing bidder, a new trend for Air Force contracts. This week, General Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, warned that a protest would be a “big deal”, forcing the Air Force to continue using 44-year old planes.

General Arthur Lichte, commander of the US Air Mobility Command, which oversees the US tanker fleet, said “Anything that slows down the process has an impact on the warfighter. From the warfighters point of view we need to get on with this.”

“This is a major win for EADS, and a breakthrough for their crucial US defence market strategy,” said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group, an aerospace consultancy. “Northrop also gets a badly needed programme victory.”

Loren Thompson, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute, said the Air Force had concluded that the winning team beat Boeing in four out of five criteria used to pick the aircraft, including superior fuel and cargo-carrying capacity.

The Air Force has gone to great lengths to dispel any suggestions of impropriety or bias this time around. Sue Payton, the head Air Force acquisitions, has stressed that her office provided regular feedback to the rivals before they submitted their final bids in January.

Ms Payton said the Northrop/EADS bid “clearly provided the best value to the government” and stressed that there was “absolutely no bias in this award”.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008