Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Deals, Deals, Deals (and a Great Year for REITs)
- Is download culture keeping up with fans of classical music? By…
- EDITORIAL: Green light for offshore LNG.
- When it’s best to be a show off
- Scientists say biotech safe to eat, but worries linger
- AGLIFF presents: ‘Tupperware Party!’
- BIG BLUE FIGHTS TO SAVE SEASON

Deals, Deals, Deals (and a Great Year for REITs)
New York Times – Dec 10, 2006
The apartment sector continues to benefit from the reduced affordability of single-family homes; this has caused many people to defer home buying. Among other categories, the health care sector was up 39. 49 percent and the self-storage sector was up 38. This is likely to be the seventh consecutive year that REITs eclipse most categories of stocks, according to the association. (By the calculations of Bear, Stearns, the REITs’ gains have been about 315 percent over those seven years. ) Analysts say the prolonged REIT rally is poised to continue, so long as the economy remains healthy and interest rates relatively low.
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Is download culture keeping up with fans of classical music? By…
Times Online – Dec 10, 2006
More and more classical recording companies are joining the revolution by advertising availability through iTunes on their own websites. While it remains to be seen if Universal’s classical labels (Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips) will be part of the free SpiralFrog project — the youthful, even childish image of its prelaunch holding page suggests otherwise — there are signs that they are slowly coming round to the idea of downloads. Janine Jansen’s new Four Seasons on Decca is available via the company’s website on iTunes; new EMI Classics releases are available through iTunes, as is the entire LSO Live catalogue. And the independents are slowly going the same way. Gimell is promoting the sale of its latest release, Playing Elizabeth’s Tune, through iTunes. Chandos is part of a five-label setup at www… Avie, I know, is seriously considering adopting a downloading facility. Others, such as Hyperion and Harmonia Mundi, have been slower off the mark, limiting themselves to MP3 or Real audio- streaming excerpts, if that. But it seems to me that the tide, if slow-moving, is unstoppable; that, in the long run, those who love their Things will be convinced to adopt downloading and hard-disk storage as a new norm, as long as the sound quality is fine (it assuredly is), and as long as they get the equivalent of the all- important liner booklet, too (they don’t tend to, as yet). And, surveying the chaotic piles of CDs that surround me even as I write, I think that this may be a very good Thing indeed.

EDITORIAL: Green light for offshore LNG.
Free with registration – Boston Globe – AccessMyLibrary.com – Dec 10, 2006
10–Stuck at the wrong end of North America’s natural gas pipelines, Massachusetts has relied on boatloads of liquefied natural gas to supplement pipeline gas for more than 30 years. The need for LNG has spiked in recent years as power producers have turned to this fuel for the region’s newest — and cleanest — fossil fuel electricity plants. The safest terminals for unloading LNG are offshore, far away from residential neighborhoods, so it is reassuring to see that plans for.
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When it’s best to be a show off
Telegraph.co.uk – Dec 10, 2006
Anneidi prefer to present a near perfect image, going no further in creating the “lived in” feel than to leave a dressing gown or shoes and a handbag in the bedroom, an open cook book in the kitchen. Other designers attempt the “just popped out” look, with birthday cards on the mantle shelf and the table set for a party tea. At Redrow, who employ one design company to dress their show homes, the aim is to create an “aspirational but real home”, warm and definitely not clinical. Marketing director Simon Bennett says: “If you were expecting a visitor at home who you wanted to impress, you would tidy up, clear away the ironing and the washing up, but it would still look like home. We want people to feel they could definitely live there. ” Dawn Kitchener, of Connections in Design responsible for Redrow’s show homes, says: “Each development is different. “We study the profile of the potential purchasers – what cars they drive, where they shop – there is always something that informs our hoices… “But the ultimate aim is to make people want to sit down on that sofa, get into that bed, and for the kids to want to stay in that bedroom. That way they can begin to visualise the house with their own stuff around them. ” Always looking ahead for new ideas and inspiration, Dawn says: “Everyone is moving towards the organic. “So crushed steel and chrome is giving way to natural wood, slate and granite, wallpapers are making a comeback, particularly the textured variety with hessian and silk and carpets are beginning to edge out wooden floors. Her teams are using more greys, purple is big, and there is news from Paris trade fairs of the return of vibrant burnt orange. “We know that some people take a look at show houses to gather ideas, to take a look at colour schemes, at tiles, at storage solutions,” says Dawn. “We take that as a compliment.

Scientists say biotech safe to eat, but worries linger
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Dec 10, 2006
Gene flow from biotech plants is only dangerous if the introduced gene carries a trait that will be harmful in the new population, the scientists say. Making drugs from cropsAnother such worry is with crops that are genetically engineered to produce drugs: What if the gene that makes the drugs gets into crops destined for the dinner table? Ventria Bioscience has genetically engineered rice specifically to produce proteins found in breast milk that can be used to combat diarrhea in children. The company, based in Sacramento, Calif. , abandoned plans to grow the rice in California and in Missouri because of farmers’ fears that the pharmaceutical rice couldn’t be kept separate from table rice. Anheuser-Busch, the nation’s largest buyer of rice, said it wouldn’t buy Missouri rice if the pharmaceutical rice was grown in the state. Ventria announced in September plans to move its operations to Kansas, where rice isn’t grown for food. Biotechnologists say farmers can safely segregate crops… One variety produces oil used in food; the other makes an industrial lubricant that would be harmful if eaten. Moreover, in the case of pharmaceutical rice, they say rice self-pollinates, which means its pollen is less likely to travel long distances to cross with related rice plants. Yet this summer, traces of a genetically modified rice were found in Missouri and Arkansas storage units, even though the herbicide-resistant rice was tested in Louisiana State University plots years ago. The maker, Bayer CropScience, hadn’t sought USDA approval. Europe and Japan banned imports; rice prices plummeted; and rice farmers sued Bayer. The genetic traces pose no health or food safety concerns, the FDA and USDA say. Rubaihayo, the plant scientist in Uganda, supports biotech, but he also blames companies for overselling it — for making it so glamorous that people began to fear it.

AGLIFF presents: ‘Tupperware Party!’
Austin 360 – Austin 360 (subscription) – Dec 10, 2006
com: In what promises to be the largest Tupperware party in Austin history we will be joined by Beverly Miller-Krohn and her amazing assortment of burping storage containers. Proceeds Benefit The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Fest (AGLIFF). TUPPERWARE tells the remarkable story of Earl Silas Tupper, an ambitious but reclusive small-town inventor, and Brownie Wise, the self-taught sales-woman who built him an empire out of bowls that burped. Brownie was an intuitive marketing genius who trained a small army of Tupperware Ladies to put on Tupperware parties in living rooms across America in the 1950s. She rewarded her sales force with minks and modern appliances at extravagant annual jubilees which the company filmed… TUPPERWARE tells the remarkable story of Earl Silas Tupper, an ambitious but reclusive small-town inventor, and Brownie Wise, the self-taught sales-woman who built him an empire out of bowls that burped. Brownie was an intuitive marketing genius who trained a small army of Tupperware Ladies to put on Tupperware parties in living rooms across America in the 1950s. She rewarded her sales force with minks and modern appliances at extravagant annual jubilees which the company filmed. Her saleswomen earned thousands, even millions, selling Tupperware. And the experience changed their lives. The film includes rare color home movies as well as ads and television excerpts from the period. The footage is interwoven with fabulous and funny stories told by Tupperware Ladies who witnessed the company’s early years.

BIG BLUE FIGHTS TO SAVE SEASON
New York Post – Dec 10, 2006
They are in the midst of a losing skid that saps confidence and robs self-assurance. There is a playoff spot out there for the taking, but the Giants have hardly resembled a team worthy of even a wild-card berth. The same is certainly true of the Panthers, which makes today's clash of non-titans a case of misery loving company at Bank of America Stadium. A pair of teams dragging in 6-6 records come together, both mired in losing streaks. The winner jump-starts the postseason engine; the loser's battery is nearly dead. And both can't be feeling good about much of anything. "I don't know if anybody is going in there with their heads totally up high," linebacker Antonio Pierce said… At the moment, the Giants hold the tie-breaker advantage over two of the four NFC teams sitting at 6-6, having beaten the Falcons and the Eagles. A victory over the Panthers would make it nearly impossible for the Giants not to make the playoffs, unless they lost all three of their remaining games. Coming off a last-second 23-20 loss to the Cowboys in what they billed as a first-place showdown, the Giants could easily have seen their emotional storage tanks drained to empty. They seemed to handle that setback in stride and this week, Coughlin hammered home the possibilities ahead rather than the carnage behind. "It's a great opportunity for us and what do we do with it?" he asked. "That's what remains to be seen. " What remains to be seen is whether the Giants remember what it's like to piece together a victory.