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Source: http://pocketchange.become.com/2011/08/bulova-gold-watch.html
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) ? A pair of spacewalking cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday to prepare the orbital outpost for upcoming Russian renovations.
The work follows NASA's completion of the United States' part of the $100 billion complex, a project that also includes Europe, Japan and Canada.
The U.S. space agency retired its shuttle fleet last month after 37 flights to build and equip the station 220 miles above Earth.
Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev floated outside the station's Pirs airlock at 10:50 a.m. EDT to set up an antenna for a high-speed laser communications system, deploy a small educational satellite and carry out other tasks.
Their six-hour job list had included the relocation of a telescoping extension boom currently mounted on the Pirs module, which is scheduled to be detached from the station next year.
In place of the 10-year-old Pirs, Russia plans to install a new combination airlock-research laboratory module slated for launch in December 2012.
To free up the new module's docking port, the 3.5-ton Pirs will be removed and driven into the atmosphere for incineration by a Russian Progress spacecraft.
But a myriad of problems put the spacewalkers behind schedule and flight controllers decided to postpone the boom's relocation.
The trouble began with the cosmonauts' first task, which was to release a 57-pound (26 kg) amateur radio satellite called Arissat-1, a prototype for future educational programs.
The spacewalkers and ground control teams noticed one of the satellite's two antennas was missing, delaying its release.
"It appears the antenna was not attached or something may have happened to it," said NASA commentator Josh Byerly.
After a few hours of discussions, program managers decided to proceed with Arissat's deployment despite the impairment, which will cut in half the amount of available communications during the mission.
The other alternative was to try to fix the satellite on the station, delaying its release for at least six months when the next spacewalk is scheduled.
Arissat is a joint project of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp., the Amateur Radio on ISS project, NASA and Russia's RSC Energia.
The spacewalkers also ran into problems with cables for Russia's laser communications system, intended to provide high-speed transmissions at up to 100 megabytes a second to Earth from Russian science experiments.
The antenna's cables turned out to be a bit short, causing some additional work for the cosmonauts to get them to attach properly.
(Editing by Kevin Gray and Bill Trott)
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Rental practice can provide income, future clients for agents ???
By Andrea V. Brambila
SAN FRANCISCO -- In a sluggish economy, diversification into renting can provide new income streams for both consumers and real estate professionals, according to two speakers at Real Estate Connect Thursday.
In August 2008, shortly before the financial crisis hit, Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk founded Airbnb.com, a site that allows consumers to rent out their extra space on a per night basis. The timing was auspicious for a site devoted to generating income from underutilized housing space.
"Even during a down economy we were thriving," Gebbia said.
For some Airbnb users, the service has provided them with a livelihood. Gebbia shared some user stories:
Rentals can also represent a new way to make money for real estate professionals. By 2015, the nation's home ownership is projected to drop from about 66 percent today, to 64 percent -- the same rate it was in 1968, said David Vivero, CEO of RentJuice, which provides online rental relationship management software to real estate professionals.
While that drop may seem small, it represents more than 10 million people who will go from homeownership to "rentership" in the next five years, Vivero said.
And significant for real estate professionals, that means by 2015 there will be 4.3 million more rental units and 1.8 million fewer owned homes; 463,000 homes sales will be lost, worth $2.4 billion in commissions; and 150 million leases will be signed, worth $6.8 billion in commissions.
"If you offer only sales, (a total of) $11 billion in commissions (will be) out of your reach," Vivero told conference attendees.
Real estate agents and brokers that consider sales as part of their professional identity should remember that renting is often a stepping stone to homeownership, he said. For agents, a rental practice can provide exposure to renters, and to landlords who may decide to buy more properties in the future.
"Renters may turn into homeowners; prove yourself early," Vivero said. "No one's born 35. Between 22 and 35, they're renting."
Commissions from leasing rental properties are smaller than those from sold homes, but provide "a steady income stream" that "help keep frustrated agents afloat," Vivero said.
For industry professionals interested in diversifying into rentals, the first step is to "simply just put content out there and hang a shingle as a rental service," he said.
To get listings, he suggested searching Craigslist for those who are "renting by owner," and connecting with development companies. Especially in major metropolitan areas, developers will often convert condominiums into apartments when they can't sell them.
In terms of marketing, the multiple listing service cannot be a real estate professional's only strategy when marketing to "Generation Rent," Vivero said. RentJuice, for example, gets only 15 percent of its rental listings from MLSs.
And the marketing is different. Given demographics that skew toward younger singles, school statistics and mortgage calculators are likely to be less effective than a focus on lifestyle factors such as commute times and nearby amenities, Vivero said.