Crappy Numbers Getting Crappier

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It appears that the already depressing sales numbers reported by the National Association of Realtors for previously occupied homes between 2007 and 2010 were actually inflated, which means that whatever the corrected numbers are they're going to be even more depressing:

Among the reasons for the inflated figures, the Realtors group says: changes in the way the Census Bureau collects data, population shifts and some sales being counted twice. Last year's total sales figure of 4.91 million was the worst in 13 years.

The Realtors consulted with several government and private housing market experts, including the Federal Reserve, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and CoreLogic, the California-based data firm that first raised doubts about the annual numbers earlier this year.

CoreLogic estimated that the Realtors group overstated sales in 2010 by at least 15 percent.

NAR says they'll publish revised numbers on December 21.

Talking Trash

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Last night I attended the Lewisville Town Council meeting to see the swearing in of several new Council members, and that was fun, but what was most interesting was what I learned during a presentation by a representative of Waste Management to the new Council.  It seems that Waste Management is going to open a new single stream recycling operation in Forsyth County some time between May and July of 2012. What that means is that Waste Management's customers will be getting a new container that is the same size as their regular trash containter, but will be intended for recyclables.  In that container they'll be able to put all recycling materials (paper, plastic, metal, etc.) without sorting them and putting them in smaller containers as they do now.  It also means that recycling pickups will only happen every other week.

I didn't take good notes during the meeting, but if I remember correctly the Waste Management representative said that in other parts of the country where the single stream recycling has been introduced they've seen a significant increase in recycling and a significant reduction in solid waste going to the landfill.  All of that's good news as far as I'm concerned.

The Waste Management rep also showed a six minute video of one of their single stream recycling operations in Florida.  I couldn't find that one online, but I did find another of their videos about the process:

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this facility has in Forsyth County. At a minimum I hope it lengthens the life span of our landfill, and really I hope it's the first step in getting us to the point where technology eliminates the need for a landfill altogether, or the need to truck our garbage somewhere else when our landfill is at capacity (Yeah, I'm a big dreamer).

Moody’s Says Winston-Salem is Stable

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Moody's Investor Services has upgraded its outlook on Winston-Salem from negative to stable.  If you want to know what that means please ask someone who knows something about municipal bonds, not your friendly neighborhood average English major (me). If I had to guess though, I'd say Camel City (and Greensboro and Guilford County) had negative ratings because of their municipal credits linked to the U.S. Government. Just goes to show that the old saying about lying in bed with dogs has some merit to it.

Dead Tree Dead Pool

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skirt! Winston-Salem is going bye-bye according to its Facebook page:

Dear skirt! readers, advertisers, and advocates,

I write this letter with great sadness: The Winston-Salem Journal has decided that the December issue of skirt! Winston-Salem will be the last published. 

I want to thank you for your support over the last three — almost four — years. skirt! came to this city with no following, and while it didn't happen quickly, or easily, it did become part of the fabric of this city. 

It became part of you. 

You read it, you tore pages out for inspiration, you sent it to family members in other states — you loved it. And for that reason, this magazine was a success, despite its unfortunate ending.

The best to you and yours this holiday, and as always,
Peace, love, and skirt!,

Sara L. Wilson

I never read it because, well, I don't wear a skirt, but I'm always sad to see a publication die. I wouldn't shed a tear for the National Enquirer but it's a stretch to call it a publication so I guess that doesn't really count. 

It really is time to start a dead pool for all the local print pubs. 

Priorities at My Alma Mater

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Okay, I love my alma mater and I was as proud as anyone when its men's basketball team made the Final Four a few years back, but I cannot say that I'm at all happy that according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch GMU's new basketball coach, Paul Hewitt, is the highest paid state employee in Virginia while the school's president, Alan Merten, is the 11th highest paid.  I'm not gonna argue whether or not anyone working at a state university should be among the highest paid employees in the state, but I am gonna argue that there's no way a coach should make more than the school's president.

The way big time college sports work I'm willing to bet that Hewitt's state salary is probably a small part of his overall income package – who knows what he's getting from endorsements and other sources, but I'm willing to bet it's more than the almost $660k the state is paying him.  (Looky here, thanks to a link at the GMU Hoops blog we can see that the coach is getting $7.5 million over five years thanks to his severance package from Georgia Tech). Major college sports like football and basketball generate a lot of income and, right or wrong, the coaches are able to make a great living regardless of their base salary, so it's ludicrous to have a coach making more in salary than the person in charge of the whole educational enterprise. After all there wouldn't be a team without the school right?

You don't have to be an expert on the college sports industry – and that's what it is, an industry – to know that it's seriously out of whack.  I love what the teams can bring to the campus in terms of school spirit and alumni engagement, but I don't think you have to have a multi-million dollar enterprise to get what I think are those core benefits.  College sports have become a big business and in the process they've totally skewed the priorities on campus.  WTH kind of signal are we sending our kids when we tell them that running one sports team with 12+ kids on it is worth more than running an entire university that serves over 32,500 students on mutliple campuses?  

I'd hate to think what we'd be paying a football coach if we had more than a club team.

National Track Event Coming to Winston-Salem

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It appears that Winston-Salem is continuing to build on its recent success in bringing national events to the city:

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, beat Tulsa in a run-off to land the 2014 USATF National Masters Outdoor Championships, according to sources in St. Louis at the USATF annual meeting. “Outdoors it was a tie between Tulsa and Winston-Salem,” said my source. “Winston-Salem won on a close tie-breaker vote. Tulsa had an excellent presentation and had a well-thought-out plan. Definitely should be high on our future list of championship sites.” Wake Forest University will hold the meet — at Kentner Stadium. 

Writing Goodly

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By almost any measure I'm not a good writer.  I don't remember any of the grammar I learned in 10th grade, thus I regularly break the rules.  I know, I know, ignorance is no defense but I'm just too lazy to re-learn all that crap and as long as people can understand the point I'm trying to make I'm fine with breaking the rules.

Now I'm not fishing for false praise here. After four years of college and more years than I'd like to think about in the working world I can safely say that I'm a better writer than the vast majority of people I've come across.  I'm also an avaricious reader so I'm pretty confident I know good writing when I see it and I'm equally confident that my writing doesn't come close to what I'd consider strong.  Still, I'm happy that I'm able to communicate effectively with my writing and I know that it's largely because I grew up with a very strong editor in the person of my Mom.

What caused me to think of this is this post by Fred Wilson in which he writes about how he came to writing late in life and how he wants to help his children realize the gift that is effective writing:

But I still struggle to help my children with their written work. I find it easy to help with Math and Science homework. I know how to ask them the questions that lead to the insights that help them answer the questions themselves. But when I read a draft paper that isn't the best they can do, I struggle to help them. I certainly don't want to edit the paper. I want them to edit it. But it's hard to find the words, the strategies, and the ways to inspire them to improve it. I've noticed that the best english and history teachers usually ask their students to hand in a draft, which they mark up, and then the students are asked to write a final version. I think that's a great way to go. I guess I suffer from never having had an editor or an editor's job. I'm just a self taught writer. (Emphasis mine: Jon)

Communication skills are so important in life. The investment I've made in my communication skills over the past eight years is paying huge dividends for me now. I want to help my kids make the same investment, just much earlier in life. I know it will come in handy and I know it will be a great source of pleasure for them thoughout their life.

Believe me, when I was in high school and my Mom reviewed my papers and returned them with more red than black on the page, I didn't feel lucky.  But when I got to college and had papers returned with comments from my professors that said things like, "Your argument probably doesn't merit an 'A', but I was so relieved to get something intelligible that I just couldn't resist giving it to you," I knew that I'd truly lucked out having my toughest editor raise me. 

Fred's right in saying that communication is more important than ever, and while you'd think that the rise of Youtube and other DIY multimedia tools would reduce the importance of the written word I think it has, and will continue to have, the opposite effect. Being able to write means being able to think logically and to organize your thoughts in such a way that you enable others to understand them. Those skills are just as important, maybe more so, in today's multimedia age and I think we do our children a great disservice if we don't give them the tools to communicate effectively.

Mom, if you're reading this, thanks for the gift!

Not Exactly the 1099EZ

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According to the this if you printed out GE's tax return it would be 57,000 pages:

In a November 28 letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, wants to know how many hours IRS employees spent reviewing General Electric’s massive 2010 tax return and what it cost the taxpayers.

Wolf says that, according to an article on the Weekly Standard’s website, if printed out, GE’s 2010 electronic tax filing “would be the equivalent to 57,000 printed pages.” If those pages were stacked, they would stand more than 19 feet tall – 19 feet! (Now that’s a monster if ever I’ve heard of one.)

According to Wolf, “A return of this magnitude was clearly necessary to take advantage of every loophole and earmark in the tax code to avoid paying federal taxes.” (May I note that “every loophole and earmark” in the tax code was put there by the United States Congress.)

BTW, Rep. Wolf has one of the all time great lazy-man signatures. See it here.  Basically it looks like a hastily written "8".  I'm thinking of making mine "9" which should save me many hours over my remaining years…oh wait, I rarely sign anything.  Never mind.