Monthly Archives: February 2014

PhillyDeals: High rents forecast for Comcast tower

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Liberty Property Trust plans to charge rents "that are high $30s [per square foot], kissing $40," to Comcast and any additional tenants for the company's planned second Center City office tower, Liberty boss Bill Hankowsky told investors during a conference call this week.

That's higher than today's top asking rents for the priciest Philadelphia space. In Philadelphia's slow-grow office market, average leasing costs are little changed since the 1990s, and significantly lower than in New York, Boston or Washington. The new Comcast tower is a step up.

"Obviously, higher floors will charge more than lower floors," Hankowsky added.

What happens to Philadelphia's office market when Liberty opens the 59-story Comcast Innovation and Technology Center at 1800 Arch St. and Brandywine Realty Trust builds the 47-story FMC Corp. tower planned for 30th and Walnut? asked Craig Mailman, analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The FMC and Comcast moves could dump up to 800,000 square feet of office space onto the market -- or less: Hankowsky noted that Comcast might take the whole new building, as it did with its first tower in 2005, reducing the vacancy.

He's hoping Comcast, plus Center City's rising population of educated young people, will attract more tech employers to fill empty offices. And he expects old buildings will continue to "convert to hotels and apartment buildings." In short, "I don't see a problem."

Hankowsky, who is an owner of The Inquirer, also confirmed that Comcast has bought out a unit of German's Commerzbank AG and now owns 80 percent of its original headquarters tower; Comcast will own the same proportion of the new tower, with Liberty owning the rest of both.

John W. Guinee, analyst at Stifel & Co., asked for more detailed cost projections. Hankowsky said he can't say much more than what was in the news release. He noted the planned Four Seasons Hotel space atop the tower will cost more than the office space, on a per-square-foot basis. Also, Comcast, not Liberty, will likely spend "several hundred million more" fitting out its new space beyond the $900 million construction cost, he added.

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Rand Paul: Libertarianism is Compatible With Christianity, Will Help Republicans Win Elections, Attract Minorities

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February 6, 2014|5:20 pm

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul addresses the American Principles Project Annual Gala in Washington, DC on Wednesday night.

WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued for libertarianism, saying it is compatible with Christianity and will help Republicans win elections and attract minorities, at the gala for The American Principles Project, a socially conservative group founded by Robert P. George.

"There are some issues that can move the party forward, and some of those issues I would call libertarian issues," Paul declared. He admitted that "to some that's a bad word, but to others I think it's a word that may expand the party."

Paul argued that these issues do not have to come at the expense of social issues, such as life and marriage. "Libertarian and liberty doesn't mean libertine," he argued. The Senator referred to Don Devine's book America's Way Back, explaining that liberty and tradition go hand in hand.

Freedom and Tradition

"Freedom needs tradition to give it its balance and its stability, its sense of family and community, but tradition needs freedom to invigorate it and give it spirit and excitement," Paul declared. He claimed that, in libertarianism, there is a role for government, family, marriage, and the protection of life. "I asked last year at the March [for Life], 'Can a nation or a civilization long endure that doesn't respect life?' I don't think they can."

Paul also emphasized the marriage issue. "I think marriage is important, not only for social and religious and moral reasons, but it's incredibly important just for economic reasons," the Senator declared. He cited Charles Murray's book Coming Apart, explaining that the rich and the poor live in "two worlds" with different choices. "There's enormous amounts of poverty in the world that doesn't make it to college and doesn't get married," Paul summarized.

"This isn't a problem that government can always fix," the Senator warned, "but we all need to be part of trying to fix it."

Christian Forgiveness

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Libertarian Lucas Overby eyes Pinellas congressional seat

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Clearwater resident Lucas Overby likes to say he's a U.S. congressional candidate because he never made it as a rock star.

At 27, the husband and father has ditched the mohawk from his band days, but still shows off more than a handful of tattoos. Overby, a Libertarian, will likely add one to his collection after he faces off against Democrat Alex Sink and Republican David Jolly in the March 11 special election to fill the late C.W. Bill Young's seat.

"It's fun to be able to look back on the road map of your life," he said. "Win or lose, I'm going to get something to commemorate."

The son of a commercial diver and homemaker, this is Overby's first run for office. A commercial diver himself and a 2004 graduate of Lakewood High School, Overby studied at Florida Atlantic University and St. Petersburg College, but did not graduate from either institution.

He faces a different set of challenges than his well-funded opponents, not the least of which is answering basic questions about his party.

He joined the Libertarian Party of Florida at age 17 as part of a high school civics project. Overby was drawn to their goal to reduce the federal government's power over states and individual liberty. Libertarians generally favor federal government's involvement in granting civil rights like marriage equality, which Overby supports.

Overby calls himself a pragmatic Libertarian, which means in Congress he would consider party ideals without strictly adhering to them. For example, although he wants to eliminate the income tax, he acknowledged that isn't likely to happen anytime soon. There's a range of Libertarian beliefs from pragmatists to hardliners, some of whom oppose federal involvement even in maintaining traffic laws and voting.

"It's inappropriate to assume that we can stamp one overall solution to something and go, 'It's either this or nothing,' " Overby said, referring to strategies other Libertarians have used. "Usually we get nothing."

Libertarians are a "potent force" even if they don't garner many votes at the polls, said Darryl Paulson, a professor emeritus of government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

"Just a few years ago, the Libertarians ran more candidates for legislative office in the state of Florida than they've ever ran before."

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Libertarian Lucas Overby eyes Pinellas congressional seat

5 libertarian oligarchs who made fortunes off the government they want to destroy

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The cult of the libertarian-minded ultra-weatlhy would make an intriguing anthropological case study. But it would be a case study with a twist: its research subjects increasingly control our economy, our politics, and even our personal lives.

Were dealing with a cohort of highly fortunate, highly privileged and highly unaware individuals who have been inappropriately lionized by society. That lionization has led them to believe that their wealth and accomplishments are their own doing, rather than the fruits of collaborative effort effort which in many cases was only made possible through government support.

But instead of thanking the government and the taxpayers for their good fortune, theyve allowed their own good press to go to their heads. And theyre biting the hand that feeds them, attempting to shut down the system of taxpayer support and government action which created their world.

Our money-obsessed society gives them far more praise and then they deserve. Our corrupted political system gives them far more influence than we deserve. And, slowly but surely, they are now turning their considerable resources to dismantling governments role in society.

Call them the cool tycoons of libertarianism. They have neat ideas (when theyre not talking about government or the economy, that is). They have neat toys and neat houses. But what they would do to our society isnt neat at all.

Here are five of them.

1. Tom Perkins

Perkins has already received well more than his deserved 15 minutes of fame. But, while hes been appropriately reviled for his infamous Kristallnacht comment, comparing the treatment of Americas 1% to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, too few people have taken to task for the depth of his ignorance on economic issues.

That ignorance was in full display when he went on Bloomberg television to apologize for his Nazi reference an occasion in which he spent far more time defending his ugly worldview than he did apologizing.

In his original comments, Perkins compared the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the rich with Nazi persecution of Jews. But as we firstreported, much of the persecution which triggered Perkins outrage involved his ex-wifes hedges; it was a one-paragraph item in the San Francisco Chronicle criticizing author Danielle Steeles landscaping. It wasnt a progressive critique; it was an aesthetic one.

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5 libertarian oligarchs who made fortunes off the government they want to destroy

Castaway now staying in hotel in Marshall Islands

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MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who says he survived 13 months at sea before washing up in the Marshall Islands, moved from a hospital to a hotel Friday.

Alvarenga was hospitalized Thursday, CNN reported. But he was released to a hotel in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, a day later.

Dr. Franklin House, a retired U.S. physician, told CNN Alvarenga may be suffering from scurvy. House, who is not the doctor in charge of Alvarenga's treatment, said the man has complained of pain in his kidneys since he arrived in the islands.

Alvarenga, a Dominican who had been living illegally in Mexico, said he went fishing for shark in late 2012 with another man. They got caught in a storm and then lost their engines, and he survived for 13 months on a diet of raw fish and turtles.

The other man, Ezequiel Cordova, 23, refused to eat raw meat and died after about four weeks, Alvarenga said.

Officials say Alvarenga's story, improbable as it sounds, appears to be true. Cordova disappeared in December 2012.

Cordova's mother said she wants to talk to Alvarenga to find out exactly what happened.

"My brother was kind, he was responsible for my mother," Cordova's brother told CNN. "In fact, he worked in the sea because of her. He wanted to improve himself. He didn't want to be poor, like us."

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Castaway now staying in hotel in Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands castaway released from hospital after second admission

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MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The castaway who landed on a beach in the Marshall Islands after reportedly 13 months lost at sea was released from a hospital Friday, after his second medical admission within a week.

37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga landed his badly damaged boat in a remote area of the Marshall Islands on January 30 with a story of having been lost at sea since December 2012, and having survived by eating birds, turtles, fish, and small sharks, and drinking rain water -- and occasionally -- his own urine.

Doctors who examined Alvarenga initially found him to be in relatively good health except for swelling in his legs. He was admitted and released from a hospital within 24 hours earlier in the week. On Thursday, Alvarenga was readmitted to a hospital when his health deteriorated, with doctors reporting he was severely dehydrated, low on vitamins, and his legs still swollen. It seems the castaway's health improved Friday, as he was released from the hospital and is now staying at a hotel in the capital city of Majuro.

At the time of his disappearance, Alvarenga, who is a native of El Salvador, worked for a Mexican company and has expressed a desire to be repatriated to Mexico. Because Mexico has no diplomatic presence in the Marshall Islands, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed embassy personnel posted to the Philippines to travel to Majuro "to learn directly about the case." On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Mission Christian Clay Mendoza from the Mexican Embassy in Manila arrived in Majuro to address Alvarenga's repatriation request.

On December 21, 2012, Alvarenga said he and a 15-year-old fisherman named Ezekiel set off for a one-day fishing trip when the motor on their 24-foot boat stopped working. They then drifted into the Pacific Ocean. Ezekiel died four months later. Alvarenga said he survived off of birds, turtles, fish, and small sharks. He said he drank rain water and occasionally drank his own urine to quench his thirst.

[CNN] [Daily Mail]

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Marshall Islands castaway released from hospital after second admission

Islands of inspiration

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Outside the Lee Ufan Museum, Naoshima. Photo: Getty Images

An unlikely art trail in a remote corner of Japan has Danielle Demetriou captivated.

I am standing in a dark, windowless room resonating with the sound of a human heartbeat, each pulsating thump accompanied by a strobe-like flicker of light.

This is not because I am in the bowels of an underground nightclub in Tokyo. Nor am I detained in a mental institute (despite the presence of a woman in a clinical white outfit just the other side of the door).

Giant pumpkin at Shikoku Island. Photo: AFP

My location is a wooden building on a forest-fringed beach on a tiny fishing island in Japan - and I am inside a modern art installation.

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The appreciation of contemporary art usually takes place in a gallery. But things are done differently in Japan - in particular, in the Seto Inland Sea area. Scattered with 3000-plus islands, this idyllic expanse of blue water is dubbed the Mediterranean of Japan on account of its temperate climate and olive trees.

It is in this region, about 640 kilometres south of Tokyo, that hundreds of artworks - the heartbeat house included - have been installed across rice fields, beaches, shrines and old houses as part of an unusual project to revitalise ageing communities.

Benesse House Art. Photo: Inside Japan Tours

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Islands of inspiration

Marshall Islands castaway appears weaker in public appearance

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand The Salvadoran man who says he spent more than a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean before finally making landfall in the Marshall Islands last week made a brief public appearance Thursday looking much weaker than he did earlier in the week.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga greeted about 50 officials and media at the Marshall Islands Resort hotel where he is staying. Sporting a haircut and a shave, he was assisted into the room by two people while others stood by ready to help.

Speaking in a low voice, he thanked the government and his friends for their help, but declined to take questions. The Associated Press listened into the meeting by cellphone and had it described by an official who declined to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

"He walked in but he needed a lot of help," the official said. "I would say he made an impression that is really now far more consistent with the journey he said he made. He was much weaker, extremely tired looking, much less animated and was speaking extremely slowly. He looked exhausted, frankly. Like someone who has run two or three marathons."

Alvarenga's spritely appearance Monday when he greeted hundreds of well-wishers in the capital Majuro after making landfall last week on a remote atoll had many questioning his story. He earlier told officials he left Mexico in late 2012 with another fisherman, who later died, for a day of shark fishing when a storm threw them off course and they began drifting.

Officials at the meeting said Alvarenga needed to be taken back to the hospital for more medical checks and it would likely be three or four days before he was fit enough to travel back to El Salvador.

Also speaking at the meeting was the Marshall Islands foreign minister, Phillip Muller, and Mexican diplomat Chris Clay Mendoza.

Muller said the Marshall Islands was happy to live up to its humanitarian obligations and do everything it could to assist Alvarenga.

Clay Mendoza said he'd immediately departed from Manila for the Marshall Islands after initial reports indicated Alvarenga was a Mexican national. He said he was now assisting El Salvador in its efforts to repatriate Alvarenga.

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Marshall Islands castaway appears weaker in public appearance

Ranking disease-causal mutations within whole genome sequences

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Researchers from the University of Washington and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology have developed a new method for organizing and prioritizing genetic data. The Combined Annotation-Dependent Depletion, or CADD, method will assist scientists in their search for disease-causing mutation events in human genomes.

The new method is the subject of a paper titled "A general framework for estimating the relative pathogenicity of human genetic variants," published in Nature Genetics.

Current methods of organizing human genetic variation look at just one or a few factors and use only a small subset of the information available. For example, the Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements, or ENCODE, catalogs various types of functional elements in human genomes, while sequence conservation looks for similar or identical sequences that have survived across different species through hundreds of millions of years of evolution. CADD brings all of these data together, and more, into one score in order to provide a ranking that helps researchers discern which variants may be linked to disease and which ones may not.

"CADD will substantially improve our ability to identify disease-causal mutations, will continue to get better as genomic databases grow, and is an important analytical advance needed to better exploit the information content of whole-genome sequences in both clinical and research settings," said Gregory M. Cooper, Ph.D., faculty investigator at HudsonAlpha and one of the collaborators on CADD.

The goal in developing the new approach was to take the overwhelming amount of data available and distill it down into a single score that can be more easily evaluated by a researcher or clinician. To accomplish that, CADD compares and contrasts the properties of 15 million genetic variants separating humans from chimpanzees with 15 million simulated variants. Variants observed in humans have survived natural selection, which tends to remove harmful, disease-causing variants, while simulated variants are not exposed to selection. Thus, by comparing observed to simulated variants, CADD is able to identify those properties that make a variant harmful or disease-causing. C scores have been pre-computed for all 8.6 billion possible single nucleotide variants and are freely available for researchers.

"We didn't know what to expect," Cooper said, "but we were pleasantly surprised that CADD was able not only to be applicable to mutations everywhere in the genome but in fact do a substantially better job in nearly every test that we performed than other metrics."

The CADD method is unique from other algorithms in that it assigns scores to mutations anywhere in human genomes, not just the less-than two percent that encode proteins (the "exome"). This unique attribute will be crucial as whole-genome sequencing becomes routine in both clinical and research settings.

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The above story is based on materials provided by HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Ranking disease-causal mutations within whole genome sequences

New disease gene discovery sheds light on cause of bone marrow failure

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The study, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, detected and identified a new disease gene (ERCC6L2). In its normal form, the gene plays a key role in protecting DNA from damaging agents, but when the gene is mutated the cell is not able to protect itself in the normal way.

The research findings suggest that the gene defect and the subsequent DNA damage was the underlying cause of bone marrow failure among the study participants.

Bone marrow failure is a term used for a group of life threatening disorders associated with an inability of the bone marrow to make an adequate number of mature blood cells.

Patients were recruited from all over the world to join an international bone marrow failure registry and researchers used new DNA sequencing technologies to study cases of bone marrow failure with similar clinical features. These included bone marrow failure associated with neurological abnormalities (learning defects and developmental delay), and patients whose parents were first cousins.

The findings mean it is now possible to carry out a reliable genetic test (including antenatal testing) in these families and get an accurate diagnosis. In the long term, with further research, the findings could lead to the development of new treatment for this specific gene defect.

Professor Inderjeet Dokal, Chair of Paediatrics and Child Health at Queen Mary University of London, comments:

"New DNA sequencing technology has enabled us to identify and define a new gene defect which causes a particular type of bone marrow failure. This is a promising finding which we hope one day could lead to finding an effective treatment for this type of gene defect. Clinicians treating patients with bone marrow failure should now include analysis for this gene in their investigation.

"Now we know this research technique works, we plan to carry out further studies to shed more light on the genetic basis of many other cases of bone marrow failure."

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The above story is based on materials provided by Queen Mary, University of London. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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New disease gene discovery sheds light on cause of bone marrow failure

Health Care Ethics Internship: Reflections by Briana Britton, Santa Clara University Alumna – Video

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Health Care Ethics Internship: Reflections by Briana Britton, Santa Clara University Alumna
Briana Britton, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Health Care Ethics Intern 2012-13, reflects on her experiences as an intern, in light of Santa Clara Unive...

By: Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University

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Health Care Ethics Internship: Reflections by Briana Britton, Santa Clara University Alumna - Video