Liberty-Comcast JV to Build Philly Tower – Analyst Blog

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Liberty Property Trust ( LRY ) and Comcast Corporation ( CMCSA ) have collaborated to build a 59-story, 1,121-foot tower in Philadelphia. This tower - Comcast Innovation and Technology Center - will be constructed adjacent to the existing Comcast Center and is expected to be the nation's tallest building outside New York and Chicago.

The joint venture, in which Comcast has an 80% stake and the rest is owned by Liberty, will develop this tower with an investment of $1.2 billion. The property will be managed by Liberty. Designed by Lord Norman Foster, the tower will be developed on the 1800 block of Arch Street in Center City Philadelphia and will include a Four Seasons Hotel. It will also be occupied by the local broadcast television stations NBC 10/WCAU and Telemundo 62/WWSI.

The construction will start this summer and is projected to be accomplished in the fall of 2017. An initial lease would be executed by Comcast for a term of 20 years for at least 75% of the rentable office space or 957,000 square feet. Encouragingly, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity are expected to be created in Philadelphia for this project.

As a matter of fact, Liberty Property is boosting its portfolio base through the repositioning program. Recently, the company reaped $367.7 million as proceeds by selling 49 properties aggregating around four million square feet of space and 140 acres of land.

These 49 properties are among the 97 properties that the company had earlier disclosed of selling. The sale of the remaining assets is slated to be accomplished by late Jan 2014. This remaining disposition is expected to fetch $329.6 million as proceeds.

Going forward, we believe that the repositioning efforts by Liberty through strategic acquisitions, JV investments and dispositions would help the company ride on the growth trajectory. While the dispositions result in a near-term drag to profitability, we believe these provide the wherewithal to be invested in acquiring and developing premium assets that go a long way in enhancing the top line.

This Pa.-based real estate investment trust (REIT) - Liberty Property - currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the REIT industry may consider stocks like Getty Realty Corp. ( GTY ) and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust ( PEB ). Both these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Liberty-Comcast JV to Build Philly Tower - Analyst Blog

The Brothel King: Dennis Hof on Prostitution, Wild West Libertarianism, and "Pimpin’ for Paul" – Video

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The Brothel King: Dennis Hof on Prostitution, Wild West Libertarianism, and "Pimpin #39; for Paul"
"Nevada #39;s the last of the live and let live states," says Dennis Hof, the self-described "Brothel King" and owner and proprieter of Nevada #39;s Moonlite Bunny R...

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The Brothel King: Dennis Hof on Prostitution, Wild West Libertarianism, and "Pimpin' for Paul" - Video

Libertarianism: Definition from Answers.com

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Libertarianism is one of the main philosophical positions related to the problems of free will and determinism, which are part of the larger domain of metaphysics.[1] In particular, libertarianism, which is an incompatibilist position,[2][3] argues that free will is logically incompatible with a deterministic universe and that agents have free will, and that, therefore, determinism is false.[4] Although compatibilism, the view that determinism and free will are not logically incompatible, is the most popular position on free will amongst professional philosophers,[5] metaphysical libertarianism is discussed, though not necessarily endorsed, by several philosophers, such as Peter van Inwagen, Robert Kane, Robert Nozick,[6]Carl Ginet, Hugh McCann, Harry Frankfurt, E.J. Lowe, Alfred Mele, Roderick Chisholm, Daniel Dennett,[7] Timothy O'Connor, Derk Pereboom, and Galen Strawson.[8]

The term "libertarianism" in a metaphysical or philosophical sense was first used by late Enlightenment free-thinkers to refer to those who believed in free will, as opposed to determinism.[9] The first recorded use was in 1789 by William Belsham in a discussion of free will and in opposition to "necessitarian" (or determinist) views.[10][11] Metaphysical and philosophical contrasts between philosophies of necessity and libertarianism continued in the early 19th century.[12]

Metaphysical libertarianism is one philosophical view point under that of incompatibilism. Libertarianism holds onto a concept of free will that requires the agent to be able to take more than one possible course of action under a given set of circumstances.

Accounts of libertarianism subdivide into non-physical theories and physical or naturalistic theories. Non-physical theories hold that the events in the brain that lead to the performance of actions do not have an entirely physical explanation, and consequently the world is not closed under physics. Such interactionist dualists believe that some non-physical mind, will, or soul overrides physical causality.

Explanations of libertarianism that do not involve dispensing with physicalism require physical indeterminism, such as probabilistic subatomic particle behavior theory unknown to many of the early writers on free will. Physical determinism, under the assumption of physicalism, implies there is only one possible future and is therefore not compatible with libertarian free will. Some libertarian explanations involve invoking panpsychism, the theory that a quality of mind is associated with all particles, and pervades the entire universe, in both animate and inanimate entities. Other approaches do not require free will to be a fundamental constituent of the universe; ordinary randomness is appealed to as supplying the "elbow room" believed to be necessary by libertarians.

Free volition is regarded as a particular kind of complex, high-level process with an element of indeterminism. An example of this kind of approach has been developed by Robert Kane,[13] where he hypothesises that,

In each case, the indeterminism is functioning as a hindrance or obstacle to her realizing one of her purposesa hindrance or obstacle in the form of resistance within her will which has to be overcome by effort.

Although at the time C. S. Lewis wrote Miracles,[14]Quantum Mechanics (and physical indeterminism) was only in the initial stages of acceptance, he stated the logical possibility that if the physical world was proved to be indeterministic this would provide an entry (interaction) point into the traditionally viewed closed system, where a scientifically described physically probable/improbable event could be philosophically described as an action of a non-physical entity on physical reality.

Nozick puts forward an indeterministic theory of free will in Philosophical Explanations.[6]

When human beings become agents through reflexive self-awareness, they express their agency by having reasons for acting, to which they assign weights. Choosing the dimensions of one's identity is a special case, in which the assigning of weight to a dimension is partly self-constitutive. But all acting for reasons is constitutive of the self in a broader sense, namely, by its shaping one's character and personality in a manner analogous to the shaping that law undergoes through the precedent set by earlier court decisions. Just as a judge does not merely apply the law but to some degree makes it through judicial discretion, so too a person does not merely discover weights but assigns them; one not only weighs reasons but also weights them. Set in train is a process of building a framework for future decisions that we are tentatively committed to.

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Libertarianism: Definition from Answers.com

Wild West Web needs a sheriff

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Editor's note: Douglas Rushkoff writes a regular column for CNN.com. He is a media theorist and the author of the new book "Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now."

(CNN) -- This week, champions of the "open net" are decrying a U.S. Court of Appeals decision striking down an FCC ruling that required Internet service providers to be neutral in their restrictions on bandwidth.

The idea here is that giant bandwidth users, like Netflix or YouTube, will be required to pay access providers, like Verizon or Time Warner Cable, for all that video they're streaming to the likes of us. Maybe they'd even be able to buy themselves a special faster lane on the Internet for their traffic.

Of course, "open Web" advocates see in the court decision the beginning of the end of a free and egalitarian Internet. By striking down the provisions of what the industry calls "net neutrality," the court has also struck down an Internet provider's obligation to let all content through its servers. In theory, they can now legally pick and choose whose media makes it to its subscribers. Which would stink.

But this whole issue, and the instantaneous outcry associated with every move by a court or agency, is more complex than it looks on the surface. By casting this issue in such stark terms, those who would defend Internet freedom from the evil corporations may just be playing into the hands of other corporations whose designs on the Internet are no better.

Douglas Rushkoff

In fact it seems like just yesterday when nearly all the Internet's champions were telling government to stay away from the net. The Web was home to the revival of Ayn Rand and a new spirit of techno-utopian libertarianism. The idea was: The free market will cure any glitches along the way, as technology firms simply compete to bring us the best.

The 1997 Wired cover story, "The Long Boom," argued that the only impediment to technology-fueled economic growth would be the regulation of the marketplace. "Open good, closed bad. Tattoo it on your forehead." This became a credo of Silicon Valley and the net in general.

People acted as if the Internet just emerged out of culture, like a technological extension of the collective human nervous system, rather than a network that was meticulously planned and built by government and, yes, Al Gore.

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Wild West Web needs a sheriff

Libertarian says he can win Congressional race

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St. Petersburg, FL -- While Democrat Alex Sink and Republican David Jolly will get most of the attention in the race to fill C.W. Bill Young's Congressional seat, Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby insists he shouldn't be counted out.

"We're running to win," Overby told 10 News. "I don't run to make political statements. We got into this race because we think we have a shot and now moving into the special [election], we think we have an even better shot."

Yes,Overby believes can win the Congressional District 13 race. But political analysts say his biggest obstacle will be money.

"But he may benefit from the backlash against the two major parties and there are about 28% of the people in the district that do not identify as Republicans or Democrats," said USF Professor of Political Science Dr. Susan MacManus.

Sink has already raised more than a million dollars and even Jolly admitted on Tuesday night that he won't be able to match the Democrats' war chest.

"They're going to step out way in front of us in paid media. We're going to win on the message. You give me $5 to get our message out and we're going to win this race," Jolly told reporters after defeating state Rep. Kathleen Peters and Mark Bircher in the Republican primary.

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Libertarian says he can win Congressional race