cut people some slack (you'll need the favor returned at some point...)

re: "The economists didn’t figure on prices dropping as much, from what I can see. The point remains: supply and demand still works."

so then what is the "inanity" you talk about?

"Sales of new homes recorded an unexpected increase in September [as a direct result of the fact that, surprisingly,] median home prices dropped to the lowest level in four years" --> it was a surprise that the prices dropped as much as they did and this caused an unexpected increase of the sale of new homes [when compared with the economists' expectations].

As you say yourself:"The economists didn’t figure on prices dropping as much". The fact that this drop in prices resulted in an increase in sales (supply and demand) was not surprising at all...

Delia

P.S. The phrasing *is* a bit cumbersome -- I suppose you could read it the other way also, but why do that and insult the writer when there is a perfectly logical explanation to that statement? D.

connectU: is anybody paying attention to this?

doesn't look like it... there is very little info on the internet (it's just been mostly fodder for Valleywag) --> now, this usually makes me want to start a blog about it :) but it would be tough going and I don't know... if nobody's really interested in the topic, maybe I shouldn't be, either?

Delia

P.S. so what piqued my interest ...-- the possibility that connectU might not mind becoming a non-profit and taking on Facebook and ... winning! I do think a non-profit alternative would win in the long run (just like an honest-to-goodness non-profit alternative to craigslist would...)

P.P.S. if you think you are good with language, try to tell the two brothers apart by listening to their voices (they claim to have distinct personalities and you'd expect that to reflect in speech -- not the way they pronounce isolated words but the way they put things together and the emphasis. It's not easy at all,though... so I'm skeptical as to how different their personalities really are; interestingly, one of them is agnostic and the other Protestant (that's a pretty big difference, although it may not be a permanent choice); as far as being creative and artistic versus analytical this may have been just the chosen "differentiation" (each one may have done just as well as the other if the choices would have been reversed)

P.P.P.S. alright... moving on... unless someone is volunteering some decent sources of info on the topic D.

more on anonymity...

I agree with Nikos and strongly disagree with that statement on anonymity. Especially with the way it is constructed: it uses *an example* of a negative use of anonymity (personal attacks) to justify dismissing anonymous criticism without considering the quality of the criticism.

Delia

P.S. Valid criticism that spells out the logical steps does not need an identifiable “author” — it is just as true (and useful) if you don’t know the author as if you do. It is a mistake to ignore it just because it is anonymous.

D.