Senin, 30 Juni 2008

For sale: Home and heart



By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 27, 3:54 PM ET

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - She's tried night clubs and online dating sites, but now a 42-year-old single mother is looking for love where everyone else's heart is breaking — the real estate market.


After a year of trying to sell her four-bedroom home and eight years of singledom, Deven Trabosh is offering her South Florida home and a shot at marrying her on the Internet.
"I figured let's combine the ad because I'm looking for love and I'm looking to sell the house," said Trabosh, a Barbie-esque blonde who teeters around the nearly 2,000 square-foot house in patent leather heels.
"Marry a Princess Lost in America," Trabosh wrote in the ads she posted on
eBay and Craigslist last week. She describes a life of romance and travel and a home decorated with vaulted ceilings, upgraded tile and a soaking tub in a gated community with a pool and tennis courts.
Trabosh, a licensed real estate agent who hasn't practiced in years, knew she would struggle to sell the home in the troubled real estate market, but insists her fairytale ad isn't just a sales gimmick.
"I'm struggling...I don't want to lose my house and I want to find somebody," said Trabosh, who changed her name in the ad to Traboscia to keep people from finding her in the phone book. "So I came up with this dream plan because I've always dreamt about being a fairytale princess."
She listed the home for $340,000 on a sell-it-yourself web site, but upped the price, adding a $500,000 shipping fee to include her companionship on eBay.
Trabosh says eBay removed her ad, though she planned to change the wording and repost it. Under the site's prohibited services policy, eBay does not allow the sale of human beings, body parts or relationships, spokeswoman Catherine England said Friday.
Trabosh hasn't received any serious offers, but says she's had nearly 500 responses, mostly positive, including one from Ottie of Surrey, England, who e-mailed to say, "You are offering the perfect life with the perfect American princess."
She whips out her laptop to show off a picture of Claudio, a handsome Italian wine and cheese taster, who she's been corresponding with since he responded to the ad. Seated on a white leather love seat in her living room, she giggles almost girlishly about him. They're hoping to meet in Miami in a few weeks.
She's gotten criticism too. Her 21-year-old daughter Haley says she just wants her mom to find love, but her 14-year-old daughter says her mother is embarrassing her. Other have e-mailed to say she's selling herself short.
"I'm not selling myself. I'm selling love...to meet that true love," Trabosh says. "Of course, it's gonna take more chemistry and connection. It's not going to be instantaneous that I'm just going to be automatically for sale...it's a package deal for true love."
Trabosh isn't the first to use the Internet to hawk the unconventional. A heartbroken Australian man recently tried to sell his life online, including his house, job and friends. Others have sold body space, promising to display advertisements for the highest bidder.
"There is a plethora of quirky ads on
craigslist that pop up on craigslist every day, and this appears to be one of them," spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail. "Scads of couples have met and, thus, married through craigslist over the last twelve years sometimes marrying the person who bought their tired couch."
Ideally, Trabosh hopes a European man will close the deal and says she's willing to move overseas.
"I know I'm putting myself out there. I'm sincere. I believe in true love," she says. "I want to get married again."

Kamis, 26 Juni 2008

Barry time!


Jumat, 27 Juni 2008 08:20 WIB
WASHINGTON, JUMAT - Kandidat presiden AS dari partai Demokrat, Barack Obama, menginginkan Kongres mengamati secara saksama apakah deklarasi nuklir Korea Utara akurat dan memenuhi syarat prosedur verifikasi. Rival Obama dari partai Republik, John McCain, juga mengambil sikap yang sama terhadap pengumuman deklarasi nuklir Korea Utara, Kamis (26/6) kemarin.
Presiden AS George W Bush mengumumkan rencananya mencabut beberapa sanksi perdagangan terhadap Korea Utara dan mengeluarkan negara komunis tersebut dari daftar terorisme AS. Obama memuji langkah yang ditempuh Korea Utara itu sebagai suatu kemajuan besar.
Namun, senator Illinois itu menekankan masih terdapat beberapa pertanyaan kritis yang belum terjawab seputar program nuklir Pyongyang. Obama berpendapat, AS seharusnya bertindak cepat untuk menekankan kembali sanksinya apabila Korea Utara tidak memenuhi kewajiban dalam deklarasi program nuklirnya. "Menurut hasil tinjauan saya, kesediaan Pyongyang menyampaikan deklarasi nuklir harus ditanggapi AS dengan penuh kewaspadaan," katanya.

Sony has lost over $3 billion on the PS3


Think you paid too much for your Playstation 3? Don't expect any sympathy from Sony.
In the company's fiscal 2008 annual report, Sony revealed that they've now lost roughly $3.3 billion (that's billion with a B) on the Playstation 3 since its launch. That breaks down to $2.16 billion in 2007, followed by a notably smaller but equally daunting $1.16 billion loss in 2008.
The reason? Pricing the console below its production cost. That's right - that hefty $599 you paid for the PS3 back when it first launched was significantly cheaper than the cost of producing it in the first place, and while the retail price has come down some, the losses keep piling up.
Investors have reason to sweat. In a statement, Sony claimed "the large-scale investment required during the development and introductory period of a new gaming platform may not be fully recovered." They went on to note that they've invested a great deal of money into R&D for the console, a sum they might not be able to recoup if the PS3 "fails to achieve such favorable market penetration."
Sony fanboys should take heart, however. Losing money on hardware is relatively common in the video game biz, as companies routinely lower prices to sell more units and thus stimulate software sales. Sony's game division saw a
26% sales spike last quarter, a trend they expect will continue on the strength of strong exclusives like the recently released Metal Gear Solid 4 and the upcoming sequel Resistance 2.
But will it be enough?