Durham, North Carolina.  Microscopic Controllable Robots Fit On The Head Of A Pin.  Bruce Donald at Duke University along with neurobiologist Richard Mooney and physicist Gleb Finkelstein have created microrobots that are totally steerable and that may eventually explore brain tissue to help find out how the human brain works.  It isn’t quite the “Fantastic Voyage” science fiction movie yet but it isn’t far removed.  Large groups of these microrobots are now controllable.  Professor Ronald Fearing, who runs a microrobotics lab at the University of California at Berkeley, likens what Bruce and his team are doing to “shrinking a factory to the size of a computer chip.”  Other specific uses for this technology are not clear but are probably vast and far reaching.

So, what has this to do with real estate.  Nothing and everything.  If it was nothing it would be worth mentioning just because of how interesting it is.  However, there are a multitude of diverse programs in many different fields now in progress throughout the Triangle.  They draw talented people from all across the nation and all over the world to this area.  The kind of brain power this takes fuels the engine of the technology machine that is the Research Triangle.  All of these people need a place to live and that creates the need for more and more homes, townhomes, condos and apartments.  Just today a met a gentleman who is in the business of designing golf courses.  There is a never ending supply of interesting people doing interesting things.  That’s what keeps my juices boiling and I hope that these things are a source of fasination and interest to you as well.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Greg Sandreuter Proposes Four Major Buildings For Downtown Raleigh.  A plan Greg initially presented a year ago has been revised and expanded.  It now calls for two 39 story buildings and two 29 story buildings.  It would also have many street level shops and restaurants, a hotel, condos, half a million square feet of offices and 1,600 parking spaces.  Construction would start in two years and take eight years to complete.  Adding this to all the other downtown projects, both underway and planned, would take what has been (just in the recent past) a pretty drab an dumpy downtown and transform it into almost anyone’s vision of what a new and vibrant American city should look like.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh/Cary elections. Good grief Charlie Brown! When you don’t pay, in the time it takes to go and vote, you deserve what you get!  Unfortunately, it usually ends up costing FAR more than the few minutes it would have taken to vote.  Twenty percent of the voters showed up in Cary and sixteen percent in Raleigh.  So, those of you who didn’t vote - button it!  You have no belly ache coming - OTHER than the one one you’re going to get because you didn’t vote.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we all lived in that best of all possible worlds where people knew what their candidates stood for and had voted for in the past?  Wouldn’t it be nice if we all said, “Who gives a hoot if he or she is a Republican or Democrate?  What are they saying and what is their record?”  I could go on but that dream isn’t about to come true.

SAS is growing and, thank God, remaining a private company.  Quintiles is building a $50 million headquarters at Page Road and Interstate 40.  It is also a private company but the current buzz concerns whether or not its needs will cause it to go public again.  Hopefully not.  Jim Goodnight of SAS is 64 and Dennis Gillings of Quintiles is 63.  An article in today’s N&O indicates that neither has any plans to retire.  Gentlemen, I hope you both hang in there until box and shovel time.

The October AARP Bulletin is, as usual, full of good information.  It also, as usual, is silent about the main problem of those who are 65 and older - money.  Oh, it does talk about what to do with what you have but assumes you are now beyond your income producing time on this planet.  Garbage!  For those of you who are 60 and above and who are not dead between the ears keep looking at this blog.  I will address that matter.

If you can’t get enough football the United Football League might come to Raleigh.  There is, as yet, no team, no stadium, no team name - in a word nothing!  But you can go to www.ticketreserve.com and buy tickets!  Does that sound like someone coming to your door selling siding or a new roof?  Perhaps the people who didn’t vote or who don’t really know who stands for what in the coming national election should buy some tickets.  You say you never bought a bag of air before?

John Fish (919) 696-3474     Email: marvmax@mindspring.com      Website: www.JohnFish.com