House wars, 3-inch high condos, and Google Account Activity

It’s like 2006 all over again. According to Bloomberg, bidding wars for homes are breaking out once more. “The bidding wars seen in such places as Seattle aren’t found everywhere. In metropolitan areas including Atlanta and California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties, housing remains weak as high unemployment and falling prices deter first-time and move-up homebuyers.”   The competition for home is for the usual reasons—empty nesters job changes and divorce.

A Toronto developer has plans under way to develop what they believe will be the first condominium building comprised of safety deposit boxes. The Globe & Mail reports that unlike traditional rental boxes, owners can sell or rent these out themselves.

Who’s watching the watcher? Google has launched a new service called Account Activity that will provide you a monthly report on how you are using Googles vast array of services – email, search, video, etc. Google is touting it as a new security feature. If you notice anything strange, you can take steps to protect yourself from hackers.

In recent years, reality TV has explored the lives of hoarders on various shows. But hoarding isn’t only keeping and collecting material things. Have you used all your free space on gmail and now have to purchase extra storage? The Wall Street Journal examines the little known world of digital hoarders and offers advice on how to let go.

Why don’t young Americans buy cars? The billion-dollar question for automakers is whether this shift is truly permanent, the result of a baked-in attitude shift among Millennials that will last well into adulthood, or the product of an economy that’s been particularly brutal on the young.

What can the rescue of trapped Chilean miners teach us about leadership and teamwork? A lot, according to Knowledge@Wharton.  Cooperation was international, ranging from Schramm drilling company and Center Rock drill suppliers providing equipment and knowledge,  a former NASA deputy chief medical officer, the Chilean Embassy in Washington D.C., Steve Jobs and Apple, who provided iPods for the miners as gifts after the rescue, and a company who donated toothbrushes for hygiene.

Schramm’s Breiner chalked up the rescue’s success to an uninhibited exchange of ideas and information. “Technology, the free flow of trade and collaboration are what saved the miners,” he said. “There was leadership below the ground — people of character and faith sustaining themselves for 17 days [without knowledge that the outside world knew they were alive] — and people above ground exchanging [the] ideas … that made [the rescue] happen.”

It’s all fine and good that some talking head touts an economic recovery, but what about some more concrete statistics? Time looks at some more esoteric measures to see if a recovery is really under way.