Queen scores record profit from booming London property

LONDON (Reuters) - The Crown Estate - owned by the Queen - on Thursday said it made record profit in the year to March, thanks to the strong performance of its central London properties.

Crown Estate's 5.2 percent rise in profits to 252.6 million pounds gives the queen a 38 million pounds 2014/15 payout, pegged at 15 percent of the total by a 2012 law designed to link her income to the UK's economic health.

The rest of the profits go to Britain's Treasury or finance ministry. Chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday detailed 11.5 billion pounds of spending cuts.

Owner of wind farms and most of Britain's sea bed along with its Regent Street properties, the company has outperformed the wider economy due to strong overseas interest in London property and the UK's growing reliance on green energy.

"We are proud that another record Crown Estate performance will again make a strong contribution to the nation's finances," said Chairman Stuart Hampson. The company's property portfolio is now worth 8.1 billion pounds.

The Queen - whose payout rose 20 percent to 36 million this year - was previously paid by taxpayers through an allowance set by parliament and other government grants.

It is not allowed to borrow in capital markets and has formed joint ventures with overseas funds to finance its redevelopment plans. In May, it signed a 320 million pound deal with Oxford Properties, owned by one of Canada's largest pension funds, to redevelop London's upmarket St James's Market district.

The Queen, who celebrated the 60th anniversary of her coronation earlier this month, uses her salary mainly to pay the royal household's staff as well as items such as laundry, stationery and official functions.

The Crown Estate belongs to the reigning king or queen but its properties cannot be sold by the monarch. King George III ceded its profits to the government in 1760.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Louise Ireland and Tom Bill)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/queen-scores-record-profit-booming-london-property-081137029.html

9/11 Memorial 911 masterchef Dictionary.com Chicago teachers strike september 11 2001 september 11 2001

Breaking: Supreme Court limits federal oversight of Voting Rights Act (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315093337?client_source=feed&format=rss

Presidential Polls California Propositions Electoral College chuck pagano A Gay Lesbian daylight savings time 2012 Where To Vote

Record-Breaking 700,000-Year-Old Horse Genome Sequenced

DNA from a horse that lived 700,000 years ago has become the oldest genome to be completely sequenced, blowing away the previous record holders?an 88,000-year-old human fossil and a 120,000-year-old polar bear fossil. The results, published in Nature this week, provide new insight into equine evolution and extend the known limits of DNA survival.

"It's not every day you get a sixfold improvement in ancient genome sequencing," says Harvard geneticist George Church, who wasn't involved in the new study.

DNA typically begins to degrade just after an organism dies, rapidly breaking into smaller and smaller chunks that become increasingly difficult for scientists to piece back together into a complete genome. In this case the new genome comes from a leg bone dug up from the permafrost in the Yukon Territory of Canada. And so the scientists had ice on their side: The cold temperatures had slowed the degradation process, though the DNA was still broken into many small pieces.

To put the pieces back together, researchers used a modern horse genome, sequenced in 2009, as a reference for what the ancient genome should look like. "It's very much like a puzzle where everything is mixed together, and you try to put it back from where it came from," says the study's lead author Ludovic Orlando, who studies ancient DNA at the University of Copenhagen. But 700,000-year-old horse DNA doesn't match up perfectly with the modern horse genome. So Orlando's team also compared the sample with DNA from another ancient horse from 43,000 years ago, as well as with DNA from a donkey, several modern horse breeds, and a Przewalski's horse, a wild cousin to the domesticated horse that is still living in Asia.

By studying the similarities and differences between genomes, the team concluded that modern equines?horses, donkeys, and zebras?share a common ancestor that lived approximately 4 million years ago. That's twice as old as conventional wisdom suggested. The data also revealed regions of the modern horse genome that appear to have been heavily shaped by the domestication process, and proved that Przewalsky's horses are a distinct group. Previously some scientists thought Przewalsky's horses might be a subset of domestic horses that reverted back to wildness, but the new data show these animals come from a different branch that was never domesticated.

Przewalsky's horse. Credit: Claudia Feh

"Until this study many experts would have thought that it was impossible to recover a genome from a sample of this age because of the rapid degradation of DNA," molecular biologists Craig Millar and David Lambert wrote in a commentary in Nature. The new analysis suggests that, given the right conditions, scientists may be able to unlock valuable information from fossils that previously would have been considered much too old to sequence.

"In an environment similar to the one we have studied, we could predict that very short molecules of DNA, which have information to work with, could very well survive over millions of years," Orlando says.

Millar and Lambert write that the study "encourages us to wonder if it might be possible to recover DNA from a wide range of Middle Pleistocene samples. Of particular interest would be material from ancestral human species such as Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus." Complete or partial genomes from ancient hominins would help clear up humanity's messy family tree. Orlando says he'd also like to check out the genomes of mastodons, cave lions, and other specimens preserved in permafrost.

Although Church cautions that the new method may not be applicable to all species, he says that some future technique "may enable us to get much older information than today's record of 700,000 years."

And completing genomes of ancient animals might offer more than just information. Church has been pioneering methods to resurrect extinct species using modern genomics (read more about this in the July/August issue of PopMech, on newsstands now). By copying and pasting genes of extinct species into the genomes of their living relatives, Church has said that biologists could revive species that are up to 200,000 years old. That time-frame estimate has to be revised in light of the new findings, Church says. "We could potentially resurrect this 700,000-year-old horse."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/genetics/record-breaking-700000-year-old-horse-genome-sequenced-15631224?src=rss

costa rica Earthquake Costa Rica Clinton speech Michael Strahan Griselda Blanco Michelle Obama Speech Michael Clarke Duncan

Paula Deen's 'Today' appearance ends in tears

NEW YORK (AP) ? Paula Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past, saying anyone in the audience who's never said anything they've regretted should pick up a rock and throw it at her head.

The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods.

"I've had to hold friends in my arms while they've sobbed because they know what's been said about me is not true and I'm having to comfort them," she said.

Deen told Lauer she could only recall using the "n-word" once. She had earlier said that she remembered using it when retelling a story about when she was held at gunpoint by a robber who was black while working as a bank teller in the 1980s in Georgia. In a deposition for the lawsuit involving an employee in a restaurant owned by Deen and her brother, she had said she may also have used the slur when recalling conversations between black employees at her restaurants.

Looking distressed and her voice breaking, Deen said if there was someone in the audience who had never said something they wished they could take back, "please pick up that stone and throw it as hard at my head so it kills me. I want to meet you. I want to meet you.

"I is what I is and I'm not changing," she said. "There's someone evil out there that saw what I worked for and wanted it."

An uncomfortable Lauer tried to end the interview, but Deen repeated that anyone who hasn't sinned should attack her.

Deen said she appreciated fans who have expressed anger at the Food Network for dropping her, but said she didn't support a boycott of the network.

"These people who have met me and know me and love me, they're as angry as the people who are reading these stories that are lies," she said.

___

Online:

http://www.today.com/

___

Follow Dave Bauder on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dbauder

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paula-deens-today-appearance-ends-tears-120225940.html

food network star British Open 2012 bane Aurora Colorado Rajesh Khanna friday the 13th toy story 4

Thalmic Takes A Cue From Google, Launches #ifihadMYO Campaign To Give Away MYO Armbands

Thalmic Labs, the Waterloo startup behind the upcoming MYO armband motion control device, is giving away five of its devices, to be delivered to the lucky winners early next year. The campaign may seem familiar, since it's called "#ifihadMYO," which is a direct lift of Google's recent #ifihadGlass Twitter-based giveaway of its own wearable tech product.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DCBreL8SlKg/

bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged big sean sherri shepherd

Spatial training boosts math skills

June 25, 2013 ? Training young children in spatial reasoning can improve their math performance, according to a groundbreaking study from Michigan State University education scholars.

The researchers trained 6- to 8-year-olds in mental rotation, a spatial ability, and found their scores on addition and subtraction problems improved significantly. The mental rotation training involved imagining how two halves of an object would come together to make a whole, when the halves have been turned at an angle.

Past research has found a link between spatial reasoning and math, but the MSU study is the first to provide direct evidence of a causal connection -- that when children are trained in one ability, improvement is seen in the other. The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development.

Kelly Mix, professor of educational psychology, said the findings suggest spatial training "primes" the brain to better tackle calculation problems. Mix authored the study with Yi-Ling Cheng, a doctoral student in MSU's College of Education.

"What's shocking is that we saw these improvements in math performance after giving the students just one 20-minute training session in spatial ability," Mix said. "Imagine if the training had been six weeks."

Understanding the connection between spatial ability and math, she said, is especially important in the early elementary grades because many studies indicate early intervention is critical for closing achievement gaps in math.

Spatial ability is important for success in many fields, from architecture to engineering to meteorology, according to a Johns Hopkins University paper. An astronomer must visualize the structure of the solar system and the motions of the objects in it, for example, while a radiologist must be able to interpret the image on an X-ray.

Some education experts have called for including spatial reasoning in the elementary math curriculum. But there are many forms of spatial ability and Mix said it's important to first figure out how each of them may or may not relate to the various math disciplines.

To that end, Mix is leading a larger study that tests elementary students on different forms of spatial ability and math performance.

Mix's research into spatial ability and math is funded by two grants totaling $2.8 million from the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/qnePuR5O67Q/130625121239.htm

pnc Pain and Gain Eddie Lacy Justin Pugh dallas cowboys Jarvis Jones minnesota vikings

Sydney Home ? Ferne Colls and Family | The Design Files

The incredible Sydney home of Ferne Colls and family, designed by Harry Seidler in 1972! ?Marcel Breuer Wassily Lounge Chairs, Vico Magistretti Maralunga sofa, Harry Seidler coffee table (designed especially for the house), B&B Italia slab sofa. ?Photo ? Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Looking from loungeroom to front entrance. ?Warren Platner arm chair just sneaking in on the left! original fixed cabinetry in hall. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Dining room ? with amazing double height ceiling and beautiful views to the leafy exterior! ?Florence Knoll Oak dining table, Thonet Hoffman dining chairs, original fixed cabinetry to right. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Main lounge room from above. ?Marcel Breuer Wassily Lounge Chairs, Vico Magistretti Maralunga sofa, Harry Seidler coffee table (designed for the house), B&B Italia slab sofa, Saarinen side table (foreground), AJ standing lamp (in the far corner). Photo ? Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Amazing swimming pool, adjacent to main living room.?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

It?s not every day we have the opportunity to share a home quite like this one. ?Today?s ?truly iconic Australian home was designed by revered modernist architect Harry Seidler in 1972 ? and, remarkably, is still almost entirely in its original condition. ?It?s known as the Gissing House after its first owners, John and Janet Gissing, who lived here for 36 years until 2008 ? an incredible tenure which speaks volumes for the appeal of this elegantly designed, functional family home, and has ensured its near perfect preservation. ?The house is?now home to Sydneysider Ferne Colls and her beautiful kids?Luxe (12), Avah (10) and Leo (6),?plus sausage dogs Bruno and Franki! ?The Colls family has lived here, in Sydney?s leafy suburb of Wahroonga, for just over 5 years.

When purchasing a home like this, there often seems to be an inherent responsibility to restore and preserve the original features of the home, and beyond this, an obligation?to really share and educate others about the beauty and efficiency of mid century architecture. ?Everyone I meet who is lucky enough to live in an original mid century home seems to feel this sense of obligation ? which is a wonderful thing, especially considering how many amazing homes from this era are sadly still demolished in favour of new development. ?Ferne has taken this responsibility seriously ? she regularly opens her home up to architects and design students, on the proviso that they promise to share this sense of respect and responsibility in all their future work!

The Gissing House retains it?s original layout and almost all its original features, with the exception of some paint finishes and carpet which have required replacing over time. ?Ferne has invested in a thorough restoration of all the oak timber throughout the home (doors, ceilings, cabinetry), and the odd bit of repainting to freshen up some surfaces. The garden and pool, too, remain in their original layout, and simply require regular maintenance. ?It really is a testament to Seidler?s incredible skill and foresight that this home has required so little significant restoration in its 40+ years, and still feels contemporary, serving a family of four in 2013 with the same robust efficiency as it did in the 70?s!

Of course what also makes this home so special is the restrained furniture and styling choices Ferne has made, including mostly classic mid century pieces (some of which were purchased with the home), complemented by a smattering of contemporary artwork and home accessories. ?The result is a relaxed, sophisticated space with an unmistakeable sense of nostalgia ? a visit here really feels a little like stepping back in time!

With three energetic young kids, Ferne doesn?t often find the opportunity to have time to herself, but when there?s a spare moment, her favourite spot is by the window, stretched out with a good book in her Le Corbusier Chaise by Cassina. (Sadly not pictured ? sorry about that!). ?It?s great to relax and read with the filtered light from the trees streaming in through the window? says Ferne. ?The opportunity ?doesn?t come around very often, but perhaps it?s more the temptation of the opportunity that I like so much!? she says!

Other favourite pieces for Ferne include her outdoor chairs by the pool, another classic design by Australian designer Clement Meadmore ? and a sentimental favourite, passed on from Ferne?s father, who introduced her to Meadmore?s work and sculpture from a very young age.

Mid century enthusiasts might be keen to learn a little more about the history of this beautiful Australian Home ? if so, pop over to The Modern House website for a more detailed back story.

Enormous thanks to Ferne for entrusting us to share her very special home with you all today, in the spirit of appreciation and preservation of Australian mid century architecture!

A photogenic corner in the dining room ? Leo?s train set sneaks in at the bottom of the frame! ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Tighter detail of dinig room, looking to external courtyard. ?Florence Knoll Oak dining table, Thonet Hoffman dining chairs.?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Master bedroom, with leafy outlook to garden. ?At desk ? Series 7 Arne Jacobsen chair,?Snoopy lamp by Achille Castiglion. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Leo?s bedroom! ?(He is a lego wizard!). ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Main lounge room. ?Harry Seidler coffee table,?Vico Magistretti Maralunga sofa. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Main lounge room, reverse angle. ?Warren Platner Arm Chairs with Saarinen side table to left, original fixed cabinetry to right. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Pool area. ?Clement Meadmore dining chairs. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Pool again (we couldn?t resist!). ?Clement Meadmore dining chairs. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

House exterior. ?Butterfly chairs and Eames table. ?Photo -?Sean Fennessy, production ? Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Source: http://thedesignfiles.net/2013/06/sydney-home-ferne-colls-and-family/

Olympics 2012 Olympic Schedule 2012 NBC Olympics NBC Olympics schedule 2012 Olympics Chad Everett London Olympics