REBLOG! Copper Beech Farm …$US190 Million

Earlier this month Sydney’s house prices topped out at $AU50 million – Altona, a Point Piper harbour front mansion – In the US however, a house has just gone on the market with an asking price of $AU195 Million.

Copper Beech Farm – named for the Copper Beech trees, not a US misspell - is set on 20 hectares/50 acres of manicured (subdividable) lushness, it boasts 12 bedrooms – excluding separate staff quarters – 9 bathrooms, standout views across Long Island Sound, two islands, private beach, grassed tennis court, 25-metre swimming pool, a proper geenhouse, gatehouse and stone carriage house.

…it isn’t hte style - the property is a Neo-French Renaissance manor house – that has the asking price so high, nor is it’s history, Copper Beech Farm is a breezy 45 minute drive – as if you’d drive – to New York City. What’s that sound real-estate agents keep making? “Location, location, location.” :: Read the full article »»»»

IBMs World’s Smallest Movie, It’s Atomic!

Researchers from tech-behemoth IBM have unveiled – confirmed by Guinness World Records –  the world’s smallest movie, made with atoms. Named A Boy And His Atom, the movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.

The movie depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.

It takes around 1 million atoms to store a single bit of data on a computer, a bit being the basic unit of information in computing. Recently, IBM Research announced it can store that same bit of information in just 12 atoms.  In order to make the movie atoms were moved with a scanning tunnelling microscope. The microscope weighs two tonnes, operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface more than 100 million times :: Read the full article »»»»

CHINA! Authorities Arrest Hundreds Over RAT MEAT Scam

Chinese authorities have broken a major crime racket that passed off more than $AU1 million in rat as mutton. Police have arrested 900 suspects since January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect, surnamed Wei, had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province. Despite persistent efforts by police, “food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics”.

Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly. In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China :: Read the full article »»»»

Google Recognises Palestine

Internet search behemoth Google has recognised Palestine’s upgraded United Nations status, placing the name “Palestine” on its search engine instead of “Palestinian Territories,” the US company said, raising the ire of Israel. The domain name www.google.ps, Google’s search engine for the territories, now brings up a homepage with “Palestine” written underneath the Google logo.

In November last year the UN general assembly upgraded Palestine to the status of non-member observer state by a vote of 138 votes in favour, 9 against and 41 abstentions.

Palestinian authorities have since begun to use the “State of Palestine” in diplomatic correspondence and issued official stamps for the purpose. The google recognition took effect this week, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement :: Read the full article »»»»

Gina Rinehart Named in Time Magazines Most Influential List

Time magazine has named Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart as one of the world’s most influential people. Ms Rinehart is dubbed the “Iron Woman” in the magazine’s annual list of the world’s top 100 power players.

“The spectre of Rinehart looms above the Australian landscape: an improbably wealthy, concrete-minded, broad-shouldered woman who spent more than a decade in legal and personal battles with her stepmother and four children and insists nothing will come before the company she calls the House of Hancock,” the article says. ”Mining, she says, will save resource-rich, prosperous Australia from ruin.”

Time’s article lists Ms Rinehart as a ‘Titan’, and also makes note of her comments that the poor should drink less and work harder. Ms Rinehart is the only Australian to be featured in the Time list of global leaders, artists, pioneers and icons. Also included on the list are American rapper Jay-Z, SpaceX founder Elron Musk, and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousufzai, who made world headlines after being shot in the head by the Taliban.

“Beauty,” says Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, “is an iron mine.”

READ! Time’s Full Article »»»»

Fairfax Wins Confidential Source Case

The Victorian Court of Appeal has ruled two Fairfax journalists will not be ordered to reveal their sources. Last year a magistrate summoned The Age journalists Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker to appear in the committal hearing of eight former directors of the Reserve Bank subsidiaries, Securency and Note Printing Australia.

The former executives are accused of bribing foreign officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam to gain contracts to print banknotes between 1999 and 2004.

The journalists’ reports on the scandal triggered a police investigation into the allegations. Subpoenas were issued for Mr McKenzie and Mr Baker after a newspaper article in December 2012 reported an allegedly corrupt businessman was prepared to testify against the former directors in exchange for a leniency :: Read the full article »»»»