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Blenheim Palace set to install £1million gold toilet for visitors to use An 18-carat gold toilet has been plumbed into Blenheim Palace for visitors to use, but they’ll have to respect a strict time-limit. The lavatory, created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, will go on display at the Oxfordshire stately home in September. The fully-functioning throne will be open for public use, but a three-minute time limit will be imposed to reduce queue times. It has been placed opposite the room where Winston Churchill was born, and visitors will be able to book their time-slot in advance. There will be 20 slots an hour for art, or lav, lovers to choose from, provided they buy a £27 ticket for the palace, park and gardens. When the lavatory first opened at New York’s Guggenheim museum in 2016, it was so popular that people queued for hours to place their cheeks upon its glittering seat. Some 100,000 used it for its intended purpose, according to The Times. The piece previously made headlines in 2017 when it was offered on loan to Donald Trump. The US president had initially asked the museum to lend him an 1888 Van Gogh painting, but it rejected the request, offering Cattelan's golden masterpiece, titled ‘America’, instead. The flushable America arrived at the Marlborough family’s 300-year-old country home, last week, ready for a contemporary art exhibition that will open next month. The Duke of Marlborough’s half-brother and founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation Edward Spencer-Churchill told the Times: “Despite being born with a silver spoon in my mouth I have never had a s*** on a golden toilet, so I look forward to it.” The artwork is valued at more than £1million, but the palace appears relaxed about security. “It’s not going to be the easiest thing to nick,” Mr Spencer-Churchill said.

*no peekture added in case ppl kpkb* A Chinese paper reported on its front page today that an executive maisonette in Queenstown has found a buyer at $1 million, with COV at $195,000. The buyer is a naturalised Singapore citizen and her PRC citizen father. They have paid the option fee and will do the required paper work at HDB office next week. The flat is more than 10 years old with a floor area of 1700sqft. Analyst attributed the pricing to the unit being close to the city, as well as the Queenstown MRT, and the lack of supply of such double-storey masionettes. The relentless influx of cash-rich foreigners from China, India and elsewhere has been widely blamed for the sky-rocketing HDB flat prices which has more than DOUBLED in the last ten years, thereby pricing Singaporeans out of the housing market. Too many immigrants were accepted within too short a period of time which allows them to buy HDB flats thereby contributing to the growing demand.

Business Times - 21 Feb 2012 Bartley, Kovan sites up for collective sale Bartley Grove seeking $62-$64m; Kovan Court is asking $29m By MINDY TAN THE collective sales market continues to gain momentum, with an additional two freehold sites - Bartley Grove Apartment and three adjoining terrace houses, and Kovan Court - being launched for sale by tender. The first site, comprising a 25-unit residential development located along Bartley Road and three adjoining terrace houses (No 25, 27, and 29 Bartley Road), is being launched with an expectation of offers in the region of $73 million to $75 million. This translates to approximately $798 to $820 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), or $726 to $746 psf ppr including the extra 10 per cent gross floor area (GFA) for balconies, said Tan Hong Boon, deputy managing director of marketing agent, Credo Real Estate. The freehold site has a combined land area of approximately 65,305 sq ft. Under the 2008 Master Plan, the site is zoned 'residential' with a gross plot ratio (GPR) of 1.4 and a maximum building height of 5 storeys. 'Due to the high development baseline, no development charge is payable for redevelopment up to a GPR of 1.54, including the extra 10 per cent GFA allowed for balconies,' said Mr Tan. Taken as two separate plots, Bartley Grove Apartment has an asking price of between $62.35 million and $64.04 million, while the three terrace houses have an asking price of between $10.65 million and $10.96 million. Bartley Grove Apartments has a land area of about 55,286 sq ft, while the three terrace houses have a combined land area of 10,019 sq ft. The site comprising the three terrace houses can be used by the developer to construct a show flat before the residents of Bartley Grove Apartment move out, thereby allowing them to market their project earlier than otherwise, resulting in savings in holding costs, added Credo Real Estate. Prospective buyers have the option of tendering for either one or both of the parcels. Bartley Grove Apartments was last on the resale market in December 2010, with an asking price of $70 million. 'A new development on the subject site would greatly appeal to families with school-going children due to its location that is within 1 km radius of Maris Stella High School and Cedar Primary School as well as being close to other educational institutions, including Nanyang Junior College, and the Australian and American international schools,' added Mr Tan. The tender for the site closes at March 21. The second site, Kovan Court, is located along Kovan Road, and has an asking price of $29 million, which translates to $795 psf ppr. The 26,050 sq ft site has a plot ratio of 1.4 and a height limit of up to five storeys. The GFA for the site amounts to 36,470 sq ft. In addition, there is a small plot of remnant state land, of some 996 sq ft in front of Kovan Court for possible amalgamation when the site is redeveloped. Kovan Court is a four-storey walkup apartment with 16 units. Sizes range from 1,475 sq ft to 1,744 sq ft. Each owner in this development will receive between $1.75 to $1.91 million, according to marketing agent, Remax.The tender for the site closes on March 21.

you can sleep at MBS and RWS!!! love the look on the man's face when he got interviewed....hahhaa http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews...213-316032.html

Hey you peasants, better go check your rented out house/condo/hdb/shophouse/etc for Mas Salamat! Don't say gov never give you money hor. Maybe he is hiding in your house!! If Mas salamat is caught. And you want to claim the $1million to yourself. The MIW will come out with cxxk and bull story. That they already received 10000 telephones calls that Mas salamat is spotted in Singapore. Then also the 10000 police/gurkars were sent out since april to search for Salamat. Not forgetting Ministar secret informers also give many tips leading to its arrest. The $1million after deduction for income tax, excise tax, entertainment tax, handling fees, bank transfer charges...left only $700k. Out of this, $500k goes to the police/gurkars/internal security ministry as they are the front line who risk their lives leading to the arrest of Salamat. Then the remaining $200,000 will be distributed to the 10,000 telephone callers who provided informations. Eventually each will get only $20, to be deposited in your CPF and can only take out after you reach 70yrs old!

U.S. paid $1 million to ship two 19-cent washers By Jim Wolf Fri Aug 17, 11:30 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday that a flawed system designed to rush supplies to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan let a small-parts supplier improperly collect $998,798.38 to ship two 19-cent washers. Loopholes in the automated purchasing system have been fixed and the ill-gotten gains were being returned to the U.S. Treasury, said Army Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a Pentagon spokesman. The lock-washer incident was the last in a series of abuses by twin sisters running a South Carolina company that bilked the Pentagon out of about $20.5 million in fraudulent shipping costs, federal prosecutors said after obtaining guilty pleas earlier in the day. The owners of C&D Distributors of Lexington, South Carolina, submitted online bids to the Defense Department to supply hardware components, plumbing fixtures, electronic equipment and other items, according to court papers. Related shipping claims were processed automatically "to streamline the resupply of items to combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," said a statement by Reginald Lloyd, U.S. attorney for the district of South Carolina. Lloyd said C&D fabricated shipping costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as in the case of the washers, although the value of the items purchased rarely topped $100. Lock washers place tension against a nut after tightening, to help prevent the nut from loosening. Maka said the Defense Criminal Investigative Service launched an investigation last September into invoices submitted to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or DFAS. "DFAS has put in place the internal controls necessary to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again," Maka said of the shipping fraud. "The money that they stole will be returned to the U.S. Treasury." Charlene Corley, 47, of Lexington, South Carolina, as well as her company, C&D Distributors LLC, pleaded guilty to wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina. Darlene Wooten, Corley's twin and co-owner of C&D Distributors, committed suicide at her lake house last October after being contacted by federal investigators about the fraud, Lloyd said. The improperly collected funds were used to buy beach houses, luxury cars, boats, jewelry and vacations among other things, prosecutors said. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Conspiracy to commit money laundering carries up to 20 years and a fine of $500,000, or twice the value of the property involved in the laundering transactions, whichever is greater. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/od_nm/...xlZcjZ_BejtiBIF