How your ability to draw as a child could predict your future intelligence August 19, 2014 It's nature, not nurture. How well a four-year-old is able to draw pictures of another child is directly linked to their hereditary intelligence, according to scientists at Kings College London. By studying 7,752 pairs of identical and non-identical twins, they found that there was a strong correlation between drawing ability and intelligence in later [...]
Paul Aitken: Three things you didn’t know about the Borro founder August 19, 2014 1 As a child ,he spent many a Saturday at Sir Richard Branson’s house playing snooker. The entrepreneur had invested in a synthesised guitar his father invented called a SynthAxe and the pair would have weekend meetings. 2 He took part in the Dallaglio foundation cycle slam, which involved cycling through the alps with 18,000 [...]
Tom Hanks created a typewriter app and it’s now No.1 in Apple’s app store August 19, 2014 As if starring in multi-million dollar movies and winning Oscars wasn’t enough, the multi-talented actor Tom Hanks has turned his hand to app creation and is enjoying just as much success. Hanx Writer, an iPad app which mimics a typewriter, has topped Apple’s App Store charts in just four days since it was released. It’s [...]
CRH: Mild European winter spells profit for Irish building materials group August 19, 2014 CRH, the Irish building materials group, has announced a 27 per cent increase in earnings for the first six months of the year. The FTSE 100 company's adjusted earnings rose to €505m, up from last year's figure of €397m, while profit before tax of €61m represented a massive turnaround on a €71m loss in the [...]
Merkel backs Baltic states but rules out combat troops August 19, 2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to support the Baltic states against a possible Russian threat but refused to commit to the deployment of ground troops. Speaking in the Latvian capital Riga, Merkel said she supported "enhanced preparations" to deploy NATO forces to the region in case of an imminent threat. She reassured the Latvian [...]
BHP Billiton share price drops as it pushes ahead with $14bn spin-off August 19, 2014 BHP Billiton, the world’s second-largest miner, has confirmed plans to spin off some of its assets into a new metals and mining company worth $14bn (£8.38bn), effectively undoing the 2001 merger that created it. Among the assets to be demerged are aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver mines, including the Cannington silver and lead [...]
Inflation drops to 1. 6 per cent as summer sales drive prices down August 19, 2014 Official figures published this morning showed the consumer prices index, the government's pet measure of inflation, fell to 1.6 per cent in the year to July, down from 1.9 per cent in June and way below the 1.8 per cent expected by analysts. The fall was mainly down to clothing prices, which dropped 5.7 per [...]
Persimmon profits rise on UK housing boom August 19, 2014 Persimmon is the latest housebuilder to benefit from the UK's housing market recovery, reporting a sharp rise in profit before tax for the six months to 30 June. Pre-tax profit went up by 57 per cent to £208.9m for the period, compared to £132.9m the year before. New home sales went up by [...]
DWP accused of attempting to hide failings on universal credit reform August 19, 2014 Parliament's public spending watchdog has accused the Department of Work and Pensions of hiding failings of the government's universal credit reform in a report published today. The Committee of Public Affairs, chaired by Margaret Hodge MP, has claimed the move to create a new category to “reset” the £2.4bn reform project could have been [...]
Imperial Tobacco on course to buy US brands including ecigarette maker Blu August 19, 2014 Imperial Tobacco Group says it remains on track to acquire key U.S cigarette brands, as it reported a slight decline in nine-month revenue this morning. The Bristol-based makers of the Rizla and Gauloises Blondes brands says it is on course to complete the acquisition of a collection of US cigarette brands from Reynolds American and [...]