BEIJING weird facts (Reuters) - A Chinese state-run company has been ordered to pay a record $65 million in compensation, plus interest, for destroying a Malaysia Airlines plane with falsely declared cargo of caustic chemicals.
The Airbus A330 was ruined when 80 canisters belonging to the Dalian branch of the China National Chemical Construction Corp. leaked an extremely corrosive chemical, oxalyl chloride, in the cargo hold in March 2000.
The crew of the passenger flight from Beijing detected an acrid odor before landing in Kuala Lumpur en route to India and five ground handlers were taken ill when unloading the canisters to be sold to an Indian company.
The passengers disembarked without incident, but the $130 million aircraft was so badly damaged that the manufacturer concluded that it could not be repaired.
The Beijing Higher People's Court ruled Wednesday that the Dalian company should bear the main blame by declaring the canisters contained a safe chemical in the form of powder, the Beijing Times said Thursday.
The company had to pay five foreign insurers for Malaysia Airlines $65 million plus interest in compensation, ending a five-year lawsuit, the newspaper said.
The compensation ordered by the Beijing court was the highest ever for a civil lawsuit in the Chinese capital, the Beijing Times said.
Both sides had yet to decide whether or not to appeal the ruling, the newspaper said.
[Via - Reuters]
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Friday, December 7, 2007
Weird Facts: Chinese Company Destroys $130 Million Plane With Caustic Chemicals
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Weird Facts: Santa Claus As Business
weird facts
Mail By Santa is not a unique business idea, but it just proves a point that you don't have to be a genius to make money online.
Children look for reasons to believe. This is what makes these letters from Santa Claus so magical. These letters remove any doubt if there really is a Santa Claus.
The MailBySanta Letters are both personalized and addressed to a child. Imagine the thrill as a child receives a letter from Santa Clause addressed to them.
Each letter is written to a child such as Dear Michael, mentions the achievements along with the names of their best friend, teachers and other information that comes from parents.
The letters are fairly inexpensive, only $9.99 and the shipping is free, so clearly the profit margin has to be fairly big. The only downside is that Christmans is only once a year.
And by the way, if you are into history of Santa Claus and Christmas, Here are some Christmas facts that will arouse your interest
Monday, December 3, 2007
Weird Facts: Bank Tells Man He Owes $211 Trillion
COBB COUNTY, weird facts Ga. -- It’s one thing to bounce a check and it’s another to be so far in the red Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump combined couldn’t come close to bailing you out.
A Cobb County man got a letter from his bank with that very shocking news.“And I open up the letter and I look at it and I’m like, ‘No, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ said Joe Martins.Martins said he recently closed an account at Wachovia Bank and made good on an outstanding check.
He just got a letter about the closure and his negative balance -- $211,010,028,257,303.00. That’s $211 trillion.The letter includes the clarification, “no cents.”“I didn’t know what to think. Obviously $211 trillion is a little above what I put in my bank account,” said Martins.$211 trillion is more than 70 times the entire federal budget.Still, the letter said Wachovia was reporting him to an agency that rates risky bank customers.
“I don’t own $211 trillion but because it is automated and reported to check systems, I assume it will be reported to my credit at some point,” said Martins.He said Wachovia had made mistakes on his accounts before so he called Channel 2 first. Wachovia blamed the letter on a word processing error and the office of the president is sending a letter of apology.
“They tell me it’s going to be resolved but I’m not sure that it will,” said Martins. “I closed my account today.”Since it is a closed account it is now safe to say the dollar figure in the letter matched the account number.Martins said Wachovia told him late Friday afternoon they never did report him for his negative balance.
Wachovia vice president David Oliver told Channel 2, “We can certainly understand how our recent correspondence with Mr. Martins about his account would be cause for great concern. I can confirm that there will be no adverse effect on Mr. Martins’ credit report related to the letter he received. Also, I can confirm that this was an isolated error specifically related to his account.”
[Via - WSBTV]
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