weird facts
SALT LAKE CITY — There are probably a million ways Jerry Mika could spend $2 million dollars. Trouble is, he couldn't cash the check. Expecting a $15 refund from the Utah Department of Commerce, the Draper man opened his mail recently to find a $2,245,342 check.
"I kept trying to find a way to make it legitimate so I could cash it," he said. "I did think about all the things I could do with the money ... who wouldn't?"
Mika returned the check - a mistake that occurred when an employee entered a serial number, not an amount - to state finance offices Wednesday.
"Clearly we have an honest, honest citizen. I wish I could do something more than say thanks," commerce department director Francine Giani said.
Giani said the state will implement additional internal controls to catch such mistakes in the future. A new computer system, which only requires entering the amount of a check once, might have contributed to the problem, she said.
Mika, who runs the nonprofit Providence Foundation to help Nepalese sherpas, said he's had great fun showing off the state's mistake.
"Everybody looked at it, started giggling and asked why I wasn't already in Switzerland," he said.
He admits to being tempted to deposit the money and draw a bit interest before the state asked for its return.
"That money would have gone a long way," he said.
But ultimately honestly and the idea of spending time at the Utah state prison made Mika too nervous to do anything.
Because the check was state-issued, cashing it would probably have been easy, despite the large amount, Giani said.
"It was a valid check," said Rick Beckstead, the state accounting operation manager whose signature is stamped on the check. "But it would have been caught when we did reconciliation and we would have been after him for the refund."
[Via - WRAL]
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Weird Facts: How To Make A Chair Out Of An Old Bicycle
http://www.bikefurniture.com/weird facts
Andy Gregg may not have reinvented the wheel, but he has reinterpreted it. Gregg, 40, owns Bike Furniture Designs, which transforms recycled bicycle parts into sleek, eco-friendly furniture. Combining skills developed in art school -- he is fascinated by early-20th-century furniture design -- with mechanical chops he began polishing at age 10, Gregg sells his pieces on bikefurniture.com and through a smattering of retailers.
Creations such as the Milano lounge chair (pictured), $400, blend steel hardware and rubber upholstery -- made from inner tubes -- with swooping, organic curves. Gregg has been making the furniture since 1991, but it wasn't until 2004 that revenue picked up enough to allow him to quit his carpentry job and focus on his business, based in Marquette, Mich. (Last year, he says, revenue hit the "low five figures.") While the growing demand has spurred him to explore new designs and materials, he maintains that his favorite piece is his first and simplest barstool. "It's so pure," he says. "Just made from a wheel."
[Via - Incredible Furniture Made From Used Bikes]
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Weird Facts: Butterfly Naming Rights Go For 40K
weird facts
A butterfly species discovered in a Florida museum has a new name after an anonymous bidder paid $40,800 for naming rights in order to honor a woman who died in 1972.
The butterfly's common name will be the Minerva owl butterfly. It's being named after the late Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Malvern, Ohio.
While the bidder's name was not disclosed, the payment was made on behalf of Kitzmiller's grandchildren.
The butterfly's scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae.
University of Florida researchers George Austin and Andrew Warren discovered the new species while looking through a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville earlier this year. They found it was misidentified as an example of another species.
The 4-inch butterfly is brown, white and black and lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona. Proceeds from the auction will go toward further research of Mexican butterflies.
Beverly Sensbach, director of development for the museum, said Kitzmiller's grandchildren wanted to honor her through the name of a beautiful butterfly because she was "an extremely creative person who wrote poetry, played piano and sang."
The rights were sold via an online auction. Warren had said before the auction closed that the researchers were hoping to raise at least $50,000, which would fund two years of work in Mexico.
[Via - Sun Sentinel]
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