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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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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Monday, November 26, 2007
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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Friday, November 23, 2007
Who Is Shawn Casey?
http://www.shawncasey.com/ Shawn Casey is real big on teaching about the power of Joint Ventures. I know Joint Ventures are a valuable part of any business persons life, but I also know, just about every marketing guru in the world is teaching them. So I think the topic of Joint Venture is getting over-done to some degree.
It's just been brought to my attention that Shawn Casey is now giving away hia five hundred dollar e-mail marketing software for free. I grabbed my copy and while I don't feel that it's worth $500, you'd be stupid not to get it for free. This "business in a box" concept if freaking genious. So, who's Shawn Casey?
Shawn—a successful self-made millionaire and Group Leader at SFI—takes readers step-by-step through the process of succeeding on the Internet with an online home-business.
The way I understood him, he says if you do have a product, joint ventures almost eliminate the risk of advertising. You pay your partner nothing until AFTER he's made sales for you. And you only pay in direct proportion to the number of sales he generates!
And then of course, he plugs his own company, name and website by saying "You can even joint venture with ME! (Get all the details when you order "Mining Gold"). Now you see why I guarantee you $1,000 within your first 5-15 days."
He claims to have this one special technique that is only available to a priveledged groups he calls his circle of "power players."
From what I read, he appears to be directly claiming you could be making thousands of dollars for an hour's work, as often as you want. And he loves to tell you how this special "Insiders Only" technique is fully detailed on page 77 of his system, "Mining Gold On The Internet".
But after reading page 77 of Mining Gold on the Internet, I don't see anything very special or new. I wasn't impressed.
Shawn Casey is so focused on joint ventures that I just saw an offer where he says you get his proven super-responsive Joint Venture Proposal form letter.
Then he goes on to say it's so responsive, that when he emails it to potential joint venture partners, 2 out of 3 reply with a strong interest. And he claims that the "average" deal generates about $1,000 profit for both him and the guy he's doing the venture with. But I tested his form letter and I didn't get these amazing results he's talking about. My numbers weren't even half as good as what he's talking about.
Although, I myself wasn't overly impressed with Shawn Casey or his teachings, I'm not going to say this is a bad offer. I think Shawn has a lot of potential as a marketing guru and I plan to keep on eye on what he's doing from time to time.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Weird Facts: Stolen, Dumped, Found, Sold: The Story of a $1m Painting
A painting stolen 20 years ago then found lying in a pile of rubbish on a New York City street has sold at auction for just over $1m (£484,000).
The 1970 painting Tres Personajes (Three People) by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo was taken from a warehouse where the owners had placed it while moving.
It was found by Elizabeth Gibson as she took her morning walk four years ago on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
After discovering the painting's value, she returned it to its original owner.
It sold for $1,049,000 (£507,900) to a telephone bidder at Sotheby's New York auction house.
Sotheby's describes the painting as an important work from Rufino Tamayo's mature period.
Elizabeth Gibson said she was drawn to the painting when she spotted it on the street.
"I know nothing of modern art but it didn't seem right for any piece of art to be discarded like that," she said.
It hung on a wall in her home for several months before a friend suggested it might be valuable.
An internet search revealed that the missing painting had been the subject of an appeal for information on the Antiques Roadshow TV programme.
Ms Gibson has already received a $15,000 reward the couple put up when it was stolen, plus an undisclosed percentage of the sale of the painting.
It is still not known how the painting ended up on the street.
The owners - a couple from Houston whose names have not been disclosed - bought the oil on canvas, with marble dust and sand worked into the paint, in 1977 at Sotheby's.
August Uribe, Sotheby's senior vice-president of impressionist and modern art, said that the husband had paid $55,000 for it as a gift for his wife. The husband later died.
At the time of the theft in 1987, the couple alerted local and federal authorities.
Information on the painting was posted on the databases of the International Foundation for Art Research, and the Art Loss Register.
The FBI is still investigating the theft.
[Via - BBC News]
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Weird Facts: Miami Woman Sues Missing Husband For Share of Lottery Win
weird facts
A woman whose husband has kept about $600,000 in lottery winnings from her says she has a number for him: half. And Donna Campbell is suing her husband in her attempt to get it.
But American Airlines mechanic Arnim Ramdass disappeared after his wife confronted him about the secret, so process servers haven't been able to hand him the lawsuit papers yet, Campbell's attorney said.
"Here's a guy who for years has spent marital money on the lottery and at casinos, and he's always lost," Bruce Baldwin said. "And now he finally wins, and he's trying to keep it from his wife. That's pretty low."
Campbell, Ramdass' wife since 2005 and girlfriend for five years before that, said she suspected he was hiding something when he disconnected their phone and kept their television off. A postcard offering congratulations on a new house purchase was her final clue.
So Campbell did an Internet search on "Ramdass" and "lotto" and saw a news release from the Florida Lottery about a pool of 17 airline mechanics who won the $19 million jackpot on June 20.
"I said, 'Do you have any news you want to share with me,'" Campbell recalled telling her husband. "He said, 'No. What are you talking about?' I said, 'The lottery.'"
Ramdass told her he had bought the ticket for his daughter from another marriage, but Campbell didn't believe it.
"He had been buying those tickets for years, and he never, ever said one of them was for her," Campbell said. Ramdass and his co-workers have for years pooled their money every Wednesday and Friday for Lotto tickets, Campbell said.
The group opted for the lump-sum payment of $10.2 million, so each got about $600,000 before taxes.
An American Airlines official declined to comment on Ramdass' job status, citing employee privacy, but his co-workers said he has taken a leave of absence.
"Right now, all I want is justice," Campbell said. "With time, I will file for divorce."
[Via - Bradenton.Com]
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Weird Facts: Australian Santas Not Allowed To Say “Ho Ho Ho”, Because It Might Offend Women
SYDNEY weird facts(AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.
[Via - Yahoo!News]
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