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Usually, clerk errors are not good things. Even if it is an error in our favor, the best we can hope for is a free grocery item turning up in our bag. But for one woman in Georgia, a clerk’s error ended up resulting in a $25 million winning lottery ticket. That’s because she asked for a Mega Millions ticket, but the clerk gave her a Powerball ticket with the same numbers. Luckily, the woman decided not to return the ticket and ended up becoming the state’s newest millionaire.
Link Via Consumerist Image Via doncav [Flickr]
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Don’t think for a second that Google’s business is limited to internet services. Indeed, they have their hands in a variety of industries, most recently, they’ve been testing out the beer-making business. That’s right, Google has paired with Dogfish Head beer to make their own Belgian Dubbel beer called Urkontinent.
The final brew included some impressive ingredients sourced around the world: Wattleseed from Australia, toasted amaranth from South America, green rooibos from Africa, myrica gale from Europe, and Hive Plex Honey from Google’s own California beehives. Taken all together, the beer is described by Dogfish as being hearty, with notes of coffee and chocolate covered cherries. Also, it packs more than double the average alcohol content of average beer.
To be fair, Google’s not making any money from the venture, they just want to see how the process works and to use the beer’s creation as a marketing tool. If you saw some Google beer, would you try it?
Link Via Geekosystem
I don’t know about you guys, but I can never seem to find anything worthwhile at garage sales. But maybe that’s just because I wouldn’t be able to recognize original Ansel Adams negatives or the original panels artpanels for the first Avengers comic book.
After all, these items are certainly out there as this great article on Mental Floss points out.
Can
you teach a monkey the basics of market economy?
In this article over at our pal mental_floss, Allen St. John wrote about an intriguing research by Laurie Santos and Keith Chen of Yale University to see if they can teach monkeys to spend money:
A video of one of these early experiments shows that when Felix, the group’s alpha male, entered, he received a “wallet” with 12 of those round aluminum tokens. Two student researchers, one wearing a pink T-shirt, the other blue, stood on either side of that 3-foot cubic enclosure, each holding a different tray of food. The premise at this stage was pretty basic: Felix could swap his tokens for food with either of the two researchers. He didn’t seem to care much about the students. But he did care profoundly about what the researchers would sell him in exchange for that little metal token.
Felix and the others were cautious, observant shoppers. As the video shows, Felix would head first to the researcher holding out pieces of orange, examining them carefully; before leaving, he stopped to smell them. He went to the other researcher and did exactly the same thing—looking, sniffing, shopping. He then headed back to the first researcher and handed over a token to complete the transaction. Oranges, please.
“When you watch it, it looks like they’re contemplating, thinking about what they’re going to buy,” says Santos. What separates these capuchins from the scores of animals who have been trained to perform complex behaviors in exchange for food is the option presented by that second researcher.
“The critical aspect of money is that it’s fungible. It represents a choice,” explains Chen. “A coin is fundamentally different than, say, pressing a lever.” Santos and Chen had not only achieved their preliminary goal, they had made history: The monkeys were using cash. The capuchins were now operating in a sphere where humans had been dwelling alone.
We
all hope to be rich one day, but Americans - who are very optimistic people
- *expect* to be rich. Heck, according to a
new poll, 1 out of 5 Americans expect to be millionaires in just a
few years:
Even with a turbulent economy, 20% of Americans expect to become millionaires in the next decade.
But the majority –- 62% -- still believe it’s “very unlikely” that they’ll reach the threshold by 2020, according to a new poll from the Associated Press and CNBC. Just 8% of U.K. residents believe they’re on the millionaire track.
And last year, only 5% of Americans reached the million-dollar mark -– which two in ten believe is the minimum amount of money for a comfortable retirement.
Canada’s Royal Mint has introduced a line of quarter dollar coins with native cryptids on them. One one side, you can find Queen Elizabeth II. On the other, you’ll see variously Memphré, which is a reptilian monster that inhabits a lake in Quebec, Mishepishu, which is a water panther of Lake Superior, or the more internationally famous Sasquatch.
Link -via Geekosystem
Kiva, the microfinance organization that lets people loan money through the Internet to small businesses and individuals from around the world, started with 7 loans back in 2005. Since then, they've funded over 309,000 loans totaling over $233 million.
This nifty Vimeo clip visualizes the streams of lending and loan repayment that looks very much like exchanges of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via Floating Sheep
Did you know the Star Wars films still haven’t made a profit? That’s because the studio distributes the film although the distribution branch is considered a separate company. The distributor charges the studio (itself) whatever fees it wants, so even after the film earns billions of dollars, it might still be billions of dollars more away from turning a profit.
And that’s just one of the dirty little movie-making secrets the industry doesn’t want you to know about. Find out more over at Film School Rejects.
Plenty of people are irritated with the banking system right now, but you know people are angry when people are willing to pay $25,000 for a painting of a Chase bank burning up:
Tapping into popular sentiment, Alex Schaefer’s painting of a Chase bank on fire just sold on eBay for $25,200. Part of what drove up the price was online buzz after police questioned him while he was painting it, asking him if he planned to do what the painting depicted.
While I wouldn’t pay that much for one of these paintings, I certainly support the sentiment Mr. Schaefer is expressing.
Link Via Consumerist
Twenty
years ago, Brazil found itself in the grips of hyperinflation. Its inflation
rate hit 80% a month, and the country was in financial free fall.
Economists at the Catholic University in Rio came up with an unlikely - but ultimately successful - plan to rescue the country. And would you believe it, the plan calls for fake money:
Read the fascinating story over at NPR's Planet Money blog: Link - via Just UrbanismThe four friends set about explaining their idea. You have to slow down the creation of money, they explained. But, just as important, you have to stabilize people's faith in money itself. People have to be tricked into thinking money will hold its value.
The four economists wanted to create a new currency that was stable, dependable and trustworthy. The only catch: This currency would not be real. No coins, no bills. It was fake.
"We called it a Unit of Real Value — URV," Bacha says. "It was virtual; it didn't exist in fact."
If you thought that diamonds are rare or that halitosis is a real disease, then congratulations, you’ve bought in to some of the most manipulative business practices of the last hundred years. Cracked has even more on these practices and the companies that instituted them and the article is simply fascinating.
We’ve all seen the occasional origami made from dollar bills, but those have nothing on these 32 amazing artworks made from currencies around the world. Personally, I like the carved sculptures like the one in the top center of the photo montage above.
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The August deadline for lifting the debt ceiling is looming. Will the US government default on its loans? Has that ever happened before? Yes it has -in 1979.
In the spring of 1979, Congress was in the midst of a similarly heated debate about raising the debt ceiling, Legislators eventually reached a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling and (they thought) save the day, but something went wrong. The Treasury didn’t redeem $120 million worth of securities that matured in April and May.
In other words, the U.S. Treasury defaulted on its securities even though Congress settled the debt-ceiling issue. What happened? It’s not totally clear.
Here’s the short answer: When all else fails, blame the computers. Read a more thorough explanation at mental_floss. Link
Comments Off Properly managing one’s finances seems like it should be a prerequisite for running a country. But these U.S. leaders could have used more dead presidents in their wallets.
HARRY TRUMAN -THE BUCK STOPPED THERE
Prior to becoming president, Harry Truman’s ventures in private business earned him more trouble than profit. He lost several thousand dollars investing in a fruitless zinc mine, and even more money funding a short-lived haberdashery in Kansas City. Eventually he began to view politics as a more stable career than business. Even as a senator, Truman was forced to borrow money and live more modestly, as he sent much of his income home to support his farm in Missouri.
Upon leaving the White House in 1953, Truman refused to exploit his former office as a stepping stone into the business world. This left him with just a small plot of land off which to live. He hoped that his memoirs would bring in extra cash, but between paying the ghostwriters and the taxes, Truman netted just $37,000 from the book. His insolvency grew so pathetic that President Eisenhower passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958, which created a pension for Truman. The former president made use of every last bit of it, leading an active life until his death at the age of 88.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF MONEYLENDERS
During the 1700s, tobacco rarely turned a consistent profit. So Thomas Jefferson, like many plantation owners of his time, lived in perpetual debt. Eager to look the part of a Virginia gentleman, Jefferson borrowed money for expensive clothes, furniture, and wine. He continued to indulge in this lifestyle through his presidency and into retirement. Jefferson’s beloved country estate of Monticello was especially draining on his finances. Its high ceilings and large windows led to excessive heating costs, and its flat roof and cavernous skylights leaked with every rainfall. by the time Jefferson was in his late seventies, the neglected bills had piled up and doubled with interest.
To lessen his financial woes, Jefferson started selling off the things he loved. He sold his entire collection of books to a Congressional library and even hatched a plot to give away a large parcel of land in a statewide lottery. When news of the lottery (and its purpose) reached his former colleagues, generous donations poured in. Despite these efforts, Jefferson died in debt. Two decades later, his grandson finally paid off the founding father’s tab.
ULYSSES S. GRANT -THE BOOK DEAL OF THE CENTURY
In 1881, former president Ulysses S. Grant settled into his retirement with what seemed like a prudent investment in his son’s Wall Street firm, Grant & Ward. But when the younger Grant’s partner, Ferdinand Ward, absconded to Canada with all the money, Grant found himself short $150,000.
Grant considered it a matter of personal honor to pay back the debt in full and rejected any financial assistance. He sold off much of his land, but it wasn’t enough to cover his losses. To generate more income, the former general wrote a series of articles about his Civil War exploits, which the ever-humble Grant doubted anyone would read. Surprisingly, the articles were a huge success, and Grant’s longtime friend Mark Twain convinced him to pen his personal memoirs. Completed just before his death in 1885, Grant’s autobiography became one of the best-selling books of its time -earning more than half a million dollars.
_______________________
The article above, written by Brian McMahon, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the May-June 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!
Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!
Kids selling lemonade on a street corner is a classic American icon, but according to Georgia State Police, it’s actually against the law. Cops recently busted two tweens for selling without a business permit and a food vendor’s license. According to the police chief, the city won’t be backing down soon:
“We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance.”
Who knew lemonade could be so dangerous to the public health?
Link Via Consumerist Image Via ChocoladeHam [Flickr]
National Photo Company Collection glass negative
This rudimentary machine, circa 1918, is the grandparent of today’s ATMs. These machines, made by “Bankers Automatic Receiving Teller Co.”, resembled bank buildings and were in use until the 1930s. Some were placed in schools to teach children the value of saving. They accepted both coins and paper money and recorded transactions in the customer’s pass book.
The Onion always has some great satire, but this radio piece on the banks trying to charge $.75 every time a customer says the word “bank.” I’m glad I use a credit union or else this article would cost me.
Link Via Consumerist
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Frugality is an important lesson to learn, but there is certainly a point where it becomes ridiculous. Over at Consumerist, there is a great roundup of the 16 most over-the-top tales of frugal fathers. To be fair, some aren’t nearly as bad as others, but when your dad is the type to have “hooked up the tv to an exercise bike so that we kids had to peddle to watch our cartoons. TV lost its charm quickly and we went outside to play,” you know your pop may have crossed the line -of course, that is a great way to get your kids to exercise.
The U.S. Mint is manufacturing, and will continue to manufacture, one dollar coins that just pile up in the Federal Reserve because no one wants to use them. They’ve already stockpiled over a billion dollars in coins, and may reach two billion!
In 2005, Congress decided that a new series of dollar coins should be minted to engage the public. These coins would bear the likeness of every former president, starting with George Washington. There would be a new one every quarter. So, far, the Mint has produced coins through the 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.
Members of Congress reasoned that a coin series that changed frequently and had educational appeal would make dollar coins more popular. The idea came from the successful program that put each of the 50 states on the backs of quarters.
The reserve also has plenty of Susan B Anthony and Sacagawea dollar coins. If the public does not want to use dollar coins, why are they being made? The answer is a bit complicated, and is explained in this article at NPR. Link -via Breakfast Links
The Dutch Royal Mint in Utrecht is celebrating its 100th anniversary by releasing silver 5€ and gold 10€ coins. It has been reported that they include functional QR codes and are legal tender in the Eurozone.
Link -via CrunchGear | Image: The Rich Times
Typically a stolid brick-and-mortar institution, these new architectural designs (some built, some in progress) are taking banking to a new level of cool. From Tokyo to Oslo (my favorite), these banks incorporate open planning, natural light, cool angles and plenty of interest. (See what I did there?) The full gallery of the 13 coolest modern bank designs is on WebUrbanist. Link
Image: dezeen
Warren and Maureen Nyerges of Collier County, Florida, didn’t owe a single cent on their house, but that didn’t stop Bank of America from trying to foreclose on it. The Nyerges fought it in court, and won. The court ordered Bank of America to pay court costs and attorneys’ fees, which they didn’t. So the Nyerges foreclosed on the bank:
Sheriff’s deputies, movers, and the Nyergers’ attorney went to the bank and foreclosed on it. The attorney gave instructions to to remove desks, computers, copiers, filing cabinets and any cash in the teller’s drawers.
After about an hour of being locked out of the bank, the bank manager handed the attorney a check for the legal fees.
Link via The Volokh Conspiracy | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user taberandrew used under Creative Commons license
This article caught my eye because only a couple of days ago I explained to my daughter why pajamas were invented: because once upon a time we wanted to keep our expensive daytime clothing clean and wrinkle-free because it was difficult and destructive to clean them. An essay at Etsy explains more about the way clothing used to be. In 1900, a new dress could cost a couple month’s wages. Thanks to overseas labor, modern machinery, and synthetic fabrics, it only takes abut an hour to earn the price of a discount store dress.
As clothes have become cheaper, our clothing consumption has gone through the roof. In 1930, the average American woman owned an average of nine outfits. Today, we each buy more than 60 pieces of new clothing on average per year. Our closets are larger and more stuffed than ever, as we’ve traded quality and style for low prices and trend-chasing. In the face of these irresistible deals, our total spending on clothing has actually increased, from $7.82 billion spent on apparel in 1950 to $375 billion today. And the discounters are reaping the rewards.
Sixty pieces of new clothing a year? Really? Even my growing children don’t buy that much! Link -via Boing Boing
This is a neat idea: parking meters repurposed to collect change for the homeless. The program is now running in Orlando, FL, as well.
Donors drop coins into the meters, which are used only to collect contributions, not to regulate parking. City workers collect the change, which is given to the Central Florida Commission for Homelessness, a nonprofit group partly funded by the city.
The money will go to the commission’s Ten2End initiative, which aims to end homelessness in Central Florida within the decade by helping people become self-sufficient.
When German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann won $100,000 from the Biennial Hugo Boss Prize, which awards achievement in contemporary art, he decided to give back in this peculiarly fascinating art:
Feldmann decided to give back to the museum in a unique way. He used the money to create an installation that involved tacking one-hundred thousand dollar bills to the large gallery off the Frank Lloyd Wright ramp!
“I’m 70 years old, and I began making art in the ’50s,” Mr. Feldmann shares. “At that time there was no money in the art world. Money and art didn’t exist. So for me, $100,000 is very special. It’s incredible really. And I would like to show the quantity of it.”
It took about thirteen days to complete the installation with out-of-circulation bills.
More at My Modern Met: Link
In Zimbabwe, virtually everyone is a trillionaire who walk around with wheelbarrowful of money! Wait, perhaps that’s not such a good thing after all … except for numismatists and eBayers.
A 100-trillion-dollar bill, it turns out, is worth about $5.
That’s the going rate for Zimbabwe’s highest denomination note, the biggest ever produced for legal tender—and a national symbol of monetary policy run amok. At one point in 2009, a hundred-trillion-dollar bill couldn’t buy a bus ticket in the capital of Harare.
But since then the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has soared. Not in Zimbabwe, where the currency has been abandoned, but on eBay.
The notes are a hot commodity among currency collectors and novelty buyers, fetching 15 times what they were officially worth in circulation. [...]
Frank Templeton, a retired Wall Street equities trader, bought "quintillions of Zimbabwe dollars" through a broker from Zimbabwe’s central bank. On eBay, he now does a brisk trade in the bills from his home in the Hamptons, on New York’s Long Island. "I like to say Warren Buffett made a lot of people millionaires, but I’ve made more people trillionaires," Mr. Templeton says. The dealer paid between $1 and $2 for each of the bills in several purchases over about a year, and now sells them for around $5-$6 apiece.
Patrick McGroarty and Farai Mutsaka wrote The Wall Street Journal article: Link
As the real estate market continues to limp along, more and more homeowners are opting for strategic default – basically walking away from a mortgage you can afford to pay.
Many describe it as a savvy business decision (even if it ruined their credit), but is it a moral shortcoming?
Despite the fact that he and his wife are employed and have an annual household income near $150,000, he’s comfortable with his decision.
"I did a lot of soul-searching about whether it was morally the right thing to do," he said. "I felt there was no moral obligation to make a payment. The contract says it’s a financial obligation, not a moral obligation.
"I was in a boat with a slow leak. It was manageable, but I know I was slowly sinking."
The decision to walk, tied to a housing crisis that continues to grip the market, is far-reaching, raising serious questions about whether financial commitments can ever be considered optional.
Mary Ellen Podmolik of the Chicago Tribune has the story: Link (Photo: Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)
The Art of Manliness offers an extensive tutorial in the art of negotiation, also known as haggling.
Depending on where you are in the world, negotiation is either a part of everyday life or an uncomfortable practice that’s consciously avoided whenever possible.
But here’s a truth that many of us, especially those of us living in the Western World, don’t always consider: whether or not you realize it, every interaction you have with another person is a negotiation. From picking a romantic date with your wife to finding an agreeable price for some tchotchke gift with the local thingamajig salesman, we’re navigating a world of back and forth deal-making.
If you accept and embrace that, you can become much better at it, getting what you want from your life and feeling more fulfilled. If you reject it, your other choice is to take what’s given you and hope that it matches what you want. I learned from Dad long ago that the first option comes with better odds.
The article contains lots of advice and tips. As long as you are nice about it, you have nothing to lose by asking for a better deal. Link -via Gorilla Mask
Wellington R. Burt (d. 1919) amassed a vast fortune during his lifetime, but he didn’t want it to spoil his children or grandchildren. They needed to make it on their own in the world, so he bequeathed to them comparatively small stipends and ordered that the rest of his fortune — now measured at $100 million — be distributed to members of his family only 21 years after the death of his last grandchild. That time has finally arrived:
Now that it’s 21 years since the death of the last grandchild, the fortune is finally being turned over to Cameron and 11 others, including three great-grandchildren, seven great-great grandchildren and another great-great-great grandchild. The fortune is valued at more than $100 million. (She’ll get a little more than $2.6 million, since those further up the family tree get more under a master agreement).
Link | Photo: Saginaw News/AP
Richard Ravitch was sworn in as New York’s liutenant governor in 2009, to fill a vacancy and help solve the city’s dire fiscal crisis. Ravitch, a wealthy businessman, was gracious enough to forgo the $151,500 annual salary.
And in an example that no good deed goes unpunished, he now owes money for working for no money:
While working on the memoir earlier this year, he received a letter from the state comptroller. It was not a thank you note for serving, much less without pay. It was a bill.
“The value of your personal use of a state provided vehicle and chauffeur services and taxable meals when traveling are fringe benefits reported as income on your Form W-2,” the letter began.
Those $9,455 in fringes were subject to $723.31 in Social Security and Medicare taxes, which the state paid on his behalf and was now seeking to collect …
What did Ravitch do?
“I paid it,” Mr. Ravitch said Monday, adding philosophically: “There was a certain asymmetrical irony about it, but I hope it helps the budget gap.”
Sam Roberts of The New York Times’ City Room blog explains: Link
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