`What happens if a penny is worth more than one cent?
That is an issue the U.S. Mint could soon face if the price of metals keeps rising. Already it costs the mint well more than a cent to make a penny.
This week the cost of the metals in a penny rose above 0.8 cents, more than twice the value of last fall. Because the government spends at least another six-tenths of a cent — above and beyond the cost of the metal — to make each penny, it will lose nearly half a cent on each new one it mints.
The real problem could come if metals prices rise so high that it would be economical to melt down pennies for the metals they contain.’
`A retiree in northern Germany flushed some 30,000 marks (about $21,500 Cdn) down the toilet, believing the old bank notes were worthless, police said.
Officials were alerted by a blocked pipe in the northern city of Kiel. A cleaning company employee extracted soggy bundles of bank notes, but more money got away as the water started flowing again.
Investigators then discovered that the retiree had reported a blocked pipe at his house the same day. They visited the “slightly bewildered” man at his apartment and he confirmed that he had flushed the money away, a police statement issued late Wednesday said.’
`Notorious former mental institutions being converted into high-end condos. Candy bars with curious names. And more stupidity. See our list of the year’s most boneheaded blunders.’
`A bailiff was sent to an 80-year-old gran’s council home to demand rent arrears of just five pence.
Alice Nelson was left “terrified” after the official called on her without warning.
She has lived at the same address for 45 years and has never knowingly been behind with her rent.
The bailiff told Alice, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, she had to hand over the 5p there and then.’
`Pharmaceutical companies are systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal claims today.
The practice of “diseasemongering” by the drug industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine.
The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and “restless legs syndrome” have been promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.’
`A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he recieved a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.
Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father’s phone line in January after he died and settled the $23 bill, the New Straits Times reported.
But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a $218 trillion bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.
It wasn’t clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya’s father’s phone line was used illegally after after his death.’
`A man smuggled half a tonne of $2 coins out of the Royal Australian Mint in his boots and lunch box and kept notes of when he exchanged the money, a court has been told.
The theft has forced a major security upgrade at the Mint, which produces 10 million coins every week.
William Grzeskowiac, 48, of Monash, today pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to dishonestly appropriating the money between April 2005 and February this year.
The court heard Grzeskowiac carried more than 77,000 coins worth $155,000 out of the Mint over 10 months, avoiding detection by the facility’s inadequate security system.’
`Pakistani children ride a ferris wheel over a heap of garbage in a slum area of Karachi, Pakistan, reads the official WaPo caption on this one.’
`Anne Arundel County in Maryland has been running five red light cameras for five years, during which period they raised a fat $2.85 million in ticket revenue. Unfortunately, a comparison of accident statistics shows that the cameras have increased the rate of accidents.
Immediately after installation, the cameras sparked a 40-percent increase in rear-end collisions, and never looked back, with five-year increases in accident rates far exceeding a 10-percent increase in traffic.
Unfortunately, this is hardly an isolated phenomenon. TheNewspaper.com reports similar results in the state of Georgia, where the city of Duluth’s one and only camera is forecast to generate a whopping $1 million next year, at the cost of a 21-percent increase in accidents. A study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed red light cameras were linked to an increase in accidents, injuries and revenues across the state, although there is early indication that the rate of serious accidents in intersections is falling.’
`A hooker who bit her client’s penis reportedly so hard that he required an operation has denied grievous bodily harm with intent, according to a report from the UK.
Prosecutor Matthew McNiff told the jury Louise Jowett carried out the attack because Brett O’Leary told her he had no additional money to dispense after already paying her for sex, reports the Cambridge News.
It was alleged that afterwards she asked O’Leary for more cash, becoming more aggressive as her requests continued. While performing a sex act on O’Leary he told her he did not have any more cash.
McNiff said she grabbed his penis and took it in her mouth and gripped it between her teeth. He said: “She bit hard. She bit very hard. This caused what Mr O’Leary described as indescribable pain.”‘
`To James Valverde , a risk management expert at the Insurance Information Institute in New York City , the religious xenophobia of Islamic terrorists is reason to worry.
“Given the religious fervor and underlying ideology in which this jihad is being pursued, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility to assume that Christian churches would be on the receiving end of terrorist attacks,” he said. “It hasn’t occurred yet, but that’s not to say it couldn’t happen.”
However, that is not why insurance companies are offering churches terrorism insurance.
Reacting to Sept. 11, Congress passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act in 2002. It required all property and casualty insurance companies to offer terrorism insurance to all clients. Clients are not obligated to buy the coverage.’
`The State Government may be forced to repay drivers up to $100 million in fines after the Roads and Traffic Authority lost a Supreme Court appeal over speed camera photos yesterday.
Justice Michael Adams said digital photographs tendered in court against a motorist, Timothy Mitchell, did not contain the markings stipulated by the Road Transport Safety and Traffic Management Act.
Mr Mitchell’s lawyer, Dennis Miralis, is investigating a class action on behalf of thousands of motorists since digital technology was introduced in 1999.’
`New research says music downloading (or “P2P,” peer-to-peer file swapping) might not be the record industry’s death knell after all. And while that’s an interesting idea, the real surprise is where the new research is coming from: the recording industry itself.
According to a study commissioned by the Canadian Record Industry Association, the record industry’s well-worn argument that music downloading hurts music sales may be misguided.’
`Fake porn euro notes being sold as a gimmick in Germany are being successfully passed off as real cash.
The notes, in 300, 600 and 1,000 euro denominations have a ring of 12 hearts instead of the usual EU stars and feature hunky men and big-breasted nude women.
Instead of the word ‘Euro’ being printed in the corner these notes have ‘Eros’ – the Greek god of love.
But despite these differences – and the fact that the only large euro notes currently in circulation are 100s, 200s and 500s – police say they are being passed off as the real thing.’
‘It’s not just that America is being ruled by small and venal men, or that its reputation has been demolished, its army overstretched, its finances a mess. All of that, after all, was true toward the end of Vietnam as well. Now, though, there are all kinds of other lurking catastrophes, a whole armory of swords of Damocles dangling over a bloated, dispirited and anxious country. Peak oil — the point at which oil production maxes out — seems to be approaching, with disastrous consequences for America’s economy and infrastructure. Global warming is accelerating and could bring us many more storms even worse than Katrina, among other meteorological nightmares. The spread of Avian Flu has Michael Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, warning Americans to stockpile canned tuna and powdered milk. It looks like Iran is going to get a nuclear weapon, and the United States can’t do anything to stop it. Meanwhile, America’s growing religious fanaticism has brought about a generalized retreat from rationality, so that the country is becoming unwilling and perhaps unable to formulate policies based on fact rather than faith.’
`A German hotel has started calculating fees according to the weight of the guest.
The three-star Ostfriesland hotel in the north German town of Norden charges the equivalent of 34p per kilogram.
So a thin man weighing 60 kilos pays just over £20 a night, but a man weighing 100 kilos would be forced to shell out nearly £35.
Owner Juergen Heckroth said: “Slim guests live longer and can therefore come more often and that is why we reward them.”‘
`Want to buy a head? On the American body-part market, the going price is between $500 and $900, plus another $50 if you’d like the brain, too. A torso will set you back as much as $3,000, while a single foot could cost $650.
At these prices, there’s plenty of temptation for people to take advantage of the dead. But as a disturbing new book reveals, the burgeoning trade in human remains is largely unmonitored. Universities, mortuaries and medical companies routinely buy and sell arms, legs and elbows with virtually no oversight.
The inevitable result? Crooked deals, stolen corpses and lots of looking the other way.’
`The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw. There’s no such thing as a one billion dollar bill. U.S. Customs agents in California said on Tuesday they had found 250 bogus billion dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling.’
`A man accused of repeatedly robbing fast-food restaurants and markets became so familiar that employees at a Taco Bell would open the cash register when they saw him coming, police said.
Eugene Rutledge, 31, of Oakland was charged Monday in connection with 16 robberies since November, including four at the Taco Bell. [..]
After his arrest Wednesday, police said he admitted to the robberies and said he needed the money for drugs and to help a sick girlfriend.’
`Claude Archambault says his client threw out the cup and should get the “Roll up the Rim” prize that is being fought over by two Montreal families.
Last week, a 10-year-old girl found the unrolled cup in a garbage can in her school. She enlisted the help of a 12-year-old friend to roll up the cup’s rim. They discovered the cup was the winner of a $28,700 Toyota RAV 4.
Since then, their families have been bickering over who should get the prize.
The Quebec government agency that regulates contests said the whole thing seems to be spinning out of control.’
`Michael Jackson has been ordered to shut down his Neverland Valley Ranch by California authorities who have fined the pop star ,000 (,700) for failing to pay his employees or maintain proper insurance. [..]
Fryer said local animal welfare officials had been asked to care for the inhabitants of Neverland’s zoo.
He said that Jackson could reopen the ranch if he obtains workers compensation insurance but may face legal action by the state if he fails to pay the back wages.’
`A team of thieves that broke into an abandoned missile silo not far from the Russian city of Kostroma in search of nonferrous metals was shocked to find the shaft packed with Soviet money bills, Regnum news agency reported on Tuesday.
The incident would have remained secret, had the wind not blown hundreds of banknotes all over the countryside.’
`I had to sign a tedious business contract the other day. They wanted my corporation number — fair enough — plus my Social Security number — well, if you insist — and also my driver’s license number — hang on, what’s the deal with that?
Well, we e-mailed over a query and they e-mailed back that it was a requirement of the Patriot Act. So we asked where exactly in the Patriot Act could this particular requirement be found and, after a bit of a delay, we got an answer.
And on discovering that there was no mention of driver’s licenses in that particular subsection [..]
[..] A couple of weeks earlier, I went to the bank to deposit a U.S. dollar check drawn on a Canadian financial institution, and the clerk announced that for security reasons checks drawn on Canadian banks now had to be sent away for collection and I’d have access to the funds in a couple of weeks. This was, she explained, a requirement of — ta-da — the Patriot Act. And, amazingly, that turned out not to be anywhere in the act either.’
`A British man who kept his $2.5 million Lotto win a secret from his wife has blown the fortune on gold-digging women. [..]
“These women must see me coming,” he told his mates. [..]
The news isn’t all bad for the Lotto loser, who put some money is trust for his two sons, but the bulk of it has flown the coop.
The lovelorn former millionaire’s search for romance continues as he spends $750-a-month on internet dating services.’
`A renowned psychiatrist from UC Irvine was duped into squandering at least $1.3 million of his family’s fortune on a Nigeria Internet scam, according to a lawsuit recently filed by his son.
The son, also an Orange County doctor, said his father — Dr. Louis A. Gottschalk — gave as much as $3 million over a 10-year period in response to an Internet plea that promised the doctor a generous cut of a huge sum of cash trapped in African bank accounts in exchange for money advances.
The court documents, filed last month in Orange County Superior Court, allege Gottschalk even traveled to Africa to meet a shadowy figure known as “The General.”‘
`Lawyers in South Korea have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 230,000 victims of identity theft in an online game.
The suit will claim damages of about $1,000 for each plaintiff whose identity was used to register new accounts in NCsoft’s popular games, Lineage and Lineage 2, according to media reports.
Most of the identify thefts took place over the past six months as underground gaming syndicates stole victims’ official Korean ID numbers in hacking attacks and used them to register hundreds of thousands of Lineage accounts.’
`The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the online music pricing of the world’s major music labels, sources say.
The probe closely tracks a similar investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into the pricing of digital music downloads, sources familiar with the matter said. One music industry source said some subpoenas may have been issued already in connection with the probe, while other labels had been tipped off that subpoenas would likely be coming in the next few days. It appeared that Sony BMG had already received a subpoena. The major record labels include Warner Music Group, EMI, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann.’
`A $400,000 federal government compensation payout to an 11-year-old Iranian boy who suffered psychological harm in Australian detention centres has been described by his lawyers as a “landmark outcome.”
The NSW Supreme Court today approved the compensation offer to Shayan Badraie who sued the immigration department on the grounds he was psychologically harmed while living at Woomera and Villawood detention centres between 2000 and 2002.
After months of hearings, the boy’s lawyers accepted an out-of-court settlement offer yesterday of “$400,000 by government solicitors”, a spokeswoman for legal firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman said.’
`They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.
And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges’ behavior was found questionable.
And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn’t call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn’t try to sneak a machine gun through customs.
They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast. [..]
They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn’t move until the threat alert is lifted.’
`Last week’s raid on a security depot in the county of Kent has been confirmed as the biggest heist in British history, netting robbers £53 million ($125.4 million), police said today.
Police hunting for the gang behind the heist are questioning four suspects held in the past 24 hours, Kent’s Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard said in what he described as a major development in the case.
Seven others have been arrested but freed on bail since the heist on Thursday.
The six robbers posed as police officers.
They kidnapped the manager of the security depot, along with his wife and small child, and held them before making off with the cash.’
