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Weird Facts: Man Returns Mistaken $2M Check
2007-11-28 16:17:00
weird factsSALT 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 Fou...
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Weird Facts: How To Make A Chair Out Of An Old Bicycle
2007-11-26 17:17:00
http://www.bikefurniture.com/weird factsAndy 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 pie...
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Weird Facts: Butterfly Naming Rights Go For 40K
2007-11-26 17:13:00
weird factsA 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 dev...
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Weird Facts: Stolen, Dumped, Found, Sold: The Story of a $1m Painting
2007-11-22 12:22:00
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 tha...
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Weird Facts: Miami Woman Sues Missing Husband For Share of Lottery Win
2007-11-21 15:12:00
weird factsA 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 o...
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Weird Facts: Shawn is for Real
2007-11-21 15:09:00
As part of an insane marketing test, I''m giving away anin-depth Internet "Business-In-A-Box". I should be sellingthis for $497, but...I''m flat out giving it away. Your costis zero... zip... zilch!You probably think I''ve lost my mind - and maybe I have -but just visit this site right now and in 5 minutes you''llhave this awesome $497 Internet business training kitas my gift to you. No kidding!Grab it quick - right now - before I change my mind...Here...Shaw n
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Weird Facts: Australian Santas Not Allowed To Say “Ho Ho Ho”, Because I
2007-11-20 16:14:00
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...
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Weird Facts: 10 Most Popular Myths in Science
2007-11-19 16:09:00
weird factsThere is no gravity in spaceBlame the term "zero-gravity" for this common misconception. Gravity is everywhere, even in space. Astronauts look weightless because they are in continuous freefall towards the Earth, staying aloft because of their horizontal motion. The effect of gravity diminishes with distance, but it never truly goes away. Oh, and while we're at it, it's also untrue that space is a vacuum. There are all kinds of atoms out there, albeit sometimes far apart (and this thin gas adds to the collective gravity budget, too!)Humans use only 10 percent of their brainsThis media darling has been around for at least a century. Fortunately, it's just not true. MRI imaging clearly demonstrates--with fancy colors no less--that humans put most of their cerebral cortex to good use, even while dozing.Yawning is "contagious"Empirically, this is tough to deny; perhaps you'll yawn while reading this. The real question is whether there's actually something physiological a...
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Weird Facts: Researchers Discover That Name Initials Predict Academic Perfo
2007-11-17 13:18:00
weird factsCertain initials may look better than others as monograms but they can also have an impact on how well a person performs in a sport or at school, according to a new study.Researchers who studied the impact of initials found that baseballs players whose first or last name starts with the letter K, which signifies a strikeout, tended to strike out more often than other players.And students whose names start with the letters C or D, which denote mediocre marks in some grading systems, did not perform as well as other pupils with different initials."Just having the right initial doesn't spontaneously make you a better baseball player, but it can spontaneously make you a slightly worse baseball player," said Leif Nelson, of the University of California, San Diego.Nelson and Joseph Simmons, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, studied the effect of first or last-name initials in situations where letters corresponded to an undesirable outcome.They found that people who...
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Weird Facts: Hitler's Globe Sold For For $100,000
2007-11-15 18:12:00
SAN FRANCISCO weird facts - A globe that once belonged to Adolf Hitler has sold at auction for $100,000 -- more than five times the expected amount.American soldier John Barsamian found the globe in the ruins of Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps in May 1945.Barsamian, now 91, of Oakland, recently decided to sell it while he is alive so he can personally tell the story behind it, said his son, Barry Barsamian. Both Barsamians watched the bidding Tuesday at Greg Martin Auctions.The winning bid came from San Francisco entrepreneur Bob Pritikin.Experts had estimated the item would only bring $15,000 to $20,000.Other globes presumed to have been owned by Hitler have been extensively researched for authenticity. But there is no uncertainty about the origins of Barsamian's wartime trophy, since he had all the military paperwork that allowed him to bring it back to the United States, including a certificate that reads "1 Global Map, German, Hitler's Eagle Nest.""This is...
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Top 10 Facts About Top 10 Weird Facts
2007-11-12 10:41:00
1. Most of the times at least one weird fact is made up to make sure there are really ten weird facts.2. Regardless of how stupid these Top 10 are, those posts quickly rise to the top of Reddit, Digg, Mixx, StumpleUpon, Delicious and other social bookmarking sites. Just because it’s Top 10.3. Most of the Top 10 articles are written when there is nothing else to write about or when a person has no clue about the subject he or she is writing about.4. Only items 1 through 3 really matter. The other 7 can go in any order and nothing will change.5. The more Top 10 is used, the more shallow and pseudointellectual that particular niche is. Don’t believe me? Try finding a Top 10 list in a nuclear physics textbook and then compare it with Cool Magazine or MTV.6. You don’t actually have to know most of the weird facts that are listed in any article that is titled ‘Top 10 weird facts you need to know about …’7. Google indexes over 35 400 different Top 10 weird Facts , scientific ter...
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Weird Facts: Seattle Company Starts Making Ham Flavored Soda
2007-11-12 10:37:00
weird factsSEATTLE -- Coming soon next to the Coke and Pepsi in a store near you: ham-and latke-flavored soda to make your holiday feast complete. It even will be kosher, the company making it says - including the ham.Jones Soda Co., the Seattle -based purveyor of offbeat fizzy water, is selling holiday-themed limited-edition packs of flavored sodas.The Christmas pack will feature such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latkes sodas."As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine," Jones said in a statement.The packs will go on sale Sunday, with a portion of the proceeds to be given to charity, the company said.Jones' products feature original label art and frequently odd flavors. Last year's seasonal pack was Thanksgiving-themed, with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy, and Antacid sodas.For its contract to supply soda to Qwest Field, home of ...
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Weird Facts: Free Ipod Touch From Apple ? Video Proof
2007-11-08 18:54:00
weird factsDid you know that you can get a free iPod touch from Apple ? This method has been PROVEN LEGITIMATE by major news networks like CNN and NBC - hundreds of people have received free iPods, free XBOX 360s, and free PS3s, and now YOU can get an iPod touch for FREE!Lots of people will ask "How is this possible?" and "Why would someone give me a Free Apple Ipod Touch?" Here's a video that explains how these companies can afford this:
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Weird Facts: Cliff-Diving Cow Hits Minivan
2007-11-08 16:40:00
weird factsA Michigan couple are happy to be alive after a cow fell from a 200-foot cliff and landed on top of their minivan outside Manson, Wash.Charles Everson Jr., 49, of Westland, Mich., told The Wenatchee (Wash.) World Monday he never saw the incoming animal until it landed squarely on the minivan as he and his wife Linda traveled along Highway 150 last weekend.It was just 'bam' -- you just saw something come down and hit the hood, he said of Sunday's accident. I'm like, 'I don't believe this. I don't believe this. I don't believe this.'Chelan County Fire District 5 chief Arnold Baker said the cow, which he estimated at nearly 600 pounds, had been reported missing by a local breeder.Whatever caused the animal to hurdle off the cliff remains a mystery, but Baker told the World the couple was lucky to escape with only a heavily-damaged vehicle.It's funny because it was such a close call, Baker said. Inches different and the couple in this car would have been killed. (c)...
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Weird Facts: The $1000 Bagel
2007-11-08 16:34:00
weird factsNow big spenders tired of dropping big bucks on the luxury pie can now wake up to a grand breakfast at the Westin Hotel in Times Square, where Executive Chef Frank Tujague has concocted his $1,000 bagel.Yes, that's a thousand bucks for a single bagel.So what do you get for your money?The bagel is topped with Alba white truffle cream cheese and goji berry infused Riesling jelly with golden leaves.The white truffle, which is known for its one-of-a-kind aroma, is the second most expensive food in the world, next to caviar, and is very hard to come by. So hard, in fact, that it's grown from late autumn to winter beneath certain oak trees in the Alba region of Italy, where trained pigs and dogs are called upon to find the delicacies."I wanted to create something that speaks to New York, and is also a reflection of my culinary passion for seasonality and fine ingredients," Tujague said in a statement. "Bagels are a New York food landmark, which is where the base for this dish...
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Weird Facts: 3,450 babies in China named 'Olympics' so far
2007-11-06 14:24:00
weird factsBEIJING - The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China — it's such an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a newspaper reported Sunday.Most of the 3,491 people with the name "Aoyun," meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported, citing information from China's national identity card database.The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said. Only six live in Beijing. The report didn't say where the others live.Names related to the Olympics don't just stop with "Olympics." More than 4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots, the "Five Friendlies."The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063), Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, the phrase translates to "Beijing welcomes you!"Chinese have increasingly turned...
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Weird Facts: So That's How $100m Looks Like
2007-11-05 11:37:00
weird factsYou might like to look at this photograph before filling in your lottery numbers.It's what £100 million looks like in cold, hard cash.The money pile is even bigger because it is in US dollars, currently worth about two to the pound. But it serves the same purpose when you're daydreaming about winning the jackpot.However, nobody is going to be spending this $207 million in $100 bills very soon. The US government yesterday called the windfall "the largest single drug cash seizure the world has ever seen."Here is a link to the article...
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Do What You Love And…
2007-11-02 11:02:00
weird facts by ShawnI get a lot of emails from people asking me about how to make money, etc They ask me what they should sell, what’s hot, “the next big thing” etc… Unfortunately, most people seem to think that the only way to make money on line is by teaching other people how to make money on line. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I show people how to make money on line because I love it (and live it). I’m truly passionate about it. I’ve been making money online for over 10 years and I absolutely love it. That’s why I do so well and most others don’t. Now, I’m not discouraging you from teaching others how to make money if that’s your passion. If it’s something you love, then go for it. If it’s not, consider this: When times get tough and the money gets low, as it inevitably will, most people tend to quit because they aren’t passionate about what they’re doing…they’re chasing after money. When you’re following your passion and doing w...
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Weird Facts: Guess You Didn't Know This
2007-11-01 18:20:00
weird factsInformation no one really thought about and might not be aware of.Did you know?1. That the tongue of a whale weighs as much as an elephant.2. By 2003, the number of people who lived together before marriage was a little over 70% as against 5% in the 1960's.3. According to a recent study, people who talk on cell phones while driving are as impaired as drunk drivers, even when they use hands-free devices.4. The number of people with diabetes worldwide rose from about 30 million to over 230 million.5. The three richest men in the world are worth as much as the 40 most poorest countries of the world.6. Over the last eight year, at least 130,000 children have been kidnapped for sale, for sexual or labour exploitation or for the removal of their organs.7. During 2005, there occurred 28 full-fledged wars and eleven other minor armed conflicts, worldwide.8. According to the wall street journal (USA), up to half of the couples asked admit that they commit "financial infidelity" -...
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Weird Facts: Star Wars' Yoda Has His Own Stamp Now
2007-10-31 16:54:00
weird factsThe U.S. Postal Service sought to harness the force Thursday, releasing a new postage stamp featuring Star Wars ' enigmatic Yoda, known for his odd syntax as well as his wisdom.The Jedi master's stamp was originally part of a multi-stamp Star Wars set and is now available as an individual stamp following a public vote on which of that set should receive special attention.Also on Thursday the post office released its annual Christmas and holiday stamps.The set of four holiday stamps features classic wintertime knitting design imagery."The new holiday stamps provide another way for people to express warm winter greetings on all their mailings sent this season to family, friends or customers, " said Katherine C. Tobin, a member of the post office's governing board.Inspired by traditional Norwegian sweaters, the stamps include a stag, a snow-dappled evergreen tree, a snowman sporting a top hat and a whimsical teddy bear.The Christmas stamp is a traditional Madonna and child...
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Weird Facts: Vista Install in 2 Minutes !
2007-10-30 19:07:00
weird factsHere is the best way to install Vista
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Weird Facts: Stupid Things People REALLY Put On Their Resumes
2007-10-30 09:32:00
weird facts1. I am very detail-oreinted.2. My intensity and focus are at inordinately high levels, and my ability to complete projects on time is unspeakable.3. Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty!4. Enclosed is a ruff draft of my resume.5. It’s best for employers that I not work with people.6. Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.7. I am a quick leaner, dependable, and motivated.8. If this resume doesn’t blow your hat off, then please return it in the enclosed envelope.9. My fortune cookie said, “Your next interview will result in a job.” And I like your company in particular. 10. I saw your ad on the information highway, and I came to a screeching halt. 11. Insufficient writing skills, thought processes have slowed down some. If I am not one of the best, I will look for another opportunity. 12. Please disregard the attached resume-it is terribly out of date. 13. Seek challenges that test my mind and body, since the two are usually i...
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Weird Facts: Get Your Hands Off The Clock.
2007-10-28 16:11:00
daylight savings time - weird factsIf you don't want to hear coworkers laughing at you on Monday morning don't forget: This year, Daylight Saving Time ends 2 a.m. the first sunday in November.Thanks to the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005.when is day light savings timeend daylight savings timeday light savings time ends
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Weird Facts: What If You Had A Gun To Your Head And Had To Make $1,000 In 4
2007-10-27 10:45:00
What If You Had A Gun To Your Head And Had To Make $1,000 In 48 Hours or Less – How Would You Do It? Here’s EXACTLY How!
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Weird Facts: Home-Made Helicopters
2007-10-24 16:57:00
weird factsKANO (AFP) - Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts. "It took me eight months to build this one," he said, sweat pouring from his forehead as he filled the radiator of the banana yellow four-seater which he now parks in the grounds of his university. The chopper, which has flown briefly on six occasions, is made from scrap aluminium that Abdullahi bought with the money he makes from computer and mobile phone repairs, and a donation from his father, who teaches at Kano's Bayero university. It is powered by a second-hand 133 horsepower Honda Civic car engine and kitted out with seats from an old Toyota saloon car. Its other parts come from the carcass of a Boeing 747 which crashed near Kano some years ago. For a four-seater it is a big aircraft, measuring twelve metres (39 feet) long, seven metres high by five wide....
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Weird Facts: Did You Know ?
2007-10-22 16:26:00
weird facts
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Weird Facts: Scientists Discover Why Gossip Is More Powerful Than Truth
2007-10-22 15:01:00
weird factsResearchers, testing students using a computer game, also found gossip played an important role when people make decisions, said Ralf Sommerfeld, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, who led the study."We show that gossip has a strong influence... even when participants have access to the original information as well as gossip about the same information," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."Thus, it is evident that gossip has a strong manipulative potential."In the study, the researchers gave the students money and allowed them to give it to others in a series of rounds. The students also wrote notes about how others played the game that everyone could review.Students tended to give less money to people described as "nasty misers" or "scrooges" and more to those depicted as "generous players" or "social players", Sommerfeld said."People only saw the gossip, not the past decisions," he said in a telepho...
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Weird Facts: Monkeys Kill The Mayor Of The Capital Of India
2007-10-22 14:49:00
Weird facts from India The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi has died a day after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys. SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year.Solution elusiveOne approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.But the problem has persisted.Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkey...
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Who Is Shawn Casey?
2007-10-21 19:58:00
http://www.shawncasey.com/Shaw n—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.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 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.When I read what Shawn Casey had to say on the subject of Joint Ventues, the following appeared to be his stance on the topic.The way I understood him, he says if you do have a pro...

Weird Facts: Only in China (Photo)
2007-10-20 15:33:00
weird facts from china - how about this swimming pool ?
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