Most people think of vulcanizing as a process for creating a more durable rubber. Not Canadian Star Trek fans.
In a tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy (if you've never owned a TV, he played Spock in the series), some have taken to "Spocking" the face of former prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier that appears on $5 bills. Laurier's features, with the addition of the famous Vulcan haircut and pointy ears, bear an uncanny resemblance to Spock.
While "the Bank of Canada feels that writing and markings on bank notes are inappropriate as they are a symbol of our country and a source of national pride," spokeswoman Josianne Ménard told the CBC, enthusiastic Spockers don't have to worry about legal repercussions: Altering or otherwise defacing coins can be an offence, but there are no rules against using bills for artistic expression, according the bank's website.
The central bank must be hoping William Shatner stays in rude health, otherwise we could see a spate of $50 bills depicting Mackenzie King getting "Kirked."
Abercrombie comes down to earth
It's bad enough that the clothing retailer that helps define middle-class American whiteness is seeing its business crater – now it faces the indignity of losing its private airplane.
Abercrombie & Fitch put its Gulfstream G550 up for sale in the past quarter, chief financial officer Joanne Crevoiserat said Wednesday, writing down its value by $11-million (U.S.), Bloomberg reported.
But there was a time not too long ago when executives could live the jet-set life, taking to the skies with models, actors and other VIPers. Recently retired CEO Mike Jeffries had a strict 40-plus page manual dictating the dress, music and behaviour of everyone aboard.
Among the requirements for models boarding the plane was being clean-shaven and wearing the company's polo shirts, flip-flops, cologne – and boxer shorts. (And no, we have no idea how that rule was enforced.)
You look great! Is it the chocolate?
Put away your old anti-aging creams and wrinkle smoothers and indulge yourself with some chocolate: British-based health technology company Lycotec launched its age-defying Esthechoc at the 13th annual Global Food Technology & Innovation Summit in London this week.
The chocolates, to be sold in salons and spas for £35 ($66.61) a box, "enhances skin microcirculation and supports skin nutrition, oxygen saturation and detoxication," according to its website.
But the company doesn't want to make you just prettier, it's aiming to make you smarter, too, as Bloomberg Business reports. In its pipeline are products designed to boost cognition and physical performance in athletes and the elderly, Lycotec founder and medical doctor Ivan Petyaev told Bloomberg.
Esthechoc has been greeted enthusiastically on social media (sample: "If I eat the average quantity of chocolate I usually do I'll look as a teenager!"), but there are a few killjoys.
"Give me a break," says Gerard Mullin, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "There's no hard evidence to support what they're going to claim. It's just marketing."
Buy and hold, hold, hold
Talk about a passive managing strategy.
If you've got the patience, the Voya Corporate Leaders Trust Fund Series B may be for you. When the fund launched in 1935, it bought stocks in 30 big U.S. blue chips and hasn't picked any new ones since.
It now has positions in just 22 leading U.S. corporations, as its holdings have changed only because of spinoffs or mergers, and the fund's rules prohibited buying new stocks.
The holdings typify the country's early-20th-century economy, with almost half composed of industrial and energy stocks. Its top three holdings: Union Pacific, Bershire Hathaway (as the result of a buyout), and Exxon Mobil.
$10,000 invested in the fund in 1970 is now worth about $1.2-million, according to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Voya Investment Management. The same investment in the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average would have grown to around $852,000 and $212,000, respectively.
Pizzerias leave crumbs to Democrats
Wall Street banks, the Koch brothers, and other deep-pocketed political donors grab all the attention in the U.S., but just off the radar lurks Big Pizza (which includes the likes of Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Domino's). Okay, so the cash involved is a pittance in donor terms ($1.5-million in each of the last two election cycles, according to Factually), but it's the who-gets-what that's of note.
A feature report by BloombergBusiness reveals 88 per cent of contributions made in 2014 went to Republican candidates and groups. Leading the way was Pizza Hut, which gave 99 per cent to the elephant party, leaving just a few crumbs for the donkeys. At the other end of the scale was Little Caesars, which gave 73 per cent to Republicans and the remainder to Democrats.
So why is pizza so polarized? The answer lies in where pizza operators think their interests will be most protected. The American Pizza Community is politically active bunch, fighting what they see as an onslaught of rules that threaten their interests. A quick look at its website reveals subsections bearing titles such as "Top Issues," "Take Action" and "Your Elected Officials."
The pizza crowd say they're concerned about the new federal menu labelling law, agricultural policy, health care, and other issues standing in the way of them providing "a fresh, wholesome, highly customizable product."
Oh, and in case you didn't know, there's "34 million ways you can order a pizza with the size, crust, sauce, cheese and topping options." the group says.
Reefer madness down the bunny hole
Utah is a hotbed of vice these days. Two bills the state legislature dealt with consecutively last Thursday concerned prostitution (S.B. 238) and medical marijuana (S.B. 239).
While the former aims to eradicate a loophole in the law that allows goods and services to be exchanged for sex and seems likely to be approved without much fuss, it was testimony from a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the medical pot debate that provided the best theatre.
Special agent Matt Fairbanks told the state legislature of environmental damage being wrought by back-country grow-ops, citing deforestation, erosion, and the harmful use of chemicals, the Washington Post reported in a story headlined: "DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana."
Apparently Mr. Fairbanks said that at some grow sites he has seen "rabbits that had cultivated a taste for the marijuana …. One of them refused to leave us, and we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone."
So, dark warnings of reefer madness down the bunny hole. As the Post concludes: "I don't know that the occasional high rabbit constitutes grounds for keeping marijuana prohibition in place, any more than drunk squirrels are an argument for outlawing alcohol."