Some things-with-a-twist we noticed this week. Get the top business stories on weekdays on BlackBerry or iPhone by bookmarking our mobile-friendly webpage.
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Flipping out I wouldn't be surprised to see the editors of a German magazine flip the bird to a Greek prosecutor after being cleared of defamation charges over a cover that showed the Venus de Milo making a rude gesture. The 2010 Focus magazine article - Cheats in the European family - was related to the fiscal crisis in Greece. Focus was charged with defaming and insulting a national symbol, according to The Associated Press. The court, though, found that the magazine was referring only to the actions of the country's politicians, and it was not a slur against Greeks in general. Tensions between the two countries had been riding high at the time, with Greece's opposition politicians going so far as to raise the issue of Second World War reparations. To see the cover, click here or see the accompanying infographic.
Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you need them? We can all sleep well tonight knowing that the world's most powerful central bank wasn't used to funnel money to the Watergate burglars of the early 1970s, didn't try to cover up that it wasn't, and didn't lend Saddam Hussein $5.5-billion (U.S.) to buy American weapons in the 1980s. Not kidding here. Ron Paul, who wants to be the U.S. president but never will be because he can't stop saying ridiculous stuff, alleged these things in early 2010, leading to a lengthy probe that found the Federal Reserve wasn't, didn't, and didn't. But it took about 16 months and 30 pages of someone's time to figure that out.
Tweets of the week From @TonyclementCPC: "Great tour of Lucid Networks in Timmins, another small business success!" (Because he couldn't find a lucid network in Ottawa?)
From @MrsRupertPupkin: "Surfers get right back in the water after a shark attack & yet all it takes is 1 mediocre date for me to swear off men forever."
From Pimco's Bill Gross via @PIMCO: "Gross: #Greece was a zit, #Portugal is a boil, #Spain is a tumor. You can't fix a debt crisis w/ austerity & more debt."
From @moorehn): "Hey girl...sigh. RT @NewYorkObserver: Breaking: Ryan Gosling Saves British Woman From Taxi Collision nyob.co/Hf1aOz"
Short and to the point Advisor.ca posted a Canadian Press story about Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney shooting back at the banks for saying they need a break from financial reforms. It was the headline that made me chuckle: "Carney to banks: Stop whining."
I'm walking on sunshine The Ontario Liberal Party is touting the 46,000 jobs created in the province in March, noting in a tweet Thursday that "our jobs plan is working." I'll just point out that unseasonably warm weather had at least something to do with that, and that Premier Dalton McGuinty's government had better pray for sunshine from here on in if he wants to keep using that line.
One snake, one plane "Ive seen it on a movie once, but never in an airplane." That comes from Braden Blennerhassett, an Air Frontier pilot, who told Australian Broadcasting Corp. how he was flying cargo in a Beechcraft Baron G58 when a snake came out from the plane's panel. Not quite Snakes on a Plane, but he did a quick landing nonetheless.
Who knew? The United States has its strategic oil reserve. Canada has ... its strategic maple syrup reserve. The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers says it has bought a warehouse to store more than 220 barrels of syrup and ensure "a continuous market supply, regardless of nature's generosity." Added the group: "Warm temperatures over the last few weeks have meant that some of the southern-based maple producers (including many American producers) have had to stop production for the season, although many of the larger maple groves are still in production in the colder parts of Quebec. At this point it is still too early to measure this year's harvest. Nevertheless, the global strategic reserve will ensure that maple syrup will not be in short supply this year."
Picture perfect, for men From a study by Bradley Ruffle of Ben-Guion University and Se'ev Shtudiner of Ariel University Center: "Beauty discrimination occurs at the earliest stage of job search, and not only through differential salaries ... To put our results in perspective, a plain male needs to send over twice as many CVs as an attractive male for an equal chance at a callback. This result is robust across industries and job and employer characteristics and ought to encourage attractive males to attach a photograph to their resumes in cultures like Israel in which the inclusion of a picture is left up to the applicant. On the other hand, attractive and plain women alike are better off omitting their photographs from their CVs since their inclusion decreases their chances of a callback by 20 per cent to 30 per cent. Yet if the company at which the chosen candidate will be employed is also in charge of hiring, plain women are no worse off including their photograph, while the penalty for doing so for attractive women swells to 41 per cent."
Are we in the wrong business? Prices for baby American eels are surging, fetching up to $2,000 (U.S.) a pound, The Associated Press reports, which would be worth some $30,000 when grown to size.
Test drives will never be the same Terrafugia Inc., the Massachusetts company behind a new flying car, said this week that it conducted its first test flight, at 1,400 feet for eight minutes around Plattsburgh International Airport. The Transition Street-Legal Airplane, now "a significant step closer to being a commercial reality," is a two-seater, with wings that fold up when you want to drive on four wheels. As The Associated Press notes, though, it's not the driveway that's the problem. You have to drive to a runway with the vehicle, which is expected to cost $279,000 (U.S.).
Blank cheque The impact of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is turning up in the oddest places, like divorce court. New York's Court of Appeals has ruled that lawyer Steven Simkin was wrong in thinking he and his ex, Laura Blank, erred together when they believed they had $5.4-million (U.S.) in a fund that really didn't exist, The Associated Press reports. Mr. Simkins wanted $2.7-million back from the $6.25-million she got in the divorce.
The Bunny Hop Britons are fretting about the high cost of Easter eggs this weekend. According to the Mail Online, some have climbed by 200 per cent a year.
This column has been corrected from an earlier version.