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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Seriously? A survey of the wealthy by the Spectrem Group of Illinois has found that "confidence regarding financial status has remained stable since last year, with slightly more millionaires now believing they will have enough saved to retire as originally planned."
Tweets of the week From @michaelhewson: "Lagarde says she hopes to 'increase the pot - my money's on the kettle" From @amaeryllis: "2nd team drinks this wk. seems like we drink a lot, but if you spent your days litigating mortgage backed securities, you'd drink a lot too" From @BorowitzReport: "I think it's a negative economic sign that the US is now shortchanging Colombian hookers." From The Globe and Mail's @syladurantaye: "The argument that high-level execs get paid more than MPPs only carries weight if you assume MPPs would otherwise be high-level execs."
Sweet home Alabama The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board says it's okay sell Fat Bastard wine, but not Dirty Bastard beer, which is now banned, The Associated Press reports. "That's the whole reason for the rule, to keep dirty pictures and dirty words away from children," an attorney with the agency said.
Sex and the cramped city An official at the Family Institute of the Unversity of Hong Kong wants people to have more sex. It's the reasons cited by associate director Emil Ng that are interesting, according to an Agence France Presse report: A cramped city and high property prices forcing many young people to live at home.
Chin up Chin implants are becoming quite the trend in the United States, surging by 71 per cent last year among both men and women, possibly because of how people want to be seen on video chats, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Newman ... "If I could, I would name it the Newman-Kramer Deterrence Act of 2012," California assemblyman Richard Gordon told Bloomberg News, referring to his proposal aimed at stopping cans and bottles from being smuggled into California and a Seinfeld eiposode where Kramer and Newman schemed to do just that.
I like you More than half of Canadian parents surveyed by security firm AVG admit to creeping their kids' Facebook pages. That's well above the world-wide average of 44 per cent, but below parents in the United States. But at least they're nice about it. The same survey found that parents in Canada rank second in terms of the likelihood of being Facebook friends with their teenage kids.
Going Dutch Ed Houben of Maastricht, Holland, who Globe and Mail blogger Adriana Barton describes as looking more a historian than a sex machine, likes to donate sperm. It's no wonder. He started 10 years ago in the usual way at a sperm bank, ABC News reports, but apparently reached the legal limit so he went private. And now he's doing it the traditional way.
D'oh For all you Simpsons fans: There really is a Duff Beer. The brewer is based in Eschwege, Germany, according to Bloomberg News, and it has gone to court in Luxembourg trying to get a trademark decision overturned so it can trademark the "legendary Duff beer." 20th Century Fox holds the trademark.
Duh A survey by Robert Half Technology has found some odd requests by staffers of some companies to their IT departments:
- How do I clean cat hair out of my computer fan?
- Can you come over and plug in this cord for me?
- I dropped my phone in the toilet. What should I do?
- How do I pirate software?
- Can you help us get money out of the vending machine?
- How do I send an e-mail?