Archive for the ‘Weird Wednesday News’ Category
Posted on December 5th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
This story clearly underscored the need for solid accounting in any situation, and how even the beautiful people can be impacted by faulty numbers. WebCPA just filed a story about Miss California giving up her crown due to accounting errors. Basically, an accountant took the ranking forms from the five celebrity judges and assigned a point value to each contestant – with the results confirmed by an outside auditor. However, the points were mistakenly reversed, with the lowest number of points going to the winner.
Tags: Accounting, Miss California
Posted on November 7th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
We know we didn’t warn you that there would be a quiz for today’s Weird Wednesday, but don’t worry, we are going to give you all of the necessary information to arrive at the answer. In news reported by Bloomberg today, (thanks to our friends at Dealbreaker) it appears that the price of hunting lions bred in captivity in South Africa is about to go up, WAY UP, up to $35,000. No, that is not a misprint. American and Russian trophy hunters pay large lion breeding operations in South Africa $35,000 to stalk and kill lions in the wild. Now, we are sure you are asking yourselves, what does this have to do with compliance? Well, Brian Groves discussed Approva’s recent webcast with AMR Research vice president and research fellow John Hagerty in which Hagerty outlined a case study of a client who is saving over $5 million dollars per year through the use of continuous controls monitoring and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software. So, here at Audit Trail, we got to thinking when we saw the news - just how many lions could we kill? Of course, we are NOT saying we want to kill them - this is purely hypothetical thinking for the sake of Weird Wednesday, as we cannot think of anything weirder (ok, so maybe we can) than killing a lion for $35,000. Just how many could be killed with the $5 Million in compliance savings that company is enjoying due to continuous controls monitoring software? 142. Wow - almost 75% of the lions currently at Fletcher’s Sandhurst Safaris in South Africa.
Tags: Compliance Savings, Continuous+Controls+Monitoring
Posted on October 24th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
Yes folks, we did not stutter or mistype. A recent article from personal finance columnist Jonathan Clements at the Wall Street Journal explains how wealth is overrated in his latest column, “You’re Not Super Rich? You Lucked Out.”
“This might sound odd coming from a personal-finance columnist. But the fact is, while it is comforting to be financially secure, money is no measure of self-worth, no guarantee of happiness — and no reason to be impressed.”
Thus, he landed himself a spot in Weird Wednesday. Why so weird? More like, ironic. Isn’t his job as a personal finance columnist supposed to be to help readers improve their financial situation for things such as retirement planning, college education saving, debt reduction, etc.? Gawker puts it best.
Next Wednesday, Halloween… as it will be hard to get weirder than this.
Tags: Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Clements, Gawker, Halloween
Posted on October 10th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
For the Hollywood set, this might not seem so weird, but on Wall Street - it caused quite the up stir. We heard about this Craigslist posting from a New York Times article, although many of you might have read it in an email chain from friends as a joke - although the post is anything but, which makes it even more appropriate for Weird Wednesday. So, the story is about a “spectacularly beautiful” 25-year-old who placed an ad on Craigslist.org seeking a man who makes at least $500,000 a year because $250,000 would not get her to Central Park West. Wow. And we thought Craigslist was about selling concert tickets and mindlessly viewing missed connections, but not actually replying to them because well, that’s just creepy. But this girl is on the prowl. She is serious. However, not as serious as a guy from J.P. Morgan who replied back to her ad - describing her as a “depreciating asset” and her proposal as a “bad business deal” - how romantic. He obviously needs an “I Love A Good Audit” button…
Tags: Craigslist.org, J.P. Morgan, I Love A Good Audit
Posted on October 3rd, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
Don’t be surprised if you have NO IDEA what a Googlegänger is, let alone if you have one. In short, its your online twin in name only that also shows up when you Google your name. In a recent story from Newsweek, Eve Fairbanks, a sophomore at Yale, received an impromptu visit from her mother for lunch - in which her mother informed her that she “knew about the porn.” Clearly, that was not the same Eve Fairbanks, but her mother came across her daughter’s name while curiously searching her name on Google. Not only is it weird that someone out there with the same name is also racking up search points on Google, but that people out there are actually making it a competition against their Googlegänger to get to the top of the organic search page. One such person, Matthew Slutsky, 26-year-old Washington political blogger, actually befriended his Googlegänger on Facebook. Really? Why would one find it necessary to be friends with someone with the same name?! Seems that there would be a SERIOUS identity crisis waiting to happen. So go ahead and Google yourself and see what comes up, and let us know who your Googlegänger is - as it just might us feel better about our own.
Tags: Googlegänger
Posted on September 26th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
Yes, you read right folks. Today, a Siberian woman gave birth to 17 pound 1 ounce Nadia. And the story doesn’t end there - it was the woman’s 12th child! Another interesting tidbit to the article - all of the woman’s previous babies were over 11 pounds. Since we are all numbers people here on Audit Trail, that would mean that the woman has given birth to over 135 pounds of baby. WOW. Be sure to click, as there are pictures of baby Nadia in the maternity ward next to another normal-weight baby.
Tags: 17 pound baby, Siberia
Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
Yes indeed folks, the :-) turned 25 today. A CNNMoney.com article contributes the invention of the smiley to Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman. So, what’s the big story about the invention? Apparently, Professor Fahlman was the first to use the three characters when he posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor in which he said, “I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-), read it sideways.” Apparently, the smiley is still causing quite a stir 25 years - as emoticons, as they are now called, have been weaved into all aspects of life, including business and even the military. The New York Times article (-: Just Between You and Me ;-) explains the widespread use of emoticons - and says that even some high ranking officials at the pentagon use the ;-) as cover for explaining sensitive matters in email communication. And, if you are still intrigued about smileys, as we certainly are, be sure to check out a blog post from Fortune’s Nadira Hira, “A brave new smiley-filled world ;o)” So, how does Professor Fahlman plan to celebrate the anniversary? Well, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo! carries a $500 cash prize. How’s that for something to smile about?
Tags: emoticons, smiley face
Posted on September 12th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
The message coming out of a town council in Germany is that not all automated processes are necessarily in the best interest of safety. In fact, as of this morning, all traffic controls will disappear from downtown Bohmte to try and reduce accidents and make life easier for pedestrians. The idea is to give drivers and pedestrians equal right of way. One might wonder how ditching traffic lights in the center of a town that reports an average of 13,500 cars per day will reduce accidents – I know the editors here at Audit Trail sure did – but according to Bohmte’s mayor, this idea of “shared space” has already been proven successful in a town in the Netherlands.
Tags: Traffic Signals, Pedestrians, Automated Processes, Car Accidents
Posted on September 5th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
For many of us, Labor Day marks the official end of summer fun. It’s the last long weekend up until the Thanksgiving holiday, the local pools have begun shutting their gates, the kids are marching back off to school and for those of us commuting around the nation’s capital — well let’s just say the drive starts taking a WHOLE lot longer. Sigh. But according to the American Payroll Association there is no need to have the blues, instead get some green and join with your colleagues in celebrating National Payroll Week (NPW).
NPW runs from September 3-7, and it even has its own website focusing on teaching employees how to unleash the power of their paycheck and maximize their take-home pay. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want a little more dough lying around, right? So after a weekend full of BBQs celebrating American workers for Labor Day, spend this week celebrating the reason people come to work — Cold. Hard. Cash.
On another note, we here at Audit Trail think that maybe the American Payroll Association may be on to something… so whose up for celebrating I Love A Good Audit Day? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tags: American Payroll Association, National Payroll Week
Posted on August 29th, 2007 by Audit Trail »Permalink
It’s amazing the lengths that people will go through to get a few extra bucks in their pocket — and no, we’re not talking about Kenneth Lay and his cohort over at Enron. Rather, in the spirit of Weird Wednesday, we bring you news of the couple who repeatedly toasted their rapidly growing bank account over a nice dinner at one of their local restaurants, complete with shards of glass for dessert! That’s right, on August 15th Ronald Evano plead guilty to 20 federal counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and identity theft for filing fraudulent insurance claims worth more than $200,000, claiming that he and his wife had consumed glass in their food. According to Evano, he and his wife needed the money.
And speaking of Weird Wednesday, it can’t get much weirder than this: “NASA Buys $19 Million Toilet System.” Hmmm… Earth shattering!
