25 December 2009

4 Real Life Scrooges

clipped from humor.gunaxin.com
4.Andrew Carnegie: Second richest man in history
Andrew_Carnegie
Carnegie was so cheap, that he once “lost a dime. It is said that he got on his knees, and searched for the dime until he found it.” This guy, who is worth the GDP of Zimbabwe, looking for something that most of us wouldn’t have given a second thought.

3. John Elwes: The man Dickens based Scrooge on
JOHN-ELWES
Elwes was so damn stingy, that he has an entire section in his Wikipedia page dedicated to his “Miserliness”.
2. Hetty Green: Richest woman in the world
Hetty Green 2
When her son Ned broke his leg as a child, Green tried to get him into a charity hospital ward. When they recognized her, she vowed to treat the leg herself. Ned eventually contracted gangrene, and he had to get his legs amputated. To be fair, in her old age, Green began to suffer from hernia, but refused a $150 operation for herself.

1. J. Paul Getty: Douchebag
getty
Getty installed a payphone in his 700 acre mansion, refused a $17 million ransom on his kidnap grandson, suspecting it was a ploy by his grandson to squeeze money out of him. The family agreed to pay $3.2 million of the ransom when they received the boy's ear in an envelope. Getty negotiated the ransom down to $2 million and charged his grandson 4% interest on the ransom money. The grandson was eventually returned but because of the trauma became a drug addict which left him paralyzed, blind and mute.

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12 December 2009

Some Hope Yet

Despite the grim prospects for the future of humankind brought about by environmental issues such as climate changes, there is still hope yet for us.
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
New Species Discovered Around the Globe
This giant woolly rat found in
Papua New Guinea is just one of hundreds of species previously unknown to science that were brought to light in 2009
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Critical Habitat for Polar Bears Proposed
"That is a huge, positive affirmation that losing the polar bear is unacceptable," said the Center for Biological Diversity's Cummings.
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Massive Marine Monument Created
Undersea mud volcanoes, submerged islands, and waters teeming with sharks and other predators got a new lease on life
designated a federally protected area
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Walmart Going Green?
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Brazil Deforestation Rate Slows
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Solar Cells Printed Like Money
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Beer Maker Calculates Water Footprint
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Google Earth Gets an Ocean
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Initiative to Protect Corals Launched
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and East Timor—launched an initiative in May to address overfishing, unsustainable coastal development
PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Wins of 2009
Salmon Return to Paris
The species had disappeared from the river by 1900

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