Weird Financial News

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In case you've been singularly focused on the more serious stories in the financial press, such as recent heady numbers at Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) or General Electric's (NYSE: GE) continuing strong performance, here's a brief recap of weird financial news:

• Here's a potential new offering for coffee purveyors such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR): coffee from beans pooped by a wild civet. Apparently, Indonesian kopi luwak is quite a delicacy, selling for around $600 per pound, and $30 per cup in some fine Asian hotels. The beans that travel through the gastrointestinal system of the civet are fine tuned by its stomach enzymes. If you're a purchaser, though, beware -- much of alleged kopi luwak on sale is fake. According to a report in The Los Angeles Times: "Real kopi luwak has a top note of rich, dark chocolate, with secondary notes that are musty and earthy. An Indonesian coffee lover described the scent as the smell of moist earth after a rainfall, with hints of vanilla, that teases the palate for hours after the cup is empty."
• Airlines like Southwest (NYSE: LUV) and JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU) might want to invest in more advertising. It seems that there's a segment of the population that's not aware of their transportation options. An 87-year-old man from Utah recently hitchhiked 2,000 miles to Pennsylvania. And a 47-year-old man from Oregon floated 193 miles (en route to Idaho) in a lawn chair held aloft by 105 large helium balloons.
• Animal-feed producers like Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) might have a new product offering in their future -- one that can help the planet and improve their environmental image. It seems that scientists are busy working on developing new kinds of food for cows that will help them burp less. This, believe it or not, could significantly decrease greenhouse gases and thereby reduce global warming. The average dairy cow burps up some 100 to 200 liters of methane per day.
• Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) might want to put away the champagne. When a judge sued his dry cleaner for $54 million over a single pair of pants, some might have wondered whether many dry cleaners would end up going out of business, perhaps leading to greater sales of laundry detergents. Alas, the judge assigned to the lawsuit found that the man hadn't proven his case. (He's appealing, though, of course.)

Enough silliness, though. We at the Fool aim "to educate, amuse and enrich." I invite you to read any other article in Fooldom for at least a little education and perhaps some enrichment, as well. For more enrichment, I encourage you to test-drive, for free, our Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter, which delivers promising investment ideas monthly. Its picks are more than doubling the market's results since it began, and it's where I've gotten a bunch of great investment ideas.

Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Netflix and General Electric. Jetblue and Netflix are Stock Advisor recommendations. Try any one of our investing services free for 30 days. The Motley Fool is Fools writing for Fools .