Off-beat news again...

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901604.html[/url]

[quote]YINGKOU, China -- To hear Chinese authorities tell it, Wang Zhendong is a danger to society, the worst kind of person, one who took advantage of his fellow citizens' naivete and trust. Last month, a court here gave him the death penalty for his crimes.

Wang's misdeed: selling overpriced ant farms to the public.

...

In Wang's case, for instance, investors shelled out 10,000 yuan, the equivalent of about $1,300, for cardboard boxes full of black ants, purportedly rare ones sometimes used in China to make medicines and wine but actually worth about $25.

Over two years, more than 36,700 residents of 12 towns in China's northeastern Liaoning province were tricked out of nearly $400 million, resulting in many of them losing their life savings. At least one investor committed suicide.[/quote]

Committed suicide? Who spends their life savings on ANTS?

On one side, I blame the people who buy into these things. On the other, these con-men are jerks who'll con their own grandmothers for cash.