This weeks tidbits from the wider world

Typo

Microsoft has learned the hard way that global domination requires a touch of cultural sensitiviy. Last week, a senior executive admitted that a series of politically incorrect gaffes in its software had cost the company millions of dollars in lost sales......A Spanish version of [Microsoft's] XP operating system destined for Latin-American markets gave users the option of selecting their gender from the options "not specified", "male" or "bitch". The error was blamed on a mistranslation.

Winnie The Pooh complex
"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around" Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort near Seattle, on a bear that passes out after drinking 36 cans of local brew.


Monster odds
Finding intelligent life on Saturn's moon Titan by 2010: 10,000/1

Building a useful fusion powerstation (tommak style) by 2010: 100/1

Finding the Higgs boson (aka the God particle, the thing which gives particles mass) by 2010: 6/1

Spotting a gravity wave (wobbles in space-time caused by big things, eg blackholes, colliding or imploding) by 2010: 500/1

Building a useful fusion powerstation (laser style) by 2010: 100/1

Understanding the origin of Cosmic rays (high energy particles from outer space) by 2010: 4/1

And here's some more odds for you:

Finding Elvis alive 100/1
Finding the Loch Ness monster 66/1

Shows how much faith bookies have.

from New Scientist Magazine 28 August