Mistakes

Geek Out

Blue Angels Commanding Officer Steps Down For Flying Too Aggressively

4:00AM May 30, 2011 | Jack Loftus

Commander Dave Koss, commanding officer of the Navy’s venerable Blue Angels flight demonstration team, has voluntarily stepped down after taking his four-man team too close to the flight deck during a Barrel Roll Break manoeuvre. More »

Entertainment

Time Warner Cable Charges Man $US16 Million To Watch March Madness

11:20AM March 26, 2011 | Sam Biddle

How much do you love basketball? Enough to pay your cable bill? Probably Enough to pay $US16 million dollars? Probably not! So you can imagine the surprise of Ohioan Daniel DeVirgilio when he learned TWC tried to do just that. More »

Mobile

AT&T Mum On Soldier’s $US16,000 Mobile Phone Bill

8:00AM December 20, 2010 | Jack Loftus

The details are still being brought to light on this, so don’t go taking up torch and pitchfork just yet, but apparently there’s some poor soldier in Afghanistan with a $US16,000 bill that AT&T will not budge on whatsoever. More »

Online

Yahoo! Can’t Tell The Difference Between Yoko Ono And World Of Warcraft Monster

2:00AM December 9, 2010 | Max Read

“John Lennon’s family and friends today”: What do they look like? According to Yahoo! (taking a page from the Washington Post) they look like a World of Warcraft orc or monster or something. No wonder the Beatles broke up! More »

Online

Student Discovers False Murder Accusation While Googling Himself

4:40AM December 1, 2010 | Sam Biddle

Most of us probably Google ourselves semi-regularly, right? (Right guys…?) But if there’s one thing worse than discovering you’re an online nobody, it’s discovering that you’ve been wrongfully accused of murder by your local police department. How very embarrassing! More »

Science

Thirty Years Ago, A Louisiana Lake Turned Into A Swirling Pit Of Destruction

11:30AM November 22, 2010 | Sam Biddle

In 1980, Texaco drilled down to look for oil beneath Lake Peigneur. A little too far down. The mistake drained the entire lake like a bathtub, creating an enormous whirlpool that consumed barges, drills, and 65 acres of land. Oops. More »

Those 100 Million Sunflower Seeds Are Being Removed

6:35AM October 16, 2010 | Kyle VanHemert

Remember that installation of 100 million meticulously hand-painted ceramic sunflower seeds that just opened a few days ago at the Tate Modern? It turns out they’re giving off “noxious ceramic dust” and now they all have to be removed. Whoops. More »

Geek Out

UPS: Getting Your Packages Into The Bin On Time Or Your Money Back

9:40AM February 26, 2010 | Adam Frucci

I’m pretty sure BSMT GARBAGECAN is not where this package was intended to be delivered. But hey, UPS delivered it, and that’s all that counts, I guess. More »

Geek Out

Programming Error Results In Radiation Overdoses

4:00PM October 15, 2009 | Rosa Golijan

In attempt to get better data, a hospital overrode default protocol on a CT scanner over a year ago. Now they’ve realised that they made a little mistake and have been giving people eight times the acceptable doses of radiation. More »

Software

Amazon’s Unfortunate Windows 7 Freudian Slip

2:00AM June 29, 2009 | Jack Loftus

Surely this is some kind of innocent SEO-related keyword slip, right? I mean, Microsoft definitely doesn’t want one of the biggest online retailers in the world billing it’s new OS as Windows Vista 7 Home Premium, right? Right?! More »