A list highlighting
dim moments
By Beth Carney, Globe Staff, 01/01/2000
| Juan Pablo Davila isn't a name
that shows up on most end-of-the-century highlight lists. A trader for
the Chilean-owned Codleco Co., Davila lost more than $170 million in 1994
when he reportedly made the mistake of typing "buy" instead of "sell"
while trading commodities over the computer. Davila's expensive mistake made a ist of the top 20 technological screw-ups of the 20th century, compiled by the local science humor magazine, The Annals of Improbable Research, and posted on its Web site (www.improbable.com). Marc Abrahams, editor of the spoof journal, said an ad hoc groups of editors and scientists around the world came up with the list, which highlights only the most stylish mistakes, like that of Douglas Corrigan, a pioneer aviator who in 1938 took off from Brooklyn, destination California, and landed in Ireland. "You can mess up quietly or you can mess o with panache," Abrahams said. And is his list generating feedback? "I've gotten several e-mails from people thanking me for leaving them off the list." |