Virtual Banker Steals 200 Billion Interstellar Kredits (i.e. $5100)

“TORONTO, July 2 (Reuters) – Facing real world debts, a trusted figure in a popular online game stole money from the virtual bank he ran and exchanged it for cash through the black market.

It happened in EVE Online, where more than 300,000 subscribers pay $15 a month to play. They gain wealth through hard work, manipulating the market, or killing rivals in a distant future where humans have colonized the stars in an online game similar to World of Warcraft and Second Life.”  Full Story at NYTIMES

Woman who missed Air France Flight 447 is killed in car crash

From NY Daily News:

“Her luck didn’t last long.  A woman who showed up late to the airport and missed the doomed Air France flight from Brazil died in a car crash a couple of days later, news services reported.   Johanna Ganthaler, an Italian senior citizen, was on vacation with her husband, Kurt, in Brazil and were ticketed to fly on Flight 447 to Paris.  The couple showed up late at Rio de Janeiro’s airport and missed the flight on May 31.

All 228 people aboard were killed after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris. The couple took another flight to Europe the next day and were driving to their home in Italy’s Bolzano-Bozen province.  The ANSA news agency reported that Johanna Ganthaler died when their car veered across a road in Kufstein, Austria, and swerved into an oncoming truck.  Her husband was seriously injured.”

( The moral of this story? Luck works both ways. – Ed.)

World’s Most Influential Person?

“In a stunning result, the winner of the third annual TIME 100 poll, and new owner of the title world’s most influential person, is Moot. The 21-year-old college student and founder of the online community 4chan.org, whose real name is Christopher Poole, received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100) to handily beat the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Oprah Winfrey. To put the magnitude of the upset in perspective, it’s worth noting that everyone Moot beat out actually has a job.”   Full Story