Good week for:
Clearing the lane, after the Nevada Highway Patrol began fitting emergency vehicles with “the Rumbler,” a siren that emits low-frequency vibrations as well as audible sound. Officials said many drivers play music too loud to hear normal sirens and fail to get out of the way.
Playing nature’s lottery, after a Lebanese woman working in a restaurant kitchen opened an oyster and found a cluster of 26 pearls. “I was so startled I screamed,” said Amal Salha.
Everyone on Earth, after scientists conducted the first major test of the world’s largest particle collider in Geneva, Switzerland, without destroying the planet. Some Chicken Littles warn that the Large Hadron Collider is so powerful it will create mini–black holes that will annihilate Earth and all 7 billion inhabitants.
Bad week for:
Roaming, after a Portland, Ore., family was hit with a $20,000 mobile phone bill. The Terry family’s son had used the service to send 21 e-mails during his vacation in Canada, not realizing that international rates would apply.
American Airlines, which allegedly misplaced a dead woman’s body for four days as she decomposed in her coffin. Miguel Olaya, who was having his wife’s casket shipped from New York to Ecuador for a funeral, is suing the airline for millions of dollars.
Mimicry, after New Jersey police kicked in a door in response to a female voice crying, “Help me! Help me!” They found only a female cockatoo imitating something she had heard on TV.
