GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper, the New Straits Times, reported Monday.
Yes, you read that correctly; a $218 trillion phone bill.
Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after his father died, and he settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported. But it wasn't clear whether the outsized bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's late father used the phone illegally after his death.
Yahaya said it was careless for the company to send a bill without checking it first, since the amount was larger than the total for all the telephone bills in the entire country.
"If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it," the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. "In fact, I can't wait to face it," he said.
I wonder .. can we can expect more unpaid bills like this after the rapture? If so, what will happen to the world after the post-rapture economic collapse? i also wonder which is more expensive; calling earth from heaven or from hell?
Thanks, Sara!
Comments
No roaming charges in hell, no use of cell phones in public in Heaven.
Posted by: coturnix | April 10, 2006 3:09 PM
Grrlscientist and I have a running joke about who has received the largest falsely billed phone bill, started by our own very misfortunate experiences with this. I have a feeling it's going to be hard to beat $218 trillion though. ;)
Posted by: Sara @ YellowIbis | April 10, 2006 3:17 PM
I think the administration was just handed an idea on how to solve the national debt. Mis-bill 200 million Americans and just hope that one is stupid enough to pony up. Same theory as tele-marketing and they're still in business.
Posted by: Kurt | April 11, 2006 11:53 AM