271 Typos Can Be Life Or Death

Typos are careless spelling or punctuation mistakes. They are usually minor, but not
always. Sometimes these small mistakes can cost millions of dollars.

NASA, the US space agency, made a little mistake in 1962 that had a big impact. Their
spacecraft, called Mariner 1, was launched in 1962 with the goal of flying by the
planet Venus. The spacecraft was robotic, so there were no people onboard. Because of
this, its navigation was controlled by software. Unfortunately, the person in charge of
writing the software forgot one character a hyphen. This missing hyphen caused the
software to malfunction. The spacecraft exploded after takeoff, costing NASA $80
million!

NASAs $80 million down the drain was actually small change compared to Mizuhos
losses.

Nick-named the fat finger trade, a Japanese company called Mizuho Securities lost
hundreds of millions of dollars because of a tiny typo. On the day of the fat fingered
typo, the price of J-Com stocks was selling for 610,000 yen (approximately $6,000) a
share. A Mizuho employee attempted to sell 1 share for 610,000 yen, but because of a
careless typo he sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen each!

This cost Mizuho Securities about $340 million in one day. The error also caused
Japans market to become unstable. While we all make typos from time to time, most of
them are quickly forgotten. In the case of the Mizuho employee, he will probably never
live it down.

Both the NASA and Mizuho mistakes were classic typos. They were careless mistakes
that were unintentional. There are also cases in history where people have intentionally
used a typo to change the messages meaning.

Empress Maria Feodorvna, wife of Tsar Alexander III once cleverly used punctuation to
save a man from exile. Her husband had written an order that harshly sent a man into
exile in Siberia.

It said, Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.

In the original order, the Tsar was saying that canceling the punishment was impossible.
After Feodorvna moved the comma, the meaning completely changed.

It now said, Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.

With one deft stroke of the pen, the man was free. This intelligent edit was all that was
needed to change the meaning from exile to mercy.

Vocabulary
malfunction
stop working normally
down the drain
gone or wasted
small change
small amount of money
never live something down
people will never forget something embarrassing you have done
exile
sent away from ones home or country as punishment
deft
skillful and clever
mercy
show kindness and forgiveness