Gazetteer: Student egged on to hurl more than insults

Published on Sunday 25 May 2008 20:50

SUITS YOU SIR

THE first thing Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer thought of when a Hungarian student attacked him with eggs last week was to keep his suit clean.

The student threw three eggs at Ballmer, the head of the world's largest software maker, while he spoke at a university in Budapest.

Ballmer said he was later told the student was angry over a Hungarian government tender in which Microsoft was not involved.

"I thought it was a joke ... maybe some prank," said Ballmer. "Then I heard a sound – Boom! And I looked at the board behind me, and I said 'uh oh, I have a problem'.

"I thought, 'I have to keep this suit clean' so I ducked under the table because I was worried – egg doesn't clean off very easily."

A video circulated widely on the internet showed the student shouting and throwing three eggs at Ballmer, who crouched behind the podium. The student then left, escorted by university staff.

It is not the first food attack on a Microsoft executive. Protesters hit company founder Bill Gates with four custard pies in 1999.

How many of us have felt like taking similar action when that "system error" message appears for the umpteenth time?

FACT OF THE DAY

4,250

SOME 16,000 hectares of woodland were sold in the UK last year, at an average price of 4,250 per hectare – an increase of almost 80 per cent in value compared with 2006.

Timber prices have soared partly due to growing demand from emerging economies such as China and India, as well as rising transportation costs.

Forest covers just over 10 per cent of the land area in Britain and some 15 per cent in Scotland. The total forest area is in excess of 2.4 million hectares.

KILLER QUOTE

"WE ARE among the top 20 brands in the world. In my lifetime, we can certainly be up in the top five lifestyle brands and our goal is to make it to number one."

Serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, on the power of his Virgin brand.

GOOD DAY

BA high-flyers

BRITISH Airways is to invest up to 100 million in new first-class facilities on its fleet. The airline, which recently posted a rise in profits, plans to revamp first class in the belief that premium traffic fares better than the leisure market when times are tough. It is understood that all of BA's new long-haul jets, to be ordered next year, will have the enhanced top-end product.

BAD DAY

Protection insurers

SALES of protection insurance are said to have slumped as the mortgage market shrinks and homeowners try to cut their outgoings. According to Swiss Re, the reinsurance giant, income protection sales fell by 14.3 per cent last year. Meanwhile, the uptake for critical illness cover dropped by 8.2 per cent. Swiss Re said the protection insurance "gap" reached 190 billion last year.