Software designers often bestow pet names upon their projects. When Apple programmers named a beta (test) version of a novel software application "Sagan" in honor of the renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, the latter -- incredibly -- threatened to sue. Naturally, Apple backed down, renaming the application "BHA".

Only later did Sagan discover that the new name was in fact an acronym -- for "Butt-Head Astronomer"!

[Two undergraduate students once filed (and won) a lawsuit against Pace University for "educational malpractice." Their complaint? The instructor of their introductory computer programming course had assigned a "difficult" homework assignment (which took the plaintiffs weeks to complete, unsuccessfully). The assignment? Determine the approximate cost of an aluminum atom. Given the price per kilogram and a periodic table, the answer ($6.22 x 10 ^-26) can be calculated in about three steps.]