Black Swan

Being a passionate ballet lover (if you are too, visit my other blog at toursenlair.blogspot.com), I was intrigued to come across what is apparently a trendy new term: "Black Swan event":

"A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random."

The Black Swan's author Nassim Nicholas Taleb states that Google and the September 11 attacks were Black Swans. Taleb also tells us "Black Swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our personal lives".

However, apparently Taleb was not alluding to nasty Odile who turns up in Act III of Swan Lake and deceives the prince into thinking she's the good white swan Odette, but rather to the unexpected discovery of black swans which destroyed the theory that all swans are white.