Plus: World’s Wealthiest Fictional Characters and Blurred Lines Between Science and Fiction.

Forbes’ Fake Wealthiest
$9.86 billion. That’s the average net worth of the members of Forbes‘ 2011 list of wealthiest fictional characters, which is up 20 percent from last year. In aggregate, the Fictional 15 are worth $131.55 billion — “more than the gross domestic product of New Zealand,” Forbes‘ David Ewalt writes.

Topping this year’s list is Scrooge McDuck, a self-made, penny-pinching billionaire known for storing his fortune of gold coins in a massive “money bin.” With the price of gold up more than 30 percent year over year, McDuck’s net worth skyrocketed to $44.1 billion.

Real estate magnate Mr. Monopoly (formerly Rich Uncle Pennybags) returns to the list this year with a net worth of $2.6 billion, following his release from prison after misappropriating funds from a bank error in his favor. So does corporate raider Gordon “Greed is Good” Gekko, one of the few investors to predict the bursting credit bubble, who watched his net worth surge to $1.1 billion while Wall Street struggled.

Among the characters new to the list: the ancient red-golden dragon known across Middle Earth as Smaug, whose vast sums of gold, silver and gems are valued at $8.6 billion; and Sabre Corp. CEO “Jo” Bennett, whose printer company and its newly acquired subsidiary, paper company Dunder Mifflin, make her worth $1.2 billion.

Click for the complete list.

(Image credit: Hasbro)

Embarrassing Moments in the Workplace
Nearly everyone has had an embarrassing moment at work, whether it was spilling coffee during a meeting, a mid-day wardrobe malfunction or sending an e-mail to the wrong colleague. Other situations are more uniquely humiliating, as noted in a recent OfficeTeam survey.

Earlier this year, the staffing firm asked more than 1,300 senior managers in the U.S. and Canada to recount some standout moments at work when they most wanted to crawl under their desk in shame. Here are some of the highlights lowlights:

• “On my first day, I tripped on the stairs and fell down in front of my boss.”
• “I got locked in the office.”
• “My skirt got stuck in my pantyhose.”
• “I conducted a training session with my zipper down.”
• “A personal voicemail from my spouse went to my boss.”
• “I answered the phone using the wrong company name.”
• “While interviewing a job candidate, I fell asleep.”
• “I fell off a chair while talking to my boss.”
• “While speaking at a business event, I fell off the stage.”
• “I stapled one of my fingers with the stapler while I was assisting an employee.”

“Although these moments can be awkward, it’s best not to dwell on them, or you risk drawing more negative attention to yourself,” Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam, said.

Easier said than done for the manager whose trousers tear in front of his team.

True or False: Light Sabers are Real?
A surprising number of British adults believe certain science-fiction technologies actually exist today, according to a recent Birmingham Science City study that “aimed to see just how blurred the lines between science and fiction really are.”

The survey found that 24 percent of Britons believe people can be teleported, 40 percent believe that hoverboards exist, almost 50 percent believe that “memory-erasing technology” exists, 18 percent believe “they can see gravity” and more than one-fifth of adults believe Star Wars-like light sabers exist. (Source: AOL News)

However, if this recently uploaded video of a steel factory in Poland is anything to go on, more than one-fifth of British adults should be feeling particularly validated right about now:

Cheers.