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64 | NewScientist | 2 March 2013 FEEDBACK “FLY to London with all expenses paid and speak to 450 people at Bexley College Holly Hill campus.” This email invitation from Professor Arthur Peterson sounded both plausible and tempting to an American science fiction writer who wants to remain nameless, so we’ll call him SF. A search confirmed the college exists, but its website did not list staff members, so SF couldn’t check on Peterson. When SF asked for more details, the organisers offered him an honorarium of £3000 to compensate him for his time and trouble. It looked like a nice package. Except that there was, of course, a catch. That came a little later, when “Peterson” said that as a non-British citizen, SF would need to arrange a special work permit for the lecture through an official at the British embassy. That seemed a bit odd, because SF had never needed one before, but he went ahead and contacted the supposed official – who responded that the work permit required a payment of £768, and it would have to go to the official’s personal account because the “Chew your way to immortality,” Terence Kuch suggests, on seeing The Silver Diner loyalty card: “Your Eat Well Do Well Card is a lifetime card and it will never expire!” embassy was having a problem with money-transfer firm Western Union. At which point the penny dropped. Yes, it’s a variation on the fake conference invitation scam (27 October, 2012), this time targeting people who regularly give public talks. The invitation to speak at Bexley College about the “Mystery of Life and Death” went to science fiction writers on an online speakers list. Luckily, most of them caught on fast, aided by alerts on science fiction forums (bit.ly/speakerscam). Meanwhile, a speaker on a separate list of business experts was contacted to talk about leadership for $10,000 at a church in Newport, Wales. He fell for the work-permit scam, but balked at the next step – a £2500 “refundable bond”, which the organisers said was also required. (bit.ly/churchtalk). So the scams keep evolving. What Feedback would most like to know, however, is what criterion the scammers used when they decided to invite science fiction writers to speak at a college – but business experts to speak at a church. DEODORANTS for children? Feedback’s first response was “ick”. The age of puberty may be declining – but even so… Of course, the new product “contains natural ingredients” – which prompts us to wonder what doesn’t. And there are “no chemical preservatives” – which led The Huffington Post to the headline “Chemical-Free Deodorant For 8-Year-Olds Goes On Sale”. Feedback reader Barry Cash wonders whether the company “makes chemical-free soap to wash them with first”. Perhaps most intriguing is the observation by Andrew Roberts, co-founder of Keep It Kind, the UK-based firm that has launched the product. “There are approximately 3500 online UK searches for kids deodorants every month,” he says, “which shows the demand for this age group.” Following that logic, expect to see unicorn steaks (100 per cent horsemeat?) and second-hand flying saucers on the market very soon. THE world was shocked by North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons test, which prompted the following statement by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “The US Intelligence Community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on February 12, 2013. The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues.” Presumably, this analysis will determine more precisely whether the yield was “exactly several”, “more than several” or “just a few” kilotons. “NEW update on the Prime Minister’s Dementia” was the truncated message that appeared in Andy Coleman’s email inbox on 12 February – when Andy thought the UK PM “was having an unusually lucid period” dealing with the marriage equality bill in Parliament that day. The missing word “challenge” after “Dementia” provides a clue: the message was from the organisers of a series of initiatives on Alzheimer’s that David Cameron had lent his support to. THE headline that David Blacher sends from the Albuquerque Journal reads: “Horse rejects study of horse slaughter”. Well, it would do, wouldn’t it? Clever of it, though, to convince the New Mexico House (of Representatives) to reject the scheme, too. FINALLY, despite their sensitivity towards Feedback’s feelings, several readers have felt compelled to tell us about an event that, in reader Tom Boardman’s words, “must surely justify opening the nominative determinism file yet again”. The event was a UK League One football match between Hartlepool and Notts County on 2 February. Hartlepool won the game 2-1, the winning team’s goals being scored by players bearing the names Hartley and Poole. “What complex chain of events led to that?” Tom wonders. You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website. For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback PAUL MCDEVITT
Transcript of Feedback
64 | NewScientist | 2 March 2013
FEEDBACK
“FLY to London with all expenses paid and speak to 450 people at Bexley College Holly Hill campus.” This email invitation from Professor Arthur Peterson sounded both plausible and tempting to an American science fiction writer who wants to remain nameless, so we’ll call him SF.
A search confirmed the college exists, but its website did not list staff members, so SF couldn’t check on Peterson. When SF asked for more details, the organisers offered him an honorarium of £3000 to compensate him for his time and trouble. It looked like a nice package.
Except that there was, of course, a catch. That came a little later, when “Peterson” said that as a non-British citizen, SF would need to arrange a special work permit for the lecture through an official at the British embassy. That seemed a bit odd, because SF had never needed one before, but he went ahead and contacted the supposed official – who responded that the work permit required a payment of £768, and it would have to go to the official’s personal account because the
“Chew your way to immortality,” Terence Kuch suggests, on seeing The Silver Diner loyalty card: “Your Eat Well Do Well Card is a lifetime card and it will never expire!”
embassy was having a problem with money-transfer firm Western Union. At which point the penny dropped.
Yes, it’s a variation on the fake conference invitation scam (27 October, 2012), this time targeting people who regularly give public talks. The invitation to speak at Bexley College about the “Mystery of Life and Death” went to science fiction writers on an online speakers list. Luckily, most of them caught on fast, aided by alerts on science fiction forums (bit.ly/speakerscam).
Meanwhile, a speaker on a separate list of business experts was contacted to talk about leadership for $10,000 at a church in Newport, Wales. He fell for the work-permit scam, but balked at the next step – a £2500 “refundable bond”, which the organisers said was also required. (bit.ly/churchtalk).
So the scams keep evolving. What Feedback would most like to know, however, is what criterion the scammers used when they decided to invite science fiction writers to speak at a college – but business experts to speak at a church.
DEODORANTS for children? Feedback’s first response was “ick”. The age of puberty may be declining – but even so…
Of course, the new product “contains natural ingredients” – which prompts us to wonder what doesn’t.
And there are “no chemical preservatives” – which led The Huffington Post to the headline “Chemical-Free Deodorant For 8-Year-Olds Goes On Sale”. Feedback reader Barry Cash wonders whether the company “makes chemical-free soap to wash them with first”.
Perhaps most intriguing is the observation by Andrew Roberts, co-founder of Keep It Kind, the UK-based firm that has launched the product. “There are approximately 3500 online UK searches for kids deodorants every month,” he says, “which shows the demand for this age group.”
Following that logic, expect to see unicorn steaks (100 per cent horsemeat?) and second-hand flying saucers on the market very soon.
THE world was shocked by North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons test, which prompted the following statement by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “The US Intelligence Community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on February 12, 2013. The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues.”
Presumably, this analysis will determine more precisely whether the yield was “exactly several”, “more than several” or “just a few” kilotons.
“NEW update on the Prime Minister’s Dementia” was the truncated message that appeared in Andy Coleman’s email inbox on 12 February – when Andy thought the UK PM “was having an unusually lucid period”
dealing with the marriage equality bill in Parliament that day. The missing word “challenge” after “Dementia” provides a clue: the message was from the organisers of a series of initiatives on Alzheimer’s that David Cameron had lent his support to.
THE headline that David Blacher sends from the Albuquerque Journal reads: “Horse rejects study of horse slaughter”.
Well, it would do, wouldn’t it? Clever of it, though, to convince the New Mexico House (of Representatives) to reject the scheme, too.
FINALLY, despite their sensitivity towards Feedback’s feelings, several readers have felt compelled to tell us about an event that, in reader Tom Boardman’s words, “must surely justify opening the nominative determinism file yet again”.
The event was a UK League One football match between Hartlepool and Notts County on 2 February. Hartlepool won the game 2-1, the winning team’s goals being scored by players bearing the names Hartley and Poole.
“What complex chain of events led to that?” Tom wonders.
You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.
For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback
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