A LUCKY EMAIL

An email with a $1 million gift

Today has been a day so special that I will remember it to my dying day. I have never known
such joy and happiness. Today I received a special email, totally unsolicited and right out of
the blue. Here it is:

Dear Sir/Madam
This is my seventh time of writing you this email. My wife and I won a Jackpot
Lottery of $11.2 million in July and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum
of $1,000,000.00 USD to you as part of our own charity project to improve the
lot of 5 lucky individuals all over the world.
If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients and
all you have to do is get back with us so that we can send your details to the
payout bank.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11699678
Goodluck.
The Larges.

So I quickly clicked on the link and sure enough it took me to the US-Canada page of BBC
New and right there in front of my eyes was a photo of a lovely Canadian couple holding a
check for $11.2 million dollars.

I’ve reproduced the BBC item below:

Canadian couple give away millions in lottery winnings

A Canadian couple who won $10.9m (£6.7m) in lottery winnings in July say they have given away $10.2m of the prize to groups in their community.

Allen and Violet Large with their winnings

Allen and Violet Large said they were plain country folks who needed no more than "what we've got".

The two said they had donated about 98% of the cash after helping their family.

The elderly pair gave the money to churches, fire departments, cemeteries, the Red Cross and hospitals, where Ms Large has undergone cancer treatment.

"We haven't bought one thing. That's because there is nothing that we need," Mr Large, 75, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Large, a retired welder from Canada's Nova Scotia province, added that he and his wife were quite content with their 147-year-old home and everything else they already owned.

"You can't buy happiness," he said.

It was almost too good to be true. The lovely Canadian couple really did want to give me $1 million dollars.

From the US-Canadian page button I clicked on the home page button and it flicked across. It really was BBC News. Then I clicked on the US-Canada button again and it flicked back to US-Canada news, but it was an entirely different page of news. The lovely old Canadians had vanished.

So I Googled Allen and Violet Large and, large as life, I found they were almost everywhere. They were famous. They really had won a lot of money and given most of it away, but that was more than two years ago and the money was long gone.

Meanwhile, some fraudsters have been sending out emails, claiming to be the Larges, and tricking people into giving personal information including bank account details.

Below is one of the many items turned up by Google:

Scammers Phish for Victims While Impersonating Elderly Couple Who Won Lottery

Marquisa Kirkland 7th August 2012

A few years ago, elderly couple Allen & Violet Large won the lottery and collected a cool $11.2 million dollars.
Instead of keeping their winnings all to themselves, they donated it to family members, charity groups and nearby businesses in their area.
While most of us simply appreciate idea that these folks chose to make such a generous decision to share their wealth with those around them, cybercriminals have decided to use the story as a gateway to yet another scam.
The scam starts off with an email similar to the one I received below:
From: Programa Jornal da Cultura (jornaldacultura@tvcultura.com.br)
Subject: Dear Lucky Winner….
I and my wife violet voluntarily decided to donate the sum of $500,000.00 USD to you as part of charity project to improve the lot of 10 lucky individuals worldwide. You can also verify the link below
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326473/Canadian-couple-Allen-Violet-Large-away-entire-11-2m-lottery-win.html
Send Your
Name..
Telephone..
Age..
Country..
To our private email: allen.violet-large01@live.com and please do not reply to this jornaldacultura@tvcultura.com.br
Good luck,
Allen and Violet Large
As you can see, the scammers decided to throw in a link to the legitimate article to help build credibility (assuming you don’t read the date).
Of course, this email was not sent by Allen or Violet Large, but a scammer that’s looking to make a quick buck through an advanced fee scheme, collect confidential information to commit identity fraud, or maybe both.
Bottom line is, don’t reply to this email (or any others like it) and definitely do NOT provide your personal or financial information.

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/2012/08/07/scammers-phish-for-victims-while-impersonating-elderly-couple-who-won-lottery/

Now isn’t that a shame? I was so looking forward to a donation of $1 million dollars.

EINSTEIN OR GOD?

Does God exist?
Einstein's 'God letter' does, and it's up for sale

By Jeanna Bryner  Managing editor Life Science 10/5/2012 2012-10-05T21:02:50

 Famed physicist's handwritten note, to be auctioned on eBay, calls religion 'pretty childish'

Albert Einstein in prayer

In a 1954 handwritten letter, Albert Einstein revealed his thoughts on God and religion. The original letter is going up for sale at auction on Monday.

From studying slices of his brilliant brain to probing profound physics theories, scientists and enthusiasts alike have long been spellbound by Albert Einstein. Now, an auction is offering the world a peek at Einstein's thoughts on what may be humanity's most profound question: the existence of God.

The private letter written by Einstein expressing his views on God and religion will go up for auction Monday on eBay. In the letter, he calls belief in religion and God "pretty childish" and ridicules the idea that the Jews are a chosen people.

"This is the most historic and significant piece we have listed on eBay," Eric Gazin, president of Auction Cause, the agency managing the sale, told LiveScience in an email. "We are excited to offer a person or organization an opportunity to own perhaps one of the most intriguing 20th-century documents in existence. This personal letter from Einstein represents the nexus of science, theology, reason and culture."

Einstein's 1954 God letter

Einstein handwrote the letter in German to Jewish philosopher Eric B. Gutkind on Jan. 3, 1954, a year before Einstein's death. The letter was a response to Gutkind's book "Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt" (1952, H. Schuman; 1st edition).

In part of his letter, Einstein writes, "For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them," as translated from German by Joan Stambaugh. [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]

In his book, Gutkind suggested that unlike the mass hypnosis spoiling mankind at the time, "The soul of the Jewish people was never a mass-soul. Israel's soul could not be hypnotized; it never succumbed to hypnotic assaults. … The soul of Israel is incorruptible."

And as for whether Einstein believed in God? Yes and no, it seems.

In a March 24, 1954 letter, he is quoted as writing, "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

However, in the letter to Gutkind, Einstein wrote the word God was "nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."

Einstein in 1921

This isn't the first time this "God" letter has been up for auction: In 2008, an unidentified buyer who had "a passion for theoretical physics" bought the letter at a Bloomsbury Auctions sale in London for $404,000, 25 times its presale estimate, according to an article in the New York Times.

The letter to Gutkind has been stored in a temperature-, humidity- and light-controlled environment at an academic institution specializing in the care of cultural heritage collections, according to an eBay description. Since the letter has been known among scientists for more than 50 years, the description reads, its authenticity has never been questioned. The letter is in its original envelope, holding a stamp and postmark from Princeton, N.J., where Einstein lived toward the end of his life.

The last few years have seen an outpouring of projects that bring the famous genius down to Earth: For instance, in March, a large collection of Einstein's documents — everything from personal letters to scientific manuscripts — went online as part of an endeavor by the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology.

The archive reveals both the academic side of Einstein — with one of only three existing manuscripts containing the famous E=mc^2 equation written in Einstein's handwriting — and his personal life — with a postcard to his mother Pauline. Pieces of his brain went on display for the first time at Philadelphia's Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library.

And just last month an iPad app was released that allows the public to get up-close and personal with Einstein's gray matter.

The "God" letter goes on sale Monday, with an opening bid of $3 million. Anyone interested (with the money to spare) can make an eBay bid here.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Peter’s Piece

Albert Einstein was right about many things and he could well have been right about God too. He certainly left the world a lot to think about.

AERODYNAMIC TRUCKS

At 13.4 mpg, the future
is in aerodynamic trucking

Max Heine|October 03, 2012 Overdrive Magazine

Bob Sliwa's latest Airflow truck

Aerodynamics is getting more attention these days now that diesel has risen fairly steadily for about four months to top $4. You can read a lot more about it in the November Overdrive, where columnist Kevin Rutherford will examine the aero trailer benefits for owner-operators. Also in that issue, our fuel-saving tips list will devote a big section to aero features.

Those who attended the Mid-America Trucking Show this year got a glimpse of aero’s possible future if they stopped by the AirFlow Truck Co. exhibit. The company’s website also has plenty of info on what they’ve done and are trying to do.

 

Most impressive is the results from a test run from Connecticut to California in June. AirFlow says its BulletTruck prototype averaged 13.4 miles per gallon. The website documents the effort and has good shots of the truck, which was originally a 2003 Kenworth T2000. It’s powered by a Cummins 15-liter ISX, with 450 hp and 1,450 ft.-lb. of torque, writes AirFlow President Bob Sliwa. Gross vehicle weight for the test run, which included actual deliveries, was 65,000 pounds and below.

“If we get the investors, we intend to build AirFlow Trucks from scratch and sell them in the (hopefully) near future,” Sliwa says. He points to the 2015, which will be similar to the cross-country test model.

More in Overdriveonline

Peter’s Piece

Airflow’s Bob Sliva is a genius with a long background in trucking, car racing and flying.

As a long time professional driver and one-time pilot, I have often wondered why large trucks and buses have not had aerodynamic designs to save fuel, and make them easier to handle in windy conditions.

Airflow owner Bob Sliwa

Long ago I concluded that while the designers care about styling, they know very little about aerodynamics, and care even less.

Any pilot will tell you about the basics of form drag (the drag caused by the shape of an object as it passes through the air) and he will tell you that with a square solid object, about 70% of the drag is created by the back end, and about 15% by the front and the remainder by the sides, provided they are reasonably smooth and free of obstructions.

It follows that streamlining the back of a truck or bus is vitally important if the drag and fuel consumption is going to be reduced.

But there is another vital area too and that is the underneath of the vehicle.

The underside of aircraft are always closed in and streamlined, and that’s not just to make it look good from the ground. The aircraft designer knows that an open side will create considerable unwanted drag so the underside becomes part of the wrap-around skin.

With vehicles there would be other advantages to be had also from a closed underside.

There is another curious fact about air resistance that is not well known among drivers and fleet operators and that is that for every 1% increase in speed there will be a 4% increase in drag and a corresponding 4% increase in anti-drag fuel consumption.

Bob Sliwa and Airflow Trucks appear to be right on the ball with drag reduction.

The Asker Trilogy

THE TEAMSTER BOSS

New dig fails to find
body of Jimmy Hoffa

10:09 AM Wednesday Oct 3, 2012 NZ Herald

Jimmy Hoffa

Like many others that came before it, the latest search for former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa has come up empty.

Tests on soil samples gathered last week from a backyard in suburban Detroit showed no traces that Hoffa or anyone else was buried there, Roseville police announced.

"Our department just received the soil sample report from Michigan State University, after a battery of tests; the samples submitted for examination showed no signs of human decomposition," the police statement read. "As a result of these tests the Roseville Police Department will be concluding their investigation into the possible interment of a human body upon the property."

Thus ended the latest in a long string of tips and rumors about one of America's great mysteries.

Over the years, authorities have dug up a Michigan horse farm, looked under a swimming pool and pulled up floorboards in their quest for the former union leader. Other theories were that his remains were ground up and tossed into a Florida swamp, entombed beneath Giants Stadium in New Jersey or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.

Hoffa last was seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County, more than 50 kilometers to the west.

The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain.

The latest search led police, reporters and curious onlookers to Patricia Szpunar's brick ranch-style home in Roseville. Police in the mostly working- and middle-class community north of Detroit recently received a tip from a man who claimed he saw someone buried there about 35 years ago and that the body possibly belonged to Hoffa.

"The police have left and the yellow tape has come down," Szpunar told The Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon. "I'm thrilled because it's over with. No more people staring at my house, driving by, walking by, pausing to stare. I can go on with my life."

The soil samples were removed Friday after officials drilled through the floor of a shed on Szpunar's property. Roseville police Chief James Berlin has said the ground would be excavated if decomposition were found in the samples.

Szpunar said she's happy to have her shed back.

"My son can put the motorcycle back in there," she said.

Police had put a new, more secure lock on the shed. They gave Szpunar the key Tuesday.

Peter’s Piece

James Riddle Hoffa (1913-1975?) led a controversial life right from his earliest years when he organized a union in a grocery chain that he worked for. His actions led to his dismissal.

Later he joined the Teamsters in Detroit and started rising through the ranks and became national president in 1957. By that time the Teamsters (International Brotherhood of Teamsters) had well over 1 million members.

His greatest achievement was the establishment of a national master freight agreement for over-the-road drivers in 1964.

Hoffa spent most of the 1960s in prison having been convicted of jury tampering, bribery and fraud. He was pardoned by President Nixon in 1971 in return for the Teamsters support for Nixon’s re-election in 1972. But his release was subject to Hoffa being banned from union activities until 1980. The Teamsters gave him a one-off retirement payment of $1.7 million.

Jimmy Hoffa was campaigning to re-enter union life when he disappeared from a Michigan restaurant in 1975.

Riddle was his second name and he left behind a riddle that has kept police and gossipers busy for 37 years. But one thing must now be almost certain; Jimmy Hoffa is most unlikely to be still alive. If he was he would now be aged 99.

LIFE IS CHEAP IN NEPAL

Nepal air crash probe begins

5:30 AM Sunday Sep 30, 2012

The Sita Air crash scene near Kathmandu. Photo / AP

Police have handed over to accident investigators the black box data recorder of a plane that crashed on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital, killing all 19 people on board.

The twin-propeller Sita Air plane had just taken off from Kathmandu and was headed to Lukla, gateway to Mt Everest, when it plunged into the banks of a river near the city's airport around daybreak.

Among the dead were seven Britons, five Chinese and seven local passengers and crew.

National police spokesman Binod Singh said it had been difficult to identify the bodies and DNA tests may be carried out before they are returned to relatives.

The British group, the youngest of whom was 27 and the oldest 60, had been due to go on a 16-day trek to three high passes and the Everest Base Camp.

Although the exact cause of the crash is still unclear, the manager of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu said the pilot had reported hitting a bird of prey, thought to be a vulture or kite, moments before the crash . . . .

More in the NZ Herald

Peter’s Piece

Nepal has an abysmal air safety record with six crashes that killed 96 people in the last two years.

Whatever your mode of transport in Nepal, it will be dangerous.

Meanwhile, road safety in Nepal is no better and terrorism is also a major threat.

Tourism in Nepal has declined sharply due to safety concerns and the inability of the Nepalese government and people to turn the situation around.

Only backpackers and adventurers come away from Nepal pleased with their experience. Opinions were not obtained from those who died during the experience.

According to David Millward, Transport Editor for the Telegraph, poor training and weak regulation has added to the danger faced by air passengers in a country whose mountainous environment would be challenging for the most skilled pilots.

On the roads many bus and truck drivers are unlicensed and vehicles are frequently overloaded.