Prisoner Escapes by Emailing his own Release Order

Well, by golly, you knew it had to happen someday. A man by the name of Neil Moore who was in a British pokey for fraud and escape from custody (they should have known!) found himself a mobile phone and sent instructions to the prison staff to release him. Guess what? They did!

Yup, it seems that officers at Wandsworth Prison in London allowed Mr. Moore to walk out the prison gates based on some bogus bail instructions he'd sent them from a fake e-mail address that he created by using his phone. 

Officials admitted the plot was pretty much "ingenious" and I'm wondering why somebody hasn't tried the ploy before. His bogus email address identified himself as a senior court clerk and the message went on to tell prison staff that his bail had been paid and to release the prisoner. And so they did.

They only found out about the deception when solicitors went into the prison to find him for an interview three days later and discovered he wasn't there anymore. Oops!

Mr. Moore had used four different aliases earlier in order to commit fraud. That's why he was in the pokey in the first place. He was convicted of having posed as a staff member of several British banks and somehow managed to persuade some really big companies to give the bank (him!) money for some reason or another and apparently the deceptions worked rather well. His take, according to court records, totaled around $2 million.

The judge in the case was quite impressed, describing his behavior as "ingenious criminality." Apparently Mr. Moore seems to be quite good at this sort of thing. Perhaps he should think about getting himself a "real" job?

Russia May Build Massive Corridor from London to New York

I don't know who came up with this idea, but it's so crazy and far-fetched ... and interesting ... that it might even work out. Well, Russia has decided that since they no longer have any friends because of the Ukrainian mess and the ruble plummeting over 40% because the U.S. crashed the price of oil, their main source of revenue, Russia has decided to bail themselves out of all this trouble by constructing a multi-trillion dollar super highway from London to New York.

The route they've chosen goes the wrong way, of course, eastward from London through Moscow and out across the vast stretches of the frozen Siberian tundra. Then, somehow, it jumps over the Bering Strait, crosses Alaska east of Nome where there's no road at all right now, and then winds its way through western Canada to end up in The Big Apple.

Well, maybe the route isn't as important as the massive economic returns that will begin piling up once it's in operation, according to Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways. It will link to just about everybody's existing transportation network throughout Europe and Asia, and they'll also include a nice high-speed railway for bullet trains to zoom alongside your Lada.

The giant project will be called the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development project or TEPR for short, and if all the pieces in the puzzle come together, the total distance it will cover will be just a shade under 13,000 miles. About half of that will be across Siberia, which if I remember correctly, is known for its really awful winters, so fixing all the potholes each spring will probably cost a pretty penny, or maybe ruble?

In addition to a new highway and high-speed railroad, the corridor will also carry oil and gas pipelines, electricity and water services. I guess that means when one of the gas pipelines in Siberia ruptures, not only will the cars and trains stop with nowhere to go, but the water and power will go out too while you're getting a tan at your posh vacation hideaway in the Caspians.

No timetable for construction of the new venture has yet been announced. Mr. Yakunin optimistically says that the new transportation corridor will make Mother Russia "a world leader in technological development." Yeah, right. Best of luck, Vlad!

Scientific Study Says There are Too Many Scientific Studies

There's a new report out that says in a recent scientific study a serious discussion was held about scientific studies, and the conclusion of the report was that there are too many scientific studies. Somehow I think we all pretty much knew this, but it's nice to see a genuinely clever and insightful scientific study from some learned scientists coming to the exact same conclusion.

Apparently scientists just aren't able to keep up with all of the studies that are being done in their fields of endeavor. The report, "Attention Decay in Science," says that what's going on is that the exponential growth occurring in the total volume of scientific papers is making it harder and harder for researchers to track all the stuff they need to know about in their fields so they can be up to date with their work.

It's all probably the fault of the Internet and all the tons of information that we're subjected to every second of the day. So what's happening is that all the people who are trying to understand this onslaught of information are winding up tossing everything away that they're exposed to at a much faster rate because there isn't time to absorb it properly before a new onslaught of information comes crashing down on top of them.

And guess what? Yes, of course, it's getting worse! The paper notes that scholars are tending to 'forget' stuff a lot easier than they used to because of the "exponential growth" in all the publications that are continually coming out.

The chief economist of the prestigious Bank of England, Andy Haldane, says that we're clearly in the middle of a new revolution of information. Nearly 99 percent of the entire mass of information that has ever been created on earth has been generated in just the past century.

There are benefits, of course, but the costs include shorter attention spans and the tenure of relationships and jobs is declining. In other words, we're in a mell of a hess and it's going to continue getting worse and worse. Welcome to the 21st Century!