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!

Inmates Escape as Brazilian Guards Expect 'Orgy'

A rather interesting story has popped up in the news about an unusual jailbreak that occurred at the Nova Mutum public jail near Cuiaba in central Brazil. It seems one of the inmates, Bruno Amorim, 18, who was in jail on a robbery and attempted murder conviction, convinced his girlfriend and a couple of her friends to put on some rather skimpy clothing and invite the guards to party together. The idea was to offer them some spiked booze, and when they passed out, grab the cell keys and "vámonos" together.


Police found the three guards naked and handcuffed the next morning after the breakout. The women appear to have donned black lingerie and dominatrix police uniforms and convinced the guards they were going to have a wild orgy. 

Apparently the gals were pretty convincing and the guards reportedly were eager to walk away from their posts and accompany the girls to the staff's sleeping quarters.

However, after a few sips of the gals' spiked drinks, the guards passed out and none of them could remember a thing the next morning when they were found handcuffed and drugged. One was found dizzy while another was still sound asleep by late afternoon.

The prisoners escaped taking several 12 caliber shotguns and some 38 caliber pistols along with ammunition. Meanwhile, the three seductresses left behind several articles of black lingerie and their dominatrix police uniforms.

The prison guards have have been arrested and charged with "facilitating a jailbreak" along with "culpable embezzlement."

A few photos of one the naked guards were apparently leaked by amused police officers and uploaded to social media sites.

"Nut Rage" Korean Air Daughter Gets Prison Sentence

You might remember the news story a few months ago about this high-and-mighty young woman, the oldest daughter of the owner of Korean Air Lines, was on a KAL flight getting ready to take off from JFK in New York when she forced the plane to turn around because she was served some macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a dish.

Cho Hyun-ah, the oldest daughter of Korean Airlines chairman Cho Yang-ho, treated the airline staff like "feudal slaves," according to court documents, when she ordered the airline's chief flight attendant off the plane after demanding that the guy read over the airline's proper nut-handling guidelines.

It seems the incident created quite a stir in South Korea and since forcing a flight to change its route, obstructing the flight's captain, forcing crew members off a plane along with assaulting an airline crew member are all legitimate criminal offenses, she's now been sentenced by a South Korean court to serve a not-so-comfortable one-year term in the slammer.

In court, Cho wiped away tears and expressing remorse but the court showed little mercy in sentencing the heiress, much to the glee of the courtroom audience since incidents like this have usually been dismissed in South Korea where most of the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates that historically have been able to act above the law.

Instructional Video with Dancing Genitals Draws Fire

Well, the liberal Swedes are at it again. Sweden's  public broadcasting network SVT has created a television series about the human body and, naturally, they got around to the part where men and women do the, er, you know. And they put together a sweet little animated video featuring a dancing representation of the male part with a mustache and a lovely lady-like dancing representation of the female part with long eyelashes. (I seriously doubt if we'll see the show or the promotional video over here on PBS ;-}.)

Guess what? The video is drawing criticism for not being progressive enough. Huh? The show's producers thought that many parents would find it a great way to explain about these private parts to children aged 3-6 or so.  Some Swedes, however, thought portraying the male part with a mustache and the female part with long eyelashes reinforced gender stereotyping. 

The show's producer said the video was designed to be fun and was not intended to be a "statement on gender politics." Meanwhile, it seems the video has been viewed by something in excess of around four million viewers so far on YouTube.

Je suis Charlie!