Has anyone ever actually fallen for this crap?

Here's an email that somehow got past my spam filter:

"good_lock1@oi.com.br"
to undisclosed-re.

show details
12:29 pm (5 hours ago)
BILL AND EXCHANGE OF THE FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT OF ZENITH BANK PLC, LAGOS.NIGERIA.
contact me at: mr_nzeribe2@yahoo.it

Dear Friend ,

TRANSFER OF US$7.500, 000 MILLION DOLLARS

I'm Mr Ben Nzeribe, Operations Officer, BILL AND EXCHANGE of THE FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT OF ZENITH BANK PLC, In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$7.500,000(Seven million five hundred United states dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his family in Tuesday, November 2, 1999 in air crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relative to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died with him in the accident leaving nobody behind to claim the money.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank treasure as unclaimed bills.

The Banking law and guide line here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Six and half years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

The request for a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an indigence cannot stand as next of kin to the deceased family. We agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect of your assistance in this business, and 70% would be for me and two of my staff in the business.

Thereafter,I and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.Therefore, to enhance the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged,you must apply first to the Bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your private, telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply,

I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application.I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.You should contact me on MY E-MAIL, as soon as you receive this letter. I decided to contact you as you have products of interest in your part of the world where we can invest our own percentage to avoid peoples awareness as we are civil servants.

Note that we can conclude tis operation within ten banking days.Please keep this very confidential for obvious security reasons. Contact me for more information, all confirmable before you apply if you want.

Trusting to hear from you sortly for a detailed information which are confirmable before you can make up your mind to apply.If however, you are not interested,do let me know by return mail too as I will not contact anybody else until I hear from you.

Please reply me immediately only through this my private email address at: mr_nzeribe2@yahoo.it

For more informations about the crash you can visit this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/502503.stm

Regards,
Mr Ben Nzeribe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Really, does anyone fall for this anymore? Did anyone ever?

Later,

Jackal has a kitten blog

My cousin started a blog about the kittens she is taking care of.

She told me that she'll start posting pics tomorrow.

Later,

The fig tree incident explained

I found this webcomic via Pharyngula
I've added it to my sidebar.

Later,

Moonlight

So I just finished watching the second episode of this new vampire show, Moonlight.

I've only seen two episodes so far, but it's pretty good. It seems less broody than Angel. I never got into Forever Knight, so I can't compare it.

I have one gripe, but I have the same gripe with almost every show/movie/book with a superhuman hero.

They become idiots when the plot requires it.

They have superhuman strength, speed and senses, and yet the villain always manages to blind-side them.

An example from Moonlight episode two.

Mick (the vampire hero) jumps into a warehouse, kills two thugs, frees the kidnapped woman, and then gets shot by the main villain (with silver buckshot). It has been established that Mick has a super-keen sense of smell, and is familiar with this guy's scent. He should have known the guy was there. Nick, like Angel, also makes a lot of amateurish mistakes, despite being 90 years old (Angel was 230, I think, but had no real experience as a PI, whereas Nick has been a PI for at least 30 years, so I figure it balances out).

This is common to villains, too. A villain will be kicking the hero all over the set (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively), but when the time comes to wrap up the story, the villain regresses back to kindergarten.

As for the silver, well, the writer's get to set the rules, so I'm okay with that.
My Classic Mythology professor back at Penn State used to say that stories can vary widely in details and still be the same at the root, but "you can't give Helen back"¹. I was not happy with the way Angel dealt with sun exposure, but the wayMoonlight does it, it almost seems to be trying to give Helen back.

Still, I'm enjoying it, so I'll keep watching.

Later,

¹ "Giving Helen back" refers to the story of the Trojan war, and is something that would destroy the plot.

I may have found the holy grail

If you read my complete profile, you will see that I like "Cheezy B-movies with hilarious titles".

"Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD", "Hell Comes to Frogtown", "Killer Clowns from Outer Space", "Chopper Chicks in Zombietown", "Cemetery Man" , "Blood and Donuts", ... you get the picture.

There is similar genre that also appeals to me. Chinese/Japanese fantasy movies. "The Heroic Trio", "Green Snake", "Ultraman", "Zeiram", that sort of thing.

I won't go into the rather convoluted series of links that brought me to this movie, but upon reading the review, my first thought was, "I must see it".

Seriously, if I was into that sort of thing, I would sacrifice a goat to Netflix in order to get this movie. Since I'm not, I just went to their website and did a search. They do have it, and it is now at the top of my queue.

On a side note, I have actually seen/read about 2/3 of the other items reviewed. And now that I am aware of the rest, I will be seeing them.

Later,

New Charles de Lint Books!

I was looking on Amazon.com today for a birthday present for my nephew, Jonas.

(I got a couple of Jazz CD's - pretty good selection of artists, but I'd have preferred something with more Louis Armstrong. Also, since I missed Maggie's birthday, I specified on the card that the CD's are for both of them.)

In my "Recommendations" were three new books by Charles de Lint (one of which is not published yet, but I pre-ordered it.)

Little (Grrl) Lost looks like it has the same setting as Little Country. Not surprising, given the title. Little Country is one of my favorites, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Promises to Keep is a Newford story about Jilly Coppercorn. It's a retrospective and takes place during her time at Butler U.

Dingo is not listed on Charles de Lint's website. It's the book I pre-ordered. From the blurb on Amazon, it's set near Newford, but not actually in the city. This book is scheduled to be released March 13, 2008.

There's also a new chapbook (Old Man Crow) available, but I'll wait for it to be included in a collection. I can't see paying 18 dollars for a 32 page book.

If you don't recognize the above titles, characters or places, you're really missing out.

Later,

For me, this counts as social interaction.

If you read the comment thread here, you'll see a kind of lengthy exchange between another commenter and myself.

It boils down to this.

He claims (vehemently) that Dennett is wrong in Darwin's Dangerous Idea. The word "crap" is used.

I ask him to support his statement.(please notice that I don't defend Dennett. I just want some backup to this claim)

He points me to a book called Lifelines by Stephen Rose.

I've never heard of it, but a book that effectively refutes Dennett must have some reviews online. I find (just) one. It's pretty grim. (Still, if the Green River Library has it, I'll read it when I have time)

He makes the claim of following Dennett's arguments, "If A then B, if B then C, if C then D, etc." and suddenly finding the book in "la-la land." He says he went back and found the fallacious argument, "if H then G," says that, what with Dennett's smooth writing and all, a layperson probably would not see it.

I ask him to point this argument out to me, since I am a layperson.

He says that it's been a long time since he read the book, he isn't going to go back and read it again, and anyway, a blog comment is not enough space for a detailed analysis.

He then poo-poos the review and the journal it was written in. Strangely, he had previously pointed me to this journal (very vaguely, as he "couldn't remember" which journal it was)

He also provides a list of further reading. Again, if the library has them and as time allows.

Later commenters also seem to feel that he is being more than disingenuous.

Was I wrong to ask why he felt Dennett was crap?
Was I wrong to want actual evidence for this?
Am I wrong to think that all I got was BS and evasion? (pending perusal of the books he mentioned)

Later,