Cassandra

Or is it just that only the loonies apply anyway ?

I know there's a song with that name in it.

I haven't seen this reported before but other people must have been targeted - have you ?

It goes something like this :

You've got something you want to sell for maybe £200, let's say. You advertise and someone gets in touch with you, maybe asks questions, and says yes, it's what they want. Then there's a complication, or a delay, maybe the buyer's partner had to go into hospital but no matter, they still want to buy.

For some reason, they end up sending you a cheque from an overseas bank that you've never heard of and it's for more than you were asking, maybe ten times more. You might get told it's a mistake or some other story. The buyer says that's OK, just send them a cheque for the difference.

Do you think the buyer's cheque is going to clear ? No, nor do I.

The examples I've come across have involved some long-winded and very dubious-looking e-mails. The style suggests a Nigerian source (yet again).

Have you experienced anything similar ?

Don't you think Douglas Adams had the right idea in The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy ? All the useless people got sent to another planet and were told that the rest of us would be along later.

Which professions do you think should be sent to another planet ?

I know H G wells wrote 'The Time Machine', but was this something that was discussed, perhaps, among Wells' circle of friends before he wrote the book ?

Did anyone else write about this concept before Wells ?

I've seen a couple of reports recently that honey bees are dying out in large numbers, and it seems to be a world-wide phenomemon.

Bees are largely responsible for pollination, so without them we will have real trouble producing crops.

Forget all this global warming nonsense. This one is a real problem.

It's highly debatable whether the Olympics could be considered a 'good cause' and the games certainly don't qualify as a charity, so why does this government think it's OK to help themselves to lottery funds to pay for the Olympics ?

Should we boycott the National Lottery ?

The fact is that living in Britain today is like being in some sort of nightmare-ish movie. It shouldn't be real - but it is.

Every day I wake up and think ' well, those brain-dead bureaucrats haven't got you yet'.

So which movie do you reckon it's most like ?