Oddities

  • Spelling error clue to tax refund phishing scam

    Steve WoodsOddities, Tech

    Without exception, everyone likes to get money back off the taxman.

    That being so, how would you react if you found the email below in one of your mailboxes?

    screenshot of phishing email offering tax refund
    Genuine email from HMRC or a fake – can you tell?

    With the subject line “Error in the calculation of your tax“, all the right colours used by HMRC and genuine links to HMRC website pages on both the left and right of the main message, it definitely has the appearance of a genuine email from the taxman.

    Would your reaction be one of joy that HMRC is prepared to refund you £1,400 of your hard-earned cash? Would that then lead you to click on the link below that figure in green text – the one enticingly indicating My Refvund?

    Running my mouse over that link revealed that it did not go to the HMRC website at all, but a phishing page on a website that seems to be hosted in Bangkok, which is not somewhere I suspect that hosts many .gov.uk domains.

    In addition to the dodgy spelling of the link, another clue is the incorrect use of capitalisation in the final paragraph.

    In case readers were unaware of the HMRC’s procedures, the taxman never sends notifications of a tax rebate by email or asks taxpayers to disclose personal or payment information by email.

    HMRC’s advice to anyone who has received a HMRC-related phishing/bogus email it to forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete it.

    HMRC’s website has comprehensive advice on phishing and bogus emails.

    Stay safe!

  • Chinese hotel etiquette

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    The image below recently cropped up in my Twitter timeline. Research seems to indicate the original document emanates from the Star Hotel in Guangzhou.

    Not being familiar with Chinese, I asked my good friend Ling Wong whether the English was an accurate translation of the Chinese; he has confirmed this. He also added that strange notices are a common feature of Chinese hotels.

    No further comment is required.

    image of hotel notice to guests

  • Rainbow Worrier

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities

    In Bristol’s Barton Hill district, there’s a lovely little pub affectionately known as the Little Russell (its real name is the Russell Arms; the ‘Big’ Russell used to be nearby on Church Road, Lawrence Hill, but has long since closed. Ed.).

    It’s a friendly place and is little changed from when it first opened in the 19th century.

    One change in recent years, however, is the addition of a fine mural by local artist Andie that covers 2 walls of the yard, which has since the smoking ban become the pub’s smoking area. Part of the mural is shown below.

    image of mural at Little Russell
    Rainbow Worrier at the Little Russell. Click on the image for a larger version

    The train in the shot is known as Rainbow Worrier because it’s green and has a shady-looking character in a hoodie in the cab. Note the machine gun and the fish-shaped bombs; they’re more reason to worry.

    Andie is definitely a man with a sense of humour and I love his punning references; note ‘Royal Male’ on the next locomotive.

    Rainbow Worrier itself reminds me of reading about the armoured trains that used to chug up and down the Russian railway network around the time of the Russian revolution. For instance, the Czechoslovak Legion used heavily armed and armoured trains to control large lengths of the Trans-Siberian Railway (and of Russia itself) during the Russian Civil War. One of the Czechoslovak Legion’s armoured trains is shown below.

    image of Czechoslovak Legion armoured train
    Czechoslovak Legion armoured train. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    I wonder if these trains or the later ones used in World War 2 were what inspired Andie; or was he just having fun?

  • Bristol’s most tuneful planter

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities

    Ever since it reopened a couple of years ago with Peter Gibbs behind the bar, The Volunteer Tavern in the St Jude’s district of Bristol has gone from strength to strength and now provides excellent beers and fine food in a quiet oasis amid the city’s bustle.

    I was there on Sunday and noticed what is possibly the city’s most tuneful planter full of bedding plants.

    Piano used as a planter

    I’ve heard of a player piano (also known as a pianola. Ed.), but never a planter piano!

  • How old is the Staffordshire oatcake?

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    I’m currently reading Portrait of the Potteries by Bill Morland, published by Robert Hale Ltd. in 1978.

    Being a local delicacy, oatcakes (posts passim) get an honourable mention. Indeed on page 25 Mr Morland does more than praise them, he speculates as to their origin (although he hyphenates oat-cakes. Ed.):

    It is nothing like the Scottish oat-cake, but is rather like a brown and nobbly pancake made from draught-porridge. Incredibly economical to product, oat-cakes are very nourishing and sustaining. They are a symbol of the isolation and conservatism of the valley, since they appear to be an iron-age survival.

    Staffordshire oatcake before filling
    Oatcake awaiting filling

    However, Mr Morland provides no evidence of the Iron Age origins of the Staffordshire oatcake, although one would have thought that, as an archaeology teacher for Keele University’s Adult Education Department at the time of publication, he would have realised the importance of empirical evidence.

    If anyone can shed light on the (pre)history of the Staffordshire oatcake, please feel free to comment below.

  • The importance of the space bar and proofreading

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Social Media

    The Wig and Pen public house in Truro, Cornwall had some unexpected publicity earlier this week when a badly temporary temporary sign was snapped by an amused regular before being hurriedly removed by embarrassed staff, according to yesterday’s Western Daily Press.

    By the time the sign came down, its fame had spread round the world by social media; and it’s easy to see why.

    sign saying The Wig & Penis Is Open For Business

    However, according to the Western Daily Press article, the sign itself was not the only linguistic clanger involved in the episode:

    But a remember [sic] of staff named Georgie-Tim later took to Twitter to say: “Well, it got you’re attention!

  • Progress

    Steve WoodsOddities, Tech

    Technology is advancing at a pace that’s blistering.

    If anything can illustrate the progress of technological change, it’s the picture below: a smaller footprint and a massive increase in storage capacity in under 10 years.

    tech_advance

    It’s not just capacity that’s changed. Prices have changed too. Back in 1998 I paid £140 for a 3.5 hard drive with 8 GB of storage. Nowadays I can buy a USB device with an equivalent capacity for £10 in most large supermarkets.

    Hat tip: OpenSure

  • 5 decades on

    Steve WoodsOddities

    Last week I paid a brief visit for the day to Market Drayton in Shropshire, my home town. In the forty years since I left it has changed gradually but inexorably. For instance, its current population is now nearly 12,000, compared with 7,000 when I left the town for university in the early 1970s.

    Going through the family photograph albums, I came across this 1965 photograph of Market Drayton’s Salisbury Road, where the family used to live. We actually spent 10 years there in total and my youngest sibling Andrew was born at home at 87 Salisbury Road.

    picture of Salisbury Road, Market Drayton in the mid-1960s
    Salisbury Road, Market Drayton, in the mid-1960s. Click on the image for a larger version.

    You’ll see 2 boys standing by the lamppost outside no. 87; of these I’m the one on the right. I believe the other lad is Adrian Clarke who used to live round the corner. Note the complete absence of motor cars. A minority of working class people living in council houses (for that is what they were/are. Ed.) owned motor vehicles in those days, or seemed to. I believe at the time the picture was taken my late father had only recently acquired a moped to travel to work, having hung up his bicycle clips. The row of council houses shown was relatively new when the above photograph was taken, only having been built some 5 years earlier; I can recall the back gardens being levelled by bulldozer when we first moved in in 1960. Some of these houses are now privately owned and are currently changing hands for well over £100,000 as Drayton is a popular place for people to live while commuting to work in Shrewsbury, Telford or the Potteries.

    Now here’s a picture of the same road from roughly the same spot 5 decades on.

    image of Salisbury Road, Market Drayton, in 2014.
    Salisbury Road, Market Drayton, in 2014. Click on the image for a larger version.

    Note the increase in the number of motor vehicles evident – 8 in all – and the increased number of lampposts – from 1 in the 1960s to 3 now.

    Did you live in Salisbury Road or Market Drayton in the 1960s? Perhaps you still live there. Anyway, leave your memories in the comments below.

  • Sausages!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    pack shot of sausagesToday for breakfast I indulged in some sausages; not just any sausages, but Sainbury’s Outdoor Bred Pork Sausages. They were delicious and disappeared off the plate in double-quick time.

    However, there was one thing that stuck in my throat: the product name.

    Can inanimate objects – even ones made of once living matter – breed?

    If so, I should congratulate Sainbury’s on this fine achievement in the field of al fresco coitus? If not, should I condemn their marketing department for coming up with an idiotic product name that’s a complete physical impossibility?

    Digging further into this term, it is apparent that Sainsbury’s are not the only sinners here, as a quick image search for “outdoor bred” sausages will reveal. Moreover, if I had my way, Tesco, Waitrose, Rankin, Morrison’s, Marks & Spencer, Asda and many more suppliers should all be standing in the corner of the room with Sainsbury’s trying on the dunce’s hat for size. 🙂

    Nevertheless, my suggesting that all these corporate grocers are a bunch of illiterates is perhaps being a bit hasty and an over-reaction. Time for some final research.

    Consulting the Good Housekeeping Institute’s site, I find that outdoor bred actually has a specific meaning in food labelling terms, as follows:

    As with Outdoor Reared, this tends to apply to pork and means the pigs are born outside. However, after a few weeks they’re brought inside for fattening.

    So, outdoor bred is a proper food labelling term, although I do wish people would think more clearly about the connotations of naming products.

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