THE GREAT thing about the Internet is its anonymity. You can post whatever
you want on it, and if you鈥檙e clever enough, no one can track you down.
So for a Russian hit man from the town of Samara, the Net was the logical
place to advertise his services. 鈥淲ill help retire from life, possibly without
patient鈥檚 consent,鈥� ran the contract killer鈥檚 advert.
Unfortunately for the would-be assassin, the only people interested in his
offer were the police. Posing as potential clients, Moscow detectives gradually
gained the trust of the dotcom hit man and finally slapped the handcuffs on him
once he had taken an advance fee of several thousand dollars for a hit.
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鈥淲e know of cases where contract killers have exchanged information via the
Internet, but this is the first arrest we made after such an advert,鈥� said
Dmitry Chepchugov, head of the Moscow police force鈥檚 department for combating
high-tech crime.
STAYING with things Russian, some New 杏吧原创 readers are excited
by the news that Russian aerospace engineers hope to relaunch the Buran space shuttle
(see 30 June, p 16),
while others are inclined to pooh-pooh the idea. Time will tell which camp has got it right.
Meanwhile, Feedback was among a party that visited the previously secret
Buran hangar deep in the steppes surrounding the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. We can report that the Buran hardware is not the rusty scrap some
critics would have us believe. The real hurdle for Energia, the company that
built the shuttle, may in fact be old-school Soviet bureaucracy.
Our party arrived on a private flight from Moscow. We were kept waiting for
several hours in prison-like conditions at an airport en route, while too few
immigration clerks checked, rechecked and stamped too many papers. On arrival in
Kazakhstan we were forced to stand outside for hours in the scorching sun while
even fewer immigration clerks X-rayed everything in sight and checked forms,
permits, permits to apply for permits and lists they clearly could not read. The
metal detectors were so sensitive that even trouser zips set them off.
Among the sun-baked victims was Len Dest, who heads International Launch
Services, the American company that pays Russia over $100 million a throw
to launch Proton satellite rockets. At a hospitality banquet in Moscow that
night Dest was still so angry about the treatment that he broke all the rules of
protocol and gave a speech accusing the host鈥檚 immigration service of
鈥渟taggering incompetence鈥�.
The Russians had X-rayed Feedback鈥檚 bags and found nothing. But on the way
back to London the same bags were whisked through an X-ray machine at Brussels
airport. The Belgian security guard spotted and quite rightly checked something
that Feedback had forgotten and all the Russian officials had missed鈥攁
tool (absolutely not for use on hotel telephones) that someone, pushed beyond
the edge of reason by incompetent Russian immigration officials, could all too
easily have turned into a lethal weapon.
FURTHER to our snippet about the NASA plate tectonic website having moved
(Feedback, 30 June), Marion Anderson writes to tell us that there is a link from
the new site to the 鈥淚nternational Earth Rotation Service鈥� (www.iers.org).
Good news for those of us who have been wondering where to ask who or what is
responsible for making the world go round.
ACCORDING to US journalist Bob Park in his renowned 鈥淲hat鈥檚 new?鈥� column
(www.aps.org/WN), a bill to define science is under consideration in the Oregon
Senate. The principal support for this lexicographical initiative comes from the
Oregon Cattlemen鈥檚 Association (OCA).
What is it about life on the range that has driven the cattlemen to fixate on
lexicography, philosophy and ontology? The answer turns out to be quite prosaic.
There is a campaign in Oregon to clean up the state鈥檚 streams, which are
polluted with cow dung. The cattle men are up in arms, and question the
peer-reviewed scientific arguments of environmentalists who have called for the
clean-up. In the words of a spokesman for the OCA, 鈥淐urrently, anyone can define
what will be called science . . . The term 鈥榩eer-reviewed science鈥� could mean a
review by a neighbour or friend.鈥�
叠搁滨罢础滨狈鈥橲 venerable Royal Institution is trying to shake off its somewhat
fusty dinner-jacket reputation by setting up a 鈥渕ajor independent
science-support resource for the media鈥�. According to an advert for the job of
head of the new department, this 鈥渆xciting new initiative鈥� is to be 鈥減roactive
in offering the media a regular supply of information and news from the science
肠辞尘尘耻苍颈迟测鈥�.
Fine sentiments, but perhaps the RI could do with a bit of advice on snappy
self-presentation. Not content with giving the department the catchy name of
鈥淪cience Centre at the Royal Institution For Communications with the Media鈥�, the
advertisement enjoins candidates to apply to 鈥淏aroness Susan Greenfield, CBE,
Fullerian Professor of Physiology, Director, The Royal Institution of Great
叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥�.
Will anyone feel sufficiently worthy?
FROM the department of paradox: the new overhead gantries along Britain鈥檚 M1
motorway bear a notice declaring: 鈥淭his sign is not in use.鈥�
CONFERENCES can be very tiring, so it was good to see the draft programme for
next January鈥檚 Plant, Animal and Microbes Genome Conference. According to one
page on the organisers鈥� website (www.intl-pag.org/pag/10-breeders.html), the
workshop entitled 鈥淯se of molecular markers for plant breeders鈥� is being held in
the 鈥渮zzz room鈥� of the Town and Country Convention Center in San Diego,
California. Take a pillow if you鈥檙e going along.
FINALLY, a paragraph in the current issue of the Health and Safety
Manager鈥檚 Newsletter calls attention to an information sheet on the safety
issues surrounding inflatable toys such as bouncy castles. It is, however,
headed 鈥淚nflatable children鈥檚 play equipment鈥�.