âONE spring day towards the end of 2004, Rhonda Byrne discovered a secret â the secret laws and principles of the universe.â Or so the Australian TV producer herself announces at â which is, as suspicious readers may already have guessed, plugging a book and a DVD. These are inspired, she says, by a 1910 book written by one Wallace D. Wattles entitled The Science of Getting Rich.
The secret is, apparently, that âMoney is magnetic energy. You are a magnet attracting to you all things.â A clue as to how this attraction may be achieved is the outfit , which offers a set of 20 CDs and a book on their version of âThe Secretâ for $388 â a saving of $1504 over the entrance fee for the four seminars reproduced in the CDs.
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This sort of stuff cannot go unchallenged. And so we are led to , which plugs yet another book, this time by James Garlow and Rick Marschall. They are scornfully dismissive: âDoes the universe hold an age-old secret that has only recently been explained to humankind⌠by an Australian TV producer?â
They chart the âgenealogyâ of Byrneâs secret, tracing its sources: âOccultismâs Emerald Tablet, Hinduism and Phineas P. Quimbyâs âNew Thoughtâ that emerged in the late 1800sâ. And then, they promise mysteriously that ââŚa trip to âMars Hillâ will reveal the real Godâ. Oh dear. So theyâve got a secret too â and we canât help wondering whether their chief objection to Byrne might be that they think sheâs a heretic.
Feedbackâs inclination is to pull up a chair, fire up the popcorn and watch them slug it out⌠Or we could cash in by setting up a course on âThe secret method for uncovering the secret behind revealing the secret.â
âThe label on reader Stilgherrianâs Australian-made Starmaid ice-cube trays reassures him that they are âfreezer safeâ â which he says is âhandyââ
THE email that postgraduate researcher Hugh Datson received from the IT security coordinator at the University of Leeds placed him on the horns of a dilemma. Headlined âIdentity Theft, Phishing & Email Scamsâ, it warned him that: âThose who generate phishing emails are becoming increasingly sophisticated and ever more convincing; posing as charities, societies and web security controls within legitimate organisations, so it is important that you are always on your guard.â
It concluded with this emphatic advice: âNever click on a link to a website that you find embedded in an email. It may look genuine but it could be a scam site designed to steal your identity or your money by one means or another. For more information on the 10 Golden Rules for IT Security see .â
You can appreciate Datsonâs predicament.
No text here
FOLLOWING our report of the letter from Lloyds TSB with a page containing the patently false statement âThis page left deliberately blankâ (26 May), several young readers have written to us from various parts of England saying that among their GCSE examination papers this summer there were pages containing a similar self-falsifying message. Whatâs more, Andrew Munroâs booklet of formulae and statistical tables for secondary school students has a page bearing the bare-faced lie âThere is no text printed on this pageâ.
The lie is now spreading to other media. Sara Batts was at Clapham Junction railway station in London recently, where her platformâs electronic noticeboard displayed the message: âBecause of a fault, no information can be displayed.â
GEOFFREY CLARK purchased a Bosch IXO electric screwdriver supplied in a strong metal box. On opening the box he found the screwdriver held in place with a piece of tape marked âremove after opening the boxâ. Clark wants to know how he could have done otherwise.
THANKS to Hannah Beardon for alerting us to this thought-provoking story of our times from the Ananova news service. âA Bosnian couple,â we are told at , âare getting divorced after finding out they had been secretly chatting each other up online under fake names.â
It seems that Adnan and Sana Klaric of Zenica made contact on a chat forum while using the names Prince of Joy and Sweetie. They told each other how miserable they were because of their marriage problems and soon came to feel they had at last found the love of their lives. But it all fell apart when they agreed to meet up, each of them carrying a single rose by way of identification. They are now each filing for divorce on the grounds of the otherâs unfaithfulness.
FINALLY, a recycling bin spotted by Justin Maelzer in the city of Bath was marked âMixed Glass Onlyâ. Maelzer was glad the bin was not empty on his arrival â he didnât want to work out how to put the first bottle in while still obeying the instructions.