It is a scam. It is a conspiracy. It is "higher education" :)

While I don't completely agree with the video here (ht), it does raise a whole bunch of critical questions about higher education. And, yes, well presented too

Email of the day: geography job offer!

My first thought, and the only thought, on reading the following email that was waiting for me in my inbox, is that this is a new way to phish?

Good Morning
My  name is [name] today I was surfing the internet and I found your email contact on the Dept University's website. I am presently looking for tutor for my son [name], we live here in England and he has completed high school last summer back home in Slovakia.
He has been soccer camping for the past month and we feel it is a forward for us to get him a tutor to in Geography of America as he likes to travel and his interest apart from soccer are in Geography and Earth Sciences. He scored  a B in Geography recently in his Cambridge O"Level exam  and we are hoping he becomes a Geographer or Geologist.
Let me know your hourly rates and also time during the week and on week ends you will be available to coach him (total number of hours you can use with him a week).Please let us hear from you soon as he would be in America in a couple of days/week to stay with my sister in-law for the time been and I will very much appreciate it very much if you can introduce me to someone qualified in the case you are not available.
Thanks

Hey, PT Barnum, it is getting increasingly difficult to prove you wrong, man! :)

I am rich. I am rich. ... wait ..

A new avatar of the old Nigerian scam artists? Boy, look at the specifics :)  And the name of the sender: "Dr. Emperor Cross" .... muahahaha

After the just concluded United Nations summit held in Geneva regarding the 2010 first quarter of the year diplomatic payment, your funds are among the twenty others that were released and endorsed for immediate delivery to their beneficiaries. The official approved mode of payment for this exercise is a "First class diplomatic delivery as a result of scrutiny and diplomatic fraud
checks.

Your payment will be made out from the United Nations diplomatic drop box in Seattle Washington United States of America . Failure to respond to this notice within three days of the receipt of this notice will attract a cancellation of this payment till further notice and we are advised to conclude this delivery within seven business days as the United Nations will soon commence with their end of the year diplomatic reconciliation exercise.

You are advised to re-confirm the below details to enable us cross-check with the ones we have in our files. This is for us to be sure we are communicating with the right beneficiary to avoid misdirection of package.

FULL NAMES:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
DIRECT PHONE NUMBERS:
OCCUPATION:
AGE:
MARITAL STATUS:
SEX:
CLOSEST AIRPORT:

I will provide all the required details as soon as I confirm your understanding. The United Nations has advised you to stop all correspondence with whoever that claims to be in possession of your funds.

Thanks for your understanding.

Dr Emperor Cross
US DIPLOMAT

A 150 million dollar offer that I refused :-)

Here is the email from "Prof N.M Gadzama" that just popped up:

Attn.
I am the P.A to the Vice president of Nigeria Chief Goodluck Jonathan
Mr. Vice President has a transaction to the Tune of $150 Million USD.
Can you handle it? Please do respond with your direct phone number. So we can discuss.

Best regards
Prof. N.M Gadzama

Any takers?  Feel free to contact Prof. Gadzama but only after you read this