Oddities | Steve Woods

Staffordshire oatcake to get protected status?

18/05/2014 Steve WoodsOddities, Politics

Will the Staffordshire oatcake be joining Melton Mowbray pork pies, the Cornish pasty and Newcastle Brown Ale by having its status protected by the European Union?

Filled Staffordshire oatcakes. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The BBC reports that the the West Midlands Labour group of MEPs is promising to apply to get it protected by the European Union if re-elected.

One of the candidates, Sion Simon, is reported as saying: “They’re part of our heritage and culture in the West Midlands and they should be protected in the same way other European countries protect their food products.”

Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates are also said to be broadly supportive of the proposal, although UKIP are being curmudgeonly and refusing to support the move (another reason not to vote for Nigel’s Little Englanders? Ed.).

However, I cannot help wondering if this proposal is a local Labour response to the rise of UKIP, particularly amongst Labour’s long-term core voters – the traditional white working class – the people it has taken for granted for far too long.

It is unclear from the BBC’s article which type of protection – PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) or TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) – will be sought, although my feeling is that it should be one of the first two.

I hope this is not just another manifesto promise from Labour that, like so many others, will be quietly dropped after the election when they have served their purpose.
Another variant on the HMRC fake email

14/05/2014 Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Tech

This morning I discovered the fake HMRC email below in one of my inboxes.

I’m disappointed to note that the senders of this one are only offering me a refund of £830.99; the previous bunch of scammers were offering £1,400.

TAX RETURN FOR THE YEAR 2014
RECALCULATION OF YOUR TAX REFUND
HMRC 2010-2011
LOCAL OFFICE No. 3819
TAX CREDIT OFFICER: Jarrett Horn
TAX REFUND ID NUMBER: 9896077
REFUND AMOUNT: 830.99 GBP

Dear Applicant,

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential and as applicable, copyright in these is reserved to HM Revenue & Customs.

Unless expressly authorised by us, any further dissemination or distribution of this email or its attachments is prohibited.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please reply to inform us that you have received this email in error and then delete it without retaining any copy.

I am sending this email to announce: After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 830.99 GBP

You have attached the tax return form with the TAX REFUND NUMBER ID: 9896077, complete the tax return form attached to this message.

After completing the form, please submit the form by clicking the SUBMIT button on form and allow us 5-9 business days in order to process it.

Our head office address can be found on our web site at HM Revenue & Customs: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

Sincerely,

Jarrett Horn
HMRC Tax Credit Office
Preston<br /.
TAX REFUND ID: UK9896077-HMRC

This email was delivered from a Korea Telecom server and came with an attachment -Refund-Form-ID_9896077.zip (the number in the zip file varies).

Some of the language used – e.g. ‘fiscal activity‘ – is also a clue to its bogus nature. HMRC is supposed to use simpler English than that. Furthermore, note that the title seems to suggest the tax return concerned is for 2014, but the refund relates to 2011-2012. Not even HMRC is that slow in refunding money.

If you’re on a Windows machine, opening that zip file is fraught with danger as the archive contains a Trojan which, when run, attempts to drop cryptolocker, ransomware and loads of other malware on your computer.

As stated in an earlier post, HMRC never sends notifications of a tax rebate by email or asks taxpayers to disclose personal or payment information by email.

As before, if you receive one of these emails, you are advised to forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete it.

Once again, consult HMRC’s website for comprehensive advice on phishing and bogus emails.
An inappropriate juxtaposition

14/05/2014 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities

The screenshot below comes from the Bristol Post website early this morning and shows 2 news items in succession about Nick Gargan, the Chief Constable of Avon & Police.

Is being suspended for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ part of a typical light-hearted day for Avon & Somerset’s finest?

Answers in the comments below, Bristol Post hacks and sub-editors. 🙂
Spelling error clue to tax refund phishing scam

11/05/2014 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?

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

06/05/2014 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.
Rainbow Worrier

04/05/2014 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.

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.

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

29/04/2014 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.

I’ve heard of a player piano (also known as a pianola. Ed.), but never a planter piano!
How old is the Staffordshire oatcake?

26/04/2014 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.

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

11/04/2014 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.

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

09/04/2014 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.

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

Posts navigation