Changing language means that the word "dope" when referring to drugs has moved on from marijuana, usually to heroin where it has effectively reversed into that use from the term "doped up," meaning in a highly drugged state. But it's also mutated from the equivalent of "it's the dope" meaning "it's the best" to "it's dope" meaning, approximately, very good. But all of these uses are relatively new: originally "a dope" was a stupid person. So, now you understand the headline, read the article which refers to a disturbing form of spam.
If you were at all sentient in 1977 there was one song you could not avoid. It was everywhere. BBC Radio One broadcast it at 7:15 every morning for weeks and every morning I kicked the bedclothes onto the floor as involuntarily I danced around lying down. I got applause when I played it in discos. People went hoarse singing along. "Rock and Roll Band, started "we're just another band out of Boston" but it was "More than a feeling" that launched the album and a career and remains an anthem that lifts the spirits even today. Yet Boston is more cult than band, one feels.
Manila is a music town. It doesn't have the cachet of Austin or Nashville nor, even, Manchester or (parts of) London. But it's a town where music is part of the fabric of the city. The district of Intramuros is home to some fascinating heavy metal musicians. And they don't play a note.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, part of The Treasury, has issued a reminder (reproduced below) to all businesses with an annual turnover of more than GBP85,000 that new reporting rules require steps to be taken on or before 29 July this year.
The European Union is risking a battle with US President Trump. Countries, individually and federally, have been looking at the effect on domestic industries and national revenues of US companies, their tax structures and their business practices. In short, they are saying exactly what the US says: if you want to do business here, you do it on our terms. The USA doesn't like this challenge to the commercial colonialism which it has practised, largely without official resistance, since the 1940s.
There are some aspects of policing that are made more difficult than they should be by a range of factors. One of those factors is attitudes, on both sides, when a crime is committed by members of a "community" against others in that "community."
Intra-community crime is always difficult to investigate because the investigation is, almost always, conducted by someone from outside that "community." The reasons for this are many and varied. Without entering into the choppy waters of arguing that there should be no "communities," only "society," Nigel Morris-Cotterill examines why FCROs are in a difficult position when "communities" and offences within them are considered.
The growth of courier services, dedicated to food delivery, has in some markets become dominated by companies that began with on-line car and driver hire services, often mis-named "ride hailing." Their power in the market has enabled them to define the terms that they demand in contracts with food providers (often called, but often not, "restaurants"). At the pointy-end of such services is, in a significant number of markets, Uber, a company which has, since inception, displayed a disregard for local laws in countries which it has entered. It has also been widely criticised for the terms it imposes on the drivers and motorcycle riders it engages. As this case shows, it has also displayed a willingness to impose unfair contract terms on those it does business with.
The old ways are the best, not the least of which is because there are always new users whose filters aren't ready for spam that hasn't been seen for a while.
This one's so old-fashioned, it's funny. Oh, and Google's failed to identify a landing page for spam and potentially illegal product sales. Artificial intelligence? Hah.
A very convincing e-mail is being distributed. It falsely claims to be from South Africa's ABSA Bank and, so far as this newspaper can tell, is distributed to a spam-list that was first produced by or for the use of a training company since when it has gone into the wild, so to speak. It does not discriminate geographically. It contains an attachment (Credit Card Statement.htm). The full e-mail is below.