Lost Horizons

"Beans and bourbon. An explosive combination."

Well it looks like the tills in the bars in Wanchai will be ringing with cash this weekend, as there are three US Navy warships in port.
USS Lassen and Charlottsville each carry a compliment of about 400 sailors, but this is dwarfed by the USS Enterprise, that boasts acompliment of around 5,700!
That's right, more than the population of the Devon town of Dartmouth. So with, potentially, six and a half thousand American serviceman spending their hard earned cash in Hong Kong this weekend, I am sure there will be some happy business owners around.

Anyway I want to talk about emails. Today, I read about a wine merchant who sent an email to all his staff to go into a pub chain in Bristol and buy several bottles of wine, that they supply, on expenses. The plan was that the merchant would become the sole supplier of wine to that chain. He even sent a follow up email, saying people weren't buying enough, and that line managers should ensure their staff go out and buy some more wine. Unfortunately, someone in the company forwarded this email, to the bar chain! Hah! I bet they won't be a supplier for much longer. But, what a nice concept - I wish my boss would tell me to go out and buy some wine on expenses.

Of course this isn't the first case of emails ending up in the wrong hands: do you remember Richard Phillips? He was a Senior Associate at a big law firm in London, who demanded, in an email, 4 quid from his secretary, after she had spilled some ketchup on his trousers. Well of course the email became public knowledge, and Phillips resigned after his oh, so public humiliation.

Then there was Claire Swire, who sent a comment in an email to her lover about how "Yum" his cum was. He then circulated the email, and the circle got wider. It seems nine people in that firm were suspended and lost their bonuses that year. Claire Swire doesn't work for that company any more.

Then there was a Royal Naval officer, working at the Pentagon, who accidentally put an 11 year old school girl, from Devon on a mailing list. Very soon she was receiving emails about New Zealands defence strategy and communications problems on British warships. Poor girl, so many emails and so large her computer crashed.

And, finally, Rachel Fountain, who had intended to send an email, which featured a naked man and a bunny-girl, to a friend, sent it to the finance director at American Express in Brighton who shared the same name.

Praise the Lord for instant messaging!

posted by Luke @ 1:35 PM