Thinks happen

Spam. We all get it. Most of it is caught and diverted by filters; others we can delete merely from reading the subject line. Some, we have to actually read into to determine it is an unsolicited pitch by email. Spam.

By some accounts, spam comprises nearly half of the millions of emails circulating daily. In recent years however, there is a rising popularity among spammers to do their carnival barking in the comment section of a blog.

In the article “How Spam Works” Marshal Brain enlightens us on the subject; where it comes from, how much there is, what is being done and other things.

For a few weeks this spot will show some of the sillier messages found in blogger comment spam. These will be quoted exactly, grammar, punctuation, spelling and content bungles included.

Here is today's exciting example.

From a post titled Two Found Photographs Identified :

Wow. Fantastic monster there. The urbanity monster striding forth, as it does in most cities of the world. Nice hand-drawn banner too. Something like this image, http://EN.WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-7Z9RQ8 , by French painter Fernand Léger, maybe effective painted large on a wall too, acknowledged as a copy of course. It can be seen at wahooart.com and a canvas print of it can be ordered from there. on Two Found-Photographs Identified - Halifax and Lancaster

Labels: Halifax Bomber, unsolicited

This week Flickr members discovered two historical airplanes in my set of found photographs of Airplanes: Here is the converted Halifax Bomber that made the first The First Civilian Flight in the Berlin Airlift in 1948. Then below that is The First Canadian Made Lancaster Bomber just rolling off the assembly line..
	fulvue says: This is a Halifax bomber conversion to a civilian transport - Handley Page Halton. G-AIOI was operated by Bond Air Services and this was during the Berlin Airlift. The incident occured on 9 Apr 1949 at Schleswig (I think where Bond operated from during the airlift). See below for some additional info (re civilian input to the Berlin Airlift): "Warning of the arrival of the civilian aircraft to Germany, scheduled for 4 August 1948, was not received until the 1st, but in spite of this short notice the necessary arrangements were made for the first sorties to take place on the following day. The first sortie was flown at night by Halton G-AIOI (Captain Treen) of Bond Air Services, which landed at Gatow at 03:10 local time. This aircraft carried out five return flights between Wunstorf and Berlin in the first 24 hours of operations, which produced a total of 33 sorties from the civil side." Taken from site: DTIC Online It is impossible to imagine the strain placed on the aircraft, flying continuously and heavily laden, eventually resulting in this 'prang'. Do you remember the cheap airfares entrepreneur, Freddie Laker? He founded an aviation company (Aviation Traders) after the war, which converted Halifax bombers into civilian freighters, selling six to Bond Air Services. Bond used Laker's company to service the Bond aricraft in the airlift, in return for which Laker's company received half of the freights that Bond earned. After the airlift Laker's company scrapped most of the converted Halifaxes at their facility in Southend, Essex.
Doug Sheley says: Avro Lancaster M.MK X Serial number KB700 Was nicknamed "Ruhr Express" Flew 2 missions with 405 Squadron with the plane carrying the code LQ-Q. Then flew 49 missions with 419 Squadron with the code VR-Z. She was destroyed after overshooting the runway and crashing, returning from mission #49 with 419th Squadron. fulvue says: First Candian built Lancaster - guess this may have been the roll-out. She looks finished in overall black and not yet received camouflage paint on the upper surfaces. See: lancastermuseum.ca	The number KB700 can be seen faintly just to the right of the door on the side. A Quote from the excellent Lancaster Museum Site: "The loss was particularly sad, especially when viewed over fifty-five years later, because the plans were to fly the "Ruhr Express" back to Canada following its fiftieth operation, for a triumphant return and to become a memorial to the Canadians who built and flew Lancasters. So ended the first plans for a Lancaster to be placed on display in a Canadian museum."