It's spam... or is it?

I just got an email with the subject Prize Winners Session 2003/04, I thought yet more spam, I wonder why the filter didn't pick it up. For some reason rather than deleting the email I had a look at it, you know how you do with some spam to see what the crafty buggers are trying these days. I was shocked by what I discovered in the email. It turns out I had actually won a prize, in particular I'd won (or maybe I co-won, I'm not really sure) the Carey Foster Prize for research in physics. It was all somewhat surprising. I didn't know the award existed, I don't know what the criteria are (standard pick a name out a hat, would be my guess), and I didn't even know who Carey Foster was.

[Some minutes of Googling].

It turns out that G. Carey Foster was, at one stage at least, an old bearded guy who was a Professor at UCL and he invented a bridge — of the type that measures resistances, not crosses rivers — and apparently back in 1869 he even lectured to ladies.

I'm still none the wiser about the award though. But anytime somebody wants to give me an award I'll be happy, particularly if the award comes with a cheque (yea, I might have enough English pounds to pay next months student loan payment).

I guess it pays to read spam sometimes.