It was the classic scam. An elderly couple are told they’ve won the lottery, and millions of dollars are theirs…they just have to pay a few taxes and fees first in order to free up the cash. First it was a few thousand dollars, than a few thousand more, than a few tens of thousands, and finally, their savings account stripped dry of about $78,000, they catch on: they’re being conned. It’s a monumental personal tragedy that has impoverished them, and there’s nothing that can be done—the scammers are gone.

There is a lesson to be learned, although these victims haven’t learned it.

“We were going to move into (a) retirement home, but now we don’t have the money. I just want to help other people who are in the same predicament.”

She can’t believe she was fooled for so long.

“We’re honest,” she said. “We were raised Catholic, and we just believe everybody. It’s just torn up our whole life.”

She was raised a victim.

I’m an atheist and scientist. I don’t believe anybody without good evidence.

Back in October, I sent you off to vote in an online poll that pitted real social workers, SozialHelden, against homeopaths, in a contest that actually had consequences: the winner would get a “Dedication Award” for their work.

We just got word from SozialHelden on the outcome of the poll:

haben gerade den Deutschen Engagementpreis 2009 gewonnen. Danke für Eure Stimmen!

They’ve won the German Engagement Prize for 2009. Thank you for your votes!

They have successfully spawned. Say hello to Huxley Laden!

Every year, L’Oreal selects women who have made significant contributions to community service and awards their organization a substantial grant of $5,000. There are ten honorees this year, and they’ve all got good stories to tell. You also have a chance to vote on one of the ten, and the winner of that popularity contest will get an additional award of $25,000 — read their nominations and you’ll see that they all could use it, and you should vote for whatever cause you find most worthy.

However, I will gently nudge you in one direction, suggesting that if you don’t find that any one cause speaks to you, you should consider voting for Shannon Lambert, who manages a local service called Pandora’s Project, which helps survivors of rape and sexual abuse. We’re a little bit biased, though, since Shannon is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Morris. Just take a look, and if you think her work is good, take just a second and leave one vote for her.

Dan Casey has just posted the first installment in a story about the day Pat Robertson’s bodyguard pulled a gun on him, which is so far an interesting perspective on the obscenely wealthy life of a televangelist. I wish I could afford to build a mighty mansion on an isolated hilltop that I would only visit once a month!

It’s a cruel tease, though. Casey is serializing it: we’ll have to remember to check in every Friday to get the full story.

One of our own, the godless Minnesotan Stephanie Zvan, is going under the knife for removal of some cancerous tissue today. If you’re a useless fool, you might think entreating an imaginary and fickle deity would be the appropriate thing to do, but no…we know that is futile and insulting. However, one thing that isn’t pointless is to leave a few messages as members of a community of caring human beings that we’re looking forward to her return. So go do something social and personal and life-affirming, ok?

Which means we have to start guessing and taking bets on who will win the pretty prizes. MedGadget has a contest — leave a name there and maybe you’ll win an iPod.

I have no idea who will win this year, so I’m not making an entry. I do think it’s about time for Mark Ptashne to get the nod, though.

They’ve got another one entering the fray in November, and they need your suggestions for a name.

It’s a boy, which makes it harder. When we were in those distant childbearing years, I hit up taxonomy for interesting names, but for some reason, most Latin names always sound feminine to me. I was always fond of Ciona (Thaliacea and Styela are also pretty). It just doesn’t work for a boy. It was one of the names I considered for my daughter, Skatje, but my wife squelched it when she saw what a urochordate looked like.

For everyone who rightly complained about the porn ads on the Tibetan Sky Burial post, you can now watch birds devour a dead person via the magic of YouTube, free of distractions.

Again, somewhat grisly: don’t watch this if you feel delicate about such matters as the fact that we are all made of meat.