Subject: Lu Hwa's questions
From: julius korbas <korbas@fmph.uniba.sk>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 17:10:03 +0100

A question for the list: Is it simpler to make a list of people who
recently received
a question from Lu Hwa, or a list of those who didn't receive such a
question?
(\smile) Here at least two persons (I'm one of them) received and
responded his
questions last week.
   Best regards,
                                         Julius Korbas
                                         Comenius University,
                                         Bratislava, Slovakia
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Subject: Re: three responses
From: Allen Hatcher <hatcher@math.cornell.edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 11:55:25 -0500

Concerning the multiple emails from students asking for help with algebraic 
topology exercises, particularly exercises in my book:  It seems clear there's 
something not quite right here, and I ought to have recognized this from the start.  
In any case, I've removed the html file with the sketch of the solution. A couple 
times in the past I've received requests for help with a whole batch of exercises, 
which seemed pretty obviously not something I should reply to, but it's harder to 
detect this latest trick of sending multple emails from different addresses to 
different recipients, each asking about just one or two problems. I guess we will 
just have to be more careful.

Incidentally, has anyone else been getting a bunch of spam messages in the past 
couple days with a quasi-mathematical text that talks about "hyperhomotopy"? 
(But on second thought, maybe this is a communication from superior beings in 
another universe giving us hints on future directions in Homotopy Theory!)

Allen Hatcher
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Subject: Re: three responses
From: "Dev P. Sinha" <dps@math.uoregon.edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:26:46 -0800

I also received such a solicitation, again with a different question.
At best, this student seems to ask for help at the drop of a hat.
At worst,...?

-Dev
   ________________________________________________________

Subject: RE: three responses
From: "Ruben Sanchez" <R.SANCHEZ@soton.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 12:27:50 -0500

Dear Don,

I would like to reply to Adrian Dobson's email. I am a graduate student from
Southampton and I have received essentially the same email, which I've
copied below. My guess is that, in the best case, it is a student trying to
get unfaithful advantage for his coursework; in the worst case, it is a
clever variant of spam, along the lines of "I'm the wife of this african
president, help me to take $10 million out of the country". If this is the
case, it's quite sad they're using genuine algebraic topology questions
(easily taken from Hatcher's though) to trick people. The true purpose is
unknown to me, maybe gain your trust to try something else. It's someone is
brave enough to reply the email, we may find out.

I wish I am proven to be wrong, and one day I can meet 'Herbert' to discuss
the degree of maps or other topics...

All the best,

Ruben Sanchez
________________________________________
From: Herbert [mailto:herbert_83@yahoo.com] 
Sent: 02 December 2004 06:37
To: R.Sanchez@soton.ac.uk
Subject: Degree

Dear Professor Sanchez
 
I have a problem about 'degree'. Hopefully you don't mind helping me.
 
Is any map S2--->T2 is of degree 0? ( S2 is the 2-dimensional sphere and
T2 is the torus.)
 
Thanks,
Herbert