Nomuse (and others inc Gillian and Jay), I think you are very correct in your reading of the 'signs' that are of concern.
At the Economist, I invited PT to contact me via my real email (which is not hard to find/guess). Perhaps not entirely unsurprisingly,
he has done so. The lengthy tomes
![Cheesy :D](http://www.apollohoax.net/forum/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
I have received are relatively polite, but also either directly or indirectly verify many (in fact.. pretty much
all) of the suspicions I had about the situation. I have not done much in the way of responding while I wait for him to answer a couple of questions *honestly* to ensure his 'good faith' (if such a thing is even remotely possible given the circumstances).
At the moment I will leave it at that and watch what unfolds...
What a strange place is this 'Interweb' thing, and what strange denizens populate it (mineself included).