I understand that Piltdown Man was famous for being a paleontological hoax a hundred years ago. His current incarnation has clearly been spending time in the wrong parts of town on his occasional layovers in Newcastle. Should get out and about more.
As for New York, I doubt it's needed. At a business conference in Newcastle last week run by the Local Entreprise Partnership, the focus was very much on developing international business and trade links to Europe. That the key speaker was the German Ambassador was no coincidence.