DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

My old band played the Plaza tonight. The stage seemed much more spacious, as shown in this photo. The secret is that the entire drum kit is the same size as a small guitar cab.

Compare to last year.

This is just too good:

A businessman has asked the town of Weare, N.H., to seize the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter in order to build a hotel and museum on the property. (local mirror)

Seriously, go read the whole thing. It’s the best thing you’ll see all week.

“Just Desserts.” Ha!

(Backstory.)

According to WorkingForCharge:

Last month, the Pentagon announced that since 2002 it has secretly been compiling a database containing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans as young as 16 years of age. The database includes information such as Social Security numbers, height, weight, ethnicity, grade-point averages, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

The custody and maintenance of this database has been contracted out to a private firm named BeNow. BeNow has no privacy policy posted to its website, nor a privacy or security officer listed on its management team.

The Defense Department now proposes a wide range of “routine uses” for this database, including disclosure of records contained in the database for functions wholly unrelated to recruitment. Although individuals can opt-out of recruitment solicitations, there is no way to opt-out of this enormous database as a whole.

Compilation of this database is not only a spooky invasion of our families’ privacy, it’s also a violation of the law. The Federal Privacy Act requires that government agencies accept public comment before new records systems are created — a requirement that was blatantly ignored in this case.

So, how long until this database gets compromised?

All it will take is a stolen laptop, or a misplaced backup tape, or a dishonest employee, or a couple of identity thieves posing as real customers, and the next thing you know there will be another headline about a few million names and addresses and social security numbers being made available to the highest bidder.

This sentence should make you nervous: “The custody and maintenance of this database has been contracted out to a private firm…” Love it or hate it, the military seems to be pretty good at maintaining security and keeping secrets. Sure, there are exceptions… but on the whole I have a lot less confidence in the ability of BeNow, a self-described “marketing services” company, to secure its assets.

There’s some great information on the Privacy Act of 1974, and the BeNow database, at the Electronic Privacy Information Clearinghouse site.

The latest batch of spring mix contained a bit more protein than I expected.

A recent piece of Cingular junkmail contained something I’ve never seen before: an opt-out notice. In boxed, boldface type, on the front page of the letter, it declares:

You can choose to stop receiving “prescreened” offers of credit from this and other companies by calling toll-free 1 (888) 567-8688. See PRESCREEN & OPT-OUT NOTICE on the other side for more information about prescreened offers.

What would possess a multinational telecom firm that relies (at least in part) on buying personal contact information to send out unsolicited and generally unwanted junkmail offers, to allow its victims to request that they stop? I have no idea, but I approve.

The telephone number belongs to the credit reporting agencies’ automated opt-out mechanism, which can also and probably more easily be accessed here: http://www.optoutprescreen.com

They’re now offering a lifetime opt-out. My fuzzy recollection is that in years past they offered only a 5-year term.

In any case, as despicable as I find it that these folks trade my personal information like kids trade baseball cards, I’m grateful they allow me to opt out at all, even if I have to keep doing it for every imaginable variation of my name, my wife’s name, the previous residents’ names, etc.

I’m also grateful that the junkmailers of the world have not yet discovered that we have a baby. (Sshhhh!)