ID Theft & ChoicePoint Imbroglio

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“We regret to inform you that your identity has been stolen. We hope this does not cause an inconvenience.” Robert O’Harrow, Jr:

Earlier this week, ChoicePoint officials said the records of about 35,000 people in California may have been disclosed. But yesterday, the company said the scope of the scheme is probably much wider than it originally reported. Company officials said they were sending out more letters to 110,000 addresses throughout the country that may be connected to the reports delivered to the fraudsters.

“We have reason to believe your personal information may have been obtained by unauthorized third parties, and we deeply regret any inconvenience this event may
cause you,” the letters say.

Authorities said the number of records involved may go higher as the investigation continues. “This is way far more reaching,” said Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lt. Robert Costa, commander of an identity theft unit. “I believe that when we’re done it will be more than a half million nationally. It’s huge.”

I ran into Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenshlager at the Winter Farmer’s Market and mentioned that only California apparently has a law requiring notification of identity theft…. It’s long past time for Wisconsin to act.

Daily Newspapers face a Kodak Moment?

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Frank Ahrens takes a look at the plight of daily newspapers in the internet era (Here’s a great chart on the changes):

Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said his industry has some breathing room left. But not much.

“The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print [sales] for some time,” he said. “The problem we have are the . . . 18- to 35-year-olds. They’re not replacing the baby boomers.”

Others are more blunt, if hyperbolic.

“Print is dead,” Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? “Get over it,” meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.

I believe the changes in the newspaper industry mirror Kodak’s plight: the sharp, ongoing drop in formerly very high margin film sales. People are still taking pictures, in fact, more than ever. Kodak is just not capturing the kind of dollars they did in the past.

Newspapers face a similar issue. Their high margin, very high overhead business model will likely not survive (this will take some time), BUT citizens still want information, in fact, due to the internet, we’re foraging for information at much higher rates than before.

I also think newspapers have not adjusted to their reader’s changing expectations regarding news accessibility, depth and content in the internet era. The traditional text article, designed for print no longer cuts it. Thus the rise of the blogs….

Watch the conversation (technorati).

The Gates (Central Park) VR Scenes

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Elizabeth Gentile has posted some lovely VR scenes from Central Park, site of Christo & Jean-Claude’s The Gates. Scene 1, 2, 3, 4. Well worth checking out.
Kate adds:

In Central Park, there is a great work of art, called The Gates. There are many gates that have beautiful flags hanging from them. They are made by Christo & Jean-Claude. The works of art will be on display for two weeks.

Monopoly utilities abusing their rate base

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Local utility Alliant Energy announced that they have taken full control of an $82M Mexican resort development, Laguna Del Mar. Thomas Content and Judy Newman follow the story. Content notes that Alliant also lost money invested in Brazil several years ago. Clearly, these regulated entities have no business spending money in this way. How about a rate cut (MG & E also spreads the money around in odd ways. Background here and here.

Hunter Thompson & Bill Murray on Shotgun Golf

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Hunter S. Thompson:

The game consists of one golfer, one shooter and a field judge. The purpose of the game is to shoot your opponent’s high-flying golf ball out of the air with a finely-tuned 12-gauge shotgun, thus preventing him (your opponent) from lofting a 9-iron approach shot onto a distant “green” and making a “hole in one.” Points are scored by blasting your opponent’s shiny new Titleist out of the air and causing his shot to fail miserably. That earns you two points.