Just Because...

... the subject of titles came up on a mailing list:  Titles from some long-ago title generator meme.  Plug in some stuff, it spewed a list of titles.

This was my list:

Horseradish Thanatos Tekiahyn the Just, Brother Railgun of Reason, Pasha of The Right Side of Atomic Fusion, Representative of Invincible Sand Castles, Marquis of Wee Ceramic Kittens, Sheriff of Random Acts of Violence, Führer of The Meritorious Order of Seal Clubbing, Colonel of The Ministry of Karaoke Bars, Pope of Cannibalistic Rituals to the Glory of Naked Chick Magazines, Director of Satanic Altars of Bone, Dragon of The Left Side of Poon Appreciation, Knight of The National Association for the Advancement of Procrastination, Bondman of Christopher Walken, Czar of Quantum Mechanics, Umpire of The Choctaw Nation, Offender of the Faith.

Belated update on that terrorist watch list

bruce_schneier posted an update on that watch list yesterday, but I, having worn myself out by pushing myself too far too early in recuperation, didn't update my own.  Rather than repeat and introduce whisper-effect, I'm just going to point back to his updated post.

Capsule summary:  The ACLU somewhat overstated matters.  While there are over a million entries in the list, many are aliases or variant spellings, and the list actually represents some 400,000 individuals, only 5% of whom are US citizens or otherwise have a legal right to be in the US.

However, as Bruce also observes, a watch list of 400,000 "terrorist suspects" is still absurd. It's still the equivalent of one in every 750 people in the US being a terrorist.

Facebook is spyware

FaceBook claims that they don't actually keep information on your buying habits elsewhere on the Net unless you're logged in and opted in.  But recent evidence shows they still gather it all the time, even when you're logged out ... just in case you decide to opt in.

Facebook has since released a statement claiming that it has no choice but to collect the data so that it can be used should the user decide to "opt-in" to the service.