Balance Sheet

Jeff Taylor from the March 2006 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

You would never know it from the relative law enforcement attention, but cybercrime now outpaces illegal drug sales in annual proceeds, netting over $105 billion in 2004. The FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey also pegs the average loss per incident in 2005 at about $250,000.

Drugged Out

Medicare's new drug benefit confuses seniors more than ATMs and VCRs combined. A letter from Humana Inc. listing a help line for the program accidentally directs Iowa residents to a phone sex line. Good Samaritans with laptops and Net connections become the program's ad hoc consulting service.

Outlaw Guitar

The Music Publishers' Association chief says the operators of guitar tablature sites should go to jail. The owners of the mechanical rights to songs plan to follow the recording industry's path of suing and harassing music lovers in the hope of getting some money in return.

Chubby Chasers

Lawmakers in Argentina's Buenos Aires province pass a law requiring women's clothing shops to stock all sizes from 6 to 16. Failure to provide the proper range of sizes brings a fine of up to $170,000.

Standing Precedent

A teacher calls a Palm Beach County high school student ''so ungrateful and so un-American'' for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in class. The school district requires written parental permission for such disobedience.

Caption Action

A Federal Communications Commission mandate that all new TV programming be closed captioned kicked in January 1, leaving stations confused and liable--at $8,000 per violation--for any misstep. Stations now have an incentive not to air emergency news cut-ins at all.