I don't claim to be an aviation specialist, but I think Waldo's calculation is a bit off the mark. The total available (safe) payload for a Gulfstream II is 13.55 tons. I think it's safe to assume 2-3 people were on board, and even granting half a tank of fuel would leave at least 7 tons for payload. So the 3.7 tons was well within this bound.

3 things...

First, as several others have pointed out, this story is nearing 10 years old.

Second, they were NOT fined for naming their child Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116, they were fined for not naming him before his 5th birthday, so the title of this post is factually incorrect and misleading.

Third, I don't know why everyone assumes this kid would get "pummeled" at school. If I knew someone named Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116, that kid would have been the most popular kid in school, if only because pronouncing and spelling the kid's name would make every teacher and administrator cry out to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

It sounds like many of you have never heard of Pandora's box. In a debate like this it is important to weigh the actual and potential pros and cons. I'm not really seeing a lot of actual OR potential pros to having a national database system. All I see are potential abuses.

I think it's great that the citizens of Denmark and Portugal and other democratic countries voted for representatives who could institute these changes that they didn't even know that they needed. That doesn't mean we all need to do it. And what's next? A global ID card? Slippery slope, anyone?

I live in the US, and they already have a federal unique identifier for me. It's my social security number, and everybody already uses it. My government, my employer, my bank, my credit card, my investment bank, my gas and electric provider, my ISP, my cell phone company. They all know my SSN and they all use it to "identify" me when I call to inquire about my accounts or make changes, etc.

So I ask you, what, REALLY is the benefit? Besides wasting more of my money and more of my representatives' time that should be dedicated to things like ending the Iraq occupation and impeaching Bush.

24% off brings it down to $91?? And I thought BoingBoing was for the people.

His contribution to the Radiolab on same topic is also quite masterful.