The flight attendants passed out a "State of Hawai'i Department of Agriculture Plants and Animals Declarion Form." Actually, this was two forms in one: the front of the form was for the Dept. of Agriculture, and the reverse was for the "Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism."

On the front of the form, it reads, "MANDATORY DECLARATION for all passengers, officers, and crew members" and cites a state law (Chapter 150A, Hawaii Revised Statutes), warning that "YOU ARE REQUIRED BY STATE LAW TO FILL OUT THIS AGRICULTURAL DECLATION FORM." Quoting from that statute, the form states that it is a misdemenour offense to:(a) deface this declaration form, (b) give false information, (c) fail to declare restricted items on the form. It's also a felony to intentionally smuggle a snake or other prohibited or restricted article.

So far, so good. I filled out the parts of the form that asked about those items (I ticked the box to say that I had "none of the above:, and signed and dated the form.

However, the front of the form also asked for (a) my full name, (b) home address (city, state, zip code), (c) my address in Hawai'i (Hawai'i address or hotel name), which Hawaiian island, (d)phone number, (e) the number of persons in the party, (f) the name of the airline, (g) the flight number, and (h) the date of arrival. I noticed that none of these questions were supported by the quoted language in the statute.

So I left those items blank, just to see what would happen. I reasoned that I had not defaced the form, provided false information, etc., and that those particular questions were an invasion of my privacy.

The flight attendants objected: they were instructed to make sure that everyone answered those questions. So when we deplaned, they asked for the state employee who collects these declarations to wait just outside the cabin door, so that I could deal directly with him.

That person took the form, saw that I had ticked "none of the above" and signed and dated it, and accepted it as is -- without answers to those intrusive questions. No problem!

I did not, of course, fill out the tourism questionnaire on the back of the form, as no one claimed that filling out that part of the form was mandatory.

Has anyone else refused to fill out such intrusive questions on an agricultural declaration form? What were the results?

(I recall crossing by car into California and Arizona, but do not recall anyone asking for my home address, telephone number, address while in the state -- just questions about agricultural imports.)

All of this remdinds me of the old "Spy vs. Spy" feature of Mad Magazine. It could almost be funny.

Submitted Link #1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/960...

I went to the Apple store near me and purchased a one-year subscription to Mobileme service. Note that although the service offers many features that are specific for Mac users, it also has a lot to offer Windows users. For example, if you use iTunes on your windows machine, it will sync with your iTunes library. The subscription is a boxed product at the store. I paid cash, and politely declined when the clerk asked for my name and address. No problems, although I could have given my ghost address intentionally if I wanted to seed that address on another mailing list.

At a nearby coffee shop that I never use, I went online and configured the subscription. When the setup software asked for a credit card (which would be used to renew the subscription after one year), I unchecked that option. I knew this would be possible from a previous conversation with the staff at the Apple store.

I now have 20 GB storage available to me online. It is password protected, but I consider that inadequate, so the files I move up to the me.com account are already encrypted using Truecrypt. In addition, I can have a public folder to allow a friend or business contact to upload or download files, again password protected. And finaly, I get an email address in my ghost name and address that looks more legitimate than a hotmail or gmail account.

Next, I use the account along with an iPod Touch that I purchased with cash and registered to my ghost name and address. If you're not familiar with this device, in addition to being an iPod, it is also a PDA, and a wi-fi access device that will allow you to receive and send email, browse websites, etc., without using a laptop. I see this as a cheap ($200-300 ) device that I can afford to dedicate to my ghost name, cheaper than a laptop and small enough to fit in a pocket. The mac address for this device will never be associated with any name buy my ghost address. So, I now have an anonymous email address w/ghost name, ghost address, and an anonymous portable device for email and limited browsing. And 20 gb of anonymous storage I can access with browser from any computer in the world that has an internet connection.

One way is to edit the word list with words of your choosing.

... Thanks, Zack, for checking the keyword list and letting us know that it may need editing.