Bin Laden blacklisted in phone book

24. jun 13:07 | Av: Baste Christiansen / Hanne Dankertsen

[Princeton]

Osama bin Laden vanished a long time ago, and now his name has disappeared from the phone book, along with Donald Duck, David Beckham and Harry Potter.

Media company Findexa AS is in charge of the Norwegian Yellow Pages and the phone book, and has decided to attack constructed «joke names» in their registers. «We have 3.2 million mobile telephone numbers in our database. Some of these are pay-as-you-go customers who have registered themselves with suspicious sounding names», says Gro Ismar at Findexa.

Blacklisted The company has developed a blacklist that all new customers will be checked against. Suspicious names will be also checked against official Norwegian name registers.

According to Findexa, frequently used names are Osama bin Laden, Donald Duck, David Beckham, Harry Potter, Pippi Longstockings and James Bond. If someone registers himself or herself with a blacklisted name, the name will automatically be replaced with «User unknown».

Needs tips Pay-as-you-go customers are not receiving invoices by mail like other customers and are therefore more likely to give false personal information.

As the registration routines for pay-as-you-go customers remain the same, the blacklist will probably become longer, in line with the customers' creativity.

«Findexa is dependent of tips from the public in order to keep the directory enquiries free of terrorists, cartoon figures and other constructed names», Ismar said.

[Princeton]

So, what's in a name?

[EggsAckley]

"registered themselves with suspicious sounding names», says Gro Ismar"

Somehow the name "Gro Ismar" seems a little suspicious to me..........LOL!

[proxy_user]

When I was going to Yale Grad School in the 70s, I had a friend who listed himself as Professor Eucalyptus.

You'd have to be pretty well-educated to get that one.

[doberville]

So, I got a graduate degree. I still don't get it.
Too dim?

[proxy_user]

The dry eucalyptus seeks god in the rainy cloud.
Professor Eucalyptus of New Haven seeks him
In New Haven with an eye that does not look

Beyond the object. He sits in his room, beside
The window, close to the ramshackle spout in which
The rain falls with a ramshackle sound. He seeks

God in the object itself, without much choice...

From the Wallace Stevens poem, 'An Ordinary Evening in New Haven', much studied in Harold Bloom's graduate seminars.

[Princeton]

Gro Ismar at Findexa

Osama bin Laden vanished
A long time ago

Now his name has disappeared
Along with Donald Duck and James Bond
From The Norwegian book
Of Yellow Pages

Suspicious sounding names
David Beckham
Harry Potter
Pippi Longstockings
Checked against suspicious names

Someone registers himself
Gro Ismar at Findexa
And is blacklisted

To keep the directory
Free of terrorists:)