Saturday at the Alexander East Chapel parking lot, Piranha Mobile Shredding was shredding for free.

Gary Wire, who teaches a program on identity theft, said it's just one of the steps you can take to decrease your odds of being a victim.

"I've done hundreds of the programs and everyone asks the same question," Wire said. "'Where can I go to take things that we just don't want to throw away? Things we don't want to get into the hands of someone else and protect ourselves against identity theft.' So we've bonded with Piranha and WFIE, and WIKY and came up with the program."

There will be another free shredding program next Saturday. It will be at the Alexander Chapel parking lot in Newburgh from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Satellites Document War, Destruction From Outer Space

If you live in one of the dusty, poor corners of the world, maybe not. Carnage in developing countries often goes unnoticed in the more wired, wealthy parts of the world.

That's where the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences' Geospatial Technology and Human Rights Project comes in. It is charged with using the latest in technology, primarily high-resolution satellite photography, to detect and call attention to possible human rights violations.

"I don't consider what we look at to be war in the sense that it's two armies [or] groups of soldiers. These things are slaughters, genocides, butchery and the like," said Lars Bromley, director for the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, who was profiled in Wired 15.12. "Women and children are the primary targets.

Vocational projects help local ARC to spread its wings

Another new endeavor is a shredding business. Using equipment donated by the Florida Lottery, it offers secure document destruction at the ARC complex. Customers can either bring the documents to ARC or have them picked up by an ARC vehicle.

The shredding operation has helped ARC reduce its own trash disposal expenses by $10,000 a year, King said.

"This is really needed by our nursing homes and assisted-living facilities," said Linda Lampman, an investment counselor who took part in the VMA tour. "People there accumulate a lot of financial documents and don't know how to get rid of them safely."

ARC's mailroom, which has been in operation for several years, handles a variety of mail-inserting tasks for about 30 area companies.

One of its biggest clients is BZ Mailing Services, a Mason Avenue company that has been using ARC workers for various manual tasks for 15 years.

Brambles allays Wal-Mart fears

Brambles's other main business, Recall, a document storage, management and destruction operation, was also doing well except in the US, where higher costs were taking their toll.

Yesterday's statement helped reassure investors, given that the company is just five days away from closing its books on its 2008 financial year.