« Home | From nut-job liar to presidential ear » | Oh, Get a Life.... » | 'nuff said... » | Faculty Blood Feuds: Your Assurance of a Great Edu... » | This post can be read in jig time... » | Is this what goes for leadership in the Liberal pa... » | Maritime muscle behind Scott Brison » | Canadian healthcare: more bang for half the bucks... » | Joe Volpe: the Ben Johnson of the Liberal leadersh... » | ...And are You a Group of Paranoid Control Freaks? »

WTF? Friday

One of the things that I've learned since we started the 'kog a few months back is that we don't write and read much over the weekends. Might be all the babes, booze, and bud, I dunno, but it's a shame to just leave shop with the closed sign hangin' every Friday.

Today I thought I'd inaugurate a new feature, the "WTF? Friday" which will hit one or more of the stranger things we've seen during the past week that for one reason or another never made it to the site. Certainly, if Dan hadn't done so the other day, the furor over the new lesbian Batwoman would have been a good candidate.

Alas, been there, done that, as the kids say.

Fortunately, since the Republicans are in power and still in high paranoia mode, one doesn't have to look too far to find something ridiculous. Something like a proposal, apparently serious, to implant tracking chips in immigrant and guest workers. You might want to go back and read that sentance again, that's okay, I'll wait. You might even want to visit the report here, where you read up on how the VeriChip is “about the size of a large grain of rice” and that it “can be injected directly into the body”.

Charming. "Surely, they can't be taking this seriously!" I can hear you say:

In a related story, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe allegedly remarked that microchips could be used to track seasonal workers to visiting U.S. senators Jeff Sessions (Alabama) and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania). "President Uribe said he would consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted in their bodies before they are permitted to enter the US for seasonal work," Specter told Congress on April 25.
Always aiming high on issues of human rights, is our neighbour the USA - Columbia! I hear that they are next going to be elevating prison standards from their current level of "Oz" to "Chinese Political" in the coming monts!

"But surely these are dangerous?!" you say. No, no, of course not, they
have long been used to identify animals in a variety of settings; livestock, laboratory animals and pets have been "chipped" for decades
And really, what immigrant labour but livestock, right?

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Actually, Kev, it's not just governments tracking immigrants with these that we have have to worry about - there's a very strong possibility that corporations are already using it to track you and I. I don't know about you, but I'm seriously thinking about buying a degaussing coil...

I take every opportunity to rub my forehead against the little de-magnetizing doowackys at Wal-Mart.
Nothing to do with tracking devices, just making conversation.

How many goods are out there with RFID chips in them already? I've heard about the privacy implications involved with them. They could possibly be used to track the holders of such items as they are used to track the items themselves.

Is there any way to bust these RFID chips? I mean, if there is some kind of electromagnetic device that I can have in my car before I take the groceries home...

Well, as I said before, a degausing coil should do it.

Post a Comment