More on RFID chips - scary...

[Tim Stinchcombe]

[funky gun is just art]

Yes, but it does _look_ the part!

His name was Georgi Markov and he was Bulgarian, but a dissident
rather than a spy. The poison was ricin.

Yes, the Georgi Markov incident, remember it from the time, and it of course
did come to mind on reading this thread. I think he was stabbed by the
umbrella, rather than being 'shot'. I don't think anyone believed him at
first, but he got very ill and died a few days later (if I remember
correctly), and it must have taken a lot of searching to find the
smaller-than-a-pinhead bead that contained the tiny amount of ricin, sealed
into a little 'well' by some wax, which slowly dissolved, thus realising the
ricin (which is clearly very nasty stuff). But unlike the silly claims for
the gun, Georgi _was_ aware that something had been done to him, if only
like the prick from a hypodermic.

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

(this was on the politech mailing list recently)

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;127305666;fp;16;fpid;0

Sniper rifle may aim RFID tags at human targets

It's a JOKE - Two students called themselves "EmpireNorth" and cooked up
some slides for an Asian arms conference to see if they could get invited.

Much to their surprise, there was a large interest in their "product".

Shows how the media works: Some half-assed story get written up by a
journalist who understands maybe 10% of the subject, gets about 60% of that
wrong, and invents the rest to make the deadline. The rest of The Media
recycle the story, fleshing out the missing bits until it becomes "The
Truth" and goes on TeeVee - then the population believes in it and
politicians start to pontificate.

It's funny to watch albeit distressing to know that the world primarily runs
on Shite!

 

[Barry Lennox]

[funky gun is just art]

Yes, but it does _look_ the part!

His name was Georgi Markov and he was Bulgarian, but a dissident
rather than a spy. The poison was ricin.

Remember it well, I was living in London at the time, IIRC, he was
very well aware of being stabbed or pricked by something.

Are you sure it was ricin? I thought it was Thalium, or a salt of it.

Barry Lennox

 

[Paul Hovnanian P.E.]

(this was on the politech mailing list recently)

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;127305666;fp;16;fpid;0

Sniper rifle may aim RFID tags at human targets

Julian Bajkowski, Computerworld

28/04/2004 09:04:22

If the thought of a government secretly inserting miniature tracking chips
into persons deemed enemies of the state harks of an Orwellian conspiracy
theory, a Danish company is doing its level best to bring this type of
technology into the hands of authorities.

As long as they don't insert any tracking devices based on the PC/104
format, I'm not worried.

;-)

--
Paul Hovnanian mailto[email protected]
note to spammers: a Washington State resident
------------------------------------------------------------------
A limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

 

[Rich Grise]

His name was Georgi Markov and he was Bulgarian, but a dissident
rather than a spy. The poison was ricin.

I presume there is something like Q's department (from the Bond films)
in real life, but far more mundane in its activities (I doubt there
are many cars with ejector seats!). Even so, it must be an interesting
place to work.

Haven't they been making pet ID chips for quite some time?

I don't know if anybody's threatened to use them on people yet (i.e.
SPMs), but I have seen purportedly true stories of an ID chip implanted
in the palm of your hand to personalize your gun.

Any ideas on this?

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Jim Thompson]

[snip]

Haven't they been making pet ID chips for quite some time?

I don't know if anybody's threatened to use them on people yet (i.e.
SPMs), but I have seen purportedly true stories of an ID chip implanted
in the palm of your hand to personalize your gun.

Any ideas on this?

Cheers!
Rich

To "personalize your gun" means the *range* is what? A few inches
MAX?

...Jim Thompson

 

[Rich Grise]

[snip]

Haven't they been making pet ID chips for quite some time?

I don't know if anybody's threatened to use them on people yet (i.e.
SPMs), but I have seen purportedly true stories of an ID chip implanted
in the palm of your hand to personalize your gun.

Any ideas on this?

Cheers!
Rich

To "personalize your gun" means the *range* is what? A few inches
MAX?

...Jim Thompson

No, what it means is that there's a corresponding circuit in the
gun itself, which if the hand holding it doesn't have the proper ID
chip embedded, the gun won't fire. If it works, it'd be a really
good way to prevent a bad guy from using your own gun on you after
he takes it away from you.

But as I've said, (or maybe neglected to say - I don't recall), the
article was on TeeVee, so could well have been SF.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Jim Thompson]

[snip]

Haven't they been making pet ID chips for quite some time?

I don't know if anybody's threatened to use them on people yet (i.e.
SPMs), but I have seen purportedly true stories of an ID chip implanted
in the palm of your hand to personalize your gun.

Any ideas on this?

Cheers!
Rich

To "personalize your gun" means the *range* is what? A few inches
MAX?

...Jim Thompson

No, what it means is that there's a corresponding circuit in the
gun itself, which if the hand holding it doesn't have the proper ID
chip embedded, the gun won't fire. If it works, it'd be a really
good way to prevent a bad guy from using your own gun on you after
he takes it away from you.

But as I've said, (or maybe neglected to say - I don't recall), the
article was on TeeVee, so could well have been SF.

Cheers!
Rich

What I was driving at, and seems to have been missed... such a tag
can't have much range, otherwise a criminal will take the gun out of
your hands and fire it at you.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Al]

[snip]

Haven't they been making pet ID chips for quite some time?

I don't know if anybody's threatened to use them on people yet (i.e.
SPMs), but I have seen purportedly true stories of an ID chip implanted
in the palm of your hand to personalize your gun.

Any ideas on this?

Cheers!
Rich


To "personalize your gun" means the *range* is what? A few inches
MAX?

...Jim Thompson

No, what it means is that there's a corresponding circuit in the
gun itself, which if the hand holding it doesn't have the proper ID
chip embedded, the gun won't fire. If it works, it'd be a really
good way to prevent a bad guy from using your own gun on you after
he takes it away from you.

But as I've said, (or maybe neglected to say - I don't recall), the
article was on TeeVee, so could well have been SF.

Cheers!
Rich

What I was driving at, and seems to have been missed... such a tag
can't have much range, otherwise a criminal will take the gun out of
your hands and fire it at you.

...Jim Thompson

If he can take it out of your hand, chances are he can fire it at you
while you are holding it!

I can also imagine some sickos digging the chip out of your hand while
you are immobilized and attaching it to the weapon.

Also members of the same team can't share weapons is the situation calls
for it.

And what happens when the battery is drained; you know it will happen -
Murphy's Law. One of the biggest headaches the GIs have in Irag now is
the need for tons of batteries to operate all of their electonics.

Useless protection dreamed up by politicians. I don't think there is a
law enforcement specialist on the planet who would want such a weapon.

I have also heard about the chip being put in a ring you wear so the
weapon will be close to it when you draw it. At least that beats
implantation.

Al

 

[L. Fiar]

To "personalize your gun" means the *range* is what? A few inches
MAX?

More likely to stop other people using it.


LF.

 

[Jim Thompson]

More likely to stop other people using it.


LF.

No. No. The range of the TAG! If it has too much range it would be
useless as a safety feature.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Terry Given]

No. No. The range of the TAG! If it has too much range it would be
useless as a safety feature.
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |

yeah - an RF tag with 200m range would be less than useful when the bad guy
snatches the gun out of your hand.....

Terry