Rampart News Update

10/23/11

New Zealand takes step towards becoming cashless society

Revellers in New Zealand who dream about living without cash will be able to attend two festivals on New Year's Eve without taking their wallets with them.

The La De Da festival in Martinborough and the Rhythm and Vines event in Gisborne will both adopt cashless payment systems, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Partygoers will be fitted with a wristband on entry to the two sites, which will be preloaded with wireless money.

They can then pay for items such as food and drink simply by flashing their wrist against a point-of-sale terminal.

As a result, organisers will be able to see where money is being spent and also find it easier to block the sale of alcohol to people who have been highlighted as troublemakers.

"We wanted to use the RFID system because our goal is to provide punters with a seamless experience," La De Da festival organiser John Mossman told the news provider.

Earlier this month, Juniper Research said the wider use of near field communication technology would benefit the cashless payment industry. ...source

9/10/11

New App Can ID Complete Stranger's Facebook and Social Security No.in 60 Seconds

Google and Carnegie Mellon University have created a system capable of alarming invasions of privacy

The application's name is PittPatt and it allows a complete stranger to find your identity -- your real identity -- in under 60 seconds. Here's how it works. A client code calls the PittPatt interface with a picture it's taken. PittPatt jumps online and compares that picture to millions of images in Facebook and in Google Inc.'s (GOOG) image search, using advanced facial recognition technology. And within 60 seconds, it can identify an individual.

The technology is more than a little creepy. It seems straight out of futurist thriller flick The Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character is assailed by advertising billboards that ID him by retinal scans. In the movie Cruise solves this problem by replacing his eyeballs. In real life it won't be that simple (hint: you might need facial modification).

PittPatt was a Carnegie Mellon University research project, which spun off into a company post 9/11. At the time, U.S. intelligence was obsessed with using advanced facial recognition to identify terrorists. So the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) poured millions into PittPatt. D...more

9/7/11

Pre-Cog Is Real – New Software Stops Crime Before It Happens | Singularity Hub

Cover of Minority Report [Blu-ray]The police officers arrived at the parking garage in downtown Santa Cruz and spotted two women behaving suspiciously. No crime had been committed, but peering through the windows of the parked cars was sketchy enough. The officers questioned the women: one had outstanding warrants; the other was in possession of illegal drugs.

What’s strange about this scenario is that no one had called the cops. In fact, the cops didn’t even know that the women would be there, just that the probability of a crime being committed at that location, at that time of day, was especially high. In one of the first cases of ‘predictive policing,’ law enforcement were able to calculate where the criminals would be and arrest them before the crime could be committed.

Oh yeah, totally “Minority Report,” absolutely “Numb3rs.” ...more

Florida studying a possible universal ID for everyone

Gov. Rick Scott is on the prowl for new ways to reduce the cost and size of government.

He has a group patrolling for duplication in law enforcement. He wants agencies to scrutinize their budgets.

And he helped create a Government Efficiency Task Force of 15 business leaders and legislators, who will suggest cuts in state spending by up to $3 billion.

Your input is welcome at floridaefficiency.com.

Now, see what you think of this cost-cutting idea:

Issue Floridians a single ID card that would hold several kinds of vital information: your driver's license, car insurance, health insurance and voter registration.

Good idea?

Yes, says Julie Jones, executive director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, who briefed Scott and Cabinet members on the plan in one-on-one meetings.

"This was my attempt to want to save money and create a product that's convenient for our customers," Jones said. "An individual has to carry three or four types of identification just to exist in Florida society... more

9/2/11

Real Names: Google+, Government & The Identity Ecosystem - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

There has been a lot of speculation about why the push for real names on Facebook and now Google, with Google taking a much harder line than even Facebook, not allowing for even the simplest derivation of “nyms” (pseudonyms). Add to this the fact that Facebook and Google have both purchased facial recognition software companies and you have a puzzling picture. Why do these two need facial recognition software and real names for social media and search engine results?

Why is a company like Google taking such a hard line on something as simple as a name – even though there is no verification process for the “real name,” so ultimately this policing is currently meaningless.

Why isn’t your online “nym” as real as your “real name” if it is what you use online? After all, what's really in a name? Isn’t it just a word that tells people who you are?

Shouldn’t online “nyms” be as valid as “real names”? Well not according to Google, which is purging even real names if they sound unusual or “unreal.” ...more

8/26/11

Hospital Patients Now Being Microchipped with "Electronic Tattoos"

8/25/11

Human Tracking Chip Tries to Safeguard Against Kidnapping - Mobiledia

Image via WikipediaTraditionally, companies develop radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for use in products where they exchange data with nearby readers. They can be found in a growing number of devices and objects, including mobile phones, passports, credit cards, price tags, and even medical implants, and are used with sensors and connected devices to create a large pool of information available for software and services to draw upon.

Now, some companies in Mexico are trying to use RFID chips to keep track of people themselves, by implanting them under the skin, especially as the incidence of kidnapping rises.

Kidnappings in Mexico have increased by as much as 370 percent in the past five years, sparking interest in RFID implants that are touted as tracking devices to locate abducted individuals. Media reports and anecdotal evidence in Mexico may inadvertently perpetuate a false security in these RFID devices, which may be creating bigger problems for the population. ...more

Privacy and Security Fanatic: Future TSA: Track All 'Daily Travels To Work, Grocery Stores & Social Events'

Image via Wikipedia Senior policy analyst at the Center for Health and Homeland Security Vernon R. Herron told MSNBC that your official travel document "will not only have information as to who you are and where you have traveled, but it will also ... allow government officials to track your travel not only in the air, but your daily travels to work, grocery stores and social events." In the future the "government will detain passengers who have traveled to places that are suspicious in nature" once they enter an airport, Herron added. "All these measures seem extreme. However, after we declared a war on terror, we must be more proactive than reactive when it comes to airport security." ...more

8/13/11

Electronic tattoo 'could revolutionise patient monitoring'

"An 'electronic tattoo' could herald a revolution in the way patients are monitored and provide a breakthrough in computer gaming, say US scientists.

They used the device, which is thinner than a human hair, to monitor the heart and brain, according to a study in the journal Science.

The sensor attaches to human skin just like a temporary tattoo and can move, wrinkle and stretch without breaking.

Researchers hope it could replace bulky equipment currently used in hospitals.

A mass of cables, wires, gel-coated sticky pads and monitors are currently needed to keep track of a patient's vital signs.

Scientists say this can be 'distressing', such as when a patient with heart problems has to wear a bulky monitor for a month 'in order to capture abnormal but rare cardiac events'.
Solar cells

With the tattoo, all the electronic parts are built out of wavy, snake-like components, which mean they can cope with being stretched and squeezed.

There are also tiny solar cells which can generate power or get energy from electromagnetic radiation....more

7/31/11

Wrist band is part ID, part PayPass

Sans purse and wallet, Jennifer Swenson approached the cashier at CVS. When asked for $1.84 to pay for her drink, she waved a silicone bracelet above the credit card reader and headed back to work.

Swenson is among the thousands of U.S. Bancorp employees who are testing the VITAband, a cross between a reloadable prepaid card and medical identification bracelet.

The wrist band uses a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, which contains a tiny mircochip and radio antenna. The chip communicates wirelessly with the payment reader at the register, transmitting how much you owe and approving the purchase within seconds.

RFID technology is widely used in many industries for tracking inventory, lost pets and vehicles passing though toll roads. But the chip used by banks is more secure, with built-in tools such as dynamic security codes, and can only be read at short distances.

The chip comes attached to an old-fashioned prepaid card with a magnetic strip. Users break off the chip and insert it into a special slot in the U.S. Bank-branded bracelet. Then they can use it at one of 311,000 locations worldwide where MasterCard PayPass is accepted.

U.S. Bank is experimenting with several forms of contactless payments, as financial institutions scramble to keep customers who are increasingly interested in leaving not only their checkbooks but also their wallets at home.

In addition to the payment bracelet, U.S. Bank has tested mobile payments via iPhone and recently launched a new FlexPerks Signature Visa credit card that works with both the magnetic strip swipe technology and contactless payment technology seen in the United States and the chip readers used in many countries overseas.

Financial institutions are trying out contactless payments in everything from watches to key fobs to stickers slapped on the back of mobile phones. Although the contactless technology has been around for seven or eight years, less than 2 percent of merchants in the United States have registers that can read the chips, according to Rick Oglesby, a senior analyst at Aite Group. Cost and demand are two of the hurdles.

Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer for U.S. Bank's payments division, describes two target markets for VITAband: People with chronic health conditions who wear medical identification bracelets and might like the convenience of adding a payment method to the bracelet, and active individuals who don't want to wear a fanny pack when running or worry about their wallet when out for a swim.

The medical identification piece of the band allows individuals to create an online medical profile, which can be accessed using a 1-800 number and unique eight-digit code that are listed on the band. The idea is that an emergency medical responder could call the number and learn the person's ID and medical history.

Swenson used to go for runs without identification. She might stick money in her shoe and buy water with a couple of sweaty dollar bills. She never really thought about what would happen if she was injured and blacked out. With VITAband "I feel more secure," she said.

It's also convenient for running out to grab a snack at work. She's used it at McDonald's, CVS and the Home Depot, but finds acceptance limited at smaller businesses.

According to MasterCard, there are 348 merchant locations within 25 miles of Minneapolis that take the PayPass chip used in the VITAband. They're mostly big-name retailers and restaurants. But you can also buy a Dugout Dog at a Twins game with your VITAband or shop at Sentyrz Liquor and Supermarket in northeast Minneapoils.

Owner Walt Sentyrz Jr. decided to add swipeless payments to the 88-year-old establishment when he replaced the store's payment system earlier this year. "It's just so quick and easy for my girls," he said, referring to his cashiers. "My sales per customer are about one-third of what a Rainbow and Cub are. The only thing I can offer my customers is speed." He said he hasn't seen use of the PayPass yet.

Venturo couldn't say for sure when the blue-and-red band emblazoned with the U.S. Bank logo will be available to the public. The employee test period lasts three months and then the bank will tweak the product. Although pricing hasn't been set, "we do envision that it would be a product consumers would pay for," he said.

Kara McGuire • 612-673-7293,,,source..

1/5/11

Digital Totalitarianism | The conspiracy to abolish cash

"NEW YORK--For years, figures on the political fringe have claimed the government and its corporate owners want a cashless society. Their warnings about the conspiracy against paper money fell on deaf ears.

Now, those who want to do away with liquid currency are stepping out of the shadows, talking about increased efficiency and profit potential, but their real agenda is nothing less than enslavement of the human race.

'Physical currency is a bulky, germ-smeared, carbon-intensive, expensive medium of exchange. Let's dump it,' argued David Wolman in Wired.

Citing a 2002 study for the Organization for Economic Development that states 'money's destiny is to become digital,' Jonathan Lipow, a Defense Department-affiliated economics professor, has authored an op/ed in The New York Times that asks: 'Why not eliminate the use of physical cash worldwide?'

Lipow urges President Barack Obama to 'push for an international agreement to eliminate the largest-denomination bills' and urges the replacement of cash by 'smart cards with biometric security features.'

Lipow's justification is fighting terrorism, but terrorism is a mere fig leaf. According to the annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report by the U.S. State Department, the highest total death toll attributed to terrorism in the last 20 years occurred in 2001. Including 9/11, 3,547 people were killed in 346 acts of violence worldwide. But according to the United Nations, 36 million people die annually from hunger and malnutrition. A more legitimate concern is the loss of taxes on the underground economy, estimated by the IMF at 15 percent of transactions in developed nations.

What the anti-cash movement really wants is digital totalitarianism in which the entire human race is enslaved by international corporations and their pet governments.

Decashification would establish a form of corporo-government control so rigid and all-encompassing that it would make Hitler and Stalin look like easygoing surfer dudes. The abolition of unregulated financial transactions would freeze the political configuration of the world, making it impossible for opposition movements--much less revolutionary ones--to challenge the status quo.

We're already more than halfway to a cashless society. In the United States few young adults still use checks, and in many countries debit and credit card transactions exceed those made via cash and checks combined.

As things stand, we know the big banks can't be trusted. Remember when they introduced ATM cards? They instituted 'convenience fees,' which they have raised to the point that taking $20 out of an out-of-town ATM could cost you $5 in fees.

Americans are skipping into the digital inferno wearing a smile and relishing the smell of their own burning flesh. Countless friends and acquaintances pay all their bills online.

'I'm all about using my checking account in place of cash and would love to be able to eliminate cash entirely from my life,' gushed PCWorld's Tony Bradley recently.

Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death was the title of an album by the punk band Dead Kennedys.

We'll get both. ...source

11/16/10

Hi-tech eye scanners that track passengers in airport go on trial in UK

"Passengers will have their eyes scanned as soon as they check in as part of a new trial a major UK airport.

High-tech machines that can recognise an individual's iris as they walk around will be installed at Manchester Airport at check in during the government-backed pilot.

The technology has the potential to overhaul security and customs, with airport bosses hoping it could help in the fight against terrorism. ...more

9/20/10

| INTERPOL: Calls for international identity verification system

SecureIDNews: "During a keynote at the first INTERPOL Information Security Conference, co-hosted by the world police body and Hong Kong Police, INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble called for law enforcement worldwide to develop an international identity verification system.

“Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, cybercrime may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats ever. A vital component in fighting transnational crime must therefore include the policing of information security and the provision of secure communication channels for police worldwide based on common standards,” said Noble.

INTERPOL is in the process of deploying a smart card, produced in partnership with Entrust, which will enable officers from any of its 188 National Central Bureaus to communicate securely from virtually any fixed or mobile location in the world.

9/9/10

Concerns Raised over Use of Computer RFID Chips to Track Preschool Children

Privacy advocates are raising concerns over the use of RFID chips to help track students at a public preschool in California. The technology is being tested on 240 preschool students in the Head Start Program in Richmond. Preschool students have been outfitted with jerseys carrying tiny computer chips that have a radio antenna that can be tracked from a distance. We host a debate. [includes rush transcript]
Concerns Raised over Use of Computer RFID Chips to Track Preschool Children:

7/17/10

Sweden weighs benefits of ditching cash

"Over the past 10 years, the value of card payments made in Sweden has increased fivefold, while the number of card payments has increased by a factor of eight.

'The technology exists for a cashless society to work,' says Andrew Scott, Professor of Economics at the London Business School.

Cash survives, he says, despite the nuisance of bulging pockets and looking for ATMs that work, partly because it preserves privacy.

'Its key advantage, in an electronic age, is that it is anonymous and tells you nothing about where it's been,' he says.

Par Strom, of the New Welfare Foundation in Stockholm, says Sweden's move towards a cashless society is worrying for precisely this reason.

'If it's impossible to pay cash when you buy stuff, it's also impossible not to leave electronic footprints behind you, and the electronic footprints from what you buy put together can tell the entire story about your life. This can be very sensitive information,' he says.

'Most people don't want this total surveillance society....more

6/15/10

The Next Generation May be 'Chipped' - PCWorld

You may reject the idea of a microchip implant, but your grandchildren could embrace them, according to an Australian professor.

Katrina Michael, associate professor of the University of Wollongong's school of information systems and technology, and author of scientific paper Towards a State of Uberveillance, said subdermal chip implants in humans could be commonplace within two to three generations.

But at present, she regards the device as a threat to life and liberty because technologists and politicians largely do not know if silicon chips could harm the human body and have not determined the terms in which the devices can be used.

"You will have a new breed of tech-savvy individuals that are more adaptable to technologies. But you could forget about getting Australians to have chip implants now," Michael said.

"For instance [microchips] are problematic for motoring patients with psychological conditions. You may need to balance the patient's well being, public safety and their ability to consent to the implant."

Michael said human microchips could rid chronic illness sufferers from the need to visit hospital by sending simple data on their health to a doctor.

However, she said chip implants presently cause damage to the human body because they fuse with tissue and cause damage when removed.

"At this moment, there will be no contingency plan; it will be a life sentence to upgrades, virus protection mechanisms, and inescapable intrusion," authors, Katina and M.G Michael wrote in their paper.

She noted that some 900 US hospitals have registered for a microchip-based patient identification system to more quickly identify patients admitted to emergency....mord

5/30/10

Darpa’s Beady-Eyed Camera Spots the ‘Non-Cooperative’

Soon, keeping your head down won’t be enough to stump high-tech security cameras, thanks to Pentagon-funded researchers developing mini-cameras that can nab threats by hunting down — and scanning — their eyeballs.

A team of electrical engineers at Southern Methodist University (SMU), led by Professor Marc Christensen, first created the cameras with funding from Darpa, the Pentagon’s research agency. Called Panoptes, the devices use low-resolution sensors to create a high-res image that can be captured using a lightweight, ultra-slim camera. Because they don’t use a lens, the cameras were originally designed for miniature drone sensors and troop helmet-cams.

Only a year later, the Pentagon is giving SMU another $1.6 million, to merge the cameras with active illumination and handheld Pico projection devices. This allows photos captured on small devices to be transformed for large-format viewing. Whereas the first goal of the program was to create slim cameras with the power of a lens, the latest technology “lets us do even more than what a lens could do,” Christensen told Danger Room.

“This platform is really just the base, upon which we’ll focus on different applications,” Christensen said. “Now, we’re enhancing resolution even more, so the images are a 3-D map with even better, more accurate details.”

The new devices will yield a robust 3-D image that’ll be useful for seeing in caves and dark urban areas, and for the creation of versatile “non-cooperative” iris-detection security cameras.

Smart-Iris, the name of the new Panoptes innovation, is being developed in conjunction with SMU Professor Delores Etter, who specializes in biometric identification. It’ll eliminate problems like glare, eyelashes, dim lighting — and an unwillingness to stop and stare directly into a dedicated iris-detection camera. Instead, Panoptes devices will zero in on a face, no matter angle or movement, then narrow right into the iris. A long line of people, moving through a line, could be scanned by wall-mounted cameras and they wouldn’t even notice it was happening.

And new algorithms are being developed by Etter and colleagues to identify individuals based on segments of their iris, rather than a full frontal scan.

“Ideally, when you walk down a hallway, no matter where your head is looking, the device can grab your eyeball and detect what it needs to,” Christensen said. And where possible security and defense applications are concerned? “You can let your imagination fly with that one.”

And with this latest development, Christensen also sees widespread civilian application, as part of “the cell phone of the future.” He’d like to see the camera-projection device incorporated into phones, and says they’d be able to photograph the page of a book “down to the smallest lettering,” or detect counterfeit cash by “picking up the texture of a $20 bill.”...source

5/15/10

FOXNews.com - Where’s Jimmy? Just Google His Bar Code

Scientists tag animals to monitor their behavior and keep track of endangered species. Now some futurists are asking whether all of mankind should be tagged too. Looking for a loved one? Just Google his microchip.

The chips, called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, emit a simple radio signal akin to a bar code, anywhere, anytime. Futurists say they can be easily implanted under the skin on a person’s arm.

Already, the government of Mexico has surgically implanted the chips, the size of a grain of rice, in the upper arms of staff at the attorney general’s office in Mexico City. The chips contain codes that, when read by scanners, allow access to a secure building, and prevent trespassing by drug lords.

In research published in the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Taiwanese researchers postulate that the tags could help save lives in the aftermath of a major earthquake. "Office workers would have their identity badges embedded in their RFID tags, while visitors would be given temporary RFID tags when they enter the lobby," they suggest. Similarly, identity tags for hospital staff and patients could embed RFID technology.

“Our world is becoming instrumented,” IBM’s chairman and CEO

, Samuel J. Palmisano said at an industry conference last week. “Today, there are nearly a billion transistors per human, each one costing one ten-millionth of a cent. There are 30 billion radio RFID tags produced globally.”

Having one in every person could relieve anxiety for parents and help save lives, or work on a more mundane level by unlocking doors with the wave of a hand or starting a parked car -- that's how tech enthusiast Amal Graafstra (his hands are pictured above) uses his. But this secure, “instrumented” future is frightening for many civil liberties advocates. Even adding an RFID chip to a driver’s license or state ID card raises objections from concerned voices.

Tracking boxes and containers on a ship en route from Hong Kong is OK, civil libertarians say. So is monitoring cats and dogs with a chip surgically inserted under their skin. But they say tracking people is over-the-top -- even though the FDA has approved the devices as safe in humans and animals.

“We are concerned about the implantation of identity chips,” said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the speech, privacy and technology program at the American Civil Liberties Union. He puts the problem plainly: “Many people find the idea creepy.”

“RFID tags make the perfect tracking device,” Stanley said. “The prospect of RFID chips carried by all in identity papers means that any individual’s presence at a given location can be detected or recorded simply through the installation of an invisible RFID reader.”

There are a number of entrepreneurial companies marketing radio tracking technologies, including Positive ID, Datakey and MicroChips. Companies started marketing the idea behind these innovative technologies a few years ago, as excellent devices for tracking everyone, all the time.

Following its first use in an emergency room in 2006, VeriChip touted the success of the subdermal chip. "We are very proud of how the VeriMed Patient Identification performed during this emergency situation. This event illustrates the important role that the VeriChip can play in medical care," Kevin McLaughlin, President and CEO of VeriChip, said at the time.

“Because of their increasing sophistication and low cost, these sensors and devices give us, for the first time ever, real-time instrumentation of a wide range of the world's systems -- natural and man-made,” said IBM's Palmisano. ...more

5/11/10

Polish bank claims Europe's first biometric cash point

WARSAW — Poland's cooperative BPS SA bank claimed Tuesday to be the first in Europe to install a biometric cash point allowing its clients to use their fingertips rather than a bank card to withdraw money.

"Our bank is the first in Europe to provide its clients with a new means to secure transactions to complement the secret code of their banking card," BPS SA Bank vice-president Krzysztof Jagielski told reporters Tuesday.

"Thanks to a system which scans blood vessels in fingers, they can withdraw cash from a bank machine," he said of a new BPS cash point installed in the capital Warsaw.

Based on "Finger Vein" technology developed by Japanese technology giant Hitachi, the bank machine which scans the unique network of minute veins in fingertips was developed by Wincor Nixdorf, a leading IT provider for retailers and retail banking.

BPS said it would install three to four of the new biometric machines in Warsaw by the end of the year, and about 200 more in the 365 banks in its network across Poland.

The new biometric machines will serve to "secure the payout of pensions at the end of the month and to guard against fraud such as 'skimming', or the theft of credit card information," Jagielski said.

Several dozen clients have already tested the system but "as with all technological changes, there must be some time for people to adapt," he added.

Although new to Europe, bank machines with the technology are already widely used in Japan....source

5/9/10

U.S. Supreme Court: Justices might like national ID card - UPI.com

"If the biometric national ID card provision of the draft bill becomes law, every worker in America would have to be fingerprinted and a new federal bureaucracy -- one that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars -- would have to be created to issue cards," the organization said in a statement. "The ACLU strongly opposes the inclusion of a biometric national ID in this or any comprehensive immigration reform bill and urges senators to reject such an ID card."

In his own statement, Christopher Calabrese, ACLU legislative counsel, said: "Creating a biometric national ID will not only be astronomically expensive, it will usher government into the very center of our lives. Every worker in America will need a government permission slip in order to work. And all of this will come with a new federal bureaucracy -- one that combines the worst elements of the (Department of Motor Vehicles) and the (U.S. Transportation Security Administration). America's broken immigration system needs real, workable reform, but it cannot come at the expense of privacy and individual freedoms."

Unusual support for the ID card proposal comes from Kevin Drum, writing online for Mother Jones magazine.

Drum pointed out Democratic congressional leaders "go to great lengths to say that it is not a national ID card, and make it 'unlawful for any person, corporation; organization local, state, or federal law enforcement officer; local or state government; or any other entity to require or even ask an individual cardholder to produce their Social Security card for any purpose other than electronic verification of employment eligibility and verification of identity for Social Security Administration purposes.'

"But it's still a biometric national ID card. ... Essentially, if you want to participate in the American economy, you need this card."...more

5/5/10

The Money That Is Sold Abroad Is You!

5/4/10

“Biometric ID,” The Mark of the Beast, and Immigration Reform

If Arizona’s draconian new law has put immigration back in the public consciousness, the proposal for a national “biometric ID” is about to trigger nightmares in this country’s Christian id. The Democrats who drafted a new immigration law aren’t just “tone deaf,” as blogger John Cole says (although they’re certainly that.) The bill’s content and language are going to terrify and outrage lots of evangelical Christians, and could even lead to violence.

Before they try to pass this law, there are a few videos they really ought to watch.

This bill couldn't be more inflammatory in both content and language to those who take their Gospel straight … and literal. A quick listen to what's currently being preached on YouTube and AM radio today will confirm that. And generations of kids from evangelicals families recall their terror at the dictatorship and disasters shown in the End Times films known collectively as the "Rapture" series. In these films, a world dictatorship demands that everyone identify themselves and be entered into a database while being marked with an "image of the beast."

How will people who take these ideas as literal truth respond to the new law? As Congressional magazine The Hill reports, “Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure." And the "biometric ID" system has been given a name that seems to come straight out of End Times prophecy.

To some evangelicals, the “mark” or “image of the beast” predicted in Revelations has come true through computer technology (called a “Golden calf” in one of the Rapture films). Bar codes were their original object of dread, as shown in this scene from Rapture film Image of the Beast. In it a young programmer discovers the truth about bar codes after glancing down at a book called “Computer Prophecies”...more

5/3/10

Democrats: "BELIEVE" in biometric Social Security cards

"Believe" = BIOMETRIC ENROLLMENT, LOCALLY STORED INFORMATION AND ELECTRONIC VERIFICATION OF EMPLOYMENT"

This truly is a devilish acronym for a national ID card

Democrats: "BELIEVE" in biometric Social Security cards (THIRDFACTOR.COM)

There are varying reports on whether immigration reform will be discussed in Congress in 2010, but if it is addressed one aspect that will likely be included is a biometric Social Security card for employment verification. Dubbed Biometric Enrollment, Locally-stored Information, and Electronic Verification of Employment, or BELIEVE, the card would be required to verify permanent residence when starting a new job.

The Democrat-sponsored proposal would have the Social Security Administration issuing biometric cards 18 months after the law is passed. “These cards will be fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant, wear resistant, and machine-readable social security cards containing a photograph and an electronically coded micro-processing chip which possesses a unique biometric identifier for the authorized card-bearer,” states the conceptual proposal for immigration reform.

The biometric information would be stored in template form on the card and not in any databases. When verifying employment eligibility the card would be inserted into a reader, the cardholder would present the biometric for matching against the template stored on the card and it would either match or not match. The proposal doesn’t specify which biometric technology would be used with the system.

The card would replace Homeland Security’s E-Verify system, which is used to verify employment eligibility now, says Walter Hamilton, chairman of the board at the International Biometric Industry Association. With the E-Verify system a prospective employee presents a Social Security number and the system tells the employer if it’s valid. It doesn’t actually check to make sure the number is associated with that individual. A biometric Social Security card would change that, linking the individual to the card.

The federal government would be required to use the system as the sole employment verification system within three years after enactment and federal contractors will be required to use the system within four years after the date of enactment. Within five years, the card would serve as the sole acceptable document to be produced by an employee to an employer for employment verification purposes.....more

4/29/10

National ID Card Included In Democratic Immigration Bill

Democrats pushed forward on an immigration overhaul on Thursday evening with no Republican support, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continues to hold out, arguing that the divisive issue will make progress on climate change legislation impossible.

The Senate is also in the middle of debating Wall Street reform, which is expected to take up the next few weeks of floor time. Reid, however, said that the chamber would be able to handle the task. "We can do more than one thing at once," he said.

The Democratic proposal includes increased money for border patrol and drug war agents, equipment, helicopters and unmanned drones. It would create a national ID -- which is dubbed a "biometric social security card." Though Democrats insist that it is not an ID card and can only be used for employment purposes.

The proposal would also include a crackdown on employers who hire undocumented workers. It works to deport some immigrants who are not in the country legally and creates a limited pathway to citizenship for others....more

4/28/10

Centralia Jr. High Students To Pay For Lunch With Scan of Finger

The way Centralia Jr. High students get lunches will change in Fall.

Centralia City Schools Superintendent David Rademacher says the school will begin using a biometric scanner to identify students and keep track of their lunch "tickets." Students place a finger or thumb on the scanner which recognizes them and accesses their lunch information. The system does not scan fingerprints, but rather biological traits. Rademacher says such a system has advantages over a ticket or card system. "Kids lose their card or they accidentally send it through the laundry, so you have to make new cards," he says. "With this scanning device, that won't be necessary."

Rademacher says tickets can also be misused if lost or stolen - a problem that would be eliminated with a biometric scanner. The Superintendent says the system is working well at Nashville and North Clay schools and will be a pilot program for other Centralia Grade Schools. Rademacher says the program will have a start up cost. "We are thinking it will be around four-thousand dollars for two scanners and the software that we need to take the information from the lunch program and scan it into our administrative software," he says.

Rademacher says if the program expands into the other schools, the District will only have to purchase new scanners at about 16-hundred dollars a piece. The Superintendent says the biometric system should pay for itself over the years by eliminating materials like cards and also reducing time spent by staff doing lunch paperwork.

Rademacher says the only downside reported about the scanning machines is that younger children grow quickly and may be required to scan their information into the system every year. He says it's likely older students, like those in Jr. High, will only have to input their information once.

WJBD Radio