Free Republic

China's satellite navigation plans threaten Galileo 13:34 08 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service Paul Marks China's decision to expand the functionality of its satellite navigation network could undermine the economics of Europe's nascent Galileo system, according to sources close to the project. Until now, experts believed that China's "Beidou" navigation system ? a 35-satellite constellation ? would only be used by its armed forces. This explained China's decision to invest ?200 million in Europe's ?2.5 billion Galileo programme. But things appear to have changed in Beijing. On 2 November, the country's official news agency Xinhua reported that Beidou would, from...

BOCA RATON, Fla. - A teen engineering prodigy who gained national attention in 2002 when he and his family received identification chip implants on live television was killed in a motorcycle accident, authorities said. Derek Jacobs, 18, lost control of his motorcycle early Saturday and crashed into a guardrail and a pole, the Palm Beach County sheriff's office said. He was wearing a helmet. "It was just a crazy accident of a bump or something, and he was catapulted," said his mother, Leslie Jacobs. "He had, of course, potential, because he was brilliant, and he was just a wonderful son....

Posted on Mon, Apr. 24, Bill would prohibit mandatory microchip implants RYAN J. FOLEY MADISON, Wis. - Former Gov. Tommy Thompson was one of the first high-profile supporters of tiny microchips implanted in people's arms that would allow doctors to access medical information. Now the state he used to lead is poised to become the first to ban governments and private businesses from forcing such implants on employees, privacy advocates say. A proposal moving through the state Legislature would prohibit anyone from requiring people to have the tiny chips embedded in them or doing so without their knowledge. Violators would...

Bellingham entrepreneur Amal Graafstra has given a new meaning to hands-on technology. In each hand, between his thumb and index finger, is a microchip implant, which he can use to open doors to his apartment and car and sign on to his computer. The one in his left hand was designed for tracking wildlife, among other things. He ordered both chips for less than $5 each on the Internet. "I saw pets getting these things for years, and then I heard about people getting the chip implant," he said. "I wanted to use that technology so I don't have to...

“Picture a chip the size of a grain of rice that can be implanted in a doctor’s office with a local anesthesia and the site to the injection closed without stitches, that gives detailed information about you to anyone with the right scanning equipment” (Kevin Krolicki, Yahoo! News). Once the chip is implanted in the person, the microchip remains inactive until read with a scanner. Scanners send a low-radio-frequency-signal to the chip, providing the power needed by the microchip to send its unique code back to the scanner with the ID number of the person. After implantation, the device remains...

Chattanooga, TN - Medical ethics experts are questioning a proposal to implant medical identification microchips in the arms of developmentally disabled clients at Orange Grove Center. "That's pretty disturbing and kind of surprising in that anyone would allow that to occur," said Dr. Stuart Finder, a director at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "Typically, the idea of using vulnerable people -- children, disabled people, pregnant women, prisoners, a whole variety of categories -- we normally say that's not a good idea," Dr. Finder said. Dr. Rick Rader, director of the Morton J. Kent...

The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away. Officials in the United States say they'll be closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.

Little Brother may also be watching soon By Lauren Cook Published: Thursday, March 31, 2005 Crank up the "Twilight Zone" theme song and pull out your copy of George Orwell's "1984"; it looks like we're in for a meeting with Big Brother. According to a report released this past Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security is starting to use "contactless chips." Many people have never heard of these microchips. They're not magical floating potato chips or magnetic poker chips -- they're human tracking devices. Until recently, these "contactless chips" were called radio-frequency identification tags. An RFID tag is a microchip...

Though Applied Digital, the company that markets the human-implantable VeriChip device, has trumpeted recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the technology, it failed to include in its announcement warnings by the agency about the downsides of having a transponder lodged under the skin. According to a letter issued by the FDA Oct. 12, the ID chip, which is touted as an immediate way to obtain medical history about the wearer, has several possible negative effects. "The potential risks to health associated with the device are: adverse tissue reaction, migration of implanted transponder, … failure of implanted transponder, … electromagnetic...

Big Brother in Your Shopping Cart? By Louis James  An emerging controversy that does not seem to be getting as much attention in Europe as it is in the U.S. is that surrounding Radio Frequency ID chips (RFID). Perhaps this is for the best, as the technology has enormous beneficial potential for personalizing service and products, and it is largely private parties that are pushing the development. But, despite the views of some observers, there appear to be some very dark storm clouds that come with all that silver lining, and they are worth examining.  What is RFID?   RFID...

Mexican Officials Microchip People With Security Clearance POSTED: 9:11 am EDT July 15, 2004 MEXICO CITY -- Security has reached the subcutaneous level for Mexico's attorney general and at least 160 people in his office -- they have been implanted with microchips that get them access to secure areas of their headquarters. It's a pioneering application of a technology that is widely used in animals but not in humans. Mexico's top federal prosecutors and investigators began receiving chip implants in their arms in November in order to get access to restricted areas inside the attorney general's headquarters, said Antonio Aceves,...

<p>PALM BEACH, Florida -- A new computer chip promises to keep police guns from firing if they fall into the wrong hands.</p> <p>The tiny chip would be implanted in a police officer's hand and would match up with a scanning device inside a handgun. If the officer and gun match, a digital signal unlocks the trigger so it can be fired. But if a child or criminal would get hold of the gun, it would be useless.</p>

A disturbing story in the March 1 issue of Pravda suggests that the U. S. Government is working on the discovery of a mysterious point over the South Pole that may be a passageway backward in time. According to the article, some American and British scientists working in Antarctica on January 27, 1995, noticed a spinning gray fog in the sky over the pole. U. S. physicist Mariann McLein said at first they believed it to be some kind of sandstorm. But after a while they noticed that the fog did not change its form and did not move so...

Thursday marked a happy homecoming for Domino, a Boston Terrier, that had been missing for more than three years before returning home. A Houston SPCA employee identified owner Susan Bailey, right, and veterinarian Dr. Sharon Moore, left, through a microchip in the dog's shoulder. (Staff photo by Russell Autrey) Susan Bailey calls it a miracle. Her 12-year-old Boston Terrier "Domino" came home Wednesday after being missing for more than three years. "What a miracle to have him home," said a joyously crying Bailey. Bailey received four phone calls from the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals...

At a global security conference held today in Paris, an American company announced a new syringe-injectable microchip implant for humans, designed to be used as a fraud-proof payment method for cash and credit-card transactions. The chip implant is being presented as an advance over credit cards and smart cards, which, absent biometrics and appropriate safeguard technologies, are subject to theft, resulting in identity fraud. Identity fraud costs the banking and financial industry some $48 billion a year, and consumers $5 billion, according to 2002 Federal Trade Commission estimates.

Malaysia has bought the rights from a Japanese firm to the world's smallest microchip that can be embedded in everything from currencies to human bodies. Announcing this on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad said the microchip would boost the global “anti-terror” war. Mahathir said the revolutionary miniature chip, developed by Japan's FEC Inc., could be combined with current technology to "greatly prevent the possibilities of terrorist acts" as well as banknote and document counterfeiting. FEC (M) Sdn. Bhd. chief executive Kunioki Ichioka told reporters that the chip can also be inserted into the human body, animals, bullets, credit cards...