Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/04/28/arkansas-salon-requires/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: BB: Thumbprinting visitors at Statue of Liberty Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:37:14 -0700 From: Xeni Jardin <xeni@xeni.net> To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@well.com> Thumbprinting visitors at Statue of Liberty http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/28/thumbprinting_visito.html Responding to yesterday's Boing Boing post about tanning salons and gyms that require users to sumbit to thumbprint ID, reader Matthew A. Dietzen of Chicago-Kent College of Law says: = = = = = = = = = = = = You might find these pictures of the Thumb-Scanning Lockers on Liberty Island, NYC interesting. In order to get to "Liberty" Island, you must first have your gear X-rayed by Wackenhut security goons. Then you ride to the island accompanied by Coast Guard types with German Shepherds. Once ashore, you are free to circle the island, take pictures of the statue, and buy overpriced Slurpees. However, in order to get inside the statue, you have to stow your gear in a locker... that requires you to use your fingerprint as a key!!! You can also pay with a credit card, that way if anyone hacks the machine, they can have your print AND your credit card information. This must be in place to protect us from those Al Qaeda frogmen that are clever enough to swim ashore, but are too stupid perform their dastardly deed at night where they can circumvent the locker bay by climbing the seemingly easy-to-climb wall. In all likelihood, its probably to condition us into giving up our biometric information at every turn [As if biometrics could never be hacked...] so that security companies can make even more $$$, while we become more and more sheep-like each day. In any case, I didn't go inside. However, later that day, I was falsely arrested near Ground Zero with 200 other people. I was a legal observer at the Republican National Conventions. First they said people could march, then they arrested them. They took us to Pier 57, and then the Tombs where we were laser-printed on ALL of our fingers with a SAGEM machine because we "might be terrorists." After denouncing us as anarchists and enemies of the state, the city dropped the charges [on our group anyway] a month later. The latest stories indicate that over 90% of the charges were dropped or found to be baseless. The police were also caught fabricating evidence. = = = = = = = = = = = = Matthew's snapshots: one (http://www.boingboing.net/images/Liberty-Locker-Thumbs-2.jpg), two (http://www.boingboing.net/images/Liberty-Locker-Thumbs1.jpg). Previously: Arkansas salon requires thumbprint to get a tan (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/27/arkansas_salon_requi.html) --------------------------------------- Xeni Jardin | www.xeni.net * co-editor, BoingBoing.net * correspondent: Wired Magazine, Wired News, NPR "Day to Day" say: /SHEH-nee zhar-DAN/ Mailing list for updates: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xeni-net/ _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]