Brittish DNA database to encompass a lot of children.

Despite scrapping the original plans for a national DNA database, a lot of new entries are being made as we speak. One million children are already on file, some of whom are below the age of criminal responsibility.

To benefit the general public? I for one hope so, yet doubt it.

Mind Probe operational in 3 ... 2 ...1 ...

Scientists over at Berkley University have succesfully built a device that allows one to analyse what another person sees, by exposing the subject to a series of pictures and analyseing the resulting brain activity, they determined which images trigger which responses.

This allows them to know what the subject is looking at.
Now the countdown is on: how long untill Sandia is able of putting the entire thing in a nutshell?

Brittish DNA database plans scrapped

The idea of starting a compulsory national database of DNA profiles was deemed "unpractical and morally questionable" by the home office.
Now, only people who are detained for a criminal act have their DNA sampled and submitted to the current database, even when no charges are pressed.

This is great news! It's a dangerous slope to go down to, getting the DNA of evry individual citizen. It would also take a very long time indeed. Getting somebodies (1 person) dna (through the Polymerase Chain Reaction and tandem pair recognition method) into a database takes only a couple of hourse, and a good 15 minutes of a labworkers time.

At a relaxed pace a phorensic DNA lab could run about three tests per PCR/TPR machine per day, without cutting much into the time of labworkers. DNA samples provided by the police, taken from arrested criminals would be given priority of course. let's say 6 tests * 5 days a week * 51 weeks a year = 1530 tests per lab per year.
Even if the government called up on the civillian "market" for DNA analysis, limited itself to just the demographics most prone to criminal behavior, it would take an extremely long time.

This can be worked around though; working in a continuous fashion, taking the DNA from people at (say) age 12, maybe even outsourcing the majority of the work to India or China, they could have a sizeable Database withing aproximately ten years, much faster if a lot of money is trown at it.

So make no mistake, it could be done. I like to believe that the Brittish government still cares a bit about steering away from Orwells predictions, maybe they just being cheap :p

New tool to track people.

Hair could already be screened for drug metabolites, allowing investigators to track a subjects (1) history of drug (ab)use. Now, hair samples could also be used to track said subjects whereabouts throughout time.

Studying the compositions of a trees annual rings allows scientists to determine the composition of the soil as well as other enviromental factors. Human hair also absorbs certain agents from it's enviroment. By analysing the exact composition of a hair, and comparing it to reference samples taken at a location, it is now possible to determine when someone has spent time at a certain place, and for how long.

This new technology is of course being touted as a crime-fighting tool, as well as a means of screening people applying for political asylum.

1: ambiguity intended

Ever so much bigger they grow

It was recently reported that Yahoo was laying off a rather substantial amount of people.
Now, both Microsoft and Google are bidding for ownership of the company.

Remember that governments can only dream of having the voluntairely-provided information on citizens that Google has, and that Microsoft is pretty much the biggest and most powerful player on the software market. I wonder which of them will manage to absorb sun microsystems when the time comes.

Seriously, I'm running a blog on Google servers, they know my real names, address, phone number, bank account, my mail runs through them, ...
How much do they know about you, and would you ever divulge that information to a uniformed public servant?