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[Luke_Prowler]

I've heard that the veins in your hand are more unique to a person than their fingerprints, and it's very hard to fake those.

[Nadaka]

You can counterfeit genetic data tailored to a specific person relatively cheaply. You don't even need a sample of their DNA.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/report-israeli-scientists-discover-way-to-counterfeit-dna-1.282162

[MonkeyHead]

Frumkin is one of the founders of Nucleix, a Tel Aviv-based company that developed a test to distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones.According to the New York Times, the firm is looking to sell the test to forensics laboratories.

So if its possible to tell the real from the fake, the ability to copy it becomes less relevant.

[ChairmanPoo]

Meh, replicating dna in a lab is relatively easy, sure. But it requires a specialized machine and reagents, and a sample of the dna you want to replicate. And there's the question of how exactly you intend to "plant" it. It's not like just dabbing dna on the walls is going to work. I think that article exaggerates the problem, and has an obvious conflict of interest.

[Nadaka]

Meh, replicating dna in a lab is relatively easy, sure. But it requires a specialized machine and reagents, and a sample of the dna you want to replicate. And there's the question of how exactly you intend to "plant" it. It's not like just dabbing dna on the walls is going to work. I think that article exaggerates the problem, and has an obvious conflict of interest.

No. You don't need a sample of the DNA to fool a standard DNA test. You can construct a matching profile from off the shelf samples. You need to perform more advanced and far more expensive DNA test to determine if the matching profile is a fake or if it represents a real sample.

And for biometric identification, that will never happen. It is even unlikely in most criminal trials.

Yes dabbing it on the biometric scan o matic 2000 sensor is exactly how it would be planted if you decide to use genetic markers as biometric identification.

[Truean]

Truean, what's the solution then?

Counterfeit this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/opinion/31iht-edbull.html

Though just because there isn't a solution doesn't make recognizing the problem invalid.
This has been a problem throughout history and why counterfeiting has historically been a huge business. Of course, greater countermeasures help, but it cannot be perfect. In this instance, the countermeasures are so behind the counterfeiter's ability that it just.... Doesn't make sense to issue a card. Biometrics would be harder to fake but it's fairly easy once you have the incentive. You don't have to fake the actual bio sample, you just have to fake out the test/reader to make it show up as what you want it to....

Moreover, you're talking incredible expense with biometric tests for exactly this reason. While not cheap, it isn't that they're hellishly expensive in and of themselves, the countermeasures will be though. It's an arms race with a racetrack stretching back through history and into the future.

My problem is with people saying X will work, like it's a panacea. This is people trying to force oversimplified solutions in an area so they can forget about it and not care.

[ChairmanPoo]

No. You don't need a sample of the DNA to fool a standard DNA test. You can construct a matching profile from off the shelf samples.

Granted (to an extent. Ellaborating a match for ALL the restriction points would be very challenging in itself). That still leave the problem of planting it.

[EveryZig]

>Pope, marriage
It really gets on my nerves when people have the astounding presumptuousness to blithely assume that their version of a cultural tradition is the only possible version, and that therefore any deviation from their version is an attack on the tradition itself.
That simply isn't how culture works.

The fact that you trim your facial hair differently from the Amish tradition is an attack on their traditions!  How dare you!

Your humorous example is actually less nonsensical than the real ones.
What the actual people say is more like "The fact that you trim your facial hair differently from the Amish tradition is an attack on beards!  How dare you!"

[ChairmanPoo]

Your humorous example is actually less nonsensical than the real ones.
What the actual people say is more like "The fact that you trim your facial hair differently from the Amish tradition is an attack on beards!  How dare you!"

Let's trim our hair in accordance to the socialist lifestyle!

[Phmcw]

Something a bit lighter ; got me laughing out loud.

[Pnx]

SMBC theatre is awkward, but also very funny on occasion.

This was a pretty good example.

[Truean]

Crack. Something more potent than it.... Rick Santorum must be on it. WTF is this guy even saying anything about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uNcIEvGdo&feature=share

OMG.... No... Full freaking stop. One of two things just happened here. Either,

A.) Rick Santorum has just publicly divulged a US program to assassinate foreign nuclear scientists. I can't imagine that wouldn't be classified if it DID exist. Didn't we just go through a whole "Wikileaks" thing on that...? If this is the case then how in the hell is he allowed to talk about it when we're prosecuting people for that....
and/or
B.) He's blatantly threatening to have people killed as US policy, which may or may not be a bad dream but I hope it is. He even says "we've done it for an American Citizen." I knew that would set bad precedent.... So, he's judge, jury and executioner, literally.... He says if we can do it for an American citizen then we can certainly.... American Citizen was never given a trial and summarily executed.... Wow, so it's now just a matter of where he chooses to draw the line...? If he chooses to draw a line? Summary execution: the latest thing!

"On occasion scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that's a wonderful thing."

"I think that's a wonderful thing?" <---

I'm sorry, didn't we just have a president start a decade long "it isn't a war but my we sure seem to have over 100,000 troops in a foreign country getting shot at" war over "weapons of mass destruction?"

This in light of the US saying "Iran is not developing nuclear weapons." Wa... the...? It? The US defense secretary says they aren't building weapons. Nuclear capabilities are not nuclear weapons.... Close enough to start shooting people in the head?

[kaijyuu]

The frightening thing about politics is usually, a politician isn't saying what they think or believe. They're saying what they think their constituents WANT them to think or believe. Get elected then break all your promises, and all that good stuff.

Maybe mr. Sanatorum's a nutcase, maybe he's pretending to be a nutcase because he thinks people want him to be one, or maybe people really do want what he's saying. None of the possibilities are really pleasant.

[Phmcw]

He's blatantly threatening to have people killed as US policy, which may or may not be a bad dream but I hope it is.

Hi  we're on earth, I hope your travel from the Smurf's village was great!
Yeah you see, here, most government happen to sometime kill someone for the "greater good of whatever", and America is quite fond of it, going as far as kidnap foreign citizen, keep them prisoner without charge and they release them unceremoniously years later.
They also kill whoever they want, usually without repercussion nor judgment, and often finance violent groups when they have common interests.

[Truean]

He's blatantly threatening to have people killed as US policy, which may or may not be a bad dream but I hope it is.

Hi  we're on earth, I hope your travel from the Smurf's village was great!
Yeah you see, here, most government happen to sometime kill someone for the "greater good of whatever", and America is quite fond of it, going as far as kidnap foreign citizen, keep them prisoner without charge and they release them unceremoniously years later.
They also kill whoever they want, usually without repercussion, and often finance violent groups when they have common interests.

And now it's standard fair to run for office on? If elected, I will order assassinations....

Also I love being from Ohio: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-panel-sticks-white-only-pool-sign-ruling-151624022.html
....