When… oh when… will they learn? What is it about politicians and technology? Even when experts line up to warn them about the pitfalls of biometrics or electronic voting machines, will they listen? In Ireland Minister Cullen has wasted close on €60 million so far on an electronic voting machines that the dogs in the street tried to tell him wouldn’t work with Ireland’s complex proportional representation system. Did he listen? No. He wants to spend MORE money trying the fix an unfixable mess.

But it’s not just Ireland, of course. This particular virus that infects politician’s brains has spread everywhere. This is just one example:

CNN quotes a raft of experts who fear that passport data from US travellers abroad could be skimmed over-the-air and read remotely without the holder’s knowledge. The State Department says it’s OK though because they have tested it by being first to have their passports RFID’d. That’s alright then.

Of course RFID is a useful technology (for tracking goods in warehouses). Of course voting machines work under certain condtions. It’s just that, as in life, context is everything.

New Scientist Technology Blog