Ridding American Passports of their RFID Chips

by Neil Woodburn on

American passports issued after January 1 of this year now have a little friend attached to them: an RFID tag.

RFID tags are small identification tags which are normally used by companies to track goods. They require no separate power source and are read by radio waves.

The tags currently being introduced into new passports carry the same information as the passport itself but in digital form. The purpose is to expedite passport control and also to help eliminate counterfeits.

An embedded RFID chip doesn’t mean that some CIA satellite can track your every move, but it does mean that you stand a much greater risk of some hacker pulling your personal data out of thin air. The government has put in a number of safety measures to ensure this doesn’t happen, but security expert Bruce Schneier writing for the Washington Post practically mocks their efforts. Dedicated hackers will figure out a way to circumvent the security measures and shortly after landing in Moscow, the entire Russian Mafia will know a lot more about you than they should.

So what to do?

Take a hammer to it.

According to an article in Wired Magazine, there aren’t too many ways to destroy the chip without drawing attention to your efforts–except a solid whack with a hammer. Keep in mind, however, that there are stiff fines for “tampering” with your passport so we here at Gadling certainly wouldn’t recommend engaging in hammer time simply to protect your personal data from hackers. But, it’s something you might want to think about.

Are Americans Really Dumb?

by Erik Olsen on

Making fun of Americans and our insularity (aka blinkered ignorance) about the world has become almost cliche. These days everywhere you travel you hear the familiar refrain: Americans are stupid and they know nothing about the rest of the world. As an American, I constantly try to defend my countrymen. These are the insults of insecure foreigners who dislike the fact that America is the world’s sole superpower. Not all Americans are that way, just those in Red States. Or, we are far too busy in our lives maintaining the most powerful economy in the world to be bothered by knowing what is the capital of Senegal. And other such arguments.

But the fact is, I tend to agree with what these people are saying. I am constantly surprised by how little time people take to educate themselves about the world when they seem to know EVERYTHING about the people up for Oscars. Well, given the fact that the Oscars just took place and this topic was on my mind, I figured y’all out there would enjoy this video that seems to confirm all the stereotypes. Yes, I watched this and still felt the desire to defend Americans (it has obviously been edited to reflect on us poorly), but it’s hard to watch and even a little depressing.

“Poorism” in India

by Erik Olsen on

We’ve covered the somewhat distasteful, but also interesting, trend of poverty tourism before, but this article in the Smithsonian Magazine does a very nice job articulating some of the more uncomfortable issues related to the idea. Poverty tourism is rather self-explanatory, but assuming you were out late last night at an Oscar Party and don’t have your thinking cap fit snugly to your head this morning, I’ll describe it.

Poverty tourism is essentially a way for people in the top socio-economic echelon of global society to visit and briefly sympathize with the world’s most impoverished people. Your heart-strings will be tugged, you will have revelations like “they’re people just like me!” you may spend some money, thereby helping them out, and then you will move swiftly on your way to some other local attraction and then onto an expensive evening meal where you will discuss with sadness and resolve how horrible it is that people (most people it turns out) live in such horrible conditions.

Yes, I’m being flip. To be honest, I don’t think it’s all that bad for people to get a dose of how the other 3/5 of the world live. It definitely can help your perspective. And I don’; think this type of tourism in general tends to be exploitative. The place visited in this article is the sprawling Indian slum of Dharavi, which, I have to confess, I visited myself as a tourist/journalist, a “slash” distinction I make to help myself feel better about being there.

Anyway, this all makes for a fine debate which I open up to all of you now to engage in: is slum tourism, or “poorism”, an exploitative or bad trend in tourism, or something worth celebrating? Or none of the above?

Calculating the True Cost of Bottled Water

by Justin Glow on

A majority of travelers (myself included) can be found toting around a bottle of water no matter where they are. But in countries like India or Mexico, where the tap water is simply undrinkable to the non-local, hydrating from a sealed bottle of mineral water is a must if you have any intentions of remaining healthy. This has led to plenty of controversy, especially in places like India where the entire country is littered with excess garbage generated in part by plastic bottles of water. Because of this, many environmentally-conscious travelers have been coming up with better ways to drink clean, safe water without jeopardizing the local environment (a topic for another post, perhaps). Here’s another reason why finding an alternative to bottled water might be a good idea:

Pablo Päster is an “independent Sustainability Engineering Consultant,” who appears on TriplePundit.com’s Ask Pablo column answering a myriad of reader-submitted environmental questions. This one comes from Maryline: “I am interested to know the ‘true-cost’ of a bottle of Fiji water that currently sells for $1.50 in the United States.”

Pablo follows up with a thorough break-down of all the costs involved in creating, bottling, and shipping a bottle of water to market. I’ll save you the trouble of reading the details (but please, go ahead and read it if you’d like!) and give you the true cost of a $1.50 bottle of water: $0.22. That’s a mark-up of $1.28.

Stop and think about that the next time you grab for a bottle of water — whether you’re traveling or not.

[via grow-a-brain]

Running the Sahara

by Erik Olsen on

Recently, we told you about Paula Constant, the woman walking across the Sahara. I’m still super-impressed with her, but the story of Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin is just as intriguing — and almost as grueling.

Their challenge? Run from Senegal to Egypt — which spans 4000 miles and 6 countries — in 100 days. Running up to 50 miles a day, the trio wants to raise money and awareness (but mostly money) for H2O Africa, a clean water initiative working to create public awareness of the water crisis in Africa.

In reality, the group just finished the trek — but it took them 111 days. Suffering blinding sandstorms, crippling tendinitis, and humbling diarrhea, 44-year-old Engle stoicly dismissed all that, remarking, “We touched the water in Senegal at the beginning, and we touched the water in the Red Sea at the end. They were the bookends of our journey.”

The expedition will be chronicled in a documentary film, directed by James Moll and narrated by Matt Damon. Must see. Will kick much ass.

[Via Hobolinks]