Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat

ndansmith writes "Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time." What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them.

Comments

Chickenwire the new tinfoil!

[dj245]

If the holeys in a mesh are half the size of the average wavelength of the radiation, practically none will get through, assuming it is made of the right material. The proper size mesh for RFID technology is left as an excerise for the reader.

tin, pfft

[DrSkwid]

lead is the only way to go

I used to use a anti-xray film bag for shoplifting, works a treat

Re:Hmm

[Bogtha]

The UN has a huge positive effect on the world. Examples:

• They feed 104 million people a year in 80 countries. They feed people in war zones, natural disaster situations, health emergencies, and just plain poor countries.
• There were 17 million asylum-seekers, refugees and the like in 2004 who got help from UNHCR. They both help refugees directly and work to ensure that governments meet their responsibilities to these displacees.
• UNICEF. The UN protects children, everything from immunisation, education, protection against exploitation, AIDS prevention, etc.
• The UN has 16 active peacekeeping missions right now, in places like Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia and Burundi. Make no mistake: in most of those places if the UN weren't there, no one else but the marauders would be and the peace or relative peace being kept would have disintegrated long ago.
• The UN is the leader when it comes to the global battle against HIV/AIDS. Between the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria the UN is at the heart of every aspect of dealing with the epidemic, from heightening awareness to raising funds to making sure appropriate programs for prevention and treatment are implemented.
• Were it not for the UN, an awful lot of suffering around the world would go even less noticed and addressed than it does today. Landmine victims, Marburg fever and cholera sufferers, child soldiers, modern-day slaves, lepers and thousands of other populations beleagured by one or another either visible or obscure plight have a place to turn at the UN.

It strikes me that, of the people who are wholly negative of the UN, the vasty majority are from the USA. It's not surprising, given that the UN are criticising the USA for blocking their torture investigations at the moment.

I don't think you'll find anybody claiming that the UN is a perfect organisation. But only trolls and ignorant people could claim that the UN is not worth supporting.

Re:Why does he want to amplify the signal?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, I thought it was obvious that the MIT article was a joke. Now people are quoting it as fact.

As smart as those MIT students may be they failed to explain why it amplified the signal.

Simply put, the 'tin foil' or aluminum hat they constructed was a parabolic antenna with the test subjects brain as its focal point. Go back and look at those pictures in the MIT article and see for yourself.

You can in fact shield an object if you *completly* enclose said object with aluminum foil (it's conductive). However, copper foil and screen is the standard for shielding used by professionals.

The enclosure doesn't have to be air tight. But the gaps or holes in the foil need to be smaller then the wavelength your trying to attenuate. This is why RF "screen rooms" can use copper screen instead of solid copper and still be effective to up around 3 GHz.

The more you know...

Re:Hmm

[Scrameustache]

They may feed starving people, but when those people are being massacred [rwanda], they look the other way.

The U.N. general from Canada motioned to intervene. The U.S. refused. From your link:

UNAMIR's Force Commander General Dallaire became aware of plans for the genocide in January of 1994. He sent a cable to U.N. headquarters in N.Y. asking for permission to confiscate weapons. Throughout January, Februrary and March, he pleaded for reinforcements and logistical support. The UN Security Council refused. The United States refused to provide requested material aid

The U.N. itself cannot do anything: It's a place for the member nations to talk. If the biggest member decides that a genocide is not worth the risk of potential military casualties, then the fault for inaction is not with the U.N. for trying, but for the member nation for refusing to act.