Life Imitates Art
It will no longer be feasible for an identity thief to cut off the finger of the victim to gain access to an object secured by biometric fingerprint, as happens in action movies. Sony's system doesn't use fingerprints, but an image of the capillaries available only when blood is pumping through the finger in question.
I've often wondered what role fiction played in inspiring fact. Companies often hire actors to use their products in movies. Copycat crimes follow every sensational or bizarre types of murder. So there's at least some basis for arguing that people ape what they read in the papers or watch onscreen. Maybe many of the horrors we experience today come straight from pulp fiction.
Nothing follows.
posted by wretchardthecat at 6/15/2007 08:37:00 PM
4 Comments:
So if the bad guys cut off someone's hand at the wrist or elbow and pump heparinized blood through a dangling artery that could work?
I'll expect to see this on "24" next season.
In The Looming Tower, Mr. Wright says that bin Laden's men and those in Al Qaeda training camps spent their evenings watching action movies, getting ideas. The Schwarzenegger films were particular hits, he said. True Lies can't have been good for us. Perhaps too many Tom Clancy stories were read by Ramzi Yousef, too.
Wretchard wrote: "I've often wondered what role fiction played in inspiring fact."
I've often found it interesting that pop artists will talk about the power of their work to "raise consciousness" or at the very least "raise awareness" and cause people to "take action" on "important issues." And then how some will adamantly insist that violent films or music have no real effect on what anyone does. It's quite interesting to hear some insist on art's amazing power to change behavior and then suddenly shift and boldly claim the impotence of art to change behavior.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle before WWI saw the sinking of the Titanic as a wake-up call for the danger of U boats and torpedoes.
For pointing this out he faced severe criticism during the War.
Allison -- how telling and shameful that bin Laden's men can't even think up destruction on their own. They are truly bereft of everything.
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