Science Quarterly Released!

Unfortunately, I have not posted in a long time, however it was for a good reason. Science Quarterly was released today, and featured some very exciting content, not to mention a redesigned cover.

RFID Chips inside 20 Dollar Bills? - An Unexciting Truth

I've been reading about a little myth floating around on the net. Supposedly, the U.S. Government has but RFID chips inside every new $20 bill after 2005. Skeptical, I took a closer look.




I read the first article at: http://www.prisonplanet.com/022904rfidtagsexplode.html. In the article, the author said that When you put a $20 bill into a microwave, the RFID chip inside explodes. I was shocked. RFID has been somewhat of an obsession to me, and I have a hard time believing that a tiny little chip would explode creating such a large hole in a bill. The article said that the chip was located inside Jefferson's right eye. Using my powerful high resolution microscope I went in manually...

Using my set of tiny tools, I went into our founding father's eyes.

I started with the left, to make sure the author didn't mean the observer's right, instead of Jefferson's.



I tediously removed layer after layer of ink.



Sure enough, Jefferson's left (our right) eye was clean.



Now to the right eye I entered. Each eye took about 20 minutes to carefully dissect, so by the second eye I was frustrated, but undeterred.

So I started once again from scratch.



Nothing. I searched carefully, moving bits of cotton here and there. Alas, there was no mystery chip.



Just to be sure I went through two more twenties. Empty. I scanned each very thoroughly, and I knew what I was looking for. It is not for certain that the United States is once again innocent.



But then how to explain the burning?

As it turns out, most paper, cotton, etc. will burn at a concentrated point when showed into a microwave. There was no "exploding RFID chip". Sometimes the truth is unexciting, but that doesn't change the fact that it is still the truth.

Consider this myth busted.

Exploring Hard Drives- Inside your computer

Firstly, I want to apologize for taking so long to write up another post. Needless to say, I certainly have not been waisting time, and the Science Quarterly publication that gets nearer every second.

Last post explored the basics of RAM, and so it is only logical to move onto the hard drive (a.k.a. hard disk) that lives inside your computer.

The hard drive stores all of the data on your computer, making it one of the most important parts of your PC or MAC. Your firewall protects it from infiltration, and just about everything you do on your computer is recorded and put onto your hard drive. This is why recovering the hard disk is such an important task when your computer crashes. All of your personal data is stored onto a "doughnut from the future": a small and thick mirror-like disk. If you want, you may go back to the Xbox dissection and read up on the destruction of the gaming device's hard drive.

This is very important, so pay attention:

When you get rid of a computer (i.e. throw away, give away, etc.) remove the hard drive and destroy it! An intact hard drive is a holy grail for all dumpster divers. It does not matter if all of your files have been deleted, they can be recovered through new software that can be purchased over-the-counter.

Destroying it is not a complex task, on the contrary, it can be very fun. The absolute best way is to ensure your safety it to melt it down into a little ball (or army man), however most of us don't have access to 2,000 + degrees of heat. An old fashioned hammer will do the trick, so will a rock, piece of wood, or just about any thing else. There is literally an unlimited number of ways to destroy your hard drive (all of them pretty cool).

This is the perfect application for a dremel tool. Next time I have a hard drive I want to destroy, I'm going to sand it with my dremel and cut it to pieces so I have more dremel experience under my belt.

Be sure to let me know the creative ways you've made up to destroy your hard disk!