Chicken or the Egg conspiracy theories...

For years, I have been hearing paranoid types claim that the magnetic ink in our currency, and in later years the new security stip, would allow the government to track if you are carring a large amount of cash... Nutjobs.

Oh, wait... it turns out we have figured out a way to do just that. Which came first, the nutjob or the conspiracy? We'll never know. But, as they say, "just becaue you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

From CNN:

Devices detect caches of cash
Inventions developed for Immigration and Customs Enforcement



IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- Ah, the smell of money -- there's nothing quite like it. Some people, in fact, may soon be looking for ways to mask the special odor.

Drug traffickers who ship profits abroad in suitcases are not apt to be thrilled with some inventions developed by federal scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory.

One sniffs the air -- it can pick up a stack of bills from about 10 feet away -- for currency's chemical signature. Another beams electrons through packages or luggage to detect trace metals in the green ink.

And a third project, not yet started, would scan serial numbers of individual bills into a database.

It's unclear whether the legal system would view seized bills found through the devices as admissible, and privacy advocates fear such inventions would infringe on civil liberties if adopted.

Dang.

-The Oklahoma Hippy