Nothing nefarious here
The government has put chips in money. You can disable the chip by microwaving the money. This has the side effect of destroying the money. Here’s pics.
This story comes via Donald Sensing, who opines:
I presume this is an anti-counterfeiting measure, because the government would never be up to something more nefarious and intrusive than that, would they? Nah.
Update: Alert reader Cinomed notes the microwave thing has proven false.
March 4th, 2004 at 11:39 am
You should try microwaving your 20’s it is a hoax
http://www.hardocp.com busted the myth.
March 4th, 2004 at 4:29 pm
There was a great thread on this either Wednesday or Tuesday on Slashdot. They also showed it was false and then got into a great discussion of the fun things you *can* do with a microwave and the magnetron that powers it! Kewl.