A test reported by the BBC in 2004 suggested it could shed light on how to find psychopaths lurking in non-violent environments, such as your place of work:

Professor Robert Hare, of the University of British Columbia says “corporate psychopaths'” arrogance and focus helps them succeed.

They may also be superficially charming, prone to fly into rages and likely to take credit for colleague’s achievements.

[…]

“There’s lots of evidence that people who are highly motivated, highly successful – particularly in finance and business – have some of these psychotic traits.

“These are people who are extremely focussed on achieving their goals, and who are not too concerned about other people’s feelings.

“There are other people who have very narcissistic traits; they want to be centre-stage and their needs have to be put first.”

He added: “People do say that you’re a psychopath if you’re violent and a successful businessman if you’re not.”

That apparently led someone to propose a Bush Poll. It turns out 84% of people who used the test diagnosed the President of the US as a psychopath.

FINAL RESULTS: Out of 6,595 evaluations submitted, the average score is 32.3850. Discarding both high (40) and low (1) scores produces 5,540 submissions with an average of 31.0404.

4,499 respondents out of 6,595 (68 percent) rated President Bush’s public behavior as consistent with that of a psychopath by submitting evaluations with scores over 30.

A score higher than 30 supports a diagnosis of psychopathy (25 in some studies — 5,566 [84 percent] placed Bush in this category).

[…]

Forensic studies of prison populations have reported average scores of around 22 on PCL-R; “normal” control populations show an average score of around 5.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has reported a new service for those who wish to inform others that they have departed this world. I think they should have used the word “zombie” or “bot” somewhere in the product name:

A professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, has started an Internet service that allows users to send e-mail messages from beyond the grave.

[…]

The service, called Deathswitch, works by automatically sending a message to the customer, usually every two weeks, just checking to see if that person is still alive. If no answer is received, the service goes into “worry mode� and starts pestering the person some more. Eventually the customer is declared dead, and the e-mails announcing such are sent.

Gives new meaning to the concept of virtual suicide. On the other hand just imagine how this changes the definition of a denial of service. If someone/something can successfully block your Deathswitch messages, they might be able to have you officially reported as dead. How weird is that? Would people/companies stop talking with you after you erroneously announced your own death? Sounds like a dead-smurf attack. Will a market emerge for resurrection after false death? Rebirthswitch? Oh, the possibilities for abuse and false positives…

Yes, change is now officially under investigation. But seriously, maybe you will think twice now before leaving coins sitting innocently in your car, or jingling in your pocket.

Breaking news from the AP that Canadian money can not be trusted:

Canada’s physically largest coins include its $2 “Toonie,” which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S. silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.

The government’s 29-page report was filled with other espionage warnings. It described unrelated hacker attacks, eavesdropping with miniature pen recorders and the case of a female foreign spy who seduced her American boyfriend to steal his computer passwords.

Er, make that US and Canadian money. And then there’s the related story that the Irish have found traces of cocaine in 100% of their euros while Spain apparently found 94%…

Wonder how much a spy coin costs to make and how many you’d have to give someone to ensure that they didn’t dispose of them all at the first Coffee stop?

UPDATED TO ADD (15 Jan 2007): Many comments on Bruce’s blog, including his, suggest this story is overblown. Even the US Govt is downplaying the story. Fair enough, the details are murky, but as I commented on Bruce’s blog, in theory the coin itself is unlikely to need to do more than ID someone/something in range of a transmitter. Thus someone carrying the coin can be detected entering a room, getting in a car, etc.. and is unlikely to suspect that the coin is the thing giving them away, or triggering a nearby device…