Technology Ticks

This news from Business Week (read it here) is a bit outdated but worth a gander on how Japan's cracking down on smokers.

In addition to non-smoking areas or banned smoking in restaurants, making it illegal to walk around Tokyo with a lit cigarette -- kind of like not walking around in London with an open bottle of booze -- the Japanese have installed "cigarette vending machines have been programmed to sell only to people carrying an age-verification smart card with an integrated-circuit chip inside".

Of course, people will exploit loopholes in the system (a kid used his mom's card and these cards are not required in regular shops) but I think it might just work.

Mostly because of Japan's propensity to obedience.