Biometric European Passport & Fingerprints

The interior ministers of the European Union member states met on tuesday: the new european passport will probably be biometric. The biometric data will be kept on a chip, but it will be three years until fingerprints will be stored on it.

God ole fingerprints! The New York Times Book Review had an article last sunday about a biography of Sir Francis Galton, who did quite a bit to promote fingerprints. He also has the dubious glory to be the "father of eugenics". His book, Fingerprints, published in 1892, is available on line.