And that's enough, to make your life a living hell for a certain amount of time (be it brief or long, doesn't matter).

you mean under the police radar? given any reason at all (rub the wrong way for example), they'll look, and they'll certainly find.

replicant?

how would a phone fit in those things anyways?

if the card itself is stolen/lost, usually you notice it right away (at max a day?) and you can always cancel it (all it takes is phone call). As opposed to a cloned card, you want notice it until it's too late.
Besides, even the chip is not 100% safe.

You're lucky (figure of speech). Usually the cloning thing requires the help of the cashier or the store owner (the terminals are modified), in most cases, I'd say what we call here : "depaneurs" (small stores where you buy beer, magazines, newspaper, cigarettes, milk, candy ... etc).

In my case, it is there but NOT usable (whether I choose to use or not, is irrelevant), because there are no more "mag strip only" terminals where I usually buy stuff (exception noted in the US, from time to time I go there to buy gas --way cheaper and the borders are not very far --).

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear :

I live in Canada, my bank is BMO, I don't know a bout the others banks/countries
The mag strip is easy to copy, there were a big network of thieves that place modified terminal (with the complicity or merchants or their employees). The modified one copy the card (mag strip), by reading directly what the magnetic head reads, and the PIN by placing a pad between the buttons and the PCB.
I had, my card cloned twice, when I had the only the mag strip. Now? 0 times. If the merchant's terminal doesn't have the chip I don't use my card (the bank will refund me, but the hassle is not worth it -both times my card was disabled Friday evening, and my branch is closed for the weekend-). If the terminal support the chip, my mag strip won't work anyways , so using it will only expose me to the risk of a cloned card and the hassle that comes with it (may be the merchant/clerk did something to the machine to force people to swipe the card, may be not, nothing to gain in trying).
With that said, I change it at least once a year, b/c at some point it starts acting funny (and it's free)

the do only if the reader doesn't support the chip. The moment it does (even if the chip on the card fails) any transaction is refused, it'll ask for the pin and everything, but will ultimately be refused. It is at least like this with my card. Tip: if the reader does support the chip and refuses yours for any reason at all, don't try the mag strip (it might be that the merchant is forcing the downgrade to clone your card).

1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
^ this? what's so funny about it? (there's an error/catch, obviously)

Thank you, that was the one I was talking about. It was Cambridge not oxford, my bad. It made the headlines because of this http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14...

equivalent (as in mathematical equivalence relation, mind you "equal" is one) would be more suited

it's not "either or". All cards (at least where I live) have "the chip", they require a PIN. Not 100% safe but beats the magnetic strip (there was some fuss about this few years back, as some grade students --from Oxford if not mistaken-- found a way beat the system, the backers didn't like it.
If the terminal support the chip and the card has one, any attempt to use the mag strip is refused systematically (they all still have the mag strip). Some of them have nfc (or whatever it is called), mostly credit cards, if used this way no need for a PIN and it's exclusively for tiny transactions (less that $10 I think).

Of course there no reason to allow him. The response was very good/fast. But that's irrelevant, he wasn't given the opportunity he had it, and I doubt the street was empty (Ottawa is a dull -but beautiful- city, but still, not completely empty).

I didn't read much, on the event, when it happened (caught it on reddit by mistake), I turned on the TV to watch on CBC. Something is bugging me though, as you explained it the guy was quickly and switfly disposed of, before that, he should have had the chance to shoot anyone ( and it good thing he didn't), but why (genuine question)????

Again, tribal and authoritarian are not exactly the same thing (meaning if they were 2 sets they are different sets). There may be a correlation though. What was that thing about correlation and the other thing called cause/effect?