The story, and even the article are misleading.

You need to flash your phone (if one of the two supported) with WhisperCore, and then you get this "app".

So whilst it's a brilliant idea, it's only available to a very small number of users.

Wonder if DroidWall works on a Cyanogenmod G1....?

To drift even more off-topic, I used to work on an "Expert System" where BOOLEAN variables had one of FOUR possible values:

• YES
• NO
• DON'T KNOW
• DON'T KNOW IF I KNOW OR NOT

It's not quite as daft as it sounds - It populated variables by asking users a question, to which they could answer yes/no/don't know. The fourth value was the case where it hadn't asked the user yet.

So okay, we've got this FTL warpship design, yeah?
We can send a spaceship to the far reaches of the universe...
But we lose Jupiter?
Maybe the environmental lobby will have something to say about that.
Not to mention the practical difficulties of finding another spare Jupiter lying around for the second trip.

There were headlines last year along the lines of "caesarean birth increases chance of asthma by 80%".

The science behind the headlines is here: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2008/12December/Pages/Caesereansandasthma.aspx

This research too is potentially flawed, but it suggests there are definitely factors other than TV to blame.

I don't see how it helps crack down on forgery at all. It only enables you to identify a piece of paper you have previously had access to in order to scan its fibres. Then, if you encounter the same physical piece of paper again, you can repeat the scan (which takes several passes using the otherwise conventional over-the-counter scanner).

It DOES enable you to identify a leaked document, if it comes back into your hands, but I don't see why you'd opt for paper fibre scanning over some other sort of hidden watermark technology, or even (gasp) printing a unique id on the document.

Anyone wanting to circumvent this technology could do so with a photocopier and a cigarette lighter.

And here you have it.

Proof that you should read the comments before the article!

We wanted to go with Richard Branson's outfit - www.virginhealthbank.com, which actually seems cheaper than the examples given in the article.

We've no odd family history, we just thought the potential uses of stem cells in the future might be worth having a stock of them guaranteed not to be rejected.

We had to arrange for an outside contractor to come in to the NHS hospital to collect the samples. The NHS staff wouldn't do it. That means that part way through labour you've got to decide it's a good time to phone the agency and have them send someone over in time for delivery.

Then when they do arrive, they're all businesslike, and trying to explain stuff. "Good morning, I'm from the agency." and of course they're met with "I don't care. I'm in the middle of f**king labour, just shut up and get on with it."

I don't think the phlebotomist had done it before, and in the end it failed. We left our baby attached for a while, because it seemed a good idea for other reasons. Sadly, that meant that by the time the phlebotomist tried to collect the blood, there wasn't really any left - the sample was too small/clogged/dried to be serviceable, so there was nothing for us to bank.

I really hope I don't end up regretting that.