In news of the absurd....
Four U.S. states have passed laws that forbid drivers from smiling while posing for drivers' license photos.
The apparent reasoning is that face recognition software has trouble identifying you in surveyance photos if your reference photo—typically your drivers' license photo—doesn't feature an utterly neutral expression.
The states of paranoia where you're not allowed to smile: Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia.
A transportation representative in Pennsylvania notes, however, that "in Pennsylvania, people are allowed to smile."
I assume this means if we encounter a gang of grinning terrorists we're all screwed.
ReplyDeletePerhaps in some states there is less to smile about.
ReplyDeleteMr. Jangles is onto something here. In the four non-smiling states it would be impossible to identify offenders who only stop smiling to be photographed. Are there any photographic restrictions on sneering yet?
ReplyDeleteNo smiling on passport photographs either. But then, what is there to smile about when looking at one's own face in a passport? (Unless of course one has a taste for the bizarre.)
ReplyDeleteIn my section of Pennsylvania, we not only are allowed to smile, we are encouraged to do so...to the point that the employee taking my last photo said I should try again because she knew there was a better smile in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNext time, I'm going to the one in York. Nobody smiles over there.