Pssst! See that black strip on your BART card? Does that maybe remind you of anything? They are very similar to the black strips on all those hard little plastic cards you carry in your wallet right? Like credit cards. Debit cards. Some supermarket membership cards.

And we know the implications of those things -- keep them away from magnetic stuff; keep them away from extreme heat, or the information may be compromised. So, back to your BART card -- ever occur to you that the same principles may apply? Geez, people! Think!

So, c'mon -- this is news? A local CBS affiliate reports that is IS, in fact news to the recent influx of new BART riders (a result from the MacArthur Maze collapse). Frankly, we have trouble believing that more than a small handful of people wouldn't have figured this out on their own. But the article implies that a bunch of these new riders have had BART cards erased and are now wandering around like little lost sheep (we're picturing a "Charlie on the MTA" kind of situation).

We're a bit amazed that enough people were this clueless as to merit a news segment. C'mon, CBS. Dig a little deeper.