Slashdot Mirror

This won't end well.

If by not well you mean for the PRK, you're right. They won't get what they want this time (free food and other perks that they get every time they wag the dog). If you mean its going to end in some kind of fire fight, 100% wrong. You apparently are unaware of the history of this sick little state. I see they're building up Un like they did his father.

Good luck with that. Their "US mainland strike plan" map shows straight lines rather than great circle routes. Either they are clueless, it's purely for show, or their missiles are going to fall a few thousand km short. Or some combination.

Financial products are logical constructs. Virtual products. Like objects in an online game which people buy and sell.

The financial world depends on logical constructs. Currency, the base of the financial world, is a logical construct. Slips of paper to which people ascribe value. Gold is the same way. One cannot eat gold, wear it, drink it, shelter under it, use it to bind wounds or cure ailments. But to many (most) it has "value." Currency is a durable construct because it makes people's lives easier, and improves their standard of living.

Stocks ("shares of ownership") are an older financial product. So are bonds. Futures are bets. Then you get into the myriad financial products/bets and their derivatives on which today's global financial system is based.

1) "A financial product is about as conceptual as you can get,” says Wilson Ervin, a senior adviser at Credit Suisse. “You just need paper and ink.”-- The Economist magazine

2) "In an even more blunt description, Tourre calls the CDOs he produced "intellectual masturbation" and likens himself to Dr. Frankenstein. "When I think that I had some input into the creation of this product (which by the way is a product of pure intellectual masturbation, the type of thing which you invent telling yourself: 'well, what if we created a 'thing', which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?")" -- CNN / Money

"Financial Innovation" consists of two things:

1) Creation of new virtual products / logical constructs.

2) Methods by which one can entice others to take on more debt.

Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the only beneficial financial innovation of the last 30 years was the ATM. However, the ATM is not a financial innovation, but a technological one. So that leaves a dim legacy of recent financial innovation.

I'm all for financial innovation just as long as it doesn't lead to "financial pollution" - public costs. Like a tannery which dumps effluent into a river. The tannery keeps the profit and the public bears the costs. The concept is known in the financial sector as "privatize the profits, socialize the losses." In recent years, the financial sector has been able to successfully privatize its profits, yet push the costs onto the public. This is done by government insurance of private debt, and outright rescues and bailouts.

In any regulation of the financial sector, the key I think is to make sure that losses are limited to the participants in the transaction.

This fellow - well if he is able to make money, bravo. If he and his shareholders lose money, the laws regulating the financial sector should make sure that the losses are limited to participants in the transaction, and not imposed on the public.

Same thing with the ones with Richard Simmons. That was probably one of the best waste of times I have had in a while. Although I would have much preferred to be on this flight.

Same thing with the ones with Richard Simmons. That was probably one of the best waste of times I have had in a while. Although I would have much preferred to be on this flight.

Score sheets are prior to video games.

No shit, the last time I filled out an actual score sheet was at a golf course.

Which, obviously, means that all golfers are potential mass killers... Isn't that right, Mr. President?

... rather than office space for example. Googling around, I found this.

Exactly. This is a misleading study. They looked at who had the most opinion. Not who runs the most slanted stories, who reports the facts incorrectly. When studies and polls have looked at the facts, Fox News viewers don't come out on top.

Your apprehension reminds me of this article: Russian concert laser show blinds 30

Could you provide references for that?

My bad, I meant HSBC, not Santander: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/opinion/hsbc-too-big-to-indict.html?_r=0

But Santander came to my mind probably because of the episode you mentioned: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2812719/Santander-traded-with-blacklist-Iranian-bank.html

...no, no -- that's not how it's going to be "picked up".

Let's take a look:

NBC News: Particle confirmed as Higgs boson

Associated Press: Physicists say they have found a Higgs boson

Reuters: Strong signs Higgs boson has been found: CERN

Wall Street Journal: New Data Boosts Case for Higgs Boson Find

FOX News: Physicists say they have found long-sought Higgs boson

Washington Post: A closer look at the Higgs boson particle that helps explain what gives matter size and shape

Chicago Tribune: Strong signs Higgs boson has been found: CERN

Sky News: Higgs Boson: Experts Sure Of 'God Particle'

New York Daily News: Physicists say they have discovered crucial subatomic particle known as Higgs boson

Boston Globe: Physicists say they have found a Higgs boson

BBC (UK): LHC cements Higgs boson identification

BusinessWeek: Case for Higgs Boson Strengthened by New CERN Analysis

The Daily Mail (UK): Scientists say they HAVE found the 'God particle' - but admit they still aren't sure what type of Higgs boson it is

The Independent (UK): Have they found the Higgs boson at last? Cern physicists say they're confident of 'God particle' breakthrough

Telegraph (UK): Higgs boson: scientists confident they have discovered the 'God particle'

News Limited (AU): Higgs boson, the God particle, discovered by CERN

US News and World Report: Physicists Observe Higgs Boson, the Elusive 'God Particle'

None of these articles make any links to "God" other than a few -- mostly UK, not US -- sources referring to it as the so-called "God particle", but even those explain exactly what this particle is theorized to be, not anything supernatural, "proving God exists", or having anything whatever to do with God.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/2200026/EU-Constitution-author-says-referendums-can-be-ignored.html

And you may ignore those referendums if they don't "vote the right way." As they did in Ireland.

The article really sucked, so I went looking for another, even though it was only slightly better.

The major improvement is in depressurizing the hydrate so that the gas will boil off. They don't have a robot at those depths, the work is done at the end of a drill string

Here in the UK 65% of fatal road accidents are caused by "driver error or reaction". This is poor but legal driving. Speeding (14%) and drinking (10%) are nowhere close to being the major causes of accidents.

Would you like to point out what Manning has disclosed that indicates illegal actions by the US?

The Guantanamo bay inmate assessment files show the imprisonment of detainees for years without trials. Inmates that even the US internal assessments classified as innocent, or very low level. 5 to 10 years in prison without trial for individuals that aren't even really suspected of being guilty?

Do you accept that as moral, legal, and on top of that something that the public shouldn't even be aware of?

And yes, in that case he'd deserve to get the book thrown at him because he's a freakin' general with access to highly classified information, and whose actions affect thousands of soldiers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9673124/David-Petraeus-Paula-Broadwell-had-classified-documents-on-computer.html

And yes, in that case he'd deserve to get the book thrown at him because he's a freakin' general with access to highly classified information, and whose actions affect thousands of soldiers.

And yet here we are.

No country in Europe has ever destroyed two entire countries because a group part based in one destroyed two buildings.

I don't know where you're from but apparently they don't teach history there. One little island nation in Europe has invaded 90% of the worlds countries at one time or another. And they needed no justification what so ever other than they were trying to "civilize" them. I also seem to recall this little interlude where one of those silly little nations in the middle of Europe went on a rampage destroying many more than 2 nations and slaughtering millions for no reason at all some 80 years ago.

They didn't just destroy 2 buildings. They killed 10,000 people. I realize the slaughter of 10,000 people is really nothing by the standards of European history given the millions that they have slaughtered over the years.

What idiots modded that insightful?

Nokia said this during official investor conference calls. If they are lying it is fraud. Besides: LG, HTC, Apple and Motorola have all indicated they've had problems with this generation of phones. Factories like Foxconn have complained about this generation of phones and construction problems. The Ashas and the Nokia dumb phones are made in the factories you are talking about, and no Nokia doesn't have any supply problems there. But yes the targets are:

2012- 35m
2013 - 55m
2014 - 85m

and assuming that all goes well that's what Nokia is capable of doing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/nokia/9793624/Nokia-admits-Lumia-supply-problems.html
(specific to China, only able to build 30k of the 920T first quarter of sales):
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-02-06/nokia-china-stumble-risks-delaying-rebound-from-1-percent-share
If you are Finnish: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/informaatioteknologia/2013/02/23/triplamyynti-sivu-suun-lumia-920aa-saa-yha-heikosti/20132750/12

Just do a web search on lumia supply constraints there are thousands of links.

Are you telling me that a free market does not work

The "free market" is not involved. UK government policy to reduce carbon drives both the adoption of wind, which we learn does not produce expected output, and deliberately inflates gas cost while lowering heating benefits to reduce demand, producing fuel poverty.

Adopting wind and its false promises is government policy. Fuel poverty is government policy. Connection complete.

you could have a gold-based debit card, gold-based ATMs, heck, you could even have gold-based paper money

There are already gold based ATMs, started a couple of years ago.

Phillip.

When was the last time N Korea arrested visitors saying they were CIA spies? On the contrary, N Korea is very welcoming to foreigners, including Americans.

Charges as CIA spies? How bourgeois. It is much simpler and a better reflection of North Korean socialist morality to just hold a trial.

2 U.S. reporters get 12 years in N. Korea - June 08, 2009

Two American television journalists today were convicted of a "grave crime" against North Korea and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor, a move that increased mounting tensions between the U.S. and the reclusive Asian state.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, were sentenced by the top Central Court in Pyongyang in a two-day trial that started Friday as U.S. officials demanded the release of the two women.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor" but gave no further details.

Because the pair were tried by the nation's highest court, there can be no appeal.

Of course the North Koreans are not especially shy about grabbing Americans.

North Korea says it has arrested American citizen - Sun December 23, 2012
North Korea arrests American; continues shelling near disputed border - January 28, 2010
North Korea arrests US man - December 29, 2009

And foreigners? The North Korean government loves foreigners. . . in a sort of "collect them and trade them!" kind of way.

Japanese kidnapped by North Koreans return home in tears
Kidnapped by North Korea
Armed North Koreans kidnap Chinese sailors
Jenkins Photo Proof Of Kidnapping? - ". . .she is a Thai national who was kidnapped by North Korean agents. . ."
Did North Korea Just Kidnap Two American Journalists?
Kidnappers Incorporated
Japanese families fear that North Korea is still abducting - North Korea had kidnapped nationals from at least 11 other countries, including France, Italy and the United States.

It seems they want to impress them, not arrest them.

Impress them in a Potemkin village sort of way, yes.

Welcome to Lenin Disney: North Korea’s otherworldly tourism experience

The surreality of visiting North Korea begins at customs. Officials in full military dress — and there are a lot of them, judging by this clandestine video shot by a Canadian tourist — announce that anyone carrying a cell phone must surrender it, to be returned on leaving. The experience gets weirder from there, based on the numerous travelogues and reports that have emerged since the country lifted many of its restrictions on American tourists in 2010.

Tourism is an opportunity for North Korea, whic

The point was that the mostly unarmed population and police of Great Britain didn't seem to be suffering a larger amount of crime.

Except that they are. The U.K.'s violent victimization rate of 31/1000 is larger than the U.S.'s of 16.9/1000.

After the 2011 London riots, many in the U.K. started to wonder if maybe that gun ban was a bad idea after all -- especially since it didn't reduce gun crime.

The U.K.'s gun ban has been an absolute and total failure, and gun banners who cite it as an example of why the U.S. should go down the same road prove only their unfamiliarity with the facts.

The point was that the mostly unarmed population and police of Great Britain didn't seem to be suffering a larger amount of crime.

Except that they are. The U.K.'s violent victimization rate of 31/1000 is larger than the U.S.'s of 16.9/1000.

After the 2011 London riots, many in the U.K. started to wonder if maybe that gun ban was a bad idea after all -- especially since it didn't reduce gun crime.

The U.K.'s gun ban has been an absolute and total failure, and gun banners who cite it as an example of why the U.S. should go down the same road prove only their unfamiliarity with the facts.

In the UK, handguns are banned for civilians. And most police don't carry firearms either. So in your mind, everyone is helpless. Result? A homicide rate a quarter of the USA.

The UK's overall violent crime rate is almost twice that of the U.S.

The U.S.'s homicide rate has fallen by 50% since the early 90s, while the number of guns in private hands has risen and many states have liberalized CCW laws.

On the other hand, the U.K.'s gun ban had no impact on the murder rate -- in fact the homicide and gun crime rates went up the first few years after it was instituted. Gun crime in the U.K. roughly doubled between 1999 and 2009.

There are also serious problems with crime being under-reported in the U.K.. And some allege (I'm less certain about this claim) that even murder is undercounted in the U.K. versus the U.S., because U.K. rates are based on final disposition of cases (i.e., someone was convicted) while U.S. rates are based on reports (i.e., there's a dead body).

I suspect that even with that taken into account,though, the U.K.'s homicide rate may be lower -- not for any reason involving firearms, but because the U.S. has more of a problem with economic stratification, and a greater lead pollution problem thanks to our car culture.

In the UK, handguns are banned for civilians. And most police don't carry firearms either. So in your mind, everyone is helpless. Result? A homicide rate a quarter of the USA.

The UK's overall violent crime rate is almost twice that of the U.S.

The U.S.'s homicide rate has fallen by 50% since the early 90s, while the number of guns in private hands has risen and many states have liberalized CCW laws.

On the other hand, the U.K.'s gun ban had no impact on the murder rate -- in fact the homicide and gun crime rates went up the first few years after it was instituted. Gun crime in the U.K. roughly doubled between 1999 and 2009.

There are also serious problems with crime being under-reported in the U.K.. And some allege (I'm less certain about this claim) that even murder is undercounted in the U.K. versus the U.S., because U.K. rates are based on final disposition of cases (i.e., someone was convicted) while U.S. rates are based on reports (i.e., there's a dead body).

I suspect that even with that taken into account,though, the U.K.'s homicide rate may be lower -- not for any reason involving firearms, but because the U.S. has more of a problem with economic stratification, and a greater lead pollution problem thanks to our car culture.

What if that's stolen next time!

You'll just have to use the burglar's CCTV system.

The only newspaper in the UK with a right wing bridge column. Noted for its trenchant attitude to the EU, the ECHR and its science-savvy journalists. (The latter is meant as sarcasm by the way).

Apparently the jaw size problem is relatively recent and caused by the use of cutlery! Don't understand how or why myself... perhaps we should all eat food with our hands until we reach maturity?

Nonsense. Climate change is God's wrath for allowing a black (probably Muslim, possibly alien) Democratic President to come to power.

Somehow I doubt that.

Ah, one of the great dhimmi-wannabe sites.

Actually quite the opposite. What I pointed to is a daily list of fatal attacks. These are *facts*. It must be nice for you to live in a cocoon where you don't to examine *facts* and statistics and instead throw around perjoratives like 'loon' with no basis in fact. You sir, are the enemy for Freedom. Look at the facts/statistics goddamit !

"Muslims want self-determination, but not an American-imposed and defined democracy. They don't want secularism or theocracy," said the professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington.

More Leftists bollocks. Remember, the BBC has fallen greatly and is no longer an impartial source. How about you cross-check multiple independent sources as a proper researched would do. Then you would encounter survey results like these:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1510866/Poll-reveals-40pc-of-Muslims-want-sharia-law-in-UK.html
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics_(Shari'ah)
Well, they already have that with 87 Sharia courts already operating in the UK. It is quite possible that these courts will be extended to non-Muslims in the future when they have disputes with Muslims. This has already happened in numerous states in the US, where the Constitution has already given way to Sharia in several court cases. Google is your friend if you want to find the truth.

So stop being lazy and use the Scientific Method - cross-check the *facts*.

Archived @:
http://slexy.org/view/s21UWKzafS
http://hpaste.org/79175
https://paste.debian.net/plain/216145
======
The hum that helps to fight crime (ENF) Electrical Network Frequency analysis

"For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity.

It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air. ...

"The power is sent out over the national grid to factories, shops and of course our homes. Normally this frequency, known as the mains frequency, is about 50Hz," explains Dr Alan Cooper, a senior digital forensic practitioner at the Met Police.

Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.

This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.

While the frequency of the electricity supplied by the national grid is about 50Hz, if you look at it over time, you can see minute fluctuations. ...

Comparing the unique pattern of the frequencies on an audio recording with a database that has been logging these changes for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year provides a digital watermark: a date and time stamp on the recording.

Philip Harrison, from JP French Associates, another forensic audio laboratory that has been logging the hum for several years, says: "Even if [the hum] is picked up at a very low level that you cannot hear, we can extract this information."

It is a technique known as Electric Network Frequency (ENF) analysis, and it is helping forensic scientists to separate genuine, unedited recordings from those that have been tampered with."

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671
- http://cryptogon.com/?p=32789

#

Met lab claims 'biggest breakthrough since Watergate'
Power lines act as police informers

- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/01/enf_met_police/

#

Noisy, muffled, incoherent recordings are an audio engineerâ(TM)s worst nightmare, but all too often they contain vital evidence in criminal trials. Itâ(TM)s the job of the forensic audio specialist to extract that evidence.

- http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/articles/forensics.htm

#

(discussion forum) Electrical network frequency analysis, Mains frequency variations detectable in digital audio recordings?

- http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=81346

#

Met Police use electrical 'hum' to solve crimes

The Metropolitan Police is using the "hum" of background noise produced by mains electricity to help solve crimes, it has been disclosed.

- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9739037/Met-Police-use-electrical-hum-to-solve-crimes.html

#

Related Research
- http://www.ece.umd.edu/~ravig/Research.html

#

Engineers Use Electrical Hum To Fight Crime

- http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1331243/engine

If I can rape, pillage, and paraphrase from a Kevin Smith film I like (I think he'd approve), Catholics are well intentioned people that sometimes go to church to balance their checkbooks. Nowadays it's probably an hour to clear the inbox. Not that they're not religious, just that they're not the sort that are trying to gut their kids science class.

It's really the protestants that get stupid about stuff like this. It's been that way for at least as long as I've been alive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4588289/The-Vatican-claims-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-is-compatible-with-Christianity.html

Compare with:

http://www.uncrediblehallq.net/2010/05/11/most-us-protestants-belong-to-creationist-denominations/

It cost 910k to repair Rowan Atkinson's after he drove it into a tree and that was still cheaper for the insurance company than replacing it.

Or he'll make a parody of Gangnam Style.

I don't know how you guys did it but in the UK we bought the banks. We own them now. When we sell them off we will get back what we paid for them, perhaps even a bit of profit.

Right..... That explains : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15769886 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9681545/UK-may-never-recover-66bn-spent-to-rescue-banks-MPs.html Your faith in the government is touching, but probably unfounded (see PFI, HMRC failures, FSA failures). Heck, pick up a copy of Private Eye to see just how often government utterly fails when working with commercial entities.

Here's the explanation given, and apparently some Harvard professor finds it credible:

“I say this with certainty that the monkey is in good health and the space flight didn’t have any physical effect on Pishgam,” Ebrahimi said. “Some of the photos released by one of news agencies were not related to the time of flight. They were archive photos of the monkeys being prepared for the launch.”

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, also said this week’s monkey space flight was real, but he had a slightly different explanation for the photo mix-up. He claimed the light gray monkey with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011.

“The monkey with the mole was the one launched in 2011 that died. The rocket failed. It did not get into space,” McDowell said. “They just mixed that footage with the footage of the 2013 successful launch.”

This sounds plausible to me. My experience of working with news agencies in the west is that they're extremely flaky and news stories are always published in a rush with absolutely minimal fact checking. I'd be surprised if things were much better in Iran. This is hardly

In an ironic meta-fail the article also says, Iran has never confirmed that a monkey died in 2011, or that there was a failed mission that year but that does not appear to be correct.

In short, this entire article can be summed up as, "news organization publishes story with some details incorrect, follows up with corrections" - is it really newsworthy?

Police is not perfect, but machine guns in every house is not a solution. Better police work is a solution, that seems to be working quite well in civilized countries.

Yes, I'm sure that will work great! Women are twice as likely to be raped in the UK as they are in the US. Burglaries which take place while the occupants are home are virtually unheard of in the US, but in the UK they are more common than break-ins when the occupants aren't home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-25671/Violent-crime-worse-Britain-US.html#axzz2Jg0nIXQx
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7922755/England-has-worse-crime-rate-than-the-US-says-Civitas-study.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/14/crime-statistics-england-wales

All that "better police work" they have over there, right? Let's agree to live and let live. You keep your "better police work" and I'll keep my guns.

"Bill Shocker" Malware Controls 620,000 Android Phones In China

And if you didn't want malware, you'd have bought an iPhone rather than an Android.

I thought the iPhone wasn't officially out in China yet. That won't happen until later this year.

In the original movie it was Nicaragua and Cuba alongside the Russians. When it was written it was during a political crisis in Central America. China never had anything to do with it. (Which isn't surprising since China has not been historically expansionist.)

I think the GP meant that the 2012 release was actually filmed as a US vs Chinese invasion. Fearing a Chinese backlash, the invading army was changed to North Korea.

source

Its probably just to cover the news that their nuclear weapon research bunker was blown up.Don't look here, watch the monkey!

Since it was illegal to export anything developed in the USA, we decided to do all our cryptography development in Shanghai, China.

It is usually more efficient to cut out the middleman.

I hope your cryptographic products aren't protecting anything important in the West.

The only reason the US went into Libya was because Gaddafi wanted to create a new currency based on gold to be used in the oil trade.

Or - and I don't mean to dismiss the conspiracy sites here - it might be possible that the Europeans were about to drag us in to the conflict one way or another, creating a big fat mess unless we got involved immediately and in a big way. The UK sent an almost undefended "warship", for goodness sakes.

...and?

Fine, you can be pissed. I would be, too. But it's one thing to be angry, throw chairs, and exclaim that you will bury the company they go to. It's another thing to actually contact the head of the other company and say that if you hire our employees, we'll sue you on matters entirely unrelated.

By the way, unless you're enough a fanboi to believe that Apple invents everything, Palm's OS worked and acted differently from Apple's.

Again, keep your employees happy and they won't be interested in other offers.

More like the captain of the football team keeping a wary eye on the strange loner in a trench coat that seems to keep stirring up trouble, hangs out with bad people, spends a lot of time in a private workshop, and muttering under his breath "someday you'll all be sorry."

It is pitiful that you are trying to paint Iran as an innocent victim. Most Gulf countries live in fear of Iran and its ambition of hegemony, and it drives large arms purchases.
 

In Sri Lanka, the Buddhist monks seek to control the Tamil Tigers.

Buddhism and war have a long history. Check it out sometime.

Of course. Why would you play the game that says, pay your money, we will put it in our bank accounts, and you get nothing? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9717973/George-Papandreous-mother-linked-to-550-million-Swiss-bank-account.html The 89-year-old mother of a former Greek prime minister has been reportedly linked to a Swiss bank account containing more €550 million (£446 million). =========== Yep, on a civil servants wages too.

I don't think you read enough news.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5126584/China-and-Russia-hack-into-US-power-grid.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5126584/China-and-Russia-hack-into-US-power-grid.html

You were saying?

but I've never understood why MS would choose to move into the console market

It was always Microsoft's goal to have a computer in every home. The Xbox has allowed Microsoft to continue in that vein.

Well that is how he afforded these two along with his humble home. I'm sure he knows how to make money with advertising.

They were optional in the sense you could choose not to go through, and you wouldn't be allowed to fly, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8608337/Doctor-barred-from-flying-after-refusing-body-scan-on-health-grounds.html et. al

Well, I'm glad I never had to use Manchester. Screw that noise.

I travel all over the world, although I haven't flown TATL since November. Obviously you'll have scanners on connections. That's not arrivals. Admittedly I tend to fly into JFK/EWR/BWI/IAD, and on from Washington/NY a few days later. I've never heard of any of my colleagues being scanned on arrival, only on connections (which is to be expected)

I thought you were being pedantic but the only time I can remember arriving without needing a connection was landing direct in Detroit, and I didn't need them then. That being said, that was August 2008 and there's a chance it predates them being installed in Detroit (I don't buy this for a major airport but as I don't know I won't comment) but from the shape of MSP's layout from immigration I can't see how you could skip the extra TSA check even if you weren't connecting. I recall being railroaded into the TSA.

So the scanners are before immigration? For my last entry (day before Sandy hit), into EWR, I wasn't even asked if I was there for business or leisure.

For her that was a layover, she was heading to Wichita, perhaps that made a difference. And in MSP as I described above, I think you don't have a choice.

Hmm, do you fly TATL on American carriers (or worse, El Al)? I've heard they have silly extra rules that you don't get on VS/BA etc, but if you route via AMS I'm guessing you're a KLM flyer. Your experiences do not sound normal. I arrived into America 4 times last year, 3 times the year before. I've never seen any security present for people getting off the planes. Add the other 60 flights last year, and the only country where I have seen security on arrival is Israel, where they occasionally ask a few questions (the Erez border being the non-flight exception)

KLM/Delta flyer. MSP immediately parks you in front of the immigration desk, the customs desk and then pushes you though TSA to get into the main arrivals lounge. I'm not a fan of MSP. My fiancee has used other intermediate connecting airports like Atlanta and Memphis and I don't know what she needed to do for those, except that she had to go through the X-Ray at Memphis. She is sickly girl and air flight doesn't sit well with her, and security likes to badger her because she looks 'suspicious and nervous' for that reason.

I've landed in Girona in Spain, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Gatwick and Heathrow in London, and Seoul in South Korea over the last six years or so in various amounts, and it's only my layover in MSP that has ever done this.