Slashdot Mirror
Airport Security vs. Cyborg Steve Mann
CompaniaHill writes: "The New York Times (free reg, etc.) has a story on University of Toronto engineering-professor-turned-cyborg Steve Mann's recent run-in with humorless airport security. Apparently his preplanning and documents were sufficient to get him through the Toronto airport security on his way to St. John's in Newfoundland, but not sufficient to get him through the St. John's airport security on his way home. Two days later, after strip-searches, forced removal of implants and x-raying and other ill-handling of delicate hardware, he returned home in a wheelchair. Mann's lawyer is attempting to recover the cost of the $56,800 in damaged hardware, while his doctors are studying his body's response to the removal of the implants, some of which he has had for over twenty years."
Good Salon article at http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/10/20/cybor g/ if anyone's interested in more...
Welcome to Canada... bend over please.
crazy dynamite monkey
my god! what good are cyborgs if they can't even contend with simple airport security officers?
darth vader would be ashamed!
Just raise the taxes on crack.
For those of you who don't know, Prof. Mann is generally considered to be the "Father" of Wearable computers, having contstructed one of the first ones out of an Apple 2 in the early 80s to portably control his photographic equipment. He is now a professor at the University of Toronto; he also has an informative personal web page.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Wow, I can totally cripple someone far more learned than me _and_ make seven dollars an hour! Woo-hoo!
Seriously, though, next time, take another route home. Zeppelin or something.
--saint
if anyone read my post a week ago, airport security is simply retarded. they decide they are going to nail someone and they do just that.
me and my girlfriend had to wait for 2 minutes while they chemical tested all of luggage and carry ons, and shoes and purses for explosives. this was because her shoes (complete with metal shoe lace ends) set off the metal detector.
later in the trip tourists are posing with the reserve offices for pictures... i saw this many times. tourists have their arms inches away from machine guns carried by 5 foot tall women and all the airport cares about are my stinky shoes.
then the kicker is the woman on the airplane knitting with HUGE knitting needles.
this guys sensor that opens doors is going to do about as much damage as my stinky shoe. yes, when i fly i want to be safe, and that is why i defend the 'fly naked' campaign.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
After you _try_ to go through security, civil liberties get weird. You can't walk through with a gun, get caught, and say "oh, never mind, I just won't fly today". By then, there is suspicion of criminal behavior and you are, alas, in the mighty grasp of the underpaid, overworked, bitter security forces. Just walking away is no longer an option.
But don't worry-- they only use their powers against terrorists and bad guys, right?
A.
ma, this one event deals with a lot of issues. Overbearing security, not having any authority to review situations like this on a case by case basis, whats happens when some one is unplugged, how being "plugged in" for long periods of time might effect you phsyology.
I hope all the facets of this incident are followed.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In a related story, Britney Spears announced that she would never perform in Canada again.
That they destroyed his equipment and pulled off is electrodes was wrong, and they should be held accountable for this. No airport security agent should ever be unprofessional like that (which is why I support the federalization program currently in progress in the US). But the guy had to be inspected.
sulli
RTFJ.
Still not satisfied, the guards took him to a private room for a strip-search in which, he said, the electrodes were torn from his skin, causing bleeding, and several pieces of equipment were strewn about the room.
Man, that's not just bitter, that's just savage. I'm really disturbed just reading that. I feel that there is a lawsuit here based not only on equipment damage, but also on humiliation and emotional abuse. I mean, how can they possibly have the right to do that? I understand that you give up some civil liberties when there is suspicion at an airport, but those guards cannot cause you harm for no reason, I cannot believe they'd have that authority.
Please subscribe to see the more insightful version of th
Yea, they might get weird, but not totally off the map! You don't GIVE UP all civil liberties in that case -- the guards can't rip your clothes off, steal your money, keep your possessions, kick you in the nads, and say "oh, sorry, we thought you had a bomb or were a criminal".
If they suspected he had a bomb, it seems to me that there should have been a process that they followed, not just snapping things off at random! " Gee, what's this?" "Oh, just the power to my...pacemaker! "
But then again, did anyone see the problems the WWII veteran with a *CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR* went through? Pretty much similar -- and this is a medal for which there are 40 living recipients.
Steve Mann SEEKING COMPENSATION - Prof. Steve Mann, a walking experiment in wearable computers, went through a three-day ordeal trying to board an Air Canada plane bound for Toronto.
TEVE MANN, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has lived as a cyborg for more than 20 years, wearing a web of wires, computers and electronic sensors that are designed to augment his memory, enhance his vision and keep tabs on his vital signs. Although his wearable computer system sometimes elicited stares, he never encountered any problems going through the security gates at airports.
Last month that changed. Before boarding a Toronto-bound plane at St. John's International Airport in Newfoundland, Dr. Mann says, he went through a three-day ordeal in which he was ultimately strip- searched and injured by security personnel. During the incident, he said, $56,800 worth of his $500,000 equipment was lost or damaged beyond repair, including the eyeglasses that serve as his display screen.
His lawyer in Toronto, Gary Neinstein, sent letters two weeks ago to Air Canada (news/quote), the airport and the Canadian transportation authority arguing that they acted negligently and seeking reimbursement for the damaged equipment so that Dr. Mann could put his wearable computer back together again.
The difficulties that Dr. Mann faced seem related to the tightening of security in airports since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But he had flown from Toronto to St. John's two days earlier without a hitch.
On that day, Feb. 16, he said, he followed the routine he has used on previous flights. He told the security guards in Toronto that he had already notified the airline about his equipment. He showed them documentation, some of it signed by his doctor, that described the wires and glasses, which he wears every waking minute as part of his internationally renowned research on wearable computers.
He also asked for permission not to put his computer through the X-ray machine because the device is more sensitive than a laptop. He said that the guards examined his equipment and allowed him to board the flight.
But when he tried to board his return flight on Feb. 18, his experience was entirely different. This time, he said, he was told to turn his computer on and off and put it on the X-ray machine. He took his case to Neil Campbell, Air Canada's customer service manager at the St. John's airport, and spent the next two days arranging conversations between his university colleagues and the airline.
The security guards continued to require that he turn his machine on and off and put it through the X-ray machine while also tugging on his wires and electrodes, he said. Still not satisfied, the guards took him to a private room for a strip-search in which, he said, the electrodes were torn from his skin, causing bleeding, and several pieces of equipment were strewn about the room.
Once his system was turned off, turned on again, X-rayed and dismantled, Dr. Mann passed the security check. When he was finally allowed to go home, some pieces of equipment were not returned to him, he said, and his glasses were put in the plane's baggage compartment although he warned that cold temperatures there could ruin them.
Without a fully functional system, he said, he found it difficult to navigate normally. He said he fell at least twice in the airport, once passing out after hitting his head on what he described as a pile of fire extinguishers in his way. He boarded the plane in a wheelchair.
"I felt dizzy and disoriented and went downhill from there," he said.
Air Canada said that there was no record that any of Dr. Mann's baggage had been lost and that the Canadian transportation agency, Transport Canada, had required that his belongings be X-rayed. "We don't tell the security firms that there is going to be an exception made," said Nicole Couture-Simard, a spokeswoman for Air Canada. "We don't have that authority."
Transport Canada declined to comment on the case except to say that it was reviewing it.
Considering that even tweezers may be confiscated when a passenger boards a flight these days, the stricter scrutiny that Dr. Mann faced may not seem surprising. But for him, the experience raises the question of how a traveler will fare once wearable computing devices are such fixtures on the body that a person will not be able to part with them.
"We have to make sure we don't go into a police state where travel becomes impossible for certain individuals," Dr. Mann said.
Since losing the use of his vision system and computer memory several weeks ago, he said, he cannot concentrate and is behaving differently. He is now undergoing tests to determine whether his brain has been affected by the sudden detachment from the technology.
Alejandro R. Jahad, director of the University of Toronto's Program in E-Health Innovation, who has worked closely with Dr. Mann, said that scientists now had an opportunity to see what happens when a cyborg is unplugged. "I find this a very fascinating case," he said
This is *not* Kevin Warwick, the British psuedoscience jackass who's been walking around for a few years with an RFID pet tag under his skin.
It is Professor Steve Mann (http://eyetap.org/mann/), one of the first inventors of a *real* wearable, and a downright cool guy. I didn't know he had any implants- does anyone have any more information? I'd imagine his equipment would be a bit more advanced than the snake-oil Warwick's been showing around.
You may want to read a little closer. His wearable computer couldn't go through because it was more sensitive than a laptop. He wasn't carrying a laptop, as far as the article says. His equipment was more sensitive.
I understand them wanting to check him out, and maybe even a strip search is in order, but when they had documentation signed by his doctor stating everything he's said, and they were unwilling to accomodate his requests to speak in person to his doctor or colleagues, yet still will not make an exception... there is a problem. Furthermore, their disregard for sensitivity of his equipment is a travesty. He may very well be suffering serious problems now because some $10/hour monkey didn't know when to quit.
Every once in a while I like to masturbate a new word into my vocabulary, even if I don't know what it means.
To be so completely integrated into one's computers - it must be a godlike feeling, to have all that data available at will. And then to lose all that power, all that data and insulation from the day-to-day world - no wonder Mann feels crippled. I remember reading that people who depend heavily on electronic organizers to store contact info have a harder time remembering phone numbers and addresses, and I know that my spelling skills have deteriorated slightly since I started relying more on spellcheck.
I know this is something that's not really going to sound right, but "rape" is the best word I can think of to describe this. Where the hell were this guys lawyers? How could the security dudes not realize what an incredib;e achievement Mann's gear is? I repeat: that poor bastard.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Some airport security people are pretty dumb -- but I just can't picture one dumb enough to let a Sith Lord board!
I think the breathless police-state tone of this story is going a wee bit overboard.
From reading the New York Times article, it doesn't sound like Mann had any "implants" "forcibly removed". It sounds like they tore electrodes off his body. In other words, they pulled tape off his skin, and it caused bleeding. Unpleasant, sure, but it's not like they strapped him down and used a drill to extract chips from his brain. More like they pulled off a Band-Aid too fast.
The reason that he ended up in a wheelchair was that since he no longer had his cyborg navigation gear, he supposedly got confused while walking around the airport and hit his head on a pile of fire extinguishers. I don't even know where to start with that one.
Now, clearly what happened sucks, because $56,000 of gear was lost or damaged. Clearly he should be repaid, and probably security was rude to him. But I don't think it's all that shocking, given that here's a guy, covered in wires and batteries, getting on a plane post 9/11.
In my opinion, the truly interesting part of this article is that once his technological aids were removed, this guy ceased to be able to complete basic tasks like walking. This has significant ramifications for wearable computing. Is it augmented reality? Or is it a crutch without which he can't function?
Monkeytreats
and pulled off is electrodes was wrong,
Based on this one comment I could claim Mann is a pretty lousy hardware designer.
What he did was the equivalent of soldering the keyboard to the motherboard. Couldn't he have at least forseen having to one-day disconnect and had instead used a micro molex connector or something?
Duh.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
No we're not hearing the only side of the story. The article quotes the airline, and they claim no responsibility. I fail to see how you're questiong NY Times, but want to hear it directly from the airport, who's going to have their lawyer give you the standard "no comment" response.
You're not going to hear from the guys who actually did this, unless it's as a dark silhouette with a disguised voice on Dateline in a few months. I'm not waiting until then to make my decision on which side is right.
Please subscribe to see the more insightful version of th
Since losing the use of his vision system and computer memory several weeks ago, he said, he cannot concentrate and is behaving differently.
"they" have seem similar occurrences in individuals that often use PDA to jot down things in that some individuals tend become dependant on the technology. I am sure this case is making for an interesting study, but I am more curious on learning more about some of the devices he has wired himself into and how he uses them. So far this is probably the best link I have found detailing the technologies he is using.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Augmented vision (camera & hud glasses)
Handheld chording keyboard
Any mic/headphone setup
Wireless/cellular hookup
Without his input/output devices, he would have lost access to his memory enhancement programs (smart conversation tags to lookup keywords, replay stored audio, etc.), vision enhancement programs (recording, environment reconstruction, text overlay), and probably all of his sending/receiving capability.
I pray that he backed up his rig before he flew. All the data he accumulated/uploaded while in Newfoundland is probably toast. (Why the hell was he in Newfoundland anyways? Was he speaking or just visiting?)
In one fell swoop they cut him off from his augmented memory and processing, and then threw his visual system for a loop, hence the need for a wheelchair. Oh, and of course, they trashed some very expensive, hard to replace, custom equipment. Not nice. I'd hate to think what might have happened if Mann had needed vital implants (heartrate regulator, insulin, etc.) that would have summarily been stripped along with the rest of his hardware.
Man his "late 90s" pic makes him look like a dork. If he's going to go all crypto-cyborg he really needs to use better shades.
Anyway, he's obviously a dangerous spy. Just look, in the first image, he's waring a t-shirt with a MAP OF CHINA what more evidence do you need!?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
It's about control.
It's both control of the passengers (You *will* drop your trousers and paint your arse green!) and control of the drelbs who run the security checkpoints (follow *every* rule *exactly* or you're fired!) Security- related professions are magnets for rule-bound control freaks.
Most of the stuff is ridiculous. "Turn the laptop on and off". Tweezers. Fingernail clippers. Very little about security and a whole lot about "I'm in charge and you're not!"
Control freaks at play.
Welcome to the Turing Tarpit, where everything is possible but nothing interesting is easy.
With the possible exception of the X-ray issue, I point out that the bomb/drug-sniffing equipment is there for precisely that eventuality.
Let's give the drooling fucknozzle behind the counter the benefit of the doubt for a moment and think about what would have been reasonable.
At most, they should have stripped him to check where all the wires/electrodes went, and run the sniffer over each electrode to make sure nothing naughty was concealed beneath the electrode, nor anything else that didn't get X-Rayed.
Upon finding no explosives and no drugs, they should have let him put his clothes on and travel.
All of which is beside the point, which is that the goon should have started by reading the goddamn papers Prof. Mann was carrying, that authorized him to carry the gear on the flight.
(...and called his supervisor when he realized he couldn't understand the words with more than one syllable, and let the supervisor make the call.)
here's an editorial on that incident from the Washington times:
5 .h tm
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020202-3287461
Seems that the airport security weren't even aware of what the CMH was.
Well at least the INS managed to get Mohammed Atta his student visa.
From a personal point of view, however, I've not particularly noticed any inconvenience from heightened airport security, and I live in NYC.
Frankly, I think this airport security frenzy is a great illustration of closing the barn door after the horse has run off.
evanchik.net
Two years ago Steve Mann had a very similar run-in with AirCanada, they being very hostile towards him bringing his equipment on-board, and damaging some of his equipment in the process.
His detailed description with photos is at Air Canada Irresponsibility.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
instead used a micro molex connector or something?
Yeah sure, he should have done that. Then they would have said "Whats that in your skin?"
RIP, out come the connectors. The point is, by reading the article, if they really don't have the authority to grant any exemptions then they sure as hell don't have the authority to strip search or harm anyone who hasn't put up any physical resistance. I mean, what reason could they have for detaining him without allowing him to speak with his doctor or colleuges?
Were they afraid he was going to goto the phone and blow someone up? Or shoot someone? If he was going todo that he would have blown up or shot the guards long before they strip searched him.
As the spokesperson pointed out, this has nothing to do with the airline. The first step in addressing this is identifying the parties involved - probably the airport, and maybe a private security firm.
In one fell swoop they cut him off from his augmented memory and processing, and then threw his visual system for a loop, hence the need for a wheelchair.
I'm a graduate student at the University of Toronto, and interact with Prof. Mann on an intermittent basis (did a project under him a few years back, meet him in the lab whenever I'm borrowing his soldering equipment).
He can see fine without his HUD. It's not a complete visual transformation overlay - it's a wearable computer display, functionally equivalent to most of the other wearable displays you can buy. He's been working on information-overlay projects for years, many of them successful, but to say that he has "vital" vision-enhancement programs running at all times is a drastic overstatement.
Likewise, "augmented memory" consists of him either teleconferencing with someone or doing a Google lookup. He's perfectly capable of finding his way through this university, or an airport, without augmentation.
Use common sense, people. If he was disoriented, I'd suspect it to be the result of a many-hour delay with inadequate food/water or of an overly-zealous search as opposed to loss of any electronics.
The article is short. Registration is long
...but not while the evil days come not.
Ira Howard, please phone home!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Does this guy EVER take a SHOWER?!?!?!
-Russ
Me
Despite the claims in the slashdot blurb, Mann does not have any implants. The NYTimes story mentions that electrodes were removed from his skin. These are the same as those sticky things they attach when someone gets an EKG or polygraph test, and are presumably used by Mann to measure physiological things like heart rate or skin conductance. Mann claims that when they were removed he bled -- kind of like ripping off a really sticky band-aid...
What if a person required such tools in order to move, breathe, or even think? Would this not be the equivalent to destroying an experimental respirator which has already been O.K.'ed by a doctor?
Don't get me wrong, NOT searching would leave the possibility for a person claiming to be sick to be used as a bomb - but to RIP electrodes from a person's skin is reactionary, cruel, if not downright monsterous.
They could have just denied him access to the plane instead.
Ryan Fenton
"Any old damn thing in the name of security"?
Let's think about this hypothetically. You're a security guard. Your job is to ensure that planes don't blow up. Six months ago thousands of people died because security failed, so there's pressure on you to be extremely careful.
So this guy shows up at your post and the metal detector goes off. The guy says he can explain, and pulls up his shirt to reveal wires all over his undershirt leading into a couple of boxes, also concealed underneath his clothing. He then helpfully informs you that he's a cyborg, and that he has a letter from his doctor.
Personally, if I was in this situation, I'd have two concerns. First, this guy's telling me he's a cyborg, which frankly gives me doubts about his mental stability. Second, he's got wires and batteries and all kinds of crap concealed under his clothing. Sure, he's telling me that it's a computer, but it looks like a bomb to me. The boxes are screwed shut, so I can't see what's inside them, and he won't let me run it through the X-ray. These are also custom boxes that look like no computer I've ever seen.
Now, how're you going to determine the truth of the matter? I seriously doubt a security guard is keeping up on the state of wearable computing, so you're not going to recognize Steve Mann. Mann's got a note from his doctor and other documentation about this equipment, but you have no reason to think that these documents are credible. Maybe you call your boss to see if he knows anything about this, and more likely than not your boss hasn't been informed, because the message has been lost in the corporate fog. Or maybe he has been informed, but he's in the bathroom and you can't get him on the phone.
So you're standing there at the checkpoint, with a man in front of you whom you have many reasons to believe might be wearing a bomb, and you have only his word that it's a computer.
I don't think anyone in this situation would just let him hop on the plane. Maybe you disagree, and that's fine. But in that case I sure hope you aren't working in airport security.
Monkeytreats
Well, you just pass all your expieremental equipment through the X-Ray machine - it shouldn't cause problems...
Sheesh - I try to avoid things that might even remotely cause problems.
This seems like a reasonable request for expieremental 1-off equipment.
Cheers!
I just saw a 90 minute film on Steve Mann called Cyberman at SXSW in Austin, basically he has for about 20 years now hooked up a camera and video screen to his glasses. I believe his setup can now zoom, playback and bring up a crude command line prompt, he also has a single hand keyboard for input, and yes he walks around with this all the time. He also has renegade antennas setup around his city to stream video from his head to the web.
However a few times they showed him going into retailers like walmart and gap with a consumer video camera (just to start shit). When an employee asks him to not bring the video camera in, he starts being a little smart ass about it. like "Well don't you have video cameras in here, why can you video tape me and I can't video tape you", "What if I told you that my glasses we're a video camera, would that be ok?". generally not agreeing with the store and making a jackass out of himself.
I also saw him take off his glasses constantly, he would slip them off to do something, then put them back to walk around (then look around like a space cadet ), but it did not seem that he was in any way disoriented without his gear. So I don't buy that all of a sudden once his stuff was busted up by the security guards (which we're just trying to do there freakin job) that he started bumping into things, or at least not more then normally.
I think what happened at the airport is that for "I'm cyberman" reasons he opted to keep his gear on, got shit from the security guards, proceeded to be a complete smartass while thinking, "if they fuck with me, I have it all on film", but when they broke his gear and is alibi that's when he really god pissed. I'm sure he was already expecting shit, but maybe hoping he could have covert footage of it to show the 8 o-clock news as well.
-Jon
this is my sig.
a couple of days ago i watched the nature of things special on Steve Mann. they have a website about him with lots of pictures and information.
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
No, when they get Federalized, we HOPE that the end result isn't the winner of the cheapest bid.
The airlines want cheap security. So, you get cheap workers. As long as the airlines are doing the work, and paying the wages, the pressure is to keep wages down. Low wages, poor workers, high turn-over (You know that turn-over was really high 100%+ for airline security staff last year don't you?)
See
Pay is low, and turnover high-- 500% at one
airport-- and their training is often minimal. Federal inspectors have repeatedly been able to easily get weapons and potential bombs past them. (This is from a PBS study done before 9/11/2000)
The old security system was a race to the bottom. Airlines didn't really care about security. They just wanted us to feel better.
The new system might not be better, but for different reasons. Personally, I think it will be, but that's just my opinion.
The personnel they can command will be better, and the ability to fire workers that don't perform will be better. Generally, treat your workforce better - get better performance.
>
> Face rec, face rec!
Yeah, that's Steve.
As long as we're on the subject - it's one of the supreme ironies that Steve's tech, hooked into a large database and facial recognition system, could have improved security. (I have a hunch Steve would be loath to sell his ideas to these bastards now.)
No auto-scanning face-recognition cameras - just a guy wearing cool shades who looks at you, and your name pops up in front of his face.
When your face comes up clean, you get a "Welcome to America."
When Charles Manson tries it, the screener gets "Armed and dangerous. SWAT team notified. Ask him about the weather and stall him for another 30 seconds." Chucky doesn't know what hits him.
When Joe Sixpack tries it, the screener gets "10 outstanding warrants. Hand over to secondary inspectors immediately."
When an 80-year-old general tries it, the screener gets "Hey, asshole, don't you recognize a Medal of Honor when you see one? Let him through!" flashed onto his screen.
(Of course, when Mohammed Atta tries it, the screener gets "INS says he's a student at flight school who hasn't collected his visa notification yet, so let him on!", but that's not the fault of the wearable computer and augumented memory system, it's the fault of INS - the only organization capable of making airline security drones look like geniuses.)
Interesting. I'd forgotten about his fooling around at shopping malls.
If he was being confrontational, he may have deserved some (but not all) of the treatment he got. If his gear was functioning at the time the shit went down, we should all be able to view the video streams (well, once his site recovers from the /.ing) and make up our own minds.
On the flip side, isn't it against the law these days to take video of airport security checkpoints? (In which case, he should have shut down the recording portions of his gear, because failure to stop recording would lead to a Catch-22 situation where he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.)
... and I have a computers lecture right before Professor Mann's course (check it out at http://wearcam.org/ece1766.htm) in the same room.
Hence I see Steve Mann, usually on a weekly basis.
All you Slashdot'ers will be relieved to know that he is still using his wearable computer, his display glasses still work, etc.
I personally have doubts about this article for three reasons:
A) The issue has shown up in a NY times article, yet I haven't heard about it from any of my campus news sources OR the Toronto Star (www.thestar.ca)
B) I've never seen Professor Mann wearing electrodes as mentioned in the article, and can see no reason as to why he would (his system is not biometric, to my knowledge he uses a sort of keypad as well as visual feedback of his eyes to interface with it)
C) Even though Professor Mann wears his device most of the time, my computers professor (who I believe knows him personally) has seen Professor Mann remove his device without disability.
I've emailed my computers professor to see if he knows any more about this story, I'll reply if I find out any more.
--
Eamon McDermott
ENGSCI 0T5
ERTW$$
No. Not even then.
If you're interested in gaining control of an airliner, the last thing you want to do is attract the attention of security personnel. As such, you have to look normal. Since Prof. Mann looked anything but normal, there's a fairly low probability that he's a hazard to air travel safety (although one could legitimately question the RFI radiated by his equipment if it couldn't safely take an X-ray). A quick check of his ID -- hell, even a quick Web search on his name -- would have quickly confirmed that the man was absolutely no trouble at all.
Prof. Mann was detained not for being a potential threat, but because he questioned The Rules.
Believe me, the guy you want to keep off the plane doesn't look or act like Mann. The Bad Guys will be appear very normal. That's why Congressmen are being detained and strip-searched in airports, because they're acting normal; very suspicious these days.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Idiot guard: "We need you to pass through the x-ray machine."
It's a metal detector - not an x-ray machine.
Congratulations, you just qualified for a job as an airport security screener.
Letters from doctors and airlines mean nothing. Their pieces of paper that are easily forged.
No rational security guard or "manager" doing their jobs would have the knowledge or authority to make the kind of exceptions to security procedures that this guy expected.
I am highly concerned he was let through Pearson security so easily. Ripped from his skin? Disoriented and couldn't walk straight? Half a million dollars of equipment? Whatever. Cyborg? If it is that bad, he should not have been flying, not without a Transport Canada ruling, like are needed for other highly exceptional circumstances.
Give me a break. The "article" as well as the Slashdot lead in all sound *HIGHLY* one sided.
I give this side of the story a credibility rating of 2 out of 10, and the possibility that Professor Steve Mann is a pompous jackass a 7 out of 10. That the people in St. Johns did their job as we've requested them to do? 8 out of 10, losing points for putting his video glasses in with the baggage and not keeping track of his possessions.
The reason September 11th worked out the way it did was that people have been taught to give the nice terrorists what they want when they take over the plane- before then, everyone was under the line of thinking that eventually it will all work out and if you don't provoke the terrorists you're less likely to get hurt/killed in the situation.
Problem is, this was never the case to begin with and people have all been largely lucky up to this point. As it has always been, but people didn't realize it until the 11th was that the moment an agressor takes over a plane/ship/etc. and holds you hostage, your life is forfeit and you must win it back either by your actions or someone else must win it back for you. With this in mind, I do not believe that people will placidly sit still with agressors with knives or even handguns. They can nail a few but they're going to be beaten to a bloody pulp by the rest.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Of course, one could conceivably acquire those parts, pack them with explosives, and board the plane pretending to have an artificial heart.
Dyolf Knip
You forget, this is Canada. You have no rights.
The only reason it's not a playground for fascist
butchers is that they're all acting like Doug and
Dave MacKenzie.
Now in the U.S., you'd get the twice the brutality,
but you would have the comfort of knowing that it
was illegal, although of course no court in the land
would give a flying wahoo about that.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
You're right, but only half right. I wouldn't
expect him to be able to just walk through security, for exactly the reasons you describe.
The $10 an hour guy can't make that decision.
The problem his the report clearly states he
spent two days escalating to many
non-$10 an hour people who at some point should
have been able to verify his story, and figure out
a way to get him on the plane.
Let's also be real here, what terrorist is
going to spend two days escalting up the food
chain to hijack a plane.
The thing that concerns me the most here is
the lack of consistency. Anyone who travels has
seen this for years, both pre and post 9/11.
He had no major issues in one airport, and major
problems in another. If we're going to have
security, there should at least be an expectation
that if you were able to fly somewhere you can
return in the same state, and that's far from
the case.
AFAIK, you cannot be forced into having something X-Rayed. Instead, you can request that your belongings be hand-inspected, which arouses suspicion and causes delays. the most common occurrance is Photographers, as X-Rays kill film.
In other words, Kevin Warwick is a pseudoscience publicity hack.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
The solution really seems quite simple, and it's definitely not the one they chose:
Don't allow him to board the plane yet, get him to stay for some days until management can confirm his documentation (call the universities, for example), then personally oversee his boarding the plane a couple of days later, after a reasonable, non-intrusive search.
Don't they have to do something like this when someone with special needs of medical attention/equipment needs to travel anyway?
If the guy happens to be famous enough to appear on the media, you might want to pay for the hotel and new airplane ticket just like when the airlines resell your ticket. But that's strictly a PR move.
Most likely, he takes charge of the extra expense on his trip, security takes charge of the extra expense of making a couple of phone calls and personally overseeing him for 20 minutes when he finally boards the plane.
No strip search, no destroyed equipment, little wasted time for other passengers and most likely no lawsuits.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
Actually, that's not entirely true. You load some weapons this way (the SKS comes to mind, although there are plenty of others, including some removeable magazine-fed weapons, such as the M14), but the clip stayed in the M1. The M1 was loaded by putting all eight rounds into a clip and inserting the entire assembly into the receiver. The clip stayed in the receiver until the last round was fired, at which point it would eject upward and outward with a loud "sproing" noise. One could manually unload a partially spent clip, but simply firing all eight rounds and inserting a fresh clip was common from what I hear. The M1s I've handled have been nice to shoot, but loading left something to be desired. It's very easy to injure one's thumb/forefingers when loading an M1. I would also not wanted to carry one for any length of time. It's a heavy rifle.
A Google search lead me to a page with a picture of the parts in question.
BTW, I really liked your comment. If I hadn't used all my moderation points yeesterday (and hadn't been posting in this thread) I would have definitely modded up...
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
I would pay at least $10 more per ticket to fly on an airline that didn't have any airport "security" at all.
Me too. Hell, if there were no security - at least there'd be a few hunter-types packing guns on the flight. I'd trust a plane full of armed citizins over a $7 rent-a-cop any day.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.