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GPS Coke Can X-Rayed
carbolic writes "WiFi-Toys.com and Engadget have posted a link to X-ray images of the GPS Coke can that has security people all up in arms. The GPS Coke can looks a little bit like an IED (improvised explosive device). The PDF file posted on security company Blackwater USA's site shows several views of the can and compares it to an IED. And for thoroughness, the PDF shows a regular can of Coke X-rayed, too."
it may be tinfoil-hat'ist, but couldnt a coke can be a miniture http://www.dirtybombdetector.com/ dirty coke bomb?
Is this actual demolition/weapons/forensic lingo or is this just supposed to sound 'informed'?
Honestly. There are only a few hundred of these, and people are flipping out. Most of the things flying around are totally inaccurate. The cans come in a box, not your typical vending machine. So if companies are really security concious, they'll check employees with coke packs. Seriously though, how many people that work at those "high-level" (sic) facilities, bring 6/12 packs to work everyday.
"It may look like a IED to a layman..."
Um so? I imagine a lot of things could look like an explosive to a "Layman". Ever seen the inside of a CRT monitor or a TV? Imagine how much C4 you could hide in that.
This is just plain silly.
Are we moving to a society that fears anything that could potentially look like a bomb to an uneducated twit?
"If I were bound by all laws everywhere I'm sure I would have committed a capital crime somewhere."
now I know what to make my IED look like so it looks like one of those coke cans on an X-ray...that'll help a lot with getting past security...doesn't anyone else think that giving EVERYONE photos of this to make sure you don't confuse one with an explosive is a bad idea? now people that may be interested in building explosives have a design to shoot for...sure that's all tinfoil hat kinda fear, but aren't those the people X-raying cans in the first place?
What are they worried about? Can't they just disarm the IED by tapping on the lid?
The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
You posted a knee-jerk reaction.
What causes starvation and poverty is not the lack of food. There is more than enough food. It is the lack of a free market to transport that food to market efficiently.
In America, we have all kinds of systems to get the food to your dinner plate. These include the food processing and food transporting industries. Just as important is advertising and price setting. by advertising the availability of food, Americans are able to discover the rich variety of foods available.
In Kosovo and other countries, starvation is caused by the lack of a free market. Right now, terrorists threaten any free trade. Just stepping outdoors is risking your life. In other places, farmers are not allowed to grow the foods they want to and sell them at whatever price they want. People are not allowed to traffic in food trade, and are not allowed to build up processing plants to process foods. It is either terrorism, civil war, or bad policy that causes this, but the end result is all the same.
If you would really like to help the Kosovoans, send in some footsoldiers to weed out and eliminate the terrorists. Allow the people a chance to have a free election, encouraging things like civil discourse and not killing the opponent. Stabilize the security of the country first.
Next, you must enact policies that will allow the free market to thrive.
As you can see, whether or not the Coca-Cola company advertises a campaign for a contest has little bearing on the economy in Kosovo. Your comment was not only stupid, it was actually counterproductive.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Anyone care to explain xray photos in full color? In all the images, the PCBs are green, the coke is brownish, etc... how the hell does an xray machine do color? or are they simply colored after the fact for clarity?
It is the lack of a free market to transport that food to market efficiently.
Yes, and do you know who is responsible for that? The US and Europe, with their lavish farm subsidies. If Western nations ever allowed the free market to operate in developing nations, problems with food and poverty in the world would be greatly reduced.
In America, we have all kinds of systems to get the food to your dinner plate.
We also have enormous government subsidies, paid for by tax payers, to keep farmers happy and in business. It may be good for ensuring a reliable food supply domestically (and give the number of wars we fight, not exactly a bad idea either), but it is causing huge economic problems elsewhere.
Lots and lots of cars look like the type somebody would make into a bomb including mine. (car bombs are always made out of white vans or white sedans). I think all non bomb devices that look like they _could_ be a bomb should have a sticker on them saying "This device in not a bomb". That way, the security people would have an easier job doing what they do. Whatever that is other than complain.
The promotion with these coke cans is that you get a GMC equinox right? First off, if I had one of these cans, I don't think I'd take a flight and run it through the x-ray machine before I thought about pressing the button to claim my prize. I think as soon as I take this soda out of the package, and see, HEY! I WON MY PRIZE! I'll press the button. Thus, the Coca-Cola Prize Squad will come by, collect my can of technological glory and nicely deposit my newly won SUV. So why would I wanna take my can and run it through the x-ray machine?
Those of you that may think that terrorists could run their "IEDs" through the x-ray machine to get past security. It wouldn't make sense, since the reason I just explained before. If it was REALLY a REAL GPS coke can, it wouldnt be there, since the person would have already claimed their prize as soon as they see it. Thus, it has to be a bomb otherwise.
In other places, farmers are not allowed to grow the foods they want to and sell them at whatever price they want.
We call this place the European Free Trade Area. Farmers are paid to *not* grow food and food is destroyed to stablise prices. OTOH world's largest retail chain Wal-Mart, a non EU company, using it's buying power to dictate (i.e. lower) the wholesale price if it's food supplies. What a complete fuck up. Rich landowners are paid by the taxpayers to have their land lie fallow and those that grow get screwed on the price.
There is a political malcontent being stirred up in the center-right press about the cost of East Europeans gaining access to the social security of the EU as though it will bleed our economy dry. Yet these payments are dwarfed by the payouts in farming subsidy ($6bn of which go to 5 people - yes individuals like the Duke of Westminster!) a subject on which they stay quiet (no surprise).
ssshh don't you know there's a war on
war on drugs, war on terror, whatever happened to peace ?
sigh
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
"With so many people in the world today facing starvation and mass death from lack of nutrition, it literally sickens me to the stomach to see things like this."
A.) Coke != America. It's a company.
B.) Can't fight starvation without a strong economy.
C.) It's one thing to say that corps making a lot of money should donate more, it's another to say they should stop marketing and put the money into other people's pockets. What happens when they grow dependent on it, then the lack of marketing suffocates the source of income?
My post is off-topic, I accept that. It's worth the karma hit to tell you how short-sighted you're being. I don't want people to starve, either. We agree on that point. I agree that more sharing could happen. But, "What will Americans throw money away on next"? Grow up. I know for a fact you don't come from a country that's dedicating all its resources to the rest of the world. Give the USA a little credit, our economy is benefitting a LOT of people & countries through frivilous commercialism. Just ask anybody who thinks we're importing too much.
"Derp de derp."
Just in case that one breaks, here's another.
It should take the abuse with good humour.
Yeah, we realy should have checked with those other nations before deciding our domestic policies. Shame on us for wanting food if we ever go to war again.
We should try to help other nations feed themselves, not complain that the "scraps" of our economy aren't being distributed evenly enough to feed them. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day etc. etc.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
This seems to give the X-ray operators the idea that some cans can contain electronics. So all a terrorist now has to do is make his detonator be as neat as the coke can, thanks to the handy photo's and a x-ray operator will think "oh a suspicous thing oh no wait I seen that presentation this is one of them cans no need to check further".
I wonder about the "normal" can x-ray. Why is it all orange? Can x-rays pass through aluminium but not coca cola? For gods sake what have I been drinking all this time that stops x-rays?
So the perfect IED device is a can with a double wall, explosives inside, coke on the outside.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
To some extent, I can see the usefulness of this information. Back in summer of 2000, I was setting up DSL at my new apartment, and my ISP was going to ship the DSL modem to me.
I came home from work one day to find two ambulances, two fire trucks, and a number of police vehicles throughout the fairly spread out apartment complex. Luckily, they were concentrated toward the front while my apartment was near the back of the complex. I was just able to enter my apartment without crossing the lines. On my way in, I asked an officer what was going on, and he said that there was a suspicious package that they were checking out.
After about an hour, a policeman knocks on my door and asks me to come with him. When we arrived at the center of activity, I found out that the postman had delivered my DSL modem to the wrong address. Not only had he delivered it to the wrong address, but he placed the brown box label-side down on the doorstep of a police officer's apartment. The bomb squad did not know what it was after taking the X-rays, so they fired a water bullet into it. When nothing more happened, they decided it was safe and found my address on the package and got me. One of the bomb squad team told me that they were going to circulate the X-rays because they had never seen X-rays of these things before.
When I got back to my apartment I plugged in the modem and everything worked perfectly. The modem had been double-boxed and bagged, and the outer box took the brunt of the damage.
It isn't quite so simple, though -- the western world (not just America -- I'm not an American either) does do harm to poorer countries through farm subsidies and other unfair trade practices. These make it basically impossible for many poor countries to develop a self-sufficient agricultural sector.
How is this any different from those novelty coke can telephones and coke can radios. Once the object is hidden inside a hand-luggage bag, what the outer surface looks like isn't going to make any difference to an X-ray machine.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
An actual encounter with something containing an IUD might be shocking to most slashdotters, but think about why you've never seen anything that could contain IUD. The odds are infinitesimal.
Yeah, rightThe only thing an IUD is going to kill is a few million sperm ... but a single man produces enough to fertilize all women in Europe between 18 and 35 . But what if an IED kills HIM !!! *paranoia*
PS: how a "single" man produces sperm is another question altogether....Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
is to enable those people who encounter such "suspect" cans of soda during their routine X-ray scanning for security purposes to identify them, in order to prevent a false alarm. X-ray operators should now have no need to call in the bomb squad, they can simply confiscate the suspect can themselves, for security reasons, and activate it, for security reasons, and keep the prize themselves.
Strictly for security reasons, you see.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
I am an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technition (military bomb squad) and I would just like to add that the Coca-Cola company was very helpful in the disemination of imformation to all security agencies. The device is not a threat, lack of information about this device is a threat.
It comes in those 12 or 24 packs of cans. You buy the entire pack and one of the cans in the box is the bomb, er winner...
It is the lack of a free market to transport that food to market efficiently.
Yes, and do you know who is responsible for that? The US and Europe, with their lavish farm subsidies. If Western nations ever allowed the free market to operate in developing nations, problems with food and poverty in the world would be greatly reduced.
No, what's responsible for that - in Kosovo at least - is the UN's arms embargo. By disarming everybody who wasn't supported by an outside group (typically a large country), they left them at the mercy of those who WERE supported by such powers, and who wanted to eliminate them. Thus starvation, and genocide.
That's one special case. But there are plenty of other special cases.
For instance: Iraq under Sadam. Turns out (as siezed documents show) many of the high UN officials - and high officials from various UN member countries - were on-the-take from the Oil-for-Palaces program - whose gravy train ended with the invasion. For over a decade the UN stood by while Sadam slaughtered Iraqui citizens - and many of the members opposed the invasion right up to the end (then made nicey-nice to join in on the reconstruction gravy-train once the bribes stopped flowing). Any bets on how much of that was due to bought politicians rather than principled opposition?
Or take Biafra: Millions starved into death or plague, or masacred (with MACHETTIES - who needs guns?) because disarmament rendered them helpless before organized military opposition.
Starvation doesn't come from "greedy corporations" "wasting money". They'd LOVE to feed the world - they'd make MORE MONEY that way!
Starvation comes from government and proto-government intervention, through misguided policies or outright planned genocide.
The solution to genocide is allow the potential victims - which means EVERYBODY - to arm themselves for their own defense. The solution to starvation is to eliminate the governmental obstacles to people feeding themselves, whether by raising their own food or earning enough after-confiscation cash to buy it from others.
And the obstacle to both is governmental force, implemented either by malicious people or people too ignorant or stupid to understand that the SECOND-order effects of government programs often completely swamp and reverse the expected FIRST-order effects.
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I would not be surprised if AL-queda did not frequent slashdot, for "up to the minute cutting edge ideas".
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.