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Airport Security Prize Announced

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-screening-everyone-gets-a-bat dept.

Reservoir Hill writes "Verified Identity Pass, a firm that offers checkpoint services at airports, has announced a $500,000 award for any solution that will make airport security checks quicker and simpler for passengers. The cash prize will go to any individual, company or institution that can get customers through airport security 15% faster, at a cost of less than 25 cents per passenger, using technology or processes that will be approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Passengers must not need to remove their clothes or shoes, something that slows down processing significantly. "We're looking at moving things that are conceptual or in the lab to things that we can deploy," says company spokesman Jason Slibeck and added that over 150 individuals, start-ups, defense contractors and universities have shown an interest in the prize. One promising procedure is mass spectroscopy, which involves analyzing the mass-charge ratio of ions on a swab sample taken from a passenger's clothing or air collected from around them to spot traces of substances including explosives or drugs. The Pre-Registration Package Information Sheet is available online."

8 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. Eliminate it? by nog_lorp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The summary says nothing about maintaining security. Just abolish it, or limit it to the bare minimum and then have an air-marshal on every plain to stop people with box-cutters.

    1. Re:Eliminate it? by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hell, hand out box cutters to every passenger. Sure, some people are gonna get hurt but no planes will be hijacked ever again.

    2. Re:Eliminate it? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The American political system is about getting the most votes; if planes scare Americans then that's what they're going to lock down- why would you expect anything else from a constitutional republic? Also about airports.. why not just get the national guard involved? You sure don't see many incidents in Israel that got beyond "Man pulls gun in airport, gets hand then head blasted off with 50 caliber sniper rifle"..

    3. Re:Eliminate it? by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...is there any rational reason ... for the huge focus on the damned planes?

      Not really, no. While we focus on aircraft they'll focus on something else while we're distracted.

      What about an entirely different commerce disruption activity, such as threatening communications (e.g. recent undersea cable mystery) or even critical infrastructure points (e.g. the California Aqueduct)? Are we spending sufficient of our anti-terror effort on things that the enemy have not drawn our attention toward?

      Look at the Secret Service guarding the President. They don't all stare at they guy they're guarding, or the place where the last attempt was made. They're looking everywhere and they're trained to cover the zones. If we fixate on aircraft as a point of vulnerability we're in danger of ignoring the other possibilities. We need to think, not react.

      --
      Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  2. I know! by kongit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remove all Airport security. Lots more convenient, and probably about as secure.


    Do I win?

    1. Re:I know! by danielsfca2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      someone who simply decides to take a gun on board a plane with you and shoot you.


      OMFG. How can one be so paranoid about foul play on an airplane? You know, this same guy who wants to shoot you on the plane could just as easily shoot you:
      • On a bus
      • On a commuter train
      • In the line at 7/11
      • At the gas pump
      • In the line at Comcast waiting to drop off your cable box
      • At Starbucks while you wait for your latte
      • At work! The janitor might be a terrorist!
      • The toll-taker at the bridge


      Now please explain to me why we need this bullcrap draconian security theatre to board a plane, but we don't need it at all those locations I listed above? I dare you.
  3. The only logical solution by Dracos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...from a perspective not saturated by fear is to revert to the policies and procedures in place on September 10, 2001

  4. Already solved. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hell, hand out box cutters to every passenger. Sure, some people are gonna get hurt but no planes will be hijacked ever again.

    That's not an issue - the problem of airplanes being hijacked and used as weapons was solved at 10:03 AM on 2001-09-11 over a field in Shanksville, PA.

    'Average' Americans figured out the security equation just more than an hour after the first plane hit Tower 1.

    Everything since is a distraction.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)