Slashdot Mirror
A Peek At the National Opt-Out Day Numbers
Yesterday was a big travel day for Americans, and the organizers of National Opt-Out Day hoped to use it to highlight widespread, though not universal, dissatisfaction with stepped-up screening measures in US airports, by encouraging people selected for body screening to insist instead on the pat-down alternative. Reader Willtor writes with a story in the New York Times on the effect of the protest: "'39 people had opted out of the body scans in Atlanta by 5 p.m. In Los Angeles, 113 had. One had opted out in Charlotte, N.C. Boston seemed to have something of a mini-spike, with 300.' This is a tiny fraction of passengers, of course. But when I flew out of Boston this afternoon, they had opened a line that led to a traditional metal detector. When I flew out in June all lines went to the nudie scanners. Is it safe to be optimistic that we have been heard and policies have changed? I am not particularly concerned whether we get credit or whether it is reported that the protest fizzled. But it would be nice to know that some of the more invasive theatrics have become optional."
According to its organizers, meanwhile, the opt-out protest was a "rousing success." If you traveled yesterday by air, what was your impression?
obviously/P
I went to battle M.C. Escher, but drew a blank.
It was arousing success ;)
They are switching to standard metal detectors until the furor dies down, then they will ramp up with the scanning and patting.
I expect the switch to resume after Thanksgiving when most travelers will be business travelers who can't afford to spend their time protesting.
Now, if the TSA is right about the necessity of these scanners and enhanced patdowns, this move to temporarily disable the scanners seems like a massive security problem.
Though the TSA denies it, over at Engadget some folks are reporting the scanners aren't being used in some places.
Nudie scans are an arousing excess.
is only doing its hand job.
Not only does the TSA not plan to make any changes in response to the scanner issue, they have said that they would like similar "security" for Amtrak and Greyhound. Next up, searches and scanners at malls. Folks, it's too late. We let them have their way for the pas 9 years or so, and they have grown too strong to stop.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I didn't see anyone getting a pat-down, "enhanced" or otherwise. Just the same old shoes-on-the-xray-belt routine as always.
egypt urnash minimal art.
This was entirely predictable. It's not easy to convince people to let other people--strangers of the same gender--touch them intimately as a form of protest.
It was also predictable that the media would spin it as a failure.
In fact, it probably helped speed security clearances on one of the busiest travel days of the year, because the TSA planned for a larger disruption. At least, that is what I would do, to be safe, and I'd imagine they did it.
The major media covers the story by repeating the TSA talking point that the majority of Americans support the scans. They base this on a Washington Post/ABC poll: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_11222010.html?sid=ST2009122902788
I do think you'd get different numbers if you polled at the airport.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
My cousin traveled up from North Carolina, said there were no pat downs, or scanners. (He said he saw the scanners, but they weren't using them)
It's hard to opt-out if the thing you're opting out of is roped off and not used.
This was a brilliant move by an organization that is not known for its brilliance, ever. Somebody at the TSA is sipping champagne and laughing today at pulling the rug out from underneath the protesters' feet.
The scanners will be back online within days, and then it will be more of the same from the gestapo. But the protest? FAIL. All of the mainstream stories show this to be a non-issue, and now the "protest" numbers back this up in the TSA's world of spin. We got played.
Comply citizen.
If you traveled yesterday by air, what was your impression?
I flew out of Milwaukee, WI, got through security in only a few minutes, and the TSA people were very nice.
I guess that makes me a sheep for bending to the will of the government that's hellbent on making me in to a slave. Or something.
I'm sitting in the Charlotte, NC departure lounge right now. They had a few people going through the backscatter machines at ORD, but shut them down while I was in line and sent everybody through the magnetometers instead. Pretty clearly, the TSA backed off on universal body-scanning for the holiday.
Funniest thing I saw in Chicago was the guy in front of me trying to opt-out of the metal detector, and get a pat-down instead. He was a little confused.
Read this.
Opt-outers (presumably of any TSA procedure on any mode of transport) are tagged "domestic extremists" whose data will be referred to the Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division.
you had me at #!
No?
Then it failed.
Roped off and not in use--apparently the TSA wanted to minimize the protest from the inexperienced travelers and make NOOD look like a fizzle.
I've completely opted out of flying commercially since 2001. That's a protest that allows me to vote with my wallet. It has transferred tens of thousands of dollars away from the airlines, and I expect that trend to continue. In the interim, I've very much enjoyed driving about the nation, traveled internationally via cruise ship (though that is now beginning to suffer similar indignities as commercial passenger service), and learned that "luxury" train travel in the US appears to be something descended from Torquemada's collection of techniques.
The first car ride I took (that I can recall) was in 1959; like many American males, I've had a vibrant interest in cars since very early on. I've owned quite a number of them across the years. From that perspective, most of today's vehicles are amazingly well made, comfortable, handle extremely well, and are stupendously reliable - truly a joy for me to drive. That, combined with a lifelong passion for photography, and I have to say driving is something I've happily rediscovered over the last decade. Occasionally I rent a higher end vehicle that I would not normally have the opportunity to drive for a cross-country run; I can't even begin to tell you how much fun that can be if you actually enjoy driving. Large portions of the American west, particularly around the Rockies, still offer driving challenges worth taking on... it gets considerably more tedious, road-wise, as you get closer to the coasts (55 in what is essentially a supercar is kind of annoying), but on the other hand, the photo ops become quite numerous, so I sort of change objectives as I go.
I would suggest that if driving is an option you can consider, this is a much more effective -- and fun -- way to protest the approach taken by the government and the airlines. Like it or not, money is the longest, strongest lever you can apply in this society. Writing "TSA sucks" on yourself or going to the checkpoint in a kilt, sans underwear... these things don't really accomplish much, other than get you your ten minutes of infamy.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
If they wanted to cause some issues and slowdowns, everybody flying should have been hiding metal and more all over their person.
Or everybody should have shown up with a large knife.
What's the TSA going to do, then?
Not much since they're sorely outnumbered.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Any time there's an opportunity to ask a someone in federal government a public interview question, ask: "Now that your government has first-hand knowledge of my genitals, how do you feel about their shape? Do you think about them at night? Do they satisfy you?" Expect to get thrown out, but convince enough people to do it and the media would have a field day.
I must be missing something about this... I mean, when I was in an airport overseas, and they started to go through my check luggage as part of standard security, my knee-jerk reaction at first was to be a bit freaked. But after 30 seconds of thought I realized that this was GOOD. They were HAND SEARCHING luggage! Plus scanning it. No bombs on that plane! So why do people care about scanners? Is it some kind of weird prudish thing? Or do the scanners do some harm? I'm happy to fly nude. I'll know the chance of someone having a weapon is pretty small!
There is nothing ironic about it at all. It is simply proof that even the TSA doesn't believe their own bullshit regarding the importance of said scanners for the purpose they claim. The scanners are already serving their purpose, which is to generate lots of cash and kickbacks. On the one hand they are claiming it keeps things super secure, and on the other the authorities are looking into the possibility a teen stowed away on a plane from North Carolina to Logan. I mean, which is it? These procedures are super important and keep us all safe, or these procedures may well have not even been able to keep some random teen from stowing away on a plane?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Same here. I actually had to go through security twice, because my first flight was canceled. No pat-downs, no protesters, just the same deal everyone's been doing for years.
We let them have their way for the pas 9 years or so, and they have grown too strong to stop.
That's just what they want you to believe. As long as you make it as much hassle for them as it is for you, you will be just as strong as they are.
thank you.
The numbers don't account for people who, like myself, decided to just not fly at all. I go to Las Vegas a few times a year, and while it used to be fun to fly I have decided to drive instead because of all the TSA nonsense.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
The protest was a success well before yesterday. The goal of such civic participation in government is to raise public awareness. The head of the TSA had to think about this, and talk about it in the national media. This enlivened the public debate. That is the exact definition of victory.
If one wants to muse about more concrete short-term victories, consider the lines at the airports yesterday. I have flown on the day before Thanksgiving -- it is not pretty. According to reports, yesterday went significantly more smoothly than in the past. Think about the cause/effect. I suspect the TSA decided they had to stage a good show of efficiency yesterday to defuse the opt-out protest. They put on extra staff and gave rousing pep talks -- and; the airports sucked a little bit less yesterday than they would have otherwise. That is a nice outcome. The protest changed the behavior of our government for a day.
Did this one effort to organize civic participation go exactly as designed and solve the whole problem in one shot? Of course not. Decentralized civic displays -- almost by definition -- cannot work like that.
Civic management of government is a process, and this was a fine step. Much like our debates here in these forums are part of the process. It is the road to a better society. An endless and engaging road winding through an increasingly healthy societal system.
Or more viscerally: It is like using a spray bottle of water to train a puppy; we're going to have to do it more than once before the government learns not to poop on the carpet.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
This was entirely predictable. It's not easy to convince people to let other people--strangers of the same gender--touch them intimately as a form of protest.
From the WSJ:
George Donnelly, one of the organizers of the Opt Out day boycott, said Wednesday that his group hadn't received any reports of significant opt-outs. He said the group will continue its efforts after the Thanksgiving holiday. Few Travel Problems, as 'Opt Out' Day Fizzles
It's Thanksgiving.
Flights are booked solid weeks - often months - in advance.
The protestor does not get to the screening area without having purchased a ticket - for which he has probably paid full price. He stands a fair chance of cooling his kilts in the county lock-up until his wife can be persuaded to post bail.
I can at least see the reasons that some people are willing to twist themselves into unreasonable knots for security. I can't understand why anyone would do the same for worthless security theater, which aptly describes everything the TSA does.
Remember: The TSA has never caught a single terrorist. The TSA has never foiled a single terrorist plot. Tests succeed in getting weapons past them more than half the time. But they've made sure people can't get "bombs" in inside water bottles... by putting all the suspected "bombs" into a trash bin 5 feet from the line. Meanwhile, at El Al you won't star in your own porn or be groped and they don't care if you bring a bottle of water or shampoo, yet no flight out of El Al has ever been hijacked in more than half a century.
But seriously, this whole charade must be about one picture of a VIP's micro-tool away from being permanently canned.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
IND A concourse on Monday was doing the normal random scanner/metal detector as always. LGA D terminal didn't have any scanners that I saw, just metal detectors. I travel for work every week. I like the metal detector choice just because it's faster, especially since I don't have to remove my belt. I'd do a scanner before a patdown for the same reason. I have no problem with scanners, just don't like the extra time they take (see "Up in the Air" with George Clooney). I don't see scanners as invading my privacy. I'm comfortable exchanging some stranger seeing my image on a scanner to fly. Now, if someone wanted to scan me to drive my car, that would be a different matter. To me it's a reasonable precaution and I'm willing to accept that.
The real litmus test for this is whether you'd support a nasty, middle-Eastern looking guy with a thick beard and a white prayer cap, if he chooses to opt out. I know it's all just security theatre and so on, but I'd like to see the reaction of the folks who opt out on principle if they end up in this situation, and have to board the plane with this dude who also opted out.
It took me 4 hours to get through security Wednesday evening because of people (myself included) opting out. There were probably 200 people on line in front of me when I arrived at security. Thankfully the airline delayed our flight until everyone who had checked in was on board.
The TSA decided that the Opt Out protest was a bigger concern than Al Qaeda.
That is a tacit admission that 1. the threat is not that great and 2. these damn scanners accomplish nothing to reduce it.
Don't let them forget this!
Sometimes I enjoy listening to all the nutjobs on the radio, talking about their government conspiracies to depopulate the planet, eugenics and mental experiments. What is scary, is once in a long while, these clows are right.
This is the beginning of a police state.
Oh well, time to donate to EPIC.ORG. Maybe that action will put me on the no-fly list.... You know, aiding and funding a dangerous organization like Epic or UCLA.
Let's cut to the chase already.
What they really want is for every house to have a scanner like that on the entrance, so you are scanned and/or patted down every time you enter and exit your house and every other building (and of-course every mode of transportation as well, including the buses, planes, trains and automobiles, yachts and ships and dirigibles and even you bikes.)
This is actually very amusing to me, as I was born in the USSR and one of our best satirists ever (Zhvanetsky) had a few monologues, where he described the soviet experiences in a half-imaginary way
Here is one of the monologues (my translation):
As usually, you are going somewhere, the face as usually is facing forward; The back of the head has no clue.
All of a sudden from behind:
- Continue moving!
- I am continuing.
- So go as you are going.
- I am going as I am going.
- Take a little to the right.
- Will take... taking.
- Don't talk!
- I am silent.
- Stand there, don't look back!
- Standing. Not looking. Letting something pass on the left. What is that behind me?
- DO NOT LOOK BACK!
- Not looking.
- OK, you are free to go!
- Yes, I am free!
here is another one, please don't get on my case for the translation style, it's difficult to translate something well anyway, and to make it even remotely funny while doing so is just ... very hard and I was trying to keep to the way the monologue was read, which was with leaving many of the necessary verbs out of the text on purpose, to create an 'air' of the idea that not every word needs to be spelled out for the listener.
Turnstiles.
At the end of every street need to set up turnstiles. Obviously, you can walk this and that way, as much as you want, but this is pure lack of responsibility - going wherever you want. So at the end of each street set up the turnstiles. Nothing special. They should let everybody through for now without any questions. Don't be afraid. Only the ricketting noise lets you know... And the security guards with sleeve insignia. Let them stand there and let everybody through. For now. Just their presense, just the steel stare... You are coming towards them - the face is burning up, you pass them - you back is burning up. And they are not asking anything... yet. This is the entire effect. And it's increasing the discipling. And at any moment you can lock everything up. Those with special commands have access to any house, etc.
By the perimeter of the plaza - until the security checkpoint. A man is walking along the fence, with the hands moving over the fence. Let's suppose three, four times he moves the hands over the fence - and into the security checkpoint, where NOBODY is stopping him, though the security guards are standing there of-course. Special paint on the fence, easy to check the fingerprints, this and that, etc. My god, nobody REALLY will be taking the fingerprints off the fence, don't worry about it. But in case there is some emergency... the fingerprints are right there and what are you going to do? For now of-course, let them go through without showing any papers. Though to have the papers on your person, that's for sure, just in case they mustc check, some emergency, etc. So obviously as you are coming closer towards the guard there, you already want to show something. To come through without showing - that's only to be suffering in doubt. In time you won't mind any of the checks. It will be a shame to walk around unchecked. All the more so - to come of a sudden and somewhere, as you do now. Or to yell - "my house is my castle" - that's just from internal immorality.
But IN the corridors you don't need to put security guards. For now. You have to start at the entrance, of-co
You can't handle the truth.
If on the busiest travel day of the year, the TSA felt it was more important to get people on the planes than to scan them like that, which means they know perfectly well the risk of a terror attack is not that great, and the scanners do fuckall to address the risk.
Now we just have to rub it in their faces.
I just flew Toronto to Rome and I didn't have to do the shoes thing either way; just empty your pockets into a tray and walk through a metal detector.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The source is an opinion piece that is quoting the TSA, both of which have reasons to release numbers that serve their purposes.
"On November 23, 2010, TSA officials said that some U.S. government officials were being allowed to skip the scanner/invasive patdown if they were traveling with government bodyguards. Among the officials are executive-branch leaders such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller and congressional leaders such as Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner. Law-enforcement officials are also allowed to skip the invasive screening after filling out some paperwork."
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Transportation_Security_Administration
?????????????
"Government is just another way of saying 'better than you'" --Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour)
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Look the opt out won't work.
You want this to change? Stop flying and let the airlines know why.
When they start losing customers, they'll bitch, and lobby, and suddenly, you won't see the machines and screeners like you did.
Be seeing you...
TSA was spooked by the threat of an opt-out day, so they backed down. Tomorrow draconian procedures resume... battle is far from over for "We the People".
If you're not flying through US airspace, the "enhanced security" doesn't apply.
I've heard some of the commentary. In expectation, they diverted traffic, and the news reports says it didn't do anything. And we, of course, believe it. Me, I plan on making my voice heard through my congressperson. That said my other plan is this - if I have to fly in the future, I plan on wearing nothing but spandex. This way, there is NO question as to what is in my pockets.
This sig no verb.
Seatac is one of the few airports with TSA staff who have a reasonably sane approach to this BS. I've had two positive interactions with them recently.
First was my young daughter being selected randomly for one of their more extreme searches. The TSA staffer who was on point for those clearly wasn't happy but grimaced and waved her over, ready to follow the rules no matter how insane. An apparently higher ranking TSA person stopped him though saying quietly, "C'mon, it's a little girl", with a bit of a look that made it clear she thought he was being a moron.
The other time, also recent, we had forgotten we had some bottled water in the bottom of one of our backpacks and they found it at the x-ray machine. No problem though, they just examined it fairly closely and then let it pass.
FAIL
getalife
Out of curiosity... What would happen if you put aluminum foil down your underwear?
Alternately, what if you write "Stop staring at my junk, assholes!" on your stomach with a Sharpie?
Here's what would be posted.. http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/08/imaging-technolgy-bigger-picture.html ... ohhh .. hubba hubba.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
Way back in the '60s, I flew as a child alone from scenic Philadelphia up to Toronto. My parents walked me up to the boarding gate. After that a smiling stewardess took me by hand to my seat, and said, "Don't be afraid."
Nowadays, my parents would be carted off to Guantanamo, while security officials zapped my balls with a cattle prod.
And I look as WASPish as you can get.
Anyway, traveling by airplanes now means answering Alcatraz questions like, "Are you trying to smuggle in a file (the metal one, dumbass!) in a cake, to help the convict escape?" No fun, no more.
On the other hand, the last time I flew to the US, I did first class from Frankfurt to Philadelphia. The stewardess asked me if I was feeling ok (because I looked like something the cat dragged in). When I answered that I was traveling to the US because of an illness in the family, she told me to ask her if I needed anything. I will fly with them, USAirWays, if I ever have to fly again.
It's amazing how being polite, and asking questions can influence you . . .
It turns a miserable flight, into a pleasant one . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I returned on a flight from JFK to Heathrow on Monday. From reading Slashdot, I had been pretty much expecting annoying people, barking orders, making me go through ridiculous things in "the name of security". As it was, it was exactly like all the security checks at all the other airports in the world (quite a few) that I'd been through. Coat, metal stuff in a tray, through the X-ray thing. Me through a metal detector, no beep, I'm done. Oh, they wanted my shoes in the tray too - that's the only difference. The queue was short, the full-body scanners weren't being used. (I had made up my mind to try my hardest to avoid going through them - purely for possible future health risks - no, I don't trust that "they're perfectly safe".)
And frankly, even if it had been necessary to let someone run his hand up my leg until he gets to my genitals? Fine by me. Who's just had a great holiday in New York (me), and who's the one being demeaned (him)? It doesn't make you teh ghey, you know.
Get your own free personal location tracker
First of all, El Al is an airline, not an airport. You are confusing El Al with Ben Gurion airport.
El Al searches some people (they profile first so many proponents may be unaware of this) and they are arranging for full body scanners right now.
El Al flies very few flights. The US airlines have flown far more flights (with no hijackings) since 9/11 than El Al has in the last 50 years.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
So um, I know we spout the correlation != causation line all the time around here, but maybe some airports opened up lines to old timey metal detectors because they were at max capacity and not because opt-outs were significantly disruptive.
how fucked up is it when the nicest thing anyone has to say about the TSA is that they didn't fondle his daughter and let him have bottled water after they "examined it fairly closely". and you refer to these as "positive interactions"...
do not read this line twice.
Let's assume the airplanes are safe, what about the trains, metro, buses, schools, theaters, government building, public places.
I propose we walk naked.
Or, how about "Live free or die"? I prefer to take my chances than to be submitted to such idiocy and be treated like a criminal.
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
Do we get arrested if we ask the TSA person that?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Wait -
You mean they will let you carry a biological container that can fit 4 pounds of something in the middle and is wrapped in opaque plastic?
So they abuse your rights over 3 oz of baby milk but they let you carry THAT?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
The TSA has been lying about their numbers. First, they claimed 5 minute waits at LAX. Anyone who has ever been through LAX knows that's a complete lie. LAX has NEVER had a 5 minute wait-time. I flew out of there yesterday... the wait was an hour. I was there at 7am, and for the 15 minutes or so I was actually within view of the machines, there were 10 people that opted out (roughly 2/3rds of the people they actually tried to send through the machine). I STRONGLY doubt their numbers. Furthermore, out of the Minneapolis airport, they turned all the scanners off (I've heard they did that many places). At best, someone should be fired for lying to the public.
Oh, I also tried pointing out that their numbers were not correct, they wouldn't approve my comment.
It was going to be grand. I had worn my nicest boxers, with a button-fly to ensure no actual laws would be violated, even accidentally (giving a valid reason to jail me). No belt, loose-fitting jeans. When the man asked to to step into the scanner, I would politely accept, step inside and, when his back was turned, drop 'em.
"Oh-h say can you SEE, by the dawn's early LIGHT!..."
Amid the lengthy mouse-maze queue of holiday travelers, a few lightbulbs would come on as the irony began to sink in. Nervous TSA officials would move in. Maybe they'd react, pulling me aside by force, ordering me to shut my face and put my pants back on. Maybe I'd get through the whole thing before being tased into submisison.
"In the land of the FREE, and the home of the BRAVE!..." *dzzt!* *thud*
What really happened:
My gf and I show up at the Logan Airport security checkpoint. It was a ghost town. We present our boarding passes (not IDs); I swear I see a tumbleweed blow by. Every TSA lane is staffed, but where are the passengers? There are exactly two travelers ahead of us, in separate lanes, and nobody behind. They're gone by the time we get our shoes off and all our crap onto the conveyer. Dropping my pants for a handful of screeners and zero travelers suddenly doesn't seem worthwhile any more.
My gf (who is not particularly bothered by the body scan) steps into the scanner, and I get waved through the metal detector, despite there being two other open scanners and nobody behind us in line. Cheery TSA guy at the metal detector says he likes my t-shirt. If I was a bad guy, you'd have seen it on the news already, because this "screen" was a complete joke. Afterward, I realized I was so busy contemplating my own "security theater" performance that I left my laptop in its case inside my backpack. They didn't care. My gf had separately forgotten to unpack her big bag o' liquids. They didn't care.
Conclusions:
TSA's "solution" to both the holiday crush and the potential protests was to drop the theater act and just let everyone sail on through. To me, this speaks volumes about both their perceived effectiveness and value of the new "enhanced" security processes. I can't say to what extent the potential for protests was a factor in this, but if it was, this was a doubly-brilliant move on the part of the TSA. The best way to stop a protest cold is to take away its audience, and that is exactly what happened here. Meanwhile, everyday sheep travelers are probably marveling at how painless the process was today - on the busiest travel day of the year! - and making associations between this and the new body scanner procedure. Well played, TSA, well played.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
mod parent up
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
Yes. You USA people just created a new batch of parasites. Have fun trying to get rid of this mess of vested interests and financial clusterfuck.
And no, don't think I'm poking fun at USA. The rest of the world has more or less similar strains of itch.
The TSA has been fairly successful at portraying people who worry about X-rays in the same way as people who worry about cell phone radiation.
They say that these X-rays are:
1) "soft" X-rays
2) they only go through a tiny layer of skin and soft tissue
3) if you're in an air plane then you are getting cosmic radiation anyway and you don't worry about that.
But actually the hard x-rays at the dentist are absorbed by your teeth. No one gets tooth cancer. But soft tissue like your skin and breasts do get cancer. Your balls are seldom exposed to radiation so no one knows if your balls get cancer or if it makes you impotent or means your kids have birth defects or what happens. The fact that it gets absorbed in a small area of your body means that while it's a small dose, it's very concentrated in areas where you don't want to get cancer. If you're on a plane and this radiation was coming from the space then the fuselage would absorb almost of it.
The X-ray scanners work like the TV at your grand parents house. It scans a beam of X-rays and creates a picture. You know how your grand parents put up with a lousy picture instead of getting a new TV? The TSA is like that. These guys aren't trained radiologists. They'll live with a degraded picture instead of wondering if it's giving you too high a dose of radiation.
X-rays really are quite a different thing from cell phone radiation. It's true that most scientists don't think cell phones cause cancer, but these are a different thing and the TSA is being dishonest here. If the protest succeeded or if it didn't succeed doesn't matter. I'm not going to go through the scanners until you people have beta tested it.
They didn't tell the terrorists they were going to shut them down so the terrorists didn't have time to take advantage of the lax security...tada!
No sig today...
but grimaced and waved her over, ready to follow the rules no matter how insane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02M7h-1qU0Q
Both the security guard and their supervisor broke procedure and policy, risking their jobs. Consider that there are more than likely thousands of people queueing up for these jobs (perverts and predators included, I'd wager), I don't see it being a problem replacing those who won't tow the line.
I'd say it's a good experience to meet a decent human being who understands that there's more to security on air travel than making people carry tiny bottles of water and feeling up children. It's not the best, but it's a step in the right direction.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
You wear underwear with your kilts? weirdos.
I know it is a bit of an hyperbole... but I've been reading a lot of "OMG Think of the children" reaction both here in slashdot and in Reddit lately, in reaction to the children-patdown.
Well, at the risk of being modded down, I just want to comment that kids have been indeed used to transport illegal material through flights (specifically, packages of cocaine).
A real example of that is a Mexican woman with two children that where caught with several cocaine packages in London Heathrow airport. You can read about that in this book... or here
Now... this does not mean I am in favour of the children molesting that the TSA is currently doing... nevertheless we should have in mind that there is a possibility of a terrorist filling his kid with explosives just for the sake of it :-/
What a fucked up society we live in today... isn't it?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
75% less people fly on thanksgiving than 10 years ago. People already are not flying.
Be glad that you can opt out at these airports.
If you're a US citizen flying back to the US from the UK for Thanksgiving then you have NO OPT OUT. If you're told to go through the perv scanner then you have to go through it. If you ask for a pat down then they will tell you in no uncertain terms that you go through the scanner or you don't fly. If you become upset at this then you risk being "detained" be security and possibly arrested under British anti terror laws, which are pretty draconian since they can put you under house arrest, freeze your assets and prevent you from contacting people without supervision, without even telling you what you're actually being detained for other than that its terrorist related. Oh, and they can have you rendered straight to Guantanimo Bay so that you don't set foot on US soil in transit. This gives you the same rights (or lack of them) as an enemy combatant, not as a civilian prisoner or a military POW.
STAND BACK! That guy opens up that package and everyone in First Class is going to have one hell of a party!
I wonder how many of "items concealed on children" that the TSA spouts off about were simply nail clippers or Leatherman tools that parents forgot to check with their luggage?
You're absolutely right, these individuals deserve praise for using their heads rather than foolishly following mindless procedure. (Would that such behavior made them eligible for more supervisory duties where they could spread that attitude.) However, liquidsin's point is also quite good: that this shouldn't be the exception. It shouldn't be remarkable that a decent human being is working as a TSA screener; it should be expected. If the system is such that a person needs to risk unemployment to do what's right, the system is, pardonnez mon français, fucked up. If that's a step in the right direction, we need to start taking leaps.
One guy per airport can shut down the world's transportation system with a morning's stroll through any airport.
As soon as they start detecting nitrates on luggage, they have to shut everything down.
OBL has succeeded. No more suicide bombers are needed, just a few happy guys who like to walk through airports every now and then.
not to get all godwin-ny, but nazis who didn't put bullets in jews were breaking procedure and policy. "doing what i'm told" is no excuse. frankly, i'm a bit surprised that we're not hearing about tsa employees quitting their jobs to avoid having to feel up and x-ray-strip-search american air travellers all day long. but it sure would be nice to hear about a few quitting on the grounds that they're uncomfortable with enforcing such shitty policy. i guess they wouldn't be working for the tsa in the first place if they had any guts.
do not read this line twice.
I haven't flown this century and likely won't if I can avoid it until the situation improves.
But I do have a bit of advice for the TSA: perhaps if you allowed people to place a metal plate over their face they may be more likely to do the body scan. You shouldn't need to associate the public aspects of my person with the private aspects for a one-off security scan. If people are assured that nothing exists associating their recognizable physical identity with their nude form they may be more willing to undergo the procedure and their concerns of the image possibly being retained would lessen.
You really don't lose anything by allowing facial concealment from the scan. You're recording everything at the checkpoint already so if you're dead set on secretly building a database of people naked you can tag the video footage and the scan with a time-code to re-associate them easily.
Because really, what good does it do to scan my head which is already uncovered? What possible weaponry could I be concealing in my face that you couldn't discern by visual inspection?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?