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The Hi-Tech Security at the Super Bowl
Hugh Pickens writes "As millions of fans sit glued to their sets next Sunday, one part of the game they will not see is the massive deployment of federal and local law enforcement resources to achieve what is being called the most technologically secure Super Bowl in history, an event that has been officially designated as a National Security Special Event (PDF). At the top of the list are gamma-ray cargo and vehicles scanners that can reportedly see through six inches of steel to reveal the contents of large vehicles. 'We can detect people, handguns and rifles,' says Customs and Border Protection Officer Brian Bell. 'You'd be a fool to bring something into that stadium that you shouldn't. We're going to catch it. Our goal is to look at every vehicle that makes a delivery inside the stadium and inside the secure perimeter.' Next is the 51-foot Featherlite mobile command center for disaster response that will support the newly constructed $18 million Regional Operations Center (ROC) for the Marion County Department of Homeland Security that will serve as a fusion center for coordinating the various federal agencies involved in providing security for the Super Bowl. One interesting security measure are the 'Swiveloc' explosion-proof manhole covers (video) that Indianapolis has spent $150,000 installing that are locked down during the Super Bowl. In case of an underground explosion, the covers lift a couple of inches off the ground — enough to vent gas out without feeding in oxygen to make an explosion bigger — before falling back into place. Finally the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI has installed a network of cameras that will be just a click away for government officials. 'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,' says Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin."
You know the terrorists have won when...
...budget cuts to space exploration. Good thing Football is safe.
What game do they play at the Super Bowl?
'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,' says Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin."
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
Who sets this kind of thing up without any authentication?!
Are ya'll expecting something that you should perhaps be telling us about? Not that I could give two shits less about football, but still.
Which will invalidate any attempt at security. nice GPS autopilot and crude balloon puncturing mechanism to deliver payload.
> you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there...
Now there's a gauntlet, if I every saw one.
They have just created a challenge in regards to just that Internet address is...
Sweet - get the TSA in there to feel up all the big, hairy, stoked-up sports fans with facepaint and a few six-packs already down the hatch. Who needs a half-time show, just put a camera on that fiasco.
Or they'll cancel the 'ole bleedin' lot!
Make the NFL foot this whole security bill.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
"'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,' says Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin."
Sounds like he's issuing a challenge.
They were because they KEEP EXPLODING!!!
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/29819089/detail.html
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
we won't have those constant superbowl terrorist attacks!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
ignored this: GAMMA RAY DETECTORS? I don't really have the full grasp on which types of radiation are 'safe' or not, but if these scanners are strong enough to see through 6 inches of steel and detect humans/weapons, can they really be that safe to use on (I assumed) every citizen coming through the checkpoint in order to park at the superbowl?
Honestly I'd rather take my odds with being hit during the superbowl than being irradiated just to get inside. Then again, if it sterilized even a fraction of the football crowd.... :D
Someone mixes tiny nitroglycerin tablets with breadcrumbs and the Super Bowl is canceled due to pigeon poop.
"Oh boy!" thought Milton, "A article on football! And not the soccer version, the American football kind!" He could barely contain his troll-citement. He never fully recovered from the traumatizing memories of high school where the sports jocks viciously bullied him, and this was a perfect opportunity to remind the world how stupid the concept of this sport was! He put his fingers together, pondering on what kind of "insightful" comment would get modded up by his fellow neck-beards. A reference to hand-egg and the stupidity of the name? Nah.. been done before.. Perhaps a comment on the overall barbaric nature of the sport and a jab to all the rednecks and jocks that enjoy it? Better.. but maybe...
"Wait a minute..." he thought. "Maybe I should be contributing to the contents of the article? Perhaps I should mention how government funds shouldn't be involved here, but they'll be there anyway due to close ties between football and the military. Maybe something on security theater and a reference to airports and perhaps a lack of any terrorist related activities in football games?" But the thought quickly left his mind, as there was too much bitterness towards those jock types he worked with in marketing (and couldn't stand) and instead posted "HURRR maybe they should up the radiation on the metal detectors so the in-breed hicks that attend the game get sterilized!!"
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Wow that's tight security when the cameras themselves are being monitored by cameras. I wonder whether the camera-surveilling cameras are also being surveilled?And before anyone makes a smart ass remark about an infiinte regression of cameras watching cameras that's clearly silly (you only need a hanful of cameras to have enough to form circle where all cameras are being watched by other cameras).
Visit from Secret Service in 3,2,1...
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this about gamma ray cargo? I did skim TFA but saw no reference to gamma rays. Did the submitter just pull that out of his backside or is someone really planning on bringing gamma ray cargo to the football game? If so, why?
As far as irradiating vehicles, how cancer-inducing is that going to be? There's no reference in TFA to how they're planning on seeing through six inches of steel beyond a reference to "a high-tech sensor and a robotic arm", but dollars to doughnuts, if it can penetrate six inches of steel, whatever they're doing will be less-than-healthy to living organisms. Even if they limit this to delivery vehicles, the drivers are likely to fare poorly.
It's a thing, and yes, what it sounds like: they have a radioactive source that gives off gamma rays, which pass through a truck, and then gamma ray detectors that look at what passed through. Sort of like a heavy-duty xray machine, except at these sizes/energies, the gamma-ray machines are actually safer than getting blasted with xrays.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Of course, this is reason to a) declare a huge success and so naturally b) deploy (and spend) even more, next time. The fact that in all likelyhood exactly nothing would have happened without all that, is of course nothing but crazy talk.
This sort of thinking, by the by, is what "faith" consists of, and it runs just about the entire planet. Most established religions are cheaper and thus more cost effective, though. But then, it's always the fresh converts that're the most zealous.
And while all this fear mongering, submission to armed authority, 'convenience arrests', and security theater is happening, thousands of Americans will be singing
"mumble mumble mumble something something Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!"
*shakes head sadly*
Yeah. Enjoy the game. Really. There's not a lot else left now, is there?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Sweet - get the TSA in there to feel up all the big, hairy, stoked-up sports fans with facepaint and a few six-packs already down the hatch
"Feel up"? Don't you mean "irradiate"? G-ray scanner capable of looking through inches of steel isn't too safe for gonads. Especially if they don't shut down the source if traffic gets tied up in front of it.
If most of 'em weren't already past breeding age it might make a nontrivial improvement in the nerd/jock ratio of upcoming generations.
(Yes, yes, I know they said it was for use on cargo vehicles. But if operated with the usual competence level of government projects ...)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Your high explosives are nothing compared to the farts which will issue from tens of thousands of asses
halfway through the game.
All we need to do is ignite those farts, and the whole place will go up !
Of course, if the DHS outlaws beer and tacos, they might save the day.
"As millions of fans sit glued to their sets next Sunday"
It's this Sunday not next Sunday! =) Grammatically correct or not I don't know, but "this Sunday" is so much clearer.
It took some major editing, but I fixed that for you.
Clearly, that is exactly what a few people are allowed to do. And worse, they are allowed to throw the US Constitution out the window in the process.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
You just ripped of one of the regular Joker plots that Batman has to foil.
Of course, this whole attack the superbowl thing is a re-used plot, too.
The Constitution says we can carry weapons anywhere we damn please. It's bad enough having them taken away on airplanes and in court houses, but now the Super Bowl? The very heart of Americanism? What's the country coming to?
If the terrorists attack the Super Bowl and every single citizen there were armed, there would be no more terrorists!
(There would be no more a lot of other people either, but we Americans are A-OK with collateral damage.)
Vancouver melted down after the cup loss and just thing what would happened if they lost in round 1 game 7 to the blackhawks. That may ended in a even bigger mess.
Yea but then the adversaries are the most technologically capable in history as well.
... getting on that wonder list for the sake of a prank might hamper their next flight to comic con.
Scanners that can look through 6" of steel you say ?
Does everybody have to take their shoes off as well ?
Such statements tickle the fancy of hackers that have no negative motives but love a challenge.
Then again
Gamma-ray machines run at 1.25MeV, while diagnostic x-rays are done in the range of 0.02-0.15MeV. How is 10-60x more radiation safer?
You'd be a fool to bring something into that stadium that you shouldn't. We're going to catch it.
So much for bringing your own booze or food in. The stadium concession business is safe!
Have gnu, will travel.
How many confirmed deaths in Vancouver hockey riot?
None you say?
Thought so. Even in Canukistan people don't kill over hockey.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
All I have to say to the Feds is: good luck with that.
Indiana is a "shall issue" concealed carry state. Indianapolis has an exception to concealed carry in city parks, but the stadium is not a city park.
What that means is: the Feds have no authority to prevent someone from taking a legally-carried concealed handgun into the stadium.
It may be against the stadium rules. That I don't know. But it isn't against the law.
Why pays for this in the end? Borrowed money from overseas I bet! Live within your means, America!
I hope my tax dollars are paying for all this security just so that companies and team owners can rake in millions from ad revenues and sales.
captcha phrase: balling
Medical x-rays are safer, but they don't come anywhere near penetrating a steel truck at that power. The kinds of x-ray machines needed to scan a whole truck are more like 5-10 MeV.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
>At the top of the list are gamma-ray cargo and vehicles scanners that can reportedly see through six inches of steel to reveal the contents of large vehicles.
Just wait until they use this on a vehicle that still has a human being still inside it when they turn on their death/maim ray.
They really want to open themselves up to that kind of liability?
--
BMO
Sincerely,
Indianapolis resident that works downtown.
just fucking go away please
A hundred comments and no one has mentioned the Goodyear blimp yet? Sad...
And we're all sitting here thinking, "A couple of engineers could figure out how to get around it in a matter of a few hours."
When do we get our government back?
----- obSig
If you've ever walked around Indy in the winter, you know some weird stuff is up with the manholes anyways. There are always huge piles of steam pouring out random locations around downtown.
I don't have time to make a sig
Nuff said.
threats. Like a GPS-guided mortar (http://www.army.mil/article/53988/) or a laser-guided mortar (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/US-Army-Wants-120mm-GPS-Guided-Mortars-to-Fight-Afghan-Insurgents-05990/), or even a few of these (http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/) rigged with hand grenades that can be dropped with the click of an RC controller. Asymmetric threats are a real bitch. Gamma vehicle scanners won't keep dedicated I-will-give-my-life-to-mess-you-up types away. But, hey - more aerospace welfare, somebody's getting big buck$ contracts.
no its soccer they kill over
Egyptian soccer riot: Death toll at 73
The article talks about detecting people bringing guns into the stadium. How does this affect a legally armed citizen with a CCW permit? At least in my state, the law designates places in which private citizens may not carry firearms under any circumstances, regardless of permit. Places such as churches, airports, schools, courthouses, government buildings, etc are on this list. Football stadiums, at last check, are not.
What's that you say? Places can post signs that say no weapons allowed and Joe Citizen has to abide by their rules? That's actually not true, at least in my state. Places can post signs, but Joe Citizen is under no obligation to honor their policies. What he is obliged to do is leave if they ask him to, or risk being arrested for trespass.
Before you say that a busy place like a football stadium is no place for someone to have a desire to carry a gun, think about how many people are in close proximity there, how much alcohol will be consumed, how many people will get stupid drunk, and how many stupid people will be doing stupid things. This is EXACTLY why folks have a desire to be able to legally defend themselves in situations such as this.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for increasing public security, but if it compromises my ability to defend myself, I'll be watching from home.
Need an example? Schools are supposed to be uber-safe because nobody can have a gun there right? That's what the law says. But what that means in reality is that only the criminals will have guns. Just think about how all those college shootings might have gone very differently if law-abiding students with CCW permits had been allowed to carry on campus. People like to make CCW holders out as vigilantes, but for the most part we are probably better at minding our own business than the average citizen is, because (for the most part) we have a very thorough understanding of what a shit storm our lives will turn into if we act without proper justification.
Gamma rays which pass through a truck, then pass *THROUGH* the gamma ray detector, and then continue to pass through things opposite the emitter.
Where in the middle of a city are you going to aim the emitter, besides up (airlines?), which doesn't expose everyone behind the emitter to ionizing radiation?
P.S. Gamma ray, meet X-ray, xray, meet gamma. They are in the same EM spectra, just one comes from nuclear emission, and the other from firing a stream of electrons at tungsten.
I had the distinct displeasure of witnessing that event personally, and you know what asshat, I still believe that I would rather die at the hands of a terrorist then to live in a country that fears death so much that they would let a group of power hungry assholes control them and piss all over the document they swore to defend and support. So fuck off and grow a pair, freedom isn't free, it comes with risks. One of those is death.
I question the truth of the story's claims. A gamma source used for X-raying that is powerful enough to go through 6 inches of steel would require a radiation exclusion zone around the vehicle. The driver would have to exit the truck and move outside the zone. The statement "Officials said the VACIS machine can scan at least six semi-trucks within minutes, " is a distortion or even a lie, because in each truck's case, 1) the driver would have to exit the truck and move away 2) the scan would have to be done 3) the screen images would have to be examined in depth. This can't be done for six trucks as cited in a few minutes with full coverage of contents. I consult in the industry and the quoted numbers don't seem right. I really smell theatre here.
I'm not seeing how this is going to protect against terrorists who have followed the lesson of the successful terrorists of years past: Read Tom Clancy. I don't care how much high tech scanning you do of the people who get in, a terrorist with a nuke is still going to be able to get close enough to blow the whole place up.
...not while the is on, anyway.
Sort of like a heavy-duty xray machine, except at these sizes/energies, the gamma-ray machines are actually safer than getting blasted with xrays.
These are definitely not safe. To get any brightness from gamma rays requires much higher intensities due to lower interaction rates. I would definitely NOT want to be anywhere near one of these machines. One small misconfiguration, or someone standing in wrong spot, and you are blasted by radiation in range of mSv/min..
Frankly, this shit is ridicules. It's like the 1920s and their xray shoe fitting machines! Maybe it's time to get personal dosimeters to protect you from these "safety devices". And I'm someone that would not think twice about visiting Fukushima or Chernobyl or even living in most of the "contaminated" area.
If you outlaw beer and tacos at a sports event, you will have a situation on your hands!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The problem with numbers is that you're assigning them to a single arbitrary time period. The correct way of saying that would to spend $38b on ensuring those very people are safe at all times in all parts of their lives.
If a hypothetical super bowl bombing doesn't occur then statistically several of your 10k people won't live to the end of the year anyway due to other problems. We spend ludicrous amounts of money against an unknown and unpredictable threat that is likely to affect only a minuscule percentage of our population, and given the current state of security is likely to remain a threat despite everyone's best efforts. All the while we can clearly see statistically people die every year and they don't get a dime spent on them.
Take the $38bn and put it into some basic healthcare if you want return on investment, not fighting the maybe terrorists.
A jihad upon the enemies of football!
"The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." -- Eric S. Raymond
Morons in the stands, morons on the field. Anyone who could take them all out should get the first non-posthumous Darwin award.
It's not football they care about, it's all the very wealthy attendees. It isn't cheap to go to the Super Bowl; poor people won't be there.
Just a mortar outside the stadium could bypass all those moronic measures.
Gamma rays are not safer, just ask Dr. Bruce Banner!
Nice to see that the Japanese Death Rays from the 50s have been re-purposed!
We're talking about millions or possibly billions of dollars for all this equipment crap, the logistics, the overtime pay for the local cops, the extra Feds, yadda yadda...
And where is all this money coming from? You can bet your sweet ass the NFL isn't spending a dime of its own money for all this. The NFL is like the roach motel of money: dollars go in, but they don't come out.
So, in Eric Cantor speak, how much medicare and social security is being cut to pay for all this, since the government isn't allowed to spend a fucking penny (remember how we lost our AAA credit rating?) without serious cuts elsewhere to pay for it.
Or is that only the case for programs the democrats want, and football is another matter entirely? I'm amazed that politicians will mouth off for hours on the floor of Congress about some minor bill for a park and how that's going to bankrupt the USA, but they feel they've got the money to burn for this crap?
You've gotta be kidding me. Excuse me, but this USA is bankrupt, fools! There are no jobs. The middle class is falling into poverty. Didn't you hear the Republican State of the Union response? How do we have the cash for this nonsense?
Sorry kid, Granny can't get dialysis because we hadda' gamma ray through six inches of steel to find nothing. Because we're frigging terrified of a bogeyman, a bodgeyman who we need to spend 15 billion to defend ourselves against a guy with a $12 rifle.
Look at our history since 9/11. It's appalling: Billions spent. Trillions spent. And yet, we can't defend against simple roadside bombs made from leftover munitions and a cell-phone. The bad guys spend $5 and we spend 50 Billion to defend against the $5 -- those numbers are NOT sustainable. It's insanity.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The reason the manhole covers had locks installed had nothing to do with security. It was because Indianapolis Power & Light substations, which are underground in downtown Indy, kept exploding and blowing manhole covers 20 ft in the air.
There were 4 such explosions last year.
'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,'
Government officials will attempt to watch the game without proper game licenses! Scandalous!
Er, great. Isn't it pretty much a given that every subsequent Super Bowl will win that title?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
So according to you, I can set up a rave somewhere for 10,000 people and the government HAS TO bring about all the security and safety measures, paid for by tax money ? What about my private party, maybe it's not in the greatest neighborhood so I could use half a dozen police officers and a body scanner to feel safe ? After all, it is their job as you say.
If you've ever had to set up a public event, you would have found out that you have to PAY for all police presence, firemen and so on.
Someone has been watching too much.
Ben Affleck, yuck.
All it would take is one person to go in with some flour, be in the middle of the bleachers, jump up and scream "ALLLLAAAAHHHH!" etc. etc. and start throwing it into the wind. The game would shutdown and you would see every three letter agency swarm all over that place like fucking bees. Or use some specific growth media that some nutsack in the CDC could say, "yep - this shit could hold spores like anthrax", and the whole place would come to a grinding halt. Superbowl Sunday would happen some other day...
You wouldn't need a single illegal substance. The fear of all the rednecks in the crowd trampling over everyone and the riot that would ensue would be "terrorist" enough without actually killing anyone directly.
Still - one idiot could expose all that security theater for the bullshit that it is...