10 airports install body scanners

[bdamomma]

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080606/a_bodyscan06.art.htm



TSA scanners getting their jollies off seeing our bodies.

some snips from the article.

Darin Scott of Miami was annoyed by the process.

"If you don't ask questions, they don't tell you anything," Scott said. When he asked a screener technical questions about the scanner, "he could not answer," Scott said.

TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne said the agency is studying passenger reaction and could "get more creative" about informing passengers. "If passengers have questions," she said, "they need to ask the questions."

and you find these sheep responses:

In Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where scanners have been tested since last year as an alternative to pat-downs, 90% of passengers choose to be scanned, the TSA says.

"Most passengers don't think it's any big deal," Schear said. "They think it's a piece of security they're willing to do."

[Hydra]

1. Pfff

I haven't flown in awhile, but this is the final nail in the coffin. I will not be flying public until this security nonsense and sexual harassment stop.

[LeftyMom]

2. So either some screener looks at you naked, or some other screener cops a feel?

Why are these airport screenings so varied? Here they just xray your bags and walk you through a metal detector. In Columbus they swabbed my bags (in front of me) for explosives, in Tampa they have some sniffer thing you stand in that puffs air at you and then tests it for explosives or something, at La Guardia it's the same as Sacramento, but the staff steals your shit while you're in the metal detector.

If this were anything but a waste, wouldn't the high end security shit be in the big cities, or would it all be standardized?

[uppityperson]

3. The list, from the article..

Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and at New York's Kennedy airport. Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport in Washington starts using a body scanner today.

Crap, probably means I can't hand carry my hearing aid batteries through any more. They are the tiny little ones and sending them through the x-ray machine makes them not work.

[high density]

6. Currently I believe this is only for the "secondary screening"

If you don't get "randomly chosen" for additional screening and make it through the standard magnetometer, then you should be OK. However, I'm sure some defense contractor is chomping at the bit to make thousands of these puppies so they'll probably replace the magnetometer eventually.

[high density]

4. So some TSA guy making $10/hr is going to review naked scans of somebody?

I feel so much safer already.

The scanners do a good job seeing under clothing but cannot see through plastic or rubber materials that resemble skin, said Peter Siegel, a senior scientist at the California Institute of Technology.

"You probably could find very common materials that you could wrap around you that would effectively obscure things," Siegel said.

If we're so worried about security, that seems like a very serious flaw in the machine. How much did these things cost again?

How long until they're selling rubber codpieces at the airport gift shop?

[Indenturedebtor]

9. LOL yeah I'm going to get a giant rubber wang and

A special effects alien head that appears to pop out of my chest heh.

This is some scary crap.

[izquierdista]

5. Not a big deal

Reminds me of the title of Tadeusz Borowski's work, "Prosze panstwa do gazu" (Please folks, this way to the gas).

[woo me with science]

7. Examples

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/brainiac/2007/10/through_a_scann.html&h=331&w=400&sz=35&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=Er3e5tuB7Yv7UM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbody%2Bscanner%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/15218res20020315.html&h=403&w=288&sz=15&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=7LReVBMs3eF9LM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbody%2Bscanner%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

[LaurenG]

8. millimeter waves - I had to look that up.

I guess according to wikipedia it's used as a weapon as well.

Weapons systems
The U.S. Air Force is reported to have developed a nonlethal weapon system called Active Denial System (ADS) which emits a beam of radiation with a wavelength of 3mm <3>. The weapon is reportedly not painful, but rather makes the target feel as if his or her clothes are going to catch fire <4>.

make your enemies tear their clothes off, they can't fight really well naked. :wow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency