So you’re at the airport, you’ve gone through the inevitable check-in and security line, when you walk through a machine you think is a metal detector, just like you probably have a number of times before. However, if you’re at one of nineteen airports across the country testing new “whole body imaging” scanners, you might be interested in knowing just what the security official on the other side of the screen is seeing if you go through one of the machines, according to CNN.
Indeed, if you believe privacy advocates, what they are seeing on their screen might be something just shy of a peep show. Right now just six airports (San Francisco, Miami, Albuquerque, New Mexico Tulsa, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas) are using the new whole body imaging scanners as a primary security check option, while the remainder use them as a secondary check after people fail a metal detector. In the past, the secondary option would have been a pat down.
CNN.com posted a GREAT article about the TSA’s plan to roll out millimeter X-Ray to more and more airports. I hope someone releases the scans of our top politicians.
The option of walking through a whole-body scanner or taking a pat-down shouldn’t be the final answer, said Chris Calabrese, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don’t think we should pretend those are the only choices,” he said. “People shouldn’t be humiliated by their government” in the name of security, nor should they trust that the images will always be kept private.
“Screeners at LAX [Los Angeles International Airport],” he speculated, “could make a fortune off naked virtual images of celebrities.”
Until this past January, it had been 18 years since I had read Fiction. (Other than comic books)
Starting in January, I’ve decided to read a Fictional book/month. I can punish non-fiction but when I sat down to ready my first book of the year, my brain just wasn’t processing the words on the page.. I had trouble following the characters and weaving plotlines but after the 3rd chapter, I was in a groove and it all came together.
So far, I’m way ahead of the 1 book per month goal. Just finished reading “Moonraker” tonight and surprised at how the book ended. I thought Bond AWAYS gets the girl. 🙂
On a recommendation from NewTek’s CEO, Jim Plant I’m starting my 7th book of 2009, “Dies the Fire” by S.M. Stirling.
Another scary story to followup my Patriot Act story from last week.
Chicago Sun Times reports….
As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights — even if the drivers aren’t suspects.
Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.
That means “police are seemingly free to secretly track anyone’s public movements with a GPS device,” he wrote.
Tonight the San Antonio Current LINK HERE used TriCaster to stream over 5 hours of election coverage! I had the honor of being interviewed for the webcast about how TriCaster is changing the face of live web programming.
Check out my interview below. My section starts at about 5min..
This is VERY scary.. It’s soooo easy to hack into someone’s wireless router these days that anyone could be a victim of something like this.
“We have no rights under the Patriot Act to even defend them, because the Patriot Act basically supersedes the Constitution,” she said. “It wasn’t intended to drag your barely 16-year-old, 120-pound son out in the middle of the night on a charge that we can’t even defend.”
On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel William Smith was piloting a U.S. Army B-25 bomber through New York City. He was on his way to Newark Airport to pick up his commanding officer, but for some reason he showed up over LaGuardia Airport and asked for a weather report. Because of the poor visibility, the LaGuardia tower wanted to him to land, but Smith requested and received permission from the military to continue on to Newark. The last transmission from the LaGuardia tower to the plane was a foreboding warning: “From where I’m sitting, I can’t see the top of the Empire State Building.”1
Family Safety, Technology, World Gone Wild | Philip May 21, 2009 | 
Comments (0) 