Viral Video About Body Scanners • Hacker News Board

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#131

Post by DanBC » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #8

There is something chillingly unconvincing about their attempts at informality. Big Brother jokey is a lot more frightening than Big Brother bureaucratic or Big Brother bombastic. Too bad this insight wasn't available to Orwell or he could have made 1984 even scarier.

If people haven't read 1984 recently they should give it another go.

> But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

This appears to describe behaviour of a small[1] number of border guards and customs agents seen in a number of recent HN threads.

> If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.

At least Big Brother worked. I don't know what's worse about the jokey incompetence of the blog post: the fact that it hopelessly missed the mark for correct tone; or the thought that maybe they actually believed it; or that most people will just shrug their shoulders and think "meh, so what?" and do nothing more about it.

[1] for various values of small, possibly including "most of them".

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#132

Post by epoxyhockey » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

Linka4356 wrote: post #126

mrmaddog wrote: post #47

2 days ago, from a BusinessWeek article about the author of the blog post: “I call it the corny dad approach. I’m basically the Bob Saget of blogging,” the 41-year-old tells Bloomberg Businessweek. “This isn’t really the most exciting subject, so I thought I should inject some personality into it.” Three years removed from working the security lines himself—he used to train TSA officers at the Cincinnati airport—Blog…

Surely he means "Danny Tanner," as Bob Saget is hardly a "corny dad." Not surprised at the mistake though.

For those that have not seen the real Bob Saget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HW4mPZmKPM

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#133

Post by GBond » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:28 PM UTC

Tone is baffling... only explanation is the official blog is trying to spoof their spoof?

https://twitter.com/#!/tsagov (TSA satire)

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#134

Post by onemoreact » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:31 PM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #127

corin_ wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking that you can judge someone's intelligence by their spelling and grammar is so incredibly wrong. And I don't mean wrong in a moral "don't be that guy" way (though that too), I mean wrong as in technically inaccurate.

There's at least some correlation. How strong that correlation may be is debatable, and there are always exceptions and extenuating circumstances. But writing is an expression of thought, and as such, its elegance -- or lack thereof -- often reveals quite a bit about the mind of its author.

Correlation's don't have to be linear. The correlation could easily be negative at the high end of the IQ scale and positive at the low end of the IQ scale. Great writers don't expose their minds they shape the readers mind though both elegance and fnord.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#135

Post by sharth » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:36 PM UTC

tsigo wrote: post #13

If this weren't on a .gov site I'd think this was satire. As it is, it's just scary and sad.

To be honest, I'm still not sure if the post was because the blog was hacked.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#136

Post by crusso » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:41 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #77

temphn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spelling and grammatical errors tell you within 5 seconds that this person is not very intelligent. For obvious security reasons, we can’t discuss our technology's detection capability in detail, however TSA conducts extensive testing of all screening technologies in the laboratory and at airports prior to rolling them out to the entire field. This is a run-on sentence. Imaging technology has been extremely effec…

Thinking that you can judge someone's intelligence by their spelling and grammar is so incredibly wrong. And I don't mean wrong in a moral "don't be that guy" way (though that too), I mean wrong as in technically inaccurate.

I tend to judge people poorly when they use bad grammar. Then again, one of the most brilliant guys I know regularly sends out email messages that are barely decipherable -- much less grammatically correct.

In general, bad grammar makes a bad first impression. I allow them to prove otherwise with the content of what they're saying.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#137

Post by CWuestefeld » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:41 PM UTC

dlss wrote: post #109

temphn wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Speaking intuitively, if you can't judge someone's intelligence by their writing ability, what possible measure could you use? Grammatical deficiencies are symptoms of conceptual deficiencies. Speaking technically, vocabulary tests are some of the most highly g-loaded batteries around: Different tests in a test battery may correlate with (or "load onto") the g factor of the battery to different degrees. These cor…

Grammatical deficiencies can be symptoms of conceptual deficiencies. They can also be symptomatic of getting overly excited, or of discussing very conceptually or emotionally difficult topics. They can be symptomatic of lying. They can also signify which social group you belong to, bro. To give a more specific critique: vocabulary tests are done in a controlled environment, and hence can not be used to judge the corr…

Your explanation would suggest that the writer's cognitive abilities (whatever they might be) don't carry over into chaotic or stressful situations (i.e., he falls apart under pressure).

I would submit that this in itself ought to disqualify him from an important position in an agency as putatively critical as the TSA. People working there, especially those in positions of responsibility, ought to be able to work effectively under pressure.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#138

Post by jonnathanson » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:47 PM UTC

onemoreact wrote: post #134

jonnathanson wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's at least some correlation. How strong that correlation may be is debatable, and there are always exceptions and extenuating circumstances. But writing is an expression of thought, and as such, its elegance -- or lack thereof -- often reveals quite a bit about the mind of its author.

Correlation's don't have to be linear. The correlation could easily be negative at the high end of the IQ scale and positive at the low end of the IQ scale. Great writers don't expose their minds they shape the readers mind though both elegance and fnord.

"Correlation's don't have to be linear."

True.

"The correlation could easily be negative at the high end of the IQ scale and positive at the low end of the IQ scale."

This is conjecture, though. And, while entirely possible, it doesn't necessarily seem to be borne out by available evidence.

"Great writers don't expose their minds they shape the readers mind..."

This is a false dichotomy. "Exposing" one's mind, and influencing someone else's, are not mutually exclusive activities. Furthermore, shaping a reader's mind is not the sole province of the "great" writer. Terrible writers are often capable of influencing people. While I would agree that stronger writers are probably more capable of influence, influence itself is an after-effect of writing and an observational artifact. It is not intrinsic to the written product.

My point is that, since writing is necessarily an act of expression, the strength of one's expression reveals something about the strength of what one is trying to express. It's hard to cleanly separate the two.

Now, I'll readily concede that intelligence is probably not the most important variable in the quality of one's writing. Things like training, education, practice, exposure to other writing (via reading), etc., are far more important. But intelligence is in the equation. Exactly how significant it is is up for debate.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#139

Post by jroseattle » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 2:49 PM UTC

Well, Bob (original author) -- as if the situation couldn't be more magnified, your post has simply added to the impression that the TSA is mostly public hand-waving in the place of real security.

"Crude" attempt? "you know… things that go BOOM"? I sincerely hope you take anyone's claim seriously, public or otherwise, that they can circumvent any security measure put in place by the TSA. The tone of your blog post smacks of disregard; if you thought it would invoke confidence on the part of the reader, you thought wrong.

The biggest defense put forth: well, we have other security detection methods so, hah!

Don't you get that the point about the body scanners is that they can be beaten? That they're superfluous to the security regimen? That if you can't defend them directly, they serve no real purpose? That's the point of the video, and it's completely lost on you (and obviously others for whom you speak.)

As is the impression among so many travelers, the TSA confuses "feeling safe" with "being safe" and it appears your post simply reinforces that view.

Visions of the SNL parody skit from years ago come to mind.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#140

Post by mindcrime » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 3:28 PM UTC

armandososa wrote: post #34

jfoutz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because Huxley was right. ( http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourse... )

I think the current reality is more of a mix between "A Brave New World" and "Farenheit 451". Bradbury deserves a mention there.

I think the current reality is more of a mix between "A Brave New World" and "Farenheit 451". Bradbury deserves a mention there.

Funny you would say that... I agree, although I wasn't thinking about Fahrenheit 451 when I mentioned another "mix" scenario in another thread[1] that touched on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

My thought then was:

Interestingly, I think reality is converging towards something like a hybrid of the two worlds described by Orwell and Huxley. Well, in the case of Huxley not so much the literal use of hypnosis and psycho-analysis, but if you treat that stuff as a metaphor, then you can see the connection.

TV, pop music, Fox News, and so much other low-value content has become the "sedative for the masses" at the same time that the government assumes more and more power and control...

"Of course," you might say, "we're nowhere close to Orwell's world with his Minitru, etc ." But if you substitute "We are at war with the USSR and the Taliban are our allies and have always been our allies" and "We are at war with the Taliban and the Russians are our allies and have always been our allies" for certain bits of Orwell's work, you might notice some eerie parallels and scary possibilities.

[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3671843