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Viral Video About Body Scanners

blog.tsa.gov

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Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#191

Post by onemoreact »

jonnathanson wrote: post #138
onemoreact wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 in…

the strength of one's expression reveals something about the strength of what one is trying to express

My point is simply that someone like mark twain is able to bend otherwise poor grammar to fit a number of ends. Because the English language so redundant and people are used to imperfect prose you can convey some types of subtext though gibberish more cleanly than you can with perfect prose.

There are plenty of hacks that confuse the issue, but don't confuse pretense with actual mastery.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#192

Post by RandallBrown »

stfu wrote: post #128
tobinfricke wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A video is making its way around the interwebs this morning from some guy claiming he figured out a way to beat our body scanners (imaging technology)." I couldn't read any further.

I have the slight suspicion that the TSA is going to remember the name of "some guy" very well when it comes to letting him board a plane anytime soon.

I doubt it. The TSA only sees your name when they check your ID and boarding pass when you enter security. TSA agents probably don't care enough to memorize the guys name and then hassle him.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#193

Post by presto8 »

I was at the airport last week and got randomly selected for the backscatter x-ray machine. I was told to remove everything from my pockets, including things that I would normally keep for going through a metal detector (passport, papers, wallet, etc.).

The scan went fine, but on the other side, the TSA agent noticed that due to the fold of my jeans, it looked like I had something in my pocket. He said he had to pat me down to make sure I didn't have anything in there.

Which made me seriously doubt the efficacy of the backscatter machines. What's the point of the machine if something could slip through that would still necessitate a physical body search?

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#194

Post by bane »

c1sc0 wrote: post #82
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.

Can you elaborate on how this is technically inaccurate? Is there something like a Flesch-Kincaid test for intelligence?

Grammar and vocabulary is a learned social construct with peculiarities associated with the social group the grammar is derived from. What is correct in one social group may be wrong in another. For example, my first sentence is incorrect in some social milieus as it finishes with a preposition.

Demonstrating "correct" grammar merely demonstrates memorization of expected social norms ('communicate as the group does') for the group that one is a member of -- or wishes to be a member of. "Incorrect" grammar is not a global quality as all grammar and vocabulary is local with respect to group membership, geography, language exposure, temporal presence, and other factors. In addition there are certain idioms and informal speech present in specific social groups that may not conform to even that own group's peculiar grammar and lexicon!

Grammar and vocabulary are often a type of shibboleth used to demonstrate group membership or to discern group membership of an individual you are evaluating. Quite often pedantic demonstrations of grammarian prescriptivism is merely attempted to assert their social norm on another person of a different social group membership and are often uninformed as to the derivations of the rules they are attempting to impose. In other words, outside of pedagogic concerns, it's a dominance demonstration typical of primates and should generally be considered as nothing more.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#196

Post by reidmain »

"For obvious security reasons, we can’t discuss our technology's detection capability in detail"

Security through obscurity.

Are they afraid that if they disclose information people would somehow be able to find holes? If this is the case then why is this technology used? Why have gapping holes already been pointing out by numerous people?

Thinking that "the terrorists" don't have the ability to break this system without understanding the intricate details of it is just downright stupid.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#197

Post by mangoman »

The post mentioned that the scanners are one of 20 layers of security and mentions Behavioral detection, Explosive Detection Canines, Federal Air Marshall etc as some of the other "layers" of security. I wanted to see what these 20 layers were, and I really didn't see anything that would "protect" against someone exploiting the scanners like the video demonstrated. In fact one of the "layers" of security was "Intelligence". How comforting. If you want to see some serious security theater, check out http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/index.shtm.

This blog post is just feels forced, and makes me a little quesy...

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#198

Post by rpstrong »

quink wrote: post #183
rpstrong wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, the video supports the use of the TSA's active screening technologies (backscatter and millimeter wave devices). The scanner being used is neither of these, it is an entirely passive device - see: http://www.thruvision.com/Products/TS4_Sub_Pages/TS4_Product... for a brief explanation of their technology. While ThruVision's scanner is arguably safer, it is clearly deficient in detecting threats. And it is…

No scanner on that market can detect things that are within a person other than a metal detector, a swab followed by spectographic analysis or an X-ray machine. The igniter in his mouth wasn't found, and it's not outside the realm of imagination that a more committed person, like a terrorist, would carry the other stuff not in the lower back area but somewhere somewhat different and harder to find. How about we take…

I'd add allowing qualified passengers to carry handguns.

I won't defend the TSA or Big Sister at all, but just pointing out that they weren't using these.

I didn't watch the subtitled version, so I'm not clear on exactly was going on. But the images - which didn't look at all like the screen shots that I've seen online - were a tip-off that this didn't represent current equipment.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#199

Post by ghshephard »

" down to a tiny pill or tiny baggies of drugs. "

Is this for real? When did the TSA start doing drug searches? Can they effect arrests?

I'll be honest - I'm a little shocked that a supposedly "official" blogging site is writing like a half-tweaked 13 year old and is bragging about doing drug searches at a supposed check for weapons.

It's also pretty irresponsible to make claims about the scanning system like, " It is completely safe " - I suspect that "Blogger Bob Burns" neither has the background, nor the authority to make such claims (let alone the knowledge). About all he(?) should be doing is suggesting which certifying authority has provided a clean-bill-of-health on their scanners.

All in all the most disturbing thing I've read in a couple weeks.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#200

Post by jakejake »

betterth wrote: post #141
shin_lao wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is any attempt at anything. It's just written by someone not very intelligent supervised by someone of similar intelligence swimming in a sea of mediocrity.

Exactly. Someone got assigned to "blog duty" at the TSA, of which TSA management has no idea what a blog is, or why it is important, but there is a regulation somewhere, or a rule, that says the TSA must maintain a blog. So someone maintains a blog. This is my estimation of the situation. A Hanlon's Razor moment: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Or it could have been carefully written for a specific target audience (of which HN readers are not a part). Mind control!
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