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Viral Video About Body Scanners

blog.tsa.gov

201–204 of 204 posts

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 hack…

"My point is simply that someone like mark twain is able to bend otherwise poor grammar to fit a number of ends."

Mark Twain was a master of the English language. We shouldn't confuse his characters' "poor grammar" with his. Huck Finn talks like a redneck because Huck Finn is a redneck. That's not Mark Twain's voice; that's his character's voice.

By contrast, read an essay by Mark Twain. The language and style are markedly different from those of his novels. Sure, there are some allowances for colloquialisms. But those are stylistic choices, not failings to grasp the mechanics of grammar or syntax.

"you can convey some types of subtext though gibberish more cleanly than you can with perfect prose."

It's not about perfect prose; it's about clarity and economy of communication. There's no such thing as "perfect" prose, anyhow. But there are such things as clumsy prose and clear prose, or correct syntax and incorrect syntax. Generally speaking, it's preferable to be on the latter end of those spectra unless writing for particular effect.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#202
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a run-on sentence. No, it's not. A run-on is when two or more independent clauses are joined without a conjunction or the like. So "I went the store I bought bread" is run-on. In your example, "however" functions as the conjunction. It may be overly long and unwieldy and could perhaps do with a few more commas, but those are style issues. > "on down" is faulty parallelism. "As large as...on down to..." Not…

nollidge, I’m not sure your parent was actually incorrect. Even you agree that his point stands, so your post is not constructive.

A conclusion reached through faulty reasoning is nothing to be relied on, even if it's coincidentally correct.

It may not have been constructive, but it was deconstructive, and I think that's valuable too.

(did not downvote you, btw)

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#203

Wow. This blog post makes me WAY more afraid of the TSA than the original video did. I can't wrap my head around the language used. "Things that go BOOM" ???!?!?! Are you fucking kidding me? These are the people that are supposedly acting in the interests of our safety? Disgusted. Whoever wrote or approved this post ought to be fired. Fast.

"Things that go boom" must be official TSA terminology. I've heard it used by screeners on multiple occasions at different airports.

They're probably not permitted to use the "b-word" out of concern for spooking passengers, much as passengers are not permitted to use the "b-word" out of concern for spooking the screeners.

Re: Viral Video About Body Scanners

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Switch razors to Occam's Razor: all other things being equal, the idea that makes the fewest assumptions is better.

Either the government is engaging in a disinformation campaign that is so broad and so pervasive that even the blogs at the TSA are involved...

Or it's some idiot at an ineffective government organization who screwed up.

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