The Full Enchilada

The latest problem with TSA’s grope-gate is that now they have been challenged if their security is doing anything but annoy travelers. After all, authorities at the Israeli airports, which are known to have the best security in the world have spoken plainly about the reasons they do not use such invasive and random screening methods at their Airports. And what Airports face more danger from would be suicide bombers and terrorists than Israeli aiports?

So why don’t the Israelis use TSA milliwave or X-ray body scanners? According to them, its because it doesn’t really work. They quickly point out that the best security measure is having properly trained airport security screeners who know what they’re doing. They even point out why we’ve opted against this common sense approach in the US, its because its so politically incorrect to “profile” people in the US. They on the other hand have no problem acknowledging that their security methods are based on specialized profiling. Israeli airport security scanners are very well trained to spot anything unusual, instead of blindly wasting time randomly strip searching 5 to 7 year old kids as in the United States (see other articles about parents decrying their children’s ‘thorough’ screening), they don’t just send every 10th traveler to be groped all over, they are very selective.

But if we are unable to accept that ‘profiling’ is very efficient then perhaps we should be willing to suffer the inconvenience of seemingly retarded practices. Many have now spoken out challenging the TSA to show some proof that their invasive body scanning or groping have done anything to help national security. Careless searching of some travelers have left some drenched in their own urine and humiliation. But again perhaps this is the price we have chosen to play by our politically correct stance on various profiling techniques that had always proven most efficient in the past.

We used to have that saying that if it smells like a frog, looks like a frog, jumps like a frog, then perhaps it IS a frog! Replace frog with anything you like from schmuck to terrorist…It seems we like to use statistical analysis ‘everywhere’ except for National Security.

Solutions to this mess are obvious, just as there is a no-fly watch list, there should be some flying ‘white-list’ and perhaps there is but only for dignitaries and the rich and wealthy and the big politicians which only needs to be expanded to include some of the patriotic little guys like us also…Let’s face it no one enjoys being groped or having someone look at naked pictures of them at the airport. Guys don’t want some other guy groping around their lower half and neither do women and the alternative though it may end up being more unsafe may be the less humiliating path. Its funny that you no longer have to worry about peeping toms with their IR camera filters trying to take naked pictures of you at the beach, now you’re supposed to cooperate with the TSA to have such nude body scans taken and apparently ’stored’ and viewed by who knows how many people in the name of national security. And though we’re told these x-rays are so weak that they shouldn’t pose a cancer risk, what about frequent flyers and their compounded risks taking in consideration also their additional bombardment from cosmic rays while flying at such high altitudes?

For a long time we were told x-rays from CT scans were completely safe, now we hear that CT scans have caused cancers, this has been proven. There is now an admitted risk for cancer from full body CT scans. How long till we start hearing similar health risks from TSA airport body scanners?

The new Microsoft KINECT is a revolutionary gaming controller even though it builds upon the advances made by the Nintendo Wii, Playstation EyeToy, PS3 Eye, and recent PlayStation Move.

KINECT Sensor Specs:

The KINECT technology comes mainly from an Israeli Defense firm called 3DV Systems which for some time had made Z-depth cameras capable of capturing information for the depth or distance of each pixel in an image from the camera sensor. Later PrimeSense company was involved and most recently it seems Microsoft has acquired Canesta perhaps to avoid any patent infringement problems over the Kinect. The Kinect sports a regular RGB camera along with two 3D-Depth sensors and mechanized tilt along with a multi-array microphone useful for audio localization which could be used to orient the cameras using the tilt motor.

Ok, well maybe there isn’t a NudeAmericanAirline company formed yet ready to fly you into the mile high club, but just wait, after all wouldn’t it be much safer traveling when everyone’s in their birthday suits?

Full body scanning has become a common term these days, partly because (continue reading…)