Scientists say they have solution to TSA scanner objections [Check this out!]

WaPo ^ | November 22, 2010 | Ashley Halsey III

[BobP]

Stop acting stupidly and review people's history.

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That goes for Zer0 as well -- review his history!

[GraceG]

[ Or just engage the Infinite Improbability Drive, and move the universe so that you’re standing where you wanted to end up, and the TSA agents are now whales. ]

Why Whales, the TSA folk are as useless as a bowl of petunias and when I see them I think “Oh, No, not again.”

[vigilante2]

But you still get nuked every time you get scanned.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Why not just distort the image into something grotesque so that there isn't anything titillating or exciting about it?" Wattenburg said."

Lets shove Wattenburg and all the TSA bigwigs into a microwave oven and see if we can "distort their images" a bit.

Myself I am much more concerned about x-ray exposure to frequent fliers. (As well as those who must work near the equipment)

I am fairly sure that a picture special FX fix won't deal with such a concern.

[matt04]

Judging from the “work” many of the front-line screens have been shown to do I can’t imagine that the leadership of the TSA is any smarter.

[AlaskaErik]

I’m much more concerned with the health hazards associated with some of the machines than I am about someone seeing my junk.

[adamjefferson]

Wattenburg is one of the (very) good guys... We need more people like him around.

[AlaskaErik]

Change the word “Administration” to “Apparatus”.

[AlaskaErik]

I’m afraid you’re right.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Wattenburg is one of the (very) good guys... We need more people like him around."

His "fix" is a red herring. It changes nothing in the equation at all. The data is digital therefore the "naked" issue is not solved (a digital image can be "Un-distorted"...)

So all he has done in this situation is at best muddied the waters and at worst enabled Big Brother to continue this travesty.

[mckenzie7]

You mean like latenight Walmart shoppers?

Ha..ha.....

I just got in from shopping at Wal-Mart.

[giotto]

These days, you’d have to be an idiot NOT to be paranoid.

[null and void]

Only the paranoid survive ~ Andrew Grove

[JSteff]

A machine has not caught a terrorist yet

Neither has a strip search by TSA pervies.

[Roberts]

Yep, Dr. Wattenburg is consistently the best personality on KGO radio. Very informative, very thorough, very impatient with junk science aficionados.

[Redcloak]

Another solution is to use passive scanners only. These form images from the microwave radiation emitted by any warm object. The TSA probably doesn't like them because they require more training to operate. The images aren't crisp and clear like the active systems' images. Humans appear as bipedal blobs rather than naked skinheads...

Contraband items appear as dark voids in the image since the objects are cooler than a human being. It takes a certain amount of skill to spot suspicious objects; though most vendors supply software to help. The upside is that the scanners can be placed anywhere and aren't obviously imaging devices. They could be scattered throughout an airport terminal, not just at a single point. Above all, they don't irradiate passengers with microwaves and strip them naked.

[Right Wing Assault]

Letter of concern sent to Holdren.

http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf

[MortMan]

From what I have been able to gather - the scientific data is very thin - most of the energy in this frequency range is stopped at the skin. Therefore, it is doubtful that sterility would result. Skin cancer is more likely.