You may have heard of the TSA's new insta-porn device, which bounces low-energy x-rays off of your skin when you go through airport screening, producing an image of your body that looks remarkably like... a very detailed (but somewhat ghostlike and bluish) naked human body. For a while now they've been trying to calm the objections by insisting that the images will have the sensitive areas of the image, breasts and genitals, blurred, plus using same-gender screeners to look at the images.
However, now that they are actually deploying the system for a live trial, they admit that the images are not blurred. Oh, and those separate screeners? They will rely on human signals from other TSA agents to determine the gender of the person being screened. I wonder how long it will take before no one bothers to signal for gender?
But it's OK, says the TSA. The screeners won't be allowed to take cameras or cell phones into the screening booth. How long will that rule last in an agency that can't keep even a single employee from stealing over a quarter-million dollars from luggage? Including a $47,000 camera?
If they can get a professional-grade TV camera out of the secure area, they can get a cell phone camera in.
Oh, and the screeners will be watching the machine in a private booth, where you won't be able to see or object to their inevitable antics.
I wonder how much you could get on ebay for skin-radar pictures of a naked Angelina Jolie, for example? I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.
This entry was published Wed Oct 15 13:18:17 CDT 2008 by TriggerFinger
and last updated 2008-10-15 13:18:17.0.
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