Silly political thread

[noetsi]

Its a strange world.

X-ray machines that screen airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening.

Government reaction to its own conclusion was....

Findings from the report, obtained by The Associated Press, did not stop the Transportation Security Administration from announcing Sunday that all airline passengers must remove their shoes and run them through X-ray machines before boarding commercial aircraft.

because.....

TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said putting shoes on the X-ray machines makes the screening process more efficient and eliminates confusion. "We do not have a specific threat regarding shoes," Clark said. "In an abundance of caution we require all shoes to be removed and X-rayed to mitigate a variety of threats."

So the machines dont detect anything but they continue to delay people because they "mitigate a variety of threats" (even though the agency making people do this has concluded they don't in fact do so) and somehow people taking off their shoes makes the screening process "more efficient and eliminates confusion."

I am sure the Marx brother or Camus would understand.


news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_plot_security

Oops

The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," a NASA spokesman said on Monday.

"We haven't seen them for quite a while. We've been looking for over a year and they haven't turned up," Hautaloma said.

The material was held by the National Archives but returned to NASA sometime in the late 1970s, he said. "We're looking for paperwork to see where they last were," he said.

I wonder if they saw the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark by any chance.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/ts_nm/space_tapes_dc

[larry]

Perhaps it's better because all the people with metal in their shoes don't keep setting the detector off when walking thru it?

[noetsi]

The machines are not detecting metal as far as I know. Nor are they physically inspecing the shoes.

[larry]

Here's what I mean.

It seems most of the false positives on the metal detector one walks thru are from people's shoes or belts.

Now one has to (again) take shoes off and put them in one of those plastic bins. Person walks thru metal detector, shoes goes thru x-ray machine on conveyor belt. Having someone look at a shoe thru an x-ray machine sure isn't perfect but it's better than nothing.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4119942.html

A scientist who has studied the issue said the truth lies somewhere between the study's findings that X-ray machines can't detect bombs and Hawley's assertion that they can.

Richard Lanza, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the X-ray image doesn't identify what a gel or a liquid is made of. However, he said, screeners can "look at the image and connect regions that look the same in density and shape."

It's not a foolproof method, but it is often effective, he said.

Hawley said 31,000 screeners have been specially trained to determine whether a shoe has been tampered with when they look at its X-ray image.

"It does take the human brain to make the interpretation on X-ray, but it is, frankly, not the most difficult thing we have to do to find potential shoe bombs," Hawley said.

He displayed copies of X-ray images of two pairs of shoes — one with no explosive device and one worn by Richard Reid, who was arrested aboard a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 when he tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe.

"You can see very clearly the difference between a shoe with an explosive and one without," Hawley said.

I think I'd agree that someone looking at an x-ray of a shoe isn't perfect but it's much better than having them just traipse thru a metal detector with one.

[noetsi]

Its always hard to decide who is right when experts disagree. But that is not the conclusion the government who uses the machines has made.

The "human brain" who interprets the results for the TSA is earning so little that turnover is extremely high. Government training is sadly lacking as well (I speak from some experience there).

[larry]

Perhaps but there's little doubt having a human brain look at shoes thru an x-ray machine is better than nobody looking at them at all when they're worn thru a metal detector.

[noetsi]

I guess except in two respects. First, and given government lethargy this is a real issue, something that gives a false sense of security can lead you to avoid the more difficult steps needed (like finding and funding machines that do work). And the very long delays cause both ecoomic and persobnal cost. Security is never absolute. You have to trade off the benefits from new security systems against the costs of which disruptions of the smooth flow of the system is one.

An example of that is that drug aprovement by the FDA might wll be safer if they did even longer testing. But the delays have a serious costs. Air traffic delays also have a signficant cost, perhaps more so given the central role airlines play in the economy.

[larry]

I believe there is already a massive effort to get machines that can sniff things like liquid explosives molecules, it's not going to grind to a halt because an incident caused the extra layer of security of running shoes thru an x-ray machine. There's big money out there for someone who figures out how to do it reliably and quickly.

Furthermore I'm not sure where you get that the removing of shoes is causing long delays. People stand there taking stuff off anyway the delay isn't usually people taking stuff off it's the either the occasional bag that they have to play around with for a long time looking at or the false positives (often caused by shoes) in the metal detector. Many airports had shoe removal policies anyway. I do my share of travelling and have yet to see shoes slowing down the lines... usually the only side-effect is the gaggle of people putting them back after the checkpoints.

In fact there have been many stories lately of lines being faster than ever at security with people used to the new gel/liquid restrictions:

www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/142652

Local businessman Fletcher McCusker has been traveling since the day after the increased security started. He was supposed to leave Tucson on a business trip on Aug. 10 but delayed his flight until Aug. 11 because he knew he might need more time in the airports. For the most part, his trip — which took him from Tucson to Dallas, New York and Nashville, Tenn. — had no major delays, though he had to check the luggage he usually carries onto the plane.

The biggest effect he's seen from the new carry-on restrictions has been longer lines at the check-in counters.

"The security lines are easy now," he said. "All the pressure is on the check-ins."

McCusker said he opted to send his toiletries to Tucson from Nashville via FedEx so he could still carry his luggage on the airplane.
Just a week after the restrictions changed, McCusker also said most people seem to have it figured out.

www.raleighchronicle.com/2006081104.html

At RDU, airport spokesperson Jill Denning told the Raleigh Chronicle on Friday that lines for security were back down to around the normal length.

"Our wait time is 15 minutes or less generally through the security checkpoint which is a lot better than it was first thing Thursday monring," said Denning.

"I can't say that we have anything new to report today," she added. "Things are going pretty smoothly."

www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=104030

ATLANTA, Aug. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- After one week of operating under new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations, Delta Air Lines' operations from check-in to baggage claim continue to run smoothly. Since Aug. 10, Delta reported no cancellations due to enhanced security, and related delays averaged 30 minutes during the height of the security incident.
...

Security lines and check-in times in most U.S. airports have normalized. Customers are advised to check delta.com or their departing airport for expected security waits and the latest information about TSA requirements and carry-on restrictions. Customers originating outside the United States should contact their local Delta office or airport authorities to understand requirements and restrictions for flights to the U.S.

[noetsi]

From going through them:)

[noetsi]

Willie Wonka would be appalled

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_fe_st/trapped_in_chocolate