It looks like the TSA has found itself at the center of another storm. In other news, I understand that stars are hot sometimes. New tests show that the scanners the TSA has deployed around the country at “at least” 78 airports show radiation levels way beyond what was expected. We’re talking 10 times higher. But don’t fret: the TSA says the test results are flawed, and that the machines truly are safe as can be. Honest.

A TSA spokesperson told Wired that technicians made a mistake in measuring radiation levels. Technicians are supposed to take 10 separate readings, then divide this sum by 10 in order to get an average reading.

It seems that the readings that have caused all the commotion weren’t divided by 10, leading to the false impression that the machines have been exposing people to much more radiation than originally advertised.

That hasn’t stopped one consumer rights group, the Association for Airline Passage Rights, from pleading with the TSA to temporarily stop using the machines until the next round of tests are carried out in May.

It should also be pointed out that Wired found that the machines, which costs $180,000 a pop, were never tested on biological tissue—you know, mice and the like.

That Photoshop took at least an hour to put together—the fence was particularly rough—so I hope some of you at least get the joke.

Designed by John Kubasek, the Creditor carbon fiber money clip knife can keep you and your money safe from theft. The minimal design is really neat, and looks great. The material makeup is carbon fiber and titanium. By pressing down on the side of the handle, a 6-inch knife appears. A knife/money clip; great idea, right? Except when you try to make it past the TSA. Price is $200, don’t expect any price cuts.

[via uncrate]

The project uses a hand scanner, as well as multiple feed horns from satellite dishes; one is reversed to transmit, and the others are left as receivers, allowing the radar to see objects at a centimeter level instead of a millimeter level (but it still works). Quite the interesting project really, and it shows how the future of scanning technology may come from the enthusiast sector rather then your typical security sources.

[via Hack A Day]

Now that Wikileaks has everyone in the US angrily jumping up and down, there’s one story that’s bound to die a death: the TSA. It’s pretty clear that the so-called Opt Out Day was a failure of XFL proportions, but the reason it was a failure may actually because the TSA simply wanted to avoid a scene. Twitter was full of reports saying that those silly machines were turned off just to expedite holiday travel.

It wasn’t just Twitter. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that were was “limited, if any, use of the controversial full-body scanners” at the big airport down there.

Same deal at Newark International Airport in New Jersey: scanners were largely turned off, meaning that people never even had the chance to opt-out of anything.

So we’ll look back on last week, and the week before, as the few days when we as a nation paid any attention at all to what’s going on with the TSA. This week’s boogeyman is Wikileaks, so I wouldn’t expect much on the TSA for at least the next few days.

I suggest we use our newfound free time playing all those games we bought from that Steam sale.

Of course, the backscatter and millimeter wave machines they’re using are apparently barely high-resolution enough to detect a knife, to say nothing of make out individual letters, but it’s the thought that counts. Plus, the kids’ version is awesome.

They sell via Etsy for somewhat more than you’d normally pay for a t-shirt. Hey, who said patriotism would be cheap? Of course, if they’re reading the shirt, it means you’ve already given in. Shame!

[via Reddit, also thanks anonymous tipster!]

Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, says that increased security measures may have to expand beyond the nation’s airports if we’re ever to fully protect ourselves from evildoers. Napolitano, seen here, told Charlie Rose, of PBS, that the nation’s subways and train depots may be the next target of TSA‘s enhanced efforts. Think about it: every time you hop on the A train in New York City you’d need to pass through one of those full-body scanners or face an enhanced pat-down.

Needless to say, that would be highly impractical.

To her credit, though, Napolitano sorta has a point: nearest I can tell there is nearly no security on the New York City subway and the surrounding regional commuter rails. Think of how many people pass through Grand Central every day coming from Westchester and Connecticut. It’s not like major terrorist attacks haven’t targeted trains before.

But I’m not sure that asking every single person to pass through one of those machines, or going in for an enhanced pat-down, is the best way to go about doing things.

In other TSA news, Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, suggested that people boycott airlines in order to send the message that we, as Americans, aren’t necessarily cool with having some TSA fellow feel up our children in the name of security. These new rules, Paul added, “aren’t making us safer” but do “enhance the power of the state.”

(That’s the problem with all this TSA talk: it can very easily, and very quickly, devolve into conspiratorial flame-outs.)

Incidentally, today is “National Opt-Out Day,” a day in which people have been encouraged to “opt-out” of those full-body scanners. Since I’m within driving distance of my Thanksgiving destination I will not be “opting-out,” but I’m interested in seeing how it plays out. My prediction: today will be just like any other day, and “Opt-Out Day” will be a bust.

Twitter is filed with people talking about “opting-out,” so that’s a way to kill some time.

In case you’re confused by @tsagov, @tsabloggerbob, @tsaagent, @TSAsupervisor, @tsablog and countless other parody accounts, the real Transportation Safety Administration is actually on Twitter at @TSABlogTeam and wow, talk about the worst social media job ever (but definitely not the overall worst job ever).

For those of you who haven’t been following along, the Internet has been one big anti-TSA flash mob ever since the TSA implemented its new Advanced Imaging Technology body scanning and pat down procedures on November 1st.  Just take look at these @replies.

It’s no surprise that the TSA “porn scans” would get so much backlash — Nobody I repeat nobody is comfortable with their body, but especially those of us who spend most of our time online. As representative for the nerd contingent, software engineer John Tyner’s “Don’t Touch My Junk” blog post was the viral tipping point that unleashed the Pandora’s box of meta OMG WTF TSA round ups like this one.

Between “Cancer Surviving Flight Attendant Forced To Remove Prosthetic Breast During Pat-down,” “Woman Says She Was Cuffed And Booted From Airport For Questioning Body Scanners,”“TSA pats down a screaming toddler““TSA Agents Absolutely Hate New Pat Downs,” “Young Boy Strip Searched By TSA,”“TSA pat-down leaves bladder cancer survivor covered in urine” and this, the story is one of the messiest media fests I’ve seen in my lifetime.

So what does the @TSABlogTeam account actually do? Well, it used to spam reply people with defensive TSA blog posts but it seems to have given up in the past day or so.

The guy who runs the account, aka Blogger Bob, insists that the job is “not that bad actually… It’s a challenge. I dig it.” I’m willing to bet that tweeting every 12 hours or so is way better than being one of the poor schmucks that has to feel up obese people because the government made some deal with Rapiscan. Yes it’s actually called Rapiscan.

“If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry.”

– TSA Employee

In the meantime, here are some inspiring videos, and tweets to get you through however long it takes for the TSA to capitulate.

Finally, some common sense when it comes to airline security. Pilots will henceforth be exempt from security screenings at airports. This includes those highly invasive enhanced pat-downs that have been used post-ink toner plot.

Does this eliminate the utter stupidity of patting down infants and silver-haired grandmothers. No, clearly it doesn’t, but maybe it shows that the TSA isn’t completely unmovable with its positions.

The Pilots’ association said, bluntly, “Pilots are not the threat here; we’re the target.”

Yes. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how that wasn’t an accepted truth from Day One.

And just as a heads-up, John Tyner, the man whose videos of the TSA acting all TSA-y, has posted a new post on his blog. He’s quite articulate with his views, not some lunatic with an agenda.

It’s pretty clear that we’re now living in a society that’s dominated by fear, not unlike Midgar in Final Fantasy VII or City 17 in Half-Life 2. A Los Angeles “food stylist” (I assume that’s a fancy way of saying chef) was pulled off a flight the other day because someone thought he was “acting suspicious.” What, pray tell, was suspicious about the man? Oh, you know, his tattoos, specifically the ones on his knuckles that read ATOM BOMB. Because terrorists nowadays tattoos their plans on the visible part of their body, right?

It’s hard to blame the airline, Delta, here because they were put in a situation where a passenger, having been encouraged by years of “if you see something, say something,” thought their was suspicious about the tattooed man, one Adam Pearson. So, a tug of the flight attendant’s jacket—something about that man is not right, I don’t feel safe—and then you have a proper situation.

After being questioned by airline staff, Pearson tweeted his situation for the world to see. Twitter freaked out—140 characters does not lend itself to nuance—and now he’s something of a celebrity. Well, a bigger celebrity, since he’s apparently a well-known guy in food circles.

Both Delta and Pearson don’t seem to have any hard feelings about what happened, so we shouldn’t expect a national investigation or anything like that.

But what we can expect is for this incident to serve as yet another reminder of just how bonkers thinks have become as it relates to airline security. Gizmodo had a very important article yesterday that contained photos that were pulled from one of those body scanners. I’m pretty sure we were told by the TSA that these body scanners wouldn’t even have the capability of storing images, so how Giz would get its hands on such photos is beyond me.

Oh, wait, no it’s not: either the TSA has no idea how to operate the machines, or it misled the public in order to sell them on the idea that the scanners are fine and dandy.

Leave it to the Taiwanese news to really nail the TSA debates: If Jesus is against you, who can be for you?

Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, said yesterday that she’s “open” to possible airport security “adjustments.” This, on the day that John Tnler became an Internet sensation with his videos showing the sheer black-is-white-up-is-down mentality of the TSA. Napolitano stressed that the increased security measures, prickly as they may seem, are, in fact, put in place for our protection. Right.

In the same breath, however, Napolitano pretty much brushed aside and any all criticism, legitimate or otherwise, by saying “if people want to travel by some other means…”

Believe me: I’d like nothing more than to hitch a wagon and head westward for several weeks, but I don’t even think it’s possible in 2010 (nearly 2011) to book a boat trip to from New York to London. I actually looked into that last year since I thought it could be a fun adventure, a boat from New York to London. Nearest I can tell, there’s no such thing as passenger ship cross-Atlantic travel anymore.

Back to John Tyner. Surely you saw the videos he posted online that show his altercation at a San Diego airport. Long story short (not to be confused with Colin Quinn’s new Broadway show), Tyner had checked the TSA Web site before visiting the airport to see if it used the new full-body scanners. The Web site said the airport did not have those scanners, so Tyler goes to the airport as scheduled.

When he went there, there was the full-body scanner. He opted out of the scan, but then refused to be felt up by the TSA officer. At this point, all he wanted to do was get a refund for his ticket, then go home. But of course, the TSA said he was breaking all sorts of laws by leaving the security area (despite being directed away by security officials), and he now faces an $11,000 fine. Oh, sure, he was told that he was facing a $10,000 fine, but that, according to the TSA, was “the old fine.”

Is that even allowed? You’re told you’ve committed a fineable offense, told the amount you’d be fined, but then the very next day you’re facing a larger fine?

That hardly seems fair.

In any event, there will be a full investigation of the Tyner incident.

One thing I’d like to know: what’s the point of the $10,000 (or $11,000!) fine? Is that supposed to be some sort of terror deterrent?

If there’s one thing I’d like to see come out of all of this, it’s that the TSA, and government as a whole, talk to us like adults. Please don’t tell me these nonsense rules are “for my protection” and expect me not to roll my eyes in disbelief. I’d be far happier if the government said, “Yeah, we’re doing feeling up your children in order to give the appearance of being serious about security, but the truth of the matter is if someone truly wanted to cause trouble there’s not a whole lot we’d be able to do about it. We can try to prevent attacks from happening, but we’re not going to pretend that the system is bulletproof.”

But of course that will never happen.

It looks like the recent popular outrage against some of the TSA’s new (and ridiculous) airport security measures has finally gotten the government’s attention. Good. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is set to meet various transportation industry executives today to discuss how the government can balance security needs (or perceived security needs) with both common sense and the needs and requirements of the transportation industry. Will there by any policy changes? Hmm.

Some of the new policies are pretty silly, such as screening (via full-body scanner or terribly invasive and embarrassing pat-down) pilots and children. Why we need to be screening children who are travelling to Disney with their family, I’ll never know.

People, most prominently seen in a recent New York Times article, have started to take umbrage with the new security measures, many of which were taken after the recent ink toner terror plot.

The TSA is said to be reviewing some of the new measures, including the subjecting of children to pat-downs.

Again, the TSA, and the government in general, is in a tough spot here. If, following that ink toner plot, the TSA didn’t make any changes you’d have people saying the agency doesn’t take security seriously. On the other hand, some of these more heavy handed methods are surely just being done for show. A sort of, you’re safe because we have 100 officers at the gate shouting loudly and looking Very Official in the process.

It doesn’t help that the economy is still pretty weak right now. If people see that going to the airport is a giant pain in the neck, perhaps they won’t take that trip to Six Flags, or maybe they won’t visit the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York?

Airports filled TSA officials with nary a passenger to be seen. Makes sense.

These airport security stories just won’t go away. Who knows, maybe if the public keeps up the pressure we’ll actually see some, you know, sanity when it comes to security policies and not merely knee-jerk reactions that are the equivalent of putting a used band-aid on a broken arm. Over in the UK, where things are certainly poised to get quite interesting, the Government’s Ministry of State for Security was annoyed when she was asked to hand over an oversized (read: banned) aerosol can that she had tried to bring aboard an airplane. Righteous indignation followed. You know, “Do you know who I am? I should be able to bring whatever I want on board an airplane!”

The minister, Baroness Neville-Jones, was on her way to Washington, DC to discuss the war on terror with her American counterparts.

Officials say that she had “inadvertently” left the banned item in her luggage, and that—eventually—she complied with security staff.

When she was asked to leave behind the item, she told security staff that “of course” she knew how important it was to follow the rules.

Yes, you would expect the Minister of State for Security to be able to understand and follow security rules!

There’s more fallout as a result of some of the new, more aggressive security measures being taken at airports across the U.S. Yesterday there was word that the TSA had decided to ban ink toner cartridges, which is reasonably silly for a number of reasons. Now there’s word that various unions are upset with the now widespread use of full-body scanners. Le sigh.

One complaint centers around the technology in the scanners themselves. Just how thoroughly did the TSA test out these things before putting them in airports and asking little old ladies to use ‘em?

And we all know what happens if you “opt-out” of using the scanners: you’re immediately labeled a problem, then you’re pulled aside and patted down like a dog. Enjoy your stay in City 17!

It’s this new, aggressive pat-down that has some unions upset.

The Association of Flight Attendants Local 66 has advised its members, if they choose to opt-out of the full-body scan, that they should request the resulting pat-down in a private room with a witness present just in order to make sure nothing too fancy goes on.

Of course, the TSA says that there’s nothing of the sort going on, so apparently all these people are making things up.

The Transportation Security Administration has banned ink and toner cartridges of more than 16 ounces from both carry-on bags and checked luggage on flights within the United States or in-bound to the United States. You know why: because of that incident from a few days ago where authorities found bombs hidden inside toner cartridges.

The TSA is in a tough spot. Does anyone really think that terrorists are going to say, “Shoot, we’ve been thwarted! Let’s stop plotting against the West and instead become responsible stakeholders in the international system”?

No, of course not.

But does anyone think the TSA can say sit back and do nothing? It has to do something, even if it’s just a superficial gesture. That’s the world we live in, where our officials have to act in order to give the appearance of doing something to protect us.

I mean, you can argue the effectiveness of banning items piecemeal, but do you think the TSA can justify its funding when it does nothing in the face of an attempted attack? Politically, I mean. It needs to give the appearance of being pro-active (well, re-active, to be more accurate) to give the impression that everything is A-OK with airport security.

What does banning items one-by-one get us? Taken to the extreme, this logic would see the TSA banning people from airplanes. After all, it’s people who planted the ink toner bombs inside the luggage in the first place, so we might as well cut the danger off at the source.

Hmm, are people beginning to rebel against those full-body scanners? There was a story in the New York Times a few days ago about what happens to people who choose to “opt-out” of subjecting themselves to the full-body scanners. High alert, we’ve got an opt-out! You’re then subjected to a pat-down search that would make the Combine blush. Nice.

A few days later, we have reports saying how the TSA has itself a good ol’ time patting down a woman at the security gate. Male officers, mind you. If nothing else it’s degrading to the human spirit.

Granted, reading the comments of that second link would suggest that the site errs on the conspiratorial , but it’s a whole different matter when the New York Times writes about what’s going on.

But at least we’re safe, right?

Trying to get terrorists to look into retina scanners is hard! And facial recognition software can be fooled with trivial alterations like shaving or smiling. Fingerprints — come on! I could remove mine right now! “But they can’t disguise their bones,” says Phani Kidambi, one of the researchers in charge of a project intended to ID people from 150 feet away based on bone structure. The project is at Wright State Research Institute.

Okay, seriously. Not only is this a creepy idea, but it appears they haven’t actually thought it through. First, they have to get detailed bone structure scans of every known criminal and terrorist (their idea, not mine). Then they have to prove that they can detect that bone structure through clothing and flesh — and then they have to design something that can do it from a distance.

Are you kidding me? This system will be as easy to fool as the next one. Unless they’re developing some kind of high-powered X-ray they’re planning on constantly blasting airport crowds with, they’ll have to rely on extended spectrum imagery. And that can be fooled by a HUGE number of factors. They talk about the potential of seeing someone “where the face doesn’t match, but the bones match…That definitely is a person of extreme interest because it appears he’s tried to change his face.” Great, so this technology also reliably detects faces in high fidelity as well! And I’m sure there’s no chance of a false positive!

Honestly. You’re never going to get everyone going through a major airport to submit to yet another scan, this one taking measurements of your bone density and structure. Seriously. This will not end well.

[via The Register]

Who saw this coming? Oh, right: most everyone. Gotcha. The Federal Government has admitted to storing those full-body scan images that had privacy advocates so worked up over the past few months. This, despite the fact that it said it wouldn’t store the images. Say one thing, do another. Yay.

Even more annoying is the fact that these full-body scanning machines were sold to us as not even being able to store images at all! As if there was no memory for the pictures to go after they had been taken.

Clearly we have been misled.

The U.S. Marshal Service admitted to storing tens of thousands of images without the permission of passengers. They didn’t even notify the passengers! You’d at least like to see something like, “Like it or not, but we’re keeping these photos. You don’t like it then don’t board the airplane.”

The Transportation Security Administration now says those body scanners must be able to store images for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.”

Mm.

Does this all ring a bell? The full-body scanners, we’ve been told, are a safe, secure way to check out whether or not someone is trying to carry contraband on-board an airplane. (Well, it’s quick than a traditional pat-down.) We were told that the scanning process would be split into two: the person hitting the “scan” button, and the person in a separate room actually analyzing the photo. That way the person doing the analyzing doesn’t actually know what the person in the photo looks like.

Remember: for your protection.

I didn’t mind the scanners in the beginning, but I’m not a fan of being misled to.

Oh well.

Good news for iPad-owning travelers: the Transportation Security Administration says that you won’t have to remove Apple’s magical and revolutionary device from your bag while you go through airport security. That’s the official word, at least, but I can just picture the helpful staff (…) at Newark or JFK demanding you remove it from your bag anyway.

That’s in a best-case scenario. The TSA says you may have to remove the iPad from your bag if its agents can’t get a clear view of it as it passes though the scanning machine. In that case, you’ll be asked to remove it from your bag—after the fact, I guess. That will delay your progress and annoy everyone behind you.

Is there any more high-pressure situation than making it through airport security in a timely fashion without any major issues?

Not for nothing, but it almost seems like it’d be easier to remove the iPad from your bag and place it in a separate bin than it would be to try your luck, hoping the planets align in such a way that allows the TSA staff to pass through without incident.

Flickr

The Transportation Security Administration, ominously known as the TSA, wants to be able to track your cellphone while you go through airport security. It wants to do so in order to better understand how airport security lines work in order to streamline the process. That’s the official reason. We could always jump to conclusions and assume the TSA just wants to know where you are so the government can control your every move. Not even I am that conspiratorial.

The device, which was developed by researchers at Purdue University (and has been on trial at Indianapolis International Airport), keeps track of cellphones’ unique serial number. Every phone out there has a unique number, so officials are able to record, to a pretty accurate degree, how look it took you to go through security. If the findings show that it takes, like, an hour to go from beginning to end, well, then maybe something needs to be fixed about that particular security area.

Not all phones are set to broadcast their serial number all day long, though, so the system is only able to keep tabs on around 10 percent of all passengers. Not everyone has a cellphone (I don’t, woo!), not everyone’s phone is turned on while they go through security, etc.

Again, the idea is to map the situation at the security line. All the information the system collects is deleted as quickly as possible. So they say, of course.

It’s sorta similar to the story, from a few days ago, that showed that the average person only travels within a six mile radius 93 percent of the time. I used to drive 10 miles to go to high school, so already I’m cooler than the study suggests. Well, was cooler.

Wiki’d