• Full-body scanners not a health risk

    A new study concludes that there is “no significant threat” from backscatter X-ray scanners; even though they use ionizing radiation, which is known to cause cancer, the doses are so low — less than 1 percent of the additional radiation a person gets from flying in an airplane in the first place, and about the same received through 3 to 9 minutes of daily life on the ground — that only a handful of cancer cases are likely to result directly from scanner use

  • TSA testing a scanner that does not show a person's body

    TSA is testing a new Automatic Target Recognition machine that does not show a person’s body but, rather, a genderless avatar — sort of a cartoon of a generic human figure; the machine scans the traveler without anyone seeing an image; if the traveler gets a green light, he or she proceeds; if the machine sees something, it will light up the area on this genderless figure and it will be that area that is examined; the pat down will be limited to the area the machine flagged

  • Shortage of funds hampers Russia's rail security

    Railroads in Russia are proving to be a far greater security challenge than airports; there are 18,000 train stations in Russia; the railroad operators have money to place passenger and luggage inspection facilities, radio jamming devices, and explosion-proof containers in 34 of these stations; train stations are not the only points where railroads are vulnerable to terrorist attack; a bomb can easily be planted anywhere along a train’s route; in 2010 alone, 542 instances of “objects placed on rails” were reported, as well as 101 cases of rail sabotage; some suggested fencing off the entire length of Russia’s railroad tracks — but since railroads in Russia stretch for over 82,000 kilometers, it was calculated that the funding needed for this comprehensive measure would be 13 trillion rubles; for comparison, the entire 2011 budget of the Russian Federation stands at 8.8 trillion rubles

  • TSA fired an agent for being a witch

    TSA fires a security screener at New York’s Albany International Airport for being a witch; the screener, who practices Wicca, was accused by a fellow worker of casting a spell on her (the fellow worker’s) car’s heater so it would not work; when the screener refused to participate in mediation to dispel myths about Wicca, she was terminated