Comments

1
Excellent. Those were the kind that had potential increased cancer risk as well.

Though I would guess that OSI 'absorbing the cost' refers to the removal cost, rather than the billions we paid them for the machines in the first place.
2
I know they meant it to mean "Rapid-Scan," but I can not help but read it as "Rape-Scan."
3
Refused to go through one of those body scanners in the Ft. Lauderdale airport last week.

Less of a privacy concern, of course, than the refusal to submit myself to radiation for no damn reason.

Hope the TSA agent enjoyed the pat-down of my 62 year-old body.
4
That tricky ObfuscateGenitals() method, mostly returns a NullReferenceException or a OutOfMemoryException.
5
Might as well withdraw my TSA employment application... I was only in it for the blurry gray-scale junk porn.
6
But, look at all the terrorists they caught!
7
@6 um, there were some? When?

TSA stands for Totally inSecure fArce
8
If the inability to obscure one's junk led to this, then I guess we can say that our nation's neurotic attitudes about sex has had one positive benefit.
9
Hahahaha, Will. Seriously?
10
Not all the fun is gone, there are still stealing electronics and jewelry from baggage, humiliating elderly and infirm passengers, and treating wheelchair bound preschoolers as potential terrorists. You can't tell me TSA workers have lost all their perks. ("Aw man, this job was funner when people increased their risk of cancer!"
11
@7: You need to get your sarcasm detector in for a tune-up. It's clearly on the fritz.

@1, 3: For what it's worth, PolitiFact has a short article on the safety of those scanners that I found enlightening. I also opted for the Freedom Grope™ when I traveled home for Xmas, but it seems that safety concerns over the radiation from the scanners are miniscule compared to, say, the cosmic radiation received from your actual flight.
12
@11, you must not have seen much of the Will in Seattle Experience before. Every part of his mental apparatus is on the fritz, not just his sarcasm detector.
13
@11 I still think the point that the machines may concentrate radiation in the skin is relevant... And from what I've heard, Rapiscan wasn't exactly forthcoming about whether or not that was the case.
14
@11: I believe part of the concern was that while a flight may give you more net radiation, the radiation is a small amount over time, while the scanner gives you a big fat dose all at once. From what I understand, the latter is much worse.

Also, I remember reading something about the type of radiation being different. But yeah, I go with the Freedom Grope and well. I figure if they want to humilate me, they may as well be humiliated too. I also hope that if enough TSA agents get tired of having to touch people's junk all day, they may try to change the procedures themselves.

Not that I really think that will ever happen.
15
Well crap, since I have 2 total hips i light up the metal detector pretty good which always results in a pat down. These machines have been saving me a good amount of time.
16
Fantasy: Being Freedom Groped (thanks @11) while going through an...extended (if you know what I mean?!) full body scan! Hot, right? Maybe the TSA agent would hold my leash while it happened....

17
Yay! I won't have to opt-out anymore! Though maybe I still will on occasion .. it was kinda like a massage. :D
18
@2 my first thought, exactly: rapie-scan
19
When can I stop taking my shoes off?
20
That was always my favorite part of TSA...it always led to a pat down...
21
@4, maybe they just terribly misunderstood their assignment when the government asked them for "see sharp" software.
22
@19: a couple of weeks ago, if you were born before your date of travel in 1937. Read that a couple of hours ago as I was standing in line for the Nadscan at PIT.
23
Those 75+ can also keep their coats on.
24
So...you're saying I got "FUCK THE TSA" tattooed on my scrotum for nothing?
25
Be careful not to misinterpret this story. There will still be full-body scanners at airports, including backscatter scanners, just not from this particular company. They just have to show an abstract representation of your body instead. Concerns about radiation exposure remain unaddressed.
26
What @25 said.

Also, although the amount of radiation exposure probably is pretty minimal, we don't really know because those scanners haven't been subjected to the kind of testing that would be required of any medical device.

And yes, your radiation exposure during the flight is probably greater. But exposure to cosmic radiation during the flight is not optional. Radiation from a full body backscatter scanner is optional.
27
There's no technical reason for not being able to blur out or at least leave to a manager to stare at junk that's suspicious. The idea that the TSA will need every grunt employee to inspect each and every single taint that walks into an airport is the height of why we lost the war on terror. These people likely still think it's possible to live in a world where government workers routinely inspect the genitals of everyone walking into a specific building and to have that totally be normal. The people who meet exactly the same requirements to flip burgers are looking at hundreds of thousands of genitals and they expect us to believe they have stopped because it's not technically possible to stop grunt workers from looking at genitals they have no business looking at anyway? Jesus fucking christ we're screwed, you can't replace one terrorist regime with another, well actually I guess you can, welcome to the tyranny the right always complains about. Revolution yet? Come on guys, what exactly are you waiting for? You've got them on their hind legs, what exact time are you waiting for to bring humanity into a 21st century where the fewest number of government workers possible are checking the fewest numbers of genitals possible. I thought that's why we had a second amendment, right?

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