Unbreakable Fighting Umbrellas
Impressive. Be sure to watch the video.
Entries Tagged "weapons"
Page 6 of 12
Good Essay on TSA Stupidity
From Salon:
“You ain’t takin’ this through,” she says. “No knives. You can’t bring a knife through here.”
It takes a moment for me to realize that she’s serious. “I’m … but … it’s …”
“Sorry.” She throws it into a bin and starts to walk away.
“Wait a minute,” I say. “That’s airline silverware.”
“Don’t matter what it is. You can’t bring knives through here.”
“Ma’am, that’s an airline knife. It’s the knife they give you on the plane.”
New Technology to Detect Chemical, Biological, and Explosive Agents
“We have found we can potentially detect an incredibly small quantity of material, as small as one dust-speck-sized particle weighing one trillionth of a gram, on an individual’s clothing or baggage,” Farquar said. “This is important because if a person handles explosives they are likely to have some remaining residue.”
Using a system they call Single-Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry, or SPAMS, the Livermore scientists already have developed and tested the technology for detecting chemical and biological agents.
The new research expands SPAMS’ capabilities to include several types of explosives that have been used worldwide in improvised explosive devices and other terrorist attacks.
“SPAMS is a sensitive, specific, potential option for airport and baggage screening,” Farquar said. “The ability of the SPAMS technology to determine the identity of a single particle could be a valuable asset when the target analyte is dangerous in small quantities or has no legal reason for being present in an environment.”
Sikhs Can Carry Knives on Airplanes in India
That’s what the rules say:
Sikh passengers are allowed to carry Kirpan with them on board domestic flights. The total length of the ‘Kirpan’ should not exceed 22.86 CMs (9 inches) and the length of the blade should not exceed 15.24 CMs. (6 inches). It is being reiterated that these instructions should be fully implemented by concerned security personnel so that religious sentiments of the Sikh passengers are not hurt.
How airport security is supposed to recognize a Sikh passenger is not explained.
The War on T-Shirts
London Heathrow security stopped someone from boarding a plane for wearing a Transformers T-shirt showing a cartoon gun.
It’s easy to laugh and move on. How stupid can these people be, we wonder. But there’s a more important security lesson here. Security screening is hard, and every false threat the screeners watch out for make it more likely that real threats slip through. At a party the other night, someone told me about the time he accidentally brought a large knife through airport security. The screener pulled his bag aside, searched it, and pulled out a water bottle.
It’s not just the water bottles and the t-shirts and the gun jewelry—this kind of thing actually makes us all less safe.
Spending Money on the Wrong Security Threats
This story is a year and a half old, but the lessons are still good:
Kim Hyten, emergency management director in Putnam County, said he didn’t realize homeland security grants can now be used to prepare for tornados. As a result, Putnam County is using its grant money to prepare for something else.
“Weapons of mass destruction,” Hyten said.
That’s right—weapons of mass destruction. This year, Putnam County spent most of its $58,000 homeland security grant to buy dozens of gas masks, boxes full of chemical suits, a plutonium-detecting gamma and neutron ray radiological monitor and, for good measure, this rural county about fifty miles west of Indianapolis also ordered plenty of weapons of mass destruction test strips.
But asked whether weapons of mass destruction are a concern, Hyten replied: “The weapons of mass destruction—I don’t believe this county has ever, when we did our terrorism protection plan, ever looked at that we’d be a targeted site.”
Sonic Weapon
Story of a sonic blaster:
Here’s how it works: Inferno uses four frequencies spread out over 2 to 5 kHz. The idea behind it is that unlike a regular siren, these particular frequencies have a uniquely disturbing effect on people (and presumably cats, dogs and any other living thing). At 123 dB, it’s loud, but not significantly louder than any other alarm system. The advantage, according to Dr. Goldman, is the combination of frequencies. The human ear just doesn’t like it. I agree, I really didn’t like it.
Note to the TSA: Dr. Goldman has had no problems bringing this thing onto airplanes.
Heavily Armed Officers on New York City Subways
Why does anyone think this is a good idea?
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
What does it accomplish besides intimidating innocent commuters?
Anti-Missile Technology on Commercial Aircraft
There have been stories previously, but this time it looks like it will actually happen:
Up to three American Airlines jets carrying passengers will be outfitted with anti-missile technology this spring in the latest phase of testing technology to protect commercial planes from attack.
[…]
The technology is intended to stop a missile attack by detecting heat given off from the rocket, then firing a laser beam that jams the missile’s guidance system.
I have several feelings about this. One, it’s security theater against a movie-plot threat. Two, given that that’s true, attaching an empty box to the belly of the plane and writing “Laser Anti-Missile System” on it would be just as effective a deterrent at a fraction of the cost. And three, how do we know that’s not what they’re doing?
More news here.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.