feel safer yet?
1) As if there weren’t enough annoyances at the airport, the TSA has unleashed a new squad of ‘Behavior Detection Officers‘ that are supposed to be looking for erratic behavior that CLEARLY people that have terror on their minds exhibit flagrantly. I could go on and on explaining to you how fucking dumb this idea is, but I won’t. I could draw some insanely easy parallels to ‘1984′, but I won’t insult your intelligence. This should stand by itself as a testament to what the government does when you give an entire department zero oversight and an unlimited tax-funded operating budget.
“Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny. A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler’s going. If more alarms go off, officers will “refer” the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning. Jay M. Cohen, undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, said in May that he wants to automate passenger screening by using videocams and computers to measure and analyze heart rate, respiration, body temperature and verbal responses as well as facial micro-expressions”
What exactly are they going to look for? Sweaty, tired, annoyed, disheveled passengers? Isn’t that everyone who tries to take a flight these days? I wonder how they’re going to explain themselves when they still ‘randomly select’ Arab-Americans for….um..interviews.
2) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and Guantanamo Prison, according to a new tracing program. The changes may violate Wikipedia’s conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday. The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches. The program allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries. WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.
I would think that not screwing up in the first place would’ve been a better solution that attempting to limit the amount of egg to wipe from your face afterwards. Just a thought. Also, if you’re going to edit a HISTORICAL EVENT–you should probably make it clear that your version of events might be slightly bias since you’re on the Department of Defenses’ payroll.