Brain Turned Off

In this day and age, with all the things happening around us, can you ever imagine a day that nothing happening worth reporting?

When the evening news on TV are canceled because there was nothing to report?

No extraordinary athletic achievements, no discoveries, no catastrophes, just nothing going on. Only the Turkish electrical engineer and rector of the University of Bilkent may see it differently: He was born on that day. Oh, and in Belgium it was election day again – but that happens so often, especially on a Sunday.

We are talking of April 11, 1954, the dullest day since the start of the 20th century, according to British scientists.

You have to be at least 56 years old to have lived on that day. Maybe one of you older folks may remember something special, like when it is your birthday (see the Turkish engineer mentioned above) or any other events important to you. But other than that?

TV was in its infancy those days. But I wonder what the newspapers where reporting. Papers that don’t publish regularly on Mondays weren’t quite stressed about their publishing schedule I would think.

Now, of course, with the declaration of 4/11/54 as the most boring day, that day has now sparked some interest, making it not that boring after all.

It appears that the blurred houses have now re-emerged after they have been in a black hole (see also the video), with a more blurry look (compared to the snapshots taken here)

It has been now reported that some houses have been “egged”.

What a shame we can’t see these eggs in Street View. It is just too blurry.

Too sad that one of the new hired priest wasn’t available at this incident – I hear that the priest are very good with young boys.

Good job, TSA, however, discovering the urostomy bag (never heard that word before). After all, it could have contained fluid explosives, so you better break the seal and do a chemical analysis, that it is true generic urine in there. Bad thing, that the incident was made public (thanks Fox News – but you’re not the only one), so the terrorists have now another possible idea how to break the system. But no worry, folks. You see, the TSA is proactive in deterring potential terror threats.

There are unconfirmed reports that the TSA has started hiring defrocked priests to help out with the full body scans due to expected high demand for this at the airports during the upcoming holiday season.

That makes sense, doesn’t it. How would you not trust a priest in this situation. Besides of doing the scan, he can also take your confession and give you the blessing for the upcoming trip.

A formal announcement is scheduled for later today.

There is some update from a previous post

It appears now, that the TSA body scanners were designed with the storage capability because it was a requirement of the TSA.

See this CNN post for further information

We know already from the Orlando incident how the “test mode” has been invoked. And it makes perfectly sense. Besides of having the capability available “just in case”, think about a scenario that a terrorist went through the scanners undetected. Image the outcry from the public and the politicians, forcing the TSA to investigate how this happened. They better have the images stored somewhere to figure out at what point the system failed.

There are already reports that the scanners might not work too well. According to a CBS report, the government wants to keep the information classified that documents the success rate of the scanners.

You can read here in the comment section how to confuse the scanners.

So it appears more and more that the real purpose of the scanners is to instill fear in the public.

Just like the terrorists have instilled fear. They really don’t need to do anything. Just by being there and once in a while pretend to plan something the keep the public in check.

Also, don’t believe that the TSA personal have some fun.

According to this report TSA co-workers started to make jokes about a colleague’s “junk”. However, he didn’t think it was funny and confronted the co-workers. He was arrested the next day.

No word of whether the supervisor was investigated for sexual harassment.

The pat-down of course has its own problem. Think about priests, nuns, young children, the elderly, the disabled being subject to scanning and pat-downs. Can’t wait to hear about an incident involving a jealous husband or boyfriend.

So what can you do?

Here’s an idea. Pretend to be a sexual addict, with hyper-sensitivity and -activity problems. Take Viagra if this is a stretch for you. Mention to the TSA officer that you can be easily aroused just by thinking somebody at the other end of the room might see your naked image coming from the scanner.

If you opt for the pat-down, just pretend that you are actually enjoying the fondling and groping and make some noise to make it sound real. Make sure that you are searched thoroughly. When done, leave the secure area and re-enter it again for some more. Remember, TSA has to complete the screening once it has started, and you want to make sure that the screening is very thorough, for the sake of the public’s safety.

Keep in mind, you cannot be blamed for this. You gave an advanced warning and they started it anyway.

Now the funny stuff (I hope it is just that)…

This link shall suffice …

Oh well …

We were told that the TSA Body scanners are not able to store or print the sensitive pictures that the airport security takes from you.

It is apparently not so.

Gizmodo has published a video with images of several – low-quality – images made at an Orlando courthouse and obtained under a freedom of information act request.

A quote from the Gizmodo article:

“The TSA and other government agencies have repeatedly touted the quality of “Advanced Imaging Technology” while simultaneously assuring customers that operators “cannot store, print, transmit or save the image, and the image.” According to the TSA—and of course other agencies—images from the scanners are “automatically deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located security officer”. (end quote)

I’m confused here. In order to “delete” an image, doesn’t it have to be stored somewhere – at least temporary?

It is not that the scanners cannot save the images permanently. They actually can. TSA says, however, that the archiving capability is disabled by the manufacturer before delivery and cannot be re-activated by the TSA agents.

Really?

Why then do the machines have the archiving capabilities to begin with?

And wouldn’t it be tempting for a hacker to enable the saving capability again?

The scanner from the Orlando courthouse, by the way, was sent back to the manufacturer, intact with images and all. 35,000 of them.

As Gizmodo says: “We look forward to seeing your next vacation photos.”

There is now a video about the blurred houses in Germany – and what happened to them.

Have you seen a strange phenomenon in Germany lately?

Google’s Street View just put some pictures on the internet, starting with some sightseeing points, and one smaller town. This town wanted to be one of the first on the map, so they invited the Google crew and served them cake.

Now, there are some people who don’t want to be featured on street view, especially if they are shown in compromising places and situations. That’s understandable, so Google blurs out the faces of the people and also automobile plates. But some people object to pictures of their houses, even if they don’t own them and just rent one apartment.

The results are pictures like these.

Actually, right now the whole picture is blacked out, it is “under review”.

Now, keep in mind, it is legal for anyone to photograph buildings from public places. Even if the Google cameras are higher than the average height of a walking person, you can be riding in a tourist bus and be on an elevated level like that.

The people requesting their houses being blurred like that – what are they thinking? Do they think they won’t get much attention? Normally it works the other way – you create curiosity in you desperate attempt to hide something.

Or maybe it is a plot to attract tourism to this town of blurred houses (remember the city leaders welcomed the Google team and pleaded to be among the first to be online in Germany).

Who knows?