A purse, to most of us. To the TSA, a replica weapon and federal offense.
A 17-year-old pregnant Florida teen found herself in hot water with the fashion police TSA last month over the design on her purse.
TSA agents stopped Vanessa Gibbs in Virginia when they noticed that her purse had an antique-style western revolver emblem on it. An agent told Gibbs that the purse was “a federal offense because (the emblem) is in the shape of a gun”. Gibbs was detained while the TSA determined that the purse-gun wasn’t real and posed no threat. Even so, Gibbs wasn’t permitted to take the purse with her, and the TSA investigation took long enough that she missed her flight.
An image of Gibb’s purse is posted so you can see what all of the fuss was about. The gun design is clearly just a few inches in size.
Read more…
A Dutch architectural firm was forced to apologize for its design of twin luxury apartment buildings last month, after enraged Americans flooded them with death threats. The skyscrapers, planned for construction in South Korea, are dubbed “The Cloud” by their Dutch designers. The irregular structure that joins the two towers together at their midsections is meant to evoke visions of a wispy cloud, lazily floating by.
Instead, hoards of infuriated Americans saw a terrifying tribute to the horrors of 9/11. Naturally.
Read more…
A California marine biologist is facing more than 20 years in prison, and over half a million dollars in fines… for feeding a group of whales during a 2005 research trip.
I, for one, am certainly glad that the US Department of Justice and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could spare the resources to investigate this heinous crime. Illegal whale feeding is an unforgivable offense, and a known gateway to more serious crimes, such as dolphin riding.
In all seriousness, this is completely idiotic.
Read more…
Another misguided “repost this as your status” public-service message is making the rounds on Facebook again. Several of my computer-illiterate friends are cluttering news feeds with:
Hello FRIENDS! As you all know I like to keep my FB private except to those I am friends with. So if you all would do the following, I’d appreciate it. With the new FB timeline on its way this week for EVERYONE. . . please do both of us a favor: Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says “Subscribed”. Hover over that, then go to “Comments and Likes” and unclick it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the side bar for everyone to see, but most importantly it limits hackers from invading our profiles. If you repost this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you, because if you tell me that you’ve done it, I’ll “like” it
The posts are often accompanied by comments expressing outrage at Facebook’s wanton disregard for personal privacy, naturally. The issue, of course, is that the message is full of inaccuracies, and following it won’t accomplish much of anything.
Read more…
Explosively delicious!
A woman traveling to Las Vegas violated anti-terrorism regulations when she attempted to board an airplane with a pair of cupcakes this week.
Rebecca Hains was stopped by the TSA and informed that the “gel-like” icing on her delicious baked goods could potentially be used as an explosive, and was forced to surrender them. According to ABCNews.com, Hains had no trouble a few days earlier at Logan International airport in Boston, where TSA agents commented that the cupcakes looked delicious. Obviously, TSA agents in Las Vegas didn’t agree.
Read more…
The holiday season is in full swing, and that likely means travel for many of you. And travel often involves airports. And airports (at least here in the US) demand taking part in the TSA’s wonderful circus of security theater. In many airports, that means there is a good chance you’ll be asked to step through a full-body scanner.
You may have noticed that these same scanners were banned in Europe last month, due to health concerns over the ionizing radiation the machines employ. That might make you think twice about stepping into one, which is a perfectly valid response. However, this post isn’t really about the dangers of TSA backscatter scanners (there are already plenty of those), or whether or not you should opt out of a scan (ditto). I personally don’t believe that the health risk posed by the machines is serious enough that casual travelers need to realistically worry about those issues. Rather, I was more curious about the risk-reward relationship regarding them, and whether placing them in airports around the country made sense purely from a numbers standpoint.
Or, put more simply: is the potential benefit that we’re getting from these scanners in line with the health risk that they present (however small that risk may be)? I mean, surely somebody at the TSA thought about that, right? … Right?
Read more…
Last week, a homeless man by the name of David Ivins was senselessly assaulted by a couple of teenagers that punched, kicked, and threw rocks at him. The teens recorded themselves performing the beating, and then proceeded to upload the video to Youtube. Not surprisingly, public outrage in response to the video was immediate, and the teens were promptly arrested by the police.
A trio of New Jersey lawmakers were so disgusted by the beating that they announced the sponsorship of new legislation that will make recording an assault a crime that carries harsh penalties. Yes, these geniuses are seeking to criminalize the very act that captured the evidence which enabled police to swiftly arrest the victim’s assailants.
Read more…
Recent Comments