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.
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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?
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Some buildings + airplane = terrorism!
The image to the right has been making the rounds on Facebook over the past few days, accompanied by the following caption:
“FB family I need your help, so today while in Iraq shutting down one of the bases there ironically enough I stumbled upon this can of diet pepsi. Take a close look at the picture and tell me the first thought that comes to your mind. Mine and many other of my brother in arms was not a pleasant one so I just want to make sure we re not bias. If you see the same thing I did, I will never ever buy another Pepsi product again, this is an insult. Thank you for your feedback and participation.”
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