tagged w/ tsa body scanners
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Two mainstream media reporters have revealed that the TSA has “strongly cautioned” them not to cover the story of an engineer revealing major flaws in the agency’s $1 billion dollar body scanner program.
As we reported earlier this week, Engineer Jon Corbett of the popular blog TSA Out of Our Pants! posted a video that demonstrates how the TSA’s radiation firing scanners can easily be bypassed, when carrying metal objects.
Despite YouTube initially restricting the video for no discernable reason, the story went viral and the TSA was forced to respond, albeit in a way that only made the subject more pressing.
Now Corbett, who was the first person in the country to sue the TSA over the body scanners, says that two mainstream media journalists have contacted him to make it known that the TSA warned them off the story.
“I’ve been on the phone all day for the last 2 days with reporters and journalists of all kinds,” writes Corbett.
“One South Florida reporter told me that he had been “strongly cautioned” by the TSA not to cover this story. Absolutely unbelievable”
Corbett later updated his post to say that another reporter had also been “strongly cautioned” not to cover the story.
The reporters cite a TSA spokeswoman called Sari Koshetz as the person attempting to intimidate them out of covering the issue. They say that Koshetz described Corbett as someone who “clearly has an agenda” that “should not be aided by the mainstream media”.
http://12160.info/page/tsa-threatens-msm-reporters-over-coverage-of-body-scanner-storyTwo mainstream media reporters have revealed that the TSA has “strongly... more
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A new video that lays bare a glaring flaw in the TSA body scanners used in airports to detect weapons and explosives. In such scans, citizens are depicted in light colors, while metallic objects show as very dark. The problem comes when you consider that the images are taken with a dark background. From the transcript:
"Yes that’s right, if you have a metallic object on your side, it will be the same color as the background and therefore completely invisible to both visual and automated inspection. It can’t possibly be that easy to beat the TSA’s billion dollar fleet of nude body scanners, right? The TSA can’t be that stupid, can they? Unfortunately, they can, and they are. To put it to the test, I bought a sewing kit from the dollar store, broke out my 8th grade home ec skills, and sewed a pocket directly on the side of a shirt. Then I took a random metallic object, in this case a heavy metal carrying case that would easily alarm any of the “old” metal detectors, and walked through a backscatter x-ray at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. On video, of course. While I’m not about to win any videography awards for my hidden camera footage, you can watch as I walk through the security line with the metal object in my new side pocket."
http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/A new video that lays bare a glaring flaw in the TSA body scanners used in airports to... more
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Andrea Fornella Abbott, 41, was arrested at Nashville airport after she went wild on Transportation Security Administration agents for trying to give her daughter a pat down search.
Nashville police said Abbot, from Clarksville, Tenn., shouted and swore at TSA agents, saying she didn't want her young daughter to have her "crotch grabbed."
The trouble started on Saturday after Abbott refused to go through the airports body scanning device, The Tennessean reported.
"(Abbott) told me in a very stern voice with quite a bit of attitude that they were not going through that X-ray," security officer Sabrina Birge told police.
Birge said she told Abbott that the machine was "not an X-ray" and "10,000 times" safer than her cell phone.
"I still don't want someone to see our bodies naked," Abbott fumed, according to police.
After Abbott refused to cool her heels - she allegedly attempted to try to shoot video of the agents with her cell phone - cops cuffed her and hauled her off to jail.
She was released on bond on Saturday night. Cops didn't release her daughter's name or age.
Last month, the head of the TSA ordered agents to avoid giving children pat down searches.
The policy change came after several videos showing screeners searching kids went viral, sparking months of criticism.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mom-jailed-raging-tsa-agents-daughter-pat-girl-crotch-grabbed-article-1.161740#ixzz1oBbBK0ZYAndrea Fornella Abbott, 41, was arrested at Nashville airport after she went wild on... more
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The U.S. Travel Association, a travel industry trade group, says its surveys show, on average, each person avoids two to three trips a year because of the hassles of airport-security screening. That amounts to an estimated $85 billion in lost business for hotels, restaurants, airlines and other...
http://www.factoverfiction.com/article/4068The U.S. Travel Association, a travel industry trade group, says its surveys show, on... more
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God forbid you were born prior to 1950 and/or your birth certificate was improperly filed or maybe the original copy that is embossed got lost in a house fire or a NUMBER of different reasons, you now are not ALLOWED to leave the country? THIS is America? EXCUSE me? I'm pretty sure my own original birth certificate DOES meet these requirements, but I think the original was lovingly taped to a page of my baby book by mom which is somewhere in my parents' home. I'm sure it's in a special fire safe or something since my parents are so organized. So whenever it is that I decide to get another passport I guess I have to go bug my parents, carry a really big baby book to some government office, and I hope I can pass as "American enough" to go on vacation? Even to Canada? Really?
Yet I guess it's no big deal if people are allowed to buy up all sorts of military assault rifles without any proof of mental sanity or criminal background check. That's cute. I know I was born into a country with a lot of really nice rights and freedoms. I was brainwashed by the powers that be in this country that a flag is holier than a Bible or a Constitution and that soldiers who are forced to go kill innocent brown people on other continents are "protecting my freedoms" and other such propaganda. Now that I'm 30 I've lost more and more of my rights. I don't have anymore rights to privacy, that's for sure. I don't have the right to get on an airplane without some pervert TSA agent either feeling up all my private parts or taking a naked x-ray scan of me, if I ever were to get an abortion I might be forced to do so within a couple of months and wait several days and hear my doctor read some stupid script and have a medically un-necessary ultrasound and prove I wasn't raped, I will never get the right to have Medicare when I am old let alone Social Security which I've been forced to pay into while working, the banks all got bailed out with TARP funds yet I still don't have the right to access my OWN money I earn and pay taxes on from an ATM machine without paying a $3 (and soon $5) fee because I guess the banks are big greedy babies who want it ALL, I don't have the right to clean air and water because our world leaders can't stop drilling for oil and spilling the crap all over the place, I don't have the right to my own cell phone if a cop decides to stop me for some arbitrary reason and demands I turn over the phone so they can remove the SIM card and steal all my PERSONAL phone information (not making that one up), and if certain GOP candidates God forbid win the 2012 presidency, children won't have the right to wear sagging pants (and probably not plumbers either as they'd be guilty of the same crime) but heroin MIGHT become legal. Yes, HEROIN, not pot. (Meaning the drug that kills people, not the one that makes you hungry for Cheetos.)
I am confused. WHAT country do I live in now? One with rights? Or a Capitalistic fascist one? I'm a little confused about what I was taught as a little kid when the school I went to insisted we recite the Pledge of Allegiance in addition to all the propaganda I got from the textbooks (ALL Texas based publishing company since schools never get to decide textbooks) which were completely focused on white men and wars and nothing else. War war war and more war and guns guns guns and bombs. What happened to the days of John Lennon and Peace and Love? Really, what has happened to my country? All because a really smart Harvard graduate black man got elected and a bunch of KKK Teabagging idiots can't stand that thought? The Tea Party wants us broke, stupid, trapped, with guns to our heads. That's the message I'm getting lately.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_5401.html
New U.S. Birth Certificate Requirement
Beginning April 1, 2011, the U.S. Department of State will require the full names of the applicant’s parent(s) to be listed on all certified birth certificates to be considered as primary evidence of U.S. citizenship for all passport applicants, regardless of age. Certified birth certificates missing this information will not be acceptable as evidence of citizenship. This will not affect applications already in-process that have been submitted or accepted before the effective date.
For more information, see 22 CFR 51.42(a).
To obtain a new birth certificate, see the CDC.
In addition to this requirement, certified copies of birth certificates must also include the following information to be considered acceptable primary evidence of U.S. citizenship:
* Full name of the applicant
* Date of birth
* Place of birth
* Raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal of issuing authority
* Registrar’s signature
* The date the certificate was filed with the registrar’s office (must be within one year)
If you cannot obtain a birth certificate that meets these requirements, please see Secondary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship.God forbid you were born prior to 1950 and/or your birth certificate was improperly... more
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Sure there are underwear to shield private parts from full body scanners, but even if you can hide your vitals assets, and avoid getting cancer from TSA body scanners, what happens if and when DHS steps up its power to strip search passengers?
It'll never happen? After all, this is still the USA, land of the free. A year ago, I would agree. But now I'm not so sure since a DHS attorney appeared before a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and boldly claimed DHS has the authority to strip search every airline passenger. Although it hit the news, I was surprised by the lack of media coverage.
EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) has been outspoken about body imaging technology and filed a lawsuit to suspend the deployment of body scanners. EPIC's opening brief [PDF] stated that DHS "has initiated the most sweeping, the most invasive, and the most unaccountable suspicionless search of American travelers in history."
What blew me away was when an attorney for DHS told the federal court that DHS "believes it has the legal authority to strip search every air traveler." Additionally DHS said, "it believed a mandatory strip search rule could be instituted without any public comment or rulemaking." WTF?!?! What country is this, one ruled by Nazis or the KGB? How can this even be suggested in America?
Don't get me wrong. I love the USA, but I don't love what's happening these days in the "land of free." Naked body scanners are nothing more than very expensive security theater. They don't detect PETN as Bruce Schneier has repeatedly pointed out. And if a person refuses to walk through the body scanner, then TSA agents further violate dignity and privacy by groping that passenger in an "enhanced pat-down." How did we even get to this sad point?
NBC17 reported that this weekend, after a man with autism went through the body scanners at Boston Logan International Airport, TSA agents said, "We're not satisfied" and asked him to remove his belt and suspenders. The man asked for a private screening, but was denied that right to privacy. When he removed his suspenders and belt, his pants fell down right there in front of everyone. Yet a TSA spokeswoman said, "TSA's policy is to treat everybody with respect."
Yeah, right.
EPIC President Marc Rotenberg spoke at a oversight hearing before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations, asking Congress to suspend the body scanner program until the required public comment period.
Alaska State Representative Sharon Cissna, a breast cancer survivor, also testified at the hearing about being previously "felt up" by TSA screeners. APRN reported, "Cissna told the committee that the innocent phrase 'pat down' didn't begin to describe what she went through the first time she had to get a body search after her scars registered on a scanner." The next time her mastectomy scars showed up in a full body-scan, and a TSA worker still insisted on touching her for an invasive pat-down, Cissna refused and was not allowed to fly. She therefore had to return to Alaska via a long road trip, a small plane, and a ferry.
Professor Fred H. Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, told the hearing (PDF) that full body scanners frequently detect his insulin pump as an anomaly which leads to the dreaded enhanced pat-down search. "Under TSA's October policy, an agent would search me head to toe, including a careful pat-down of my genitals-as if somehow my genitals have become suspicious because I use an insulin pump." Cate also questioned the effectiveness of full body scanners detecting real threats.
Pilots have also amended a lawsuit against DHS and TSA, claiming that "new screening procedures for flight crews - scaled back after complaints by pilots - were still too invasive and violated privacy rights."
Threat Level's David Kravets reported on the TSA admitting it bungled airport body scanner radiation tests. While the government has always claimed radiation from naked body scanners was safe, a math error means the emissions are 10 times higher than previously reported. TSA defended the screening radiation risks again, but a Columbia University radiology researcher, David Brenner, testified that it is a low risk, but it's also "possible radiation from the machines could cause cancer in 100 people a year."
NBC Washington quoted Sen. Susan Collins as saying, "TSA has repeatedly assured me that the machines that emit radiation do not pose a health risk. Nonetheless, if TSA contractors reporting on the radiation levels have done such a poor job, how can airline passengers and crew have confidence in the data used by the TSA to reassure the public?"
Another day, another TSA fail as TSA screeners at Newark Airport allowed a mom to waltz through security with a steak knife meant to cut up her child's apple. As Gothamist asked, "can someone explain to us again why we're supposed to be ok with letting people prod our privates for weapons if the same people can't even spot a steak knife?"
But hey, that didn't stop TSA's John Pistole from asking Congress for even more money to deploy 275 additional full-body image scanners. According to MSNBC, Pistole told a House budget committee that body scanner machine technology, "has been proven safe and I assure you our operations respect individual privacy." Are you assured? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano talked about the day when travelers no longer must remove their shoes, adding that DHS is calling for "the airport checkpoint of tomorrow" that would require fewer passenger screenings.
TSA is hoping to start using a Shoe Scanning Device system that "will be capable of detecting threat objects concealed in footwear without requiring passengers to remove their footwear as they pass through a security checkpoint." Although the TSA claims shoe scanning machines will save time and money, how could that possibly be true? It's not like the shoe scanning machines will be free, just more taxpayer dollars wasted on security theater.
Seriously, I think people have far fewer issues removing their shoes than being groped as if we are criminals under arrest. Roaming hands groping children is just sickening and unnecessary. Between EPIC's lawsuit and Congress, if there isn't something done about the body scanners and enhanced pat-downs, will DHS and TSA move on in what they consider their right to do humiliating strip searches? Wake me up, surely this is a nightmare?Sure there are underwear to shield private parts from full body scanners, but even if... more
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Ain’t that a pisser? My wife flies all over the country for her job, 2 or 3 times a month, what am I supposed to tell her? “Honey, I’d rather you get groped by a stranger than end up with throat cancer.” That’s a helluva a choice, huh? This is still America, right? Land of the free. Right.Ain’t that a pisser? My wife flies all over the country for her job, 2 or 3... more
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Could Backscatter Scanners Be Coming To City Streets? | The Consumerist
The TSA’s rollout of full-body backscatter scanners at airports hasn’t pleased too many people (other than the manufacturers of said scanners). Now a handful of newly uncovered documents show that the Dept. of Homeland Security has been considering bringing that invasive technology out of the airport and out to the public realm.Could Backscatter Scanners Be Coming To City Streets? | The Consumerist
The... more
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An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.
The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport's body scanners every time she tried, the source said.
"In this case, where they had a test, and it was just a dismal failure as I'm told," said Larry Wansley, former head of security at American Airlines. "As I've heard (it), you got a problem, especially with a fire arm."
Wansley said covert testing by the TSA is commonplace -- although failing should be rare.
read more at the link.......http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/TSA-Agent-Slips-Through-DFW-Body-Scanner-With-a-Gun-116497568.htmlAn undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth... more
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TSA workers are complaining about the amounts of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis in the wake of the mass introduction of body scanners to airports around the country.
USA Today reports that TSA agents are unhappy with the fact that they are being kept in the dark by their employers, despite repeated requests for information.
“We don’t think the agency is sharing enough information,” said Milly Rodriguez, occupational health and safety specialist at the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers.
“Radiation just invokes a lot of fear.” she added.
According to the USA Today report, several TSA employees have expressed their concerns to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
…a TSA employee at an unidentified airport asked CDC in June to examine concerns about radiation exposures from standing near the new full-body X-ray scanners for hours a day. The CDC said it didn’t have authority to do a hazard assessment unless three or more current employees at one location made a joint request, according to a September letter from the CDC to the unnamed worker. The CDC provided the letter to USA TODAY.
Despite claiming that the body scanners and baggage scanners emit safe doses of radiation and are routinely inspected, the TSA has refused to release its radiation inspection records.
Worse still, an independent study by the CDC carried out in 2004, found that some baggage scanners were in violation of federal radiation standards, and were emitting two or three times beyond the agreed safe limit.
Continued at:
http://www.infowars.com/tsa-agents-revolt-over-body-scanner-radiation-exposure/TSA workers are complaining about the amounts of radiation they are being exposed to... more
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Dagum
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added this
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1 year ago
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The news about the potential health dangers of the TSA's naked body scanners just keeps getting worse. An increasing number of doctors and scientists are going public with their warnings about the health implications of subjecting yourself to naked body scanners. These include Dr Russell Blaylock (see below) as well as several professors from the University of California who are experts in X-ray imaging.
At the same time, some internet bloggers are insisting that the TSA's naked body scanners pose no health risks because air travelers are subjected to higher levels of radiation by simply enduring high-altitude flights where cosmic radiation isn't filtered out by the full thickness of the Earth's atmosphere. This comparison, however, is inaccurate: The TSA's body scanners focus radiation on the skin and organs near the skin whereas cosmic radiation during high-altitude flights is distributed across the entire mass of your body.
Comparing the total radiation exposure across your entire body to machine-emitted radiation exposure that focuses its ionizing radiation primarily on your skin is like comparing apples and oranges. You'll see this explained further, below, in the words of these scientists.
As Dr Russell Blaylock (www.BlaylockReport.com) recently reported:
"The growing outrage over the Transportation Security Administration's new policy of backscatter scanning of airline passengers and enhanced pat-downs brings to mind these wise words from President Ronald Reagan: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help you. So, what is all the concern really about - will these radiation scanners increase your risk of cancer or other diseases? A group of scientists and professors from the University of California at San Francisco voiced their concern to Obama's science and technology adviser John Holdren in a well-stated letter back in April."
The letter Dr Blaylock is referring to is from the Faculty of the University of California, San Francisco and is signed by Doctors John Sedat Ph.D., David Agard, Ph.D., Marc Shuman, M.D., Robert Stroud, Ph.D.
You can download or view the full letter from NaturalNews here (PDF):
http://www.NaturalNews.com/files/TS...
Even though it was written in April of this year, this letter has received increased publicity lately due to the TSA's sudden expansion of naked body scanners in airports as well as the agency's arrogant insistence that such machines will soon be used at bus stations, railway stations and other entrance points for mass transportation....
...Ten big concerns voiced by the scientists
Here are ten additional concerns raised by these scientists in their letter: (the bolded titles are my subheads, the subsequent explanation test is quoted straight out the scientists' letter)
#1) Cancer in senior citizens - The large population of older travelers, greater than 65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of melanocyte aging.
#2) Breast cancer - A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to mutagenesis-provoking radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women, who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer, X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue beneath the skin represents a similar risk.
#3) White blood cells being irradiated - Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.
#4) HIV and cancer patients - The population of immunocompromised individuals -- HIV and cancer patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin dose.
#5) Radiation risk to children - The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to have been fully evaluated.
#6) Pregnant women - The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical risks to the fetus are determined.
#7 Sperm mutations - Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for sperm mutagenesis.
#8 Radiation effects on cornea and thymus - Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?
#9 Problems with the machine - There are a number of 'red flags' related to the hardware itself. Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense. Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in software) that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin.
Translation: This machine does not emit a "flood light" of radiation like you might get from a dental X-ray machine. Rather, this machine emits a thin, narrow beam of radiation that is quickly "scanned" across your body, back and forth, in much the same way that an inkjet printer prints a page (but a lot faster). Because the angle of the X-ray beam is controlled by the scanner software, a glitch in the software could turn the naked body scanner into a high-energy weapon if the beam gets "stuck" in one location for more than a fraction of a second.
#10 Higher radiation for the groin? - Given the recent incident (on December 25th, 2009), how do we know whether the manufacturer or TSA, seeking higher resolution, will scan the groin area more slowly leading to a much higher total dose?
Continued at:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Bq5v8T4ediQ/TOyk6Kcd9tI/AAAAAAAAA04/ZCSL9_LA0ME/s400/choice%2B%2528D%2529.jpg
http://www.naturalnews.com/030607_naked_body_scanners_radiation.htmlThe news about the potential health dangers of the TSA's naked body scanners just... more
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Dagum
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1 year ago
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This is brilliant! They seem to be sold out of the shirts right now but I'm really thinking about getting one when they have more! Enjoy guys. Follow me if you dig it.This is brilliant! They seem to be sold out of the shirts right now but I'm... more
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If ever there was an indicator of just how apathetic and well trained the American public truly is, it must be this situation with TSA. Like a herd of bedraggled sheep, thousands of you forfeited your 4th and 5th amendment rights and allowed the government to irradiate you and view your virtually naked body,If ever there was an indicator of just how apathetic and well trained the American... more
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In his complaint, he details his personal story of how he and his daughters were treated during an “enhanced pat down” by the TSA on a recent trip to San Diego, describing the TSA agents’ behavior as “disgusting, unconscionable, sexual in nature, unnecessary and a complete violation of his and his children’s constitutional rights.”In his complaint, he details his personal story of how he and his daughters were... more
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Full body scanning machines- dubbed ”virtual strip searches” by critics, that existed at various American airports since the beginning of 2010, will soon be find their way to trains, subways and boats.Full body scanning machines- dubbed ”virtual strip searches” by critics,... more
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New Mother Harassed and Threatened by TSA because she requests alternate screening for her breast milk. As a repeat traveler, the TSA singled her out to make an example out of her. She spends over an hour in the “Special Inspection” area and is forced to miss her flight.New Mother Harassed and Threatened by TSA because she requests alternate screening for... more
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it can fine individuals up to $11,000 for walking away from the airport security process. But will it? People in government say the fine is mostly a deterrent so that terrorists cannot back out of a security check once it starts.The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it can fine individuals up to... more
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Here’s a list of all the airports using the Backscatter machines. Enjoy.
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President Obama, After Traveling With Naked Scanner CEO, Defends Naked Scans
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Feel like your gettin’ dosed by x-rays on a regular basis? Work around a Gitmo Body Scanner? Buddy, you need a Dosimeter badge to carry around to monitor your radiation exposure! Used by medical technicians, radiologists and dentists, these badges monitor accumulated radiation exposure. Wear the dosimeter badge while at work and then send off to be read by the vendor. John Dvorak reported that Stanford Dosimetry makes some of the more affordable badges available at $69 a year, per person.
Perhaps a show producer can make some No Agenda co-branded dosimeter badges to hand out to TSA agents?Feel like your gettin’ dosed by x-rays on a regular basis? Work around a Gitmo... more
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