$500,000 Prize for Faster Airport Security Checks 517
coondoggie writes "A security company is willing to fork over $500,000 in prize money to the person or company that comes up with an innovative
technology to speed airport security lines. The company making the offer, Clear, says the winning technology must meet a number of criteria including TSA approval and it must reduce inconvenience by, for example, allowing for no divesting of shoes or outer garments."
When do I get my money? (Score:3, Insightful)
Do Nothing.
It will be just as effective, and much cheaper.
When do I get my money?
Here's my suggestion (Score:4, Insightful)
There ya go, no need to take shoes off or all that other ridiculousness.
How about... (Score:2, Insightful)
Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Over 50,000 die each year in the US on the highways. If the same "zero tolerance" rule was applied to cars, then all cars would be required by law to remain at speeds below 15mph, would be covered in big foam bumpers, and would require five point safety harnesses and helmets. To maintain the effectiveness of automobiles, we don't do this. As part of acknowledging that risk exists and that we're responsible for our lives, we make tradeoffs.
Absolute security is impossible. It also makes people complacent.
Nobody will ever succesfully hijack a plane the way those were in 2001, because we've all seen a possible outcome. The TSA is the embodiment of the old saying that generals always "plan for previous war".
Where do I collect my check? Or is the painfully obvious exempt?
Easy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, I think I'll use my Florida permit next time I fly as my "state issued picture ID".
New Invention: Freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
Talk about R&D outsourcing, eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, they are paying for someone's idea or someone's implementation (equipment design and the like)? If the former, $500K sounds good; if the latter, $500K is pocket change: research ain't cheap.
Anyway, I have one idea: how about reverting back to the pre 9/11 era modus operandi? I mean, c'mon, it is not like a "hijack-and-ram-into-building" stunt is going to work again anyway... The only real worries should be bombs and guns on board, which we managed in an acceptable way back in the 90's.
Another idea is to stop messing with the political affairs in other countries. But that doesn't sound appealing to their prospective neocon customers, does it?
fp?
End the Security Theater? (Score:5, Insightful)
If containers of fluids are dangerous, why are they just thrown away next to the security lines? When the hell is a knife going to help you against a group of 50 angry people in a small enclosed space?
If you search the people getting on the plane, what about the luggage? If luggage handlers can steal stuff from luggage and sneak it out of the airport, what is to prevent that same person from sneaking a bomb into the plane, in place of the stuff they stole? If we are going to search the pilot, why not search the mechanic, and make sure he didn't sabotage the plane?
If you have a security check, then the line to get thorough the check becomes a target. It doesn't matter where you move that check, since it takes time to go through, you have a bunch of people there, and thus a suicide bomber would just blow themselves up there.
Why do Americans not care about their 4th amendment [wikipedia.org] rights to not be searched, and why is simply wanting transportation sufficient cause or not unreasonable?
Two Step Plan (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Eliminate the facade that is security the check.
Re:Religious profiling (Score:4, Insightful)
UP AGAINST THE WALL TERRORIST! NOW!
Or maybe let's celebrate our diversity and not use knee-jerk reactions as policy, eh?
Re:End the Security Theater? (Score:5, Insightful)
That very thought struck me the first time I flew after 9/11. There were upwards of five hundred people piled up behind the security gates, and there were lines with even more people snaking across the area in front of the ticket counters. How much security do you have to pass through to get up to the security check? None, of course. All they did was make planes less desirable as targets and provided an even higher-value target entirely outside of all the new protections.
easy (Score:4, Insightful)
- Tell TSA whiteshirts to "work faster"
- Add more lanes
- Actually use all the lanes you already have
Boom. Where's my $500,000 ?The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:5, Insightful)
a) We take this seriously.
b) The terrorists are nasty people and they're doing this to you, not us.
c)Keep the whole War On Terror in your face. A scared citizen is a controllable citizen.
If they had the space and could get away with it, they would make everyone strip and get the Rubber Glove.
Don't make me chug my coffee (Score:3, Insightful)
Repeat after me:
My beverage is not a national security threat.
Easy as Pie (Score:3, Insightful)
please send check to AIK
Re:Here's my suggestion (Score:2, Insightful)
I noticed a trend in the kind of person that attacked on 9/11.
Oh wait, that's racial profiling, and we can't do that. We have to waste EVERYBODY's time to make sure some people's feelings aren't hurt.
Or even easier would be to just arm everybody.
Insurance (Score:5, Insightful)
Forehand knowledge of number of passengers (Score:5, Insightful)
Use the knowledge you already have. It's not that tricky.
Re:Easy.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Though there are some who argue that concealed carry permit holders should be ultra-secretive about the fact that they have this permit, I think it's an excellent thing to use anytime someone demands a "state-issued ID" or "government ID." a) it's confusing to people who don't realize they exist, which (sadly) is a pretty big group b) it's informative to those same people, might get some of them thinking about it.
timothy
Re:Easy.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, having 2 armed, armored, and properly trained air marshals (or similar) at the front of the plane facing backwards in jump seat with 5 point harnesses would help on-board incidents as well.
Flight crew gets on, locks door. Armed escorts get in, buckle in. Then passenger boarding.
Re:The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ooh! (Score:4, Insightful)
Pause
"Oh wait, this one...no...uh...THIS one goes in your mouth."
- "Idiocracy"
Re:End the Security Theater? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:5, Insightful)
Face it, a terrorist is not likely to try to walk through a security check point with something that screams "this is a dangerous weapon, I must be a terrorist, arrest me." If they want to plug holes in security then they need to start with the support crew that have access to the aircraft on the tarmac and the luggage handlers.
Of course they can't do anything about that, they can't even prevent the luggage handlers from stealing whatever they want from the bags they handle. But nobody says much about that anymore. And they seem to think that occasionally catching ground crew smuggling guns and drugs in airplanes is going to make that problem go away.
The best option to improve security is to let people get training and a permit that allows them to carry a weapon anywhere. If you have a significant portion of the population armed at all times then the chance of terrorist getting much further than "I have a bom..." before someone drops them would reduce the chances of such act to virtually zero.
It would probably make most people a lot more polite as well.
Re:The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:5, Insightful)
Then all the terrorist will try to do is to try to take down the plane, taking everyone else with him. It won't hit buildings, but if it'd be legal to get a loaded gun on the plane, so there's not much planning involved.
The key to terrorism is that there's no way to stop any determined person from doing a very significant amount of damage. Stop one method, and another one will replace it. It's unavoidable.Faster? Harder! Deeper! (Score:2, Insightful)
Show me your papers, please!
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
And as Bruce Schneier [schneier.com] likes to point out, if we can't keep weapons (improvised or otherwise) out of prisons, how can we have any possible expectation of keeping them out of airports and off of airplanes?
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Compare this to when someone reports a bag of garbage sitting on an overpass and the police close the road for hours so they can blow it up. Hasn't anyone told the police that there are garbage cans full of potential explosives sitting right at the security terminal?
Liquids etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
It also applies to medicines:
My mum has multiple sclerosis and the Rebif medication she takes is temperature/pressure sensitive meaning it must be taken on board the plane along with ice packs to keep it cool. The whole thing comes in a pack with quite long needles.When traveling before the liquid restriction she was only required to take a letter from a doctor to confirm that it was essential to carry the medicines on board, although from experience nobody bothered to read it. After the restriction on liquids was put in place she was refused the right to take it on board unless she "tasted" the substance in the ice packs to prove it was not dangerous. Which it is, but only for consumption.
Tastability, to my knowledge, is not an established indicator of a substances ability to combust.
Thankfully, being aware that the substance was toxic, she point blank refused. Eventually they relented and let her through making the whole unpleasant experience rather pointless. I'd have to question the sense - and legality - of coercing people to consume toxic substances as a means of "security".
Re:No, you are incorrect... (Score:4, Insightful)
So your point of view is that suicidal terrorists will somehow dislike the idea of getting into a pitched gunfight on a crowded airliner?
Re:The whole point behind removing shoes (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Easy. (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, the *real* purpose of the security checks is NOT to protect the passengers. It's to protect the airplane, airline, and things onto which the airplane might crash. Still, you have a valid point.
Perhaps passengers should simply be warned that any plane that gets hijacked, gets shot down without negotiation and we, as a society live with that. Problem solved.
Re:No, you are incorrect... (Score:3, Insightful)
Now a bombing remains possible.
Re:No, you are incorrect... (Score:2, Insightful)
Exactly. What do you think a gunfight will do to an airplane?
How about building some trains? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Lock the cabin door (Score:3, Insightful)
This way a hijacker that threatens to kill passengers can do so, but it would be futile. Sure there would be an outrage if the plane landed with 300 corpses, but then again if the hijacker took over and crashed the plane into an important building, there would be much worse damage. Once the plane is in the air, the key is to keep the hijacker from gaining any power over the plane.
Re:End the Security Theater? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you have no problems with the current situation, fine. You can give up your amendment rights all you want, since someone in that situation is so used to giving up their rights that they don't even know fo the ones they have. If you do have problems with the current situation, quit whining and do something about it. The options mentioned above would indeed count as doing something about it. Sit ins and nonviolent protest are other methods.
Or, you can just read about it, and whine. I don't know what you plan, but I've got my own plate of crap to fix (that of which I need help making a website since I suck at setting up an online data array/etc) but if I have time I would certainly love to try to tackle the airline issue with actual demonstrations/etc.
Re:Lock the cabin door (Score:3, Insightful)
Before 9/11, yes. Now ? Not so, I believe. And practically it'd be hard to kill 300 people by hand or gun of you're alone.
Gimme my $500k! (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, someone could walk into the lobby area with a bomb vest and kill far more than could board a plane by simply being there, without aircraft ever being involved.
Or crap, just get everyone in the US hooked on PCP, that does away with natural senses of fear altogether, and when there's no fear, there's no terror, let alone terrorism.