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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What do you think of the naked body scanners in airports?
Ok I thought I would spice things up a little. With the holidays coming and many people traveling...and the naked body scanners being in wide use throughout the United States....
What do you think of the NAKED BODY SCANNERS?? I hear the TSA is now requiring everyone to go through them, and people are not being treated very nicely if they refuse. If you refuse, then there is a mandatory "enhanced pat-down" which I have read includes groping the groin area and even putting hands down waistbands into pants. I don't know how far they are taking this and how much is exaggeration or a few bad cases, but this is what I am reading!!!!
What do you think of these new procedures, and what are you planning to do when you face them?
Re: What do you think of the naked body scanners in airports?
they can naked scan me all they want! if they want to see my tampon internally, that's great for them. :-) (yes, they can see pads and tampons - they were talking on Z100 this morning about how a stick of dynamite shoved in a hooha would look an awful lot like a tampon!)
Seriously, though, I am fine with it. The people who are looking at the scanners are not anywhere near the people being scanned, they can't see you and only see the image on the screen which is delete in 20 seconds. If that means I'll be safer on a plan, scan away.
That's kind of how I feel.. Even though there have been almost zero terrorist activity in the US and the level of security we have at airports is over kill.. I just don't care. If it means that we stop even 1 person from trying to blow up then so be it.
Although, the beauty of flying with an infant, you only have to go through the regular metal detector, not the back scatter.
This brings another point. If a tampon looks like dynamite, and dynamite looks like a tampon, how does the scanner make us safer? Are they going to ask anyone that appears to have one of these items inside them to go to a private room and remove it for a TSA agent?????
As for the images, that is what they say, but images are being leaked onto the internet for all of us to see, so they are not as secure as we think.
They are definitely not being immediately deleted, they are being stored "off-site"....And DH brought up an interesting point. Supposedly the TSA has never actually caught a terrorist with their security, it's always been another passenger or person on the plane. I'm not a fan of the increased security measures...
Well, that's a whole 'nother issue - IMO the TSA is a joke and really does nothing to protect us. Just in my own experiences of things I've accidentally brought on planes that no one has caught, to the inconsistencies of one airport letting me fly with something and another taking it away, to watching the xray machine operator talking to a friend and not even looking at the screen while bags go through, I can't imagine they are actually thwarting any terrorism.
It's just that I don't really care if they see my x-rayed hooha if it means that maybe it will help. I don't even care if my x-rayed hooha gets leaked to the internet, as long as my name isn't attached to it! Heck, I probably couldn't even recognize my own hooha in an x-ray.
I'm just waiting for the day a terrorist rigs an explosive device in the underwire of her bra. They already make us take our shoes off because of hte shoe bomber, do you think they'll make us take our bras off if there's a bra bomber??
The TSA needs to learn about airline security from El Al - before you even get to the airport, Israeli security already knows everything about you, and whether or not you are going to try to blow up their plane. Taking off your shoes is probably laughable to them. Their security looks at the person as a whole, not just what the person is wearing that day. We can't even keep people who are ON our "no fly" list off of planes. It's pretty sad.
The inconsistency is totally what kills me. For example:
Halloween weekend I flew to Richmond, VA w/ baby. As I went through JFK security, I had the baby in the ergo, they did not have me take the baby out and they did not say a word about the bottles of formula (both powder already mixed w/ water and rtf 8 oz bottles) in the backpack. As long as you don't beep JFK tsa could give a S*** less what you've got with you.
But, when I was going through Richmond security, I had to take the baby out of the ergo, put the ergo through the x-ray, hold the baby out in front of me so that she passed through the metal detector before I did, then walk though the detector. Then they brought my backpack over to a counter, removed the bottles of formula (again, one already mixed w/ powder, 3 others rtf 8oz), had me remove the lid of the one that was powder/water and they did their little dipstick test (where they hold the dipstick over the liquid, but not in it) on it, then did the little test on all of the rtf's.. then they decided to pull EVERYTHING else out of the backpack to inspect it, and made me toss a 4oz bottle of baby lotion.
It's just annoying and made me glad that I wasn't running late for my flight!
Honestly though, most airports w/ the baby, is a breeze to get through and that's scary as people can totally use babies to do bad things if they were crazy enough!
I've definitely noticed that it's a heck of a lot easier to get on a plane leaving NY with "prohibited" items,than it is coming back. Maybe TSA figures terrorists will want to be on planes coming here, not leaving??
But on the other hand, a few years ago my friend bought an entire cutlery set from Disney World and had it on her carryon for the flight home. We ddn't realize until we were on the plane that security had let us through with EIGHT KNIVES.
Um...yeah.
I think the scanners are ridiculous and that it is way over the top to force every single person to go through them.
I went in one last year at an airport in Atlanta when I was newly pregnant, and after the fact I started realizing that I probably should have opted for the pat down because of the radiation.
If you fly only once or twice a year than the radiation is *probably* harmless, but for frequent fliers, the radiation is a concern in my opinion.
So not only is this a possible health hazard, to some people it really is not preferable for anyone to see an image of your naked body. A lot of religious people are not comfortable with this because modesty is highly valued and important to many. I personally do not like the idea of some random person seeing my naked body. I agree that the majority of people who are looking at these images could care less, but all you need is one crazy person who could do something sketchy for me to feel uneasy about it.
Also - I can't believe they are forcing pilots to go through these. If a pilot really wanted to kill people aboard a plane, he/she wouldn't need explosives to do it...
It is complete overkill imo. I think it is crazy to be prescribing the same thing for every single person who wants to fly (babies, the elderly, pilots and flight attendants come to mind).
The real answer to the problem [which is profiling people] is not politically correct and because of that, will most likely not work in our country. Profiling has worked very successfully in Israeli airports for decades and things run much smoother over there when it comes to air travel.
The real fact is that we know exactly what to look for when it comes to terrorists, but instead of focusing on the truth, we instead focus on who has more than 2 ounces of toothpaste or shampoo, it is idiotic imo.
edited to add:
here is a great article explaining what the airport experience could be like (and is like in israel): http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother
Quoting Mrs.Kocal: I'm just waiting for the day a terrorist rigs an explosive device in the underwire of her bra. They already make us take our shoes off because of hte shoe bomber, do you think they'll make us take our bras off if there's a bra bomber??
Exactly. That is what these terrorists have done for our country. The terrorists have taken away our civil liberties. Because of them we have to walk around barefooted (not such a big deal), but now that has escalated to naked body scanning and the day we all have to remove our bras in public is the day the terrorists will be laughing at us, if they aren't already. Technically with the sexual groping it has already gotten that bad. Just because some asinine terrorist shoves explosives in her private areas, now we have to be groped in those areas to "make sure" we don't have any. And how can they really tell anyway, when you can stick it up your hooha. Everyone wearing a tampon is going to be asked to remove it to make sure its not dynamite??? Or I guess we can't use tampons when we fly. Again, it is violation of personal rights. Ridiculous.
I agree with you a 100%. I think it is ridiculous and a total overkill to have everyone inspected by these machines. I to am concerned about the radiation (even though it's probably not all that high if you fly infrequently). But having to put my daughter through this is what really gets me upset. How do you go and explain to your child that they need to tell mommy and daddy about any inappropriate touching, unless of course it's a TSA worker?
I think they've created a near paranoia and coming out with these new and "improved" security measures and checks gives people a false sense of security. I did not feel scared flying before 9/11, nor did increased measures of security made me feel any better after that either. What if some terrorist decides to put explosives in his/her body cavity? Are they then going to subject every single person flying to a cavity search?
Bubblegum Explosion
I just did this as a math problem in my class today. Even if the machines are very effective, the chance that a person setting off the metal detector/body scan/etc is, in fact, a terrorist is actually very tiny. I agree with that article... probably the better use of money and time is to hire competent security staff who can look out for people acting suspiciously.
(Okay, class you ready...LOL)
Let's say that the machines are 98% effective. And, just for this example, 1 in million airport travelers are out to do mass harm. The chance that a person setting off the machines is actually a terrorist is: ~0.00005 (5 thousandths of a percent).
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