False Positives and Ubiquitous Surveillance
Searching on Google for a pressure cooker and backpacks got one family investigated by the police. More stories and comments. This seems not to be the NSA eavesdropping on everyone’s Internet traffic,...
View ArticleTesting for Explosives in the Chicago Subway
Chicago is doing random explosives screenings at random L stops in the Chicago area. Compliance is voluntary: Police made no arrests but one rider refused to submit to the screening and left the...
View ArticleChild Arrested Because Adults Are Stupid
A Texas 9th-grader makes an electronic clock and brings it to school. Teachers immediately become stupid and call the police: The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his...
View ArticleLiving in a Code Yellow World
In the 1980s, handgun expert Jeff Cooper invented something called the Color Code to describe what he called the “combat mind-set.” Here is his summary: In White you are unprepared and unready to take...
View ArticleEconomist Detained for Doing Math on an Airplane
An economics professor was detained when he was spotted doing math on an airplane: On Thursday evening, a 40-year-old man —with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent— boarded a...
View Article"Dogs Raise Fireworks Threat Level to 'Gray'"
Funny: The Department of Canine Security urges dogs to remain on high alert and employ the tactic of See Something, Say Something. Remember to bark upon spotting anything suspicious; e.g. firecrackers,...
View ArticleNeedless Panic Over a Wi-FI Network Name
A Turkish Airlines flight made an emergency landing because someone named his wireless network (presumably from his smartphone) “bomb on board.” In 2006, I wrote an essay titled “Refuse to be...
View ArticleConservation of Threat
Here’s some interesting research about how we perceive threats. Basically, as the environment becomes safer we basically manufacture new threats. From an essay about the research: To study how concepts...
View ArticleWorst-Case Thinking Breeds Fear and Irrationality
Here’s a crazy story from the UK. Basically, someone sees a man and a little girl leaving a shopping center. Instead of thinking “it must be a father and daughter, which happens millions of times a day...
View ArticleAirline Passenger Mistakes Vintage Camera for a Bomb
I feel sorry for the accused: The “security incident” that forced a New-York bound flight to make an emergency landing at LaGuardia Airport on Saturday turned out to be a misunderstanding—after an...
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