News outlets are reporting that the airport in Amsterdam where staff failed to find the explosives that were taken aboard Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day has now installed the new full-body scanners that produce a detailed 3D image of passengers.
ap photo. An employee at a Netherlands airport demonstrates the full body scanner and the images it shows. The highlighted area shows a possible security threat.
The incident has prompted passengers to wonder how the scanners actually work and if they could amount to a violation of privacy. CNN has reported that the scanners use radio waves that would allow staff to “detect substances such as explosives and plastic weapons.” The process takes 30 seconds at most but may “take longer for airport staff to review the images produced and — given the level of detail, more passengers may find themselves subjected to follow-up security checks as a result,” according to CNN.
Some passengers say the “naked” images produced by the scanners are humiliating and worry that images could be saved by the computer. The Transportation Security Agency says the equipment would not produce a compromising image of a passenger.
So far, these scanners are used at Manchester Airport in England, Tokyo’s Narita Airport in Japan, Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Guiron airport. In the U.S. 40 scanners have been installed in 19 airports, according to CNN.
A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned a yard sign she saw that said “The Grinch is a Democrat.” And that got me wondering how other people feel about the Grinch’s political affiliation — before his change of heart, of course.
Someone who lives in a cave, despises Christmas and can barely keep his dog’s loyalty … what do you think? Let’s have a good-natured Christmas poll to find out. No one’s feelings should be hurt over this one. It’s just for fun.
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And Merry Christmas to everyone!
While you’re deciding, check out this alternative version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Versamerge.
A school in Illinois banned chocolate milk from its lunchroom cafeteria for a year but has recently reinstated the beverage after students protested. NPR reported last week that the National Dairy Council is working to keep the chocolate milk in school cafeterias because they say milk consumption declines when only plain white milk is available for kids. They say the added sugar is an acceptable trade-off for the nutrients that milk provides.
Ann Cooper, the director of nutrition services for public schools in Boulder, Colo., has successfully banned chocolate milk in her district. She told NPR that the sweet milk is “soda in drag.”
What do you think? Should children be allowed their daily dose of chocolate milk? Is the dairy industry simply trying to protect its interests? Is the milk “soda in drag”? Leave your votes and comments.
A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill Wednesday that, if it became law, would ban the NCAA from promoting the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game as a true national championship game since the winner is not decided as the result of a playoff.
Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas was the sponsor of the bill.
The BCS currently chooses two teams to play in a championship game based on two polls and six computer rankings. This year’s BCS national title game features No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas on Jan. 7. Eight other schools are selected to play in the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls, but six conference champions — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC champions — receive automatic bids to those bowl games while the remaining conferences do not receive automatic bids.
BCS officials do not appear to be worried about the bill becoming law, and BCS executive director Bill Hancock stated: “With everything going on in the country, I can’t believe that Congress is wasting time and spending taxpayers’ money on football. We feel strongly that managing of college sports is best left to the people in higher education.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s decision in 2000 to commute the sentence of Maurice Clemmons has haunted him in recent days. The former Arkansas prisoner was sentenced in 1989 to 108 years in prison. A year after his parole in 2000, Clemmons was again sent to prison for a robbery conviction but was released in 2004.
On Sunday, the 37-year-old Clemmons walked into a Seattle coffeeshop and killed four police officers. After moving to Washington state, Clemmons racked up more felony charges but somehow eluded prison.
Now, Huckabee is taking the brunt of the blame for commuting Clemmons’ sentence with detractors saying that he’d still be in prison today if it weren’t for Huckabee’s decision. The former governor says if he had known what Clemmons was capable of, he would never have chosen to decrease his prison sentence.
However, some say the damage is done and this news will ruin Huckabee’s chances of a successful presidential bid in 2012. What do you think?
Over the holiday, families will hit the highway to visit relatives and friends and partake in the traditional Thanksgiving feast(s). According to AAA, overall travel is expected to be up 1.4 percent from last year and 38.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home on Thanksgiving weekend. Of those, 33.2 million are expected to travel by car — a number that is up 2.1 percent from 2008.
With that in mind, let’s talk driving pet peeves. If you’re one of those many millions hitting the road this weekend (or not), what driving habits of others do you hate to see on long highway drives? Because it’s a holiday weekend and because you might have trouble picking only one, I’ll allow you to choose two answers.
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If you vote for “other” feel free to elaborate in the comments. Be careful out there and have a happy Thanksgiving weekend.
With her new book hitting the market, Sarah Palin is back in the spotlight, and once again on the cover of Newsweek. Just like last time, the cover has caused a media firestorm. She says the photo of her in shorty-shorts, originally shot for a running magazine, is taken out of context and sexist.
Newsweek’s official statement says the magazine chose the best photo to illustrate the stories inside the publication about Palin, and they applied the same standards to her that they would to any other public figure.
Palin and her followers obviously disagree. Her official statement can be found on her Facebook page.
In light of this new development and judging the overall reception of her new book, do you feel that Palin is mistreated in the media? Leave your vote and comments.
Candis CQ Collins, state coordinator for Health Care for America Now.
On Nov. 7, the House of Representatives approved by a vote of 220 to 215 its version of a bill that would create a national health insurance system. The legislation would cost approximately $1.1 trillion over 10 years, but provide coverage to most — but not all — Americans who currently do not have health insurance.
Only one Republican voted for the legislation, and 39 Democrats opposed it.
The debate now moves to the Senate, where majority leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada must lead lawmakers in creating their own bill.
Republicans have threatened to filibuster any vote on the bill, calling the plan unaffordable and an intrusion by big government on people’s individual rights. And some Democrats are unhappy because of concessions made in the House bill on insurance coverage for abortions.
Offering health insurance to the approximately 46 million Americans who lack health insurance was a central campaign promise of President Obama.
With the battle over a comprehensive, national health insurance system still raging, where do you stand on the issue?
Last week, The White House announced that detainees at Guantanamo Bay would be receiving the swine flu vacinne and set off the ire of worried parents all over the United States who are grappling with vaccine shortages in their towns.
Then press secretary Robert Gibbs went on damage control and said none of the detainees at the base have received the vaccine and no doses are on the way. However, Army Maj. James Crabtree told the Associated Press that the vaccines are due to arrive in November and detainees will be vaccinated “on a voluntary basis.”
In the meantime, the deaths from H1N1 are rising. Nineteen people have died in Indiana. In Maine, 20 schools are seeing absentee rates of around 15 percent. The World Health Organization said the swine flu virus is now the predominant flu strain worldwide.
Earlier this week, findings showed that one does of the vaccine was enough for adults, but that young children should receive two. Adding an extra dose for children puts even more strain on an already overburdened vaccine production cycle.
According to the Associated Press, the CDC has found that the virus is deadliest for children ages 5 to 17 with neurodevelopmental diseases like epilepsy and cerebral palsy. In early October, 17,000 doses of the nasal mist version of the vaccine arrived in Arkansas and were slated to be used in school vaccination clinics.
Did your child receive one of those doses? Or are you still trying to get one? Vote in our poll and leave your swine flu vaccine stories in our comments.
Footage from Michael Jackson’s rehearsals for his world tour have been compiled into a film to be officially released today. (Tickets have been on sale since Sept. 27.)
Locally, the film is showing at The Rave, Chenal 9 and Tinseltown. The film’s official site has movie times.
Even at this point, with a month of ticket sales behind them, promoters still have no idea how well the film will be received. Some think it’s likely to pass the $31.1 million opening weekend (and $65.3 million overall) of the Hannah Montana concert film, according to the associated press.
“It reminds me of Blair Witch, it reminds me of Fahrenheit 9/11, it reminds me of Passion of the Christ. You even have to throw in Snakes on a Plane. Films that are bigger than life and just unpredictable. We don’t really know how they’re going to do,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com, in an associated press story.
The film takes more than 100 hours of footage that was shot in the weeks before Jackson’s death. Until last night’s world premiere, critics had not yet had a chance to preview This Is It.
But what I really want to know is, will you be seeing this movie anytime soon? Vote here and leave comments if you like.
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Wait! If you need help making your voting decision, here’s the trailer.
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