A blogger for the Transportation Safety Administration has responded to techno-artist Evan Roth's "Airport X-Ray Art" project ... and the news is not good for those of you intent on sending the TSA a message via your carry-on bag: Suit yourself, but expect the stunt to cost you time.
Moreover, the reason -- as articulated in my original post about this matter by my brother, a bona fide airport security expect -- has nothing to do with the sentiment being expressed by the passenger or how it's received by the airport screener.
From the blog Evolution of Security:
As some of you might have seen on other blogs, Evan Roth is an artist who is designing personalized messages you can send to TSA security officers. He laser cuts the letters out of a sheet of stainless steel. The sheet is designed to be placed inside of a passenger's bag so they can send personal messages to the officer. Have to give the guy credit, he's creative. Even we got a laugh out of it.
This may seem like a clever gag, but actually the joke is on whoever decides to use one of these plates. Based on the preliminary examples shown on Mr. Roth's web page, the metal plate will get the passenger's bag searched every time. And no, it's not because of what the plate says, it's because the metal plate acts as a shield and conceals items below it. If an officer can't get a good look at what's in the bag, it's "bag check" time. Fair warning: there are detailed procedures on how to search this type of bag and it's not one of our quicker searches.
My brother, who trains security personnel on how to use his company's screening equipment, told me as much when I first wrote about this two weeks ago, saying, "If anything obscures the imagery of the bag, the screener will certainly be more likely to perform additional screening."
My advice if you really can't resist doing this kind of thing: Come up with your own funny message, make your metal plate, show it to your friends, and lie when you tell them you took it through the airport.
When not blogging, I am a Network World news editor and write the 'Net Buzz column.
The opinions expressed in this Weblog are those of the writer and may not represent the opinions of Network World.
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"Based on the preliminary
"Based on the preliminary examples shown on Mr. Roth's web page, the metal plate will get the passenger's bag searched every time."
Except, no, it won't. In your previous interview, he said they didn't even notice when he went from Hong Kong to Bangkok. Maybe TSA is more vigilant, but somehow I doubt it.
moron
Hey, moron:
Since when is the TSA involved with a flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok? Any American airports there??
If I traveled more, I'd buy
If I traveled more, I'd buy a whole collection of these plates from this guy and use them all the time. If I've got to go along with the sham of security theatre, I might as well have fun while I'm doing it.
Slower searches for all
If the majority of people had this in their luggage then the TSA would have to resort to hand searching every bag that went through security. Then its either no-one flies because security takes to long and the airlines lose money, or they reevaluate the crappy security they currently use which offers no real protection.
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