The TSA as a Dysfunctional Immune System

I’ve been reading quite a bit about the recent changes to TSA’s airport security measures. Specifically, they have begun to implement x-ray body scanning. This has raised almost unanimous outrage ranging from the infringement of civil liberties to health concerns. Worse still, there are few authorities taking opposition to the new policies and courts are siding with TSA in subsequent cases.

I just got back from a year overseas. I was in and out of airports more in that time than in the entire rest of my life. These were all international flights, and yet none of the airports I went through had security like in America. That is to say, every airport had security, but security that was focused on identifying REAL threats. In the US security is content to instead canvass everyone treating them guilty until proven innocent. And now with TSA’s push for full-body imaging on every person flying without a viable means of opting out, I feel like I need to make a sensible point:

Invasive security is not security at all.

Now, I’m going to do what I often do and throw out an analogy to illustrate my point.
Let’s say that TSA is the immune system of our air-traffic body. Ideally, it functions by identifying and dispatching threats to the system. Technological advances have put certain tools at TSA’s disposal to help in this endeavor in much the same way that modern medicine has developed antibiotics and the like. The thing is, tools are no substitute for intelligence in a functioning system; in a broken system tools inevitably come to replace intelligence. To a healthy immune system, for example, the need for antibiotics is rare. As such, antibiotics play a critical role in times of need. In this healthy body, the immune system is intelligent: it comes across all sorts of stimuli and has learned to handle things without assistance in most cases. An unhealthy immune system has come to rely exclusively on external assistance such as antibiotics. Thus, the system does not develop the intelligence to identify or respond to potential threats without the assistance it relies on.

The use of tools to supplement intelligence is rarely a solution to a problem either, but instead a temporary fix. Antibiotics didn’t do away with pathogens. The food chain remains unbroken. We are still being eaten by bacteria and more. In fact, bacteria and viruses, not having access to tools as far as I know of, have evolved more intelligently in response to our measures. Hence, we now have highly deadly antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria infecting our hospitals like MRSA. Against even the smallest intelligent adversary, a microorganism, our tools will inevitably fail us and our wits wither without use.

By over-investing in and over-using technology, TSA has created a system that stimulates the intelligence of its adversaries, not its own. The body scanner might deter or catch a conventional terrorist, but what exactly is a conventional terrorist!? A real terrorist by their unconventional nature is going to be determined to attack and will analyze their target until they find a vector. This means that the terrorist has to be smart to even consider attacking. And what sort of terrorist do you think is most likely to succeed in an attack? Maybe a determined and intelligent one? Maybe.

Finally, and most importantly, an immune system that cannot or will not intelligently identify enemies cannot or will not identify friendlies. Thus the agents that are suppose to protect the body instead turn on it, damaging healthy tissue and organs, which leads to autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes and anemia. In the case of TSA, the same applies. Normal citizens are now routinely harassed, embarrassed and generally antagonized without provocation. There’s a number of ways this could break the system. People may now go to greater lengths to avoid flying. They may try to press charges against the TSA and airlines, a long and costly process. But keeping to the issue of security to illustrate the idiocy of TSA’s current strategy, it is best to consider the emotional response of the average flyer in context. I argue that nothing jeapordizes security more than radicalizing everyone emotionally against your function. Here I’m not suggesting that normal citizens would revolt or become violent over this issue. What I am suggesting is that TSA’s current strategy inspires a cocktail of unpredictable emotions in every single person that passes through their scanners. Anger, frustration, paranoia, embarrassment, distress—just to name a few. This doesn’t bode well for the security officer who IS trying to apply their intelligence to identifying potential threats. That’s because that security officer would typically use behavioural nuances as cues to a threat, such as high emotions and anxiety in an individual. That’s not possible when the emotional spectrum is skewed into the high range. TSA is turning up the volume on human emotions to a deafening decibel.

Believe it or not, I think that the body-scanners do have a place in airport security. Its in a back-room that rarely, if ever sees use. It’s the last stop before cavity searching, not the first stop after check-in. Just like we don’t take antibiotics arbitrarily, we shouldn’t put up with mandatory body-scanning, not just because it is an infringement of civil liberties, not just because x-rays aren’t healthy for us, but also because body-scanning used without intense moderation makes us less secure.

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Okay, Itunes. I want out.

I understand the appeal of Macs. Hell, I wrote a term paper on it. Yet here I am trying to find an alternative to Itunes for OS X and there’s just nothing.

I’ll now express my frustration in the form of a rant!

To begin with, the problem:
I recently set up a home network and server for media purposes. I migrated all of our movies and music to a networked hard drive so that we could access them anywhere from our laptops (we have a lot of old laptops). It all works pretty well, except that our MacBook Pro’s Itunes doesn’t like the idea of non-Apple-sanctioned networking. That is to say, that if you want to share music between two Itunes-using computers, you’re fine, but if you want to access files on a network directly, you’re going to have some problems.

Itunes 10, the latest version, for example, automatically checks your files for “Gapless Playback” information. This helps there not be a pause between tracks in the same album. Unfortunately, this process takes a very long time to run, locks up the program so that you can’t listen to music at the same time, and often crashes the Itunes altogether forcing you to restart the process. Personally I have a modest ~7,000 mp3s and “Determining Gapless Playback Information” takes a whole day. Now, typically this would be a one-time ordeal, except in the case of a network drive. You see, apparently, the second Itunes loses contact with a network drive, when the Mac is put to sleep for instance, it decides it needs to determine gapless playback information yet again. Redonculous. Well, simple enough… you could just turn off gapless playback in the preferences. And you can. That will disable gapless playback, but not the “Determining Gapless Playback Information” routine. Itunes is, thus, broken as far as my plans are concerned.

Commentary:
Apple makes a generally stable product, and who doesn’t like some stability? What I like even more, though, is instability that leads to innovation and diversity. Such is the case with Windows and Linux. Windows, in particular, is often criticized for its low-quality, dysfunctional operating system and native programs. However, such dysfunction is actually functional in the long-run when it inspires innovative (and usually free) third-party products.

As I see it, Apple is a hypocrite for two reasons. First, it claims that only idiots in suits use Windows; that intelligent, creative types use Mac. While it’s true that Macs are frequently used for creative purposes, say, audio/video production, there really isn’t much room for creativity or innovation IN the OS X software itself. Now, I’m not really a skilled developer… and that’s my point. As an end-user, I rely on the developments of others to manage how my system functions. When an OS developer fails me, I go to the developement community for a solution. On the OS X platform, the development community is minimal. There’s what Apple makes, what it licenses to Adobe and the like, and very little else besides.

Secondly, there is Apple’s hypocritical stance on conformity. Today, you have your popular Ipod, your ticky-tacky Itunes and your mechanical Mac and everything works in perfect unison until you want it to do something remotely special or unconventional. Apple has effectively become that terrible homogenizing force that it claimed to combat in its ubiquitous “1984″ commercial.

Final thoughts: A politics metaphor!
Windows is a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy.
Mac is a rising totalitarian regime.
Linux is an anarchy of deviant, idealistic intellectuals.

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Flan in the face

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva_research_initiative

http://minerva.dtic.mil/overview.html

http://www.ssrc.org/essays/minerva/

Great idea, Robert Gates.  Let’s throw a bunch of money at universities to study ‘China, terrorism, Iraq, and (whatever other threat that needs inflating).’

Do I really need to go into how corrupt this idea is even prior to its execution?  The Pentagon co-opting the social science programs of universities is no good for anyone.  For one thing it jeopardizes the goal of bias-free research.  Furthermore, any data gathered, because of this bias, is compromised and cannot be expected to render reliable, useful results.  Finally, the millions of dollars influencing universities down this course, at the least, will divert academic minds away from other legitimate studies, many that would have real, domestic benefits.

The mere suggestion for the details of the study reveals the bias to begin with.  I ask you, is it reasonable to think that ‘China, terrorism, religion/ideology, Iraq, and (insert country or concept here)’ are even categorically comparable!?  Would it make sense to have an initiative to study apples, deforestation, oranges and… shrug… maybe something else?

The Pentagon’s money has no place in the programs of any university worth their scientific salt.  Furthermore, it’s a foolish move to place Gates at the head of such an initiative with his historic over-exaggeration of Russian power during the Cold War.  Any conclusions drawn from the studies of this initiative should be suspected of the same skew.

You want some sociological insight that $75 million can’t buy you, Mr. Gates?  There’s a chance that the wolves aren’t at the door, but in your head.  This is bad enough, though.  If we believe something to be real its real in its consequences, so sayeth the Thomas Theorem, at least.  So then, maybe the wolves are at the door, Mr. Gates, but only because you put them there.

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To the mAXIMum

My parents handed me down a PDA they’ve never used. Woot!

So this makes PDA number four in our home. I think they’re taking over. I will say that this one has a little more potential… maybe even as a snazzy living-room remote. We’ll see.

I needed a project.

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And all the boards did sink.

For as much as I like our apartment complex, the plumbing can sure go to Hell.  It seems like every week our water gets cut off to resolve some unknown problem.  They keep “fixing” it, but needless to say if you have to keep fixing it, its not really fixed, is it?

So here’s a bright idea:  fix the problem and fix it for good!  New pipes?  Do it!  Need a couple of days?  Take them!  But please quit drawing this out ad nauseam.

I am tired of spending my day off covered in my personal oils with a pillow-shaped coiffure.

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New Things

1. Facebook (Mleh.)

2. Job (Yay!)

3. Left 4 Dead (Super-yay!)

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Every orange, a trip through a citrus mountain

Aussie Sam left in our charge his massive HDTV and PS3 while he visits home in the down-underlands.  As much as the Digital Transition bothers me for various reasons, I can certainly appreciate a nice, big TV.  Makes gaming very intense and pretty.  However, I don’t know how much I care about the actual, high definition.  I think I appreciate just having a massive wide screen a lot more.  Not that resolution isn’t important, of course.

Then again, a 50″ with 16 pixels by 9 pixels would be kind of neat in a Kandinsky sort of way.

But high definition has its price.  For example, in games, what was once buffered by analog blur, is now harshly ringed with jaggy pixels.  Basically, HDTV is putting a date on my 360.  For the first time I can see some graphical difference between the 360 and the PS3, which makes me kind of sad.

I don’t see myself buying into HD any time soon.

Also, I’m still looking for a job.  Give me one, please.

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That’s my Obama!

It may have slipped by most people, but the fund for digital TV converter box coupons, not surprisingly, has almost run out of money.  Of course, this doesn’t concern the National Telecommunications and Informations Administration that runs the program.  Their line of thinking is they can always suck up some of the economic stimulus funds or ask for more money to cover the coupons.  In the meantime, people who are antsy enough will just go buy new, pricey, digital TVs.

Poor government planning/funding benefiting corporations at the expense of individuals.  Does this sound like America or what?

Not so fast, commies!   (says the socialist)

Obama to the rescue! Barack is asking Congress to delay the transition indefinitely siting problems with the program’s funding.  Also, there is some thought that cutting off the TV airwaves might not be a sane idea in the midst of an economic recesso-depression.  Just like I’ve been saying:  take away people’s boob tube, one of the few things they look forward to in their day, and see if they don’t throw bricks through windows.

I only post this because Sarah and I have been on this soap box for over a year now.  The Digital Transition is a hazardous enterprise if not handled correctly and it could have major social and economic consequences.  I’m glad to see that Obama is not too busy with his own transition and all the crap going on in the Middle-East that he can’t address this topic.  I wouldn’t have expected him to make an issue of it, but I’m happily surprised that he has.

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There goes the neighborhood

Two alarm fire in our apartment complex. Just across the pool from us in fact. Quite a wild night all-in-all. Ten units were destroyed, as was our mailbox and the laundry room. The fire department showed up in force and kicked major ass, though, God love them. This thing was already spitting embers all over when they arrived. A few more minutes and these wonderful trees we live under would have spelled our fiery doom. The wind was blowing it all towards our building to boot.

After we scrounged together some valuables for evac, the shutter bug bit me hard and I went into journalismo mode. Some pictures, please!:

I darted around our complex getting shots until I ended back at the parking lot of our building. By then the police were blocking the path. It made me realize that, when not shooting people in the back in subways, that’s pretty much all they do: stand in the way. I “explained” to the officer that my apartment, my girlfriend and my cat, among other things were just down the way and that I planned on bringing them back out. One of my neighbors was doing the exact same thing. Naturally, this did not phase the officer. What was curious is that as much effort as they put into keeping us from getting in, no one was trying to get the people inside out. This was already enough to get my rebel juices juicing, but then the cops started to mock one of us who was trying to see his apartment from the two man police line they had arbitrarily formed. So I climbed meself through some fences and got back where I belonged, where my girlfriend and half of my neighbors were watching the clean up of the now extinguished fire. We retired to our apartment and it was another 45 minutes before the people in the parking lot were let back in to the complex.

As an interesting side note, the news reports that a certain “object” was incidentally found in one of the damaged apartments. Specifically, a hand grenade. Not exactly great for self defense, but effective as a paperweight.

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B.S.

The job market sucks.  At this rate I’m going to be shoveling pizzas or restraining angry animals again.  Glad I dumped so much money into cultivating my brain.

If my head doesn’t essplode from all the droning applications, it seems like Yellowstone will.  Familiar…

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