The TSA is going to do a safety study of the backscatter x-ray machines. Just kidding!

First the director says they are, then he says the TSA Inspector General says they're safe, so he isn't. The problem is that these machines are not regulated by the FDA since they're not used in medical treatment. There are a huge number of unanswered questions, and unless the TSA is forced to answer them, they probably never will be.

The backscatter x-ray device is the two monoliths that you stand between. A pencil beam of x-rays scans your body up and down, back and forth. It uses ionizing radiation, which is known to cause damage to DNA. And DNA, to a degree, can repair itself. But there is a huge disagreement between how the manufacturers and TSA calculate the actual radiation amount received and how scientists calculate it.

(the other scanning device, millimeter radar, looks like a glass-sided cube and is not known to damage DNA)

And then there's the shielding. It's probable that the TSA workers around the machine are receiving some pretty impressive alleged at Boston's Logan airport earlier this year.

http://www.propublica.org/article/tsa-puts-off-safety-study-of-x-ray-body-scanners

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/11/16/2051233/tsa-puts-off-safety-study-of-x-ray-body-scanners

Many smart phones, not iPhones, come with carrier pre-installed root kits!

Woohoo! It was discovered by a security researcher, Trevor Eckhart, and now the company that makes the rootkit, Carrier IQ, is trying to suppress his research.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/16/1517248/carrieriq-most-phones-ship-with-rootkit

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/11/23/0032233/carrieriq-tries-to-silence-security-researcher

Lies about military budget cuts

Basically Panetta is overstating everything in order to protect his budget. It's kind of amusing: we've been down-sizing the military for ages through more efficient systems, so it's already small(ish). Lots of hype, little substance.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/defense-cut-paranoia/?pid=950&viewall=true