Airport Security vs. Cyborg Steve Mann 748
CompaniaHill writes: "The New York Times (free reg, etc.) has a story on University of Toronto engineering-professor-turned-cyborg Steve Mann's recent run-in with humorless airport security. Apparently his preplanning and documents were sufficient to get him through the Toronto airport security on his way to St. John's in Newfoundland, but not sufficient to get him through the St. John's airport security on his way home. Two days later, after strip-searches, forced removal of implants and x-raying and other ill-handling of delicate hardware, he returned home in a wheelchair. Mann's lawyer is attempting to recover the cost of the $56,800 in damaged hardware, while his doctors are studying his body's response to the removal of the implants, some of which he has had for over twenty years."
Welcome to Canada... (Score:3, Funny)
cyborg? bah! (Score:5, Funny)
darth vader would be ashamed!
Wages. (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, though, next time, take another route home. Zeppelin or something.
--saint
Implants? (Score:1, Funny)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
In a related story, Britney Spears announced that she would never perform in Canada again.
Re:cyborg? bah! (Score:0, Funny)
<cmdrtaco9> newp
<hemos> eh
<COWBOYNEAL> MY BEDSORE HAS A FIRST NAME, IT'S B-L-O-O-D-B-O-I-L, MY BEDSORE HAS A SECOND NAME, IT'S P-R-O-B-A-B-L-Y-M-A-L-I-G-N-A-N-T
<chrisd> well its this new law they r trying 2 make and if u have linux on ur machien u can go 2 jail... or sumtimn
<cmdrtaco9> W T Fffffff
<hemos> goOd thing I live in hollandbeliguim
<hemos>
<cmdrtaco9> thats sooOoo gay -- we should call the EFF
<michael> i think the EFF blocked *@slashdot.org on their mail server and got the phone company to block any calls from your house, rob
<cmdrtaco9> oh stfu
<JonKatz> Hello my post-apocalyptic cyberpunk neurogenial school shooting probates
<cmdrtaco9> wtf doze that mean
<COWBOYNEAL> OK SERIOUSLY
<COWBOYNEAL> LIKE
<COWBOYNEAL> THEY NEED TO MAKE MICROWAVEABLE STEAK ALREADY
<hemos> hahahaahah
<michael> sigh.
<JonKatz> bbl.
<cmdrtaco9> u should make a ask slashdot post aboutt that cowboynael and u would find out
<chrisd> IM tryING TO tALK abOUT THE SSSSSSA
<chrisd> ITS A BAD LAW
<COWBOYNEAL> IS IT A TARIFF ON PORK>?
<COWBOYNEAL> HOLY BUDDAH MY WORST FEARS ARE REALIZED
<cmdrtaco9> can u send me cowboy.bebop.se01.ep02.mpeg so me and my fiansee can watch it 2gethedr
Removal of implants (Score:4, Funny)
What about other implants? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sorry, you have to check the battery pack to your artifical heart.
I'm sorry your insulin infusion device must be checked.I'm sorry your breast implants must be removed before boarding.
Duh (Score:2, Funny)
Re:cyborg? bah! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh please. There are limits... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Hot damn, I knew this thing would pay off someday! Airport security, here I come!
Re:Oh please. There are limits... (Score:5, Funny)
Darth: [waving his hand] I'm not the Sith Lord you're looking for.
Guard 1: This isn't the Sith Lord we're looking for
Guard 2: Move along.... move along......
Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Anyway, he's obviously a dangerous spy. Just look, in the first image, he's waring a t-shirt with a MAP OF CHINA what more evidence do you need!?
I thought knitting needles were banned (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Wages. (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, this guy was probably making seven dollars Canadian an hour. Plus he has to pay extra for blank cd's.
Oh come on ... (Score:1, Funny)
http://www.media.mit.edu/physics/pictu
Re:The article is short. Registration is long. (Score:3, Funny)
...but not while the evil days come not.
Ira Howard, please phone home!
Re:What about other implants? (Score:3, Funny)
"Sorry Grandma, we're gonna hafta go lights out until ten thousand feet. I saw this in a movie once with Keifer Southerland once so it should work."
Re:Living as a cyborg (Score:1, Funny)
Incidentally, I think they have a lot of cybersex together cause Steve gets really tired and can't get it up after lugging around his gear all day.
Re:maybe overstating the case a little (Score:5, Funny)
I do - if you've followed his research, you'd know that his glasses continually project data streams onto his eyes.
(example - he walks up to a price display at a store twiddles with his fingers, and sees, projected into his vision, the price of the same object at the competing store.)
If he's worn such glasses for a long period of time, and if he's doing some other sorts of tricks with prisms and mirrors to allow the merging of eyeball-data with bitstream-data before it hits his retina, the loss of the glasses could very well hamper his ability to navigate on foot.
(I'm reminded of an old experiment in depth perception where they gave subjects glasses with prisms that shifted their "vision" 30 degrees to the right. The first day, everyone was bumping into the left-hand side of every door they tried to walk through, as you might expect. After a few weeks, their brains "retrained" themselves to see the world with the glasses on, and everything was fine. Then they took the glasses off and everyone was bumping into the right-hand side of things until their brains "unlearned" the glasses.)
> In my opinion, the truly interesting part of this article is that once his technological aids were removed, this guy ceased to be able to complete basic tasks like walking. This has significant ramifications for wearable computing. Is it augmented reality? Or is it a crutch without which he can't function?
"Yes and yes."
And that's precisely the kind of stuff he's researching.
(Once my snowshoes were removed, I ceased to be able to walk in 4-foot-deep snow. Are my snowshoes a mobility-augmentor or a crutch?)
One Simple question... (Score:5, Funny)
Does this guy EVER take a SHOWER?!?!?!
-Russ
Re:Living as a cyborg (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I always wondered what happened to that guy (Score:3, Funny)
"We are borg resistance is futile, you will be..."
Airport Security: "Allright buddy, we already went through this before, he didnt get through either, now lets get you to the back room, for a.. personal inspection, and we dont want any bitching if blood spurts out.
Re:Okay, they shouldn't have fucked up his equipme (Score:4, Funny)
It's a metal detector - not an x-ray machine.
Congratulations, you just qualified for a job as an airport security screener.
Re:again airport security are idiots. (Score:3, Funny)
knitting an.... AFGHAN!
Re:Mann is a jackass (Score:3, Funny)
So, is there something in the Canadian constitution against that?
Article XVII, subsection C, Clause 256 -
Any person deemed to be a jackass, as defined by Slashdot shall be subjected to physical harm and have any mobile computing devices damaged by persons of low intelligence, authority and wages.