Safety versus the illusion of safety

In 1755 Benjamin Franklin penned the now well-known quote (which is strangely, often misquoted): “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety [capitalization of Liberty and Safety seen in context]”.

Today, like many times before, I flew domestically within the United States, and as such necessarily passed through a TSA checkpoint. As always, it was an interesting experience.

First off, I was selected for my hands to be tested for traces of precursors to explosives. This is the first time that this has ever happened to me, and I was quite curious to see if I’d fail or not. I passed. Why might I have failed? Well, being a graduate student in the sciences, I’m frequently in contact with various laboratory chemicals, and I have a pretty good idea what kind of trace might have been on my hands. Given that, I’m also pretty sure that I should have failed the screening. Might this be a case of trading liberty for safety, or worse yet, the illusion of safety?

I’ve always been aware of the possibility of failing that particular screening before, and from others who it’s happened to, it turns out to not be a very big deal. You get subjected to some additional screening, and so long as nothing is awry and you’re perfectly compliant, you’re sent on your way. You’d never know this from the TSA website, though. Take for example, this post http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/02/what-happens-if-my-hands-alarm-during.html on the TSA’s blog that features the very question being posed here, which is, what happens if I fail? You’ll notice that throughout the entire post, the question is never answered. The question of refusing to be tested is answered, but actually failing? Nope. This is noted in the comments, and of course there hasn’t been any actual reply from the TSA at all.

Next comes the boarding pass and identification check. This is completely unremarkable, other than the fact that depending on the airport you’re flying out of, some will ask you questions such as your name (and other questions in other airports) every single time, obviously as part of the screening process. At certain airports, however no questions are ever asked. Why isn’t this standardized if it helps security? Why aren’t the questions randomized, too? After all, the questions are always exactly the same at each airport. Am I flying out of [insert airport here]? Well then, I better know when I was born as per my ID. Again, the lack of real thought and standardization again reinforces the question in the back of your mind… is this security, or is it security theater?

Then comes putting your items into bins so that they can be x-rayed… If you’re flying with an iPad, can it remain in its case, or does it need to be put in a separate bin and not inside of a case like a laptop does? The TSA website says one thing, but that is irrelevant. Do your shoes need to go directly on the belt, or can they go in a bin? What’s the current policy as per the website? Also irrelevant. The reason the policy is irrelevant is because if you ever mention such a thing, the TSO in question will almost certainly just tell you that the website is out of date, and that they’re correct. Run into an issue? Just pretend like you’re some dumb, ignorant, compliant person that’s so grateful to be informed of what’s correct, and you won’t run into problems.

Having my items x-rayed this time was mildly eventful. I “learned” that in addition to having to have my laptop outside of its case and in a separate bin with nothing else in it, that my laptop case (as it is a sleeve) also needs to be placed in that bin now, apparently. Also, it can’t be placed just anywhere, mind you; it must be placed on top of the laptop. Anywhere else is unacceptable. Don’t bother looking for any of this “new” stuff on the TSA website, though.

I also learned that I don’t need to put my shoes directly on the belt anymore. This is of course correct, but the last time I flew out of the exact same airport (and the policy is still bin or belt is fine, as it was then, and has been for a very long time), I was verbally chastised for putting my shoes in a bin. Do the TSA screeners not even know what rules they’re supposed to be enforcing? Do they not pay attention to rule updates, and do they randomly make stuff up as they go along? This is the case with at least some screeners.

On the other side of the x-ray machines, while my stuff was going through, someone screamed at the top of their lungs “WHO THE FUCK BROUGHT THE METAL LAPTOP?”, as if a laptop that has an aluminum body (like many) is prohibited (it’s not, and never has been). The person with the metal laptop was presumably me. I didn’t say a word, because another TSO immediately corrected the first with “[Name], metal laptops are OK”. At which point, the person pretended to have never asked screamed the question. This raises an interesting question, though, why did this person think metal-bodied laptops weren’t OK, and if they’ve apparently never seen one before, how much training and experience does one need to independently operate the x-ray machine?

Anyone can look at various tests of the effectiveness of the TSA, and criticism of their failure to implement various screening measures. For example, all passenger luggage isn’t even searched yet, despite this being a supposed top priority of the TSA. This is public knowledge. Their failure rate when tested is abysmal, too. Heck, even the simple measure of "Do TSO's know what the regulations they're enforcing are" is almost certainly not one that's overwhelmingly in favor of TSA competence.

It seems fairly obvious to me that the TSA isn’t about security, it’s about security theater; this thought is fairly scary, and at the same time it’s a bit outrageous. Trading unessential liberty (and depending on your interpretation of the 4^th amendment, essential liberty) for temporary safety is one thing, but trading unessential liberty for a poorly constructed illusion of temporary safety is something that I’ll pass on any day.

ROI and College Choice

One way to think about picking a college, and even picking a major within a college, is to think about them as a financial investment. Obviously, considering things as purely a financial investment is naïve, as there are a lot of other benefits to attending college and earning a degree, although those benefits are considerably more difficult to quantify. Money, however, is pretty easy to quantify.

One way of determining how good a particular investment is to look at what’s known as Return on Investment (ROI), which is defined mathematically as:

ROI = (Gain from investment – Cost of investment) / (Cost of investment)

This is a broad definition of course, and depending on the specific inputs you consider as both gain and cost, the result can vary a bit. However, if you consider the same factors for everything you’re comparing, then you can get a useful comparison between the financial benefit of one option versus another option.

Let’s say you’re trying to decide between school A and school B. You know how much each school will cost you to attend, you know roughly how much you’ll need to take out in loans and at what interest rate, and you can estimate how much money you’ll generally be making after you graduate from each school. Knowing all of this, you can calculate ROI for each option. Know the graduation rates for both schools? You can factor that into your calculation as well. Can you estimate the percentage raise you can expect every year? Factor that in as well.

You can use this same idea for comparing different majors within any given school, too, or even different career paths. This can be especially useful in cases that aren’t quite intuitive, such as say, whether or not you should pick a major with a higher starting salary but generally lower income growth, or a major with a lower starting salary but generally higher income growth.

I’m not saying to make your decision based entirely on the financial aspect, but given that you can quantify that aspect, you really should actually quantify it instead of just guessing as to what it’ll probably be. The results might surprise you, either showing a bigger cost to one option than you had expected, or less cost to one option than you had expected.

Heart Attack Symptoms in Women

The typical signs of a heart attack in women are different than they are in men. This isn't known widely enough.

The symptoms, as per heart.org, in women are:

1. Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.

2. Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.

3. Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.

4. Breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or lightheadedness.

5. Chest pain or discomfort. (As in men)

Women are much more likely than men to experience the first 4 points in the list.

If you or someone you know are experiencing some or all of the above symptoms, call 911 (or whatever the emergency number in your country happens to be). Do not ignore your symptoms.