TSA:Scanning just to enter the US,not to get on a plane

[emubird]

This is a site where a guy is claiming he had already gotten off his international flight (arriving in the US) and the TSA still had a policy in place that he needed to be scanned or patted down. He's getting OFF the plane, not on. So why is the TSA insisting on scanning him?

 

This isn't a researched news article, so I'm not quite sure if this is really true or not. But if it is true, what in the world are they looking for in a passenger who just got OFF a plane. He apparently wasn't even catching a connecting flight.

 

http://noblasters.com/post/1650102322/my-tsa-encounter

(I hope the link works -- it only worked for me the second time I tried.)

 

 

"This new line led to a TSA security checkpoint. You see, it is official TSA policy that people (both citizens and non-citizens alike) from international flights are screened as they enter the airport, despite the fact that they have already flown. Even before the new controversial security measures were put in place, I found this practice annoying. But now, as I looked past the 25 people waiting to get into their own country, I saw it: the dreaded Backscatter imaging machine."

[Mejane]

Perhaps people arriving from countries that don't check passengers as thoroughly as the US are scanned for what they may be bringing into the country. One can have ill intent that doesn't involve hijacking or blowing up an airliner. Just surmising.

[emubird]

I've figured it out -- the TSA is groping towards quantum physics,

I just don't know how to explain it, any more than I know how to explain the probability density function of an electron. The TSA scanning and pat downs are only in place to find whole bombs, not pieces of them -- they can't find a whole bomb. They can't find an average bomb spread over a number of passengers. It's analogous to finding electrons. (It is a separate argument that the measurement changes where the probability function of where the electron will be, but that also applies to this situation.)

 

The TSA knows, on average, that there must be a bomb or a terrorist out there somewhere. They know (and I quibble with this knowledge, but it isn't important to the argument) that the probability is 100 per cent that that bomb or terrorist will be flying on a plane. So if they sample a random proportion of the potential passengers, they think they will somehow find the bomb (or the electron) because they have made a statistical sample of the full probability density. They are convinced that they have a 100 per cent probability of finding a piece of the bomb (or the electron) because they have sampled the entire space. What they haven't figured out is that the electron, or the bomb, is not spread out (averaged) over the entire area. It's in ONE SPOT and if you don't sample every single spot, you won't ever see it. Same with electrons (but somehow this throws physicists for a loop just as well as it does the TSA).

 

Also, as with electrons, if you start sampling for the bomb, it won't be there anymore.

 

In the link I posed the passenger is getting OFF a plane, has no intention of getting on a connecting flight, but claims he was still required to go through the scanner or the pat down just to leave the airport. All the TSA is trying to do is pin down where the electron is. But finding it is of no use to them, because this guy isn't even getting on a plane. However, they are more concerned with sampling than with finding the actual bomb, because they know, intuitively, that they must sample the entire space in order to find the bomb. They can't let passengers leave the airport just because they are already getting off a plane because the TSA has a sense that they (the TSA) have missed sampling part of the sampling space if these passengers were not part of the original group that could have been sampled. Maybe some statistician pointed out to them that their sampling was biased by missing this group, or maybe they sensed it on their own.

 

 

If the govt was only worried about things getting into the US they'd be doing pat downs at the borders, not just at the airports.

[asta]

I've figured it out -- the TSA is groping towards quantum physics,

I just don't know how to explain it, any more than I know how to explain the probability density function of an electron. The TSA scanning and pat downs are only in place to find whole bombs, not pieces of them -- they can't find a whole bomb. They can't find an average bomb spread over a number of passengers. It's analogous to finding electrons. (It is a separate argument that the measurement changes where the probability function of where the electron will be, but that also applies to this situation.)

 

The TSA knows, on average, that there must be a bomb or a terrorist out there somewhere. They know (and I quibble with this knowledge, but it isn't important to the argument) that the probability is 100 per cent that that bomb or terrorist will be flying on a plane. So if they sample a random proportion of the potential passengers, they think they will somehow find the bomb (or the electron) because they have made a statistical sample of the full probability density. They are convinced that they have a 100 per cent probability of finding a piece of the bomb (or the electron) because they have sampled the entire space. What they haven't figured out is that the electron, or the bomb, is not spread out (averaged) over the entire area. It's in ONE SPOT and if you don't sample every single spot, you won't ever see it. Same with electrons (but somehow this throws physicists for a loop just as well as it does the TSA).

 

Also, as with electrons, if you start sampling for the bomb, it won't be there anymore.

 

In the link I posed the passenger is getting OFF a plane, has no intention of getting on a connecting flight, but claims he was still required to go through the scanner or the pat down just to leave the airport. All the TSA is trying to do is pin down where the electron is. But finding it is of no use to them, because this guy isn't even getting on a plane. However, they are more concerned with sampling than with finding the actual bomb, because they know, intuitively, that they must sample the entire space in order to find the bomb. They can't let passengers leave the airport just because they are already getting off a plane because the TSA has a sense that they (the TSA) have missed sampling part of the sampling space if these passengers were not part of the original group that could have been sampled. Maybe some statistician pointed out to them that their sampling was biased by missing this group, or maybe they sensed it on their own.

 

 

If the govt was only worried about things getting into the US they'd be doing pat downs at the borders, not just at the airports.

 

I think I just peed my pants.

 

 

a

[secular_mom]

I've figured it out -- the TSA is groping towards quantum physics,

I just don't know how to explain it, any more than I know how to explain the probability density function of an electron. The TSA scanning and pat downs are only in place to find whole bombs, not pieces of them -- they can't find a whole bomb. They can't find an average bomb spread over a number of passengers. It's analogous to finding electrons. (It is a separate argument that the measurement changes where the probability function of where the electron will be, but that also applies to this situation.)

 

The TSA knows, on average, that there must be a bomb or a terrorist out there somewhere. They know (and I quibble with this knowledge, but it isn't important to the argument) that the probability is 100 per cent that that bomb or terrorist will be flying on a plane. So if they sample a random proportion of the potential passengers, they think they will somehow find the bomb (or the electron) because they have made a statistical sample of the full probability density. They are convinced that they have a 100 per cent probability of finding a piece of the bomb (or the electron) because they have sampled the entire space. What they haven't figured out is that the electron, or the bomb, is not spread out (averaged) over the entire area. It's in ONE SPOT and if you don't sample every single spot, you won't ever see it. Same with electrons (but somehow this throws physicists for a loop just as well as it does the TSA).

 

Also, as with electrons, if you start sampling for the bomb, it won't be there anymore.

 

In the link I posed the passenger is getting OFF a plane, has no intention of getting on a connecting flight, but claims he was still required to go through the scanner or the pat down just to leave the airport. All the TSA is trying to do is pin down where the electron is. But finding it is of no use to them, because this guy isn't even getting on a plane. However, they are more concerned with sampling than with finding the actual bomb, because they know, intuitively, that they must sample the entire space in order to find the bomb. They can't let passengers leave the airport just because they are already getting off a plane because the TSA has a sense that they (the TSA) have missed sampling part of the sampling space if these passengers were not part of the original group that could have been sampled. Maybe some statistician pointed out to them that their sampling was biased by missing this group, or maybe they sensed it on their own.

 

 

If the govt was only worried about things getting into the US they'd be doing pat downs at the borders, not just at the airports.

I think you're onto something.

[Veritaserum]

:thumbup:

I've figured it out -- the TSA is groping towards quantum physics,

I just don't know how to explain it, any more than I know how to explain the probability density function of an electron. The TSA scanning and pat downs are only in place to find whole bombs, not pieces of them -- they can't find a whole bomb. They can't find an average bomb spread over a number of passengers. It's analogous to finding electrons. (It is a separate argument that the measurement changes where the probability function of where the electron will be, but that also applies to this situation.)

 

The TSA knows, on average, that there must be a bomb or a terrorist out there somewhere. They know (and I quibble with this knowledge, but it isn't important to the argument) that the probability is 100 per cent that that bomb or terrorist will be flying on a plane. So if they sample a random proportion of the potential passengers, they think they will somehow find the bomb (or the electron) because they have made a statistical sample of the full probability density. They are convinced that they have a 100 per cent probability of finding a piece of the bomb (or the electron) because they have sampled the entire space. What they haven't figured out is that the electron, or the bomb, is not spread out (averaged) over the entire area. It's in ONE SPOT and if you don't sample every single spot, you won't ever see it. Same with electrons (but somehow this throws physicists for a loop just as well as it does the TSA).

 

Also, as with electrons, if you start sampling for the bomb, it won't be there anymore.

 

In the link I posed the passenger is getting OFF a plane, has no intention of getting on a connecting flight, but claims he was still required to go through the scanner or the pat down just to leave the airport. All the TSA is trying to do is pin down where the electron is. But finding it is of no use to them, because this guy isn't even getting on a plane. However, they are more concerned with sampling than with finding the actual bomb, because they know, intuitively, that they must sample the entire space in order to find the bomb. They can't let passengers leave the airport just because they are already getting off a plane because the TSA has a sense that they (the TSA) have missed sampling part of the sampling space if these passengers were not part of the original group that could have been sampled. Maybe some statistician pointed out to them that their sampling was biased by missing this group, or maybe they sensed it on their own.

 

 

If the govt was only worried about things getting into the US they'd be doing pat downs at the borders, not just at the airports.

[Parrothead]

Drat! Dude's webpage has exceeded its limit.

[stripe]

I once was on a plane where we had to show our passports while getting off. Apparently some criminal had escaped onto an airplane somewhere in the world. I am serious.