Dangerous Dishware

While on my way back to California, I went through the airport security checkpoint.

Everything had to pass through the x-ray scanner: mobile phones, PDAs, laptops, GameBoys. Everything. Jackets, watches, belts, shoes. I almost felt like I should have worn my nicer underwear because I would surely be stripped down to them.

They were looking for anything metal, anything at all. I bet if you had iron fillings, these things would beep at you, and a dentist would be standing by to inspect them. If you were even thinking about tin foil, you'd probably have to go back and walk through it again with flowers on your mind!

But then I was thinking, what about ceramic knives? Detectors wouldn't pick it up, and you'd slip through security like a hot (ceramic) knife through butter. On the plane, my seat neighbour had just gone to a gun show in Arizona, where they have a Glock made of ceramic material! Yeah, sure, it's illegal in the USA and not sold here, but that doesn't mean you can't buy it elsewhere and smuggle it in. In fact, why smuggle?? You could probably just bring it in without a problem! Scary. Very scary.

Thankfully, millimeter wave technology is coming into play, which can supposedly can catch these items, metal or not. A few firms are developing holographic body image scanners that use this method, but I'm not sure when those will come into play!