Find The Boots

Rantings from a few corporate types about life, technology, travel, guns, politics, and everything good in the world.

More NYT Foolishness

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Yes, yes, I know that is redundant, but at least they're not being traitors. This week.

Sharkey, head idjit in charge of in-air crashes and general travel foolishness writes:

... that anecdotal evidence indicates a growing number of laptops are being randomly and legally scrutinized, and some are even being seized without a reason given by customs agents when travelers return to the United States.

Allow me to translate from MSM into American: I heard a rumor in a bar in The City and am printing it as fact. Also, note that little word hiding in there: legally.

You know, like Gitmo, SWIFT, and the NSA wiretapping program.

I would also point out some useful numbers to consider: with approx 50M travelers/month (average) going through at least one airport and *perhaps* a dozen reported laptop inspection incidents to date, figure your probability of inspection is:

50M * 12 months = 60M travelers/year
20% laptop * 60M travelers = 12M laptops through security/year
12 laptops inspected / 12M laptops = 0.0001%

That is one chance in 10,000 per year of having your laptop looked at. Or, another way to think about it: every 10,000 years the TSA will ask to see your laptop.

Liberal arts should include math.

Labels: NYT TSA Fools

0 Comments:

Find The Boots

An executive goes on a business trip. When he arrives, it's raining cats and dogs. To avoid ruining his shoes, he purchases a pair of galoshes for $15, which he expenses under "Misc." on his expense report. A week later, the accounting department rejects his expense report, with a post-it note that says that the company does not reimburse for items of clothing. The next trip, the executive turns in an expense report without the galoshes, but with a post-it note that says "FIND THE BOOTS!".