Airport insanity

John Kelsey kelsey.j at ix.netcom.com
Sun Oct 17 06:43:37 PDT 2004


>From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd at echeque.com>
>Sent: Oct 16, 2004 7:01 PM
>To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: RE: Airport insanity

...
>On 15 Oct 2004 at 16:32, Tyler Durden wrote:


...
>> He might have looked odd from the photo you saw circulated in
>> the press, but I'd bet a lot of money no one would have
>> picked him as looking like a terrorist.

>But the people sitting beside him did pick him as looking like
>a terrorist.

What's the false positive rate?  It's one thing if you see some guy lighting a fuse sticking out of his shoe, and quite another if you say "You look kinda terroristy; I'm sending you off the plane."  This works as a reasonable strategy only if:

a.  The probability ratios don't work out so that the overwhelming majority of people you throw off planes are innocent.  (They almost certainly will, just because terrorists are so rare.)

b.  The terrorists can't figure out how to make themselves look less threatening.  

>    --digsig
>         James A. Donald

--John





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