Ever wonder what happens to the confiscated items taken at airport security checkpoints?  Apparently, TSA turns it over to state surplus property agencies, which will typically sell the items online or at retail stores.  Here is a list of .gov's that offer confiscated items in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.  [via Wired]

Mitnick Security Consulting hands out some very creative business cards.  Kevin Mitnick's card is a break-out lockpicking kit.  Very clever.  [via digg]

Previously:
Creative Landscape Architecture Firm Business Card, Edible Business Cards, Quick Vibrating Lockpick, Irvine Underground - lockpicking interview and howto

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, AZ is testing a controversial X-ray scanner, which uses "backscatter" technology, for the next 60 to 90 days. 

The controversy behind the scanner is that it basically "strip searches" the passengers as they walk through:

But TSA officials said Friday they had worked with industry specialists to blur any images of body parts generated by the scan, and likened the resulting picture to a "chalk outline" of a person.

The images come up on a computer screen in a room about 50 feet away. A green or red light -- for pass or fail -- is pressed and shows up at the screening location.

Officials said the computer does not have the ability to save or store images, a concern expressed by privacy-rights groups.

Once testing is finished in Phoenix, machines will be deployed to airports in Los Angeles and New York for further testing.

Read the full article here.

U.S. weapons laboratory scientists claim they have trained bees to sniff out explosives in a program they have called the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said they trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis -- the tube they use to feed on nectar -- when they smell explosives in anything from cars and roadside bombs to belts similar to those used by suicide bombers.

By exposing the insects to the odor of explosives followed by a sugar water reward, researchers said they trained bees to recognize substances ranging from dynamite and C-4 plastic explosives to the Howitzer propellant grains used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

Haarmann said the bees could be carried in hand-held detectors the size of a shoe box, and could be used to sniff out explosives in airports, roadside security checks, or even placed in robot bomb disposal equipment.

From Scott Kildall:

Gun Control is an electromechanical installation, which explores underlying issues of both security and surveillance. Each of the four units incorporates a police-issue revolver and a small video camera. As people move into the installation space, the cameras track the movement and the guns follow.

 However, the technology is imperfect. The cameras do not always function properly. The revolvers point at different targets. They sometimes twirl about playfully. The armatures shake and rattle. We are directly in the line of fire. This piece raises questions about our security-surveillance apparatus by prompting a visceral reaction.

See Gun Control in action:

Demonstration vid (with music)
Demonstration vid (without music)

[via]

There is a classic census problem of how to provide reasonably detailed statistical and geographic information about a population while still protecting the identities of individuals. Consider this problem for a moment, and then turn it upside down:

How do you provide information publicly about individuals without exposing your database in its entirety to those who might mine it for unintended purposes?

Tom Owad just released an incredibly detailed howto for analysing the reading habits of Amazon.com wishlist users. Did you think this sort of profiling was only available to the likes of the NSA and FBI?

Think again: