We don't envision very many people enjoying the idea of having TSA employees seeing every curve their body has to offer, but unfortunately for those who fail the primary metal detector test at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, you could be in for such a treat. While airport shoe scanners have already garnered sufficient criticism for holding up the show rather than helping things out, the "backscatter" X-ray machine is officially being trialed in Arizona as a means of snuffing out hidden "explosives and other weapons" that can't be detected by other means. While the technology allows the viewer to see just about every follicle on your body (and any stray .500 Magnums adorning your person), there is still currently a workaround if you're not entirely comfortable with going full-frontal before boarding your flight. A TSA spokesperson proclaimed that the process is completely voluntary, as folks who get dinged by the metal detector can opt for a standard pat-down in order to clear things up. Interestingly, the officials operating the machine have reportedly "adjusted the equipment to make the image look something like a line drawing" rather than detailing all your 2,000 parts, but critics suggest that altering the image also hampers the chance of discovering contraband in the first place. Still, unless this causes some serious uproar in the near future, it looks like it's there to stay, and folks traveling through LAX and New York's Kennedy Airport will likely face a similar beast (if they so choose) before the year's end.

Although it's not exactly shocking to hear of yet another homeland security application that seems to border on Big Brother, Lockheed Martin's High Altitude Airship could keep an elevated eye on 600 miles of US countryside at any given time, and if all goes as planned, we'll have 11 of these things floating over our everyday activities by the end of the decade. The HAA prototype is a ginormous airship that measures 17-times larger than the Goodyear rendition we're all used to seeing above sporting events, and is designed to hover 12 miles above the earth in order to keep tabs on what's happening below. The airship is slated to be solar-powered and should stay in a geocentric orbit for "up to a year," and if equipped with high-resolution cameras, a single one could cover everything "between Toledo, Ohio and New York City." While Lockheed Martin is thrilled with the $40 million project they've been awarded, it's certainly understandable to get a little worried about how these blimps will actually be used, but a company spokesperson suggested then an entire fleet could actually be used for "border surveillance" -- and hey, we need a little help down there anyway, right?

[Via Fark]

While being in the weapons distribution biz may seem a bit dodgy, an enterprising team in San Francisco is looking to prove their device is out to protect and serve (and save a lot of money). The Department of Homeland Security is looking to add safeguards to American ports by installing a series of radiation scanners designed to detect hidden nukes (and, we hope, dirty bombs) on incoming shipments. The problem is the $1.15 billion this project is supposed to cost, not to mention the five years it'll take to get it installed, so we're still pretty much exposed for awhile. Not one to take a (potential) threat lying down, physicist / Sandia Lab weapons subcontractor Stanley Glaros is manning a team which has already built a "boat-mounted radiation detection device from off-the-shelf components." The homebrew rad sniffer gives a visual alarm via a "sodium iodide crystal" that turns blue when danger is near (remember Frodo's sword?), but the mechanics behind the lighthearted signifier is no laughing matter. An Ortec Digibase photo-multiplier picks up signals over the air, which are collected into dynodes, and then run through a multichannel analyzer to identify radiological signatures. Regardless of the means, this nuke detector has been running "successfully" for eight months, and coming in at a cool $12,000 apiece, we're all for getting the job done on the cheap (and showing up the DHS in the process).