<nettime> Let's Tell War Stories!

[Bruce Sterling <bruces@well.com>]

*I often wonder about this new space-time continuum
we blundered into, after September 11.  Surely there's another time-line
for 2002 where Americans simply buy dotcom stock and impeach
one another, rather than going through these bizarre dystopian rituals.
bruces



*"The Elderly Cyborg  Politician Has To Strip For
the Security Scanners"

Mich. Congressman Forced to Strip

January 8, 2002, 10:18 AM EST

DETROIT -- Security guards at Washington's Reagan National Airport forced
U.S. Rep. John Dingell to strip to his underwear before boarding a flight to
Detroit. 

The guards at the Northwest Airlines terminal did not believe the
75-year-old congressman's explanation about his metal hip, which he received
after a horse fell on him 20 years ago.

"They felt me up and down like a prize steer," Dingell, D-Mich., said. "I
was very nice, but I probably showed I was displeased."

The private security guards made him take off his overcoat, then his suit
coat, then his shoes and socks on Saturday. When he still triggered metal
detector alarms, the guards took him to a back room and asked him to remove
his trousers. 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta heard about the incident and
said he would look into it, Dingell said.

"I asked Norman to check to see if they treated me like they do everybody
else," Dingell said. "I just wanted to be sure that what they did was
necessary, that I got the same treatment, no better or no worse, than anyone
else." 


*"The  Consumer Goods Are  Electronically Fried By the
Bioterror Prevention Machines"

Anthrax mail cleaning zaps digital gadgets

Digital dream gadgets are being irreparably zapped by an irradiation process
the U.S. Postal Service has used since October to sanitize mail against
anthrax threats, an electronics trade group said on Tuesday.

Compact flash memory cards used to store data on many name-brand digital
cameras and handheld computers face not just data loss but become entirely
inoperable when subjected to electron beam irradiation, the CompactFlash
Association said. --Reuters

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