I am totally opposed to the scanners for a whole lot of reasons, but I don't really care if they photo me (or grope me, both have happened before). I wasn't about to let them photograph Mal, however.

Now that they're saying kids under 12 don't get a pat-down, my plans for YouTube greatness when Mal went Tasmanian Devil on the TSO are kaput.

I actually had a fight about these scanners today at work, with my newest Problem Child. Not only is he convinced he's the smartest person in the room, he won't shut up about it. And he's not. Pretty far from, in fact (he informed us all yesterday that if we knew our history, we'd realize that Pompeii was destroyed in a volcanic eruption).

Following our "agree to disagree" about the utility of backscatter scanners and TSA in general, he IMed me...at which point I discovered that he's set his customization so that all his chats come thru in Papyrus font.

No jury of my peers in the world...

why would you need a jury? You were at my house all week.

The Inquirer published a pretty horrific article today about a Doctor who has written a memoir of being overweight, and how the medical profession treated him. I remember discussions here about doctors running the gamut from insensitive to downright evil on the topic of weight - this article bears that out. If people want to see it, I'll post the link.

I think the answer to that question is always yes.

(he informed us all yesterday that if we knew our history, we'd realize that Pompeii was destroyed in a volcanic eruption)

Dude. Really? A volcano?

Yeah, a jury of your peers would canonize you, not convict you.

What did he think you thought about Pompeii?

Hon, YOUR peers? The papyrus thing alone. But Pompeii is good for snickering over drinks after the trial is done.

What did he think you thought about Pompeii?

We'd mentioned that the Google StreetView of Pompeii was a nice way to augment history lessons for kids who were studying Pompeii.

He said "If you know anything about history, you'd know that you should be wary of showing that to kids."

It took us a bit to parse what he meant. I said "I don't think most of the penis graffiti is visible anymore..." so he patiently explained the whole volcano thing.

After a moment of stunned silence one of my team said, "Dude, "killed by volcano" is second only to "eaten by dinosaurs" in getting kids to engage with history."

After a moment of stunned silence one of my team said, "Dude, "killed by volcano" is second only to "eaten by dinosaurs" in getting kids to engage with history."

He obviously knows nothing about kids. But it does remind me of the tour guide at the Edward Gorey museum having to explain to one of the other tourists that no, most kids are not traumatized by The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

No jury of my peers in the world...

I have it on good authority that you've been in Wisconsin when this guy "disappears."

The filled-in concrete corpses alone in Pompeii got me hooked for good on archeology. Well, that and the penis graffiti.

Pompeii was definitely one of the most amazing places I have ever seen in my life.