Exactly Ruby. And I can also see someone immediately close to her saying that’s what one has to do and after perhaps confirming with another person (also probably in on the gag), not realizing she should somehow find to check for herself. Definitely sounds like something the folks I knew would pull, but fortunately enough, I would know better.
Also, no matter what one should be allowed to expect from members of the human race as far as the most basic competencies, doesn’t mean that will ever happen. Personally, whether it was a possibility or not, I’d always prefer to err on the side of giving the benefit of the doubt and proceeding as cautiously as the situation will allow (financially, etc.).
I can’t blame TSA for this one. Every time I have flown (as recently as this october) I had to stand in line to put my stuff through the x-ray machine, and every time at some point I have been in a position to see the screen that they are watching to see what is inside your stuff. I can’t imagine standing there, seeing that, watching other people take their kids/pets/significant others through the metal detector and only their inanimate objects going through the magic vortex of radiation and then putting my baby on the conveyor belt. Even if I couldn’t speak a word of the language that was posted all around me I would still not voluntarily put my baby someplace where I didn’t have access to them.
Thinking back of the kind of instructions I’ve received in different airports and from different people, I can think of a scenario that would make it perfectly logical to put the baby in the conveyor.
Please note that the woman holding it is pretty much terrified of INS. Any foreigner who’s not Saudi Royal Family knows some horror stories, sometimes firsthand (like that cousin of mine who spent three days incomunicado because some bastard thought that an “attractive single hispanic female” could not possibly intend to leave the country with her paired-up friends, no no nono, she was there to snatch herself a gringo husband, yes! - she was a bank office manager…).
Lately, the message has been, more and more and I’ve heard this sentence literally:
you have to put in the machine everything you’re carrying. Backpack, computer, shopping bags, umbrellas, whatever is in your pockets, ID, coat or jacket, everything
The baby happened to be “everything”. They’re lucky nobody has tried stripping and putting his clothes through the machines yet, with those kinds of messages.
I contend that she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. She wants her child to develop superpowers.
Of course, everyone knows that the best way to develop superpowers is to come in contact with various unknown (and brightly colored) chemicals. Her time would be better spent wandering around abandoned industrial plants.
Last time I flew a guy in a wheelchair was just wheeled round the metal detector (and then patted down by a security guy to check for weapons). But I’m sure you could hide parts of a gun in the body of a wheelchair, similar to The Day of the Jackal.
Good thing she was at the airport when she decided to send the baby on a Mystery Conveyor Belt Adventure, instead of a junkyard, bottling factory, or mail sorting facility.
Is everyone supposed to know the difference between medical X-ray machines (which are obviously safe to use on humans) and airport X-ray machines? Heck, I wrote a Ph.D thesis on X-ray detectors and even I don’t know how they differ in terms of X-ray energy and flux.
In limited exposure. Which it sounds like the x-ray machine at the airport was also safe - in limited exposure. I thought the idea was not to have a lot of unnecessary xRays done during you life - since each exposure (plus the other crap we are exposed to - like the radiation you get from flying in an airplane) ups your chances of getting cancer.
So the hoo-ha is that this baby got some unnecessary exposure to something that might - over the long term, combined with other factors, harm her (him?). Gee, my kids have NEVER been outside without sunscreen, eaten improperly washed fruit, been sprayed down with DEET, or any of the other crap that carries minute risk over time.
I wonder how much mAS and KVP those airport x-ray screeners produce?
Here is a chart that shows the recommended exposure limit (5 rad,total) for a fetus during the entire pregnancy.
Unless those airport scanners kick out some hellacious levels or radiation (and they might. I dunno), her son is probably going to be fine.
Just remember, there is NO absolutely safe level of ionizing radiation; it’s all about “acceptable risk.”
