body scanners in European airports

Martin wrote on Sep 3, 2011:

On Sat, 3 Sep 2011 11:02:21 +0100, Mike Lane
wrote:

Martin wrote on Sep 3, 2011:

On Fri, 2 Sep 2011 07:51:35 -0500, Dan Stephenson
wrote:

On 2011-09-02 02:47:21 -0500, Tom P said:


Now this would be good news, in that there is a direct flight from
Dallas/Fort Worth near where I live, to Frankfurt.

If I can confirm the situation in Athens, I might make a
DFW-Frankfurt-Athens travel. Hmm! Maybe I gave up hope too soon!


Plans to introduce scanners in the present form at German airports have
now been abandoned.
The announcement was made this week by the Ministry of Interior. The
tests showed a false alarm rate of 54%.
http://tinyurl.com/454csr3

Spectacular news. Give that, even if I cannot use the Athens airport,
it's just a really really long drive from Frankfurt to Brindisi,

You could drive to Venice and take the ferry to Patras. A very
pleasant way to relax and recover from jet lag. The ferry leaves in
the late afternoon and arrives in Patras at breakfast time 36 hours
later or did when we used it. You also get to see Venice, the coast of
Croatia, Alabania and Corfu.

Yes, a very pleasant trip - I've done it a few times now, although the last
time, a few months ago we got off at Corfu for a change.

I always wanted to do that.


I certainly beats grinding down the crappy Italian autostrade for a day or
more

We did it from Ancona the first couple of times, but we vastly prefer
Venice Patras. We never tried the much cheaper option of Brindisi
Patras


We did, once. Brindisi is a pleasant small town, much nicer than Ancona or
Mestre, but driving down to the heel of Italy is not something I'd want to
repeat - ever.

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

On 2011-09-03 06:38:17 -0500, Martin said:

On Sat, 03 Sep 2011 11:30:17 +0100, William Black
wrote:

Most of them don't actually have an immigration department and it's just
cops doing a hitch checking passports.

In many places they don't speak or read any language but their own.

Like in UK?

Actually I've founds the security scrutiny in the UK (Great Britain,
rather) to be the most thorough, anywhere

--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

On 2011-09-03 03:24:53 -0500, Martin said:

Spectacular news. Give that, even if I cannot use the Athens airport,
it's just a really really long drive from Frankfurt to Brindisi,

You could drive to Venice and take the ferry to Patras. A very
pleasant way to relax and recover from jet lag. The ferry leaves in
the late afternoon and arrives in Patras at breakfast time 36 hours
later or did when we used it. You also get to see Venice, the coast of
Croatia, Alabania and Corfu.

You know that is an excellent idea. Somehow, indentured coastline has
a powerful beauty-effect on my eye, and the Dalmatian coast has that in
spades. I wouldn't be surprised, either, if the Ferry stopped at Split
along the way? I was desiring anway, to visit the Diocletian palace
elements incorporated into the town.

I've spent two weeks in Venice, already though. Beautiful place but I
think I could give it a skip. Oh what am I saying. Being jet-lagged
would be the perfect situation for walking the empty streets of Venice
at night. I did that somewhat in my big trip there
(http://web.mac.com/stepheda/Venice_2...005_Index.html -- but
I'm updating the descriptions) and WOW what an evocative experience!!
WIthout the crowds, all the old architecture gives you a incredible
sense of travelling back in time. And lights on the lagoon and canals
are breathtaking.

--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

On 2011-09-03 05:02:21 -0500, Mike Lane said:


Spectacular news. Give that, even if I cannot use the Athens airport,
it's just a really really long drive from Frankfurt to Brindisi,

You could drive to Venice and take the ferry to Patras. A very
pleasant way to relax and recover from jet lag. The ferry leaves in
the late afternoon and arrives in Patras at breakfast time 36 hours
later or did when we used it. You also get to see Venice, the coast of
Croatia, Alabania and Corfu.

Yes, a very pleasant trip - I've done it a few times now, although the last
time, a few months ago we got off at Corfu for a change.

I certainly beats grinding down the crappy Italian autostrade for a day or
more

Maybe. Depends on how much vacation time one has and disposition to
pack in as much ancient-ruin adventuring in Greece as possible. Plus I
can pick up some high-dollar balsamic vinegar when I pass Modena. I
revisited the Acetoria Galli in my 2009 three-month tour, after having
visited it on a prior grand tour in 2002. Carla Galli, the
proprietress gave me another tour of her vineyards (unfortunatelly now
severely trimmed for machine harvest since the men from Poland do not
come any more for picking) and her amazing vinegar loft. The boiled
quail's eggs with balsamico for lunch was quite nice.
--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

On 2011-09-03 05:28:45 -0500, Martin said:

I certainly beats grinding down the crappy Italian autostrade for a day or
more

We did it from Ancona the first couple of times, but we vastly prefer
Venice Patras. We never tried the much cheaper option of Brindisi
Patras

For someone considering the Brindisi-Patras ferry, note that you do not
have to stay in the crazy, CRAZY town. Go to the port. There is a
really nice, large, hotel there called Nettuno. The ferry leaves
mid-morning, and there is plenty of time beforehand to get the tickets
on the day of travel. Note that you need to drive past the roulette of
aggresive peddlers, though, to reach the main terminal/ticket office.

I would also recommend getting a private cabin if you can afford it. I
have HAD IT with Screaming Children Hell on ferries!! arhhh!
--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

4.9.2011 4:53, Dan Stephenson kirjoitti:

I would also recommend getting a private cabin if you can afford it. I
have HAD IT with Screaming Children Hell on ferries!! arhhh!

Yes. Children are the worst kind of beasts father to Jesus Nazareth ever
created. Damn them!

On 04/09/11 02:36, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-09-03 06:38:17 -0500, Martin said:

On Sat, 03 Sep 2011 11:30:17 +0100, William Black
wrote:

Most of them don't actually have an immigration department and it's just
cops doing a hitch checking passports.

In many places they don't speak or read any language but their own.

Like in UK?

Actually I've founds the security scrutiny in the UK (Great Britain,
rather) to be the most thorough, anywhere


And lots of people who speak various languages.




--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

hohoho ****man loves that sort of topic.

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Tue, 9 Aug 2011 20:26:48 +0000 (UTC), Erilar
wrote:

Any total stranger thrilled by a sight of my ancient body is someone I'm
more than a bit unlikely to care a proverbial fig for.

Will it see through the proverbial fig leaf?
--

Martin

Yes martin aka ****man travels a lot even if the last time was 30 years ago.


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:57:34 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 02/09/11 09:57, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:27:40 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 02/09/11 09:14, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:57:16 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 02/09/11 08:53, Martin wrote:

or a success rate of 46%. If other countries adopt them Germany will
become the terrorists favourite.

Why?

Terrorists have stopped attacking aircraft for the past ten years
because, pretty obviously, after the attack on the twin towers,
passengers have nothing to lose by attacking the hijackers.

There's absolutely no evidence at all that the screening systems using
conventional metal detecting technology are ineffective, it's just
that
there's some clever marketing going on.

Other than that when in a security test at Schiphol axes etc. were put
in luggage it reached Cayenne before the items were detected by
customs officers.

Why should an axe in the hold baggage be a problem?

For the same reason that guns& grenades in the hold became a problem
when they were used in the arrivals hall at Rome airport.


I've carried an assortment of tools through a variety of airports and
have never ever been questioned.

Exactly!


The only time the contents of my hold baggage were questioned was when I
was flying to a re-enactment in Italy and my baggage was full of swords,
daggers and other assorted weaponry, but a simple letter from the
organisers saying what I was invited to solved all that with no problem
at all.

Typical!
--

Martin

martin identifies you by the ****.

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:23:13 +0200, Tom P wrote:

On 09/02/2011 09:53 AM, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:47:21 +0200, Tom wrote:

On 08/11/2011 02:58 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-08-09 02:17:40 -0500, Tom P said:

On 08/08/2011 11:56 PM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
My plans were to visit Europe again in October, but it has come to my
attention that the use of those body scanners has become common since
the attempted bombing of that flight to Detroit last Christmas 2009.
My
last flight was prior to that.

So I called the Athens airport and spoke to their security people who
said that they had the scanners and their use was required, and
furthermore that this was to be found in the other airports in
Europe.

This sounds incredible but it is plausible. Can anyone confirm this
at
your local big airport? My googling only turned up EU regular that
"permitted" the scanners and a lot of talk of health issues. But that
is
all.



There was something in the news here the other day about the scanners
on trial at Hamburg airport proving to be useless - much too slow, and
with a 35% to 70% false alarm rate, depending on which press story you
believe - ah, just found some references:
http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2225742.shtml?cat=566

or google bodyscanner+false+alarms

It appears that the German authorities have decided to discontinue
their use, at least of the make of scanner they tested, so hopefully
the taxpayers will get their money back for these expensive piles of
useless junk.

Now this would be good news, in that there is a direct flight from
Dallas/Fort Worth near where I live, to Frankfurt.

If I can confirm the situation in Athens, I might make a
DFW-Frankfurt-Athens travel. Hmm! Maybe I gave up hope too soon!


Plans to introduce scanners in the present form at German airports have
now been abandoned.
The announcement was made this week by the Ministry of Interior. The
tests showed a false alarm rate of 54%.
http://tinyurl.com/454csr3

or a success rate of 46%. If other countries adopt them Germany will
become the terrorists favourite.

The main reason given for rejecting the scanners was that the false
alarms slowed down the security checks. The expectation was that the
machines would speed up security checks. Maybe that's what the salesman
had sold them.

Maybe they needed to buy more machines and operators :-)
The face recognition software used by the police to identify rioters
from CCTV images produced a large number of false positives, that
hasn't stopped them identifying over a1000 rioters
--

Martin