The Times Online has a nice summary of a new technology that uses terahertz to detect anomalies for airport security:

The system can be linked to a computer so that it can automatically scan anyone passing and alert its human operator to anything suspicious. Clive Beattie, ThruVision’s chief executive, said: “Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally. The T5000 dramatically extends the range over which we can scan people.”

[…]

The technology works by detecting and measuring terahertz waves, or T-waves for short. These are a form of electromagnetic radiation, emitted by all people and objects that lie between the infrared and microwave parts of the spectrum.

A quick search reveals that similar systems have been in use for some time. For example, a mail scanner was tested in 2003:

At the heart of the Japanese system is a compact and tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that emits terahertz waves. The OPO is made from a nonlinear crystal (MgO:LiNbO3) that is pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. It emits terahertz radiation that is tunable between 1 and 2.5 THz.

Terahertz waves of several different frequencies are scanned over the envelope and the transmitted radiation is picked up by a pyroelectric bolometer and analyzed by a computer.

Apparently the mail does not naturally emit T-waves, but people do. I don’t suppose it hertz to be scanned with T-waves, eh?

At some point there will be enough development and advancement in spectrum sensor technology that airports will have the capability of profiling people entering, coupled with surveillance, so the inefficient “choke points” will become obsolete. In other words, just like astronomers today use T-waves to study the sky, airport security staff may someday monitor from above the space people travel through.

One thing that will not go away, like astronomy, is the need for human operator/analysis to accurately interpret the results.

The decision apparently came down to whether lying is an appropriate way for a woman to protect her honor. BBC reports that the answer, according to Italy’s highest appeals court, is yes:

…the Court of Cassation found that having a lover was a circumstance that damaged the honour of the person among family and friends.

Lying about it, therefore, was permitted, even in a judicial investigation.

It is not yet clear whether the ruling might also apply to men who have secret mistresses.

Surely it does not, as a mistress in Italy is unlikely to be classified as a circumstance damaging the honor of a man among family and friends. Am I right? It would seem the court has an interest in enabling women to commit adultery. The BBC goes on to question the impartiality and perhaps even the sensibility of the Italian judges:

The Court of Cassation, which is largely staffed by elderly male appeal judges, has in the past issued a number of controversial judgements.

It once gave a ruling, later rescinded after protests from women’s groups, that a woman could not be raped by definition if she was wearing tight jeans, since the jeans could only be removed with her consent.

In the context of security, that decision would never fly although it does remind me of hackers who think that someone with a vulnerable system deserves to have it probed.

That is the message being circulated after a clever fellow in New Zealand found a simple way to use the firewire architecture in Windows XP to bypass password controls.

To use the tool, hackers must connect a Linux-based computer to a Firewire port on the target machine. The machine is then tricked into allowing the attacking computer to have read and write access to its memory.

With full access to the memory, the tool can then modify Windows’ password protection code, which is stored there, and render it ineffective.

The utility for linux was made available today. No need to use firewire means no need to leave it enabled.