Jaunted

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Get Oggled in Phoenix

News broke over the weekend that new x-ray machines will debut at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix for the final holiday travel rush of the year. These are the superscreeners--now nicknamed "backscatters"--that you've been hearing about for a while now, the ones that nearly show your naughty bits. Sky Harbor, the country's eighth-busiest airport, was chosen by the TSA to be the first to test the new technology.

Randomly selected passengers, as well as those who don't pass the standard screening process, will be asked to submit to the nudie machine, but they can opt for a pat-down instead. While some might take the second option because they're concerned about being exposed, the x-ray images really don't show anything more controversial than a Ken or Barbie doll-like silhouette. Also, those images will be viewed "in a private room 50 to 100 feet away," according to the East Valley Tribune. Other passengers are concerned about the exposure to radiation.

Though no one's mentioned it, the sketchiest part of the process seems to be that viewing room. Something about a lonely TSA agent surrounded by faux-nakedness in complete privacy...

[Photo: Klaas De Buysser]

Related Stories:
· X-ray tech debuts at Sky Harbor [East Valley Trib]
· Sky Harbor set for new X-ray scans [Arizona Star]