On my return from San Francisco I was wearing my knee braces. Apparently neoprene knee braces (with no metal components) are too much for their new high tech scanners and gain one a pat down. My peeve is not that I get a pat down. What annoys me is that I could have taken then off and saved everyone time - if they had bothered to mention it somewhere.

BTW, I am aware that the TSA has, after a number of episodes of dimwitted dumf*ckery on their part, become sensitive to the notion that people might not want to remove medical devices in a security line. That's certainly an improvement over their prior behavior.

Lesson learned - put the knee braces in the bin to be scanned.
From "Passages in the Life of a Philosopher" by Charles Babbage. Yes, he's the same Babbage who invented the Difference Engine, the world's first programmable computer.

"It is always advantageous for a traveller to carry with him anything of use in science or in art if it is of a portable nature and still more so if it has also the advantage of novelty At the time I started on a lengthened tour the stomach pump had just been invented It appeared to give promise of great utility I therefore arranged in a small box the parts of an instrument which could be employed either as a syringe a stomach pump or for cupping As a stomach pump it was in great request from its novelty and utility I had many applications for permission to make drawings of it to which I always most willingly acceded."

Maybe I can adapt my hiking water filter to do this?

You can read more here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Fa1JAAAAMAAJ&dq=charles%20babbage%20passages%20live%20philosopher&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The part where he's in a volcano timing some micro-eruptions with his pocket watch so he can rush in and get lava samples (starts pg 214) must be read to be believed.

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