I think I was one of the study participants. The device and "instructions to the 2 diff participant groups" sounds dead on. We were given limited info on it, but told it was a security screening study and after completing it I saw the room where the 'suits' (DHS & device developers) we meeting and viewing the study (making an assumption here, there were eating snacks and talking and watching a big plasma TV w/ thermal image pictures/video on it. DHS logos were on display boards around the group.) The only thing that makes me question if this was the same study, was that the study period lasted a number of weeks (we could reschedule), and gauging by the amount of people there in those 2 hours that afternoon (15+ people), I assumed far more than 140 participated.

Anyway, the study I participated in was at the grounds of a Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Md (PG County Md, right outside D.C.)

I was pretty routine, some people apparently had a fake "shirt" on that they were told gauged their heart rate and temp (they might have had extra instructions about sneaking something in. I was a control sample, I suppose, and my instructions were to be honest when asked questions about concealing explosives, intending to detonate and explosive, concealing a recording device, etc.

IT WAS CREEPY. We were told we were attending a weaponry/defense expo but were not to tell anyone that we'd been hired to participate in a security screening study.

Afterward, we could ask questions. I asked if it was emotion recognition software. They said no. This doesn't seem far off though. The thought of this system really sucks. Theoretically, you can imagine this paired with a retina scanner, so that you emotional state is attached to your 'identity' and recorded. People who demonstrate anxious behavior in public settings repeatedly might be investigated, held.. Its kind of extrapolated logic, but a real possibility. What's scariest is that people would naturally learn to rely on the technology rather than exercising their own observational skills (kind of along the lines of the commenter who mentioned Israeli soldiers cheap but engaging rapid interrogation training.)

Anyway, it was just a crazy unnerving experience. Just had to share.

If you want more info, see National Geographic for a special they were on-location filming about it called "Techno War On Terror" or something similarly stupid.

“Homeland Security ran a test in September of 140 volunteers using a FAST prototype. The system was very accurately able to pick out people with hostile intent.”

I’d think that if anything, “they system” picked out people acting like they have hostile intent. Kind of like picking out people who are casually having a conversation about what part of the plane is the safest to sit …

Beezer says…

Being a northern Yankee and a republican for almost 40 years, I’m out of touch with Mr. Krugman’s southern strategy/racial explanation for this most recent Democrat rout of Republicans.

I’ve been a registered Democrat for only 2 years, but my leaving the Republican Party had nothing to do with any “southern strategy” collapse. I left because, as I got older, I simply realized that free markets weren’t going to provide basic services for America in general.

Too many people don’t have basic health care. After 200 plus years of having the opportunity to do so, it’s about time everyone realized free markets weren’t going to supply this basic need.

Too many people were falling behind in income. The widening of income disparity was becoming oppressive and obvious.

Very little, if anything, has been accomplished in reforming our energy system, in preparing for a sustainable future. Free markets don’t operate that way. They are short term oriented and when confronted by crisis (based on what we’ve all witnessed recently)they simply pick up whatever assets they’ve accumulated and leave everyone else to pay the tab and solve the problem. Pollution comes to mind here. Free markets didn’t clean up our polluted rivers, for example.

With government basically neutered, we’ve witnessed the savage destruction of our banking system by the so-called free market. And once again, everyone else is expected to pick up the tab and solve the problem.

In short, totally free markets have proven to be irresponsible. Self interest is self interest, after all. The ever increasing accumulation of wealth by an ever decreasing minority is where we’ve arrived. And we are decidedly not the better for it.

It’s time to restore some responsibility–to restore some balance between self interest and community interest. I think that’s what caused the rout of Republicans. The Republican train left the station and only a few folks were on board. They left too many people behind.

More bubbles -with oil a good target given the losses and stranded big money great for the market with the terrible hits in the energy sector also lets not forget about the Obama Green building idea’s that can’t happen with oil @$25. Or pick a new bubble except housing..LOL

The union movement was very strong when the GI’s came home and organized. Now, the non-union working class is clinging to the remnants of the hard earned Union working conditions, if not the family level pay. With weak resistance, the southern slavers are gaining the upper hand with their eternally failed philosophies. And where is that getting this country ?

What scares me the most is the absolute and profound stupidity of today’s non-union working class. The GOP hero, Joe the plumber, is an unemployable ne’re do well whose sibling family survived on food stamps.

If JP belonged to a union, the other members would have taken care of this ignorant POS long before he surfaced. He would not qualify for a union job.

My Dad was a union negotiator and teamster all his life. My mother’s whacko step sister is always making comments to him about the unions, blah, blah, blah. It turns out, after 45 years of working, that the only pension benefits the dumb SOB recieves is from the 3 years he drove as a teamster member. That is it, SS and a teamster pension. And he is a registered republican.

I have my union card, an MS in Engineering. Thank God I grew up in a Teamster Family.

Israeli security forces, who are much more likely to come across terrorists and suicide bombers in their daily work, are highly trained in rapid interrogation, reading body language, and so on. But where’s the money in that? Much better to invest in high-tech boondoggles that provide the illusion of security; that’s more money for well-connected contractors.

The Looting of the Treasury has become institutionalized.

Ane who can blame foreign cb's for outright selling of treasuries given the 27% gain in the 30 year in the final quarter of 2008. I'd be self-motivated to book the profits. Profit taking in the 30 year is evident. On the ltd of 2008 and 1st td of 2009, the 30 yr has plunged almost 7 handles.

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Developing nations plan to sell the most dollar-denominated bonds since 2005, reversing a shift into local debt, as commodities prices fall, foreign reserves diminish and emerging-market currencies weaken.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aKgtMlZgwWHo&refer=exclusive

IMO the chances that inflation will take hold in the near future aren’t that high because I don’t think wages will go up. Ergo, if there’s no wage-price spiral, there won’t be massive inflation. I’m fully aware of what’s happening in Zimbabwe of course, but that appears to be mindless, endless printing, and it doesn’t appear that we are at that point (yet).

Rebuttals to my opinion would be appreciated.