Joseph D. Darcy's Sun Weblog

Friday June 13, 2008

Cheesy X-rays

When flying recently, I was slightly concerned after when my carry on bag was selected for extra scrutiny after going through the X-ray machine; the culprit: cheese. I was bringing back four bars of 1 ¾" × 1 ¾" × 6" cheese I haven't been able to find in California. My bag also had some batteries and electronics in it. The cheese packaging was swabbed and analyzed and I went on my way. I thought this was a little silly, but I moderated my view when I was catching up on back issues of Science News during the flight and read an article that said cheese and plastic explosives can look the same under X rays. The new and improved X-ray system being discussed will be able to tell apart C4 and four cheese!

(2008-06-13 11:25:55.0) Permalink Comments [4]

Comments:

Reminds me of this: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Brie_bomb

What kind of cheese was it?

Posted by Mark Mahieu on June 13, 2008 at 09:20 PM PDT #

Mark,

I was just traveling with some everyday, nonexplosive, sharp cheddar.

Posted by Joe Darcy on June 14, 2008 at 10:32 AM PDT #

I always fly back from Salerno with a new Caciocavallo, I am always worried by the X-Rays that they could alter the flavour somehow :) Once a policeman at the gate just said: "Oh, Caciocavallo, no need to inspect this, the shape is evident" :) I wonder if I was a smart evil terrorist I could put some cacio-shaped c-4 into my luggage :)

Posted by Mario Torre on June 20, 2008 at 06:22 PM PDT #

I bring Spanish manchego cheese with me when travelling to the US, for a friend - I will worry now but Manchego doesnt really look like C4 or cheddar!

Posted by elba on September 09, 2008 at 01:26 AM PDT #

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