View from a Rhino House: “Dear God, will nobody think of the children?”

A State judge in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has confiscated copies of the “mummy-porn” trilogy “Fifty Shades of Grey” & other erotic books from stores, & has ordered booksellers seal the novels to prevent children “leafing through them” (like after the adults have finished they don’t just “fall open” at the juicy parts – 😄).

Police & Court officials in the Rio town of Macae seized over 50 books including a dozen copies of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series by British author E.L. James after the shops broke rarely enforced Brazilian laws by failing to conceal erotic images & content deemed inappropriate for under-18s.

Officials will return the books if the bookshop proprietors ensure they are sealed before being put back on display (by which time they will be well thumbed, no doubt, & bearing some very dodgy-looking stains).

The judge, Raphael Baddini de Queiroz Campos, from the local family tribunal, acted after finding a group of children gathered around a window display at one of the town’s bookshops where “erotic content” (?) was on display, the Rio de Janeiro justice service’s web site said.

Good to know that someone with a nice name is looking-out for the kids in the favelas, but what will happen if they get schools & actually learn to read?

“I don’t know what it’s about I can’t read either…. But I think Elizabeth Taylor was in the film.”

Up, up & away….

The reputation of possibly America’s least-favorite fondlers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), has taken yet another hit with the discovery that its shoddy security allows passengers in its PreCheck system to pick their own security status.

PreCheck allows some frequent fliers willing to pay $100 for a background check to skip some of the onerous security checks, like taking off shoes and unpacking laptops or toiletries. PreCheck customers are still subject to more intensive searches on a randomized basis, however.

Aviation blogger John Butler discovered that the barcode information used for the boarding passes of Precheck fliers wasn’t encoded, and could be read by a simple smartphone app. It contained the flier’s name, flight details, and a number, either a one or a three, with the latter confirming the passenger was cleared for lesser screening.

It would be a relatively simple job to scan the issued boarding pass, decode it, and then change the security setting if you are planning to bring something naughty aboard, or even change the name on the ticket to match a fake ID. After putting the new information into a barcode, and a couple of minutes of cut and paste, the new boarding pass would work as normal, Butler explained.

“The really scary part is this will get past both the TSA document checker, because the scanners the TSA use are just barcode decoders, they don’t check against the real time information,” he said. “So the TSA document checker will not pick up on the alterations.

Just in time for Hallowe’en!

Full story at The Register here.

“But on the positive side, at least we didn’t have to go through all that security stuff!”