My fiancé and I got to talking about those ‘naked scanner’ things they’re still trialling in Manchester Airport and whether we thought they were appropriate or not, so I got to looking it up afterwards.

My initial reaction was like that of many fellow Brits, disgust at a government gone mad with how far it can invade a person’s privacy and that sort of thing, though my fiancé was a little different in his reaction. He said that he would prefer being able to just be scanned rather than have to be searched if the occasion should arise, and I can agree that I too would feel the same way. I think that the regular metal detectors should be used in airports, but that if the need should arise for a specific person to be searched more thoroughly, then they should be asked if they would prefer to have the full body scan, rather than the physical search, I don’t think that these ‘naked scanners’ should replace the regular ones, but a ‘next-step’ if something is iffy about a traveller.

Whilst I was looking up that issue to find the BBC article, I also found a few other things along the same lines that are interesting. Britain has the largest amount of CCTV cameras per person in the world! No other country has them in the same kinds of numbers per capita that we do! It also seems to do very little for us! Though I’d guess that criminals would be caught more often, even if they’re not deterred by the cameras. That just makes them seem stupid… here’s hoping they all win Darwin Awards.

New technology with GPS vehicle tracking is also being implemented, but this is mostly for businesses, I think. I don’t actually have a problem with this, I think it’s a good idea for family vehicles, too. How nice would it be if, say, someone was missing? You could look this up and find out where the car was, maybe they ran off the road and just knocked themselves unconscious? Or if your car was stolen?

RFID tracking, however, seems wrong to me. Well, wrong for companies to be able to put into products to see who is buying them, that’s just whack and a serious invasion of privacy for no good reason. See, that’s the defining point as to whether I’ll personally say something is okay or not. The reason behind it. With the ‘naked scanners’, CCTV cameras, and GPS vehicle tracking, there are all security reasons for implementation; they can help to keep us safe. The RFID tracking, however, is purely for commercial purposes, and therefore not appropriate. If this technology was being used to keep tabs on potentially dangerous items, guns and chemicals, now that’s a brilliant idea if I do say so myself!

Okay, now for a knitting pattern. In keeping with the reason behind this post, I’ll have to link a knitted toy aeroplane.

Now, I’ve got an okay memory. Actually, I’ve got a good and a bad memory. I can remember long number strings, like my credit card number, IP addresses, and phone numbers easily, and can repeat back sequences I’ve recently heard fairly well. This even works in determining how man gunshots occurred in a TV show I’m watching, I like to figure out whose got how many shots left. I play the sounds back in my mind, and count the shots. I also have a good memory for random facts, especially about animals. I also have a good memory for voices, and sounds in general, but not faces nor names.

That’s all well and good, but I actually have a pretty poor memory when it comes to remembering conversations and scenes from books and so on. So, good short term, and numerical, and fact like data, memory, but bad long term, abstract memory.

I was thinking about this article, somewhere in there it says that there are many real world applications to having a good memory, and that is so true. Think about how often people see something in the street, like someone smacking into another person’s car in a parking lot and driving off, and if you could memorise the number plate, then you wouldn’t have to go and talk to the shopping centre to get the CCTV footage from the cameras, or whatever, no, you could ignore all that crap and go straight to the police and tell them what you saw, and the licence plate of the driver. I like the thought of CCTV systems, but they don’t seem to be helping the country all that much, sadly.

I find the idea of improving my memory to be exciting, I really do. Canny Minds have a website, with some fun free stuff on it, including a cross word puzzle which has the best online implementation of cross word puzzles that I’ve seen, right on!

Okay now for today’s knitting pattern… hmmm, it has to be something memory related, though all knitting has that to one extent or another. Fun fact, because these I remember, but not to take out the garbage , doing a difficult knitting pattern releases the same brain chemicals as a brain teaser, and leaves you feeling happier. Speaking of which, here’s today’s knitting pattern, it’s complicated, and has the word ‘Memories’ in the title. Works for me!