The November issue of The Atlantic features Jeffrey Goldberg’s taunts to the TSA. This wide range of shenanigans include ripping up fake boarding passes in a concourse bathroom, (to see if any male passengers would report him,) wearing a “beer belly,” (full of liquid,) through security, and repeatedly printing and using his fake boarding passes to access the airport gates around the east coast. Similar to the “Kip Hawley is an Idiot” challenge of a couple years back, Goldberg takes it further by packing anti-American souvenirs in his carry on. Osama t-shirts anyone? Buried inside the article too are some interesting shortcomings on the “ID Triangle,” or how the TSA verifies, or rather fails to accurately verify a person’s true identity.

Read the full article: The Things He Carried.

The ID triangle: before a passenger boards a commercial flight, he interacts with his airline or the government three times—when he purchases his ticket; when he passes through airport security; and finally at the gate, when he presents his boarding pass to an airline agent. It is at the first point of contact, when the ticket is purchased, that a passenger’s name is checked against the government’s no-fly list. It is not checked again, and for this reason, Schnei­er argued, the process is merely another form of security theater.

“The goal is to make sure that this ID triangle represents one person,” he explained. “Here’s how you get around it. Let’s assume you’re a terrorist and you believe your name is on the watch list.” It’s easy for a terrorist to check whether the government has cottoned on to his existence, Schnei­er said; he simply has to submit his name online to the new, privately run CLEAR program, which is meant to fast-pass approved travelers through security. If the terrorist is rejected, then he knows he’s on the watch list.

Due to a new matrix of airline pricing by Southwest, flying on the cheap dates of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, may not be as cost effective anymore. Scott McCartney takes a peak into how they do it.

Jason Cochran writes an interesting piece in Walletpop.com    Web Access on the Road Needs a Makeover.   He compares web access companies to laundromats.  Like laundromats, barring delays you’re usually at an airport for a few hours.  At a hotel you often check in late afternoon only to check out the next morning.  Why the need to pay for far more time then you’ll use?   Smaller increments would be welcomed.

Cool Hunting has a review of Dutch Bike Chicago. Over the weekend Dutch Bike Seattle opened their new Chicago location at 651 West Armitage, in Lincoln Park. Even with the winter ahead, one of the most enjoyable ways to traverse the windy city.