SkyMall Monday: Fake TV Burglar Deterrent

by Mike Barish on

Going on vacation should be a stress relief. Putting your job, chores and responsibilities aside for a break from your everyday routine is just what everyone needs. However, leaving your home unattended can be a worrisome endeavor. Sure, you could get a housesitter, but that requires you to trust someone not to rummage through your things, steal your valuables and seduce your cat. Whenever I go away, I worry that someone will break into the SkyMall Monday headquarters and steal all of my favorite gadgets. That fear leads to sleepless nights on the road. So, how can we protect our homes and deter would-be thieves? Thankfully, SkyMall understands our concerns and has just the thing to put our minds at ease and keep our homes safe when we’re traveling. The next time you leave home for a vacation or business trip, you can rest easy thanks to the Fake TV Burglar Deterrent.When I was a kid, my parents would typically leave various lights on in our house when we went away. This would give the appearance that we were home at all times (and that we never slept). As technology advanced, we put the lights on timers, so that it did appear as if the humans in the house were alive and keeping some sort of normal schedule. However, any criminal casing the neighborhood could probably tell that no one was actually home. Since Home Security Decoys were not an option, leaving lights on was the only viable way to deter criminals. The Fake TV Burglar Deterrent takes that strategy to the next level by simulating the flickering light of a television, thus giving your home that “lived in” feel.

Think that a home security system is more than enough to keep your house safe? Believe that no criminal worth his salt will fall for a decoy? Well, while you’re filling out a police report, we’ll be reading the product description:

Using super bright LEDs, the Fake TV Burglar Deterrent Device simulates the light and flickering of a real 27″ HDTV while consuming up to 50 times less power. From outside your home, this fake tv gives the illusion that someone’s inside, so burglars will go elsewhere…make sure the fake TV is not visible from outside.

Burglars will think that you’re home and not wealthy enough to afford a very large television. Most thieves want at least a 32″ TV screen. And, of course, leaving the decoy out of plain sight is probably a solid idea.

Sure, home security systems can keep your home safe, but they aren’t your only option. I’d much rather trust my home to a flickering light than a sophisticated monitoring system. Especially since someone could always just kick in your door.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.

Make a statement at the TSA checkpoint with metal-ink undies

by Grant Martin on

Tired of all of this business with patdowns, nude-o-scopes and grope-a-thons at the security checkpoint? Want to make a statement? Don’t want to strip down to your speedo to make that statement? Well then metal ink undergarments might be in your future.

Over at cargocollective.com, a series of undergarments are now on sale that use metal ink to print in their silk screening process. The ink looks and feels the same way that traditional materials do, but under an x-ray — well, they light up like a Christmas tree. This means that anyone viewing the passenger subjected to backscatter x-rays will see the metallic printing stand out.

In this case, that message is the fourth amendment, the part of the bill of rights “which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures when the searched party has a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’.”

A great way to make a statement? Definitely. Will they prevent your special parts from being seen by the x-ray? Absolutely not. But it’s a clever trick. Among the site’s offerings are t-shirts, socks and other undergarments ranging in price from $19 to $45.

[Via Erin Drewitz]

Passenger arrested after refusing TSA patdown

by Grant Martin on

A Texas woman on her way to Christmas festivites on the west coast will be staying in the Lone Star state this season, all due to a disagreement with the security officers at Austin-Bergstrom International airport. After opting out of security screening at the checkpoint this past week, Claire Hirschkind was pulled aside and prepared for a thorough pat down. She agreed to the procedure but only if the agents didn’t pat down her breasts — and that’s when things got out of hand.

Apparently one thing led to another and Ms. Hirschkind ended up on the floor in handcuffs then subsequently arrested.

While this KVUE story has a few more details on the affair it’s still not clear what led to Ms. Hirschkind’s arrest. A simple pat-down refusal shouldn’t land someone in handcuffs, so it’s possible that a misunderstanding or some heated words led to this disastrous result. Either way, this story provides more reason to tread lightly when going through the checkpoint this season.


“Gate rape” is Urban Dictionary’s Word of the Year. Thanks TSA!

by Sean McLachlan on


TSA patdowns have gotten a lot of coverage here on Gadling. The tragicomic lengths TSA officials go through to grab some booty keep us safe have created a whole Internet subculture of jokes and rage. There’s even a blog called The Daily Patdown to showcase pictures of security officials looking for the next underwear bomber.

Now the fine folks at Urban Dictionary have named “Gate Rape” as the Word of the Year for 2010. Nobody knows who coined this sadly appropriate phrase, but it’s catching on. For some reason people don’t liked getting groped, especially if they’re Indian diplomats. Perhaps we will be seeing civil and criminal suits for gate rape in the near future?

Urban Dictionary has lots of travel-related slang, such as Travel Nazi and Heather Poole’s greatest invention: Laviating!

Happy Christmahanakwanzaka everybody!

[Image courtesy TSA. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get it.]

TSA causes two international incidents by searching Indian diplomats

by Sean McLachlan on

It seems we common folk aren’t the only ones who find TSA‘s security checks intrusive. Transportation Security Administration officials have recently caused not one but two international incidents with India by searching diplomats.

India’s ambassador to the U.S. Meera Shankar got frisked at an airport on December 4. She was pulled out of the line because she had brown skin and was wearing a sari in a random search. When she revealed she was a diplomat, security officials were unimpressed and frisked her anyway.

Now it turns out this wasn’t the first incident, the BBC reports. Two weeks ago India’s UN envoy, Hardeep Puri , who is Sikh, was asked to remove his turban. Sikh men think it is immodest to remove their turbans in public. Once again, the diplomat mentioned his special status and was ignored. He was taken into a holding room so the turban could be checked for whatever it was the TSA thought he was hiding in there.

Hey, at least they didn’t have to go through a body scanner like Baywatch actress Donna D’Errico.