Los Angeles will soon begin to install clever body scanners that screen passengers for weapons and explosives.
(Los Angeles subway scanner)
The portable scanners project waves to do full-body screenings of passengers walking through a station without slowing them down.
They scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on a person's body, can detect suspicious items from 30 feet (nine metres) away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour.
Officials from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority would not say how many of the machines were being purchased, but said they would be rolled out in subway stations in the "coming months".
SF fans recall the security tunnels from the 1990 movie Total Recall, which was loosely based on Philip K. Dick/s 1966 short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.
Perching Ambush Drones
'On the chest of drawers something was perched.' - Philip K. Dick, 1956.
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Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
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'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'