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A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.

Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.

A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.

Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.

Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.

I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.

REMEMBER: Everyone is welcome at Zipolite.

ivan

Thursday, July 24, 2014

BLACKLISTED NEWS The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist By Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux23 Jul 2014, 2:45 PM EDT



Featured photo - The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist
The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.
The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place “entire categories” of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to “nominate” people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as “fragmentary information.” It also allows for dead people to be watchlisted.
Over the years, the Obama and Bush Administrations have fiercely resisted disclosing the criteria for placing names on the databases—though the guidelines are officially labeled as unclassified. In May, Attorney General Eric Holder even invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent watchlisting guidelines from being disclosed in litigation launched by an American who was on the no fly list. In an affidavit, Holder called them a “clear roadmap” to the government’s terrorist-tracking apparatus, adding: “The Watchlisting Guidance, although unclassified, contains national security information that, if disclosed … could cause significant harm to national security.”
The rulebook, which The Intercept is publishing in full, was developed behind closed doors by representatives of the nation’s intelligence, military, and law-enforcement establishment, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and FBI. Emblazoned with the crests of 19 agencies, it offers the most complete and revealing look into the secret history of the government’s terror list policies to date. It reveals a confounding and convoluted system filled with exceptions to its own rules, and it relies on the elastic concept of “reasonable suspicion” as a standard for determining whether someone is a possible threat. Because the government tracks “suspected terrorists” as well as “known terrorists,” individuals can be watchlisted if they are suspected of being a suspected terrorist, or if they are suspected of associating with people who are suspected of terrorism activity.
“Instead of a watchlist limited to actual, known terrorists, the government has built a vast system based on the unproven and flawed premise that it can predict if a person will commit a terrorist act in the future,” says Hina Shamsi, the head of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “On that dangerous theory, the government is secretly blacklisting people as suspected terrorists and giving them the impossible task of proving themselves innocent of a threat they haven’t carried out.” Shamsi, who reviewed the document, added, “These criteria should never have been kept secret.”
The document’s definition of “terrorist” activity includes actions that fall far short of bombing or hijacking. In addition to expected crimes, such as assassination or hostage-taking, the guidelines also define destruction of government property and damaging computers used by financial institutions as activities meriting placement on a list. They also define as terrorism any act that is “dangerous” to property and intended to influence government policy through intimidation.
This combination—a broad definition of what constitutes terrorism and a low threshold for designating someone a terrorist—opens the way to ensnaring innocent people in secret government dragnets. It can also be counterproductive. When resources are devoted to tracking people who are not genuine risks to national security, the actual threats get fewer resources—and might go unnoticed.
“If reasonable suspicion is the only standard you need to label somebody, then it’s a slippery slope we’re sliding down here, because then you can label anybody anything,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent with experience running high-profile terrorism investigations. “Because you appear on a telephone list of somebody doesn’t make you a terrorist. That’s the kind of information that gets put in there.”
The fallout is personal too. There are severe consequences for people unfairly labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government, which shares its watchlist data with local law enforcement, foreign governments, and “private entities.” Once the U.S. government secretly labels you a terrorist or terrorist suspect, other institutions tend to treat you as one. It can become difficult to get a job (or simply to stay out of jail). It can become burdensome—or impossible—to travel. And routine encounters with law enforcement can turn into ordeals.
nomination_chart
A chart from the “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance”
In 2012 Tim Healy, the former director of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, described to CBS News how watchlists are used by police officers. “So if you are speeding, you get pulled over, they’ll query that name,” he said. “And if they are encountering a known or suspected terrorist, it will pop up and say call the Terrorist Screening Center…. So now the officer on the street knows he may be dealing with a known or suspected terrorist.” Of course, the problem is that the “known or suspected terrorist” might just be an ordinary citizen who should not be treated as a menace to public safety.
Until 2001, the government did not prioritize building a watchlist system. On 9/11, the government’s list of people barred from flying included just 16 names. Today, the no fly list has swelled to tens of thousands of “known or suspected terrorists” (the guidelines refer to them as KSTs). The selectee list subjects people to extra scrutiny and questioning at airports and border crossings. The government has created several other databases, too. The largest is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), which gathers terrorism information from sensitive military and intelligence sources around the world. Because it contains classified information that cannot be widely distributed, there is yet another list, the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, which has been stripped of TIDE’s classified data so that it can be shared. When government officials refer to “the watchlist,” they are typically referring to the TSDB. (TIDE is the responsibility of the National Counterterrorism Center; the TSDB is managed by the Terrorist Screening Center at the FBI.)
In a statement, a spokesman for the National Counterterrorism Center told The Intercept that “the watchlisting system is an important part of our layered defense to protect the United States against future terrorist attacks” and that “watchlisting continues to mature to meet an evolving, diffuse threat.” He added that U.S. citizens are afforded extra protections to guard against improper listing, and that no one can be placed on a list solely for activities protected by the First Amendment. A representative of the Terrorist Screening Center did not respond to a request for comment.
The system has been criticized for years. In 2004, Sen. Ted Kennedy complained that he was barred from boarding flights on five separate occasions because his name resembled the alias of a suspected terrorist. Two years later, CBS News obtained a copy of the no fly list and reported that it included Bolivian president Evo Morales and Lebanese parliament head Nabih Berri. One of the watchlists snared Mikey Hicks, a Cub Scout who got his first of many airport pat-downs at age two. In 2007, the Justice Department’s inspector general issued a scathing report identifying “significant weaknesses” in the system. And in 2009, after a Nigerian terrorist was able to board a passenger flight to Detroit and nearly detonated a bomb sewn into his underwear despite his name having been placed on the TIDE list, President Obama admitted that there had been a “systemic failure.”
Obama hoped that his response to the “underwear bomber” would be a turning point. In 2010, he gave increased powers and responsibilities to the agencies that nominate individuals to the lists, placing pressure on them to add names. His administration also issued a set of new guidelines for the watchlists. Problems persisted, however. In 2012, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report that bluntly noted there was no agency responsible for figuring out “whether watchlist-related screening or vetting is achieving intended results.” The guidelines were revised and expanded in 2013—and a source within the intelligence community subsequently provided a copy to The Intercept.
tbu2

“Concrete facts are not necessary”

The five chapters and 11 appendices of the “Watchlisting Guidance” are filled with acronyms, legal citations, and numbered paragraphs; it reads like an arcane textbook with a vocabulary all its own. Different types of data on suspected terrorists are referred to as “derogatory information,” “substantive derogatory information,” “extreme derogatory information” and “particularized derogatory information.” The names of suspected terrorists are passed along a bureaucratic ecosystem of “originators,” “nominators,” “aggregators,” “screeners,” and “encountering agencies.” And “upgrade,” usually a happy word for travellers, is repurposed to mean that an individual has been placed on a more restrictive list.
The heart of the document revolves around the rules for placing individuals on a watchlist. “All executive departments and agencies,” the document says, are responsible for collecting and sharing information on terrorist suspects with the National Counterterrorism Center. It sets a low standard—”reasonable suspicion“—for placing names on the watchlists, and offers a multitude of vague, confusing, or contradictory instructions for gauging it. In the chapter on “Minimum Substantive Derogatory Criteria”—even the title is hard to digest—the key sentence on reasonable suspicion offers little clarity:
“To meet the REASONABLE SUSPICION standard, the NOMINATOR, based on the totality of the circumstances, must rely upon articulable intelligence or information which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrants a determination that an individual is known or suspected to be or has been knowingly engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to TERRORISM and/or TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.”
The rulebook makes no effort to define an essential phrase in the passage—”articulable intelligence or information.” After stressing that hunches are not reasonable suspicion and that “there must be an objective factual basis” for labeling someone a terrorist, it goes on to state that no actual facts are required:
“In determining whether a REASONABLE SUSPICION exists, due weight should be given to the specific reasonable inferences that a NOMINATOR is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his/her experience and not on unfounded suspicions or hunches. Although irrefutable evidence or concrete facts are not necessary, to be reasonable, suspicion should be as clear and as fully developed as circumstances permit.”
While the guidelines nominally prohibit nominations based on unreliable information, they explicitly regard “uncorroborated” Facebook or Twitter posts as sufficient grounds for putting an individual on one of the watchlists. “Single source information,” the guidelines state, “including but not limited to ‘walk-in,’ ‘write-in,’ or postings on social media sites, however, should not automatically be discounted … the NOMINATING AGENCY should evaluate the credibility of the source, as well as the nature and specificity of the information, and nominate even if that source is uncorroborated.”
There are a number of loopholes for putting people onto the watchlists even if reasonable suspicion cannot be met.
One is clearly defined: The immediate family of suspected terrorists—their spouses, children, parents, or siblings—may be watchlisted without any suspicion that they themselves are engaged in terrorist activity. But another loophole is quite broad—”associates” who have a defined relationship with a suspected terrorist, but whose involvement in terrorist activity is not known. A third loophole is broader still—individuals with “a possible nexus” to terrorism, but for whom there is not enough “derogatory information” to meet the reasonable suspicion standard.
Americans and foreigners can be nominated for the watchlists if they are associated with a terrorist group, even if that group has not been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. They can also be treated as “representatives” of a terrorist group even if they have “neither membership in nor association with the organization.” The guidelines do helpfully note that certain associations, such as providing janitorial services or delivering packages, are not grounds for being watchlisted.
The nomination system appears to lack meaningful checks and balances. Although government officials have repeatedly said there is a rigorous process for making sure no one is unfairly placed in the databases, the guidelines acknowledge that all nominations of “known terrorists” are considered justified unless the National Counterterrorism Center has evidence to the contrary. In a recent court filing, the government disclosed that there were 468,749 KST nominations in 2013, of which only 4,915 were rejected–a rate of about one percent. The rulebook appears to invert the legal principle of due process, defining nominations as “presumptively valid.”

Massive - Live Set

Dance Classics - The Remixes - Volume 5

Instrumental Music Playlist-Piano,Violins & Trap Beats

Monday, July 21, 2014

Queen - Stone Cold Crazy (Live at the Rainbow) ... Hello All. My first wake up in Fairbanks, Alaska at Billies Backpacker Hostel. 48 F. or 9 degrees C this chilly morning. No smoke from the forest fires. Quiet out here at Billies. Weather report states that it should reach 71 Degrees F today. That will be nice. I am planning my week. Head to the Arctic Circle Tuesday morning. Will stay over one night. Will return to Fairbanks Wednesday evening. I forgot my wind breaker at home in Grand Coulee. So I am going to go on a 2.1 mile hike to Walmart, or Fred Meyer and pick one up. If I walk fast enough I should stay warm I like this new smart (Blu 5.0) phone. GPS looks like it works good so I shouldn't get lost. Not many hills here in Fairbanks. Billie advertises that she has bikes one can use, so I might check that out later in the week. See ya all. I will share some of my pics later today. Give me a call if you would like. (509) 634-1321. Here is one of Billies' Pugs :) ivan PS: The sun set at about ll:30pm ... but it never really got dark all night. Freaky!




Hello All.

My first wake up in Fairbanks, Alaska at Billies Backpacker Hostel.  48 F. or 9 degrees C this chilly morning.  No smoke from the forest fires.  Quiet out here at Billies.  Weather report states that it should reach 71 Degrees F today.  That will be nice.



I am planning my week.  Head to the Arctic Circle  Tuesday morning.  Will stay over one night.  Will return to Fairbanks Wednesday evening.

I forgot my wind breaker at home in Grand Coulee.  So I am going to go on a 2.1 mile hike to Walmart, or Fred Meyer and pick one up.  If I walk fast enough I should stay warm

I like this new smart (Blu 5.0) phone.  GPS looks like it works good so I shouldn't get lost.  Not many hills here in Fairbanks.  Billie advertises that she has bikes one can use, so I might check that out later in the week.

See ya all.  I will share some of my pics later today.

Give me a call if you would like.  (509) 634-1321.


Here is one of Billies' Pugs



:)

ivan

PS:  The sun set at about ll:30pm ... but it never really got dark all night.  Freaky!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Zipolite and Mazunte: Nudies, yoga, and sun howthisgirltravels / March 16, 2013 Zipolite and Mazunte in a Nutshell



http://howthisgirltravels.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/zipolite-and-mazunte/


Zipolite and Mazunte: Nudies, yoga, and sun

Zipolite and Mazunte in a Nutshell
Zipolite and Mazunte are two beach towns in Mexico’s state of Oaxaca and are located about 10 minutes apart, by car. Zipolite is known for being one of Mexico’s only clothing optional (i.e. nude) beaches. Meanwhile, Mazunte is home to the National Mexican Turtle Centre, and apparently turtles like its beaches as a nesting ground (however, ít wasn’t the season when I went in February).
Sunrise at Playa Zipolite
Sunrise at Playa Zipolite
Getting There
While I was freezing my ass off in San Cristobal de las Casas, my friend Toya suggested that I meet her in Zipolite. The idea of a nude beach frightened me slightly (will I have to go COMPLETELY naked? will I be grossed out by the sight of naked people - thin, fat, and everything in between?), but the word “beach” alone was enough to lure me. An overnight bus from Tuxtla Gutierrez got me to Pochutla, Oaxaca for about $320 MXC. From Pochutla, I took my first ride on the back of a camionetta (modified pick-up truck) for $10 MXC to get to Zipolite.
By the way, I thought I was being smart by trying to take combi’s – collective vans - all the way from San Cristobal de Las Casas to Pochutla. My logic being that I made it from Palenque to San Cris in combi’s for a bargain. Nope! Made it as far as Tuxtla Gutierrez, where I was disappointed to find out that the only way to go on was by bus… and that I would have to wait hours and hours in a city where there’s not much to do or see (actually, there’s a really great zoo, which of course happened to be closed on the day I went). Moral of the story: ask around before you try to get somewhere far in a combi!
Accomodations
On my arrival to Zipolite, a German couple pointed me towards Shambhala as a chill place to stay. Shambhala is a spiritual centre with dorms, rooms, and cabanas, as well as a meditation centre on top of a hill. With dorms at $120 MXC, it was a bit pricier than other locations in town, but the moment I saw the view of the beach from the dorm room, I had to stay.
The story behind Shambhala is that the lady who owns it (Gloria) was one of the first Americans to take advantage of the area’s beauty. Back in the hippy days, the police would give shit to the nudies, and she would sound a horn when she saw the police coming in order to warn people that they should clothe themselves, pronto. In a way, she is responsible for making Zipolite what it is today. However, a few years ago a hurricane did some serious damage to her property. Thanks to a volunteer named Dan, I signed up to help bring life to Shambhala by selling some beers on the beach and making signs, in exchange for a free place to stay.
View from Shamblaha dorms
View from Shamblaha dorms
Shamblaha
Shamblaha
Making some signs to bring life to Shambhala
Making some signs to bring life to Shambhala
The Scene
I dropped off my bags in the dorm rooms of Shabhala at 8:30 am. By 10 am, I had given my first attempt at surfing and seen way more more old-man penis than I was hoping for. The days consisted of early-morning swims, followed by a bit of work, cooking dinner, and a party on occasion. Zipolite doesn’t have too much of a night life, but one night we attended a trance party on the beach (not my type of music, btw).
Getting ready to fiesta at Zipolite
Getting ready to fiesta at Zipolite
In the evenings, the main street of Zipolite was lined with artists selling their goods. My favourite was a dude who made necklace charms by cutting the negative space out of coins from all over the world.
Artist who makes charms out of coins at Zipolite
Artist who makes charms out of coins at Zipolite
Artist who makes charms out of coins at Zipolite
Artist who makes charms out of coins at Zipolite
One more thing about Zipolite: the main beach is knows as La Playa de los Muertos (The Beach of the Dead). If that wasn’t creepy enough, two days before my arrival somebody drowned just meters away from where I was staying. To add to the scare factor, during my week-long stay, I saw a dead parrot, two dead fish (one blowfish and one small tuna), and a dead meter-long turtle on the beach. Right. Playa de los Muertos.
Mazunte is a short ride away by camionetta (at $6 MXC), and has some beautiful beaches as well.
Rocky shore near Mazunte
Rocky shore near Mazunte
Beach near Mazunte
Beach near Mazunte
Art at Mazunte
Art at Mazunte
When we passed by Mazunte, a circus festival was happening. Workshops were being offered in juggling and other circus skills
Mazunte circus workshop
Mazunte circus workshop
I had a chance to see the work of an artist named Jean-Charles Vignal, who has a travel blog at Petit JC en Amerique (in French).
Jean-Charles Vignal and his art
Jean-Charles Vignal and his art
Art by Jean-Charles Vignal
Art by Jean-Charles Vignal
In Mazunte, a lady was selling fresh fish at three for $10 MXC.
Fresh fish for sale at Mazunte
Fresh fish for sale at Mazunte
Comida y Bebida (Food and Drink)
My days at Zipolite usually involved orange juice, coconuts in one form or another, and coconut ice cream (the best).
Coconut on the beach at Zipolite
Coconut on the beach at Zipolite
Zipolite lacked economic food options. As a result, we took advantage of the fire grill outside our (temporary) home. My friend Toya made a great chef on the grill (check out her blog - Breakfast in Montreal)!
Toya cooking at Shambhala
Toya cooking  meat and veggies at Shambhala
Breakfast crepes with veggies on the grill at Shambhala
Breakfast crepes with veggies on the grill at Shambhala
Still, one of my Zipolite food highlights was sharing a shrimp omlette and strawberry smoothie at a hotel called Nude.
Shrimp omlette and strawberry smoothie at Nude (Zipolite)
Shrimp omlette and strawberry smoothie at Nude (Zipolite)
One affordable food option at Zipolite was sopes (a form of tortillas with beans and cheese) for $5 MXC each.
Sopes at Zipolite
Sopes at Zipolite
At Oralel Cafe, owned by a Quebecois dude, I had some amazing Aztec soup (broth with avocado, cheese, and tortilla chips, $45 MXC) with the best coffee in town ($20 MXC, Americano with milk).
Oralel Cafe
Oralel Cafe
Aztec soup at Cafe Oralel, Zipolite
Aztec soup at Cafe Oralel, Zipolite
At Pochutla, I had the best meal that $10 MXC will buy – a doblada with pollo con salsa roja (chicken in red sauce) and rajas con crema (chile peppers with cream). They also had a bunch of other fillings to choose from!
Doblada stand at Pochutla
Doblada stand at Pochutla

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Mexico, Map


1 Hour of Soothing Nature Sounds in HD-Relaxing Sound of Water and Birdsong-Meditation

Strange Things Found by Airport Security rss link Airfarewatchblog

Strange Things Found by Airport Security

rss link Airfarewatchblog


Strange Things Found by Airport Security

Posted by Caroline Morse on Wednesday, July 16, 2014

(Photo: Getty Images/E+)
Don't feel bad about forgetting to toss your bottled water before the airport security checkpoint. That's nothing compared to what some of your fellow travelers have been up to. You won't believe these 10 bizarre things found by airport security. And you might learn a thing or two about what you can't bring on board a flight, too.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
Human-Skull Fragments
Carefully check your vacation purchases before heading to the airport. You never know when they may end up containing human-skull fragments. Passengers in Ft. Lauderdale were seriously delayed in 2013 when the clay pots they'd checked in their luggage were found to contain fragments of human skull. According to the TSA, the flyers claimed they didn't realize that their souvenirs came with bonus body parts inside. The pieces weren't considered a security threat by the TSA but were instead treated as evidence in a crime scene.

(Photo: Thinkstock/Image Work/amanaimagesRF)
Flames
Nobody ever intends to pack fire (we hope), but you could accidentally start one in your luggage if you pack the wrong stuff. Take, for example, this incident in Atlantic City, when a flyer's checked bag exploded into three-foot-high flames. The fire was caused by a combination of a leaking can of hair spray and a lighter, which sparked when the bag was being loaded onto the conveyor belt. Even if you're not packing a lighter, it's a good idea to stow all liquids and aerosols (like hair spray) in a plastic bag in case of leaks.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
A Dead Body
Come on, people, Weekend at Bernie's is a comedy, not a great source of inspiration to help you avoid paying extra to transport a corpse. We're shocked at how many people have tried to pass off a body as a "sleeping" passenger, like the family that tried to haul a dead body through airport security in a wheelchair in order to avoid paying a fee, or the mother-and-daughter team that tried to smuggle a 91-year-old dead man onto a flight by putting him in sunglasses and dumping him in a wheelchair.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
Cannonball
Did you know that cannonballs can retain their explosiveness for years and then randomly detonate on their own? Neither did we, but we still wouldn't pack them in our luggage. (Think of the overweight fees alone.) And, unfortunately for the 290 passengers who were delayed at Ft. Lauderdale International Airport in 2012, neither did the diver who tried to bring home an old cannonball he found near a shipwreck.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
240 Live Fish
Hey, we're not here to judge—maybe you went on an amazing snorkeling vacation and were overwhelmed with the urge to start your own aquarium. And maybe you couldn't wait to get home to buy your new pets. That's fine. Most airlines will actually let you ship your new fishy friends home via cargo. But don't be that guy who decides to transport 240 fish in four large hard-sided suitcases—suitcases filled with nothing but water and fish.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
Boomerangs
G'day, mate! Bringing home a boomerang as a souvenir from Australia? You can carry it on Australian flights, but once aboard your U.S.-bound plane, you'll need to transfer that boomerang to your checked baggage. It's considered a deadly weapon stateside. Airport security has confiscated boomerangs in the past, so you'd better check it.

(Photo: Hotel Particulier Montmartre)
Venomous Snakes
We bet the writers of The TSA Blog get some super-weird comments (maybe even weirder than the comments we get here)—which is probably what prompted this update to a story: "A container of dead venomous snakes was found in checked baggage at Newark (EWR). Updated 3/3/12 to add that dead snakes are not prohibited. The snakes were permitted to travel. The large liquid jar holding the snakes needed to be inspected due to an explosive-detection system alarm. No dead snakes were harmed during the making of this post. We just took advantage of the photo op." So take note, travelers. You can totally pack your dead snakes, just be careful if you store them in liquid.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
18 Severed Heads
Packing 18 severed heads in your luggage? Not a problem, as long as you have the right paperwork. Packing 18 severed heads in your luggage and then losing them? Totally a problem. In 2013, some misplaced human craniums made, um,headlines when they were misplaced at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. (They were medical specimens, and there was a mix-up with some paperwork.)
Security kept a cool head about the incident, though. As Brian Bell, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman, told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Everybody here is, 'Oh my gosh, you got a box of heads,' and everybody thinks that it's unheard of. It is a potentially legitimate medical shipment. We've seen it at various ports in the nation."

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
A Baby
Parents: Please do not put your baby through an X-ray scanner. Airport security will probably notice that there is a living human inside there. One couple was busted at an airport in the United Arab Emirates when they tried to smuggle their young son (who did not have a visa) into the country by packing him inside a carry-on bag. Unsurprisingly, the jig was upwhen officials spotted the boy on X-ray.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStock)
Samurai Sword
Remember, people: If you're in doubt about what you can bring on board a plane, you can always go to the TSA'swebsite or mobile app and use the "Can I Bring?" feature. Simply type in whatever you're wondering about and you'll get an immediate answer. This would have saved the person who tried to take a samurai sword aboard a plane at Boston's Logan International Airport earlier this month a lot of hassle.