Word: contrabanding
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...crammed 300 religious pamphlets into the secret pockets of a custom-made vest. Then, from near midnight to the first glimmering of dawn, she and a posse of evangelists wandered down alleys in small-town China, stuffing mailboxes, bicycle baskets and window sills with their religious contraband. "When the people woke up the next morning," she says, "there was Jesus everywhere...
PATRICK LEAHY, Senator, D-Vt.: "When I was a teenager, I would have liked wallet copies of these scans. But today I know privacy is scarce, and I'd like to see the public draw a line against this becoming a matter of routine. Privacy should count even when contraband is the issue...
...Customs recently began installing airport-surveillance systems that scan travelers for contraband using low-power X-rays, which reveal the shape of a person's navel and other, more private parts. The scans are voluntary, so we asked a few privacy experts if they'd rather be patted down by a guard or ogled onscreen...
Travelers passing through the detector will feel a rush of air as a fan blows the plume--and the dead skin cells with it--into a particle separator, which is able to detect the presence of bombmaking materials and other contraband sticking to the skin. Though the invention is thus far being designed only to detect bombs, Settles says his portals could also be used to detect illegal narcotics, smuggled money and evidence of chemical or biological weapons...
This new flow of contraband south from Windsor began in the name of water conservation. In the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, passed in 1994, Congress mandated that toilets sold in the U.S. use no more than 1.6 gal. of water per flush--less than half the flow they had employed before. Soon, as Americans moved into spanking-new homes or replaced their cracked old gurglers with the swishy new models, they found themselves forced to flush and flush again--drowning the supposed benefits of water conservation. And then they had to go hunting for the plunger. Soon they wanted...