Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Dep't of Homeland Insecurity:

As airports in Europe pump up their orders for full-body scanners that might have helped catch the man who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas, experts warn the expensive machines could break child protection laws in England.
Some claim the images captured by the machines are graphic enough to break the law that bans the creation of indecent images of children. The government might have to end up exempting those under 18 from passing through the scanner if it wants to start using the machines as quickly as possible.
Editor's note: If a government employee gets a thrill out of seeing child images from a full body scanner, maybe the government made a bad hiring choice and should do a better job of screening applicants instead of passengers. (Maiman)

Another scare-story yesterday at a California airport. CNN reports TSA agents at Bakersfield airport routinely swabbed a guy's bag, which tested positive for the explosives TNT and triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP.
That put everyone's panties in a wad, and they hustled the 31-year-old passenger off to be screened... only to find that the guy simply had five bottles of honey in his luggage which he was taking home.
By then, the Meadows Field Airport had been evacuated and shut down for several hours. The guy wasn't charged and the airport was reopened and he was sent on his way.
Editor's note: Must have been in Terminal B (bee... honey... get it?!! Marino)

The Internet:

Another warning that what you post on Facebook could come back and haunt you: a new study reported in the London Telegraph says there's an increasing number of divorce filings --as many as one in five-- that cite Facebook as one of the driving forces behind the split.
   MARK KEENAN, Managing Director of Divorce-Online, said: "The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to."
   Those reasons include everything from a husband having an online affair to a woman finding out that her marriage had ended after reading her husband's relationship status update. EMMA BRADY was distraught to read that her marriage was over when he updated his status on the site to read: "NEIL BRADY has ended his marriage to Emma Brady."
   The Telegraph also cites the case of 28-year-old AMY TAYLOR, who split from husband DAVID POLLARD after discovering he was sleeping with an escort in the game Second Life, a virtual world where people reinvent themselves.

Trash talk and satellite dish:

RIHANNA's new boyfriend is a baseball player. People magazine says she's been hanging out in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with 25-year-old outfielder MATT KEMP of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The fun couple reportedly met back in November and since then, have just had a handful of opportunities to be together, but celebrated the New Year down South --even though it appeared RiRi was on TV during New Year's Eve. That appearance was taped several weeks ago.

Wasted away again in Margaritaville:

Did you hear about the United Airlines pilot who tried to fly a plane while he was drunk?
   According to the Sun, 51-year-old ERWIN WASHINGTON was scheduled to fly a passenger jet from London's Heathrow Airport to Chicago with 124 passengers on-board.
   According to court records, one of Washington's co-workers smelled booze on his breath and reported it to authorities. A breath-test showed he was 3-times over the legal limit.
   Washington pleaded guilty in a London court yesterday Tuesday). He is scheduled to be sentenced next month. (Still)