Speaker 1: Welcome to How Stuff Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,
Speaker 1: a researcher and writer, here at How Stuff Works every
Speaker 1: week and bringing you three stories from our team about
Speaker 1: the weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology,
Speaker 1: and culture. This week, we look for answers to three questions,
Speaker 1: might circular airport runways provide the best way to fly?
Speaker 1: And unrelated, when you scatter someone's ashes? Are you actually littering?
Speaker 1: But first, our senior editor Katherine Whitburne, along with freelance
Speaker 1: writer Patrick Jake Tiger, explore one that ties into the
Speaker 1: enhanced security being practiced at airports these days. If you
Speaker 1: check your electronic devices on a flight, will your data
Speaker 1: be searched? When you check your luggage in a US airport,
Speaker 1: you're technically allowing the Transportation Security Administration to search your bags. Yes,
Speaker 1: they can do that. But here's the other privacy question.
Speaker 1: Can the t S A search the data inside an
Speaker 1: electronic device they find in your suitcase? Back in March,
Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security announced what it called an
Speaker 1: aviation security enhancement for travelers coming to the US from
Speaker 1: ten airports in eight Muslim majority countries. People on these
Speaker 1: flights can no longer bring electronic devices bigger than a
Speaker 1: smartphone as carry on items in the plane's main cabin.
Speaker 1: That means laptop, computers, tablets, and other devices have to
Speaker 1: be checked as baggage. Homeland Security hasn't said exactly what
Speaker 1: terrorist threat led to the change in policy, but some
Speaker 1: travelers warned that the laptop rule might have a hidden
Speaker 1: purpose to separate travelers from their devices so that someone
Speaker 1: can access them or even install tracking software or malware
Speaker 1: in them. A spokesperson for the t s A says
Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security is not using this new
Speaker 1: measure to look at anyone's data. She also points out
Speaker 1: that neither Homeland Security nor the t s A has
Speaker 1: staff screening baggage in foreign airports. Even so, there's something
Speaker 1: else to consider once travelers arrive on US, so all
Speaker 1: of the devices they bring along, including their laptops, smartphones,
Speaker 1: and tablets, are subject to search by officials from u
Speaker 1: S Customs and Border Protection, which is a branch of
Speaker 1: Homeland Security. The American Civil Liberties Union looked into the issue,
Speaker 1: and they say customs agents can ask travelers for their
Speaker 1: passwords and tours from other countries must comply, or else
Speaker 1: they can't come into the US. American citizens don't face
Speaker 1: that risk, but they can still be temporarily detained, and
Speaker 1: agents can take away their devices and hold them for months.
Speaker 1: This is a growing problem. According to Homeland Security, the
Speaker 1: number of cell phone searches by border agents has mushroomed
Speaker 1: from five thousand and twenty fifteen to twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty sixteen, and it looks like twenty seventeen will
Speaker 1: break that record easily. Five thousand devices were searched in
Speaker 1: February alone, more than in all of so far, federal
Speaker 1: courts have found that government searches at ports of entry
Speaker 1: don't violate the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure,
Speaker 1: but the courts have imposed a fuel limitation. In twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rule that agents can
Speaker 1: give your phone or laptop a brief look without having
Speaker 1: to justify themselves, but they need to have reasonable suspicion
Speaker 1: that you've committed a crime to conduct a heavy duty
Speaker 1: forensic search, which might include searching meta data for files
Speaker 1: or restoring files that have been deleted. But the A. C. L.
Speaker 1: You argues that those powers will still give agents too
Speaker 1: much leeway because even a quick search can turn up
Speaker 1: a lot of sensitive information. To combat that, Democratic Senator
Speaker 1: Ron Widen and Republican Senator Round Paul are introducing a
Speaker 1: law that would require agents to get a warrant before
Speaker 1: looking through the contents of American citizens electronic devices. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, the a c L YOU advise the travelers
Speaker 1: to take us few devices and as little personal data
Speaker 1: with them as possible when they're coming to the US. Also,
Speaker 1: if you're curious about how anyone can best protect their
Speaker 1: devices and data while flying, search for the Electronic Frontier
Speaker 1: Foundations Guide for Travelers. They are another privacy advocacy group,
Speaker 1: and it's a good guide. Next Step Stuff editor Christopher
Speaker 1: Hasiotis and our freelancer Jescelyn Shields dig into Oh No,
Speaker 1: that's terrible. They explore the emotionally and legally complex burial
Speaker 1: tradition of scattering ashes. Somebody you love dies and it's awful.
Speaker 1: What's worse, sometimes you're even put in charge of figuring
Speaker 1: out how to deal with their remains. It's sad, it's stressful,
Speaker 1: it's a huge responsibility, and it's unfortunately complicated. Case in point,
Speaker 1: even if you're departed chose to have their remains cremated
Speaker 1: and scattered in a special place they loved in life,
Speaker 1: there are laws regulating where you can dump out and
Speaker 1: urn full of human ashes. Of course, most people don't
Speaker 1: know this or even consider the laws when dealing with
Speaker 1: something so personal, because the popularity of cremation is relatively
Speaker 1: new and the laws aren't often enforced. The laws about
Speaker 1: getting rid of ashes aren't as widely known and respected as, say,
Speaker 1: traffic laws, but more people are choosing cremation all the time.
Speaker 1: According to the Cremation Association of North America, in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight, fewer than four percent of Americans chose to
Speaker 1: be cremated, but that number is expected to be around
Speaker 1: fifty by the year two thousand eighteen. For centuries, cremation
Speaker 1: wasn't really done in Western countries because many churches believe
Speaker 1: it conflicted with religious doctrine. The Catholic Church, for instance,
Speaker 1: prohibited cremation until nineteen sixty three. These days, the Vatican
Speaker 1: allows it under most circumstances, but still insists the ashes
Speaker 1: be buried, not scattered. But many people ask that their
Speaker 1: ashes be scattered in a place they loved after death.
Speaker 1: And while there's a greater amount of human bone ash
Speaker 1: being scattered around than ever before, it doesn't occur to
Speaker 1: most of us that pouring Grandpa's ashes in his favorite
Speaker 1: fishing river could be illegal, which it is. Although no
Speaker 1: enforcement agency exists in the United States to ride around
Speaker 1: busting people, most states do have their own scattering laws,
Speaker 1: the particulars of which can vary wildly, and some federal
Speaker 1: laws take press sentence over those state laws. For instance,
Speaker 1: even though the state of Texas says you can scatter
Speaker 1: ashes in a public waterway, the Federal Clean Water Act
Speaker 1: prohibits scattering human ashes into freshwater bodies like lakes, rivers,
Speaker 1: and streams, though in most cases it's possible to obtain
Speaker 1: permits from both the federal and state agency. And although
Speaker 1: you can get a permit from the U. S Environmental
Speaker 1: Protection Agency for a burial at sea, you still have
Speaker 1: to scatter the ashes at least three in nautical miles,
Speaker 1: which is three point five miles or five point six
Speaker 1: kilometers from the shore. Federal law also prohibits tossing an
Speaker 1: urn full of ashes out of an airplane or helicopter,
Speaker 1: but that's because it could hurt someone on the ground.
Speaker 1: You also can't trespass onto anyone's property in order to
Speaker 1: scatter ashes there unless you have written permission from the landowner,
Speaker 1: although that's a trespassing violation that would apply regardless of
Speaker 1: why you're on that property. And if you're looking to
Speaker 1: unload your loved one's ashes on public land a national park,
Speaker 1: say for someone who loved the Grand Canyon or Point
Speaker 1: Doom State Park in Malibu, California, as in an iconic
Speaker 1: scene from the ninete classic The Big Lebowski, you have
Speaker 1: to obtain permission from the park beforehand. These days, though,
Speaker 1: reducing a person into a jar full of ashes to
Speaker 1: be disposed of doesn't have to be the end of
Speaker 1: the line. For instance, the Neptune Society, the largest cremation
Speaker 1: provider in the US, owns a reef off the coast
Speaker 1: of Florida that they've turned into an underwater mausoleum. There,
Speaker 1: people's cremated remains have been turned into concrete sculptures that
Speaker 1: provide habitat for sea life. Jeff stab president of Cremation Solutions,
Speaker 1: a Vermont based company that sells memorial earns and creates
Speaker 1: keepsakes and jewelry out of Ashes. Started his company in
Speaker 1: two thousand six to provide people with information about scattering
Speaker 1: and options for crafting ashes into meaningful objects. Stab says,
Speaker 1: so many people are afraid to scatter because they don't
Speaker 1: know what the laws are and their loved one ends
Speaker 1: up in an urn in the closet or in the attic.
Speaker 1: People aren't sure how to do it, and it interferes
Speaker 1: with the healing process. Other companies are getting creative too,
Speaker 1: and will transform cremines into coffee cups. For instance, Stobs
Speaker 1: firm cells, biodegradable earns that dissolving water, earns that can
Speaker 1: be converted into bird houses after the ashes are scattered
Speaker 1: urns that can be planted with a tree, and even
Speaker 1: the popular loved One launcher, a handheld ash scattering cannon,
Speaker 1: says Stob. People just load one of these things up
Speaker 1: with the ashes, confetti and streamers, and we'll even do
Speaker 1: it at an event with people toasting champagne. They'll blast
Speaker 1: the ashes off a cliff or even right over the
Speaker 1: whole crowd and everybody gets anointed. Well, there's another thing
Speaker 1: to remember to inquire about at a memorial service. On
Speaker 1: top of donations, flowers and dress code. What's the polight
Speaker 1: way to ask? Uh? Just wondering are the cremated remains
Speaker 1: of the deceased going to be launched into the crowd? Finally,
Speaker 1: this week, our video producer Ramsey Youunt and freelance writer
Speaker 1: Patrick Jake Higer again have a lighter one for us
Speaker 1: about the future of air trap. Will circular airport runways
Speaker 1: ever take off? We're accustomed to the idea of airplanes
Speaker 1: taking off from and landing on long, flat strips of pavement,
Speaker 1: but a consortium of European aviation researchers who are behind
Speaker 1: the Endless Brundaway project wants to change that. The group
Speaker 1: envisions the airport of the future as having a terminal
Speaker 1: in the middle and spokes leading to a circular runway
Speaker 1: that is two point two miles or three and a
Speaker 1: half kilometers in diameter and has a bank surface, sort
Speaker 1: of like a racetrack. Proponents of circular runways argue that
Speaker 1: as such a space saving configuration would reduce the amount
Speaker 1: of land needed for aviation, which potentially might free up
Speaker 1: valuable real estate for other uses. They say it would
Speaker 1: be more efficient since up to three aircraft could take
Speaker 1: off or land on a circular runway at any time,
Speaker 1: and that it can handle overall four times in the
Speaker 1: traffic of a regular runway. Hank Hatlink, a researcher for
Speaker 1: the Netherlands Aerospace Center, also proposed that would be safer
Speaker 1: in a recent BBC News interview. He said that because
Speaker 1: aircraft could take off and land from any point in
Speaker 1: the circle, that could avoid tricky cross winds and capitalize
Speaker 1: on headwinds. Additionally, circular runways could eliminate those rough roller
Speaker 1: coaster like takeoffs. Histlink told the BBC that passengers would
Speaker 1: experience a sensation similar to when the aircraft makes a
Speaker 1: turn in the air. Because of centrifugical force, the aircraft
Speaker 1: would move at a slower speed during takeoff. So far,
Speaker 1: the endless runway has only been tested in simulations, but
Speaker 1: the idea has prompted a lot of debate. Other experts
Speaker 1: have weighed in opposing the idea, citing reasons from traction
Speaker 1: to visibility issues and shifting winds. Also, a curved runway
Speaker 1: will add extra steps and landing, so season pilots will
Speaker 1: have to be trained to land tilted to ensure safety
Speaker 1: of their passengers. That's our show for this week. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for tuning in. Further thanks to our
Speaker 1: audio producer Dylan Fagan and our editorial Liaison's Christopher Hasiotis
Speaker 1: and Alison louder Milk. Subscribe to now Now for more
Speaker 1: of the latest science news and send us links to
Speaker 1: anything you'd like to hear us cover. Plus, Hey, do
Speaker 1: you have any toys from childhood that you've hung onto
Speaker 1: or even repurchased? I'm staring at an action figure of
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