Since 9/11, a slew of pundits have suggested that airports install biometric sensors, such as retinal or fingerprint scanners, at check-in counters, security checkpoints or boarding gates. Perhaps they’ll want to narrow that suggestion to just retinal scanners, as a Japanese scientist has recently determined a way to make gummy fingers from lifted fingerprints that fool fingerprint scanners over 80% of the time. Worse, the process can be done with less than $10 of materials and equipment found in an average kitchen.

At times like these, I’m oh so glad I live in perhaps the US’s most likely bombing target, half a block from the United Nations and sandwiched between a number of controversial embassies.