The Transportation Security Administration uses something called millimeter wave technology for its full-body scanners at a growing number of U.S. airports including RDU's Terminal 2 ("RDU's new scanners see down to the skin").

It's hard to know just how explicitly the scan records the details of your sex, your surgical scars, and the rest of your body. You can certainly tell the boys from the girls.

One TSA official told USA Today: "You can actually see the sweat on someone's back."

Click the image above for a larger version of the low-rez sample photo provided by TSA.

Read the ACLU's take on body scanners and "virtual strip searches."

About 4,000 Triangle residents volunteered to help road-test new technology that might one day replace the gas tax with a mileage tax.

Two hundred were chosen. They're getting training now, and their cars are being fitted with GPS gizmos that will track their miles in North Carolina and in other states over the next eight months. 

They'll receive make-believe bills that show what they might pay if a mileage tax -- which could vary according to the type and weight of the vehicle -- were in effect.

"As we look toward the end of the gasoline tax as a stable revenue source, this is one of the possible technologies that could replace it,” said Paul Hanley of the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, which will conduct the study here and in five other states.

“The reaction so far from our participants is that they understand this, and they are eager to contribute to the public debate as to what comes after the gas tax.”

Rats. I was eager, too. And not just for that $895 bounty. But they didn't pick me.

If you're one of the GPS guinea pigs, I'd love to hear from you. 

A Nov. 20 citizens’ informational workshop in Raleigh will give you a chance to find out -- and speak out -- about NCDOT plans to remedy one of the Triangle’s worst bottlenecks.

NCDOT plans to add two lanes to the clogged four-lane stretch of Interstate 40 in west Raleigh between Wade Avenue (exit 289) and the interchange with I-440 and US 1/64 (exit 293).

The plan includes an extra lane for eastbound I-40 from Harrison Avenue in Cary (exit 287) to Wade Avenue.

Construction is to start in January 2010.

The workshop is scheduled Thursday, Nov. 20, 5-7 p.m. in the Ramada Inn ballroom, 1520 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh.

For more info, contact Leza Wright Mundt at NCDOT: 919 733 7844 ext. 244 or lwmundt@ncdot.gov.

The giddy plunge continues. Triangle drivers were paying way more than state and national average prices for gas a month ago, but since then we've been catching up -- or catching down.

The local average price for self-service regular has fallen $1.41 in the past month to $2.250. That puts us just a nickel north of the national price, which has fallen $1 during the same month. The last time we paid this little was in February 2007.

And that's just the average. It's pretty easy to find much lower prices.

I was content yesterday to pay $2.099 on I-85 in Alamance County (I invested in 10 gallons only), but that's nothing to brag about. The volunteer price spotters at raleighgasprices.com report that there are plenty of places in Wake County where you can pump to your heart's content for under $2.

Under $2? I don't know how much longer the price will continue this astonishing fall. But if it keeps this pace, the Triangle average price for regular will fall below $2 in the next week.

The last time we saw that was in March 2005.

Starting in January, biking to work could qualify you for a modest tax break (Road Worrier: "$700 billion plan offers tidbits to bike commuters").

The IRS has not yet announced rules for the addition of bicycling to what employers call qualified transportation fringe benefits programs. These programs already include (more genereous) tax breaks to defray employee costs for transit passes, vanpool fees and parking bills.

The League of American Bicyclists promises to post updates as details become available. Stay tuned.

Starting Monday afternoon, anonymous commenting will be disabled on the N&O blogs. This move will allow us to eliminate spam and make conversations on the blog move more quickly.

Under the old system, an N&O staffer must approve anonymous comments before they appear online. We simply didn't have the resources to have a full-time moderator.

If you would like to continue commenting on our blogs, please register at newsobserver.com. It's a quick and painless process.

If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail Rachel Carter.

An advisory committee is sifting through options for state and local taxes, fees and tolls to generate $10 billion in new road and transit money over the next decade.

Gov. Mike Easley and legislative leaders asked the 21st Century Transportation Committee, chaired by Brad Wilson of Raleigh, to recommend ways North Carolina can close a widening gap between shrinking revenues and growing needs for transportation.

Here are some ideas Wilson's committee might recommend to the 2009 General Assembly:

1. Collect a mileage tax. Check car odometers and charge one-quarter or one-half cent for each mile driven — $25 or $50 for every 10,000 miles. Good for $165 million to $330 million in yearly revenues. Trucks would pay more.

So far, this is a crude proposal that could end up charging North Carolinians for miles they drive in other states. The proposal suggests collecting this fee when odometers are checked at everyone's annual automobile inspection. . . .

Yesterday I ignored my own advice ("Full tank = dumb investment"). I filled up.

I'd been buying no more than 5 gallons at a time. With pump prices plunging, the cost of a 15-gallon fill-up was shrinking by $4 or $5 a week. And it still is.

But when that WilcoHess place up the street dropped the price to $2.239, I lost my self-control. I gorged.

Just last week, Triangle drivers were enjoying the lowest gas prices in 12 months. This week: the lowest in 20 months. . . .

Tim Sutton of Benson was not surprised to read that pedestrian death counts are on the upswing this year.

Sutton's job involves locating buried cables. He spends a lot of time walking along and across Triangle roadways.

Even with his bright orange vest, he gets less respect from drivers than your average gaggle of Canada geese. . . .

Look both ways before you vote tomorrow.

An Oct. 1 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association warns that you're about 18 percent more likely to die in traffic accidents on presidential election days than on other Tuesdays.

Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Toronto figured this out from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash statistics for every presidential E-day from 1976 (Jimmy Carter) through 2004 (George W.). And compared the stats for the Tuesdays preceding and following each election.

The Election Day effect strikes Republicans and Democrats, car riders and pedestrians, men and women evenly — and without regard to the outcome of the election itself. It has a bigger impact on traffic deaths than Super Bowl Sunday.

But why? . . .