Well, this data from the state Health Department has certainly made us terrified of ever getting invasive surgery. In 2008 and 2009, New York surgeons left 292 foreign objects inside patients, a 12 percent increase from 2006 and 2007. Nationwide, it happens about 3,000 times a year. But it's OK, because doctors are now utilizing the advanced technology of metal detecting to figure out what they left in there. more ›

You don't have to get a hip replacement to sneak titanium onto an airplane, according to the Post. A reporter carrying an eight-inch-long piece of the nonferrous metal was able to pass through security twice at Kennedy Airport without setting off metal detectors. more ›

Here's another not-so-reassuring story about the state of airport security. A woman with a 14-inch titanium rod in her hip sets off metal detectors at every airport she visits — except for JFK. The Post reports that in the decade since doctors implanted the metal piece to help 62-year-old Berna Keiler overcome a degenerative hip disease, she always triggered alarms at security checkpoints, including those in JFK's Terminal 7, until Oct. 21, 2009. more ›

The NYCLU, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, and Make the Road New York have released a report arguing that schools can create a safer environment without metal detectors and harsh discipline. The study, called "Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to Over-Policing Schools," is based on a year-long examination of six NYC schools with "at-risk" student populations that do not use metal detectors. According to the report, these schools have improved attendance, better student retention and graduation rates, and "dramatically fewer" criminal and non-criminal incidents and school suspensions than schools equipped with permanent metal detectors. more ›

Administrators at Stuyvesant High School have been using handheld metal detectors on students—not to detect weapons but to disarm cheaters who might use their mobile devices during a test. Teens at the elite public school in lower Manhattan were outraged when the wands were introduced recently during two weeks of AP testing. One student tells the Post, "To wand students is absurd. If they can't tell kids are using a cellphone to cheat, it's their own fault. Next thing, we're going to have to take our shoes off like we're going through the airport." And then they'll be forced to take tests naked like they're cutting coke for some paranoid drug lord! Another student also argues that "wanding is pointless. You can cheat in so many other ways." Principal Stanley Teitel declined to comment, but Dr. Teddi Fishman, director of the Center for Academic Integrity, says the tactic is counterproductive, because it creates "an adversarial relationship where students try to get away with [cheating] and we try to stop them... Anything that can be cheated on easily is usually too simplistic a test." more ›