This Weekend: Museum re-opening in San Francisco

New body scanners installed yesterday at airports in New York City and Los Angeles allow security screeners to peek under passengers' clothing to detect hidden weapons. The process takes about one minute. The devices do not replace metal detectors, which passengers still have to pass through. The TSA has ordered an additional 30 of the machines, and plans to roll them out nationwide. One scanner has been installed at LAX's Terminal 5, which has gates for Delta and Aeromexico. Another scanner has been installed at New York City's Kennedy Airport, Terminal 8, which serves American Airlines, American Eagle, Finnair, Jet Airways and Malev, says Newsday. The machine has already been in testing at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where it has become popular. "More than 90 percent of passengers have elected to undergo screening with this technology instead of being subjected to a pat-down," say the TSA blog. The image looks like a "fuzzy negative," says the TSA's blog and it does not reveal much of a person's anatomy. (See photo, right.) The images are viewed by officers in rooms at least 50 feet away, says the TSA, so there is no way for any officer to recognize a passenger. The images are also not recorded. So far in tests in Phoenix, only randomly selected passengers are being asked to use the machines instead of be subjected to pat-downs by security officers. The "millimeter wave" machines use "low-energy electromagnetic waves to produce a computerized image of a traveler's entire body," says the Los Angeles Times. They're similar to devices installed in public courthouses around the country. EARLIER Airport security: Mood lighting and music? Air security: Heathrow rolls out eye scanners.

Delta and Northwest have agreed to merge, creating the world's largest airline by traffic. The new airline will be called Delta, reports CNN. Here are answers to some key questions. Who loses? First, many travelers will see the cost of flying rise in the next few years because this merger will likely cause United and Continental to merge, too. The result of these mergers will be to reduce competition and allow airlines to raise their prices and cram their planes even fuller than they already are. US News has a handy chart predicting which routes will see fares rise the most. The second group to lose is leisure travelers who collect Northwest frequent flier miles through points-based credit card programs. Many changes will water down the value of your points. For example, the threshold for redeeming tickets will likely rise from 20,000 miles (the current standard for members of Northwest's WorldPerks program) to 25,000 miles (the current standard for Delta's SkyMiles program), according to the Wall Street Journal. On the positive side, if you're a business traveler who flies, say, 100,000 miles a year, you may see more choices and better rewards in these mileage programs. Third, fliers in Memphis will be hurt. They have had, until now, many flight choices on Northwest out of their local airport. The combined new company will likely stop flying many of these routes, encouraging customers to fly out of Atlanta instead. However, in a year's time, Southwest or another airline may move into the Memphis market, as we have blogged about before. Residents of smaller cities will also be hurt, as the mergers result in less service to smaller markets. What's the point of the merger? The combined Delta-Northwest airline will be in a better position to steal away the most profitable fliers from rival airlines, namely, business travelers who fly across oceans often. Delta has a strong network across the Atlantic and a pretty good one in Latin America, while Northwest has a strong network across the Pacific. If you're a corporation with offices worldwide, you are more likely to pay top dollar to the airline that flies to the most number of cities that your employees visit. Even more importantly, Delta and Northwest want business customers from overseas to arrive in the U.S. and fly their domestic routes, as the strength of foreign companies and the weakness of the dollar draws more business travelers to visit the U.S. The international expansion, in other words, may be even more about feeding foreign passengers to domestic routes than the other way around (Note: In a memo to staffers explaining the merger, Delta's chief mentioned international expansion prominently and did mention domestic routes.) Says Delta boss Richard Anderson: "As a combined carrier, we will be the #1 airline in the United States. In addition, we will be the #1 U. S. carrier to Japan; #1 U. S. carrier across Europe; #1 U. S. carrier in Africa; #1 U. S. carrier in the Middle East and India; #2 U. S. carrier in Asia; and the #2 U. S. carrier in Latin America." Will the merger be approved by federal officials? Probably. Delta and Northwest do not compete directly on most routes. And, in general, current administration officials seem willing to allow further airline consolidation. Recently, Department of Transportation officials waived the standard antitrust rules for Delta and Northwest (along with Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Alitalia, and Czech Airlines) on a related issue, allowing the airlines to share some pricing information and otherwise cooperate on transatlantic flights without being accused of rigging prices or competing unfairly. Will the merger be successful? It depends on what you mean by "successful." The merger will probably happen, but there will be many bumps along the way. Delta and Northwest were unable to get their pilots to agree on issues about pay, hours, and seniority. So pilots are likely to have "work slowdowns" for years to come, as a negotiating tactic, which will annoy fliers as well as company bosses. To put this issue in context, when US Airways merged with* America West, the airlines merged without sealing a deal with pilots. The result? The pilots are still fighting among themselves many years later. On the positive side, Delta's CEO has run both companies at different times, and he has made a deal to boost the pay and perks of Delta's pilots, which may "buy" him their cooperation. CORRECTION 3:27p.m.: * This blog post originally said that US Airways bought America West. The correct term is "merged with." (Thanks, Bob!) I regret the error. EARLIER Should you pay more to fly? (more than 50 reader comments)

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed mandatory fingerprinting for all foreign visitors to most states in the European Union. Americans and other visitors who don't need visas may have to touch fingerprint scanners on their way through immigration, says the Wall Street Journal. What's more, even though we still will not need to apply for visas, Americans may have to fill out an online form with their name, destinations, and how their travel ticket was paid for, before departing for a E.U. country, says the International Herald Tribune. The info would be checked against EU visitor blacklists. Eventually, the EU may require digitalized facial images, too. The plan is expected to be approved this year. But it will not go into effect until 2015—if approved as expected, says Reuters. Here's a map of participating E.U. countries. Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania, and Bulgaria might opt out of the plan. The U.S. already requires Europeans to submit fingerprints (for all 10 fingers) when crossing our borders. Japan already requires fingerprints and photos of visitors, says The Washington Post. Data systems in the U.S. and Europe will store passenger data for 13 years, including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and the credit card info you used to purchase of flight tickets, says Time. EARLIER Air France experiments with replacing e-tickets with fingerprints. Heathrow airport begins using iris scans for some travelers.

One of the most popular modern travel books of all time, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, will head to the big screen in an adaptation starring Robert Redford as the author/narrator, Bill Bryson. The film's release date hasn't been set yet. via Rotten Tomatoes. EARLIER ON THE BLOG Enough about the kitten already!