It’s funny how we first tried to recreate things we love about our 3D world to our online haunts, finding ways to share photos, memories, and connections. And now some are flipping that desire and bringing what we like about our social media haunts to real-world events. Check out Samuel Smith’s post on how some event organizers are using RFID and social media to help attendees scratch their digital itches IRL. Very, very cool.

I’m kind of surprised hotels haven’t been doing this long before now, but it sounds like a few are starting to use RFID chips to keep track of their linens—and nab towel thieves before they sneak out the door with their ill-gotten goods. One hotel says it’s already saving $16,000 a month in pool towel theft reduction.

As someone who tries to keep luggage to carry-on size (and I know from the stuffed state of the overhead bins these days that I’m far from alone) and has no interest in snagging hotel linens, I would think the fee for having to check a bag big enough to stuff a towel in would pretty much cancel out the value of the towel and make them not worth stealing. It sounds like it’s still a big, expensive problem, and this could be an easy solution. I am curious how they confront the towel thieves, though. Talk about awkward!

That’s what it sounds like upon reading Maureen O’Dowd’s Stripped of Dignity editorial in today’s New York Times. After railing about the various indignities and abusive searches in the news lately, she ends with John Pistole, the T.S.A. chief, saying “they are trying to move past a ‘one-size-fits-all’ program and implement a ‘risk-based, intelligence-driven process’ by the end of the year that would have more refined targeting. If passengers are willing to share the same information they give to airline frequent-flier programs, he said, maybe some day they will be able to ‘keep their jacket on and their laptop in their briefcase and hang on to that unfinished bottle of water.’”

That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?