Practical Travel Safety Issues - "Pat Down" at MSY (New Orleans) 5/31/12

I was departing MSY at around 11:00 am (very short lines). They are using the body scanner (not x-ray) that rotates in a circle. There was a quarter left deep in one of my pockets, so the agent had to give me a "Pat Down"--it was extremely cursory, all of about 15 seconds.^
I once had a similar incident in LHR, but they are not so forgiving, they give you a complete (>2 minute) pat down.
While I'm not a big tsa "fan", they can be nicer than the LHR people.

I've had zero issue in my regular travels through LHR.

More importantly, LHR does not use BSX.

And more importantly, LHR does not use MMW as primary, and the scan rate is extremely low at LHR.

I'll take a pat down at LHR any day over the TSA pat down. At LHR the pat down happens about 1/50 flights for me; with TSA it happens about 49/50 flights for me.

I know which I prefer.

As to your highly dangerous quarter, now you see why the German government (along with many others around the world) consider the scanners a farce.

going through LHR i went through a scanner forgetting to take my phone out of my pocket i received a patdown i wasnt too happy about it when it happened but thinking back on it, it wasnt too bad

More importantly, LHR does not use BSX.

I thought certain terminals at LHR still used BKSX, despite the EU's effectively banning the technology. Did I miss something?

Yes, you did miss something. All BSX were removed from LHR many months ago.

I got a targeted patdown (I suppose the 'resolution' patdown) at PDX a couple of weeks ago...had left a credit card and airline club card in the back pocket of my jeans. Only had the back pocket patted and card/my hands swabbed. It was not a big deal.

The full 'opt-out' patdown by TSA...not a fan at all.
I think back in the days of MMW without the avatar thing that showed where the defect was, or in the case of the backscatter, they do the full pat-down as well...again, not a fan.

The "resolution" pat down is not, AFAIK, intended to be punitive in any way, so it seems generally light. That said, if you opt-out at MSY, you are likely to get a lecture about how they use MMW with the Gumby software and so you don't have to worry about cancer or them seeing you naked.

I thought certain terminals at LHR still used BKSX, despite the EU's effectively banning the technology. Did I miss something?

LHR doesn't have BKSX. MAN has BKSX.