Anyway, my question is this, if the X-ray machine can see through the aluminum skin and other metal insides of my laptop, would that tricky neoprene have blocked the X rays?

Also do the baggage X-rays we shove our stuff through only have X-ray capability or do they have some sort of sniffer capability to look for explosives? I ask because after I was through the WTMD and then was told to remove my shoes, I must have had a puzzled expression on my face because the TSA guy told me they weren't just looking for metal. So if they are looking for explosives in shoes, I can only surmise that the X-ray machines have built-in sniffers...if they don't then you have to wonder...