Hide the card inside the computer instead, where it will blend in even under x-ray. A dot of adhesive can conceal it even if the laptop is opened. It can fit under the heatshring wrap of some BIOS batteries, under a heatsink, under the label of an add-on card, and many other places.

Don't bring a screwdriver with you as they are cheap at any auto or chain store.

"The Gestapo and STASI only wished they had the ability to do what the NSA does."

The NSA and other Alphabet Agencies only wish they had the authority to do what the Gestapo and Stasi did.

" Amazing how low you can get the prices when you use children to build gadgets for children."

Got a better job to offer those children which won't be displaced by someone else shopping their business to other children?

Unless the NEED for child labor is removed, it's better than starvation. Note that horrid labor conditions are how all developing countries compete until they can compete by other means. That includes the US.

If you have a (practical) alternative, please share it.

BTW, if you don't want your notebook or other device to look as if it's been opened those screw kits off Ebay fit more than just Thinkpads.

"Sensor safe" RTV silicone from your local auto store is dandy for holding computer parts together you may have to remove one day as it peels off but with some effort. A dot the size of a lower-case "o" would do for a MicroSD card.

You could also use Elmers or similar water-based glue for the card and the label. After arrival at destination, remove WLAN card or other host component, drop into a cup of hot water, remove MicroSD card, dry off the lot, reassemble notebook/device, done.

Experiment for some entertainment. Have a watch with a removable back? A pocket calculator? Anything else that won't look interesting on X-ray when travelling to North Korea, Iran or some other place with intrusive security or high theft hazard?

It will be a while, perhaps a very long while, before there is a fairly complete database of "everything electronic" for computerized comparison with scanned objects and scanners sufficiently accurate for that to work. The counter to that is to secrete your data in components which are opaque to x-ray. Enterprising Slashdotters with x-ray access and a stash of electronics could find out what those are (and share the ones they won't be personally using).

Take choice away from businesses so they can't invoke superstition to avoid paying their due.

If there is a superstitious (equals political) exemption for birth control why not any and all other medical care? A Christian Scientist business could save a mint!

Then anyone could hold the rest of the nation hostage and block development.
The deaths and injuries from both pipeline and rail accidents are trivial compared to the enormous national benefit of the rail and pipeline systems which were built largely by granting rights of way and could not be done affordably any other way.
Ideals are adorable but often the greater good is attained by making practical choices.
ANY transportation choice has casualties, including tens of thousands dead each year from auto crashes. Even that rate is trivial in a nation of over 300 million people.

" The rumor went that if there were ever a pinhole leak in one of the 3" deep welds, or porosity in the casting and you walked through it without seeing it, it would cut you in half."

An old way to check for live steam leaks is to hang a rag from a broomstick. The steam is quite capable of cutting as well as burning the rag.

3000 psi oil and hydraulic leaks can certainly cause injury by injecting oil into flesh and sometimes cutting. Hydraulic and diesel (injector lines are high pressure) mechanics have to be aware of this when troubleshooting.

I don't take notebooks I care much about when travelling so I've no concern if they get banged about or stolen. It's so easy to wipe and reinstall before travel that one should do that if you don't want your goat porn viewed by the Stasi.
I'm not worried about Uncle Sugar reading anything I have because I don't do anything interesting to the State and if I did I'm not stupid enough to want to use a computer for it. AT ALL.
If for some reason I had to carry vital legal-but-proprietary commercial information it takes little effort (well, on Thinkpads anyway) to stash a MicroSD card temporarily glued under the label of a WLAN card or a section of heatsink. Don't bring a screwdriver with you as they are cheap at chain stores.

The internet is a military invention. Don't use it for secure comms and never want to use it for secure comms.

No electronic comms are truly secure against a well-funded attacker.

"There is much in middle-class life that looks sickly and debilitating when you see it from a working-class angle."

There is much that IS sickly and debilitating in both lives.

What many working class students tend to ignore is that lack of education can leave them not only intellectually disarmed, but poorly equipped for the trades they often aspire to.
The days when you could be illiterate yet make decent money in the trades are over. Now community colleges are tasked with repairing what was ignored during high school.

Many people reject science and education in general. Make no mistake about that.

I had the misfortune of attending school with such trash (until rescued by boarding school), and rejecting science was the least of their problems. Such folk are why schools are Hellmouths. They are stupid, base and want to stay that way.

That and for UVPROM BIOS or other flashing method which cannot be done by the PCs own software.

Remote management = remote exploitation.

"and are usually unmanned."

Terrorist sees block wall. Terrorist takes tool(s) of choice to whatever is supposedly securing power station, then has field day destroying the equipment.

Power station is then manned for security. Terrorist takes tool(s) of choice to powerline infrastructure.

I'm not being specific so as not to put thoughts into idle heads, but anyone determined to hit infrastructure could easily do their homework. No one needs firearms to perpetrate major infrastructure damage, only rudimentary knowledge of how any target system works.

It's functionally (not morally because every life is valuable beyond measure yadda yadda) better from the perspective of actual social disruption that most terroists attack easily replaceable humans than expensive infrastructure.

Windows 98 and Office 97 got lots of free market penetration because one could effortlessly use one copy on many PCs.
"Market chumming" paid off handsomely.

I'm still waiting for one OS to get toggling between "smartphone" and "desktop" UIs perfected rather than make one UI suck for both.

Dock phone or phablet to route around their inherent ergonomic limitations and you won't need separate machines for both tasks.

The way to deal with exposure is not to use insecure communications for information which must be kept secure.

There will be much thrashing as users attempt to get secure outcomes because people are hard-headed.

Water is wet and the Sun rises in the East.