http://www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/transl...ity_german.pdf

While I do give them credit for fixing parts of the website to list 3,4 ounces and 100ml, apparently we furriners are limited to 3 ounces and 90 ml.

http://www.tsa.gov/311/311-brochures.shtm

Reasons for the inconsistency:

1) "TSA is a new agency and these things take time". (Of course, I've seen new signs and videos put up in the last year that still contain the old information. And everyone knows that changing/correcting a single piece of data on a website is so hard).

2) "Inconsistency is TSA's motto". Yes, that will fool the terrorists - they'll get so confused about the rules that they'll make a mistake or get frustrated and give up.

3) "All nations are equal, but the US is the best". We're still waiting for the rest of the world to get its act together and get off the metric system.

BTW, the change to allow 3.4 ounces instead of 3 ounces was absolutely not out of consideration for foreign travellers - it was because there are many products that Americans use that are manufactured and labelled to world standards, ie, metric.

And yes, there are the occasional TSOs who don't get it and who require pax to forfeit containers labelled 3.1 ounces because it exceeds "3-1-1".

They don't even speak proper English, let us not hope they could get other languages correct.

It gets worse.

Germans are apparently only permitted 3oz or 90ml on the document I linked, but on another document in German on the TSA site it lists 90ml on one side, but 100ml on the other side of the document.

However, French and Spanish speakers are permiited 3oz, or 100ml. (which are not the same thing)

Shall we make it a game and see how many errors we can spot? I was frankly too tired to actually read the documents and proof spelling and grammar, but if this is any indication........

There were some problems with that "back in the day" a few years ago when the rule was 100ml but TSA couldn't figure that out. Nearly had cologne pulled after a int'l reconnect at EWR once, but I got animated in Italian and it actually worked and I got through.

Then we can get into the volume versus mass or weight problems...sad.

Your beer is a lot stronger than ours. 3 ounces of German beer equals 3.4 ounces of American beer.

Mike

Another Google Translate Dog...

(AFAIK - U.S. Government does not do in-house translate unless it is sensitive.)

Mrs. Mahohmei recently bought a bunch of reusable rubbery break-proof bottles to carry shampoo while traveling--she actually got them right before a car trip, but nonetheless didn't want to lug around full-size shampoo bottles.

The bottles are clearly labeled "3 oz / 90 mL", since the label on a reusable travel shampoo bottle is a firm indicator that the contents are not explosive. A sub-3 oz, pre-9/11 reusable travel shampoo bottle could possibly have explosives in it, since with no label, there's no telling its volume or contents. For we all know, there could be a _gallon_ of liquid explosives hidden in that bottle.

What we need is a federal law requiring all explosives to be packaged in wood crates with "ACME / DANGER / EXPLOSIVES" stenciled on the side, for the purpose of making TSA identification of explosives far easier.

Well, the French version claims that the baggie is only for short flights and that lighters should be left at home or will be confiscated, and has some strange turns of phrase.