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Using the term LP dates you.

But yes, I remember those.

NP, just thought that was an interesting tidbit. I have actually seen super-8 film and players come through although the camera itself only once that I recall. When you spoke of some screeners thinking modern camcorders need to come out when they don't, I think maybe that confusion stems from a similarity in film names. I made that same mistake for a while before I went to use my camcorder one day and, duh, it's not Super-8 film, it's Hi-8 film.

I'd have to say I agree. A pocket knife in the laptop case will show on xray. And speaking of useless security measures...how 'bout the plastic knives but metal forks on first class? Please. I could just as easily stab out your aorta with a fork as a butter knife. These kind of security changes make me feel more uneasy about security because they seem to not be thought out.

Thankfully the French have resisted this heavy-handed demand that EU airports comply blindly with the laptop thing. We can still leave our laptops in the bag. The agents do occasaionally open up laptop bags if the x-ray operator feels a need to. That's really the best way to handle it.

I wonder why, other than that those tend to be large and clunky? Toward the ends of their runs, VHS camcorders had downsided to be hardly larger than the tape itself (particularly the VHS-C ones that used the smaller tapes you could then put in an adapter "carrier" and play on a regular VCR). Guess it's just a blanket rule that had some basis in reality but which hardly applies in actuality anymore.

What I do find interesting is that I have yet to have my bag of densely-packed SLR camera equipment and lenses hand checked / sent through the X-ray more than once. That stuff has to be as dense (if not moreso) to the machine than my laptop, although I assume it's fairly recognizable as such as well.

If the screener notices it.

One friend of mine passed through security several times (in ROA, EWR, MEM, and ATL) with a large folding knife--probably 4-5" blade--in his laptop bag without anyone finding it. He had the bag hand-searched twice, and the screeners apparently figured they had discovered whatever it was without ever finding the knife. Imagine his surprise when he got home and unpacked and found the knife in his bag!

A couple of vendor reps I worked with on a couple of projects also got away with knives unwittingly. A fellow contractor who is ex-special forces routinely carries several weapons in his carry-on, claiming the ones he has "won't be seen by screeners." (We're talking a small spiked plastic baton, a roll of parachute cord, and some other junk). So far, he's been right--I still run into him at meetings on occasion, and he always produces them at social hours after the meetings.

It kind of makes you wonder whether the terrorist types have figured out the deceptive possibilities of plastic weaponry. Hopefully nothing that could punch through a hard flight deck door, though.

Hmmm, now you've got me thinking. This will come in very handy should they lift the cellphone ban on aircraft.

"SO ANYWAYS I WAS SITTING THERE TELLING THE CUSTOMER'S CEO HOW IMPORTANT I AM AND HE....ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" <Blessed silence>

Supposedly most plastic weaponry and ceramic ones will show up on x-ray... although you could probably come up with ways to hide / obscure them effectively.

Even then, I would be doubtful that any sort of hijacking would succeed in the US; pax are going to mob anyone acting threateningly regardless of the weapons that person possesses.