From Mark Morford in the SF Chronicle:


http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/

Good article. Read the comments, folks, a couple are real winners.

But watergirl_913's comment is exactly why this state of affairs isn't going to get better....

Not sure what the common sense is here. You should always have the choice to leave the checkpoint and go landside with your prohibited liquid. So now this author has to drink his vintage port in the baggage claim area at 11:00 in the morning? And then he makes the following statement at the end of his article:

Terrorists lose? I don't see that from this story. IMHO, the terrorists once again have won when an item that is not a threat to an airplane is not permitted on the airplane.

Uh, I think he was kidding on the terrorist comment...he's pretty much a smarta$$.

The LGA ban makes it much more likely the X-ray operator would detect a REAL bomb in a carry-on by removing most of the common items that share similar traits (in an X-ray image) as explosives.

So, security is indeed enhanced if keep large LGAs out of carry-ons.

Now, short of a ban, and not allowing them through (which means many people will indeed have to discard their items) how would you suggest we keep them out of cabin baggage?

Do you think asking people nicely (with no repercussions if they fail to comply) would be sufficient?

If so, I have this bridge ... etc.

What's an LGA - liquid/gel/aerosol? There is no credible evidence that banning liquids through security has increased safety. None. It's a sham. It's theater. The situation in Europe involved supposedly mixing up a substance that was patently impossible to mix in an airplane - or even in an airport.

This is complete rubbish.

Bombs would be easier to detect if there were no other items in carry-ons. Duh.

Liquids, gels, and aerosols should not be banned or limited. There is no credible evidence a bomb can be made airside without a laboratory. The people responsible for these stupid and unncessary restrictions should be caned and terminated. They are lying filth.

Thats so full of BS its not even funny. Please prove that comment as a friend i went to high school with and then on to MIT holds PhD's in Chemistry and Physics that say the binary bomb threat isnt possible outside of tightly controlled lab conditions. He joked that a fart had more power then a binary bomb, but there not banned;dangerous but not banned.

Then answer this if the liquids are so dangerous why arent they being treated as hazmat and disposed as such, as following TSA logic merely throwing them out doest redce the risk.

My favorite idiotic comment from one of your collegues was that a stupid song he YELLED about how dangerous water was and why its banned over 3 oz, when someone in the line told the singer "then if water is so dangerous then why is this yelling bag of water even in the building (referencing that the human body is over 80% water)" for which the singer couldnt be heard because the security line was laughing at him.

Also i wondering before becoming a TSO what did you do. Just wondering

I believe that OOTPYLOH mentioned in a previous post that working for the TSA was a cheap way of getting medical coverage. Our tax dollars at work.

In addition to the below, I also saw an article that I can no longer find that stated that to make TATP in many university chem labs requires special certification due to it's inability to be made without hurting the chemist, even under tightly controlled conditions (needing fume hoods, special gloves etc)...

So, let's ban those sealed Coke cans! Someone might shake one until it burst! Oh the horror!

From "The Register" a British newspaper...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08...abs/print.html

(the whole article is longer...)

Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs (preferably in a Styrofoam chiller deceptively marked "perishable foods"), a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.

It's best to fly first class and order Champagne. The bucket full of ice water, which the airline ought to supply, might possibly be adequate — especially if you have those cold gel-packs handy to supplement the ice, and the Styrofoam chiller handy for insulation — to get you through the cookery without starting a fire in the lavvie.

Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the peroxide / acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.

After a few hours — assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities — you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.

The genius of this scheme is that TATP is relatively easy to detonate. But you must make enough of it to crash the plane, and you must make it with care to assure potency. One needs quality stuff to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," as Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson put it. While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.

An irritated RFTraveler...

You could do it with the champagne bucket ice and salt, but the airlines cleverly anticipated this ploy and only provide salt in tiny, single use packets.

Thank god the airlines I fly still provide champagne properly chilled in an ice bucket.

Oh the irony in that is hilarious especially since I work in the healthcare arena. I hope that I never have to run on his type as the chemistry and physics I know and practice can be hazardous to your health.


RFT ^^ just as it was explained to me by my friend, and the odds of that happening are about the same as pigs flying.

The only time I fly in the pointy end is on single-class birds...on LCC's. I sometimes get a full can of Diet Coke instead of the plastic cup.

RFT

Are those of us 'in the know' going to have to register our minds as lethal weapons with these morons?

You think Kippie would trumpet it that way?