TSA does not do science, it does security. We go by what it says on the container, since we don’t have the time to have a full out science class for the employees prior to them being put on the checkpoint.

Correction - you play security, you do theatre!

We noticed, and that is the problem.

Can you please tell me where I can find a "Walgreens" in Argentina? I don´t know of any such stores. And no, I will not buy my toothpaste after I land - I want it with me on board.

Also, respecting religious but not cultural traditions is disgusting and wrong (but I can solve that by requesting that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster include toothpaste in their worship rituals, or better still, by creating my own make believe god-who-loves toothpaste...).

So Ron, what you're saying is that reality where mass doesn't equal volume gets ignored because it is too difficult to handle? No wonder some people think that TSA is staffed by idiots. Your security theater doesn't impress anyone.

so based on your argument, i can take a 1 quart bottle with a label that says 3.0oz/3.4oz on it and bring it thru the checkpoint, right? gotta be careful what you say ;)

Lets be honest GA, ALL security can be given that description. All security is theatre until such time as it is needed and is no longer theatre. Even the stuff I did in the air force was theatre, until someone took a shot at us. In nearly 13 years serving, I never once used my weapon for anything but a portable hat rack. Did that make what I did un-needed? No, not one bit. I personally was never shot at, but I know a few guys who were, rare though it was. Get a rancher a bit liquored up, give him a truck and a rifle, and you never know what’s going to happen. Was it a terrorist attack? Nope, but the bullets didn’t give a dam who was shooting them.

So, security theatre is may be, but that does not make it any less needed or any less real. It does not matter who or where security is being done, it is all theater until such time as it is not.

Puffers and sniffers and strippers, Oh My!
 

I know you will find this hard to understand. There are a few left like me who dream of someday living in a USA where the average high school graduate and TSA screener will be educated in science up to the level of a typical Japanese fifth grade student.

Yet you expect your "We Got Stinkin Badges but We Don't Got No Stinkin Science" workforce to operate x-ray machines, WTMDs, and ETDs plus Puffers and sniffers and strippers, Oh My. Some of the latest high tech science gizmos around. I'm beginning to see why the average TSO might have a problem operating them correctly.

Of course, when a one striper knows no science, it is much easier for a three striper to convince him that water is a contraband high explosive.

FF, think about it. If the TSA were to require that all TSO’s had a 4 year degree how many would there be? If we were required to all have the education necessary to understand all the background information on the technology we use daily, on the new technology that is up and coming, and then still offer what they do for screeners, how many screeners would there be? How many people do you know who want to take a job that pays them half of what their education should be able to get them?

Additionally, when I was in the military, I knew people who worked on/maintained nuclear weapons and had no more formal education than I had. They had the training that the military provides, but that’s not any more of a formal education than the standard TSO training is.

Fact is guy, that a detailed understanding of the supporting science of the equipment that we use is not necessary. Not in the TSA, not anywhere. We are user level workers, not technicians or engineers, not designers or research scientists. Nor do we need to be.

Ron,

I expect a user-level worker to know that 1 mL of water weighs 1 g. It is basic general education. Your arguments are more than weak, they are an illustration of the type of attitude that makes us loose respect for your people.

So you don't think it's relevant to explain to most screeners that the word "ounce" can be used to refer either to weight, or to volume ... and since TSA restricts LGAs based on volume, it might be relevant to make sure that when something says "4 ounces" on the label, that they're referring to the volume instead of weight?

His head is going to 'splode!

Uh, no. I've seen professional security (Helsinki and Schiphol). TSA, sadly, doesn't measure up to either one of those airports.