Most of the "body scanners" used in airports in the US are this type.
They suck quite frankly (check out the feet and ankles)
1. Full body scanners are a retarded idea that is making somebody ridiculously fucking rich.(they cost about 200k a pop)
2. Let's use all dubious sources of information to argue against them: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/
3. A novel solution about solving the terror problem is to start slapping hard everybody that says it's actually a problem worth solving.
Most of the "body scanners" used in airports in the US are this type.
They suck quite frankly (check out the feet and ankles)
1. Full body scanners are a retarded idea that is making somebody ridiculously fucking rich.(they cost about 200k a pop)
2. Let's use all dubious sources of information to argue against them: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/
3. A novel solution about solving the terror problem is to start slapping hard everybody that says it's actually a problem worth solving.
I got on a plane at KCI this weekend with an expired drivers license and a pair of toenail clippers I didn't realize were in my bag at the time.
Confidence level in TSA
--> here.
How old was it?
You get up to a year from date of expiry before it's no longer considered valid.
And unless your toenail clippers had a blade on them they shouldn't be a problem.
It expired a few months ago, so it still worked.
The clippers had a foldout blade on them. Not that anyone ever took them out to check. I didn't find them until I unpacked my bag today. I went through security twice without a single eyebrow raise.
Most of the "body scanners" used in airports in the US are this type.
They suck quite frankly (check out the feet and ankles)
1. Full body scanners are a retarded idea that is making somebody ridiculously fucking rich.(they cost about 200k a pop)
2. Let's use all dubious sources of information to argue against them: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/
3. A novel solution about solving the terror problem is to start slapping hard everybody that says it's actually a problem worth solving.
I got on a plane at KCI this weekend with an expired drivers license and a pair of toenail clippers I didn't realize were in my bag at the time.
Confidence level in TSA
--> here.
How old was it?
You get up to a year from date of expiry before it's no longer considered valid.
And unless your toenail clippers had a blade on them they shouldn't be a problem.
It expired a few months ago, so it still worked.
The clippers had a foldout blade on them. Not that anyone ever took them out to check. I didn't find them until I unpacked my bag today. I went through security twice without a single eyebrow raise.
From what I recall, fingernail clippers and cosmetic scissors (under 4" blades) are no longer prohibited in carry-ons.
From what I recall, fingernail clippers and cosmetic scissors (under 4" blades) are no longer prohibited in carry-ons.
This is true. Same with, IIRC, cigar cutters and quite a few other sharp/pointy objects.
Also, I thought it was awesome that a caller on NPR asked why it is that one dude flying from Nigeria tries to set off a bomb and suddenly everybody flying to the US from Nigeria is getting strip-searched, yet other countries where bombers have originated (like, say, THE UK) do not. It basically seems to come down to "we don't want to inconvenience our allies," or possibly just "we don't want to fuck with white people."
Better was that nobody seemed willing to offer any real answer to the question.
Several countries in Europe have significant populations of radical Muslims, yet will never make such a list. I'd argue that the portion of fliers, as a percentage, originating from Nigeria (or Cuba) looking to hijack/bomb a plane and the number from the UK are probably roughly equivalent, which is to say pretty much zero.
It's just amusing that we've had maybe a handful of actual close brushes with terrorist attacks in the last few years, and (IIRC) a majority of them originated in countries that were not included as "countries of interest" because they have more white people than brown people.
EDIT: And that's ignoring, of course, the fact that the terrorist attacks that started all this stupidity originated domestically, flight-wise. Basically I heard a good interview (again, IIRC, on NPR) where they basically said the worth thing you can do is create a "fast track" and a "slow track" through security...that profiling based on anything other than behavior in general is worse (securitywise, ignoring politics and civil liberties) than simply doing things randomly...because now instead of flying from Nigeria they'll just fly from Ghana instead. And likely face less security (marginally so, but less) because when they switch planes in Amsterdam the security there will be busy patting down Nigerians. Any time you try to create a "strength" without significantly increasing resources allocated, what you've really done is create a weakness that can be exploited.
There are also some head-scratching, what-were-they-thinking moments, too. Between the bins of tools and jackknives seized by airport security screeners and put out for sale, there were three boxes of 2 -inch galvanized nails. ``What's this all about?" Zekos laughed. ``Why did somebody try to bring nails on an airplane?"
Either somebody was using baggage (possibly a backpack or some such) that they use out in "the world" and forgot to remove the nails, or they saw a good deal on the nails while traveling (or were given them by a friend/family) and didn't know they were forbidden. I mean, why not take nails on an airplane? It's not any crazier than most of the other crazy shit people take on airplanes (specifically carry-on) every day, from dildos to wireless routers to copies of Atlas Shrugged.
There are also some head-scratching, what-were-they-thinking moments, too. Between the bins of tools and jackknives seized by airport security screeners and put out for sale, there were three boxes of 2 -inch galvanized nails. ``What's this all about?" Zekos laughed. ``Why did somebody try to bring nails on an airplane?"
Either somebody was using baggage (possibly a backpack or some such) that they use out in "the world" and forgot to remove the nails, or they saw a good deal on the nails while traveling (or were given them by a friend/family) and didn't know they were forbidden. I mean, why not take nails on an airplane? It's not any crazier than most of the other crazy shit people take on airplanes (specifically carry-on) every day, from dildos to wireless routers to copies of Atlas Shrugged.
There's also weight limits, although they didn't care as much back then.
From what I recall, fingernail clippers and cosmetic scissors (under 4" blades) are no longer prohibited in carry-ons.
This is true. Same with, IIRC, cigar cutters and quite a few other sharp/pointy objects.
Also, I thought it was awesome that a caller on NPR asked why it is that one dude flying from Nigeria tries to set off a bomb and suddenly everybody flying to the US from Nigeria is getting strip-searched, yet other countries where bombers have originated (like, say, THE UK) do not. It basically seems to come down to "we don't want to inconvenience our allies," or possibly just "we don't want to fuck with white people."
I wouldn't deny that this may be an element, but it should probably be noted that something like 70% of all air travel by volume is business travel. The volume of business travel to and from the UK is probably significantly higher than Nigeria. Of course that leads round about to the same sort of thing: The powers that be are well aware that the actual threat is quite remote regardless of where the individual passenger originates from, and not making things too onerous on the respectable business traveler or holiday-goer (middle class and probably white as well!) while being seen to be enacting "stringent new security policies" strikes something like the right balance.
In more humorous news, have any of you guys read this?
In recent years two fully-fueled chainsaws have showed up in Logan travelers' carry-on bags.
That's not even the strangest find.
Everyone here knows that the "citrus juicer" was really the fruit fucker trying to join the mile-high club with one of those sexy grapefruits in the air kitchen.
Either somebody was using baggage (possibly a backpack or some such) that they use out in "the world" and forgot to remove the nails, or they saw a good deal on the nails while traveling (or were given them by a friend/family) and didn't know they were forbidden. I mean, why not take nails on an airplane? It's not any crazier than most of the other crazy shit people take on airplanes (specifically carry-on) every day, from dildos to wireless routers to copies of Atlas Shrugged.
My girlfriend bought a "helper" in Thailand and was afraid to put it in the check in in case it was randomly checked by some guy in the back and instead put it in her carry-on, not thinking "hey, now the guy doing the machine is going to look you in the face." Thankfully, they didn't pull it out of the bag, and it was a female technician who just turned three shades of red (well, as three shades of red as you can get with a Thai) and passed it on through.
Misogynistic aside: Some women simply don't understand "hey, you know they sell those at home".
From what I recall, fingernail clippers and cosmetic scissors (under 4" blades) are no longer prohibited in carry-ons.
Cut your nails before you get on the damn plane, you heathens. The people next to you don't want to be pelted with your trimmings.
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
Also, I thought it was awesome that a caller on NPR asked why it is that one dude flying from Nigeria tries to set off a bomb and suddenly everybody flying to the US from Nigeria is getting strip-searched, yet other countries where bombers have originated (like, say, THE UK) do not. It basically seems to come down to "we don't want to inconvenience our allies," or possibly just "we don't want to fuck with white people."
I imagine there are orders of magnitude more people flying from "Rich country" A than "Poor country" B, the UK in particular.
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
I think perhaps the most important is this: if you are at war with some one who is realistically capable of subduing the passengers and crew of an airliner with a pair of fingernail cutters and crashing it into a building, then my friend, you are at war with Batman. It makes no appreciable difference whether he has the nail clippers or not, because he could do the same thing with his bare hands. You should simply give up.
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
I think perhaps the most important is this: if you are at war with some one who is realistically capable of subduing the passengers and crew of an airliner with a pair of fingernail cutters and crashing it into a building, then my friend, you are at war with Batman. It makes no appreciable difference whether he has the nail clippers or not, because he could do the same thing with his bare hands. You should simply give up.
Some of them have little knives in them. I always assumed if was for wires, though.
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
I think perhaps the most important is this: if you are at war with some one who is realistically capable of subduing the passengers and crew of an airliner with a pair of fingernail cutters and crashing it into a building, then my friend, you are at war with Batman. It makes no appreciable difference whether he has the nail clippers or not, because he could do the same thing with his bare hands. You should simply give up.
Some of them have little knives in them. I always assumed if was for wires, though.
I actually have one that has a tiny knife on it, but that's neither here nor there. Let's say a guy does have a three inch blade on the plane. If he's the kind of person who could take on the other passengers with this little weapon and then force his way into the locked cockpit, then he could probably do it with his bare hands or a heavy book or whatever other item comes to hand, because he's the god damn Batman. If they're improvised wire cutters, what wire his he going to cut? A bomb? So we're talking about a scenario where a guy can get a bomb and get it on the aircraft, but his whole plan hinges on cutting it the same way he'd cut his toenail, and nothing else will do the job? Or is he going to get into the plane's electrical system and cut some wires?
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
I think perhaps the most important is this: if you are at war with some one who is realistically capable of subduing the passengers and crew of an airliner with a pair of fingernail cutters and crashing it into a building, then my friend, you are at war with Batman. It makes no appreciable difference whether he has the nail clippers or not, because he could do the same thing with his bare hands. You should simply give up.
Some of them have little knives in them. I always assumed if was for wires, though.
I actually have one that has a tiny knife on it, but that's neither here nor there. Let's say a guy does have a three inch blade on the plane. If he's the kind of person who could take on the other passengers with this little weapon and then force his way into the locked cockpit, then he could probably do it with his bare hands or a heavy book or whatever other item comes to hand, because he's the god damn Batman. If they're improvised wire cutters, what wire his he going to cut? A bomb? So we're talking about a scenario where a guy can get a bomb and get it on the aircraft, but his whole plan hinges on cutting it the same way he'd cut his toenail, and nothing else will do the job? Or is he going to get into the plane's electrical system and cut some wires?
Really this.
Even if you have a 6" knife, or a goddamn longsword, if you're capable of taking on a plane-full of passengers with the thing then you're probably capable of taking them on without it. You can only stick a sharp thing into one person at a time and the 'knife' on a pair of clippers or a pair of sewing scissors or similar isn't much more threatening than a well-honed thumbnail.
So the indictment has been released and now every Republican is gnashing their teeth about the courts doing the exact same thing for Abdul when Obama is in office that they did for Reid when Bush was in office, because politicians have the collective memory of a gerbil.
I for one applaud the prosecution's choice to avoid any kinds of conspiracy/terrorism charges and just stick to the factual stuff that they can prove in just a day of witness testimony. They've already got enough to put him in jail for life, no need to turn it into an expensive circus by trying to prove anything more then the obvious... that he got on an american plane with a bomb and tried to set it off while flying in american airspace.
I really am annoyed however by Cheney's blathering. The simple fact is Abdul was a foreign national who was traveling into America with a valid visa, committed a crime in our land, and was caught in our land. That makes our laws applicable both to him and to our courts, which gives our courts the power to charge, try, convict, sentence, and incarcerate him. If you don't like it, change the laws; don't complain that it's contrary to the purpose of achieving national security. It's no different then that bunch of Americans who got convicted for murder in Italy.
Also... he's a dead man if he ever sets foot in general population. Five minutes tops. Hell even in a supermax he's probably still dead; the gangs will find a way to do it just so they can take credit for it.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
They aren't really incompetent, they just have an impossible task made all the more difficult by the idiotic requirements placed on them/passengers. All under the knowledge that any minor screwup will make national news and likely fuck you over because zomg terrorists!
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
The TSA is beyond incompetent. I think what makes it even worse though is how amazingly different the security requirements can be at different airports. After dipshit shoe guy ruined it for everyone else, there were some airport security lines that would still allow you to walk through if you were in sandals, some who wouldn't. If you had the gall to ASK whether or not you needed to because...every airport was different, you'd get the most random non answers, and end up in the special security area because you didn't take your sandals off. Same with laptops, I got into a terse argument with a guy at McCarran because my laptop was in a pocketless neoprene case. He went batshit at me for not removing my laptop from the case, while I politely tried to explain that every other airport I'd been to in the US had never said word one about it, and he was the only guy to ever make an issue out of it. He would not let it go and continued to very loudly deride me in front of everyone else in the line, "the sign's right there, says laptops have to be out of their case, can't you READ?" Next day I happened to read in the paper that the TSA had ammended the laptop rules to say that you could leave your computer in a small case as long as it had no pockets. Fucking guy.
But being a seasoned business traveler you just learn to roll with those kinds of punches, because you are not going to win the argument, they have absolute authority to have you thrown in jail over even the most spurious of claims, and there doesn't seem to be any employee discipline, while the managers are just as inept, if not more, than then the rank and file running the scanners. It really is security theater.
Also... he's a dead man if he ever sets foot in general population. Five minutes tops. Hell even in a supermax he's probably still dead; the gangs will find a way to do it just so they can take credit for it.
Doubtful. The muslim contingent is pretty powerful in it's own right inside. A lot of guys convert for that reason. And the bangers kill each other for control of the drug trade, not for notoriety.
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
They aren't really incompetent, they just have an impossible task made all the more difficult by the idiotic requirements placed on them/passengers. All under the knowledge that any minor screwup will make national news and likely fuck you over because zomg terrorists!
I can't say whether they're incompetent or not, but they don't strike me as a particularly elite group. I Googled for information, and found this. So we're talking about a group of US citizens who can pass a background check, have a high school diploma or GED, complete 100 hours of training and make $23,600 to $35,400 annually, if that information is accurate.
But you're right, they have an impossible job because actual terrorists are so rare. If we assumed, for argument's sake, that one out of every million air travelers is a terrorist (and that's probably a high number) and that the TSA people make the wrong call, either false positive or false negaitve, only once out of every ten thousand times (so they're right much more often than police officers, doctors, etc), you're still going to have a hundred innocent travelers falsely identified as terrorists for every terrorist they catch.
Has the TSA caught anyone in the act? There have been the two would-be bombers who got through, obviously. Does that make them 0/2 on actual terrorists?
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
The TSA is beyond incompetent. I think what makes it even worse though is how amazingly different the security requirements can be at different airports. After dipshit shoe guy ruined it for everyone else, there were some airport security lines that would still allow you to walk through if you were in sandals, some who wouldn't. If you had the gall to ASK whether or not you needed to because...every airport was different, you'd get the most random non answers, and end up in the special security area because you didn't take your sandals off. Same with laptops, I got into a terse argument with a guy at McCarran because my laptop was in a pocketless neoprene case. He went batshit at me for not removing my laptop from the case, while I politely tried to explain that every other airport I'd been to in the US had never said word one about it, and he was the only guy to ever make an issue out of it. He would not let it go and continued to very loudly deride me in front of everyone else in the line, "the sign's right there, says laptops have to be out of their case, can't you READ?" Next day I happened to read in the paper that the TSA had ammended the laptop rules to say that you could leave your computer in a small case as long as it had no pockets. Fucking guy.
But being a seasoned business traveler you just learn to roll with those kinds of punches, because you are not going to win the argument, they have absolute authority to have you thrown in jail over even the most spurious of claims, and there doesn't seem to be any employee discipline, while the managers are just as inept, if not more, than then the rank and file running the scanners. It really is security theater.
Wait, is the change in regulation and requirements state to state an intended part of the TSA, or is it a reflection of the disconnect and misunderstanding of the procedures they're supposed to follow?
TSA at least in my opinion, is not worth having beyond comic relief. Just recently I went to Las Vegas and was flying home to Minneapolis. As I was going through the security checkpoint at McCarren, during my carry-on bag I was the red light went off on the baggage scanner and I got pulled to aside by the female officer.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
The TSA is beyond incompetent. I think what makes it even worse though is how amazingly different the security requirements can be at different airports. After dipshit shoe guy ruined it for everyone else, there were some airport security lines that would still allow you to walk through if you were in sandals, some who wouldn't. If you had the gall to ASK whether or not you needed to because...every airport was different, you'd get the most random non answers, and end up in the special security area because you didn't take your sandals off. Same with laptops, I got into a terse argument with a guy at McCarran because my laptop was in a pocketless neoprene case. He went batshit at me for not removing my laptop from the case, while I politely tried to explain that every other airport I'd been to in the US had never said word one about it, and he was the only guy to ever make an issue out of it. He would not let it go and continued to very loudly deride me in front of everyone else in the line, "the sign's right there, says laptops have to be out of their case, can't you READ?" Next day I happened to read in the paper that the TSA had ammended the laptop rules to say that you could leave your computer in a small case as long as it had no pockets. Fucking guy.
But being a seasoned business traveler you just learn to roll with those kinds of punches, because you are not going to win the argument, they have absolute authority to have you thrown in jail over even the most spurious of claims, and there doesn't seem to be any employee discipline, while the managers are just as inept, if not more, than then the rank and file running the scanners. It really is security theater.
Wait, is the change in regulation and requirements state to state an intended part of the TSA, or is it a reflection of the disconnect and misunderstanding of the procedures they're supposed to follow?
It's the latter. The TSA has national guidelines as far as I know, but the people running security lines have a lot of leeway in how they enforce the guidelines. For instance Phoenix airport was one of the few places that had their people using black lights to check ID's for quite awhile. San Diego would let you go through in sandals for a long time, and Vegas by far is the worst in my experience, as a lot of the time security areas in different parts of McCarran itself will have conflicting requirements, and they are always either completely understaffed or overstaffed. And they just keep getting hilariously third world-ish as an organization. They recently switched all their staff over to wearing shirts that have epaulets with gold bands on the shoulders. Basically wannabe military uniforms.
And I am convinced they hire the people that can't even get jobs flipping burgers at McD's. Some of them seem unable to understand even the most basic of concepts. Though I should point out I've also seen many that are professional and courteous in their job, sadly they seem to be the exception to the rule.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited January 2010
Hey I've had to make a career out of flipping burgers, watch it! :P
So the question is, who enforces the enforcers and where the fuck are they and why aren't they ensuring their people are doing their job right?
Even if you have a 6" knife, or a goddamn longsword, if you're capable of taking on a plane-full of passengers with the thing then you're probably capable of taking them on without it. You can only stick a sharp thing into one person at a time and the 'knife' on a pair of clippers or a pair of sewing scissors or similar isn't much more threatening than a well-honed thumbnail.
I'm assured that the guy with the longsword is gonna have a harder time overpowering me than the guy with the 6" knife, if for no more reason than he can't swing a fucking longsword inside an airplane unless he's on Lex Luthor Airlines and all there is in there is a couch and a wetbar.
The real problem I've yet to see really addressed, is the gigantic security threat that is a big back up of people all bunched up in small space in an otherwise completely unsecure area in the terminal.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
The real problem I've yet to see really addressed, is the gigantic security threat that is a big back up of people all bunched up in small space in an otherwise completely unsecure area in the terminal.
That's true, they don't check you at the door. I guess the problem is getting enough funding to have more people to process people getting onto flights, as well as additional security in the public areas.
I'm getting less confident in this whole thing.
By the way I forgot to note earlier when I said I haven't flown since the 90's, it had nothing to do with fear of terrorism, it's my fear of flying to begin with. :P
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Most of the "body scanners" used in airports in the US are this type.
They suck quite frankly (check out the feet and ankles)
That link Tomanta posted has an example. It might be nsfw, and it's definitely nsf your lunch. Looks like the thing in that Aphex Twin video.
Confidence level in TSA
--> here.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
1. Full body scanners are a retarded idea that is making somebody ridiculously fucking rich.(they cost about 200k a pop)
2. Let's use all dubious sources of information to argue against them: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/
3. A novel solution about solving the terror problem is to start slapping hard everybody that says it's actually a problem worth solving.
I'm going to sig that....[SIZE="-3"]I'm also totally going to do it if I fly to an airport that has the scanners.[/SIZE]
How old was it?
You get up to a year from date of expiry before it's no longer considered valid.
And unless your toenail clippers had a blade on them they shouldn't be a problem.
The clippers had a foldout blade on them. Not that anyone ever took them out to check. I didn't find them until I unpacked my bag today. I went through security twice without a single eyebrow raise.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
This is on topic and awesome post worthy.
From what I recall, fingernail clippers and cosmetic scissors (under 4" blades) are no longer prohibited in carry-ons.
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This is true. Same with, IIRC, cigar cutters and quite a few other sharp/pointy objects.
Also, I thought it was awesome that a caller on NPR asked why it is that one dude flying from Nigeria tries to set off a bomb and suddenly everybody flying to the US from Nigeria is getting strip-searched, yet other countries where bombers have originated (like, say, THE UK) do not. It basically seems to come down to "we don't want to inconvenience our allies," or possibly just "we don't want to fuck with white people."
Better was that nobody seemed willing to offer any real answer to the question.
Several countries in Europe have significant populations of radical Muslims, yet will never make such a list. I'd argue that the portion of fliers, as a percentage, originating from Nigeria (or Cuba) looking to hijack/bomb a plane and the number from the UK are probably roughly equivalent, which is to say pretty much zero.
It's just amusing that we've had maybe a handful of actual close brushes with terrorist attacks in the last few years, and (IIRC) a majority of them originated in countries that were not included as "countries of interest" because they have more white people than brown people.
EDIT: And that's ignoring, of course, the fact that the terrorist attacks that started all this stupidity originated domestically, flight-wise. Basically I heard a good interview (again, IIRC, on NPR) where they basically said the worth thing you can do is create a "fast track" and a "slow track" through security...that profiling based on anything other than behavior in general is worse (securitywise, ignoring politics and civil liberties) than simply doing things randomly...because now instead of flying from Nigeria they'll just fly from Ghana instead. And likely face less security (marginally so, but less) because when they switch planes in Amsterdam the security there will be busy patting down Nigerians. Any time you try to create a "strength" without significantly increasing resources allocated, what you've really done is create a weakness that can be exploited.
In more humorous news, have any of you guys read this?
That's not even the strangest find.
Either somebody was using baggage (possibly a backpack or some such) that they use out in "the world" and forgot to remove the nails, or they saw a good deal on the nails while traveling (or were given them by a friend/family) and didn't know they were forbidden. I mean, why not take nails on an airplane? It's not any crazier than most of the other crazy shit people take on airplanes (specifically carry-on) every day, from dildos to wireless routers to copies of Atlas Shrugged.
There's also weight limits, although they didn't care as much back then.
I wouldn't deny that this may be an element, but it should probably be noted that something like 70% of all air travel by volume is business travel. The volume of business travel to and from the UK is probably significantly higher than Nigeria. Of course that leads round about to the same sort of thing: The powers that be are well aware that the actual threat is quite remote regardless of where the individual passenger originates from, and not making things too onerous on the respectable business traveler or holiday-goer (middle class and probably white as well!) while being seen to be enacting "stringent new security policies" strikes something like the right balance.
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Everyone here knows that the "citrus juicer" was really the fruit fucker trying to join the mile-high club with one of those sexy grapefruits in the air kitchen.
My girlfriend bought a "helper" in Thailand and was afraid to put it in the check in in case it was randomly checked by some guy in the back and instead put it in her carry-on, not thinking "hey, now the guy doing the machine is going to look you in the face." Thankfully, they didn't pull it out of the bag, and it was a female technician who just turned three shades of red (well, as three shades of red as you can get with a Thai) and passed it on through.
Misogynistic aside: Some women simply don't understand "hey, you know they sell those at home".
It's not about cutting them THERE, it's about having your "bathroom stuff" in a bag that you have WITH you, so if your luggage gets lost you're not stranded without contact fluid/toothbrush/etc. And banning fingernail/toenail clippers was always a monumentally stupid idea since it's way more efficient having a plastic knife if you really want to try and stab someone, and even that would be fucking useless. So I'm glad they got to their senses on that.
I imagine there are orders of magnitude more people flying from "Rich country" A than "Poor country" B, the UK in particular.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
I think perhaps the most important is this: if you are at war with some one who is realistically capable of subduing the passengers and crew of an airliner with a pair of fingernail cutters and crashing it into a building, then my friend, you are at war with Batman. It makes no appreciable difference whether he has the nail clippers or not, because he could do the same thing with his bare hands. You should simply give up.
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Some of them have little knives in them. I always assumed if was for wires, though.
I actually have one that has a tiny knife on it, but that's neither here nor there. Let's say a guy does have a three inch blade on the plane. If he's the kind of person who could take on the other passengers with this little weapon and then force his way into the locked cockpit, then he could probably do it with his bare hands or a heavy book or whatever other item comes to hand, because he's the god damn Batman. If they're improvised wire cutters, what wire his he going to cut? A bomb? So we're talking about a scenario where a guy can get a bomb and get it on the aircraft, but his whole plan hinges on cutting it the same way he'd cut his toenail, and nothing else will do the job? Or is he going to get into the plane's electrical system and cut some wires?
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Really this.
Even if you have a 6" knife, or a goddamn longsword, if you're capable of taking on a plane-full of passengers with the thing then you're probably capable of taking them on without it. You can only stick a sharp thing into one person at a time and the 'knife' on a pair of clippers or a pair of sewing scissors or similar isn't much more threatening than a well-honed thumbnail.
I for one applaud the prosecution's choice to avoid any kinds of conspiracy/terrorism charges and just stick to the factual stuff that they can prove in just a day of witness testimony. They've already got enough to put him in jail for life, no need to turn it into an expensive circus by trying to prove anything more then the obvious... that he got on an american plane with a bomb and tried to set it off while flying in american airspace.
I really am annoyed however by Cheney's blathering. The simple fact is Abdul was a foreign national who was traveling into America with a valid visa, committed a crime in our land, and was caught in our land. That makes our laws applicable both to him and to our courts, which gives our courts the power to charge, try, convict, sentence, and incarcerate him. If you don't like it, change the laws; don't complain that it's contrary to the purpose of achieving national security. It's no different then that bunch of Americans who got convicted for murder in Italy.
Also... he's a dead man if he ever sets foot in general population. Five minutes tops. Hell even in a supermax he's probably still dead; the gangs will find a way to do it just so they can take credit for it.
Sheesh.
They saw a large brick in my carry on and what I can only assume they thought it was C4. They opened up my bag and took out the large brick. She laughed and smiled stating, "I will have to do a thorough taste search on this." At first I got a little miffed but realized she was joking as she wanted to eat my pound of fudge from the Excalibur.
At least she had a sense of humor I guess. I haven't flown on an airplane since the 90's so all I've heard about flying is how much of a bitch the security is and how irritating and incompetent the security team is.
They aren't really incompetent, they just have an impossible task made all the more difficult by the idiotic requirements placed on them/passengers. All under the knowledge that any minor screwup will make national news and likely fuck you over because zomg terrorists!
ITT: Crying "Security Breach!" in a crowded airport is the new "fire!"/movie theater.
It is completely ridiculous to shut down a place for HOURS for minor security incidents.
The TSA is beyond incompetent. I think what makes it even worse though is how amazingly different the security requirements can be at different airports. After dipshit shoe guy ruined it for everyone else, there were some airport security lines that would still allow you to walk through if you were in sandals, some who wouldn't. If you had the gall to ASK whether or not you needed to because...every airport was different, you'd get the most random non answers, and end up in the special security area because you didn't take your sandals off. Same with laptops, I got into a terse argument with a guy at McCarran because my laptop was in a pocketless neoprene case. He went batshit at me for not removing my laptop from the case, while I politely tried to explain that every other airport I'd been to in the US had never said word one about it, and he was the only guy to ever make an issue out of it. He would not let it go and continued to very loudly deride me in front of everyone else in the line, "the sign's right there, says laptops have to be out of their case, can't you READ?" Next day I happened to read in the paper that the TSA had ammended the laptop rules to say that you could leave your computer in a small case as long as it had no pockets. Fucking guy.
But being a seasoned business traveler you just learn to roll with those kinds of punches, because you are not going to win the argument, they have absolute authority to have you thrown in jail over even the most spurious of claims, and there doesn't seem to be any employee discipline, while the managers are just as inept, if not more, than then the rank and file running the scanners. It really is security theater.
Doubtful. The muslim contingent is pretty powerful in it's own right inside. A lot of guys convert for that reason. And the bangers kill each other for control of the drug trade, not for notoriety.
I can't say whether they're incompetent or not, but they don't strike me as a particularly elite group. I Googled for information, and found this. So we're talking about a group of US citizens who can pass a background check, have a high school diploma or GED, complete 100 hours of training and make $23,600 to $35,400 annually, if that information is accurate.
But you're right, they have an impossible job because actual terrorists are so rare. If we assumed, for argument's sake, that one out of every million air travelers is a terrorist (and that's probably a high number) and that the TSA people make the wrong call, either false positive or false negaitve, only once out of every ten thousand times (so they're right much more often than police officers, doctors, etc), you're still going to have a hundred innocent travelers falsely identified as terrorists for every terrorist they catch.
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Wait, is the change in regulation and requirements state to state an intended part of the TSA, or is it a reflection of the disconnect and misunderstanding of the procedures they're supposed to follow?
It's the latter. The TSA has national guidelines as far as I know, but the people running security lines have a lot of leeway in how they enforce the guidelines. For instance Phoenix airport was one of the few places that had their people using black lights to check ID's for quite awhile. San Diego would let you go through in sandals for a long time, and Vegas by far is the worst in my experience, as a lot of the time security areas in different parts of McCarran itself will have conflicting requirements, and they are always either completely understaffed or overstaffed. And they just keep getting hilariously third world-ish as an organization. They recently switched all their staff over to wearing shirts that have epaulets with gold bands on the shoulders. Basically wannabe military uniforms.
And I am convinced they hire the people that can't even get jobs flipping burgers at McD's. Some of them seem unable to understand even the most basic of concepts. Though I should point out I've also seen many that are professional and courteous in their job, sadly they seem to be the exception to the rule.
So the question is, who enforces the enforcers and where the fuck are they and why aren't they ensuring their people are doing their job right?
Again - the TSA is a gigantic blueballing.
That's true, they don't check you at the door. I guess the problem is getting enough funding to have more people to process people getting onto flights, as well as additional security in the public areas.
I'm getting less confident in this whole thing.
By the way I forgot to note earlier when I said I haven't flown since the 90's, it had nothing to do with fear of terrorism, it's my fear of flying to begin with. :P