Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/21/phablets-considered-bombful.html
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Schneier will have a field day with this. Lets assume for a second they actually have any intelligence (as in information, not brains)
“OMG OMG TERRORIST WILL SMUGGLE BOMBS IN LAPTOPS FROM THIS AIRPORT!”
“Thanks DHS, we at Al-Qaeda appreciate your information and will now board from some other airport”
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yep, more useless security theatre
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TSA, for the last few years: “Don’t put laptops in your checked baggage! A terrorist could use a laptop bomb in the luggage compartment and blow up an entire plane! Only put them in carry-ons.”
TSA, now: “If you’re a brown person we don’t trust you with a laptop in your carry-on. You should put it in checked baggage, no worries there.”
I am confuse
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I’m not sure if they’re worried about the explosives detonating in-flight, or being smuggled in to be used on the ground.
If the latter, I don’t see what this does, because they’re allowed to keep their electronics, they just need to stow them as checked baggage. They get off on the other side, reclaim their explosives-laden electronics, and be on their merry.
On the other hand, if they’re worried about the explosives being detonated in-flight… Well, let’s just say that it’s a good thing that they’re banning all electronics from the cabin, including phones, or else they’d be able to rig up a remote detonator. It’s also a good thing that timers have never been invented, for the same reason.
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I wonder if the next step is to ban these devices across the board instead of just Muslim countries. Ya know, like the very popular water ban.
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This is all just so ridiculous: everything a mad bomber needs is already in the US.
Old clocks and smoke detectors for radioactive material, fertilizer, various chemicals and acids…wtf.
How is shit like this anything but an attempt at frightening the citizenry?
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include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items."
Like many have already pointed out, if putting explosives in things like a laptop is an issue, what difference is there between having it in the cabin or cargo bay?
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So far and for all we can see, the point is “let me humiliate brown people” and “so you say I cant do this shit? Watch me”
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You want to know what might make me want to blow something up?
Sitting on a plane without a laptop for 12 hours.
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I’m wondering if the next step is a lot of businesspeople flying into Canada instead, or scheduling all of their flights at night to sleep through them instead. I’m not someone who has to go to Dubai for business, but I imagine that some folks will go to great lengths to be able to do work on transcontinental flights.
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I thought they didn’t want them in the cargo hold because the lithium ion batteries could catch fire, and it would be harder to detect or put out?
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Headline could be “DHS Forces Terrorist to pay $150 Change Fee to Airline”
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Some phones are pretty big these days. What’s their dividing line between phones and phablets?
Edit: If I’d bought the 3G version of my Android tablet, it would be a phone, with a 10" screen.
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This has nothing to do with actual threats or even security in general. It is a theater performance. It is exerting power for the sake of showing power.
And thus actually showing impotence.
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Of course it’s the next step, because the logical reaction on the part of the hypothetical determined terrorists would be to not fly directly to the U.S. from those airports. I give it six months at the outside before they decide to extend the ban to passengers coming into the U.S. from all foreign airports. On the plus side, revenues from over-priced rentals of “approved” tablets will increase for the airlines and vendors on the concourse.
I can seriously imagine a day when passengers will not be permitted any carry-ons and instead have to change into paper jumpsuits for the flight.
The point right now is to try to make passengers miserable and reluctant to fly while the regime figures out its next attempt to implement its unConstitutional Muslim travel ban.
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This just in to the Lamaranagram Newsroom: Terrorists wishing to blow up planes with their laptops now have 10 fewer departing airports to choose from
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It’s nice to see that even after all these years, the TSA can still make travel less convenient without making it any safer.
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Aside from this … what a pain in the ass for these airports. Presumably they don’t have separate security checkpoints for US bound vs other flights. So … now they have to scan for electronics at the gate, or not allow them for any flight, or … I don’t know what. US bound flights from these places have to be a small small % of the flights. On top of that, you have people connecting who could have a laptop with them from first leg of their trip. If I were travelling in this area, I’d be dead sure I’m not changing planes anywhere near these. These are long ass flights too. You got kids now without entertainments, adults who can’t work on the plane now. But hey at least we’re safer. If terrorists were smart they’d just say “screw it - we’ve fucked up air travel enough now … what’s next?”
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Why stop there? Sedate the passengers and you can stack them like cordwood in the plane. That way the airlines can jam even more people into the plane (more tickets = more $) and they can reduce the size of the flight crew (no need to serve drinks to people who are unconscious), saving even more $. Plus unconscious people are less likely to blow up the plane, so there’s some security bonus as well.
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