No one ever said the US government was run by geniuses. Anyone who keeps the TSA running the way it has been for almost fifteen years now clearly isn’t that bright.
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I used a Nexus One phone for 3-4 years. After about a year (the warranty period…), the power button stopped working. This is common on Nexus Ones, probably a design flaw. There’s a physical trackball with button on the front you can program to wake the screen etc., so it’s still usable.
The problem comes when you want to turn it on from being powered off - such as if you swap out the battery, often necessary when traveling. You have to plug in a power source and remove and insert the battery a few times, which prompts it to turn itself on. I used one of those portable backup batteries for this, and did this probably-suspicious-looking procedure on airplanes many times.
This is an anecdote about a rare and unusual problem, but then I’m not sure how unusual it actually is. You never know what weird systems people have with their electronics and other things. Clearly anything like this will prompt problems with the new rules if they’re enforced.
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I was under the impression that the TSA will empty the bottles out into the bin, mixing the liquids. 
What does powering the device on prove? You could put a tiny computer like a raspberry pi in a big laptop case and have a lot of space left over for other stuff. If you put a flash drive in a USB hard drive case all the space the hard drive would have taken would be available, and a file system would still be mounted if it were connected to a computer.
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What retired pornoscanners? I still have to pass through one every time I go through security here in Houston, at either airport.
Perhaps @MsScience has an alternate solution:
Just turn us off before takeoff…
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I know, right? There are a million ways. It’s sick and it’s sad that anyone would do something so destructive.
The machines have been there for +25 years. What have they been doing with them all this time?!
This sounds like a more palatable turn-off than the airline food!
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You can opt out, I’ve never passed through one.
That’s it for me. I’m glad to have been able to visit the USA numerous times already, and I certainly would like to see more of it, but unless and until this incessant and ever-escalating “travel security” fuckwittery stops, I’m unlikely to consider returning there. Not a great loss, as there’s a whole world of other countries to visit.
Unfortunately you’ll need to avoid airplanes then, any country that flies to the US is required to maintain the TSA standards no matter where you are going in the concern that various strata of security screened passengers could mix in the sterile area. unfortunately what fuckwittery we start with spreads to everyone else.
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Cutting costs and corners? Bailing out the airlines repeatedly? Putting on a show to calm the panicked masses?
Real security is expensive, but security theatre is cheap.
Real security does make people safer, but doesn’t always make them feel safer.
Security theatre doesn’t make people safer, but does make them feel safer.
If you’re a politician trying to keep voters happy and campaign funds flowing, you want to enact the greatest emotional change for the lowest price.
External attacks have panicked voters and made them crave a sense of security? You want the option that calms people down the most, regardless of how effective it is at actually making people any safer.
The economy is in a recession, and government spending is immensely unpopular? You want the option that costs the least overall - even if you’re effectively wasting the money in terms of actual effectiveness, so long as people think it’s doing something useful, you win.
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Well, I’m in the same boat as Mark Scott. I will under sufferance go through these indignities in order to travel internationally, but that travel will not be to the nest from which they spawned.
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I won’t take it personally. But if you’re going through them anyway feel free to come visit, we do have some neat stuff!
We used to holiday in the US, but we’ve been avoiding the place ever since the TSA madness began. It’s only one country and there’s plenty of neat stuff in the rest of the world. We’ll come back and say ‘Hi!’ when sense is restored. Meanwhile our tourist $$s are spent elsewhere, sorry.
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Yeah, I know. And, er, “some of my best friends are Americans, but…”
Honestly, it’s not personal - I don’t blame you
Does anyone know what the TSA policy is for e-waste recycling?
Only I’ve got a number of non-working gadgets that have had all the useful parts removed from them and I’ve been hanging on to just in case.
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Frankly, I’m not sure sense will ever be restored.
I don’t blame you for not coming! I love America. It’s my home. And, with the exception of an often misplaced vote, and the occasional sternly worded but ignored letter to a legislator, I have no more say in how she is run than you do. I’m not optimistic at sense ever being restored. I fear that the majority of my countrymen are Altemeyer’s right-wing authoritarians.
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