TSA tells UK airport security: confiscate broken and out-of-battery gadgets

boing
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[quote=“Bobo, post:80, topic:36463”]
But if you literally filled a carry on (ridiculous weight notwithstanding) with s radioopaque metallic powder, I’m betting you’re getting the 3rd degree.[/quote]

Add any number of binding agents and it’s just a solid object. Ashtray, maybe.

Which is determined … how? TSA agents aren’t exactly analytical chemists. All the stuff is is rust and aluminum. Good luck stopping aluminum and iron coming onboard.

Nitrates? Detectable, in part because they break down with volatile residue. Metals? Precious little volatile residue from any of their environmental reactions and if there were they’d be stopping every rollerbag, laptop, coin purse, belt, …

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Just make sure you put the tracking on.

Imagine in four months the number of devices distributed around, highlighted on a map of the USA.

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You know, I’ve got family in the USA, and have wanted for years to take my kids to visit, and have been substantially put off by the scanners.

It’s such a shame the public at large is so milquetoast as to not complain en masse and get rid of the entire stupid system.

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There are energetic materials that can also double as structural ones, thermite-like compositions known as reactive materials.

From the non-energetic, civilian materials, aluminium-filled polyamide is fairly close. Replace the polyamide with a suitable fluoropolymer, and voila, stored chemical energy!

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Fun stuff.

These people are my neighbors, so there are some very interesting conversations in the coffee shops. Not to mention the occasional earth-shattering KA-BOOM!

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The issue is less that we don’t have enough complainers or that we are not vocal enough, it’s that the public at large says “I didn’t do anything wrong, so I don’t have any fears when they _______________” It’s that they simply don’t have enough experience with getting completely fucked over by the impersonal system when things go awry.

A lot of people also never fly, you’d be surprised at how a lot of people I know just drive everywhere.

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[ENVY]!!!

Especially the coffe shop conversations.

Edit: Thought: There are shooting ranges where you can come and borrow a gun and buy and shoot ammo, with expert advice. It would be cool if there were blasting ranges where you could do the same with explosives!

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Not to mention the huge number of Americans who simply don’t travel, anywhere, at all.

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It’s kind of scary that people go to Disney once a year and after Epcot pretty much say they’re done with Europe.

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Well, if you’re a student you can take introduction to explosives engineering [1][2]. And of course the coffee shop conversations are free. (Or the later ones over beer at the Cap.)

[1] Basically intro to explosives safety.
[2] One of my sons did.

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