Message Number: |
447 |
From: |
Daniel Reeves <dreeves Æ umich.edu> |
Date: |
Sun, 13 Aug 2006 14:17:08 -0400 (EDT) |
Subject: |
stupid feel-good "no liquids" rule |
My mom and I argued about this today. I'm on a plane right now and here
are my thoughts:
If you wanted to get a liquid on a plane you would just put it in a
ziplock bag in a square container and that would pass through the x-ray
without raising an eyebrow, or just leave bottles of stuff right in your
pockets -- no alarms will go off as you stroll through the metal detector.
Or print a fake prescription label (they have an exception for
prescriptions). These measures will foil the terrorists who are
sophisticated enough to acquire liquid explosives but not sophisticated
enough to get some liquid through security (something, incidentally, I
just did without trying). If you still think (this is directed at you,
Mom) we've got to "at least try", how about this: do brain scans of
passengers and reject those who are thinking about blowing up a plane.
Sure, we can't detect that in a brain scan and if we could terrorists
could circumvent it by thinking about kittens, but my god, we've to to at
least try!
Thus is my rant. The TSA is stupid.
Danny
PS, seriously, any idiot can get liquids through security. I'm a case in
point. Oh, and same goes for pocket-knives, to a lesser extent.
--
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves - - search://"Daniel Reeves"
"I'm on a seafood diet -- I see food and I eat it."
|