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That first one is interesting... I once stopped for a load of pumpkin bread before boarding a plane. I put it into my backpack. The tsa agent saw the buldge and

That first one is interesting... I once stopped for a load of pumpkin bread before boarding a plane. I put it into my backpack. The tsa agent saw the buldge and started to punch my backpack! I yelled at him to stop and he said he thought it was a water bottle... Yeah, like it is a good idea to punch something you think might be explosive.

amscanne 6y ago
I’m pretty sure that most TSA employees forgot why water bottles aren’t allowed a long time ago (if they ever knew), and now are just searching for water bottles directly. That’s the consequence of hard and fast rules — people stop using their brains.
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Yeah, it really feels like that. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/651/ https://xkcd.com/651/
- remarkEon 6y ago
  TSA employees are paid for security theatre - not actual security. I don't mean to denigrate these folks too much but ... they're not exactly the kind of people I'd hire to, say, walk my dog. They stand there and pretend they're doing "security" but what they're really doing is bureaucracy and political patronage. Suppose for a moment we wanted to implement the kind of security that TSA pretends to represent. We'd thus deputize them as part of DoD (or DHS) and they'd carry MP5s and have actual training standards, weight standards, quarterly fitness reports, have to get security clearances etc. etc. They'd do drills at a mock airport, and we'd eventually do away with the "checkpoint" style of security at airports that's really just an invitation for a suicide bomber. I once saw a TSA employee at LAX insist on putting a kid's balloon from Disneyland, that was clear and 100% see-through, through the X-ray machine. I watched this and, as I suspected, the TSA agent never even considered that because the balloon was filled with helium it of course wouldn't move through the machine on the conveyor belt and it got stuck. "Checkpoint" indefinitely shut down. Security Theatre, indeed.
  - m10i 6y ago
    Why does the balloon being filled with helium mean it wouldn’t move through the machine on the conveyor belt? Just curious.
    - ylyn 6y ago
      You're kidding, right? The balloon would float and not stay in contact with the belt.
    - aetch 6y ago
      The balloon floats and will not touch the conveyor belt?
      - m10i 6y ago
        Hey thanks for the answer. I can be too literal, so at the time I wasn't sure if that's what he was implying, or if there was some other special property about helium in a balloon in an X-ray machine that I didn't know of.
    - fingerlocks 6y ago
      the charitable interpretation of this question is “Why wasn’t the balloon tied to something that could move through the conveyor belt?”. Which is a much more reasonable thing to ask.
    - botwriter 6y ago
      Don't worry fella I'm assuming you havn't woken up and had your first coffee of the day :D
    - m10i 6y ago
      Although I was very tired when I originally posted this around 2:30 AM, I think my train of thought was that if they got it from outside of the machine in the conveyor belt --> inside of the machine in the conveyor belt --> it's the same mechanism which will get it to pop out of the other end. But I suppose I was giving too much benefit of the doubt :)
  - 6y ago
Marsymars 6y ago
Eh, I also usually go through security with an empty metal water bottle in my bag, that would be pretty unpleasant to punch with any force.
ezoe 6y ago
That's hilarious. The attacker can exploit the fact that the TSA agent punching the suspicious bag and using him as an detonator. I don't know. Did he suffer a serious brain damage? You're looking for a potentially explosive material and punching it is the best way to test?
- sjwright 6y ago
  Are there explosive materials vulnerable to punching?
  - magicalhippo 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_powder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_powder From what I'm told my grandfather had fun with the cleaning ladies at the pharmacy he worked in by sprinkling flash powder ingredients on the floor, so that when they swept them up together the mix would go off, making a small poof, scaring the cleaning ladies.

amscanne 6y ago

I’m pretty sure that most TSA employees forgot why water bottles aren’t allowed a long time ago (if they ever knew), and now are just searching for water bottles directly. That’s the consequence of hard and fast rules — people stop using their brains.

mehrdadn 6y ago
Yeah, it really feels like that. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/651/ https://xkcd.com/651/
remarkEon 6y ago
TSA employees are paid for security theatre - not actual security. I don't mean to denigrate these folks too much but ... they're not exactly the kind of people I'd hire to, say, walk my dog. They stand there and pretend they're doing "security" but what they're really doing is bureaucracy and political patronage. Suppose for a moment we wanted to implement the kind of security that TSA pretends to represent. We'd thus deputize them as part of DoD (or DHS) and they'd carry MP5s and have actual training standards, weight standards, quarterly fitness reports, have to get security clearances etc. etc. They'd do drills at a mock airport, and we'd eventually do away with the "checkpoint" style of security at airports that's really just an invitation for a suicide bomber. I once saw a TSA employee at LAX insist on putting a kid's balloon from Disneyland, that was clear and 100% see-through, through the X-ray machine. I watched this and, as I suspected, the TSA agent never even considered that because the balloon was filled with helium it of course wouldn't move through the machine on the conveyor belt and it got stuck. "Checkpoint" indefinitely shut down. Security Theatre, indeed.
- m10i 6y ago
  Why does the balloon being filled with helium mean it wouldn’t move through the machine on the conveyor belt? Just curious.
  - ylyn 6y ago
    You're kidding, right? The balloon would float and not stay in contact with the belt.
  - aetch 6y ago
    The balloon floats and will not touch the conveyor belt?
    - m10i 6y ago
      Hey thanks for the answer. I can be too literal, so at the time I wasn't sure if that's what he was implying, or if there was some other special property about helium in a balloon in an X-ray machine that I didn't know of.
  - fingerlocks 6y ago
    the charitable interpretation of this question is “Why wasn’t the balloon tied to something that could move through the conveyor belt?”. Which is a much more reasonable thing to ask.
  - botwriter 6y ago
    Don't worry fella I'm assuming you havn't woken up and had your first coffee of the day :D
  - m10i 6y ago
    Although I was very tired when I originally posted this around 2:30 AM, I think my train of thought was that if they got it from outside of the machine in the conveyor belt --> inside of the machine in the conveyor belt --> it's the same mechanism which will get it to pop out of the other end. But I suppose I was giving too much benefit of the doubt :)
- 6y ago

Marsymars 6y ago

Eh, I also usually go through security with an empty metal water bottle in my bag, that would be pretty unpleasant to punch with any force.

ezoe 6y ago

That's hilarious. The attacker can exploit the fact that the TSA agent punching the suspicious bag and using him as an detonator. I don't know. Did he suffer a serious brain damage? You're looking for a potentially explosive material and punching it is the best way to test?

sjwright 6y ago
Are there explosive materials vulnerable to punching?
- magicalhippo 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_powder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_powder From what I'm told my grandfather had fun with the cleaning ladies at the pharmacy he worked in by sprinkling flash powder ingredients on the floor, so that when they swept them up together the mix would go off, making a small poof, scaring the cleaning ladies.