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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

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Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm going to start putting a USB nuke stick in my luggage in an envelope. Just for fun. Maybe I'll label the envelope something nonsensical like "12-16" just to make sure people know it's useless. I love the idea but I can't help but think that even with a completely airtight reason to be traveling with that item (e.g. you're a security researcher) you would be accused of terrorism. Somehow.

Well they cannot yet force you to divulge encryption keys, right? And your nuke device might be worthless if they install a firmware exploit that will work later.

By nuke device he may have been referring to https://www.usbkill.com

https://youtu.be/X4OmkBYB4HY

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#292
post #25

When I came to the US in 2000 it was a fairly optimistic and happy place. Now when I read stuff like this I always get reminded how this country went from pretty open to being scared, irrational and mean in the last 15 or so years.

Let's be honest here. Osama Bin Laden won. The US as we knew it pre-911 doesn't exist anymore. He caused it, but the worst thing about it is that we did it to ourselves. First Bush, then Obama and now Trump is putting the nail in the coffin.

If bin Laden's victory condition was "many overly-reductive Americans bemoaning negative events in their nation's existence by parroting that the sky is irreversibly falling, throwing in the entire towel, forgetting or never bothering to study several existential threats to the United States in its brief history, and shrugging that our doom is all due to a Big Bad who managed to take down the world's occasionally most powerful nation with four airliners," then sure, he won. Since it wasn't, your comment is pretty much meaningless despite its appearance of wisdom.

It's weird, for all this terminal rhetoric I read about the end of America I still drove to work this morning and still had faith in American values, not to mention a crazy belief that what's right will ultimately prevail in the face of great adversity. What's more, I feel uniquely empowered as an American to roll up my sleeves and create the America I want to see and believe is good for the rest of us, and I didn't even need Gandhi to teach me that one.

I guess I need a sandwich board instead, because what's the point? Are we merely South Canada now, waiting for an eventual invasion that will take our economic, military, scientific and cultural leadership away, leaving a skeleton of a sovereign state that barely made it out of puberty? What coffin do you think Trump is building? I'm about as disapproving of the current administration as you can get, but I've also studied just enough of the world to understand that things tend to endure, even when the situation looks most hopeless to all involved.

Look at the Big Bads that the British survived throughout their centuries of history. Sure, Pax Britannica and their colonial adventures around the world have come to a close, but I don't see any comments saying "the world won, Britain lost, might as well yield the Crown and just absorb into the EU." Nope: they still fight for what they believe to be good and properly British, including giving the finger to the rest of Europe when they feel it necessary. We should learn from that example, of those with the learned memory of an empire from which they descend, deflated by the world changing around it, yet avoiding the adoption of a fatalist nostalgia that impedes all progress and hope for the future.

If the British aren't a good example, look at the Germans who still live in the punchline of uncomfortable jokes. They're still here, still making some mean beer, and still a valuable member of the world. Not even a particularly misguided government pissing off the entire planet could get rid of a German ideal that lived in its citizens' hearts, and they had a God damned wall down the middle in the wake of that mess to constantly remind them of how hopeless it got.

We are due to be knocked down a couple more pegs than we already are. If you're of the mind to give up when that happens, then you can identify yourself as a member of the "winning" army. Saying UbL won and giving up makes him win. How do you not see that?

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#294

I see many people here trying to puzzle out why electronics are under a partial ban from cabins but not from checked baggage . It's a good question, since if there is a fire or explosion hazard on a plane the last place you want it is wrapped in a wad of flammable cloth and synthetics, even if it is oxygen starved. The only motivation I can imagine is: They want these devices in checked luggage because checked luggag…

Wipe devices before packing. Arrive in country then restore backup remotely.

Having a device that looks wiped is grounds for suspicion in and of itself these days. In some cases, enough to turn someone away (remember, they can always do that to non-citizens, and you have very little recourse if they do).

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#295

> Royal Jordanian said the electronics ban affects its flights to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. Montreal, USA?

Apparently some flights to Canada are affected due to passing through US airspace.

To clarify, US - unique among all countries, so far as I know - asserts that its rules apply in full to any aircraft (and their passengers, luggage etc) traversing its airspace, even if neither the origin nor the destination is actually in US.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#296
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's a shoutout to Trump's core supporters that he's still committed to doing "The Right Thing" by putting those brown people in their proper places. (Totally not picked because they're muslim, I swear, wink wink.)

So who was Obama appealing to among his core supporters, when he attacked "brown people" in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen?

Obama didn't do the wink part before he did that, though.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These parts of the article provides plausible explanation: "Brian Jenkins, an aviation-security expert at the Rand Corp., said the nature of the security measure suggested that it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack." "The ban would begin just before Wednesday's meeting of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Washington. A number of top Arab officials were expected to attend the State…

What kind of attack would this policy avert?

Somebody hiding in the laptop chassis some kind of object that can be used to harm others.

The X rays are certainly not perfect and there is certain probability something goes unnoticed. In normal case we just make a trade off between convenience and security. In this special case somebody wants to play it safe.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#298
post #25

When I came to the US in 2000 it was a fairly optimistic and happy place. Now when I read stuff like this I always get reminded how this country went from pretty open to being scared, irrational and mean in the last 15 or so years.

>2000

I see. You missed out on the Reagan years.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#299
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

> In 2016, the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen This just depends which plane you get. They all have new and old planes, you can get unlucky on any airline.

I can't think of a single European airline that does not have seat-back IFE on long-haul flights. The same goes for the ME3 airlines.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#300
post #217

The Big 4 Middle East/Gulf airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish) have been giving legacy US carriers a lot of grief lately, since they're both cheaper and better on essentially all counts, so I can't help but wonder if they have their finger in the pie here. Few businessmen will opt to fly long-haul if they can't use their laptops, and they're specifically targeting 9 airlines here, not just airports or countri…

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

United is just a bad airline. I've had better service in Economy class on SWISS than I had in business on United.
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