Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#101

Post by sandworm101 » Fri, May 05, 2017, 8:40 PM UTC

fvold wrote: post #97

goodcanadian wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. There are too many makes and models out there to make this a reasonable thing to do. I imagine that it is just to see things more clearly. A laptop is many layers of densely packed electronics. It would be very easy to hide explosives (in place of the battery, for example) and triggering mechanism in there.

"In place of"? It's trivial to cause a lithium-ion battery battery to explode if you know how. Don't tell TSA, though, or you're going to have a very boring flight.

Burn yes. Pop yes, but not the sort of explosion necessary to damage an aircraft. That guy on youtube making "grenades" from batteries ... they are more firecracker than weapon. You could do more damage with a bottle of vodka and a match.

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#102

Post by fvold » Fri, May 05, 2017, 8:43 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #101

fvold wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In place of"? It's trivial to cause a lithium-ion battery battery to explode if you know how. Don't tell TSA, though, or you're going to have a very boring flight.

Burn yes. Pop yes, but not the sort of explosion necessary to damage an aircraft. That guy on youtube making "grenades" from batteries ... they are more firecracker than weapon. You could do more damage with a bottle of vodka and a match.

True, but it's enough to make a rather spectacular show to frighten people, and in the end, that's what terrorism is about.

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#103

Post by hackuser » Fri, May 05, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #6

I flew out of MCI (American Airlines) on Sunday evening, confirmed this definitely happened. They asked for books, papers, notebooks, etc. However, I disagree with one point in the article: I didn't witness them "scanning" the documents with a scanner. They went through the Xray machine in a separate bin, much like your laptop does. Perhaps I missed something.

> I disagree with one point in the article: I didn't witness them "scanning" the documents with a scanner. They went through the Xray machine in a separate bin

I think that's what was intended by the article:

Once the paper products were removed, the passenger had to put them in a separate bin to be scanned separately.

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#104

Post by to3m » Fri, May 05, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

madamelic wrote: post #54

I can't wait till we have to travel in paper smocks, chained to our seats like the criminals we truly are.

Eventually they'll just shoot you at the airport when you turn up, then throw your carcass into an incinerator, because aeroplane travel will have become so inconvenient that only the most devoted of terrorist would bother.

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#105

Post by kahnpro » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:01 PM UTC

cmurf wrote: post #95

nathancahill wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently flew with 20 lb of cheese. Definitely got re-scanned. Cheese is dense.

Nearly 40,000 calories dense.

But could you launch it 300m away from a trebuchet?

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#106

Post by ckrailo » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

I found this story by checking Google for updates in the news... sounds like the TSA has reversed course:

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2017/05/05/tsa-fo...

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#107

Post by pbhjpbhj » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #25

exabrial wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe someone got caught with a lead-lined hollow book concealing a weapon?

Going a little off topic now... I'm surprised nobody has combined 3D X-Ray Scanning with computer vision technology. At the moment we're depending on the human eye flicking between three dimensions and spotting bad things, with very basic shape detection to "hint" at objects of interest. This system kind of works, but has human error weaknesses. If you fed 3D X-Rayed objects into a computer vision engine, eventually…

They could also profile the contents, there's got to be a normal distribution of items in baggage for particular types of journeys?

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#108

Post by coldcode » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:54 PM UTC

madamelic wrote: post #54

I can't wait till we have to travel in paper smocks, chained to our seats like the criminals we truly are.

Each person is pushed into a tube from the top whilst the current resident is pushed out the bottom. Each tube is made of reinforced kevlar and whatever else you can imagine. Each person is naked and is allowed no carryons of any kind. This of course will also increase profits as you can fit more tubes than seats.

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#109

Post by SecretAg3nt » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:56 PM UTC

nikanj wrote: post #92

valuearb wrote: post #67

If the TSA was shutdown entirely leading to terrorists blew up 10 planes a year in the US, flying would still be as safe as it was in the 1960s. http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/U-S-commercial-airlines...

With their current track record of 0 terrorists caught since 9/11, I think it would be much safer than the 1960s.

This ignores the deterrence factor

Re: Why Is the TSA Scanning Paper?

#110

Post by makecheck » Fri, May 05, 2017, 9:59 PM UTC

This sounds more like the "department of imagined threats" justifying its existence, not actual security.

Even if there is ANY possible risk, what was their analysis? The odds of this are probably lower than being struck by lightning.

The only new things I want to hear out of the TSA each week are: which rules have now been REMOVED, and how many fewer minutes security lines are taking on average.