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U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

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Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#101

Post by kalleboo »

gnicholas wrote: post #97
jasonkester wrote: post #3

No worries. For a few hundred dollars, I'm sure you'll be able to register as a certified patriotic laptop carrier. Everything will go back to normal and the airline will get to collect yet another fee for something we used to get for free. And we're totally safer from terrorists as a result.

Don't forget about the extra revenue for the airlines from selling more movies on seatback displays.

What airline makes you pay for the seatback IFE system? Any low-cost carrier that would do something like that forgoes the system entirely in my experience.

Instead they're just going to lose out on WiFi fees.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#102

Post by mirimir »

arethuza wrote: post #55
mirimir wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Gibson's Count Zero , Turner was almost killed by a "Slamhound", an exploding dog trained to find him. I vaguely recall that the dog's liver was replaced by explosive.

Sounds vaguely like the Soviet anti-tank dogs from WW2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

Wow. That's crazy. And it didn't work, either. But humans arguably wouldn't get confused so readily.

Even so, they'd just X-ray all passengers.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#103

Post by pluma »

vivekd wrote: post #70
dom0 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, actually the argument is that > the US [government] says [they have intel] has historically been full of shit and completely made up from time to time. Therefore there is no reason to believe it now.

> has historically been full of shit and completely made up from time to time. Therefore there is no reason to believe it now. Then why do you believe them about the terrorists being the bad guys, or even existing at all. Why not set up a nice rendezvous with ISIS and maybe talk about what you have in common. Why believe the government about anything ever. Why do you think they are telling the truth about vaccination…

So you see no distinction between saying "the US has a track record of creating security theatre and using dubious excuses based on worthless and even fabricated intel" and literally joining ISIS?

Either you seriously believe the US government apparatus is the only source of information other than literally ISIS or you're being unhelpfully hyperbolic.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#104

Post by janoc »

mcv wrote: post #56

Considering your laptop was already going to be searched and probably have all your data copied, I'm not sure this ban is terribly harmful anymore. You're probably better off leaving the laptop at home (or securely locked, encrypted, etc in checked luggage) anyway.

It is not harmful - until the battery in one of those laptops fails and sets the plane on fire. With nobody to catch and extinguish it in the hold (the common halon suppression systems are ineffective against battery fires).

It will probably kill more people than those terrorist laptop bombs it is supposed to protect from.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#105

Post by c12 »

jabot wrote: post #82
vivekd wrote: post #42

A lot of comments very critical on the ban. America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Don’t the American people have the right to take steps to protect themselves from this? This is a simple requirement that laptops be checked baggage and not carry on. That hardly see…

> America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Citation needed on that one. Also... Adding a timer to a laptop battery bomb so that it goes off in the storage department is... probably very easy?

It is just as likely that ISIS are putting out a huge campaign of misinformation in the hope that given enough bad intel the good intel doesn't get acted upon.

There have been murmurs of bombs being surgically placed inside people; but I don't hear any increase in security in response to that very real threat.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#106

Post by janoc »

schtitt wrote: post #90
vivekd wrote: post #42

A lot of comments very critical on the ban. America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Don’t the American people have the right to take steps to protect themselves from this? This is a simple requirement that laptops be checked baggage and not carry on. That hardly see…

I think the core of the issue here is that at some point, the nuisance outweighs the risk. How long will this ban be in place? Until the terrorists forget how to make laptop bombs? In the meantime, how many hours of productive work is being lost? To put it another way, let's say the US got intelligence that terrorists now are able to make bombs out of, say, shoes. Should everyone be forced to remove their shoes befor…

Uh, didn't we have the mandatory shoe removal for a while already after the shoe bomber? Shoe removal is still commonly demanded if the metal detector gets triggered and many places have special shoe scanning devices too.

And we still have the liquid ban, thanks to one plot that wasn't even realistic to start with.

So sadly "safety" and security theater where you get to show to your electorate that you are "doing something about it" will always win over inconvenience and common sense.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#107

Post by arethuza »

arghwhat wrote: post #81
RangerScience wrote: post #52

One of the advantageous to living in California is that when I go overseas, I can tell people I'm Californian, rather than American. Because people's ideas of CA is 1) LA/Hollywood, 2) SF/SV, 3) Yosemite / Tahoe, you get a pretty different response.

If you told me you were "Californian", I would give you a really weird stare, think for a moment, and then reply with "Oh, American?", while wondering if you thought California was a country. And even then, very few will know the cultural difference between, say, California and Tennessee or Alabama. Just like an American might think of China as one thing with one culture, we generally view USA as one thing with one c…

I've known people who said they were Texan when asked their nationality. However, I'm a Scot so perhaps I'm biased... ;-)

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#108

Post by italicbold »

janoc wrote: post #100

I do wonder how many laptop bombs have endangered planes so far - vs. actual Li-ion battery fires. Force laptops in the holds and watch planes crash when the inevitable battery fire happens. This policy will likely kill more people than the terrorist menace it is meant to protect against. And that doesn't even consider the loss of business, because people simply won't fly without a laptop (or put it in the hold - con…

I don't agree that a laptop on a flight is "essential" for business people. While I always notice very few people using laptops on business class flights, after all the point of flying business class is so that you can get some rest to arrive fresh to work, one area where you do see laptop use is in business class lounges. Unfortunately this ban will affect that as you cant check-in hold luggage after departing the lounge.

That said I think people are blowing this way out of proportion, the point of your business trip should not be to do work on your laptop during the flight.. Surely you are making the trip to do something important and relevant on the other side. If your company wants you in a meeting on Monday morning on the other side of the Atlantic then I am sorry but not being able to use your laptop on a flight has nothing to do with the business justification for your trip. God forbid you actually get a break from working 24/7 on your flight. Why are people complaining about this..

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#110

Post by jabot »

vivekd wrote: post #94
jabot wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Citation needed on that one. Also... Adding a timer to a laptop battery bomb so that it goes off in the storage department is... probably very easy?

>Citation needed on that one. People need to read the article which talked about this or other articles where the evidence was widely released to the general public and shared with everyone. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-yemen-raid-idUSKBN15I2...

That link does not prove anything you said.

There is nothing in there about laptops and/or flights...

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