Sorry, that book is a dangerous weapon..

I came across this article in my daily blog visits:

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En route from San Jose to Phoenix, I was told by a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) screener about a ban on lighters (cough) starting April 14th, but the book allowance has been cut from 4 to 2. I had been tagged for a pat-down, a perfectly reasonable thing considering whatsinmybag. The agent was reasonable and amicable and I knew the drill. When he pulled a cigarette lighter out of my bag he mentioned the forthcoming ban, how you could carry four packs of matches and the whole idea was to prevent quickly lighting explosives (like that idiot with evil shoes). When he pulled out two books he mentioned that right now you can only have four books and on the 14th you can only have two. He didn't have any explanation for this, and I can't even fathom the purpose.

Read more by visiting the site

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I was pondering what the real physical security issue was. If it was a question of weight (some of those hardware books can make wicked weapons when tossed) or size (perhaps hiding something?) then I could understand but it's done as a generalized policy (2 books instead of 4).

So does anyone have an idea or guess as to why this would be limited this way?

Maybe it's because you could read the pilots to sleep and take over the airplane.
They tested the pilots ...read them 2 books and they were still kinda awake but from 3 to 4 books most pilots were asleep...dangerous.

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Maybe it's because you could read the pilots to sleep and take over the airplane.

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Not valid since cockpit doors are now locked. ;)

Papercuts are very dangerous! Think about the amount of papercuts you could get out of 4 books! They need to cut back to 1 book I think, with only 200 of less pages.

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Papercuts are very dangerous!

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What about magazines? Have you seen the size of some of these? And magazines are more likely to give papercuts than books, I find (they have thinner paper so it's sharper, IMO).

And they have those cardboard cards every 5 pages. Those things are even more dangerous. What are we to do...

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Not valid since cockpit doors are now locked

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Ok then maybe it's because of the article in this link
:D

No Lighter but matches ok???? Matches make more noise...

Well for a person to read 4 books,,or hope to... during the flight.... they just dont like a smartass on the plane..

A couple of possble (thou dumb ideas) on why...... (tongue in cheek)

Hmmm.. the volume of paper? Maybe they feel you could use the 4 books of match and 4 books to create a pretty hot fire onboard? 2 Books are easier to put out if burning then 4?

Weight? Maybe they are trying to cut back on the volume of weight carried onboard. This would also prevent you from using your bookbag as a battering ram to knock down the steel doors that Ms Mittens mentioned. And reduce fuel costs and the number of trees killed to make those books. Possibly GreenPeace is behind it all.

Items to go thru? Maybe they are trying to limit the items they have to go thru, therefore reducing the waiting?

Business to Business fees? Maybe the reduction is an arrangement with the hollywood movie companies, who are willing to reduce in flight movies fee to the airlines, since people will be forced to watch thier movies instead of reading?

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Ok then maybe it's because of the article in this link

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Two books can be just as effective. Have you ever seen Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repair books? 5.8lbs!! Two of those become lethal weapons!

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Well for a person to read 4 books,,or hope to... during the flight.... they just dont like a smartass on the plane..

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Right. Cheap, schloky mystery novels make me intelligent... :rolleyes:

Perhaps this regulation is an effort on behalf of the airline industry to ensure that, at some point during the flight, you are so bored you actually pay the 5 bucks to rent their cheap headset for the crappy movie.

I'm confused as to what you'd need matches on an airplane for at all. You can't smoke, you can't set stuff on fire, you can't frighten small children (well, i suppose you could, but, not with matches). Why don't they just ban lighters and matches from carry-ons altogether?

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I'm confused as to what you'd need matches on an airplane for at all. You can't smoke, you can't set stuff on fire, you can't frighten small children (well, i suppose you could, but, not with matches). Why don't they just ban lighters and matches from carry-ons altogether?

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I don't think it's what might intentionally be done but... what immediately comes to mind is that flight that went down over Florida swampland. Something about oxygen tanks. So what if someone snuck in a plastic drinking bottle with a flammable substance and basically made a Moltov cocktail on-board? (or worse)

Perhaps I can shed some light on this, but don't expect the reasoning to make sense.

The limit is partly due to the amount of time a TSA agent has to spend per person. The bigger reason is because independent audits showed that large books make it very easy to smuggle contraband onto the plane. Hiding edged weapons in the spine has a 75% chance of making it past screeners because of the way the books are passed through scanners. More or less, it has been proven that TSA agents are just as lazy as the contracted help they replaced. The use of books to smuggle items onto aircraft caught the attention of the top brass at the FAA and DHS as an audit finding, thus, a meaningless limitation has now been placed on you.

Some smokers are such fiends that they have to light up the second they get off the plane. They don't want to have to wait to get their baggage before they can light up. This is the only thing I can come up with.

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Hiding edged weapons in the spine has a 75% chance of making it past screeners because of the way the books are passed through scanners. More or less, it has been proven that TSA agents are just as lazy as the contracted help they replaced.

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Ah.. this would make more sense then. It's a "business decision" rather than a true security issue. The belief of trying to make people feel secure while still letting them continue as was may be something that will catch them later.

I wonder how many actually check plastic pop bottles to see if they are carrying water, soda, whatever rather than something else? (the detectors do pick this stuff up, right?)

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Originally posted here by Timmy77
Perhaps this regulation is an effort on behalf of the airline industry to ensure that, at some point during the flight, you are so bored you actually pay the 5 bucks to rent their cheap headset for the crappy movie.

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Ah ha! That must be it... but I've found if you have a pair of your own ear phones and a pack of wrigleys gum... you can take the foil off of the gum and wrap it around the plug that goes into the jack. You will now have sound in both ears.

All they did was have two mono connectors instead of the standard one stereo connector.

You can even make one of these at home. Just take a set of old ear phones that don't work anymore and cut off the plug. Then splice that plug with a good pair. You should have two plugs... one for each wire running to either left or right sound.

Sorry... I used to fly from baltimore to seattle all the time. Long flight... laptop battery didn't last that long and I had to do something... That was when they would let me have my electronics parts kit on there! Imagine that. Try taking a breadboard, a couple spools of wired and a fishing box of logic gates and such through there now.. LoL They'd snatch you up real quick like.

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I wonder how many actually check plastic pop bottles to see if they are carrying water, soda, whatever rather than something else? (the detectors do pick this stuff up, right?)

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Nah, they don't check that stuff. I take a 20oz coke and take the top off without breaking the seal. Pour half of it out and add Captain Morgan rum. Put the top back on and I'm good to go. Drinks on the plane are expensive... and they don't give you many. ;)

are they actually talking about books or are they talking about books of matches? I havent been told anything about stipulations of carrying books and I usually carry enough paperwork to start a bonfire

edit: msm: the airports I flew with: if you were coming from outside the airport only clear liquids were allowed and then they had to go through the xray scanner (not sure if different liquids look different through the scanner)... If you were already in the airport and just jumping on another plane or whatever they didnt look twice at the drink because you had to of gotten it from the airport anyway.

Phish, you sound like as cheap of a bastard as I am. Thanks for the tips. :)

LOL. Baaaaad Phisssssy.

Books of matches are another thing altogether. With enough match tips, you can make a charge that will fire a projectile out of a magazine or anything else you can make a rigid tube out of. This isn't new.

There is a site dedicated to cheap bastards though I forget the name of it. It has tons of ideas along the lines of the one Phissshy provided.

Lol, so books and lighters are a no-go and you can still make a 'gun' from the matches and magazines... LMFAO

I wonder how long till flying to, from and inside the USA will be 'hanibal lector' style all locked up wih minimal movement possibility..
For first class passengers one free hand as the maximum freedom of movement ;)

But on the more serious side.. More about this and other laws can be found here http://www.stupidsecurity.com/ !

[offtopic]
That plastic seal trick also works for the mini bars in hotels... You can get the top off without breaking the seal and put some other liquid in there with a similar color.

They tried to get smart about it so you have to call the front desk and get a code to unlock the fridge. If you pull hard enough... It'll come open. Then just make sure to put something in its place when you pull the bottles out. The machine will never know that anything was removed/replaced. ;)

The last time I did that was several years ago.. on a high school band trip. Yep... I was one of those "prep-school hippie geeks" We were not of age to buy alcohol... and everything we took with us was gone the first night. ROFL. I'm always coming up with stupid ways to "trick" the systems. Mostly before I was 18 so I couldn't get into serious trouble. I'm a lot more careful now. :)

If anyone remembers that site thehorse is talking about... please post it!
Us poor college type cheep bastards need all the workarounds we can get.
[/offtopic]

Anyway... sorry to bring this offtopic.

I think they are gonna ban pretty much everything soon lol... im going to see my gf in Canada over xmas and i dont know how the flight is gonna be!

The stewardesses were tired of picking up after the inevitable paper ball fights that happen on long domestic flights so they've decided to restrict everyone's ammo supply. It makes sense.

This is all very interesting. I wonder why two books are "safer" than more.... Eventually they will insists we use e-books and that we have to use their e-book viewers built into the seat in front of you.

I bet Microsoft gave the e-book viewers to the airlines and paid them to mandate the new rules.

Yeah -- that's it.

I agree that banning lighters is a dumb move--just done as a "feel good" measure to make the sheeple feel better while they travel. That said, I believe when they said you'd be limited to two books going forward, they were referring to "books of matches" rather than books you read. Thanks to idiots like Richard Reid (the shoe bomber), we're now at a point where we can only be trusted with matches--but only two books of matches--cause we all know how dangerous grandma can be if she's given more than two!

They are talking about "books" of matches. The limit is 4 books of matches. Not books you read. There are many reasons for this but I can not go into that. Sorry.

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Originally posted here by Cemetric
Ok then maybe it's because of the article in this link
:D

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I liked the line in the article, "Phone calls to Clinton's office were not returned. The New York senator is on a book tour."