**** Elections thread *****

[OngBonga]

Ummmm.......when was the last time you flew?

8 years ago, but a google search for "do you have to take your shoes off to fly" yields nothing that tells me things have changed since then.

I didn't say that smart phones couldn't be used as a weapon. But people who's job it is to figure this stuff out have decided that they can determine a smart-phone's threat level by using the existing screening procedures for carry on items.

For larger electronics, I'm guessing that assessment can take more time, especially when you are aware of a "evaluated intelligence" that suggests one of these devices might be a threat.

I'm the one saying smartphones can be used as a weapon. If they think they already have the necessary tools to quickly anaylse the threat level of a phone, but not a tablet, then fair enough. But I find this really hard to believe. Like, really hard. A tablet is just a bigger phone. It's still works the same, so why can't the methods applied to phones be applied to tablets? Why take the tablet elsewhere and conduct it to different tests when the test the phone underwent would have sufficed?

It doesn't make sense to me.

[BananaStand]

8 years ago, but a google search for "do you have to take your shoes off to fly" yields nothing that tells me things have changed since then.

Not sure how it works at Heathrow, but in America, you have to put your shoes through the xray machine before you can fly.

If they think they already have the necessary tools to quickly anaylse the threat level of a phone, but not a tablet, then fair enough.

Ok, why not stop there? Why go looking for excuses to be cynical?

A tablet is just a bigger phone. It's still works the same, so why can't the methods applied to phones be applied to tablets?

Who knows. We shouldn't know. That's the kind of secret we want to keep from the bad guys.

Speculating now, but if we're talking about explosives, then I suppose there is some correlation between size, and dangerous-ness.

Or if weapons could be disguised as circuitry, then again, size matters.

Maybe you're entirely correct and there isn't a good reason to ban tablets and not phones. Maybe they're really targeting laptops. But with lots of hybrid models on the market do you want the minimum wage TSA agent deciding what's a tablet and what's a laptop? Considering this regulation has to be applied to 10 different airports in 8 different countries, wouldn't you expect it's more practical to use a simpler criteria like size? In other words, maybe tablets really are ok, they just got caught in the trap we set for laptops. It's not like anyone's rights are being infringed....so what's the big deal?

Again, this is all speculation on my part. But it all seems a ton more reasonable than "they made this up to scare people" or "they did this to pick on muslims"