[IP] more on TSA Releases New List of Banned Items

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Serge Egelman <serge@guanotronic.com>
Date: December 22, 2005 6:05:45 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] TSA Releases New List of Banned Items
Reply-To: serge@guanotronic.com

I'm currently at the Charlotte airport en route to Charlottesville  
for the weekend; getting here was interesting.  Going throug  
Pittsburgh airport security, they asked if they could look through my  
backpack (it was more of a rhetorical question of course).  Much to  
my surprise, the woman pulls out my kryptonite bike lock, which I had  
totally forgotten I had in there.  She said she needed to ask the  
supervisor if it was permitted.  At this point I started worrying  
about having to throw it out and buy a new one when I return.  The  
supervisor took one look at it and then said something like, "oh, we  
don't care about those."

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.  But at the same time  
even more perplexed.  I mean, this is solid steel and weighs at least  
five pounds; one can do a lot more damage with it than with a pocket  
knife.  [ so can that plastic knife djf]
Alas.


Serge
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.  Hence the typos.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:43:13
To:ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: [IP] TSA Releases New List of Banned Items



Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: December 22, 2005 5:38:19 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: TSA Releases New List of Banned Items


Dave,

TSA has released their new banned and OK lists for items to be
brought onto planes ( http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/wireStory?id=1431867 ).

Now, I for one have long thought that the banning of many items
originally was silly, given, for example, that an umbrella or ball
point pen can be nasty weapons and neither were ever banned.

But of particular note on the new lists...  You can now carry-on
scissors with a cutting edge of less than four inches.  However, all
knives are still prohibited regardless of blade length, except
rounded-bladed, butter or plastic.

I can't help but think of the classic film "Dial M For Murder" ('54),
and how its initial death transpired (hint, a knife wasn't used).

A 3.999 inch set of scissors can be much more lethal than a one-inch
knife blade.  Hey, and you can even bring on a seven-inch long
screwdriver now!  But a small pocketknife remains verboten.

At least the TSA HQ gang still apparently have a sense of humor.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@eepi.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
   - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com


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