Ah, COOL! Suddenly, packing becomes simpler!

[Keith&Co.]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

Okay... are there organic detonators, though?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Aren't underpants organic, too?

 

[LordKiran]

Aren't underpants organic, too?

As are most clothes...oooooh~ maybe airport security checkpoints are about to get SEXAYYYYY!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

Okay... are there organic detonators, though?

Hide the detonator elsewhere.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Okay... are there organic detonators, though?

Hide the detonator elsewhere.

Like, where?
They scan my whole body and search if i even have so much as a fold in my empty pocket. The bag goes through the x-ray. My shoes go through X-ray. Everything goes through the x-ray.

 

[Deepak]

Hide the detonator elsewhere.

Like, where?
They scan my whole body and search if i even have so much as a fold in my empty pocket. The bag goes through the x-ray. My shoes go through X-ray. Everything goes through the x-ray.

Show

 

[Keith&Co.]

But that'll make my bomb stinky!

 

[gmbteach]

Fascism, step by step.

A way to get around it is kindle books on your phone.

I don't have a cell phone. And when I read for pleasure, I don't enjoy reading electronic version of a document.
Which is odd. I read electronic tech manuals all day long at work. And I publish ebooks.
Just am more comfortable with a book in my hands if it's not work related.

That's a great way to separate work and pleasure.

 

[barbos]

Well you can think whatever you want. It doesn't mean you know shit, though.

I believe barbos is our resident Physics guy. It is the only reason I haven't muted him.

I am also your only way to ask Putin any questions
But seriously. Any mathematician can do complex economics, but no economist (that is having formal education in the subject) can do complex math. That's just how it works. So that professor should have been thrown out of the plane for pretending.

 

[barbos]

That's what I was thinking...

Conceivably you could line the hardcover of a book with lead paneling beneath the sleeve. Even so, who's going to even think to do that and why should airport security be so ridiculous as to counter harebrained ideas people like me come up with in the span of 60 seconds??

It is certainly hare-brain idea you got here, to think that having a lead case in the luggage would not spike interest of the TSA people.

 

[barbos]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

most stuff in your luggage is organic one way or another. but is rather thinly distributed in the form of clothing and and usual objects like pen, airbrush etc. Books are rather dense and solid chunks of something which looks similar in density and solidness to explosives

 

[untermensche]

That's what I was thinking...

Conceivably you could line the hardcover of a book with lead paneling beneath the sleeve. Even so, who's going to even think to do that and why should airport security be so ridiculous as to counter harebrained ideas people like me come up with in the span of 60 seconds??

Now you don't have a book in your luggage.

You have this large metallic object.

 

[Toni]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

For many years a stack of books would get your checked bag a TSA inspection. They're just getting more obsessive about this.

Note that the same thing applies if you're getting an agricultural inspection--their x-ray actually only detects whether something is organic and food-type density. Pack all such material together and you minimize the amount of suitcase pawing they do. (Coming from China agricultural inspections are very common for us.)

Explosives may or may not be organic. You realize that's not how x-rays work, right? I mean, seriously. Trust me, airport screens will find hidden metal guns, knives, etc.

 

[LordKiran]

Conceivably you could line the hardcover of a book with lead paneling beneath the sleeve. Even so, who's going to even think to do that and why should airport security be so ridiculous as to counter harebrained ideas people like me come up with in the span of 60 seconds??

Now you don't have a book in your luggage.

You have this large metallic object.

So what? My laptop was a large metallic object.

 

[barbos]

Now you don't have a book in your luggage.

You have this large metallic object.

So what? My laptop was a large metallic object.

You said case made of lead. Unlike lighter metals within notebooks lead is opaque to x-ray. So it will definitely look different like notebooks where they can see what's inside of it.

So you can make notebook out of lead but it will only get you miss your flight due to long conversation with TSA

 

[ZiprHead]

But that'll make my bomb stinky!

That's a feature, not a bug.

 

[Malintent]

Economists don't do complex math problems.

What an odd, odd response.
What does this have to do with anything?

Bad patch to the bot's AI?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Hide the detonator elsewhere.

Like, where?
They scan my whole body and search if i even have so much as a fold in my empty pocket. The bag goes through the x-ray. My shoes go through X-ray. Everything goes through the x-ray.

1) The metal detectors: I've walked through them wearing more metal than a blasting cap. While they can be set sensitive enough they usually aren't because that causes too many troubles with bits of metal in people's clothing. (Buttons, buckles, zippers, underwire bras etc.)

2) The nude-o-scopes:
2a) They are completely incapable of seeing anything at all deep in the body. Hide the blasting cap in a tampon.
2b) They are completely incapable of telling the difference between a fully opaque object and nothing at all. They'll do a good job of finding metal on your body but will utterly miss metal that's beside your body.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

most stuff in your luggage is organic one way or another. but is rather thinly distributed in the form of clothing and and usual objects like pen, airbrush etc. Books are rather dense and solid chunks of something which looks similar in density and solidness to explosives

Yeah, things like clothes get discounted due to their lack of density.

And I wouldn't consider an airbrush to be a usual carry-on item! Now, a hairbrush....

What security is trying to do is separate metallic objects from denser organic objects. Most electronics have little in the way of organics, most organics have no metal.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The basic problem is that books are organic, explosives are organic. Their current x-ray can determine that something is organic but can't differentiate books from a block of explosives.

For many years a stack of books would get your checked bag a TSA inspection. They're just getting more obsessive about this.

Note that the same thing applies if you're getting an agricultural inspection--their x-ray actually only detects whether something is organic and food-type density. Pack all such material together and you minimize the amount of suitcase pawing they do. (Coming from China agricultural inspections are very common for us.)

Explosives may or may not be organic. You realize that's not how x-rays work, right? I mean, seriously. Trust me, airport screens will find hidden metal guns, knives, etc.

Airport x-ray colors organics. I've actually seen the screen twice in China. Until last year security would never open our bags and instead if there was anything they wanted a look at they would indicate what the issue was and ask us to remove the item for inspection. When I didn't understand what they were after they would point it out on their screen. (Once, a box of batteries in my camera bag. Once, a set of chopsticks I didn't know was metal. Only once they showed me the image did I realize what they must be seeing. Since I had packed it between the rods of the handle for protection it was actually behind the liner and would have been very hard for them to find.)

And don't be too sure about the x-ray finding blades. I once unknowingly carried a small blade through courthouse security. They saw the shape and I identified it as a flash drive, I had left my leatherman tool in the car. When I got back to the car I found the flash drive sitting on the seat, somehow I had removed the wrong object. (They were of a similar size and shape.)