Dice - the new terrorist threat ?

[TheAuldGrump]

OK, guys, seriously now. They scan the luggage. They see a concentration of small, dense, geometric shapes all overlapped. They don't know what it is and it fits the parameters of a possible device. They open up the luggage, find the dice bag, spill it out to determine what it is. They are in a hurry and (perhaps rudely) don't put the dice back in the bag, but instead let them kick around in the luggage and move on to the next thing. Two six siders either fell out by accident, wandered in the many movements of the luggage into some clothing where they will eventually cause confusion, or maybe were pocketed by a Evil Dice Stealing Monster (tm).

I'm gratified that they really are scanning the checked bags, I'm sorry to hear your dice got cluttered up, and I hope they all show eventually. The idea that there's something bad about the proceedure followed - I don't get it.

I had a little adventure last week mailing myself a pair of embroidery scissors I didn't even remember putting in the least used pocket of my purse, and my local airport could be more helpful about selling prepaid mailers at the main concourse shop, but at least they gave me a pass to skip back to the front of the screening line when I was done.

Except that by not putting the dice back in their bag they in fact were not following procedures. It was rude, and as has been stated should be reported. They are rquired to take a certain minimum amount of care, in the event that something that they are searching is fragile, or contains small, easily lost parts - in this case the dice.

The Auld Grump

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I'm gratified that they really are scanning the checked bags, I'm sorry to hear your dice got cluttered up, and I hope they all show eventually. The idea that there's something bad about the proceedure followed - I don't get it.

It's not just that they messed up his dice, it's that there are little things (and big things) going missing in luggage that is searched all over the country. And when they search, they often repack so it looks like a bomb did go off in the luggage. A year ago I had my suitcase searched, and I had everything packed very carefully, all the clothes folded, and some fragile stuff in the center so the clothing would protect it. Guess what? When I openedd it up, half the clothes were wadded up (including my sport jacket), my shoes were out of the plastic bag I had them packed in to keep the dirt on the soles from getting on my white shirts, and the fragile items I had carefully packed in the center were now sitting (broken) on top of everything.

Yeah, that's a great procedure they are following.

I really don't care that they are searching the bags, but come on, they need to take a bit more care and concern for other peoples stuff.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

The new airline security procedures are both paranoid and a poor investment in terms of increased safety. They were created in a hurry to provide the appearance of action on the part of our elected officials.

A telling aspect is how the hiring of the security screeners was fouled up by Congressional mandate. They effectively dictated:

- the number of screeners to be hired, a number that increased in scope at the last minute,
- the process used to hire the screeners, and
- a fixed deadline for when they had to be hired.

They then came back and tried to complain about the exorbatant cost. Unfortunately, if you fix project scope, quality, and timeframe, the only thing that CAN change is cost. They effectively guaranteed that the process would not be cost efficient in the interest of quickly having a publicly visible change to which they could point.

In the process, they created a large body of government officials who now have the ability to search and detain anybody getting on an airplane and confiscate their property without any accountability on why they did so.

They have also created an inappropriately vague no-fly list that makes flying almost impossible if your name happens to match the list. It is also almost impossible to get removed from the list -- one article I read was about an elderly Catholic nun who literally had to get a senior Bush administration official to look into the matter before they removed her from the no-fly list. She was lucky she happened to have senior-level contacts because of her prominence. Not everyone is so lucky.

Rant is now over. Thank you for your patience.

P.S.: I hate taking off my shoes. Only an idiot would try to blow up a plane with their shoes. The one who tried got caught by fellow passengers.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So, how 'bout those politics?

 

[atom crash]

Perhaps they needed the dice to determine which bags and passengers to include in a random search.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

They have also created an inappropriately vague no-fly list that makes flying almost impossible if your name happens to match the list. It is also almost impossible to get removed from the list -- one article I read was about an elderly Catholic nun who literally had to get a senior Bush administration official to look into the matter before they removed her from the no-fly list. She was lucky she happened to have senior-level contacts because of her prominence. Not everyone is so lucky.

I love the stories of babies with names similar to those on the no fly list. I mean, yeah I knw toddlers who are national security threats, but I didn't think the govenment agreed.

Rant is now over. Thank you for your patience.

much of your rant has merit, and while I'm biased by having 8 hassle free flights in the course of 2 weeks, I'm sure unneccassary hassels and luggage abuse are out there. It was just the "searching the dice" silliness, when it seems obvious they were searching an unknown and moved on once it was determined to be dice that was bugging me. be annoyed by whats really out there sure, but we don't need to make up rediculous motivations then be annoyed by them.

P.S.: I hate taking off my shoes. Only an idiot would try to blow up a plane with their shoes. The one who tried got caught by fellow passengers.

I've always had to take off my shoes, I wear my steel toed hiking boots on the plane (because they take up so much valuable space in my checked bag). But try taking off hiking boots in a moving line while holding ID, ticket and a toddler.

I'm just glad they actually scan the laptops now. I had a hijack scenerio figured out once involving an older laptop, a palm pilot and empty space.

 

[Chaldfont]

My wife and I flew to Mexico this summer with another two couples. We dumped the contents of our 300 poker chip carousel into a big gallon ziplock bag in case we wanted to play some poker when the weather was bad. At the last minute, my wife re-arranged the luggage and put the chips in our carry on.

It turned out to be a very bad idea.

We got stopped everytime they xrayed the luggage.

 

[Anti-Sean]

Perhaps they needed the dice to determine which bags and passengers to include in a random search.

*wipes tear from eye* Quoted for genius!