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US To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights From Europe (thedailybeast.com)
An anonymous reader shares an article: The Department of Homeland Security will ban laptops in the cabins of all flights from Europe to the United States, European security officials told The Daily Beast. An official announcement is expected Thursday. Initially a ban on laptops and tablets was applied only to U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in North Africa and the Middle East. The ban was based on U.S. fears that terrorists have found a way to convert laptops into bombs capable of bringing down an airplane. It is unclear if the European ban will also apply to tablets. DHS said in a statement to The Daily Beast: "No final decisions have been made on expanding the restriction on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins; however, it is under consideration. DHS continues to evaluate the threat environment and will make changes when necessary to keep air travelers safe."
There are plenty of reasons not to fly, this is the second best one yet (being beaten by the airline for a ticket you paid good money for is #1, not sure how that will be topped).
I am literally counting down the days and minutes until everyone will have to board a plane completely naked and be stored like cargo. (After thoroughly searching all body cavities, of course!)
We're all made to board nude and chained to our seats and made to row across the ocean? As it is, I'm just waiting for them to announce "credible" evidence that ISIS has converted baby formula into a bomb capable of bringing down an airliner...
"Have you not considered how much easier it is to control a walking population?"
Is there actionable intelligence to back up this ban or is this an attempt to whitewash the racist origins of the original anti-Muslim ban by including Europe?
Wasn't this just a ban on Samsung laptops?
Is DHS really this easy to manipulate? And are they really this stupid? If a laptop shell packed with explosives is enough to "bring down an airplane" (and with the right explosive, it certainly is)(but it would have to be packed with explosive, in which case what's all that swabbing and x-raying of passengers for if it couldn't detect that modification?), how does having it in the cargo hold help? It still makes a giant hole in the fuselage and down goes the plane.
I guess my real question is, are people stupid enough to be convinced by this security theater? And then I realize P.T. Barnum was right: you can't go broke overestimating people's stupidity.
...to inflight alcoholic beverage sales.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
This gets laptops out of your possession at border crossings. Lock up your data. And as the airlines specifically say expensive items should be carried on, not general baggage will the government foot the bill for air travel related theft of your $4000 laptop? Unintended consequences.
They could never ever figure out a way to bring down a plane with a laptop bag, if you check the bag in, instead of carrying it into the cabin. Man! Our security agencies are truly ingenious to find a chink in their armor and to exploit it fully! We need to thank our lucky stars we are under the vigilant and effective aegis of our alphabet soup agencies!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The evildoers will listen to the instructions of the flight crew and place their electronics in airplane mode so they can't communicate with anything. They would also never dream of bringing about communication devices that are not FAA certified and that might interfere with the airplane's electronic systems.
Honestly my nine year old could figure out ways some evildoer could make this work.
Not everyone can afford to buy a new machine with every trip. Even if they can, that's a lot of additional expense. Easier to just wipe the same machine and reinstall an empty operating system when you go through, along with a tiny number of files so the customs people don't get cranky.
Why do I put my whole carry-on baggage including a laptop through x-ray anyway?
As a US academic who is deeply concerned about people not willing or wanting to go to US conferences, this is going to make everything much worse. We've had enough trouble as is trying to get people to keep going to conferences here given the current climate. This is going to make it much harder.
If the hypothesis is true and some evil badguys can turn a laptop into a bomb capable of bringing down an airplane, why will laptops be banned from the cabin only?
Why is a "bomb-concealed-as-laptop" not a threat to the airplane when carried in the cargo compartment of the airplane inside someones checked luggage?
Banning stand-alone DVD players, cell phones and hand-help games (basically anything with a battery). Traveling with kids is going to be really fun. Also, anyone looking forward to checking their laptop along with baggage?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Yeah, this is actually kinda funny. I suppose it's too late to short your airline stocks though. I guess there's enough domestic business to keep them afloat.
I hope there would be significant economic fallout from this, but given the history of such things, I don't really expect much reaction at all.
Maybe the airlines can build tablets into the seat backs.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
It'll make it easier for the crew, too.
I'm not sure if that's the right word for it, but this seem to be yet another step in the wrong direction. I wonder how much more restrictive our lives will become before people start to wake up to what is going on?
If this is true, I'm horrified that the airlines would put up with having all those lithium batteries in uncontrolled luggage in the cargo hold. If it were my airline I'd refuse the fly the routes. I certainly won't get on a plane full of cargo hold batteries. I'm equally horrified that any business would put up with the loss of time and potential loss of assets due to theft, never mind the potential loss of employees if a cargo fire brings down a plane.
This will be a huge boon to Canadian air travel. If this astounding idiocy is enacted, my Europe travel will all be going through Toronto, assuming that it occurs at all.
Will they cover damage / theft and loss? of them in checked bags? Will they only do it with an $20-$50 laptop checked bag service?
Will business people sneak them on board.
Will business pay for overnight shipping with fedex / ups for them to have insurance on them that the airlines will not have?
The big catch here is that you aren't allowed to check li-ion batteries. So you can't bring a laptop from Europe to the USA at all.
Back in the day, flying was one of the few times the traveling businessman got to him(her)self. No computer to work on, no phone calls to make or receive. Then came laptops making it possible to do work on the plane, then in-flight phone calls, and now wireless Internet on flights.
Banning laptops would mean that the business traveler once again legitimately can't get any work done while flying, and has a good reason not to be reachable for the 8-10 hours of the flight (no computer = no real reason to pay for in-flight wifi). Nothing to do but take some time off work, kick back, relax, and catch a movie or two.
Isn't this... a different discussion or a different mitigation tactic? Wipe-and-bring means... wait for it... you have to bring it. Granted, you can pack it away, but then why buy a new, wiped machine? This is about having the laptop in the main cabin, not customs inspecting or confiscating your laptop (admittedly a problem, but a different problem.
If there weren't enough reasons already, this completely cinches it. No way in hell I'm flying to the US so long the current administrations lasts.
There's no way I'm checking in my laptop, and there's no reason to bring my money to a place that is going to great lengths to make me feel unwelcome.
Back in the day, flying was one of the few times the traveling businessman got to him(her)self. No computer to work on, no phone calls to make or receive. Then came laptops making it possible to do work on the plane, then in-flight phone calls, and now wireless Internet on flights.
Have you tried to work on a laptop in a plane? Unless you're in first class or well under 6ft and near anorexic individual, forget it.
Nothing to do but take some time off work, kick back, relax, and catch a movie or two.
And what movie would that be? The in flight entertainment (where available, not guaranteed, etc)
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Eh? Back when portable computers came with an implicit assumption that you have a towing hitch there was paperwork. It was work, and it was on paper. I'm not that decrepit and I've spent the odd train journey trying to threeconcile timesheets, invoices & bank statements, reading bastarding bug reports written by bugbrained bastards and the like.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Spotted the guy with a 15" or larger laptop.
My 13" laptop (macbook air equivalent) allows me to work comfortably in first class, bulkhead and regular economy seats. Seriously, the best upgrade I ever made was a laptop that fits on my lap while seated on a plane. I don't have to hold my arms like a muscular dystrophy patient to use my laptop anymore and I actually WANT to to dev work on the plane. If I get an empty seat next to me (happens a lot on SWA, apparently people don't like my resting bitch face) then bonus, I get to use a mouse!
If you really -must- use your laptop en-route to the US from Europe then Iceland Air, with a little stop over in Keflavik, should at least give you screen time for the 1st half of the journey. Plus you can go take a dip in the blue lagoon in between flights. :)
This is just another nail in the coffin for US airlines.
I stopped flying via the US (NZ - UK) due to the un-necessary harassment travellers have to endure just changing flights in the US, let alone entering the country.
I fly via Dubai with Emirates.
After a wave of airline-related incidents like the Dao dragging and the Schear ejection, the FAA is defusing the situation by cutting down the number of people willing to fly to and from popular tourist destinations to perhaps 50 or fewer per flight. A reduced passenger count means that people will be able to sit farther apart, most passengers will get aisle seating, there will be fewer brawls over seat reclining and toilet usage, and the security lines will be shorter.
Can I have the password so I can look through your laptop?
No it's in my checked baggage I haven't got to the baggage carousel yet
They haven't thought this through have they
Reading and movies are things passengers could do on tablets. If these go too, you just have to hope the inflight entertainment will work. The way service is going these days, fat chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Looks like he's on the right track if you ask me.
Some 30 000 people are killed in car crashes each year in the us alone. Somewhere around 0 people have been killed in terrorist attacks on airliners the last 15 years. The obsession of airport security clearly have nothing to do with saving people's lives, and everything to do with controlling them.
You have not seen the new economy seating then. The seat in front is right in your face, and your elbows are entangled with the neighbor. How would you fit a laptop in there? I never managed to use more than a tablet, and even that is going to be banned now.
Except it isn't, because the headline is pure click bait. Seriously, can slashdot get any worse?
They do. I believe that they run at 0.7 atmospheres. It makes people sleepy and docile.
I'm a ski instructor, you insensitive clod!*
3'800m is a pretty normal altitude for me.
I'm not abnormally sleepy at 4000m.
---
Well at least that's my week-end hobby.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The Chinese laptops are always suspect. You never know what's in the firmware.
...nor whats's in battery, and if that one isn't going to spontaneously combust.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Not only that, most of the people who did take the time to vote didn't vote for Trump.
I read somewhere but never confirmed it with another source that 2/3 of Americans didn't care who won the American Revolution. If that's true, it would explain 2/3 of Americans not voting in most elections.
Of course Slashdot can get worse. They could hire more editors like msmash and BeauHD.
... reciprocate.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
After all, the rest of the world has plenty of nice, welcoming places to go to, and I'm perfectly fine to restrict business contacts to the the Hysterial States of America to video conferencing.
I'm not an expert. Nor do I care about the government out to get me. If they want me, it's quite easy to get me.
However... this would greatly affect my ability to travel. My laptop is my only saviour from the noisy, rude idiots around me, the cabin crew that want to CONSTANTLY interrupt me and make me do things, and the sheer boredom of many hours of sitting in a too-small seat that I have to disturb a stranger to move from.
Literally, you just removed my state-of-the-art entertainment system with movies, TV, radio, games, working environment, and replaced it with...? A pack of fucking cards, basically.
Already I would have to ensure my laptop had NO WORK MATERIAL WHATSOEVER to travel to the US. Literally, I would have to break EU law to comply with US law in that case. I would possibly be asked to give up details that literally no-one else on Earth has any need or just cause to know without requiring a warrant issued by a court.
And now you want to take the only vestige of being able to entertain myself away. This adds massive amount of stress to an incredibly boring journey, which can only be escaped by using functions which may well start to become pay-for (e.g. in-flight movies, loan of tablets and the like).
Literally, this kind of crap would eliminate air travel for me just from the UK to, say, France. I just wouldn't bother. I'd rather get in my car, take five times as long and drive it myself. I already hate the 2 hour flight to Italy because of all the crap associated with wanting to sit in a metal box and be in Italy in 2 hours time (which often requires 4 additional hours of travel, parking, bus from the parking to the terminal, getting in plenty of time before arrival, sitting around doing fuck all, collecting luggage, etc. etc. etc.).
I am buy no means a stressed-out loon, but that kind of unnecessary crap drives me mad. If I had malicious intent, I could get on a train with the SAME NUMBER OF PEOPLE, with ALMOST ANY LUGGAGE THEY WANT (in any amount their car can carry, including the fuel tank), get enclosed in a similar metal box and still blow it to smithereens and kill the same amount of people and get the same amount of press... and not one bit of the same security theatre applies. The only thing I don't think you can carry in the Channel Tunnel (that's legal to have in the UK, at least) is an LPG car (LPG bottles are fine so long as they are stowed properly in the vehicle - another bit of bollocks that I do not understand).
I honestly don't give a shit that the terrorists built a bomb. That's what terrorists do. They put them in waste bins in London throughout the 80's. We removed waste bins. Now we have nowhere to throw fucking rubbish away. But people could still commit acts of terrorism.
The terrorists already won. We're like the kid in the playground who's worked out that if he doesn't bring in his ball, the bullies won't take it from him at break time. Well-fucking-done. How about we reclaim a bit of our dignity?
Every single "this could be made into a bomb" piece of crap from carrying little silly bottles in little silly plastic bags, to having my shoes scanned, to having to drink baby milk in front of a security officer to "prove" it's milk just makes me fucking hate people that think up the rules, tolerate them, and think we're somehow "winning" against the terrorists by "thwarting" their attacks.
Guess why there are so many different plots? Because every time you do something, we guard against that. And then people just go "Right, what next? Oh, look, laptops!". Now you have a new threat, massive expense on stupid rules and countermeasures, new crap to make people stand in queues for longer, new bollocks to make me hate my own government and country more for capitulating to it. And then all they do is say "Right... next up... let's put a bomb in a set of headphones."
This sort of crap puts me off domestic flights in my own country. I'd rather drive for 10 times as long than deal with this kind of shi
My US company's policy is that I must have control of my laptop at all times. That includes putting it in a locked area. But it does not include putting it in luggage and handing it over to random baggage handlers. Because they are allowed to break locks on luggage, and regularly do.
Having seen many a business traveler back in the day working his way through a stack of papers at 30,000 feet... you have no idea what you're talking about.
Is there actionable intelligence to back up this ban...
Even if there is actionable intelligence for the plan to work the terrorists have to be able to get the explosive filled laptop past security. If they can do get explosives past inside a laptop case why can't they do the same using clothes, books, shoes etc.? ...and if they can do that unless you ban all electronics you still have a major security problem for which the only solution is background checks for all passengers.
Requiring laptops to be put in the hold also increases the danger of an unnoticed lithium battery fire which is why we are currently required to have laptops in carry-on baggage and not in checked luggage. So this new security measure is one which carries a increased safety risk so it's something they should only do if there really is a significant terrorist threat.
Why should anyone care who won the American Revolution? Obviously the colonies did. But as that can't be changed, why care? It's like caring about who won the World Series in 1952.
Why should anyone care who won the American Revolution?
You missed the point. If 2/3 of Americans didn't care who won the American Revolution and 2/3 of Americans didn't care who won in 2016, then America is doomed to being controlled by 1/3 of the population that gives a shit.
amen.. i like that.. just unplug.. of course no pay for that day of travel some mucky mucky will say.. there a lots of low fidelity activities that are work related..
But if you don't give a shit, why would you necessarily care who is controlling it?
I vote in every election. If 2/3 of the country doesn't care enough to vote, than we get situations like Trump winning an electoral victory while losing the popular vote. Something that only happened five times in U.S. history.
If they ban laptops and tablets, we can revisit the 90's where they charged for in-flight entertainment. No sense to do it now, but if the choice is to sit there for 8+ hours and stare at the free lice capades show on the seat in front of you or pay a fee for the use of the screen in front of you. Or they'll just bring back the weird headphone with the hollow tubes again.
I've travelled so much over the past few years I've finally learned to sleep on planes. So I actually don't use IFE anymore. I just put on my noise-cancelling headphones and read a book until I get tired if I don't just zonk out before the plane leaves the gate.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
This is all about giving three letter agencies a chance to rummage through and or hack your electronic shit without you even knowing.
Everyone knows a bomb in a laptop leads to substantially similar outcomes no matter location inside the aircraft. If this was actually for safety they would ban laptops from aircraft outright.
I use an HP Specrte x360 and I have used it on the new American seats that are the smallest of all the airlines. Bonus, when the flight attendant comes by yelling at me to turn off the laptop, I simply flip it around like I'm in a dell commercial and continue to use it like normal.
The laptop consistently passes for a tablet (doubly so if I put it in the tsa bin in tablet form) so just as my 1997 Sony Vaio has proven, 10-13" is the sweet spot for laptops. Anything smaller is a toy, anything larger is a desktop.
why don't make everyone fly naked and ban all things then? =)
This is just stupid.
I'd much rather reduce security, reinforce the cockpit door, and take a 1 in 10 million chance of someone blowing up a plane, even if I am on it. DHS has gone too far on the pendulum between convenience and security. By the way, this is also a great way to kill tourism dollars.
It's also not like the exploit/vulnerability hasn't been around for decades.
A moratorium might make sense if they have incredibly specific intelligence, but that's about it.
Real lawyers write in C++
Take a guess which three-letter agency I work for — and pray that I don't pay you a visit.
Not cool, however called for. Oh! Unless you're with the Government Printing Office. :)
Real lawyers write in C++
True, but what about the all the travelers who have no checked luggage because they don't want to wait for an hour to get it back at the destination (if at all) ?
I often visit the US for 2-3 days to attend conferences with no other luggage than a small carry-on backpack. Depending on the location, the flight takes between 8 and 12 hours - I am definitely not interested in watching 5 movies back-to-back.
The risk is that the EU is handing out new clean passports to random people who just wonder into the EU and demand new papers with a fictional life story.
Different nations in the EU have long term travel agreements with the USA, so some random person with a brand "new", clean EU nation passport could just use it to enter the USA.
The US cant trust the EU nations to look back into the original of all its new "citizens" as they are given perfect new documents by EU nations.
The EU is randomly handing out some of the most trusted travel documents to random people after a few years of wondering into the EU and having telling a good "story".
Interesting people are using the EU to create a new clean document trail and then trying to enter the USA on paperwork the US historically trusted.
The EU has no way of looking back over an illegal migrants history and just creates new documents for them.
Unless the interesting persons face or biometrics got picked up at some point in the past their new paper work is EU clean.
Thats the problem for the USA, nations in the EU is offering their own national documents to too many random people without any questions after a few years.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"...read a book until I get tired"
That's exactly what I do on flights, but now I'm going to have to start lugging around physical books again and squinting for the right light to read them by.
How does being forced to check a laptop that is going to explode make the plane any safer? Next up, you will no longer be able to travel with a laptop, period.
You can't bring your laptop, but the airline will rent you one for the low price of $179.99*. Soon they'll be doing it with headphones, too.
* Gogo in-flight WiFi costs extra
The only people that were not responsible for the outcome are the non-voters
They are also responsible for the result, because they were capable of acting, but chose not to act. The people who voted for the loser are not responsible for the outcome, because they acted, and their action did not result in their choice. How can you be responsible for the actions of the winner, when you acted to not put him/her in power?
if the voter turnout is south of 1% then that monster will have very little power.
We live in a Constitutional Republic, not a Direct Democracy. If only 1% of the population votes in the US, and results in a PotUS, that PotUS has all the power that the CotUS bequeaths to him. It would be a significant amount of power, whether there was 99% participation, 75% participation, 55% participation, 25% participation, or 1% participation.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
I am really sorry to say this, but you are making far too much sense for anyone in a position to change things to listen to you. :-(
I feel so sig.
Why not have passengers and cargo fly separately? All your checked baggage flies on a cargo plane the day before you fly. It's waiting for you at your destination. If you're unable to check your baggage the previous day then you have to expect a delay between your arrival and your baggage's arrival.
Passenger planes are exactly that: passengers only. Yes, you can take a small carry-on bag with essentials but that's all. Modify plane layout so that you can fit 2 levels of passenger seats into the fuselage, or just fly with an empty cargo hold and enjoy the benefits of a less heavy plane that uses less fuel.
I admit this is probably unworkable for myriad reasons.
Anything that discourages and eventually destroys air travel is good for the planet.
Gaia thanks United, Spirit and the TSA.
I'm wondering if it's really only about laptops, or more generally any electronic stuff larger than a smartphone, similar to the restrictions already put in place regarding the middle east.
I for one couldn't abide putting my expensive DSLR plus lenses into the hold, where you can be pretty sure they'll be exposed to rough handling - not counting the fact I actually want to use it during the flight - and no, quality of smartphone camera pictures doesn't come close.
As long as it's only the USA insisting on killing off scientific or business relations or tourism, so much for that, their security theatre insanity since 9/11 has made sure I don't want to visit anyway, even if I'd love to see the landscapes (national parks especially). I sure don't want to see such restrictions elsewhere.
And I do remember a time I even went to visit the White House with my swiss army knife in my pocket (summer of 1991), which wasn't even detected there (at Wall Street it was).
Am I wrong if I say US people can't bring laptops to Europe as well? Unless they want to leave their laptop in Europe when they'll get back to USA (using a plane)
I have, yes. It's just about possible, though not especially comfortable on any aircraft other than a 787. On the 787, I managed to get a good 6 hours of productive work done on a transatlantic flight.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
That means I can't watch my favourite movies during the flight anymore and have to watch the godawful crap that's even edited to be consumable by toddlers during the flight :-(
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
Yeah banning a laptop will allow people to sit back and watch movies. Except you can't do that on many short flights, and you can't afford it on the ones you can.
Laptops are what many people use to watch their movies and relax.
They were almost successful in Somalia:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/africa/somalia-airplane-explosion/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daallo_Airlines_Flight_159
> south of 1% then that monster will have very little power. How does that work out? The Constitution is precisely the same. The powers it gives to those in the 3 branches is precisely the same. Could you explain what you mean?
Isn't this equally a threat on any flight, even domestic flights?
If the concern is that terrorists and laptops-with-undetectable-bombs are only created in Europe (or the Middle East), then what's to stop a terrorist from flying to the US with a laptop-bomb in checked baggage, then bringing their laptop-bomb into the cabin on their next domestic flight?
I heard it was a pretty even split between rebel, loyalist, don't know and "what's in it for me?".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I flew from Istanbul to London last week and was very impressed with Turkish Airlines handling of this. They impounded all large electronic devices at the gate and wrapped and packed them straight into a special container and gave the owners bar-coded receipts. And, hey presto, that container was by the carousel in London with ground crew handing out the devices. All very slick. (That's not to say I agree with the policy)
I foresee a surge in routings via Canada and Mexico.
If you read the linked article it's a massive speculative hyperbole that tells us that with this ban, the plane will catch on fire when all the laptops in the baggage compartment catch file and you'll die for sure.
LOOK! SQUIRREL!
Murphy was an optimist
Those filthy dog lovers have finally shown the world that our once free country is now really a bunch of terrified little rats scurrying at the slightest sound. It is embarrassing that the rest of the world can see what pathetic cowards we really are. It's just sad. No other country in the world has this problem. Americans are the most cowardly in the entire world apparently. I wonder why. Also this highlights our incredible stupidity. How could anyone be so stupid as to think this is in any way reasonable or effective. No one with any common sense would do this. Somehow we have literally retarded people running things in our country. Also if they are willing to do this they are willing to do ANYTHING. How are they even allowed to do this? Isn't there a basic human right that is being violated here? I think there is.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
TSA must be counting on their European counter-parts stealing the bomb. Maybe "odds of the theft" >> "odds of detection in the carry-on process". Which would explain why TSA prefers the bomb to head for checked luggage.
Not sure if you're joking but Emirates has already seen a big drop off to the US because of this.
No joke. That is a good thing. I would love to see general 'strike' by the traveling public until sanity returns, but so far that still doesn't seem too likely.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Eventually, they'll just ban passengers on passenger flights.
A bomb that was apparently in a laptop casing blew a hole in the fuselage and injured two people aside from the suicide bomber. The plane returned safely to the airport. The CNN article says there was a danger to the entire plane, bu the Wikipedia article doesn't. The apparent laptop did not board the plane by normal means, but was given to the bomber by airport workers.
In this case, the "laptop" needed to pass as one only to a cursory inspection. It didn't have to function, or even open up. The bombers apparently didn't trust it to get on board normally.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
An interesting theory. Got any actual evidence for it?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Back in the day, flying was one of the few times the traveling businessman got to him(her)self. No computer to work on, no phone calls to make or receive. Then came laptops making it possible to do work on the plane, then in-flight phone calls, and now wireless Internet on flights.
Banning laptops would mean that the business traveler once again legitimately can't get any work done while flying
And legitimately not able to work when you get there because if the sticky fingered baggage handler decided he didn't want your laptop, the carelessness of how it's thrown about would ensure it arrived broken.
Every travel insurer on the planet tells you never to put valuables in checked luggage, this is because airlines have no visibility over what happens to your luggage when it's being handled.
For this reason alone, I expect business travellers to make A LOT of noise over it and it'll be a noise the government cant ignore. I believe that the Bush Administration proposed something similar right after 911, the entirety of the business community rebelled and it was quickly scrapped.
If you want time not working, simply make it. If you cant you are either not important enough to make these decisions (in which case you're basically a serf) or you're choosing not to make time. Most of the time it's the latter and you don't have anyone but yourself to blame for that.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
This is just plain dumb.
First, as for your "catch a movie or two", that sounds great, except that you need a laptop (or at least a tablet) to do that, unless you want to be stuck with whatever shit the airline is showing. Don't forget, the airline's shit will cost you $$$; with your laptop, you can watch whatever you brought with you for free.
Secondly, the only way you can be reached in-flight now is through WiFi. Maybe I'm a little out of touch, but last time I flew that cost extra, and it wasn't that cheap either. So if you don't want to be in contact, don't: don't pay for the optional WiFi service, and just use your laptop for a movie, or working on a personal project, or whatever. If someone complains, ask if they're willing to give you cash to pay for the WiFi, and if not, to shut the hell up. Personally, in all my years of working, I've never had any employer or business contact give me grief for not using something unless it was actually provided by the company, not paid for by me personally. No reasonable employer ever expects an employee to personally pay for stuff that's just for business use.
The US Visa Waiver Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... goes back to the late 1980's.
Nations that once had tight documentation on their own citizens and laws on who could become a citizen.
e.g. France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and West Germany
The US thought such nations would have good document control and only let people get their nations travel documents who would pass some security requirements.
More EU nations got added to the EU and the US considered more EU nations for the same easy travel access to the USA.
It was all good back in 1991. The EU still had governments that functioned and the US expected travel paperwork issued by a EU nation was secure in each nation.
Now the EU is flooded with random people demanding EU travel documents.
Stay in the EU for a while with a good story and create your own new EU documents.
The US now has to face the reality that EU nations are handing out full EU nation travel documents to random illegal migrants over the years.
Citizenship of the European Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... has a nice chart with the time it takes to get the needed EU paperwork in different EU nations.
What the US expected from the EU nations was working system of valid travel documentation within a EU nation as in the late 1980's
Not a constant flow of illegal migrants getting new travel documents after a few years in the EU with no ability to consider each persons origins or past history.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
MiB?
I'm guessing this move coincides with the launch of President Trump's latest startup: LAPTOP RENTALS!
This comment is my opinion and does not represent an official position of Donald Trump or others I do not work for
Guess why there are so many different plots? Because every time you do something, we guard against that. And then people just go "Right, what next? Oh, look, laptops!". Now you have a new threat, massive expense on stupid rules and countermeasures, new crap to make people stand in queues for longer, new bollocks to make me hate my own government and country more for capitulating to it. And then all they do is say "Right... next up... let's put a bomb in a set of headphones."
You shot me back to "Foster, you're dead": https://cochranesfsophomores.f... - one of my favorite Philip K Dick shorts.. more "the soviets" than "the terrorists" but the idea's familiar at this point :-/.
I'm not good at making signatures...