<p>
[quote]
There was no putty on the tag. She was playing with Play-Doh when she asked the info desk when her boyfriend/labmate's flight was getting in. It wasn't attached to the device.
<p>yes they did....guess you only want to belive what you want to believe, that the cops and marines never ever overreact- my mom got irked becuase they wanted her tweezers, she argued, suddenly she was surrounded by marines, because she thought it was stupid, and yes, I agreed with my mom</p>
<p>My friends kids have more chance of dying from something made in china right now than anything else going on, but hey, don't worry about that at all</p>
<p>can't wait till Christmas when all the grannies are wearing their Christmas shirts with rudolphs nose lit up and the trees all aglow!!!</p>
<p>warning will rogers, no tacky sweaters at the airport, the fashion police can shot you on sight!!!!</p>
<p>again, if they can't handle the stress of the job, don't do it</p>
<p>what, these airport security police are under more stress the your average beat cop working the "hood?</p>
<p>and stickshock,. please tell me, what severe punishment is warranted for this young lady doing something stupid and creating, gasp, stress, </p>
<p>guess if regular police have to arrest someone, we should count their stress level in with the punishment as well</p>
<p>that is a plan- if you cause stress, you get double the time!!!!!</p>
<p>we have a culture where wearing the wring tshirt gets you kicked out of meetings, having the wrong bumper sticker disallows entry, where we toss shampoos from luggage, but allow millions of cargo containers to go unexamined every day, allow poisenous products into our country for our babies to use, allow substandard maintenance to be done on our aircraft, have over worked airtraffic controllers, understaff airtraffic towers, have planes with substandard bolts and other parts, we have guns put in the hands of mentaly ill people who kill college students, yet our focus and fear is on a stupid shirt</p>
<p>and for those who say, wait till your kid is bombed out of the sky, well this is MUCH scarier:</p>
<p>r new legislation that would require U.S.-owned airlines to have their planes fixed at bases certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
McCaskill said most carriers cut corners by outsourcing repairs to overseas maintenance bases, some in terrorist safe havens.
"I think we've all seen in the last few weeks, that products that come in from other countries don't have the same kinds of safety standards we have in America. If we're going to outsource this work, we have an obligation to make sure that it is being done just as safely as it's being done here," McCaskill said at KCI Airport on Thursday.
The senator said more airlines need to follow American Airlines' lead in keeping the work in the United States.</p>
<p>(you want you plane fixed with parts from China?)</p>
<p>Last year, investigators found that deficient maintenance by an outside vendor was partly to blame for the 2003 crash of a commuter flight in Charlotte, N.C. that killed 21 people.</p>
<p>In 1999, ValuJet flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades after taking off from Miami International Airport, killing all 110 on board. The crash was attributed to oxygen canisters improperly stowed in the aircraft's hold by maintenance employees working for an outside contractor.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amtonline.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=1713%5B/url%5D">http://www.amtonline.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=1713</a>
Inspector General’s report reactions
The Inspector General’s report FAA Safety Oversight of an Air Carrier Industry in Transition from June 3, 2005 states that the FAA is expected to lose some 300 safety inspectors this year and has asked for only 97 inspectors for FY 2006. (Note: The Inspector General’s report can be viewed at <a href="http://www.oig.dot.gov/item.jsp?id=1575%5B/url%5D.">www.oig.dot.gov/item.jsp?id=1575.</a>)
“FAA is being told that they cannot budget for more inspectors and they haven’t justified need,” says Goodrich. “They are looking to designees to do the job.
“There were 2,727 field inspectors as of Oct. 1, 2004,” she says. “We’re probably a good 200 below that right now. They are attempting to get rid of 300 this year and 200 more in 2006. The FAA has asked for 97 inspectors but has no idea whether they will get them. There’s no more money so they [FAA] can only allow people to leave.”</p>
<p>so in our time of national security crisis or whatever- we are outsourcing maintenance on american planes to countries that eh, don't do much checking as we do, we get rid of hundreds of aircraft inspectors and leav much in the hands of the companies, and we don't have enough airtraffic controllers working- anyone want to know about how many close calls there are in the air because we don't have enough controllers and they are working too many hours?</p>
<p>some are working ten hours a day six days a week</p>
<p>yet, we are supposed to focus on lipgloss and conditioner</p>
<p>oh yes, the parts we are buying often come from China, which has shown such quality work, or to other sources who use cheap material to make bolts, etc- you know, lesser steel, etc</p>
<p>yep, lets not worry about any of that stuff and worry about a costume at the airport</p>
<p>It's probably also worth clearly noting that she wasn't ever going to pass through security or get onto a plane - she was there to pick someone else up.</p>
<p>
[quote]
On a breadboard, sure, but a solderless protoboard that's not connected to anything but a battery...
[/quote]
Yes - one could easily use a solderless protoboard to put together a trigger circuit. This is what proto boards are for, to interconnect electronic components without solder (I've used them). Now, if there were a couple of wires coming off of it either on the top solderless connections or discreetly out the backside of it (through a couple of small drilled holes) to some C4 or something - Boom!</p>
<p>btw - I've been questioned at airports before regarding electronic components (ICs, Capacitors, resistors, wire, etc.) I was carrying through and this was in a box not interconnected. One time going into Canada I had some of it confiscated. This was all well before 911.</p>
<p>Given all of this, I doubt that a typical terrorist would be dumb enough to wear the assembled circuit on the outside of their clothing while wandering around an airport but still, I don't think the cops had any other choice but to stop and arrest the girl.</p>
<p>Here's the problem you have, you expect EVERYBODY to think like you do. Well they don't, there are smarter and yes, dumber people than you. Your outrage is your own fault for simply not understanding these other folks don's use your thought process in these situations. Your being overly critical of people for doing what they are trained to do to the best of their ability.</p>
<p>If they aren't as bright as you are about a situation, it doesn't lessen their control of the momment. In the same way people can't reason with you when you're uptight about an issue, these people are the same stubborness in a different situation. </p>
<p>Your angry at them for not being flexible, yet fail to be flexible yourself?</p>
<p>OK, it didn't really look like much of a bomb, but you can't be too careful. I've known people held up in security for hours for making stupid jokes. We really need to teach our kids that, no matter how special they are, some things are serious and there are times when the rules apply even to them.</p>
<p>From what I understand she was charged with disorderly conduct and is out on a pretty nominal bail. About what the moron deserves.</p>
<p>"Yay, a chance for all of us to call a student at a top school dumb and naive.</p>
<p>Now, don't we all feel better about ourselves? I know my self-esteem is higher knowing that all these bright kids lack 'street smarts'."</p>
<p>NO. Actually I worry everyday that my kids are going to not be aware of their surroundings and get mugged or raped and they are both super bright. I doesn't make me feel better, it makes me worry for their bambi safety.</p>
<p>The best way to avoid trouble is to see it coming...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yes - one could easily use a solderless protoboard to put together a trigger circuit. This is what proto boards are for, to interconnect electronic components without solder (I've used them).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It still has to be connected to something other than the battery (to the explosive, for one thing). I guess it's true, though, that such could be done fairly discreetly. The info desk worker got a close-up look at it, but this goes back to not being able to expect random people to know what they're seeing. Again, I'm not saying that they were wrong to stop and detain (which as far as I know is different from arrest) her. In some other things I think they were wrong, but not that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
...not being able to expect random people to know what they're seeing
[/quote]
Yup - most people would have no idea what they were really looking at other than it looked somewhat like the trigger devices they've seen in movies and TV shows. Of course these are also fake and loaded with blinking LEDs and usually some sound effect.</p>
<p>In addition to having my electronic components confiscated before I was also told once (on a trip back from Venezuela) that I couldn't carry my recently acquired blowgun on-board the plane with me. I carefully tried to reason with them that it was really just a hollow wooden tube but they made me check it anyway. I carried the darts on though!</p>
<p>
[quote]
OK, it didn't really look like much of a bomb, but you can't be too careful.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You can actually. You can ban baby bottles, or knitting needles from airplanes. Remember? Maybe pens or pencils too? Anything can be a weapon.</p>
<p>The thniking that "You can't be too careful" suggest that we shouldn't have reasonable, thinking people making rational decisions instead of hiding behind "Zero Tolerance" policies.</p>
<p>It looks reasonably suspicious enough that I would be very surprised if she was not stopped and detained. As far as being overkill, they don't know what they're walking into. People need to comply with law enforcement if they plan to strap devices to themselves and walk into an airport. This is a fact. Just a general tip I've picked up in life. I can believe that she did not realize what she was doing, that's very possible. However I also believe that a lot of violent crimes are committed by people with mental disorders who don't fully know what they're doing either. It's irrelevant to the police who are running into a situation that to the average info desk reporter would look very serious. </p>
<p>I'm sorry I'm not an MIT student or an electronics expert or a genius, and that looks very suspicious to me. I guess I'm dumbing down America or whatever, but oh well. This is the reality we live in and yes the average person on the street like me does not all the differences between these things and the names. Even if they did I am sure people will ill intentions could find some way to elude or disguise it. It is ridiculous to say that someone should not be stopped for wearing that. We don't know. We didn't expect liquid explosives, but someone figured that out and thankfully it was stopped in time. People are constantly coming up with ways to elude the system, and so no, you cannot simply walk around with things attached to yourself like that. A water pistol could also be said to be "clearly fake" though I wouldn't suggest someone walk into an airport with a large one strapped to themselves. </p>
<p>In DC, a 14 year old was shot to death by police several days ao. They were off duty and looking for a minibike belonging to one of them. They claim he was on it, and had a gun. Too bad neither reported the shooting (sensors picked it up), one left the scene before returning, and neither the gun the suspect is purported to have nor the minibike were found at the scene. As of today, they have supposedly found the minibike, but will not release where and the gun has not surfaced. So let's review: poor kid (child, legitimately, not a 19 year old) from the DC streets, shot and killed by law enforcement. Where's the outrage for this one? Won't even make the national news, much less warrant a discussion.</p>
<p>I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a JD from top schools. I graduated from law school magna cum laude. I wouldn't know a protoboard from a surfboard. And I consider myself pretty smart.</p>
<p>jessiel, you want the guards to just "let her go" once they determined her device was harmless. But what were they distracted from doing while they were determining that she was harmless? That's why filing a false police report (anywhere) is a crime. That's why pulling a false fire alarm is a crime. Because it uses resources that are needed elsewhere.</p>
<p>And now it turns out that Star wasn't "clueless" or "absent-minded." It's "art". She was "expressing herself." Well, there are some expressions that are not protected (remember "yelling fire in a crowded theater"?)</p>
<p>We tend to forget that very bright 19 year olds are nevertheless still capable of doing incredibly stupid things. The forebrain, which controls judgement, isn't completely mature until age 25. My extremely bright 18-year-old left early for college this summer to do one of those pre-freshman orientation things. She was on a sailboat in the middle of the Boston Harbour for 5 days. I asked her afterwards how it was. She said, "It was interesting... I liked it, but I was really cold for the first 2 days." I had this incredible flash of guilt, because I had only packed one fleece instead of the 2 required (but we were running out of space in the luggage, and fleeces take up a lot - plus she only had one). So I said something about that, and she said, "Well, I didn't take my windbreaker because I didn't have space in my duffel." We're talking the incredibly expensive water and wind-resistant jacket that I had bought her for backpacking a couple of years ago. And my husband sails - there is always foul weather gear hanging around everywhere in our house, or dropped right at the front door. How could she not know that if you bring nothing else on a sailboat you bring a windbreaker? Talk about failing at living!</p>
<p>Anyway, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger and hopefully smarter. I'll bet that my daughter never leaves her jacket behind again and this girl never goes to an airport again dressed in flashing lights.</p>
