Getting rid of fluids on board a plane really isn't that big of a deal. It will make certain trips where you stay over at a friends house a bit more difficult, and it will make other trips just about the same, after a short transition.

After that transition time, you will find kiosks and stores at the destination airport that will sell you pre-put together, and branded, overnight kits with small sample size 1-4 day quantities of your favorite fluids, and nicer hotels will begin to stock replacements for free. You may be given these onboard your flight the way that sleep kits are given out on overseas flights.

The departure airports will sell inspected/sealed bottled water AFTER you go through security that you can take onboard.

I am not saying that giving up fluids on an airplane is a wise or necessary or long term option, I am just saying that if it were a long term decision, it would really be no big deal for 99% of most fluids carried on board.

The harder ones will be the baby foods, the medicines, and breast milks. Those will be expensive to seal, or expensive to replace, or expensive to authenticate.

---- Just say no to 0 ratings. Especially from petey, the ratings abuser.

The first commentor had a good point. Airplanes really are a uniquely vulnerable target and as such should get more protection than other modes of transportation. Subways, security lines, trains, and malls are all roughly equivalent and so removing fluids in any of them wouldn't be particularly effective. I heard a guy on NPR claim that you could carry enough liquid explosives to take down a plane (if you sat next to the wall) in a purse. Even in the relatively sophisticated London bombings fours terrorists managed to kill only 50 people.

For a truly onerous and unnecessary security policy try England after the announcement of the most recent plot. No carryons of any kind, not even a book to read. Now that would be a terrible flight...

What's going to be really bad, much much worse than removal of fluids is elimination of electronics. Good-bye iPods, cellphones, dvd players, laptops....

If only there was some way I could occupy my time with a small compact portable object containing interesting fiction or non-fiction that I could carry on board a plane that would be safe from tampering. Think. This must be possible.

Seriously, no laptops or iPods or dvd players!!!! Suddenly I'm all in favor of nuking Bin Laden Land.

---- Just say no to 0 ratings. Especially from petey, the ratings abuser.

well if you follow the thought in your own predictions above, about needs like personal toiletries, the market will figure out a way to fill these needs to your ultimate satisfaction, too. The airlines, in flight, and airport shops past security, will furnish you with a full panoply of the most wonderful music, reading matter, movies, internet, TV, and other entertainment at a delightfully affordable price.

Why do I think I am missing some nots in the statement above?

It always seems to me that the panic that comes after one of these alerts is like trying to close the barn door after the horse is already out. One news report indicated that our security forces already knew about the possible dangers of fluids on planes since the plot in the '90s to blow up planes from the Philippines over the Pacific. So we've known about it for over a decade but only doing something about it, or rather as Matt is suggesting overreacting. Short of banning all carryons, planes will be open to attack, and people will have to factor that into their travel choices. Do I want to be on a plane when a terrorist bomb goes off? Of course not, but neither do I want to be on a plane when it crashes, I haven't done any study, but I bet in the last ten years more people have died in crashes than in a bomb on a plane.

I just returned to Warsaw, Poland, yesterday, via a connection in Paris. I noticed they were inspecting all carryons, and doing it pretty efficiently (quelle surprise as Air France seems to think that 45 minutes is enough time for you and your luggage to make your connecting flight, is there a more passenger unfriendly airport than Charles de Gaulle?), and the agent had no problem with the bottle of Bordeaux I picked up in the duty free shop. I guess she couldn't believe that anyone would try to hide a bomb in French wine, on the other hand, would a Coke bottle be more suspicious?

Matt -- You're making too much sense. We're but ants madly scurrying around our hill after it has been disturbed again.

Your link to Fallow's article is actually to a Metro page. Declaring Victory (full article requires subscription).

I like to freeze a bottle of water before leaving on a trip. Since ice is a solid, not a liquid, I should be allowed to carry this on, correct?

Ugh, figures this would happen right before I'm supposed to fly to other parts of the country two consecutive weekends in a row. And my checked luggage always gets lost.

Wish I had a solid shampoo factory right about now. I'd be making a mint.

You do know, darling, that your nice description of a terrorist attack on the Metro (which, I agree, would bring the city to its knees--just look what happened with the flooding in June!) means big brother will be monitoring your phone calls from now on and you'll probably never be able to fly again without being "randomly selected" for screening....

Would it help if we replaced airplanes with zepplins?

That would be so awesome.

name another target where the detonation of a relatively small device would kill over 300 people a time. This would most definitely NOT occur in a airport line, in a train, or in a restaurant.

Please think about things before you post.

=== name another target where the detonation of a relatively small device would kill over 300 people a time. ===

I have picked out a couple of hundred such as I have waited in various types of security lines and delays over the last 5 years. If you are an actual registered architect you should have no trouble doing the same. Please think about things before you post.

sPh

Official T.S.A. announcement of baggage rules change is HERE.

It's very simple: no liquids or gels or creams except for baby formula, breast milk, and prescription meds with matching name.

Nothing about electronics or books or eyeglass cases, etc.

This part sounds like the theory that you will be able to buy liquids past security and carry them on is wrong:

Beverages purchased in the sterile area must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted onboard the aircraft.

Of course, other countries will have other rules, and also you can be sure that there will be TSA Agents that are idiots at interpreting what a gel or cream is, i.e., how soft is that lipstick; is that flat foil packet a dry towelette or does it have an impermissible amount of fluid in it?

Looks like I am going to have to look into getting a prescription for those contac lens rewetting drops for long flights, as I value my corneas.

Count me sceptical, like Matt.

About subway: a mentally deranged Korean with a can of gasoline killed 100 people by setting a subway car of fire. Perhaps people carried a lot of flammable stuff.

Can one destroy a plane with explosives that would fit in a purse? Perhaps. However, the stuff about binary explosives was known for many years and nobody made a serious attempt. I suspect that it is easier to conceptualize than to accomplish. Perhaps a military laboratory can prepare such stuff, but otherwise I suspect it would be very difficult.

I must also confess that I like to drink a lot and I usually carry a thermos bottle full of tea on the plane, and a bottle with water, and something to eat too. Wouldn't it be nice to live in the universe of "Kill Bill", so one could carry a katana on board?

The terrorists seem almost obsessed with causing air disasters. This may be partly out of economic considerations, since sinking a ship or derailing a train will not cause the sort of damage (or panic) that bringing down jetliners would. However I suspect there is an element (a large one) involving an atavistic hate of modern technology too. This is almost never mentioned but fundamentalist Islam has a far bigger problem with modern science and technology than even the most rock-ribbed of Christian Bible-thumpers do. It's been barely a generation since Saudi Arabian clerics finally threw in the towel on the old Ptolemaic model of the solar system. Probably there is some sort of half-conscious notion that people who fly are violating Allah's will since if He had wanted people to do so he would have given them wings.

a few of us got into discussing the same general theme in a short sub-thread HERE.

Certificate Revocation Lists are basic components of public key infrastructure authentication systems.
--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"The terrorists seem almost obsessed with causing air disasters."

There are some people in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Madrid, London, and Mumbai who might disagree.