TSA Bans Star Wars Coke Bottles That Resemble Grenades (sfgate.com) 194
Tablizer shares a report from SFGate: Visitors to Disney's new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction, can choose from more than 1,000 unique items to take home as souvenirs. But if they plan on flying home, they'll have to leave at least one behind -- a specially designed "thermal detonator" Coca-Cola bottle the company made especially for the new attraction. TSA has told fans that the bottle, which retails for $5, looks too much like a replica explosive and therefore won't be allowed in carry-on or checked baggage. Fans, not surprisingly are not pleased with the decision. I hope they don't take away my lightsaber.
Baubles (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Baubles (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering the whole thing is security theater in the first place, they have to keep making noise to stay relevant.
Expecting them to actually make sensible decisions about carry-ons, instead of using pornoscopic examinations and frisking 90 year old women and 5 year old kids, is just unrealistic.
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Re:Baubles (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't need to look like handgranades to be banned. They need to look like what people think hand granades look like.
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They don't need to look like handgranades to be banned. They need to look like what people think hand granades look like.
People think hand grenades are painted like Coke bottles?
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No but round, christmas ornament shaped like and with a pull- or twist-off cap
Re:Baubles (Score:4)
Just wait until some joker makes a fake "grenade" that looks like a Coke bottle and tries to get it past TSA for 15 minutes of fame and a published story!
Oblig. classic SNL "No Coke! Pepsi!"
Strat
Re: Baubles (Score:2)
A hammer handle on a tin can.
Image (Score:2)
Hand grenades don't have a Coke or Sprite logo on them, usually.
Also, hand grenades do not look like a fictional weapon from a science fiction movie.
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Hand grenades don't have a Coke or Sprite logo on them, usually.
Also, hand grenades do not look like a fictional weapon from a science fiction movie.
Gulf War 3: sponsored by Coca-Cola: I want to give the world a Coke grenade.
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They don't need to look like handgranades to be banned. They need to look like what people think hand granades look like.
The issue may be the amount of time it would take to search every bag that had one of those Coke products in it. The x-ray does not display the label, and TSA can't simply say to ignore any round objects since they're probably a Coke product. People would be equally pissed, and probably more so if, bags started not getting on flights due to delays from screening.
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Most people think hand grenades look like the old pineapple or potato mashers from WW2. Not the modern smooth ones.
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They don't need to look like handgranades to be banned. They need to look like what people think hand granades look like.
You mean they need to look like what the deplorable dumbshits they hire to rape people think hand grenades look like.
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They look more like Christmas ornaments than they do grenades.
That's what I thought.
Seems like an over-reaction by the TSA.
It seems like an over reaction because it is.
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They look more like Christmas ornaments than they do grenades. Seems like an over-reaction by the TSA.
Yeah, they a smallish and round. Just like a whole bunch of things.
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They look more like Christmas ornaments than they do grenades. Seems like an over-reaction by the TSA.
Next thing you know, you won't be allowed to say "Merry Christmas!" anymore.
Or "Happy Life Day!"
And I thought Emperor Dumpy promised he'd protect the Life Day for the whole galaxy. Guess he lied about that too.
Ok but... (Score:5, Funny)
... is it OK to carry a real grenade that looks like a bottle of coke?
Re:Ok but... (Score:4)
Re: Ok but... (Score:2)
You can ask, but be prepared for extra examination and a place on the 'do not fly' list.
Might be preferred if you have a bad MIL.
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Never talked to one of them have you?
The TSA is a federal jobs program for low-level mouth breathers. They have been given authority over people with real jobs, and told that it is important for them to rule over those normal people with real jobs. They have not humor, because even they know that there existence is a lie.
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Of course! After you go through security, just tell them a joke like "you missed a bomb hidden in my arse". Lots of fun will ensue!
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Of course! After you go through security, just tell them a joke like "you missed a bomb hidden in my arse". Lots of fun will ensue!
There was a case where a German passenger once said he needed to go to the toilet because he was going to blow off the roof and he got arrested. He was just using a humorous German idiom meaning "he REEAAALLY needed to go", but the stewards weren't familiar with the idiom and accused him of making a threat.
Re:Ok but... (Score:5, Funny)
... is it OK to carry a real grenade that looks like a bottle of coke?
No, because "It's the real thing".
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Theater bombs (Score:2)
And here I thought real terrorist bombs basically just looked like plain boxes or everyday objects.
It suits the security theater to ban items that look like made-for-movie bombs.
Advertising their incompetence? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? REALLY?? They really can't tell the difference? What have they been spending their budget on? (Probably a bunch of those fake bomb detecting wands.)
Re: Advertising their incompetence? (Score:2)
They might take interest in you if you have batteries, a clock, some wires and cheese in your luggage.
But checking in a baseball bat or a breaker bar is fine.
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Believe it or not, there IS logic at work here. The TSA checker can tell that it's empty, but if a guy stands up in a plane and holds it aloft, will everyone on the plane know it's empty? Will the terrorist allow people to inspect his grenade to confirm that it's genuine? It's the same reason you can't bring a realistic plastic replica gun.
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And I really don't think even a soccer mom would think that thing was a grenade.
But how scary is it in someone's checked baggage? (Packed next to Dad's real handgun and Junior's Airsoft pistol.)
It still comes back to advertising their incompetence or admitting that they have wasted all the money spent on scanners.
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Do they really want the world to know they can "scan" at a rapid rate the insides of any sized container and work out if the contents match a long list of chemical compositions?
They really can't do that. They can work out if the contents have a certain reflectivity to x-rays or radio waves, or if they remove them from your luggage they can pass them through a sniffer and check for residues on the outside, though, and that should be enough to know about an empty plastic bottle.
Missing the point (Score:4, Interesting)
I am certainly not a friend of the TSA or its policies...
But some people get nervous when they see someone solving mathematical problems. If that thing goes on board and someone panics, shit will go down.
So while it's certainly dumb that they feel the need to ban this, for once I think they may have a point.
The problem here isn't that the TSA is incompetent (though they are), it's that the US populace has become a bunch of cowardly pansies.
Re:Missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not a reason to ban them in checked luggage.
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NO!!!!
Enough dumbing down the world for the "fragile" and the "special".
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> So put those nervous people on the do-not-fly lists.
This is the best answer.
Re: Irrational fears and safe spaces (Score:2)
Really? (Score:2)
I guess that the TSA is saying that they can't tell the difference between a bottle of pop and an explosive device?
I have some round Christmas Coke bottles. I guess they would also be banned, for looking too much like a Coke bottle from Galaxies Edge.
Thanks Osama (Score:5, Insightful)
9/11, the gift that keeps on giving...
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Year in, year out, "we" ignore black on black murders on a grand scale in every major city but then go all ape shit when here and there a white guy loses it.
We're talking about mass shootings here. Stay on topic.
Are you only concerned about white murderers because statistically they are killing more whites than any other race on their brief rampages?
We're primarily concerned about white mass shooters because they are overwhelmingly more numerous than black ones. If you were going to use profiling to look for mass shooters, you'd be looking for white guys.
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" ignore black on black murders"
ah yes, the racist whataboutism response.
Now compare to White and white murder, and then realize those murders mostly aren't done by people spouting racist shit, or having a racist manifesto.
And yes, people do care about black on black murders, and people are trying to so something, just like people care about white on white murder and want to lower that as well.
But going on a racist rampage is fucking different, an actual smart person would understand that.
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Fox did 9/11 first with the Pilot Episode of X-Files spin-off "The Lone Gunmen", even giving it the titular-characters' conspiracy-nut leanings
Fuck the Patriot Act (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet another (Score:2)
in a long list of reasons the TSA needs to be eliminated....
so glad I don't fly anymore...
Shark, jumped. (Score:2)
WTG TSA!
On return from Germany in 1983... (Score:2)
One of my classmates had a shock. They were pulled over because of a grenade looking item. It was the pinecone counterweights for his cuckoo clock.
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The only thing we have to fear is security theater itself.
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Insanity (Score:2)
No one is going to mention how utterly fucking stupid their reason is? It looks like a *FICTIONAL* weapon. That's right even something that resembles a fantasy object is banned. Following their logic Harry Potter magic wands should also be banned for looking like a weapon.
Re:Insanity (Score:5, Funny)
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actually, a "thermal detonator" looks like a few models of real grenades, be trivial to make an MK-67 look exactly like on
maybe you're stupid and the TSA is smart
Security Theater (Score:2)
Pretending to keep us safe (Score:2)
The TSA, pretending to keep us safe from things that don't exist and that can't actually harm us.
They'll take my lightsaber... (Score:2)
Re:Not unreasonable for a change. (Score:5, Interesting)
This makes a lot more sense than banning liquids or making you take your shoes off, and this is something Disney should have thought of, knowing that the vast majority of their visitors fly in.
So now banned on flights is anything small and round? Are they allowed to take bb8 models around the same size I wonder? He is about as grenade like as these bottles.
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So now banned on flights is anything small and round? Are they allowed to take bb8 models around the same size I wonder? He is about as grenade like as these bottles.
bb8 models are not dangerous.
Coke products are; they cause obesity, cancer, and diabetes.
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Not sure you thought this through. Are you suggesting for TSA to push the problem of screening those into the USPS then? If TSA already screens them to ensure they are safe before mailing them, why not let them be in the checked luggage? If they just blindly mail any suspected explosive devices, that could be a problem, don't you think so?
Re: Not unreasonable for a change. (Score:2)
Just purchase a $5000 blast proof container over here for your thermal detonator and we will send it to you on a special transport for dangerous goods for an additional $3000.
Re: Not unreasonable for a change. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's empty coke bottle, in a shape that would be scary to a five year old.
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Yep. TSA is NOT about actual security. Someone is making a lot of money off this nonsense
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USPS doesn't screen like TSA.
And there is a different between not allowed to to rules, and an actual suspected explosive devices. If they actually have reason to suspect something is an explosive, they actually arrest you.
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Outside checkpoints there are USPS kiosks most in airports . Some are a little out of the way, but I've seen TSA agents tell people exactly how to get there to go to ship their items home. Sometimes they're even visible from the security line with a sign reminding you you can ship something you aren't allowed on a plane.
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How ironic that they're telling you that you can't take it on a plane, so go over there and pay to ship it home, which will very likely be transported on a plane
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Well the usual use case is when people forget a pocket knife or large expensive perfume or something else is in their carry-on after they checked their bag.
Cargo-only planes (Score:2)
Cargo-only planes can carry somewhat more hazardous or hazardous-appearing materials because they don't represent quite the risk to human life as planes carrying a mix of passengers and their cargo.
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right? It's not like someone in back is going to hold a bomb and then hijack the flight of a cargo plane.
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Banning liquids has nothing to do with controlling dangerous substances, and everything to do with maintaining the "duty-free" shops' monopoly on selling you soda pop at 3x the normal price.
As for forcing people to take their shoes off, I think it's mostly about degrading people into submission. Not that it bothers me one bit personally, as a full-time barefooter...
Re:Not unreasonable for a change. (Score:5, Interesting)
No, it's for two reasons. One is that shoes often have metal in that can set off the metal detector (hence the introduction of body scanners coinciding with most airports no longer requiring shoes to be removed) and the other is that someone did indeed board an aircraft wearing shoes that had explosives within them, and did try to destroy the aircraft.
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Depends on the airport. When I was flying out of Atlanta 2 years ago, they didn't have me take off my shoes any of the time I flew.
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Outside the US is different, though. I have not seen the body scanners or had to remove my shoes in Mexico, Canada, Germany, or Japan in the past 18 months.
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Flying out of Miami earlier this year wasn't a shoe removal occasion.
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It was 2 years ago but I was happy flying through Minneapolis where a woman was yelling at us repeatedly to keep our shoes on.
Hopefully she was a TSA agent, and not just a crazy lady offended by foot odor
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/Oblg. Theater inSecurity Assholes Logic [chzbgr.com] **Facepalm [chzbgr.com]**-- But hey, they have been groping people since 9/11 to keep us safe! /s
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By the way, the thermal det
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It's far-fetched specifically because the TSA never finds dangerous things in luggage, they only find stuff to steal. Every time they are tested they fail to find somewhere between most and all of the test explosives. There is statistically no chance that they will find a dangerous-looking item in your baggage, though they may find any valuables you were foolish enough to let them get their thieving hands on.
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Too hard to tell apart from real explosives
I think yes, but the other way around. Too hard to tell real explosives and assuming its safe Coke. Not a real risk of course but can you image if someone exposes the theater of it all by sending through toy grenades and the agents thought they were Coke drinks? Of course they can pull aside everything that looks like a grenade but then people will get mad at being delayed. Plus the TSA can't afford having agents checking even 10% more bags... that would require actually doing something beyond staring a
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This makes a lot more sense
It makes no sense at all. Cargo cult TSA. Just because something (vaguely) looks like something else does not make it dangerous. They forgot to finish the sentence: "Looks too much like replica explosives if you're a TSA worker with an IQ of 60".
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"This makes a lot more sense than banning liquids"
You mean because at every test inspectors do, they always fail to detect real hand grenades?
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If you tell them you left your mac book in your luggage, they will get your luggage for you because it has an Li-Ion battery.
I forgot my iPad in my luggage, went back and asked if I could still get my suitcase. They said no and then I mention it was going to be a long flight without my iPad.
At which point she asked if I left my iPad in my luggage. When I confirmed that, she went back and had them find it.
Assuming you mean 'Not up to them' , yes that's true, but that doesn't mean they could get the airport t
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No, the people should have. While this is lame as hell, it's pretty obvious with the current environment these would be allowed.
That said, they could have had Disney ship them to their home.
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At least is didn't look like one of those exploding Apple products. They should probably ban air pods too
Just saw a bulletin this morning saying MacBook laptops were banned from helicopter flights to/from the offshore rig I work on. Battery fires.
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But you can just open the door and throw it out, how dumb. It's not like it's a plane.
Re: How to avoid TSA with this one simple trick (Score:2)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
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Because $5 for a re-usable bottle your children will love and want to carry around with them is a cheap way to assure they stay sufficiently hydrated.
Any other silly questions you'd like answered?
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Maybe they clean water fountains in Europe, though I doubt it, but they are cesspools of bacteria here in the states. Every part of them is disgusting... The valve, the spigot, the basin, the water... I use them only at direst need.
I survived using them as a child, but there are much worse bugs around now, and I don't mean insects. All these nasty antibiotic-resistant illnesses didn't even exist then, as we had not yet created them with overuse of antibiotics.
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" cesspools of bacteria here in the states."
No they aren't.
yes, they did exist then, but antibiotics were also be developed.
Then research for antibiotics became to expensive to make so research slowed to a stop for about a decade.
Then to exactly no one surprise, bacteria evolved, like they always had, in a direction no on was R&Ding new drugs for.
Some bacteria would evolve away from a drug that cost 200 million to develop in 3 months; so the company would even recoup the R&D costs.
Now we are playing
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Relying on thirst would be deeply sub-optimal, especially with small immature humans that lack common sense and may be entirely distracted by something whimsical.
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If a parent can't recognize when their children need o be hydrated, then they should never have had kids.
We don't need the level of stupidity passed on.
And even with this container, one is still relying on the kids to self hydrate. Which again, see above comment.
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Stormtroopers on the streets? Too much like where real life america is heading for me....
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