As if we didn’t already know that last week’s “foiled terrot plot” wasn’t bogus, it turns out even the science of mixing harmless-looking liquids together to make a bomb is fallacious as well:
While it’s true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it’s unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that’s about all you’re likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.
[T]he Hollywood myth of binary liquid explosives now moves governments and drives public policy. We have reacted to a movie plot. Liquids are now banned in aircraft cabins (while crystalline white powders would be banned instead, if anyone in charge were serious about security). Nearly everything must now go into the hold, where adequate amounts of explosives can easily be detonated from the cabin with cell phones, which are generally not banned.
Meanwhile the dauntless heroes of the TSA announced just on Thursday that their intrepid security officers found two containers with “explosive residue” in a carry-on bag in West Virginia.
Unfortunately the “explosive” turned out to be nothing more than ordinary facial cleanser but luckily, the entire airport was evacuated, giving TSA officials a chance to scare all the white folks in Huntington because a Pakistani woman wearing a headscarf was trying to fly.
Across the ocean, our dauntless British ally is now “encouraging” passengers to not even bring empty bottles on board. Who knows what sinister and dastardly deeds can be performed with an empty bottle!
Pax
