Recent Comments:
Crapgadget: mammoth iPod touch knockoff {Engadget}
Jan 2nd 2008 1:25AM If that iPod Touch comes with a hand miniaturizer, I'm in!!!
DOT bans checked, loose lithium batteries on flights {Engadget}
Dec 29th 2007 3:14PM If people have to ship their extra spare batteries to their final destination, who's checking whether they're plastic-wrapped or docked in electronics when UPS or FedEx has them? The shipping companies use planes, too...and it's not much better to recreate the movie Castaway than to lose a passenger jet.
And why haven't Flamin' Hot Asteroids Cheetos been banned too? The diarrhea they cause is also highly explosive.
Sorry to any ultranationalists, but this is just more more BS security theatre.
DOT bans checked, loose lithium batteries on flights {Engadget}
Dec 28th 2007 4:41PM Ok, Fred...
If the batteries are most prone to explosion when they're in the laptops (or charging as in the case of cell-phones), then the new regulations would do nothing to prevent them from blowing up on a passenger's lap within the cabin of an airplane. So how is this a good regulation?
And I did not say or imply it was a ban...but the government is choosing to manage this risk in the wrong way. If a plastic bag per battery eliminates the risk, why not just require all spare batteries to be individually wrapped and not limit the number of batteries people can bring? It would take no longer for a checkpoint officer to look at each battery that a passenger brings and allow them through if wrapped in plastic, than to see them all and then bar the passenger from bringing his/her third-or-more spare battery through.
Just because I question the logic of this policy does not mean I disagree with smart policies to protect us. It's just that this one goes too far, or at least in the wrong directions. And between the Patriot Act, Katrina, political rhetoric, and the general mismanagement and bungling of the Dept. of Homeland Security, I have to say that a general disapproval of the DHS is far from misguided. This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue either...I just want a country that is run as openly as possible by people who are there to govern and serve the public from a truly moral standpoint, rather than like rats vying for power, money, career advancement, nepotism, and stratification of public opinion. Just look at the Blackwater Christmas card...oh, WWJD?!? http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/28/blackwater-wishes-yo.html
DOT bans checked, loose lithium batteries on flights {Engadget}
Dec 28th 2007 4:05PM As ubiquitous as Li-Ion batteries have become, has there ever been a problem with a battery exploding on an airplane?
Whether or not there is any technical basis for the new restrictions and regulations, I believe that these changes are designed to make it look like the TSA/Dept. of Homeland Security are doing more...which is enough to convince plenty of idiots that the work they're doing is successful and/or worthwhile. In other words, it's a Spectacle...performance art designed to lie...you know, propaganda.
Either that, or the next US megaweapon will be powered by free, confiscated batteries. Maybe the administration is planning to drunk-dial Ahmadinejad on New Years, just to goad him into war.
Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for enemy {Engadget}
Dec 26th 2007 4:34AM I think you ripped off the Enema Holiday Gift Guide from engorgeit.com! And you dis the Vii...as if you've ever seen one:P
Merry Christmas: win two round trip tickets on JetBlue + noise canceling headphones {Engadget}
Dec 26th 2007 4:27AM OAK or MSY...unless JBLU hits AMS before I claim my prize trip.
Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 3) {Engadget}
Dec 21st 2007 7:45PM analog metacarpals w/ 5 analog digits (both wrists).
Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 2) {Engadget}
Dec 20th 2007 4:30PM here goes another long shot...I should've already won anyway with Tuesday's "clocktease" comment.
Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 1) {Engadget}
Dec 19th 2007 1:38PM I'm wearing a titanium fossil with chrono, and have a couple casio databank watches, a casio tv remote, a 1990s fm radio, swatch beat, and a collectible spider man fossil at home. Oh, and some Roplexes & Nomegas from Chinatown. I'd love to add the E Ink to my semi-geeky watch collection.
Phosphor starts selling E Ink watches {Engadget}
Dec 18th 2007 11:15PM such a clocktease...
