The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: November 7, 2010

Official News page 6


REAL LIFE NEWS: EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING

by Hazed

Last week's bomb scare involving bombs in the cargo on planes from Yemen is going to cause security to be tightened, again - no more printer cartridges in your hand luggage, shock horror! But this time one of the new inconveniences might just turn out to be a benefit.

The bombs consisted of plastic explosive inside laser printer cartridges, with cellphone-based detonation circuits. The concern is that these bombs could have been triggered by calling or texting the handset. This casts doubt on the wisdom of allowing in-flight communications that involve the internet or cellphones.

There is actually no evidence that the recent bombs were planned to be set off using the phones - the handsets may have been used just as timers - but even so, if future airborne suicide bombers are able to detonate bombs in the hold using an in-flight phone call, it potentially gives them a much more reliable way to carry out their terrorist activities.

So the idea of mobile phone calls on planes may be curtailed before it has really taken off. Thank goodness!

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