If you're flying on an airplane and have an iPod (assuming they still let those on any more), whatever you do, don't accidentally drop it in the toilet. While the newspaper accounts that follow may sound innocuous, your personal tale may be a lot less ... amusing.
(via Schneier)
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Hey look, comments work. ;P
Yes, you can bring an iPod on to the airplane for domestic flights. Going to the UK, probably no. I do not know about other foriegn countries.
And yes, deal with police is always fun like that. ;P
Wow. What an awful experience, to be held at the end of the sword by ill-tempered and spectacularly stupid authorities who suspect you of heinous activity.
I feel empathy for the fellow because something similar (but on a smaller scale) happened to me recently. I have not yet decided how to write about it.
You keep thinking, "How should I answer?" Because you know that, while you've done nothing wrong, you must avoid the wrong answer at all costs.
The maddening thing is that, while I can understand a measure of reaction to "electronic device jammed in toilet," and even requiring a modicum of further inquiry to confirm that the person who did it is probably telling the truth (since the officials don't have the benefit of reading his abashed forum entry later on), the anecdote points out the biggest danger of security regimes -- their tendency to be abused. "Hey, the guy appears to be innocent -- but, dammit, he's sure inconvenienced us, so lets harrass him and look for porn on his PC."
The experience, from the perspective of someone who wasn't the person who dropped their iPod in the toilet.
A few nervous minutes later, at around 4 p.m., we landed and taxied to a desolate spot far from the terminal. I and my fellow passengers (close to 50 of us) expected to see emergency vehicles waiting and a crew of people to rush us off the plane before this "object" exploded. No such luck. We were greeted by an eerie silence, a silence that lasted almost 40 minutes until a bus finally pulled up near our plane.Perplexed and confused, we were ordered to disembark and told that we could bring nothing with us, not even our passports. (Apparently this order was a mistake because we were expected later to have our identifying documents with us.) Grim-faced police officers with guns stared at us with accusing glances as we staggered down the steps. I felt the impulse to put my hands up. What had we done wrong? Were we suspected of terrorism?
We were transported to a large garage, filled with armed police, on the airport complex and told that we had a long wait ahead of us. This turned out to be true. It would be four hours from our arrival at Ottawa before we were finally released.
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