Airport Security Gets It Right Re- Shakespeare

[snot]

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/16/airport_officials_se.html :

Airport officials confiscated thousands of pages representing twelve years' of research on Shakespeare, contained on three thumb-sized flash drives carried by St. Michael's College English professor Nick Clary. "'No, you can't have them,' the British Airways official told Clary. The uniformed woman nodded toward a large garbage bag, where banned items were being thrown out by the dozens."

Quite right -- Shakespeare is deeply dangerous to those who abuse power.

[eleny]

1. Surely there were backup files of this data

[mcscajun]

3. Surely there Should be...unless he's one of those absent-minded

professors. Anyhow, he got to keep the drives after all. :)

[mcscajun]

2. Whew! He got to keep them after all.

After a few tense moments, Clary persuaded officials not to discard his research. Instead, the tiny files were placed inside Clary's eyeglass case, which were then put into a clear plastic bag and ticketed with a baggage claim check bound for Baltimore.

[ThomCat]

4. What possible reason would they have for banning Flash Drives?

No sharp edges, no moving parts, no ability to actually do anything except when plugged into a working computer.
:wtf:
Is there anything else on a plane more harmless than a flash drive?