I fly quite a bit. I’m at the airport at least two days a month. I can say that I’m no longer scared of Terrorists. Even if they did start targeting airliners again, the odds of getting blown up is fairly remote. What really concerns me with air travel is laptops. These things are literally ticking (edit: Your laptop ticks? – Blake) time bombs that can apparently go off whenever it feels like the urge to explode.
Take, for example, this account from the Something Awful forums:
…when suddenly this guy comes running the wrong way up the jetway, pushing other boarding passengers out of the way, he quickly drops his laptop on the floor and the thing immediately flares up like a giant firework for about 15 seconds, then catches fire.
There have been several stories of laptops ‘sploding lately, specifically Dells and Apples, but this was an IBM Thinkpad, and the owner claims he had checked it against the recall list. So this begs the question: is it just these specific Sony batteries that tend to flame up, or is it the technology?
We don’t know, but you must be vigilant out there, people. I would recommend Wrappers’ fire retardant MacBook covers, out of consideration for your fellow travellers. They come in five colors, including Terracotta (what happened to the word “beige”?). They’re corduroy, plush, and make you safer than Ralph Nader in a Volvo.
Fire Retardant Jumbocord covers [wrappers.typepad.com]
I just watched a laptop battery catch fire, at LAX, in the United terminal [Something Awful]