Reply #64: And the funny thing is that the liquid restrictions are based on total bullshit!

[backscatter712]

Binary liquid bombs? Don't make me laugh. The chemistry just doesn't work in a way that's feasible for sneaking on an airliner to blow it up.

In most cases, the explosive in question is TATP - Triacetone triperoxide. At first, the ingredient list looks simple: sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and acetone. Acetone's easy enough to get a hold of. For hydrogen peroxide, you can't make do with the 5% solution you get at the drug store - you need the pure stuff, which doesn't get sold to just anyone. You could try boiling it down to make it stronger, but then you risk blowing up your improvised explosives lab before you're able to kill any infidels.

Anyways, let's assume you have the ingredients. You first combine, veeeery carefully, the hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, to make a concoction known in chemistry circles as "piranha solution" - because it eats through almost everything. It's very corrosive, and absolutely very dangerous. You're not going to be able to sneak this stuff onto the airplane in a Gatorade bottle - it'll eat right through it. You put the piranha solution into a salt-ice bath, because it needs to be cold.

You add the acetone, using a medicine dropper, one drop at a time, while watching the temperature on a thermometer because if it gets too hot, you get the wrong chemical reaction, and no TATP. If you add it too fast, you end up with a runaway reaction that causes the solution to boil over, and FWOOSH! You have scalding hot acid melting your face off! Eventually, assuming you didn't pass out from the fumes or melt your face off, you'll have the ingredients added, then you have to wait for several hours for the TATP to precipitate out of the solution. Then you strain out the solution, verrrry carefully, and voila, you have a high explosive so shock and temperature sensitive that it makes nitroglycerin look safe. There's a reason why Hamas "engineers" are frequently missing fingers and call TATP "Mother of Satan". Zazi's completely out of his mind to even try this! Trained chemists in a professional laboratory damned well know better than to try this.

In short, it's not a recipe that you can manage in an airport bathroom, and just the smell from the fumes will let everyone know something antisocial is happening.

Which means the whole liquids ban is utter bullshit, and the only reason the TSA keeps it in place is so their petty little thugs have yet another excuse to bully people.