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On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:28:46 -0500, Ron Hunter wrote:

> Most cameras are pretty well protected from accidental turnon. And
> putting a camera in checked baggage is NOT a wise thing to do. It can't
> hurt to remove the batteries, and memory card, from a camera, but you
> MAY be asked to put batteries and card in it, and turn it on.... You
> could have packed it with C4...

Functioning batteries can also be packed with C4. Not knowing its
density I don't know it would be more realistic to fill alkaline or
lithium battery shells. Either way, the trojan batteries wouldn't
pack much of an *electrical* charge, so a more effective test would
be to a requirement to take a couple of flash shots in succession,
rather than simply turning the camera on and off. If the batteries
don't pass the test, they should be closely examined or confiscated
for immediate destructive examination. It wouldn't make much sense
for a passenger to make a fuss about surrendering "dead" batteries.
Now if they're rechargeables that could be very unpleasant, so in
the interest of cooperating with the objectives of Homeland
Security, people should only buy and travel with cameras that use
non-rechargeable batteries.