US Government and FAA Liquid Carry-On Rule Explained

If you've done any travel on planes recently you would have noticed that you're only allowed 100mL (3.4 fluid oz.) of liquids in your carry-on luggage. This is in response to the averted terrorist plot of August 2006. Here's the Transport Security Administration's ruling.

I think it is more a proof-of-concept challenge. You know, like the software company that sets up a competition to crack their supposedly hacker-proof software. The United States government and the Federal Aviation Authority have put their heads together and obviously agreed that terrorists carrying large fluid-based bombs onto planes are too easy to spot. They want a challenge and have thinly veiled this challenge with a "Make your fluid-based bomb less than 100mL to give us a bit of a challenge, guys." As you are probably aware the US government only allows encryption keys of a particular size to be used in software once they have the capability to break it. So why would it be any different for bombs?

Perhaps the US army is trying bomb manufacturing experts. Somebody gets on a plane with less than 100mL of fluid explosive and manages to blow up the whole plane. That would be pretty spectacular. But the bomb maker wouldn't be onboard. That's not the way terrorists work. The smart guy stays in one piece. Track him down and offer him a well paid job. They could use some good bomb makers.

There you have it. The restrictions on fluids in carry-on luggage are nothing more than a recruiting drive.