Removed from plane for doing math...WTF is wrong with people?

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption

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Ivy League economist ethnically profiled, interrogated for doing math on American Airlines flight

A mas was questioned by airline security staff and was told he was suspected of terrorism after his efforts to solve a mathematical equation prompted fears from a fellow passenger that he was acting suspiciously and writing in a foreign script...

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The "suspicious man" was Guido Menzio, an italian (not middle-eastern) decorated economist on his way to give a talk at Queens University about costs and price dispersion and was working out some properties he was going to present.

The woman sitting next to him had "Seen Something", so she "Said Something".

The end result was the lady took another flight, and Guido was eventually allowed to return to the plane, but this normally 41-minute flight was delayed for over 2 hours, all because some lady thought differential equations looks exactly like Arabic. This is the world we live in now. SMFH.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/

 
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Red Dead Redemption said:
NUance said:
On the bright side, he got way more publicity for this than he would ever get for his economics paper.
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And he has a great ice-breaker for when he begins his presentation.

"A funny thing happened to me on my way to the university..."
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Funny? "Yeah I got interrogated because of a some racist f#*k of a lady who is too incompetent to tell I was doing math equations instead of writing in Arabic. Not to mention that there's nothing wrong IF I was writing in Arabic." This article just doesn't speak humor to me in the slightest, it makes me mad at some people's arrogance.

 
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At least the story has a happy ending and nobody got anything more than their feelings hurt and a couple hours of frustration at an airport. So what's new?

 
Army_Allen said:
Red Dead Redemption said:
NUance said:
On the bright side, he got way more publicity for this than he would ever get for his economics paper.
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Click to expand...
And he has a great ice-breaker for when he begins his presentation.

"A funny thing happened to me on my way to the university..."
Click to expand...
Funny? "Yeah I got interrogated because of a some racist f#*k of a lady who is too incompetent to tell I was doing math equations instead of writing in Arabic. Not to mention that there's nothing wrong IF I was writing in Arabic."This article just doesn't speak humor to me in the slightest, it makes me mad at some people's arrogance.
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Chill, man. It's just a little gallows humor. Besides, "a funny thing" doesn't necessarily mean "ha-ha" funny, it can mean something unusual or hard to explain.

I'm pretty sure the OP didn't see anything literally funny about then event and is just as disgusted about as you are.

 
84HuskerLaw said:
At least the story has a happy ending and nobody got anything more than their feelings hurt and a couple hours of frustration at an airport. So what's new?
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Butterfly effect.

We don't know anything about the consequences of all those people whose flight was delayed. And this ending was the absolute best-case scenario. Had the man been someone less prestigious or less convincing, or had he or the lady or others who 'Saw Something' acted more assertively, the outcome could have been different.

What's new is that we can expect much more of this, especially if Trump becomes president. It's very easy for ignorant or just outright incompetent people to disrupt the lives of others. We live in a world of zero-tolerance, with a terrorist on every plane, and a rapist in every bathroom.

 
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Red Dead Redemption said:
84HuskerLaw said:
At least the story has a happy ending and nobody got anything more than their feelings hurt and a couple hours of frustration at an airport. So what's new?
Click to expand...
Butterfly effect.

We don't know anything about the consequences of all those people whose flight was delayed. And this ending was the absolute best-case scenario. Had the man been someone less prestigious or less convincing, or had he or the lady or others who 'Saw Something' acted more assertively, the outcome could have been different.

What's new is that we can expect much more of this, especially if Trump becomes president. It's very easy for ignorant or just outright incompetent people to disrupt the lives of others. We live in a world of zero-tolerance, with a terrorist on every plane, and a rapist in every bathroom.
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It is kind of weird...we live in this hyper-sensitive time...but we are also so quick to judge other people.

 
Red Dead Redemption said:
84HuskerLaw said:
At least the story has a happy ending and nobody got anything more than their feelings hurt and a couple hours of frustration at an airport. So what's new?
Click to expand...
Butterfly effect.

We don't know anything about the consequences of all those people whose flight was delayed. And this ending was the absolute best-case scenario. Had the man been someone less prestigious or less convincing, or had he or the lady or others who 'Saw Something' acted more assertively, the outcome could have been different.

What's new is that we can expect much more of this, especially if Trump becomes president. It's very easy for ignorant or just outright incompetent people to disrupt the lives of others. We live in a world of zero-tolerance, with a terrorist on every plane, and a rapist in every bathroom.
Click to expand...
You can't be serious. This is the most opposite thing I've heard in a long time.

 
I don't think this is what they mean when they say, "If you see something, say something."

That logic is dependent on us to not be f---ing dopey enough to realize a guy is doing Diff EQ for his job. I'm no genius, but how do you not realize that is math?

 
Menzio for his part says he was “treated respectfully throughout,” though he remains baffled and frustrated by a “broken system that does not collect information efficiently.” He is troubled by the ignorance of his fellow passenger, as well as “A security protocol that is too rigid–in the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checks–and relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless. ”

Rising xenophobia stoked by the presidential campaign, he suggested, may soon make things worse for people who happen to look a little other-ish.

“What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident, the ethos of [Donald] Trump’s voting base,” he wrote.

 
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