Equations in public? Cover your back!

[KL-666]

It looks like isis has got us exactly where they want us to be. In sheer blind fear. Causing us to attack our fellows in the fight against isis, getting them a bit off the hook. We are destructing our society from within.

We already drag people off public transport in the most disgraceful manners for speaking Arab, German and some more languages. Now equations are so fear instilling that action should be taken against the perpetrators that practice it in public.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36240523

Kind regards, Vincent

[Lydiot]

I agree.

What I don't understand is how a person can pass all security checks and then still be considered a potential problem. After all, isn't that an indictment on the security screening process? If a person needs to be checked after taking off clothes, shoes, going through scanners, having ID and boarding pass scrutinized several times, then clearly something isn't quite right with those processes.

[IAHM-COL]

Mathematics!!! :@

I am happy it got resolved the right way, thou

The uneducated one got off the plane.

[jwocky]

LMAO!
I use a lot of math in criminology, thus also on the problems of serial killing, terrorism, descriptive set theory for early warning flags and such things and in my experience, if there is a thing scaring some people faster an more thorough than even the worst terrorists, it is a good equation ...

[HJ1an]

I saw this news, it was really dumb. What was funny was that Donald Trump was mentioned in one of the articles

[legoboyvdlp]

Maths? Nice!

[IAHM-COL]

I think we are not giving the woman reporting enough credit. Maybe the guy was working on solving the Bernoulli's equation, which off course raises suspicion coming from someone just boarding a plane

[jwocky]

Well, I guess, you could this use somehow to calculate the best point to climb out of the plane in 30,000ft to manipulate somehow a fuel pipe? But honestly, I think, the whole case is like "medieval magic". You know if someone did something, someone else didn't understand, there was always the option to call it "magic" and call for someone who would burn the offender at a stake.
Some years ago, it was short after 9/11, I was flying from Frankfurt to Yokohama. You know, 747-400, lots of people, after the first two hours, a big plane full of bored people ... and there were two guys right across the aisle, one was reading in a Bible, the other guy in a Qua'ran. And around them, some people looking quite suspicious. But nobody said anything. After a while, when they took a break, I leaned over and we got to talk. Turned out, the guy reading the Qua'ran was actually a reverend and professor for history while the guy reading the Bible was another history scholar. Both were involved in a project about Middle Eastern history during the time of the crusades and they simply read the books, most people in the time they studied, based their decisions on. Not only were they harmless, actually, for me, they kind of helpful to get over those endless flight hours
So, my thinking is, if one doesn't understand ... it helps to ask before calling for the inquisition. ((and please, if you see at an airport a person with igniter glove, don't go and ask how it works)).

[IAHM-COL]

yes. I said so, and cited Bernoulli purely out of the sick sense of an irony.
I grew and I was educated to have uttermost respect for people that have university degrees and can do Math.

Time changes, I guess? I met Thorsten: a PhD theoretical physics that looses points of respect (using a exponential decay... I am still working the equation) just out of his abilities to interact socially.

Then you see people getting concerned at someone doing math, as oppose to the admiration I though such skill deserves.