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[2021-10-13 20:46:32 UTC; Update: Corrected story link.--martyb]
I feel sorry for the accused.
The “security incident” that forced a New-York bound flight to make an emergency landing at LaGuardia Airport on Saturday turned out to be a misunderstanding — after an airline passenger mistook another traveler’s camera for a bomb, sources said Sunday.
American Airlines Flight 4817 from Indianapolis — operated by Republic Airways — made an emergency landing at LaGuardia just after 3 p.m., and authorities took a suspicious passenger into custody for several hours.
It turns out the would-be “bomber” was just a vintage camera aficionado and the woman who reported him made a mistake, sources said.
Why in the world was the passenger in custody for “several hours”? They didn’t do anything wrong.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 13 2021, @08:49PM (15 children)
Remember a few years ago when a light bright thing in Boston caused a panic? Oh yeah, here it is. [wikipedia.org]
The average idiot is an idiot, and "see something say something" is designed to capture information on innocent people who don't conform to the "saw something" dipshit's worldview.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Informative) by captain normal on Thursday October 14 2021, @02:48AM (14 children)
Well...the average IQ is 100. That means that 1/2 of the people are not playing with a full 3 digits (I thought that from George Carlin, but it seems his actual quote was "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.")
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @05:38AM (1 child)
People are really bad at judging "average" though. The negative connotations attached to the word do not lend themselves to objective reasoning about how smart other people really are.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday October 15 2021, @07:18PM
Mediocre also means average, and its connotation is even worse.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday October 14 2021, @07:29AM (11 children)
Sorry to say this but Carlin had his math wrong. Its much worse than he said.
think about it
(75+80+90+95+100+160)/6 == 100
So, more than just 50% are below average. My niece tested out at 162, so on her own she can offset a couple of complete idiots and some "average" fools.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday October 14 2021, @08:59AM
So, more than just 50% are below average. My niece tested out at 162, so on her own she can offset a couple of complete idiots and some "average" fools.
More like the converse instead, they do outnumber her. Furthermore, the common theme in all the so-called reality shows is to demonstrate strategies for those that do outnumber the better candidates to gang up on them and tear them down. The general population watches that stuff and takes it to heart and applies it in real life. So mobbing ends up not being specific to her situation but applies to anyone more skilled, stronger, smarter or any combination of those characteristics relative to the general population.
We'll see soon whether the accuser is prosecuted for a bomb hoax and the camera owner gets compensation from fines on both the TSA, the airline, and the hoaxer. My guess is that the above paragraph applies and they'll just treat the camera owner as him having done something wrong anyway.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @10:49AM (8 children)
Yes, and (125+120+110+105+100+40)/6 == 100 too, and here more than 50% are above average. Being able to produce examples like this doesn't prove anything.
IQ is assumed to be on a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. IQ test outcomes are transformed to fit that normal distribution. It's symmetrical by definition and that does indeed mean that 50% of the people are on the lower half of the scale.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Thursday October 14 2021, @04:15PM (4 children)
A trip to the grocery store (the great equalizer, since we all need to eat) seems to indicate that the larger bulk of the distribution is on the below 100 end.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @04:46PM (1 child)
High-IQ aren't necessarily disciplined, thoughtful, or more self-aware than others. They're just better at IQ tests.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @06:27PM
"disciplined, thoughtful, or more self-aware "
Nobody said anything about that. They are seriously retarded. That was the point.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday October 14 2021, @06:30PM (1 child)
Grocery store? To ANYWHERE! Watch how people drive, 9 out of 10 don't take their foot off the accelerator when the light ahead turns red, wasting their brake lining and gasoline without actually getting where they're going any faster. Over 90% of accidents are "driver error". People are so stupid that they fear self-driving cars, I fear the cars morons drive.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Monday October 18 2021, @01:33PM
Truly, anywhere will do. I just figured that we all have to eat. I could have said WalMart but that seems self selective for the extremes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @05:33PM
Another way to view this is to say that when it is normally distributed the Median = Mean. Maybe that's a more intuitive way to convince people that 100 IQ is the 50th percentile.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday October 14 2021, @07:52PM
Thank you for the counter example supporting my point that there saying there is exactly 50% on each side of "average IQ" is incorrect.
Though I suspect the world would be much less screwed up if your example was the actual case.
(Fun trivia:: 70 and below is considered to be disabled legally, and at 40, the lowest possible score on the test, the person is usually incapable of managing even basic tasks like bathing without assistance)
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday October 15 2021, @07:24PM
That's almost true. There are 2 problems.
... IQ distributions are known to have extended tails.
... IQ scores can exceed 200, but can't be less than zero.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @05:28PM
Except that your understanding is incomplete and so you make this elementary mistake. The IQ has a distribution and it's meant to represent populations. This means there is more than 5 or 6 stores in it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient [wikipedia.org]