McDonald's Denies Prof's Claim Staff Attacked Him For Wearing Digital Glasses 627
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In an update to a story posted on Slashdot earlier this week, McDonald's has responded to the claims of Steve Mann, a University of Toronto professor and augmented reality pioneer who says McDonald's staff in Paris assaulted him tried to pull off a computer eyepiece he's worn for decades, then threw him out of the restaurant. McDonald's confirms that Mann was ejected from the premises, but denies that there was a 'physical altercation' with staff or that they destroyed any of his property. That last claim is especially dubious, since Mann has posted photos taken from his eyepiece that show McDonald's staff ripping up a doctor's note that he showed them to explain his need to wear the device. The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant, but Mann has speculated that it has a policy against recording."
Re:Yeah... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Yeah... (Score:4, Informative)
No, this [go.com] is a PR nightmare. And just like with super-sized drinks, removing it from their menu "had nothing to do with" this information hitting mainstream media.
Post hoc ergo proper hoc? (Score:4, Informative)
Didn't McDonald's remove pink slime about 3 months before the story became mainstream?
Re:Yeah... (Score:5, Informative)
Hey, it seems like you have some info Wikipedia is lacking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King#Confrontation [wikipedia.org]
Feel free to share whatever it is you got, or to retract. In the latter case you might also want to kick whoever told you that in the nuts, for making you seem like a racist to complete strangers :P
Re:hey ronald... (Score:2, Informative)
I wish there were footage of my buying a McRib and the result: Two days of Projectile Vomiting. (The McRib was the only thing I ate that day -- I was a poor student at the time -- so I definitely know where it came from.) That was 17 years ago. I haven't bought a burger and especially a McRib from McDonalds since. (Though I do stop in for breakfast when traveling on occasion.) The great thing is that I have no desire to eat a McDonalds burger since and I have no doubt that I'm not missing anything.
Re:Live in Reality (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Live in Reality (Score:5, Informative)
I read a number of newspapers and Internet news sites, and this is the first I've heard of it,
MSNBC: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/cyborg-steve-mann-details-alleged-mcdonalds-assault-889595 [msn.com]
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/17/cyborg-discrimination-scientist-says-mcdonalds-staff-tried-to-pull-off-his-google-glass-like-eyepiece-then-threw-him-out/ [forbes.com]
The Huff: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/steve-mann-attacked-paris-mcdonalds-digital-eye-glass-photos_n_1680263.html [huffingtonpost.com]
NYT Daily: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/cyborg-professor-claims-assault-paris-mcdonald-digital-glasses-article-1.1116246 [nydailynews.com]
Canadian news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/07/17/tech-mann-digital-eye-glass-assault.html [www.cbc.ca] and a few others.
Plus El Reg, CNET, Network World, and the usual tech news sites. And the story is the second top google-news results for "McDonald's".
It's also the second article on Slashdot itself about the incident. http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/07/17/0335227/man-physically-assaulted-at-mcdonalds-for-wearing-digital-eye-glasses [slashdot.org]
Re:Here is a better question .... (Score:5, Informative)
He hasn't released detailed video because he wants to give McDonalds the chance to respond first. He's only posted some images with the faces edited out and basically made the threat to release the rest.
And I hope he does release the rest now.
Re:Yeah... (Score:5, Informative)
I think I see your problem. He was on PAROLE for having committed a robbery armed with two weapons. He fled because he was drunk, because he knew that being caught driving under the influence would be a breach of his parole agreement. Though he did reach speeds of 115 mph, he was in fact unarmed (not counting the car he drove recklessly.) The LAPD reported that he was under the influences of PCP, that he was violent, aggressive and that they needed to taser him after he viciously attacked them. The video on the other hand showed that the officers tased him immediately on leaving the car, once on the ground, they kicked him in the head repeatedly, beat him with batons for over a minute, then tackled and cuffed him when he stopped moving. Later when his blood work came back there were no traces of PCP. Its an easy mistake to make, the way the story is written in some sources, the Parole Violation and chase get combined.
Re:hey ronald... (Score:5, Informative)
That's food poisoning, and I kid you not I have gotten food poisoning twice from McDonalds (both times in the USA).
Maybe you did and maybe you didn't; a lot of "food poisoning" type bacteria have fairly lengthy incubation times [hart.gov.uk]. People always assume it was the last meal they ate but often it was really the meal before or even something from the day before.
Re:hey ronald... (Score:5, Informative)
People definitely like to call things "food poisoning" whenever they have a violent stomach flu after eating something they wondered about in the first place.
About a year ago I had a horrible, coming-out-of-both-ends "food poisoning type" incident I was ready to blame on a local restaurant I ate at that day. It turned out my co-worker had it 2 days earlier, and my girlfriend got it 2 days later. Became pretty clear about the incubation time and the fact it wasn't food poisoning at *all*...
Supersize Me (Score:5, Informative)
In regards to their policies against video recording, I suspect they don't want a recurrence of the movie "Supersize Me" which did great damage to their image around the world. It was about a film-maker who spend an entire month (or more?) eating only McDonalds food. Whenever they asked him if he wanted supersize, he had to agree. The health results were predictably grim for the film-maker.
Re:hey ronald... (Score:4, Informative)
> Well, part of the problem is that people wear gloves -- and handle the same things they did before.
Yes, especially money. I have seen that many times, and I would assume it is always against company policy, and for good reason.
Re:hey ronald... (Score:2, Informative)
Just to add to this, real food poisining is often life-threatening and has to be treated in a hospital. What people often call "food-poisining" is usually caused by a Norovirus; it's very unpleasing, but also not particularly dangerous, lasts typically less than a day and is transmitted from human to human.
Or looking at it without playing the race card... (Score:2, Informative)
... a bunch of cops immobilise a drunk former armed robber who was trying to flee from them at over 100mph.
And I'm supposed to have sympathy ... why exactly? Because of the colour of his skin?
Re:Supersize Me (Score:3, Informative)