The Travelling Public

A wise man once said that individuals are smart, groups are stupid. This is never more apparent when groups are traveling. They're thrown in to unfamiliar surroundings, with language barriers, jetlag and excessive luggage all combining to make a perfect wave of potential stupidity.
I've been there myself, I've made stupid mistakes while on the move, but I like to think I've learned from them, and hopefully not repeated them unless drinking heavily.
One of the funnier ones I've seen was while trying to go through the X-ray and metal detector points at Dubai airport. Waiting patiently in the queue, with all my metallic items out and ready to go, there's a fairly animated discussion going on just ahead of me at the front of the queue. Looking up, I can see a couple clutching a plastic shopping bag - always the carry-on luggage of choice for the discerning traveler I think.
The security lackey wants them to put it through the X-ray machine, and they're not obliging, in fact, they won't let go of it. I find it hard to imagine that someone would try to smuggle explosives on to an aircraft in a plastic shopping bag, but then I have no idea what kind of a budget modern terrorists are on these days. Looking closer at the bag, it has a strange, sagging shape to it, as though it's filled with liquid.
Sure enough, it's a bag full of water, way above the 100ml limit obviously, but that isn't what has the security so concerned. It isn't just water in the bag, there are a couple of goldfish swimming around inside. The goldfish owners didn't want to set the bag down because the water would run out. They were seemingly oblivious to the restrictions on carrying fluids through, and were more concerned that they might try and pass their precious goldfish through the X-ray and fry/boil them. The bag is eventually taken away somewhere, I'm still not sure if they have found a foster home for the goldfish or they became lunch for the security team, but there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth from the erstwhile owners who were unable to see why bringing a shopping bag full of live goldfish might be frowned upon by the powers that be.
While I have little confidence that airport security procedures are in any way effective, how can people be so blissfully unaware of what is allowed on board an aircraft? Just in case nobody has seen a TV in the last eight years, most airlines have restrictions printed on the tickets, their website as well as posters at check in counters, airport entrances, and beside the X-ray machines. Just how far do you have to have your head buried in the sand to avoid picking up on all of these handy hints? Sometimes you have to think the goldfish were the smartest players in that little drama.