Eraser wrote:
Dude, we were working on a weekly basis with tangled messes of wires in high school for our technical courses. It's exactly your kind of attitude that makes this world a horrible one. You're suspicious of everything.
Take a look at the context there - you were in a technical course in an environment where you were supervised. This kid randomly brings this clock in unsolicited.
This is a time where you can't even play dodgeball anymore because some puss might get hurt.
Eraser wrote:
The teachers and police didn't realize it wasn't a bomb, which is why the kid was handcuffed and degraded to some kind of terrorist. Also, it wasn't a hoax bomb. Not even remotely. It was a clock. A CLOCK! Nothing more!
That isn't what I'm reading. What I'm seeing is they lost their shit because it reminded them of a bomb (even though they realized it wasn't a bomb).
Let's say Ahmed sincerely was moving the parts from a clock into a box and never intended to make people even think for a second that it might look like a bomb - it still did. Of course he's going to get into some kind of trouble. It's kind of like how there'll be consequences if you bring a toy gun to school. The teachers know it's not a
real gun but it's made to look like a gun. It's a toy. A TOY! Nothing more! But it still reminds people of an actual gun in a public school setting. And people used to bring their rifles to high school every day and hunt when school let out. Times change.
Eraser wrote:
Who cares. The kid shows interest in technical stuff. It should be applauded instead. Too few kids these days get their hands dirty with stuff like that. They'd all rather be playing the so-manieth incarnation of FIFA on their Playstations.
Reminiscent of a bomb but who cares? The kid is showing interest in technical stuff. Maybe he'll work for Lockheed Martin when he's older.
Why should he be applauded any more for being interested in technical stuff than any other kid ever that picked up a soldering iron or wrestled with compilers, or whatever instead of playing games? Because he's a victimized brown kid who happens to be Muslim?
The fact that it was simply moving parts out of one box into another is what really stands out to me and makes me feel that this whole story doesn't really add up. Taking the circuit board and display off some plastic and adhering it to the inside of more plastic doesn't really scream 'technical curiosity' to me. If he wanted to make a clock why not go get a kit or dick around with a raspberry pi or something? He didn't make a clock here he just changed it's case.
Eraser wrote:
It wasn't reminiscent of a bomb. That's the whole problem. People like you have been so brainwashed into assuming everything that shows electrical wires could be a bomb. It's a completely ridiculous assessment. Your government is keeping you living in fear.
Pretty nice clock.
[lvlshot]http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20150916-0916ahmedclock.jpg.ece/BINARY/0916ahmedclock[/lvlshot]
Clearly just an electrical timing device. It's not as if bombs were ever known to use electrical timing devices.
I'm curious who the people you're grouping me with are. I'm not assuming everything that shows electrical wires could be a bomb I just realize others can look at circuits and wires in a metal case and think bomb. Hell, I was nervous just bringing a motherboard and video cards through customs in China because I realize somebody could be stupid enough to think 'circuit = bomb'. When I was in school I never would have even considered bringing a clock I 'made' into school with it looking like that because I would realize it could be looked at the wrong way.
Eraser wrote:
To show what common sense really means: how about the scenario where the teacher asked the kid what he brought into class, the kid showed him he made a clock, the teacher said "oh that's really nice, well done kid" and class started. The kid would go home at the end of the day being proud of his achievement.
WHOA, WHAT A REVELATION!
So somebody makes something that looks like it could be a bomb. "What is that you've got there?" "A clock." Common sense is not taking that at face value. If, by some chance, it actually were a bomb and the teacher was just like "well it's got numbers and the kid says it's a clock" then we'd have another school massacre just because a teacher was afraid of being racist for questioning a kid who happened to not be white.
The school acted appropriately, in my opinion. When it comes to the safety of all students, you shouldn't take any chances regardless of how stupid you might seem for saying a clock that looks like it could be a bomb "something that reminds me of a bomb".
What I'm reading right now indicates that his English teacher was alerted to the clock when the box of wires and circuits started beeping in the kid's backpack.
Everything's working out pretty well for our brave heroic victim here. His ability to change the case of a clock earned him an offered internship at Twitter, invites to the White House, a shitload of scholarship money, offers from NASA and MIT to tour their buildings, donations, and more.
