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14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

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Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#331

Post by [deleted] »

piqufoh wrote: post #271
austenallred wrote: post #143

This hits way too close to home. Not because I have brown skin, or because I've ever been arrested for making "a bomb" that is not a bomb, but because when you're that age you're constantly surrounded and disciplined by people who don't understand you. Or what you're doing. Or why it's cool. I'd be willing to bet part of the reasoning around his arrest is, "Why would a student need to make his own clock?" I wish I co…

Exactly. To quote the Police spokesman; "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation" and "The concern was, what was this thing built for?" Why shouldn't he make his own clock?! Why does there need to be a 'broader explanation'? How can one develop an interest in anything if you must first provide an adequate explanation? sigh

[deleted]

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#332

Post by jrarredondo »

Texas Education Agency (TEA)'s Accountability Report shows "NO DISTINCTION" for Science at MacArthur High School in 2015.

You would think these teachers would appreciate all the help they can get to earn some distinction in Sciences.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2015/static...

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#334

Post by aqme28 »

witty_username wrote: post #63

> The newspaper quoted a police spokesman, James McLellan, as saying that Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, and the police have no reason to think it was dangerous. But officers still did not believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story. “We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” Mr. McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation. “It coul…

"It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car."

Okay, so charge him with a hoax bomb if he does that, but he didn't so what's the deal?

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#335

Post by PuffinBlue »

ams6110 wrote: post #30

Things are so different now. When I was in high school, all of the following were common: - Boys carrying pocket knives/hunting knives. - Boys with firearms in their cars/trucks so they could go hunting after school. - Access to a wide variety of chemicals in chemistry class. - Access to a wide variety of electrical and electronic components in physics class. - Access to a wide variety of power and machine tools in i…

And so we come to the realisation that the 'war on terror' is now in fact a civil war we wage against ourselves and our fears.

Every incident like this is another damning victory for those who sought to change our way of life. They may not have taken us back to the stone-age but they sure as hell took away a lot of the freedoms we had.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#336

Post by DanBC »

nadams wrote: post #308
DanBC wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running seti / etc on the school computers does result in thousands of dollars spend on extra electricity. He was number one on SETI for years, running the client without approval on 5,000 machines. It's not surprising that people get fired for increasing costs by that much without getting approval first. See also http://www.securityfocus.com/news/300

> does result in thousands of dollars spend on extra electricity Thousands maybe - definitely not millions as they are claiming. From what I read it was setup to calculate through the screensaver. For most of the day - the computer will be in use and I would imagine/hope that they turn them off when they leave.

Advice used to be to not turn machines off but let themgo into sleep. This avoided power cycling which some people though caused problems. A sleeping machine still costs money, but much less than a machine churning SETI.

5,000 machines churning SETI for nine years? I'd be interested in estimates of cost.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#337

Post by scrumper »

TheCapn wrote: post #137
vog wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't know how to make a clock, you won't know how to make a time bomb" is their reasoning Do you have any sources to back up that claim? It this really their line of thinking? Or did you just deduce this from their actions, i.e. that they seem to think that way?

These topics bring the tin foil wearers out in droves. No, the government isn't cracking down on the intelligence of youth, it requires it to progress and grow. I don't recall any black SUVs outside my door when I built an alarm clock that had selective electronic outputs for my school project. Hell, my teachers docked marks because I didn't take it far enough and they felt I could add more features and better design…

You're contradicting yourself there. When you were young, it was fine. This chap does basically the exact same thing, and he's arrested.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#338

Post by maxblackwood »

lotor wrote: post #255

From eastern europe... If a gypsy kid walks behind you you better keep guarding your belongings. Is that racist ? Yes maybe it is. But it is because most of the time THE gypsy kid is really trying to steal something from you. Should you start being careless because somebody tells you that it's racist ? Do you people really want to live in a world where gays,transgenders,gypsies,blacks,hispanics,yellows,purples are fa…

What the hell are you talking about?

Even if you ignore race, it's still ridiculous to arrest a kid for bringing a clock into school because someone believed it to be a bomb.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#339

Post by nickhalfasleep »

sp332 wrote: post #110
mbreese wrote: post #95

The real question here is: how can we help this kid? I'm not talking about from the legal perspective, but rather what can we (me, you, the larger tech world) do to make it so that this kid and others like him keep tinkering. He needs to know that what he built wasn't wrong, it was awesome.

Offer support: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ws7e8WyQvrsLfhSFvdGot3n9NWK... Sign up to be notified when some plans are made: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zCtwhsEh_zB4PkuwlgAVZRTFV4I...

Perhaps we can all pitch in on an airplane ticket to someplace he can get a tour of a facility where people like him are valued and rewarded. SpaceX? Mountain View? Cape Canaveral?

Also, if/when he considers higher education I'm sure there are plenty of alumni who could consider opening doors for him.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#340

Post by jcromartie »

DanBC wrote: post #252
rasz_pl wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness it was probably staged by the father to end in civil lawsuit. "His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, came from Sudan and is famous for arguing against anti-Islamic policies"

Or the pooice know the father and are looking for ways to fuck with the family.

They'd be stupid to confuse him for someone dangerous. He's benign.
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