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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

#901

Post by mikepavone »

_ls7m wrote: post #885

For the purpose of being fully informed, and because you won't see this photo shown much, here is the homemade clock that Ahmed brought to school. [1] http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AP_250782557... Regardless of what someone looks like or what their name is, if you see them at a school with a device like this and it's beeping, I think it's reasonable to call the police. Allow them to come and have so…

> Regardless of what someone looks like or what their name is, if you see them at a school with a device like this and it's beeping, I think it's reasonable to call the police.

I don't. All sorts of electronic devices beep. A bomb requires some kind of explosive and that suitcase looks empty apart from some electronics. Giving people a pass on assuming random electronics they don't understand is a bomb does not make us safer.

> It's a tragedy that we see bombings and shootings in schools - but we do see them, and far too often.

School shootings are far more common in the US than I'd like, but still fairly uncommon. School bombings on the other hand are incredibly rare. I can find only two in my lifetime. One in 2009 had no casualties. The other was the Columbine shooting which was quite deadly, but as best I can tell the deaths were all the result of gunfire rather than the bombs.

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

#902

Post by [deleted] »

logfromblammo wrote: post #792
masklinn wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldnt they have consumed some portion of the said electricity no matter what? Some yes, but there's a lot of difference between a machine idling at 0% CPU and one fully loaded with SETI or Folding and running 100% all the time. Would be even more worse now with deep sleep states and GPGPU, but even back then the difference between an idle and a fully loaded machine was absolutely significant.

During the winter months, the electric heaters that were also performing computation would supplement the normal dumb heaters. The cost of electricity or fuel saved on heating should therefore be subtracted from the cost of running @Home. Likewise, additional cooling costs would have to be added for the summer months. Once those kWh are used in the CPU, they don't just disappear. They become heat. http://www.technolo…

[deleted]

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

#903

Post by hdctambien »

phonon wrote: post #880
biftek wrote: post #856

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol if you think teachers have a "shorter work day/work year" My girlfriend is a High School teacher in NY, and easily works more than I do. You have to factor in planning and grading which is all done after "work".

Well, average actual hours worked in the US is around 1800 (that's net after sick days, vacation, personal days, etc.) https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS Given (in NYC) a school day of 6.33 hours (including lunch) and a school year of 18x days, then subtract personal days and the like...well. Also, most teachers don't need to do as much planning after a few years. Is if fair that longer serving teach…

Most teachers aren't teachers after a few years[0] so most teachers do not benefit from having old lesson plans, most teachers are not making the upper levels of salary, and most teachers will never collect on their not-social-security-pensions.

The school day may be 6.33 hours (including lunch) but do you only count football players as working 3 hours a week when you watch them on TV? Teachers have to do a lot of "under the table" work to make those 6.33 hours (including lunch) happen.

When are those tests getting graded? When are those struggling students getting extra help? When are those lesson plans getting written? When are those parent-teacher conferences happening? When are those teachers going to football games/plays/other events to make connections with the students? When are those teachers writing letters of recommendation for those students? When are those lesson plans being modified to meet the needs of students with IEPs? When are those lesson plans being modified to meet the needs of ESL students? When are the formative and summative assessments being analyzed to modify lesson plans to better meet the needs of the students?

Those 6.33 hours (including lunch) are just the hours that teachers spend in front of the camera. There is so much more work involved to support those 6.33 hours (including lunch). Even for the long tenured teachers. If a teacher is resting on their laurels and just rehashing old lesson plans, then that's one of the "bad ones".

[0] http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/30/395322012/the-hidd...

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

#904

Post by lliamander »

vellum wrote: post #873
lliamander wrote: post #812

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it is true that the president may have no special expertise in assessing whether private schools are better than government schools, but it strikes me that any support he expresses for public schools is going to ring hollow if he isn't personally invested in the success of government schools. I could be mistaken, but as far as I am aware no politician (from either side of the aisle) sends their kids to a government s…

> no politician (from either side of the aisle) sends their kids to a government school. At least, no politician at the national level (president, congress, etc.). About half of Congress sends their kids to public school. http://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/how-many-politicians-...

Ah, well I stand corrected. Thanks for the pointer!

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

#905

Post by _ls7m »

NhanH wrote: post #896
_ls7m wrote: post #885

For the purpose of being fully informed, and because you won't see this photo shown much, here is the homemade clock that Ahmed brought to school. [1] http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AP_250782557... Regardless of what someone looks like or what their name is, if you see them at a school with a device like this and it's beeping, I think it's reasonable to call the police. Allow them to come and have so…

For the purpose of being fully informed, and because you might forgot you have seen this photo, this is what happened when the police arrived: https://twitter.com/OfficalPrajwol/status/644011809351962625... Regardless of what someone looks like or what their name is, if they did not do anything wrong and is 14 years old, I think it's reasonable to expect them not being handcuffed and parade out of school in front of…

The police detained him until they could investigate the device and question him about his intentions, then released him. Sounds like a rough afternoon, but hardly a ruined life. He's been released and he's exonerated.

> Hopefully some will learn that reasonable and probable cause needs to have some basis in certain priori, and that opportunity cost and the boy who cries wolf are really and very harmful issue.

I put the security of a school full of other kids above the 'opportunity cost' of being questioned by police. I'm guessing many other people would as well - especially the parents of the other kids at the school.

> understand that P(massacre | kids = 14 years old in the US) is some number that probably is smaller than IEEE floating point error, then everyone will be better off for that.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Just because it doesn't happen in the US often, doesn't mean it won't. 14 years old are involved in violence all over the world, especially in bombing incidents.

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

#906

Post by ArkyBeagle »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #761
ArkyBeagle wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This question is not intended at all to be snarky. Seriously. And then you'll hire them? Gets complicated fast, dunnit?

If they have shown they can get the job done, why wouldn't I? (Other than not being in HR and all). Also, hard not to feel a little snark in the emphasis and "dunnit", really...

I would not have thought of that :) I just thought it was a contraction of "doesn't it".

Perhaps they are like farmers we paid to not grow corn in the past.

But that's just for the time-servers, not the dedicated professionals, who are probably the majority.

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

#907

Post by jessaustin »

happyscrappy wrote: post #831
jessaustin wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2/3 of them are. If you doubt it, look at any international comparison of incarceration rates.

80% of crime goes unsolved, but if you have never lived in a bad neighborhood you might misunderstand.

You think "bad" neighborhoods are arguments in the police's favor? I guess you've never had your door knocked down in the middle of the night...

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

#908

Post by TallGuyShort »

01Michael10 wrote: post #855
TallGuyShort wrote: post #829

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying the Mayor defines this area more than the numerous other demographics that show it is not simply a backwoods hillbilly town?

Yes... I believe the Mayor of Irving is an elected position by the people. It's a better indicator then being the 4th biggest metropolitan in the country like that matters.

And going 57% for Obama also says something about the people. We're not saying they're bleeding-heart-liberals. We're saying it's a little more complicated than, "Oh well it's the deep South..." Too many people are dismissing this like it's just the norm. It shouldn't be. More people should be asking if Islamophobia is a bigger part of mainstream America than we're willing to admit.

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

#909

Post by phonon »

hdctambien wrote: post #900
phonon wrote: post #887

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's for nurses, etc. It's 6 hours and 20 minutes for regular teachers (including lunch). Actual instruction hours per day are quite a bit less of course. Even for someone without more advanced degrees (fyi you do not need a PhD to cap out.) you cap out at $93k. Agreed that teachers (particularly beginner teachers) put in a lot of hours outside school. 10 hours a week? More? So a 40-50 hour workweek during the scho…

I've worked for a big insurance company, a medium sized company that went public, and a couple startups, and two school districts. I made waaaaay more money working in industry and never worked anywhere near as hard or long as I do being a teacher. Sure, lesson planning gets easier. And you can reuse old lesson plans (although, the standards get changed fairly regularly and in my district you need to use "data-driven…

No, you do not need a PhD to cap out. It's a Masters + 30 credits. http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DHR/TeacherPrincipalSchoolPro...

One of my bêtes noires about the system is that it does not differentiate between a high school teacher getting an advanced degree in STEM versus a kindergarten teacher getting a secondary development blah blah from University of Phoenix.

My personal opinion is that some teachers are underpaid, and some are overpaid. Senior teachers should not be making twice as much as junior teachers, and high school physics teachers should not make the same as kindergarten teachers. Additionally, schools should have some leeway in rewarding better/harder working teachers, instead of the unionized lockstep pay scales.

Yes, programmers make more than teachers, on average. (Though the mean hourly wages are not that different, actually-- http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbl1614.pdf for NY/NJ/CT). So?

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

#910

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

maratd wrote: post #876
intopieces wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Allow that student to go to whichever school they want. End of story. I was given this option in the third grade. I got a letter from the State Board of Education saying that I had performed exceedingly well on their standardized test and that I was invited to change schools and go to a special program in another town for smart kids. My parents told me I should do it. I regret it to this day. I was not equipped to u…

We all make decisions we regret. That doesn't mean all decisions lead to regret. Nor does it mean that we should take away the ability to make decisions. Fundamentally, we already have school choice. If you have enough money, you can choose your school district by purchasing a house wherever it is that you want to send your children. That's absolutely revolting. We are giving choice to those who can afford it and tak…

>We are giving choice to those who can afford it and taking it away from those can't.

Amen. I'm astounded by the number of people who completely fail to see this very basic point.

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