Hardware Projects (and Pranks) That Have Scared Observers

In the wake of the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed in Irving, Texas, for carrying to school an electronics project believed by a teacher to look like a bomb, Make Magazine has a timely reminder that Ahmed's project is one of many home-brew efforts that sparked (or could have sparked) extreme reactions. Make's list includes a few from tinkerers -- and pranksters -- that not only looked like bombs, but were fully intended to look that way. ("Back in 1967, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was arrested for building a metronome and storing it in a friend’s locker. He rigged a tin-foil contract sensor to the metronome in the locker, and set up the device to tick faster when his buddy opened the locker.") The article doesn't note the 2007 incident in Boston in which a guerilla advertising campaign for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" raised fears of a terrorism and led to two arrests. Gawker has a slightly more pointed article about other students who have specifically brought home-assembled clocks to school, without being arrested.

Comments

Poptarts have gotten the same response

[Shadow of Eternity]

but nobody invited that kid to the whitehouse. Ahmed's race has gotten media outrage on his side, but what happened to him was not remotely unique. Everything from pointing at someone and going "pow" to chewing poptarts into the wrong shape has gotten kids anything from arrested to expelled. The only commonality is it seems to be universally boys treated this way, likely due to society's compulsive need to pathologize everything about them and ascribe nefarious motivations to their every action.

Re:Poptarts have gotten the same response

[circletimessquare]

ahmed was trying to do something constructive, in the STEM area. the usa is trying to focus on STEM education. and here's a kid who goes out of his way to do something on his own initiative in the area, and he gets treated like a criminal because of his race/ religion. that's why it is so egregious

the other overreactions by school for stupid things happens too, and are fucking stupid and the school admins should be punished. but they don't merit an invite to the white house because they are a different topic

like this:

http://kfor.com/2014/08/21/stu...

the kid wrote a short story about shooting a neighbor's pet dinosaur *as requested by his teacher*. and he gets treated like a criminal and suspended for a week

that's obviously fucking stupid. the school admins should be punished, the kid should be apologized to

but there's no anti-muslim hysteria angle, and there's no STEM angle. so it doesn't pique people's interests above the local area

the usa is trying to encourage STEM education. and the usa has a problem with anti-muslim bigots. therefore ahmed's case rises to national attention

ahmed's case is simply not the same as the other cases you mention

Re:It's A Different World Today

[PopeRatzo]

Today's post 9/11 world is a dangerous one

No, it's really not. In the US, you're more likely to die from toenail fungus than from terrorist attacks.

It just serves the purposes of the plutocrats to have every scared.

I'm ok with a few innocent people being inconvenienced for my safety and my family's safety.

The best things you can do for your family's safety is check the wiring in your house and not own a gun.

So is this a project or a prank?

[argStyopa]

Young Mr Mohammed seems to have
a) not "built" anything, merely taken the case off a clock, and put it in a box....
b)...which looked astonishingly suspicious with lots of bare wires all kludged in there...
c) which was then closed with a cord (why? Why not just latch the case closed with its latches?)
http://blogs.artvoice.com/tech...

Personally, I don't see this as a binary issue where one has to pick one "side" or the other.
I believe that:
- Young Mr Mohammed was either deliberately trolling his school authorities, or he was used to do so.
AND
- the authorities overreacted as did the cops who absurdly put a non-threatening willowy boy in cuffs why again? ...and the media ate that narrative shit right up.

Re: Clear evidence of over-reaction

[RogerWilco]

Her claim of 'absent-mindedly' putting it on before going to the airport to pick up a friend (as I recall) was about as dubious as Ahmed's 'I invented this clock and wanted to show it off' claim.

You have never met real nerds. They do these things all the time, completely oblivious to the real world.
It's the kind of people that if you ask them how to make a bomb, the answer is: "Let me show you right now".
And I know from experience that they will have a working bomb, or at least an explosion within a few minutes, just from the stuff lying around.