This Is What a Real Bomb Looks Like

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This Is What a Real Bomb Looks Like

Posted by samzenpus on Monday September 21, 2015 @07:50AM from the go-boom dept.

szczys writes: You see them all the time in movies and TV shows, but is that what an actual bomb looks like? Probably not... here's what a real bomb looks like. This story stems from a millionaire gone bust from gambling addiction who decided to extort riches back from the casino. He built a bomb and got it into the building, then ransomed the organization for $3 million. The FBI documented the mechanisms in great detail — including the 8 independent trigger systems that made it impossible for them to disarm the thing. The design was so nefarious it's still used today as a training tool.

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Looks like... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

a clock to me
1. Re:Looks like... by jfdavis668 · 2015-09-21 08:26 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Looks like a classic Doctor Who villain to me.
2. Re:Looks like... by locksmithsinscottsda · 2015-09-21 08:45 · Score: 1
  
  If i say that it is just a box look like that. So, I say you must be joking brother.
3. Re:Looks like... by Dunbal · 2015-09-21 09:43 · Score: 1
  
  In no way does it look like a salt shaker.
  
  --
  Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
4. Re:Looks like... by arglebargle_xiv · 2015-09-21 15:11 · Score: 1
  
  Huh, I know exactly what a bomb looks like. It's labelled "Windows 8" on the box. Or Firefox OS Phone. Or Zune. Or Google Glass.
  Zune Glass for Firefox OS on Windows 8 would practically be a nuclear weapon.
Mick Dundee by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 07:54 · Score: 1

That's not a knife...that's a knife.
1. Re:Mick Dundee by wonkey_monkey · 2015-09-21 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  That's a spoon.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Impossible to disarm? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 07:58 · Score: 1

Just cut the red wire. It's always the red wire.
1. Re:Impossible to disarm? by freeze128 · 2015-09-21 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  They're *ALL* red!
2. Re:Impossible to disarm? by olsmeister · 2015-09-21 08:02 · Score: 1
  
  OAre you sure McGruber?
3. Re:Impossible to disarm? by chris200x9 · 2015-09-21 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly! You cut them all simultaneously and the bomb won't go off.
4. Re:Impossible to disarm? by medv4380 · 2015-09-21 08:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They tried that with a shaped charge of C4, but the few sticks of dynamite he put in it for just in case they tried that caused the TNT to explode.
5. Re:Impossible to disarm? by chris200x9 · 2015-09-21 08:13 · Score: 2
  
  They caused the TNT to explode by using C4, if they would have cut the wires instead of using explosives on a bomb it would have worked.
6. Re:Impossible to disarm? by medv4380 · 2015-09-21 08:21 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Cutting open the case to get to the wires would have cause the aluminum foil to complete the circuit. The only option was the cut open the case and the wires simultaneously. To do that required a shaped charge. This is the only detonator that the FBI has come accost that couldn't even be disarmed by its creator for a reason. The ransom was just for the switch code to disable the tilt switch so they could move it to a safe place to explode.
7. Re:Impossible to disarm? by __aaclcg7560 · 2015-09-21 08:48 · Score: 1
  
  The only option was the cut open the case and the wires simultaneously.
  There's never a Jedi Knight with a light saber around when you need one.
8. Re:Impossible to disarm? by mtempsch · 2015-09-21 08:57 · Score: 1
  
  The only option was the cut open the case and the wires simultaneously. To do that required a shaped charge. This is the only detonator that the FBI has come accost that couldn't even be disarmed by its creator for a reason.
  
  Wonder if the newer explosives propelled water-cutting jackets could have cut the wires/detonators without triggering the TNT...
9. Re:Impossible to disarm? by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Couldn't they use a drill made of non-conductive material to drill into the case?
  you didn't RTFA closely enough, the agents considered this but chips from the drilling process would have completed the circuit regardless of the drill's conductiveness.
10. Re:Impossible to disarm? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-21 09:38 · Score: 1
  
  The shock alone would likely still detonate the dynamite.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
11. Re:Impossible to disarm? by nuckfuts · 2015-09-21 21:58 · Score: 2
  
  Not sure how far they would have got by drilling holes anyway, but perhaps a laser could have punched some holes without completing the sandwich circuit.
12. Re:Impossible to disarm? by DarthVain · 2015-09-22 02:02 · Score: 1
  
  Actually the article says that the case was sandwiched with layers of foil, which if you tried to drill, would push inwards to complete the circuit.
13. Re:Impossible to disarm? by jitterman · 2015-09-22 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  According to TFA, the bomb itself was simple, but the builder's mechanical design was pretty darn ingenious. As the parent to your reply pointed out, he made it explosive-proof (dynamite did indeed defeat their attempt to destroy it with controlled C4 detonation - it exploded ). He also made it as pry-, drill-, disassembly-, and cut/slice-proof. Further, it wasn't movable without knowing the right switch combination to shut off the tilt trigger. The bomb unit couldn't cut any wires because everything was inside the steel box.
  
  They'd hoped to get the switch configuration from the bomb builder, but that didn't happen; the thing had a timer in addition to all the other goodies, and there was no way to know when it would go off, so the final call was, again, to hope that a (relatively) small C4 charge would disable the whole thing. Pesky dynamite, undetected, blew up though, which in turn blew up the TNT. The building didn't fare too well in the aftermath, but at least no one was hurt/killed.
  
  --
  For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
14. Re:Impossible to disarm? by nuckfuts · 2015-09-22 12:59 · Score: 1
  
  So here's a possible approach, inspired by your ablation technique: Based on the x-ray images, determine the thickness of the outer steel layer. Using an angle grinder, cut a square precisely to that depth, just touching the rubber lining but not cutting through it. (I'm not saying this would be easy). Pop out the square, and then cut a smaller square out of the rubber and foil layers using a razor knife.
Silly story... by Austerity+Empowers · 2015-09-21 08:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

Real bombs can look like anything. The ones that get the military right now look like anything from dolls to bits of debris by the side of the road. Telling people what bombs really look like is misleading. The limitations governing shape and size come primarily from the intended use: if you want to kill a few soldiers by tricking them, then you disguise the bomb to look like something innocent, hiding the trigger and explosives from view. If you want to blow up a big building at a certain time or on a certain command, then you're limited by the amount of explosive and whatever sort of elaborate trigger mechanism you want to ensure it doesn't get disarmed, can be safely transported to its deployment area, and can be activated by your favorite method. If you want to drop one from a plane, launch one from a missile, or drop one on a sub, you additionally have other problems...
1. Re:Silly story... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:24 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I used to be a security officer and I had training on IED identification.
  You're completely correct. And that's assuming you can see the thing in the first place. Sometimes the IED winds up under something. I heard of one case where a guy lost his leg kicking an IED that was hidden under a fried chicken bucket.
  The only thing you can do is to look for something that has what appears to be the requisite components to be an explosive device.
  What people don't realize is that the easy part is making a device that will explode, the hard thing is making it explode when you want it to.
2. Re:Silly story... by bmo · 2015-09-21 08:31 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  A real bomb has an explosive.
  The kid's circuit had no explosive and was plain to see it wasn't a bomb as a result. Everybody knew it wasn't a bomb. Everyone treated the thing as "not a bomb" but treated the kid like a terrorist anyway.
  Plain out-and-out racism and denying this kid his civil rights. I hope his family makes the school system's taxpayers sweat over this.
  --
  BMO
3. Re:Silly story... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2015-09-21 08:37 · Score: 2
  
  I was thinking more my romantic youth visions of a Roadrunner Wile E. Coyote bomb. It looks like a black bowling ball, with a big fuse sticking out of the top. On the side, in big white capital letters is written: "ACME BOMB".
  As for the Klock Kid, he should have taken a cue from a Magritte painting, and written "Ceci n'est pas une bombe" on his clock. At least the French teacher in the high school might have been able to have figure out that is wasn't a bomb.
  Maybe.
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
4. Re:Silly story... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 08:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Plain out-and-out racism and denying this kid his civil rights.
  You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race? Or is that your own bias showing?
  If so, why then so much less outrage & support for the kid who pointed a chicken finger at another student, or the pop-tart gun kid, or the kid who wrote a story about shooting a dinosaur? I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.
  
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  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
5. Re: Silly story... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:52 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  And thousands of Black men were lynched, but only one resulted in a Supreme Court trial.
  You want a world of equal results? Good luck.
6. Re:Silly story... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 08:55 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The only thing you can do is to look for something that has what appears to be the requisite components to be an explosive device.
  I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure one of the "requisite components" of an explosive device is some fucking explosives.'
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
7. Re:Silly story... by b0bby · 2015-09-21 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  Couple of reasons why this kid may have been invited, and the others not:
  The first two examples you cite were both just doing something simple, involving pretend guns. Of course their punishments were stupid, but you also don't want to hold them up as examples of how you should behave. The dinosaur story writer was arrested which is worse, but it seems that the arrest was for becoming irate at the cops who were searching his locker.
  The kid with the clock had built something which required some skill, and STEM is a big deal in schools right now. He made no threats, mentioned no weapons, and his action in actually putting science and engineering into practice is something which should be encouraged.
8. Re:Silly story... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 09:00 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  At least the French teacher in the high school might have been able to have figure out that is wasn't a bomb.
  It was Irving goddamn Texas for chrissake. You think they have a French teacher?
  The closest thing they have to foreign language studies is sophomore Biology.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
9. Re:Silly story... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 09:06 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I won't say for a second that authorities didn't overreact in each of those cases - there's an obvious lack of intelligence/discretion on the part of the schools/authorities. It's fantastically beyond how any reasonable person should have responded. That being said, in all those cases, the kids in trouble were imagining / play acting a fictional situation that, if true, would have been cause for alarm. Also, none of the kids demonstrated any level of ingenuity - they were just kids being kids.
  In this current situation, the kid presented the clock as a clock, and insisted the whole way through that it was a clock. If he had brought it in, and pretended it was a bomb - then yes some reaction would have been warranted. Also, he was demonstrating an interest in learning, and demonstrated a level of technical proficiency in building a clock.
10. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-21 09:07 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The kid's circuit had no explosive and was plain to see it wasn't a bomb as a result.
  What, specifically, does "explosive" look like? Or more important, what would you LIKE it to look like?
  I mean, with C4 (looks like putty) you can mold it to have any shape you want and then paint it, or stuff it into a container. You can make it into a pencil box and then paint over it with a stiff epoxy paint to make it hold its shape.
  Or nitroglycerine. It's a liquid. Looks like water. Put it in a water bottle. Put a little caramel coloring in it and put it in a Coke bottle. Dye it green and it's Mountain Dew!
  Tannerite looks like a grey powder. I'm guessing you could put a little resin in with it and press it into any shape you want to, and paint it so it's not gray.
  Nitrocellulose looks like, well, cellulose but it has a bunch of nitrate groups bonded to it. I had a few bottles of it when I was young, it looked just like shredded coconut. But I could dissolve it and turn it into something that looked like paper. Nitrostarches look like flour. "That's not a bomb, it's a bag of flour."
  This Hackaday article is stupid. It is showing us what one particular bomb looked like. It can't show us what every bomb looks like, because there is no defining visible property that you can say "that's what a bomb looks like". Even this "plain to see" it has no explosive statement is just ridiculous.
  Do you know what a Campbell's Soup Can looks like? Doesn't look like a bomb, does it? Well, slip a hand grenade with the pin pulled in one and it makes a dandy bomb. Kick the can, the grenade pops out, the handle flies off, and in a few seconds, boom! Is that an electrolytic capacitor there on that circuit board, or is it a small amount of explosive in a metal can? (Or is it both!)
  How about a soda straw? No explosive there, right? Plain to see. Well, when I was TEN I was making time delay fuses out of soda straws and nitrocellulose. Absolutely trivial. You couldn't tell by looking it wasn't just a soda straw anymore.
  
  Everyone treated the thing as "not a bomb" but treated the kid like a terrorist anyway.
  Being a terrorist doesn't require actually having a bomb, all it takes is pretending. That's why bomb HOAXES are illegal, too.
11. Re:Silly story... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:09 · Score: 2
  
  You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race?
  
  My anecdotal evidence is that I did pretty much the same thing at the same age and nobody ever accused me of doing anything wrong.
  I bought a clock kit from an ad in the back of popular electronics and put it in a radio shack case. I duct-taped the battery to the bottom. If anything my clock looked a lot more like a bomb than his did.
12. Re: Silly story... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 09:29 · Score: 1, Flamebait
  
  And thousands of Black men were lynched, but only one resulted in a Supreme Court trial.
  And lynching tends to be bad... are you suggesting otherwise?
  
  You want a world of equal results? Good luck.
  Of course not, I'm not a progressive.
  
  --
  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
13. Re:Silly story... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 09:34 · Score: 1
  
  Was that because of your race... or the time you did it?
  I suspect you are a bit older than he so come from a different time, as do I.
  There was a time when carry on baggage was not screened for weapons or explosives prior to a flight.
  There was a time it was not uncommon for rural high school students to keep a shotgun or rifle in their vehicle in the fall so that they could go for a quick hunt after school.
  There was a time you could walk without a ticket up to the gate at an airport and meet your loved ones when they arrived.
  Unfortunately we do not live in those times anymore.
  
  --
  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
14. Re:Silly story... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:35 · Score: 1
  
  That's why bomb HOAXES are illegal, too.
  it's not a "hoax bomb" unless you tell people that it's a real bomb
  he never said it was a bomb
  the cops never actually thought it was a bomb. the "bomb hoax" thing is pure butt coverage
15. Re:Silly story... by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 09:45 · Score: 1
  
  The ones that get the military right now look like anything from dolls to bits of debris by the side of the road.
  Ironically, they learned that lesson from previous wars when hidden and disguised mines were intended to rip of kids (and civilians in gerenal) arms and legs.
  Have a look here at which countries banned the use of anti-personal explosive devices: http://www.icbl.org/en-gb/the-...
  
  --
  bickerdyke
16. Re:Silly story... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:49 · Score: 1
  
  There was a time you could walk without a ticket up to the gate at an airport and meet your loved ones when they arrived.
  Are you saying that this is some sort of terrible hardship? Your loved ones have travelled thousands of miles to see you, whats a few more feet? I'm actually happier with no salesmen and no hari krishnas in the waiting room.
17. Re:Silly story... by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  Being a terrorist doesn't require actually having a bomb, all it takes is pretending. That's why bomb HOAXES are illegal, too.
  Agreed.
  But wouldn't that some... well... pretending?
  But it's a good point. Killing people is not a goal of terrorists. Spreading terror is. (Hence the name.) Killing people is just one way to do that. Having everyone going through X-Rays and security checkpoints daily to remind them that they should be scared of terrorists is just another way.
  
  --
  bickerdyke
18. Re:Silly story... by Technician · 2015-09-21 09:55 · Score: 1
  
  Another one which was in the news was a tennis ball parked against a tire of a parked car. The owner saw the ball under the tire and kicked it out, only to have it explode.
  
  --
  The truth shall set you free!
19. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-21 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  It looks like a lump of "something"
  Unless you make it to not look like a lump. That's the point. You can't tell just by looking.
  
  It can be anything, but what it absolutely needs is physical mass.
  Doesn't have to be much. A 22 round going off in your pocket is going to cause damage to you. A bit of explosive the size of a 45 will do a good job of dispersing a biological agent in a room, and the fleeing people will do a good job of dispersing it further.
  The claim that you can see it isn't a bomb because you can see it doesn't have any explosive is just silly.
20. Re:Silly story... by RingDev · 2015-09-21 10:02 · Score: 1
  
  I agree with you, you can disguise a bomb to look like damn near anything.
  Which leads to the next question; if you can disguise a bomb to look like anything, why aren't kids getting arrested/suspended left and right for taking hoax bombs into school?
  If a Campbell's soup can is such a great way to disguise a bomb, why is it that kids bring them to school, in their lunches or repurposed for pencil holders, or for food drives? Why are these kids not being arrested for carrying hoax bombs?
  -Rick
  
  --
  "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
21. Re:Silly story... by amRadioHed · 2015-09-21 11:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Sorry you're wrong. Leaving a suspicious looking object unattended is a completely different situation from carrying something around in your bag and telling people it's a clock when asked.
  
  --
  We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
22. Re:Silly story... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 12:25 · Score: 1
  
  some fucking explosives.
  future generations will regard George Carlin as a deity
23. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:32 · Score: 1
  
  Real bombs can look like anything.M
  I think the reader was intended to infer this.
  
  Telling people what bombs really look like is misleading.
  I suppose it would be misleading to tell really dumb people (the ones who are prone to thinking *all* bombs look the same) this is was *a* real bomb looks like). But telling a dumb person pretty much anything will typically mislead them.
24. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:34 · Score: 1
  
  Except maybe a bunch of bare electronics in an otherwise empty box.
25. Re:Silly story... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 12:39 · Score: 1
  
  Are you saying that this is some sort of terrible hardship?
  Terrible? No. Rather inconvenient more often than not? Yes.
  Given the choice between waiting at the gate and trying to spot your person/group out of ~100-200 people getting off the plane you know them to be coming from is far far easier than trying to figure out which exit gate into baggage claim they will come out and when, all the while trying to guess which scrum of people happen to be from the same plane.
  Plus, by doing that at the gate you distribute the load of reunions rather than cram even more full a poorly orchestrated baggage claim area.
  I've long thought it fortuitous the rise of mobile phones since 9/11 as without them things like cell phone waiting lots and other means of 'quick' airport pickups just wouldn't be practical.
  
  --
  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
26. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:43 · Score: 2
  
  You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race? Or is that your own bias showing?
  Everyone is biased. So I am biased into thinking other people are biased, and that's probably a good thing.
  You can call it bias, or just intuition. I think pretty much everyone had the same intuition that these teachers factored in Ahmed's race/religion/name/etc into their internal calculation of whether what he had was a bomb.
  The courts can weigh the evidence. I think people are totally justified in having their own intuition and expressing their beliefs until the evidence is properly weighed.
  
  If so, why then so much less outrage & support for the kid who pointed a chicken finger at another student [www.cbc.ca], or the pop-tart gun kid [huffingtonpost.com], or the kid who wrote a story about shooting a dinosaur [examiner.com]? I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.
  Those are not the same. Those are instances of ridiculous zero tolerance policies gone amok. I don't think anyone involved in those incidents sensed a hint of danger. I don't doubt that some of these teachers really thought this clock was a bomb. But it's just very easy for everyone who is actually aware of typical biases to see how Ahmed was probably treated differently than if some nerdy white or asian kid had a bunch of electronics, and pointing out this double standard.
27. Re:Silly story... by kamapuaa · 2015-09-21 12:43 · Score: 1
  
  FWIW, a quick Google shows they have classes in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Sign Language.
  
  --
  Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
28. Re:Silly story... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 12:44 · Score: 1
  
  I'm actually happier with no salesmen and no hari krishnas in the waiting room
  There are ways to deal with that which not only do not require security theater, but that were well in the works a decade before 9/11 which is why you probably haven't seen many of them at the airport in the 90's outside of movies: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-...
  
  --
  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
29. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:46 · Score: 1
  
  I am not even sure you can prove that lynchings were based on race by your standards. Afterall there were lots of black people that weren't lynched.
30. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:49 · Score: 1
  
  What, specifically, does "explosive" look like? Or more important, what would you LIKE it to look like?
  Do explosives ever just look like bare electronics? There's not a lot of room to hide explosives on PCBs. Not to mention it will draw a lot of unwanted suspicion from idiot teachers.
31. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-21 12:51 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry you're wrong. Leaving a suspicious looking object unattended is a completely different situation from carrying something around in your bag and telling people it's a clock when asked.
  The claim what that something was not a "hoax bomb" unless "you" (the person who made it?) said it was. That's what I replied to. There was no "carrying in a bag and saying it's a clock" in that claim. It was an open-ended statement, similar to the open-ended statement of the article that this started with -- "this is what a bomb looks like". You may still be discussing some specific previous article, but neither I nor the person I replied to was.
  So, yes, I'm right. The object that I referred to is a hoax bomb without the builder having to claim it is.
32. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:56 · Score: 1
  
  Unless you make it to not look like a lump. That's the point. You can't tell just by looking.
  You can't always, but this is one of the few cases where you could.
  
  A bit of explosive the size of a 45 will do a good job of dispersing a biological agent in a room, and the fleeing people will do a good job of dispersing it further.
  How do you know a high school kid doesn't have weaponized anthrax hidden in a .45 round? Because it's fucking retarded.
  
  The claim that you can see it isn't a bomb because you can see it doesn't have any explosive is just silly.
  The standard of proof isn't "Could the CIA make a bomb that looks like this common object". The standard of proof is "Does it make sense for a high school kid to have a bomb that looks like this. Because if that's not your standard of proof, then you will be calling the bomb squad hundreds of times a day.
33. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-21 12:58 · Score: 1
  
  Right, a teenager built a biological weapon.
  I'm sorry, where did I say that? I responded to your ridiculous claim that you can tell that something isn't a bomb because you don't see any "explosive". I pointed out that "explosive" can be made to look like just about anything I want it to: a can of Coke, a ream of paper, a soda straw, a pencil box, anything.
  You seem to think there has to be some "lump" that you can identify as explosive material, and you are just ridiculously wrong about that.
  But please, keep calling me a racist or a retard for knowing what explosives can actually look like.
  
  I'm done arguing with racist cracker retards for the day.
  Right. Whatever. Hope you never come across an IED and find out what explosives really are. But I'm sure you'll recognize them with one glance because you know what explosives have to look like.
  
  I wish /pol/ would stay in its cage.
  Uhh, yeah. Whatever.
34. Re:Silly story... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 13:18 · Score: 1
  
  FWIW, a quick Google shows they have classes in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Sign Language.
  I found a video used in the French class:
  https://youtu.be/JEdBndu0YUM
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
35. Re:Silly story... by turbidostato · 2015-09-21 13:27 · Score: 1
  
  "the kids in trouble were imagining / play acting a fictional situation that, if true, would have been cause for alarm."
  Of course yes. If a Godzilla-type dinosaur appeared all of a sudden I would consider it cause for alarm.
  But what would really freak me out would be the sight of a boy with a gun trying to kill it.
  Really, I mean it.
36. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 14:36 · Score: 1
  
  Intentionally leaving a backpack unattended at a sports event (or an airport) is sufficient to cause alarm. It doesn't need to look like a bomb to be suspicious. This is why the Boston bomb hoax LED signs were suspicious. If they weren't deposited all over the city they would be about as mundane as Ahmed's clock.
37. Re:Silly story... by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 16:33 · Score: 1
  
  Road flares are in no way "a bomb". Bombs explode. If road flares exploded, they would be less useful in their primary use as road flares.
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
38. Re:Silly story... by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:01 · Score: 1
  
  There was probably at least one aluminum electrolytic capacitor in the clock circuit board that the kid took out of it's case and put into his own case. Now, he probably knows little or nothing at all about soldering, or circuits, or aluminum electrolytic capacitors, since all he did was take the insides of a factory made clock and pretend he had anything to do with building it, but if he did know any of that stuff, he could have reversed the polarity of one of the capacitors and it would immediately become an explosive device.
39. Re:Silly story... by rossz · 2015-09-21 17:10 · Score: 1
  
  Right, a teenager built a biological weapon.
  Have you ever been in a teenager's bedroom? Every parent of a teen on the planet would swear in court their kid was growing biological weapons.
  
  --
  -- Will program for bandwidth
40. Re:Silly story... by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:11 · Score: 1
  
  There were a considerable number of white people lynched, too. No race 'owns' victim-hood.
  In the first half of the twentieth century, when the Ku Klux Klan controlled almost all of the political offices in the state of Indiana, blacks weren't even the main focus of the KKK. The blacks were already pretty 'kept down' to be certain, but the KKK mainly focused on attacking Jews and Roman Catholics.
41. Re:Silly story... by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:18 · Score: 1
  
  What a disappointing and dumb response, from a prejudiced jerk, no less.
  We're supposed to nod and laugh at your response to having your bigotry called out, right?
42. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 17:22 · Score: 1
  
  the KKK mainly focused on attacking Jews and Roman Catholics.
  Do you have any proof that they were attacked because of their religion?
43. Re:Silly story... by ceoyoyo · 2015-09-21 18:19 · Score: 1
  
  Ha ha, if the kid was some kind of sleeper agent for the Illuminati he wouldn't have attached a giant clock to his biological weapon. He'd have sat quietly in class and sneezed. Or if we're going chemical, he'd have poured a few drops of dimethylmercury on the floor while turning the page of his math textbook.
44. Re:Silly story... by tinkerton · 2015-09-21 19:48 · Score: 1
  
  Summarizing, if it doesn't look like a bomb, it probably is one. OMG so the teachers in that Texas school had the right reaction!
45. Re:Silly story... by tinkerton · 2015-09-21 19:52 · Score: 1
  
  Movie makers are actually experts in how to make a bomb look like a bomb
46. Re:Silly story... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 23:32 · Score: 1
  
  We're supposed to nod and laugh at your response to having your bigotry called out, right?
  If you've ever been to Texas, you know it's not bigotry, just a straightforward observation of reality.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
47. Re:Silly story... by jittles · 2015-09-22 00:40 · Score: 1
  
  Except maybe a bunch of bare electronics in an otherwise empty box.
  Perhaps. I'm not saying that this high school kid had what he needed to do this but I am certain that someone who can manufacture C4 could also make said C4 fit inside the lining of an otherwise empty box. And yes, his box did appear to have a liner.
48. Re:Silly story... by bmo · 2015-09-22 02:51 · Score: 1
  
  Let me show you what's in the back of my fridge.
  It's sentient.
  --
  BMO
49. Re:Silly story... by jitterman · 2015-09-22 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  Thank you! While the particular device discussed in TFA is very interesting, it's definitely not the only way to build an explosives delivery system.
  
  --
  For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
50. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-22 03:09 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sure you could make that empty box into an explosive. I'm just saying that it would be a lot harder than most things at that school (i.e. backpacks, lockers, trash cans, printer, etc). So if we were going to prioritize things by likelihood of being a bomb, this otherwise empty box with bare electronics would be down at the bottom with "stack of papers", and "skateboard".
51. Re:Silly story... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 05:22 · Score: 1
  
  Except maybe a bunch of bare electronics in an otherwise empty box.
  Perhaps. I'm not saying that this high school kid had what he needed to do this but I am certain that someone who can manufacture C4 could also make said C4 fit inside the lining of an otherwise empty box. And yes, his box did appear to have a liner.
  Also, we've now added "manufacture of explosives" to the skill set of this kid, while leaving out "how to write ransom demands" or "being smart enough not to carry an explosive on your person all day". Not to mention that we've now created a scenario where the school can recognize that C4 could be hidden inside this box (meaning IT COULD BE A BOMB!1!), but is either (a) smart enough to see that there *isn't* C4 present (and thus there's no need to evacuate), or (b) is too stupid to live, because they *didn't evacuate the school in the presence of a possible bomb*
  Simply put: if we're going to say "oh, there COULD have been a bomb there", then we also need to ask "if they thought there could be a bomb, why didn't they follow procedure and evacuate?"
52. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-22 05:54 · Score: 1
  
  I'm glad something in your house is. And when you keep calling people racist because they don't agree with you, you deserve that.
53. Re:Silly story... by Obfuscant · 2015-09-22 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  You can't always, but this is one of the few cases where you could.
  By "this" I assume you mean the subject of the story here, which was a pair of large metal boxes used to contain a bomb smuggled into a casino for extortion. But you're still wrong. I've seen large metal boxes with switches on them and they aren't bombs. And I've seen IEDs that didn't look anything like a bomb.
  
  How do you know a high school kid doesn't have weaponized anthrax hidden in a .45 round?
  I'm sorry, I was responding to the statement that you can tell an explosive by looking because it has to be a "lump" that looks like explosive. There was no "high school kid" in the story referred to in the subject here.
  
  The standard of proof is "Does it make sense for a high school kid to have a bomb that looks like this.
  
  No, the "standard of proof" is could someone make a bomb that doesn't look like "explosive", because the only claim that was being discussed was the one that you can tell a bomb just by looking at it because it has "explosives". If you think the "standard of proof" of whether something COULD be a bomb is if a high school student would have one that looked like that, well, that's as absurd as claiming you can tell explosives just by looking at them.
  You're so tied up in the one specific Texas instance that your missing the bigger picture and the more generic claims that are being made. You want to keep drawing it back to one kid in one classroom, but the story you read at the top of the page has nothing to do with one kid in one Texas classroom.
54. Re:Silly story... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  Plain out-and-out racism and denying this kid his civil rights.
  You have specific evidence that he was singled out because of his race? Or is that your own bias showing?
  If so, why then so much less outrage & support for the kid who pointed a chicken finger at another student, or the pop-tart gun kid, or the kid who wrote a story about shooting a dinosaur? I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.
  Well, chicken finger kid got a suspension and sent home for the day. Pop-tart kid got a suspension. Only the Dinosaur Hunter (who interesting, is also the only other teenager on this list) got arrested. And Dinosaur Hunter (in theory) actually *did* talk about guns in school.
  So for why, I'd give a couple reasons:
  Clock Kid didn't even *do* the thing he's accused of. Which moves us up a rung from "massive over-reaction" to "teachers and cops are just making shit up".
  There's some escalating reaction from the community as things just get dumber. Dinosaur Hunter's article even references PopTart. So, every time we hear about this sort of stupidity, you get just a bit *more* angry - which we should, because it gets harder to write it off as "oh, just an isolated incident / overzealous teacher".
  To be a bit cynical and flippant for a moment, Dinosaur Guy was doing a creative writing exercise, and no-body cares about liberal arts in America. Meanwhile, Clock Kid may be a case of chasing away a potential STEM graduate (you know, future of the nation, shortage in the country, etc etc).
  Also, he's getting a lot of attention from geeks who are watching this and thanking our lucky stars that we didn't grow up in this period. Half the stuff the teachers had us do in school in the 90s would get us arrested these days, I'd think.
55. Re:Silly story... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-22 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  By "this" I assume you mean the subject of the story here
  Or you could assume it was the bomb referenced in the post you were responding to.
  
  No, the "standard of proof" is could someone make a bomb that doesn't look like "explosive", because the only claim that was being discussed was the one that you can tell a bomb just by looking at it because it has "explosives".
  It's not the only claim being discussed. I am making a claim that your claim is irrelevant.
  
  You're so tied up in the one specific Texas instance that your missing the bigger picture and the more generic claims that are being made.
  I'm not tied up in it. Your first post in this thread was in response to the Texas instance. I don't find your characterization of the real issue to be "Can you tell if something is a bomb just by looking at it". The answer to this seems trivial when we make the standard of proof certainty. You can't ever tell what anything is with 100% certainty by looking at it. To me the bigger picture isn't this irrelevant technicality, but rather, what our plan of action should be. Your assertion gives us no useful information from which to form a plan of action. If we take a more reasonable standard of proof (one that is able to disqualify certain objects as being unlikely to be explosives), then we can focus our attention on things that are actually likely to be explosives.
  This is like the people who say "Anyone could be a terrorist" to the question of "who is likely to be a terrorist", and now we spend as much time searching celebrities, grandmas, and babies as middle aged men.
  Yeah anything can be a bomb, like how anyone can be a terrorist. But pretending that everyone is equally likely to be a terrorist is about the worst thing you can do if you want to actually find terrorists.
56. Re:Silly story... by jittles · 2015-09-22 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  Also, we've now added "manufacture of explosives" to the skill set of this kid, while leaving out "how to write ransom demands" or "being smart enough not to carry an explosive on your person all day". Not to mention that we've now created a scenario where the school can recognize that C4 could be hidden inside this box (meaning IT COULD BE A BOMB!1!), but is either (a) smart enough to see that there *isn't* C4 present (and thus there's no need to evacuate), or (b) is too stupid to live, because they *didn't evacuate the school in the presence of a possible bomb*
  Simply put: if we're going to say "oh, there COULD have been a bomb there", then we also need to ask "if they thought there could be a bomb, why didn't they follow procedure and evacuate?"
  Well first of all, someone could have manufactured it for him. People have used little kids to give bombs to soldiers in war zones before - sacrificing the life of the child who didn't even know they were going to die. And secondly the GP was indicating that there was nothing in the box but electronics and therefore could not be a bomb. That's obviously not true.
  Of course the kid couldn't manufacture a bomb. He couldn't even manufacture that clock. It was pulled out of an old alarm clock and that is obvious from the pictures. The fact that he clearly didn't manufacture anything DOES suggest to me that the kid was obviously up to something. Since it wasn't for a homework assignment, what exactly was he trying to accomplish?
57. Re:Silly story... by uninformedLuddite · 2015-09-22 10:56 · Score: 1
  
  The entire circuit board could have been a decoy and the transformer could have been hollowed out and filled with C4. I could hide explosives in there easily enough. I don't understand how the 'big brains' here at /. seem to think it would be impossible.
  
  --
  The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
58. Re:Silly story... by uninformedLuddite · 2015-09-22 10:58 · Score: 1
  
  Why are these kids not being arrested for carrying hoax bombs?
  Because they're white.
  -- BMO
  Oh fuck off
  
  --
  The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
59. Re:Silly story... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 11:34 · Score: 1
  
  Well first of all, someone could have manufactured it for him. People have used little kids to give bombs to soldiers in war zones before - sacrificing the life of the child who didn't even know they were going to die. And secondly the GP was indicating that there was nothing in the box but electronics and therefore could not be a bomb. That's obviously not true.
  And now we're adding "the US is a war zone" to the list of assumptions, along with "there's a mastermind and this kid is merely a pawn in his Dark Machinations", except that our mastermind is an idiot because he gave the "bomb" to the kid and told them to show it to the shop teacher. Also, since the school at no point reacts in a manner consistent with a suspicion that it was, is, or could possibly be a bomb, it doesn't matter that there could have been a Sooper Sekret Explosive there, because they didn't act in any manner consistent with such a concern.
  
  Of course the kid couldn't manufacture a bomb. He couldn't even manufacture that clock. It was pulled out of an old alarm clock and that is obvious from the pictures. The fact that he clearly didn't manufacture anything DOES suggest to me that the kid was obviously up to something. Since it wasn't for a homework assignment, what exactly was he trying to accomplish?
  Is there a reason we don't believe the answer he gave - that he was showing off to his shop teacher? (I think you may be underestimating the average electrical know-how of a junior high kid, by the way.) And that also begs the question - even if he's a complete suck up and show off who didn't do anything noteworthy... since when did that justify what happened to him?
60. Re:Silly story... by jittles · 2015-09-23 00:38 · Score: 1
  
  Is there a reason we don't believe the answer he gave - that he was showing off to his shop teacher? (I think you may be underestimating the average electrical know-how of a junior high kid, by the way.) And that also begs the question - even if he's a complete suck up and show off who didn't do anything noteworthy... since when did that justify what happened to him?
  Showing off his ability to unscrew a clock case? Have you looked up close at the circuit board? There's a god damned 9V battery backup lead on there. Why would you put that on your homemade clock? The traces and soldering all look like something you'd see on early 80's circuit boards. And if you don't believe me you can read the thoughts of actual experts at places like Fox News Or this article with a link to a YouTube video showing that the clock's innards are almost identical to a RadioShack brand 1970's alarm clock.
  Again, it seems pretty obvious that this kid was up to something. It doesn't have to be a 'I'm going to blow up the school' kind of plot, but it wasn't a "Hey look at what I made at home" kind of thing. Anyone who is worth impressing with such electronics would take one look at it and know the kid disassembled a COTS product. There's absolutely no reason to believe that this was a viable bomb, I agree. We don't need to go overboard and I tried to indicate to you that I am not doing so. I was just merely pointing out that something like that is theoretically possible and you seem to be stuck on how amazing this kid is and how crazy everyone else is for being skeptical of him. Now what evidence do you have to refute the fact that the kid is a fraud?
61. Re:Silly story... by jwhitener · 2015-09-24 11:40 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think any of them got invited to the White House.
  Likely because they were not as good at social media as this kid/family appear to be, and also because this kid is a tinkerer/maker/geek/nerd/-type person, all the like-minded folks "on the internets" re-tweeted, re-blogged, spread the story wide and far, etc..
62. Re:Silly story... by jwhitener · 2015-09-24 11:44 · Score: 1
  
  I agree in general, talking about if it looked like a bomb or not is silly.
  What I think is stupid, is to assume the worst when you see something odd (better chance of being hit by lightning than killed by a bomb). But teachers are under intense pressure by administrators to assume the worst at all times in today's world.
  In a saner world, even if the thing looked exactly like a hand grenade, the teacher wouldn't have jumped to the conclusion that the kid was bad and was going to do harm. They would have started with the assumption that it was a toy, the kid was good, and just told the kid "don't bring that to school again", or told the kid "hey neat looking grenade clock? How'd you make it? Lets talk about it next share and tell".
63. Re:Silly story... by anyGould · 2015-09-26 08:03 · Score: 1
  
  Now what evidence do you have to refute the fact that the kid is a fraud?
  The fact that he's fourteen, and people seem to be forgetting that in junior high, being able to disassemble and (correctly) reassemble a COTS device is actually a bit ahead of the curve in most schools? It's junior high - most kids have never seen the inside of their Xbox, much less know how to do anything with it.
  I'm not saying let's give the kid a Nobel. Hell, let's go one step further and take your idea - the kid is a total fraud who patched together something to brown nose a teacher. Last I checked, that wasn't cause for suspension and arrest. So *at worst*, he's the equal of every parent who does their child's science fair project so Little Timmy looks awesome.
  Putting it that way, maybe we should be making more arrests...
More like....this by Jack9 · 2015-09-21 08:05 · Score: 1

https://embed.gyazo.com/30f5f0...
http://www.trackingterrorism.o...

--

Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
1. Re:More like....this by Jack9 · 2015-09-21 08:13 · Score: 1
  
  Compare to this:
  https://video-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn....
  
  --
  
  Often wrong but never in doubt.
  I am Jack9.
  Everyone knows me.
2. Re:More like....this by Tablizer · 2015-09-21 08:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, more like:
  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi...
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
3. Re:More like....this by Jack9 · 2015-09-21 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  I see what you did there.
  
  --
  
  Often wrong but never in doubt.
  I am Jack9.
  Everyone knows me.
Not a real story by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2015-09-21 08:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

The PD didn't even think it looked like a bomb, that's why the school wasn't evacuated.
Yes, it's a neat story, but no there was zero reason to tie this into recent events.

--

"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
1. Re:Not a real story by ScentCone · 2015-09-21 08:22 · Score: 1
  
  To be fair, a police officer doesn't have to think that somebody's prank actually IS a bomb to find that someone attempting to spook people into wondering if something is a bomb needs to be hauled off for being a jerk. A surprising number of people try to either really fake people into thinking they have a bomb, or try to just troll people with a cartoon-looking bomb for the lulz. There's a reason that anything even approaching a hoax bomb gets the hoaxer in deep legal shit: because you don't joke around about stuff like that. Ever.
  
  --
  Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
2. Re:Not a real story by Iamthecheese · 2015-09-21 08:25 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  > you don't joke around about stuff like that. Ever. Fuck this paranoid bullshit. Until terrorism is a real actual problem that harms people as much as say, falling into pools accidentally there's no reason for this allergic reaction of a response.
  
  --
  If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
3. Re:Not a real story by ScentCone · 2015-09-21 08:37 · Score: 2
  
  So, you're cool with someone deliberately putting a fake bomb on a bench in a shopping mall, no legal consequences? Please be specific. Are you also OK with waving unloaded guns in people's faces since, you know, they won't actually die, so who cares what they think?
  
  --
  Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
4. Re:Not a real story by radarskiy · 2015-09-21 08:40 · Score: 1
  
  "The PD didn't even think it looked like a bomb"
  Worst hoax ever.
5. Re:Not a real story by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  buying the materials to build anything significant will be detected and stopped.
  did you bother to RTFA? The bomber stole the explosives from construction sites. If you only steal a little at a time they won't even notice that some are missing.
6. Re:Not a real story by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  buying the materials to build anything significant will be detected and stopped.
  i forgot to mention, the marathon bombers bought fireworks in new hampshire, nobody had any clue.
7. Re:Not a real story by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  The law says hoax bombs are illegal, and the police have to treat them as illegal
  
  What exactly is the definition of "hoax bomb"?
8. Re:Not a real story by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:41 · Score: 1
  
  So it's my fault and I should go to jail if some idiot mistakes my spiffy new electronic toy for a bomb?
9. Re:Not a real story by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 09:56 · Score: 1
  
  Well, no one ever claimed to have a bomb nor made a cartoony-bomb-looking device. Typically, a "bomb hoax" does not include someone trying to explain that this is not a bomb.
  
  --
  bickerdyke
10. Re:Not a real story by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 09:58 · Score: 1
  
  "hoax bomb" is usually something that is either made to trick people into thinking something is a bomb or a "bomb hoax" is some person claiming to have a bomb.
  
  --
  bickerdyke
11. Re:Not a real story by theghost · 2015-09-21 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  Sec. 46.08. HOAX BOMBS.
  (a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly manufactures, sells, purchases, transports, or possesses a hoax bomb with intent to use the hoax bomb to:
  (1) make another believe that the hoax bomb is an explosive or incendiary device; or
  (2) cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies.
  ---
  This case doesn't pass muster because there was no intent to pass this off as a bomb. The moment he said, "It's a clock," this statute had no bearing.
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
12. Re:Not a real story by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 10:04 · Score: 1
  
  So in other words, every rock and every soda can and every briefcase and every laptop is potentially a "hoax bomb" if someone chooses to see it that way.
13. Re:Not a real story by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 10:34 · Score: 1
  
  Sad, but true as this means you're not sanctioning malicious behaviour, but stupidity of the beholder.
  
  --
  bickerdyke
14. Re:Not a real story by R3d+M3rcury · 2015-09-21 10:52 · Score: 2
  
  So, you're cool with someone deliberately putting a fake bomb on a bench in a shopping mall, no legal consequences?
  Depends on who decided it was a bomb and who decided it was a fake bomb.
  If I'm a jerk who makes a "fake bomb" (i.e., something that might look like a bomb to an uninformed person) for the express purpose of making people think it was a bomb, yeah, I certainly deserve the legal consequences of my act. However, if I happen to leave my backpack sitting under the bench and someone sees it and thinks it might be a bomb and calls the bomb squad and they examine it, discover it's not a bomb, and find my address inside the backpack, I'd appreciate it if they returned it to me. I shouldn't face legal consequences.
  In short, I'm not responsible for your misinterpretations.
15. Re:Not a real story by bobbied · 2015-09-21 11:04 · Score: 2
  
  Hmmm... And in Irving we had some kid's "clock" getting plugged in and going off in third period after his first period teacher says "Wow, nice. Some might think it looks like a bomb so put it away, don't show it to anybody, just take it home and don't bring it back to school." After which, this thing went off in English class. One would assume this boy knew it could/would go off when he plugged it in so IMHO it's likely this bright kid INTENDED it to disrupt English class, I know I would have loved to do that when I was his age. Hindsight says he didn't intend to do the Hoax Bomb thing, but how's the English teacher know that? She doesn't so she reported it per policy, and the process starts....
  There is at least *some* justification for a bit of alarm on the part of the third period English teacher who reported it. The school administrator shows up, looks at the device and says (that sure looks like a hoax bomb) and at that point we where all victims of the process, regardless of what young 14 year old boy *says* he build or intended. The school has to run the "possible bomb hoax" process which goes something like, isolate the student, collect the device, and call the cops. Then the Cops have *their* procedures, "Bomb hoax complaint" with the Juvenile addendum which goes something like: Detain suspect, confiscate the device, Question suspect and witnesses, gather evidence and determine if a "bomb hoax" actually took place, then follow the evidence until you figure out what really happened. Which in this case was nothing so you release the suspect.
  I'd like to remind everybody, before my karma get's tanked further on this topic, that we only have heard ONE side of this story from the boy's family. The Cops and the School both are prohibited by their policy from discussing the details of exactly what happened because it involves a minor. They have stated that they have additional information on this story that they'd like to release, but they need the family's permission to do so. So far, their requests for permission have not been even acknowledged by the press of the family.
  IMHO this whole thing is being used as a PR campaign, not because anybody did anything actually wrong (including the kid) but because it advances a specific narrative...
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
16. Re:Not a real story by bobbied · 2015-09-21 11:15 · Score: 1
  
  It takes *intent* to make a "hoax bomb". If you look at that briefcase with nothing in it and try and convince somebody it's going to blow up, you are trying to create a "bomb hoax" which is a crime. Heck, it doesn't even take a briefcase, just an anonymous phone call to 911 is enough....
  Don't make this hard, it really isn't.
  Now if you build something that looks the part of a "hoax bomb" and go flashing it around in a pencil case, you might want to think about what others are going to think when they see it. It might be a really bad idea to plug it in during English class and let it "go off" like the 80's alarm clock it is, if for no other reason than you English teacher might not welcome the distraction to the class, is going to confiscate the distraction and then see what could be construed as a "hoax bomb" that went off during class. It's not a huge leap from there to "possible bomb hoax" which is a serious kettle of fish....
  14 year old boys are notorious for not thinking ahead and if I'm any indication, the geeky ones tend to enjoy disrupting English class. Could it be he just did something stupid with his "clock" which got totally misinterpreted, but understandably so? That the English teacher and Administrators had no choice but to follow their "possible bomb hoax" policy? I think so...
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
17. Re:Not a real story by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2015-09-21 11:27 · Score: 1
  
  All three of your examples describe a critical difference to what happened in Texas: Suspicious things were left alone to be discovered. In this case the kid showed his clock to people.
  
  The kid's clock, once opened to show the insides, really does look like it could be a home-made bomb, at least by Hollywood standards.
  
  Apparently it didn't.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
18. Re:Not a real story by ScentCone · 2015-09-21 11:47 · Score: 1
  
  No, I'm responding to the GP's implication that there was no reason for a person to be arrested if they don't also evacuate a building. Which is BS, and I provided an example. Who's the moron? You, the person who can't read.
  
  --
  Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
19. Re:Not a real story by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-21 12:08 · Score: 1
  
  I think you're still the moron. The guy above said this:
  
  Fuck this paranoid bullshit. Until terrorism is a real actual problem that harms people as much as say, falling into pools accidentally there's no reason for this allergic reaction of a response.
  He's trying to say that maybe people should stop shitting their pants whenever they see an exposed wire. I agree with that sentiment (which, in the context of the story that we are talking about, makes perfect sense - it was an allergic over-reaction to a non-event). But you, for some reason, apparently think that he meant this:
  
  So, you're cool with someone deliberately putting a fake bomb on a bench in a shopping mall, no legal consequences? Please be specific. Are you also OK with waving unloaded guns in people's faces since, you know, they won't actually die, so who cares what they think?
  You've taken avoiding allergic reactions to non-events because everyone is paranoid, and now you're talking about deliberate bomb hoaxes and brandishing a weapon in public (note that the charge for that does not require the weapon to be loaded). You've taken the argument to the extreme. I'm sure you know which logical fallacy that is. It's the one often used by morons.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
20. Re:Not a real story by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 13:04 · Score: 1
  
  I am OK with people waiving around cell phones in public. If someone doesn't know what a gun looks like, but thinks someone is waiving a gun "in their face", and calls the cops on their own gun (or cell phone), then they are a fucking idiot. The person waiving a cell phone should not have any legal consequences, and the person who called the cops and those that defend him should be publicly ridiculed.
21. Re:Not a real story by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 16:56 · Score: 1
  
  I remember one of those hidden camera/prank TV shows years ago (mid to late 1980s) had a sequence that fits right into your point about "every briefcase" possibly being a hoax bomb.
  The TV crew went to Egypt (if I recall correctly) to film this prank. They had a man walk up to strangers in a public square, ask that stranger to bring a briefcase to a certain building, maybe a courthouse, force the briefcase into the stranger's hand, then run away quickly. The stranger is left holding a briefcase that may or may not explode if they do anything, and the look of horror on their faces was exactly what the show's producers were hoping for. I couldn't believe the show had such stupid people, who thought that prank was in the least bit funny.
  So, yes, any briefcase is potentially a hoax bomb, if you act like it is a bomb.
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
22. Re:Not a real story by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 17:00 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, because school violence doesn't happen anywhere in the US. And bombs are never used to kill people in the US. And the US has never had a terrorist attack happen on its own soil. So the fact that this happened in Texas as opposed to Iraq makes it impossible that something bad could result.
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
23. Re:Not a real story by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:28 · Score: 1
  
  The guts of an old alarm clock that somebody takes out of it's enclosure and puts into a pencil box, without really even knowing which what of the alarm clock parts do which or what isn't really a spiffy new electronic toy.
  At best, the little punk is a poseur and should be called out by anybody in his community who actually knows anything about making home-brew electronic devices.
  At worst, his dad, who is an 'Islamic' activist in the community, put him up to it to get as much 'play' out of it as has occurred so far.
24. Re:Not a real story by david_thornley · 2015-09-22 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  You can construct a scenario in which it was meant as a hoax bomb, yes. That works in a "guilty until proved innocent" legal environment (ever played the Ace Attorney games?) and can justify an investigation normally.
  However, what the police did is clearly overreaction under any assumptions.
  
  --
  "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
25. Re:Not a real story by bobbied · 2015-09-22 09:28 · Score: 1
  
  I disagree but hey, we DON'T really know what this kid was doing in English class as only one side of the story is out. Who knows, he could have been doing a live count down followed by yelling "boom" when the alarm went off for all you and I know. All I can say is that the school and police cannot discuss the events in detail without written permission from this kid's guardian, who has refused to give consent.
  So, perhaps your imagination is a bit limited, you have a bias to distrust authority, or you have made your own set of assumptions for political reasons and don't wish to revisit them, but there ARE possible scenarios here where this whole think played out properly and everybody followed the process as they should. Even ones where the kid didn't do or say anything really wrong but just did something stupid and naïve.
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
How to handle by alvinrod · 2015-09-21 08:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

Since this is something that seems like it would be difficult to defuse or even work on, what would be the best way to handle the situation where it's found in a location like this? The linked article indicates that attempts to diffuse the bomb failed and it left a five-story crater in the building where it was located, which is probably less than ideal.

The only thing I can really think of would to try to build some kind of reinforced blast cage around it in order to minimize the amount of damage it can do or perhaps try to direct the explosion to minimize hard, much like a gun directs the force of a blast out of the barrel.

Also, would scanning it even be safe as what's to stop someone from building some kind of trigger that would respond to x-ray exposure? Even if there weren't such a trigger, could anyone even call that bluff?
1. Re:How to handle by medv4380 · 2015-09-21 08:17 · Score: 2
  
  A large volume of Liquid Nitrogen might do the trick. I think the biggest problem with that would be the contraction of the metal before the explosive became stable might have caused the aluminum foil to complete the circuit and explode.
2. Re:How to handle by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  I'd like to know what kind of solutions they can come up with too.
  On my end i was thinking about something that would eat through the metal, thermite maybe, although i think its ignition is kinda hard?
3. Re:How to handle by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:40 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  > The linked article indicates that attempts to *diffuse* the bomb failed and it left a five-story crater in the building where it was located, which is probably less than ideal.
  They diffused the bomb real good, and diffused half the Casino as well
  The *defusing* part didn't go too well, though.
  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diffuse
4. Re:How to handle by SuricouRaven · 2015-09-21 08:43 · Score: 2
  
  X-ray triggers are exotic parts even today, and very hard to get in 1980. A bomber would have to go to some lengths to get hold of one, and it might be possible to track the purchase afterwards.
  I can think of two possible ways to disarm it: The way they tried, or the liquid nitrogen mentioned below. TNT gets less sensitive when cooled - if you get it down to well below zero, it should inactivate or at least have a greatly reduced yield. At which point you use your low-tech rope set it off - hopefully resulting in a small explosion and a lot of scattered bomb parts.
  He did miss an obvious sensor though: Light. A simple light sensor inside would be enough to trigger the bomb if someone did manage to open it, and would have been easy to include even with quite basic technology. He also had an obvious weakness in the split-container construction.
  The biggest mistake of all though was in expecting the police to actually pay up - that never happens. Of course he'll get dodgy money - it'll be dummy, or contain timed dye packs, or be covered with some slow-developing dye that turns bright purple two days after exposure to oxygen, or printed on paper 10% too large, or some combination of the above. It wouldn't matter if he locked some kidnapped schoolchildren inside the bomb: There's no way he's getting that money. If you pulled the same thing today you could try asking for payment in bitcoin, but law enforcement would just stall for time while they 'get the coins' in order to have a shot at finding you - and they'd rather let the bomb go off than pay up. Even with a child locked inside.
  As the shaped charge resulted in detonation, I expect he put the battery in the bottom half with all the explosives.
5. Re:How to handle by gman003 · 2015-09-21 08:55 · Score: 2
  
  Since this is something that seems like it would be difficult to defuse or even work on, what would be the best way to handle the situation where it's found in a location like this? The linked article indicates that attempts to diffuse the bomb failed and it left a five-story crater in the building where it was located, which is probably less than ideal.
  Step one: Protect people. Evacuate the entire blast radius. This was done.
  Step two: Protect property. If the bomb can be moved, move it to a remote area and detonate it. A bomb is not 100% inert until it has exploded, because until then it has chemical potential energy. This was not possible.
  If the bomb cannot be safely moved, attempt to render it safe to move. This was not possible.
  If the bomb cannot be rendered safe to move, attempt to disrupt its mechanism. They attempted to do so with an explosive charge, but were thwarted by a trap they had no knowledge of or way to discover. Today it's often done with an anti-materiel sniper rifle, but in this case that would probably not be used. The only tool I can think of that *might* work is a high-pressure water cutter, but even that might not have worked.
6. Re:How to handle by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 09:10 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  there was a toilet float attached to a switch to prevent a fluid fill, plus the foil, plus vibration switches, plus boobytrapped screws, plus decoy switches, plus shape charge defeating explosives in the detonator housing. McGuyver couldn't have stopped this one from happening.
7. Re:How to handle by Okian+Warrior · 2015-09-21 09:20 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  X-ray triggers are exotic parts even today, and very hard to get in 1980. A bomber would have to go to some lengths to get hold of one, and it might be possible to track the purchase afterwards.
  Just a footnote to what you said: Any semiconductor diode will detect X-rays, and bigger devices will have a larger capture aperture than smaller ones.
  Just sawing the cap off of a transistor will work as a detector. A 2n2222 in metal case has a tiny aperture, but a 2N3055 power transistor has an aperture of about a square CM. I've personally used both as detectors.
  As many people have found out, CCD camera arrays are sensitive to X-rays and can be used as detectors. The areas aren't much bigger than a power transistor, but the interface is usually trivial - just process the image and look for bright specs.
  I don't disagree with your post at all. Making an X-ray detector would be a separate project and require some electronics expertise, and it seems that people who make bombs are largely ones who don't otherwise have marketable skills.
  But if a STEM-educated bomber were to suddenly appear, it's not unreasonable for them to include an X-ray detector.
8. Re:How to handle by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:27 · Score: 2
  
  On my end i was thinking about something that would eat through the metal, thermite maybe, although i think its ignition is kinda hard?
  liquid metal would complete the circuit and set off the explosive
9. Re:How to handle by sims+2 · 2015-09-21 09:43 · Score: 1
  
  Depends on if the battery was in the bottom or top box,
  If the battery is submerged first there would be no power to detonate anything.
  My question is would the ln2 cause enough of a pressure change to trigger the atmospheric pressure switch?
  
  --
  Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
10. Re:How to handle by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:43 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  no deaths, no injuries, and one less casino. Sounds like a good deal to me.
11. Re:How to handle by CanadianMacFan · 2015-09-21 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  Nope since they couldn't get it into the device you wouldn't have to worry about it setting off the float trigger.
12. Re:How to handle by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 10:02 · Score: 1
  
  They didn't go into full detail but a robust design would be to use two batteries, one in each box. Trigger the explosion if either battery is disconnected.
  How do you cut a hole in the box to pour it in?
13. Re:How to handle by sims+2 · 2015-09-21 10:25 · Score: 2
  
  Why would you need to? With enough ln2 just make a box around it on the floor and fill that box it will either seep in or chill the internals down to ln2 temperature eventually. Less than a half hour I would think.
  Although I still think the rapid change in temperature might cause enough pressure change to trip the atmospheric switch.
  
  --
  Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
14. Re:How to handle by mattventura · 2015-09-21 10:35 · Score: 1
  
  There's probably some way you could apply a voltage to the outer shell such that it would have the same voltage as the inner shell, allowing you to drill without blowing it. It's unlikely that applying voltage to the outside would trigger the bomb, since ESD would be likely to set it off. Seeing as how he had to move the bomb around and moving around tends to generate some static, he would probably want to design the bomb to not be triggered by an outside voltage.
  In addition, I'm assuming X-ray technology has gotten better now, so you might be able to see how the switches are wired so you could flip the one that would disarm it. You could also try to freeze the entire thing without actually putting liquid inside of it, but that could also be foiled by including a temperature sensor.
15. Re:How to handle by bobbied · 2015-09-21 11:18 · Score: 1
  
  there was a toilet float attached to a switch to prevent a fluid fill, plus the foil, plus vibration switches, plus boobytrapped screws, plus decoy switches, plus shape charge defeating explosives in the detonator housing. McGuyver couldn't have stopped this one from happening.
  But Chuck Norris could have...... McGuyver is a wimp....
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
16. Re:How to handle by Michael+Woodhams · 2015-09-21 11:31 · Score: 1
  
  I was thinking along the same lines.
  An infrared cutting laser should be able to get in without completing any circuits. I'm not sure how portable they are (particularly in 1980.)
  As well as an x-ray detector as an extra trigger, we could add temperature (detonate outside some range) and we could make the enclosure airtight and then pressurize (or depressurize) it and add a pressure trigger.
  I think there is a movie script in here.
  
  --
  Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
17. Re:How to handle by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 11:32 · Score: 1
  
  Use a diamond-tipped cutter to cut a hole in the outer layer of metal, being careful not to cut through the rubber.
  Peel back the rubber and tape it down over the edges of the hole to expose the foil while simultaneously preventing it from contacting the case.
  Since the foil needed to come in contact with the metal of the case to complete the circuit, you can now safely cut the foil out, again without puncturing the rubber.
  Once the foil is out, you can punch through the second layer of rubber and freely rummage around inside to disable the float.
  Once the float is disabled, surround the whole thing with a watertight case taped down to the floor around it and fill that fucker with water/foam/whatever.
  Explosives soaked through and electronics shorted.
  Remove dynamite carefully.
  Done.
18. Re:How to handle by Lehk228 · 2015-09-21 12:11 · Score: 2
  
  thermite would make the trigger redundant and detonate the explosives directly.
  
  --
  Snowden and Manning are heroes.
19. Re:How to handle by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-21 12:13 · Score: 1
  
  If their priority was to defuse the bomb, then move it and detonate it, then really their only option would have been to comply with his instructions, get the switch position to defuse the tilt sensor, send in a robot to hit the switches, and try and move the thing into the desert to blow it up. No idea how they would actually move it though, that sounds like a hell of a job for people to do with a bomb that weighs almost half a ton and has 7 other detonators on it. But, the first step would be to disable the tilt switch which means giving in to his demands. It sounds like the FBI didn't want to give into his demands though, so defusing the tilt switch was not an option.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
20. Re:How to handle by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 12:22 · Score: 1
  
  Either the float switch would trigger or massive metal temperature change would create mechanical disturbances in the box that would complete the circuit and trigger the bomb.
21. Re:How to handle by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 14:51 · Score: 1
  
  I have no idea what they actually did, but I assume you could set up a remote x-ray to be taken while nobody was near the bomb. Doctors do something similar in their offices to avoid radiation exposure to themselves.
  I suppose a trigger could have been set to activate 10 minutes after exposure to x-rays, but at some point you need to take some calculated risks.
22. Re:How to handle by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 15:36 · Score: 1
  
  All while not tripping the barometer sensor or the tilt sensor, and while working against an unknown time limit.
  
  Methinks your internet balls are about 100x bigger than the pea-sized pair in your pants.
23. Re:How to handle by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:34 · Score: 1
  
  They've probably removed the evidence tape around the Unabomber shack's site. If I remember correctly, the actual shack was removed as evidence. The land is probably still there and you can probably wrangle up some two-by-fours and OSB sheeting. Then, move right in, dude.
24. Re:How to handle by 91degrees · 2015-09-21 20:19 · Score: 1
  
  Would it be possible to somehow get through with very careful drilling? Is there such a thing as a non metallic drill bit perhaps?
  
  Given the time limit, they were certainly better off evacuating the place.
  
  Not sure whether the "never pay" attitude is the right one but I can see the game theory justification.
25. Re:How to handle by toddestan · 2015-09-25 12:35 · Score: 1
  
  Well, you could defeat the float sensor by building a container around the bomb to pour the liquid nitrogen into, and using something like a layer of plastic around the bomb itself so that the liquid nitrogen couldn't seep into the bomb. From there, you'd just have to hope that the temperature changes don't set it off from various bits contracting, and that the timer doesn't set it off before it gets cold enough to deactivate the explosives or the battery.
That's *A* Bomb by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:06 · Score: 1

That particular design doesn't represent all bombs.
Something like a grenade has 5 meter blast radius. It could potentially kill everyone in a small room.
1. Re:That's *A* Bomb by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  The bomber was not interested in killing people, he wanted to destroy the casino. A grenade is not going to cause serious physical damage to the casino.
2. Re:That's *A* Bomb by goodmanj · 2015-09-21 09:14 · Score: 2
  
  That's the point: there's all kinds of bombs for all kinds of purposes, and very few of them look like this one, and none of them look like movie bombs.
  This is a pretty cool bomb though, if you like bombs. Which you shouldn't.
3. Re:That's *A* Bomb by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:17 · Score: 2
  
  Good engineering is always interesting. The same technology could be used to create a server system that self-destructs if you try to open it.
That's what one bomb looks like... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

If it weren't for the recent unpleasantness in Texas this article wouldn't have appeared here. I in no way condone this kid being hauled off to prison without more cause but let's not act like "that's not a bomb, this is a bomb" about it. These devices take all kinds of shapes, sizes and formats. Let's not let one example dismantle an entire range of possibilities. It's an unfortunate trait anymore, this idea that if our ideal vision of something doesn't fit the reality of it all then it's not worth considering the possibilities. This is why we get into endless (read: pointless) shouting matches about education, politics and many social constructs.

We're not going to rise from the quagmire we're in by thinking this way.
1. Re:That's what one bomb looks like... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:54 · Score: 1
  
  If it weren't for the recent unpleasantness in Texas this article wouldn't have appeared here.
  
  maybe you missed the title "This is what a Real bomb looks like"
  no duh, of course it's timed. the idea was to shut down the people who say "it looked like a bomb"
  introducing actual relevant facts into a discussion is perfectly appropriate
Ah, yes.. by ilumits · 2015-09-21 08:26 · Score: 3, Funny

It was disguised as an IBM copy machine in order to sneak it into the casino after hours.

..so that's what they look like.
This Bomb != All Bombs by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:33 · Score: 1

One man's bomb doesn't mean that all bombs look like that.
Bombs can be tiny. Even very old tech can be a very small bomb. See hand grenade: a small explosive on a timer.
1. Re:This Bomb != All Bombs by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 09:55 · Score: 1
  
  so in other words every object is a "hoax bomb" and we should immediately arrest anyone who is carrying anything.
They Never thought he had a bomb... by mrops · 2015-09-21 08:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

Read this somewhere, humor with a hint of truth (and I paraphrase):
Girl: They thought he had a bomb
Guy: No they didn't think he had a bomb
Girl: Yes they did
Guy:
They didn't evacuate the school like you would if he had a bomb.
They didn't call bomb squad like you would if he had a bomb.
They took pictures of the contraption which you wouldn't have time for if it was a bomb.
They put the contraption in a cop car which you wouldn't do if he had a bomb.
They didn't think it was a bomb.
1. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Guspaz · 2015-09-21 08:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They never claimed it was a bomb. They claimed it was a bomb hoax.
2. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:43 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  They couldn't admit that they were inbred redneck racists.
3. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 08:51 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  They never claimed it was a bomb. They claimed it was a bomb hoax.
  They claimed it was a "bomb hoax" four hoursafter they arrested the kid and had examined the clock to discern it's arcane meaning.
  They claimed it was a bomb hoax to try to cover their stupid cracker asses.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
4. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by mark-t · 2015-09-21 09:25 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe I'm just being pedantic, but for something to be a bomb hoax, doesn't somebody actually have to still at least proclaim that they supposedly have a bomb?
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
5. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by mark-t · 2015-09-21 09:35 · Score: 1
  
  For the allegation that it was a bomb hoax to carry any weight, wouldn't the kid have had to allege that it was a bomb in the first place?
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
6. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-21 09:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  So if this was because he was muslim then surely the dozens to hundreds of other kids arrested and expelled for things even more asinine, like chewing a poptart into the wrong shape, must have been because of their race too... right? I mean surely you aren't holding a double standard here only for your precious designated victim class...
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
7. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sycodon · 2015-09-21 09:55 · Score: 1
  
  Try this experiment.
  1. Replicate his "clock", wires , straps and all.
  2. Stuff it in a backpack.
  3. Try to take it through the White House security check point. or maybe just your local Federal Court building check point.
  Let us know who that turns out for you.
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
8. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by x0ra · 2015-09-21 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  so when a school suspend a 16 year old white boy for wearing a 2nd amendment t-shirt, what is that ?
9. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by DaHat · 2015-09-21 10:07 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, someone who still things mens rea means a damn!
  In far too many cases, simply 'causing alarm' is sufficient.
  Example: In most states, openly carrying a firearm on your hip is legal. Depending on the area there are often restrictions as to where you can carry (bars, schools, playgrounds, etc) and what limitations private businesses can put on your carrying ("We prefer that patrons not carry firearms here so we must ask that you leave now, if you refuse we will ask the police to charge you with trespass" vs "Seems you missed our legally binding 'gun free zone' sign... guess what? you just committed a crime! Please wait here while the police come to arrest you").
  It seems cut and dry, until enough people freak out that someone is carrying a gun and suddenly you can be facing charges despite acting fully within your rights.
  
  --
  Help Brendan pay off his student loans
10. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-21 10:16 · Score: 1
  
  No. He wouldn't in this zero tolerance world. Just like pointing a finger like a gun is enough.
  My understanding is that the arrest happened after refusing to answer why he brought it to school. Evidently this genius kid forgot until after the arrest.
11. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  Wait. Your justification is that if he's a minority, they're racist. But if he's white he's a criminal? If you switch white and minority around isn't that exactly the same reasoning that inbred rednecks use to defend their racism?
12. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by bhagwad · 2015-09-21 11:00 · Score: 1
  
  His engineering teacher had asked the class to make projects. What excuse would you have to carry the same thing into a federal court building?
13. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 11:04 · Score: 1
  
  My understanding is that the arrest happened after refusing to answer why he brought it to school.
  That's simply not true that he "refused to answer".
  He told them "it's a clock" and they wanted a "broader explanation of it's purpose".
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
14. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 11:18 · Score: 1
  
  We need an excuse to have a clock with us?
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
15. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-21 11:28 · Score: 1
  
  So what was it's purpose and when did he tell them? What is not true again?
16. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Darinbob · 2015-09-21 11:29 · Score: 1
  
  It may be or it may not be. But it's a very short leap to assume that in the most Islamophobic town in America that there might have been Islamophobic reasons for their overreactions.
17. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 11:34 · Score: 1
  
  So what was it's purpose and when did he tell them? What is not true again?
  He told the teacher in class, the principal at school, and the cops before they put the cuffs on him to take him away for interrogation. And "interrogation" was the word the police used, no Ahmed.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
18. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-21 11:55 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  They claimed it was a bomb hoax to try to cover their stupid cracker asses.
  What a stupid cracker may look like.
  By all means though, this story doesn't have nearly enough racism. Please continue to add more.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
19. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-21 11:57 · Score: 1
  
  Unless you're an EE student or Flavor Flav, yes it's generally unusual to just be cruising around with a clock.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
20. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  eventually... Usually you don't need to involve law enforcement to discipline nerdy high school kids.
21. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by jd2112 · 2015-09-21 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  This is Texas we are talking about. If it's not a flag it's a bomb.
  
  --
  Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
22. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:19 · Score: 2
  
  So if some people aren't racist, then nobody is racist?
23. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:21 · Score: 1
  
  Boy: It's not a bomb. Teacher: That's 1 of 2 possible answers that a bombmaker would say about his bomb.
24. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 12:21 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, the courts here don't even allow cell phones anymore. If you have it with you when you go thru the screening, its confiscated, and never returned.
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
25. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-21 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  So apparently Ahmed didn't even build this clock. He just took the electronics from an old 70's alarm clock out of it's housing, and put it in another case.
  I don't think you could get passed a whitehouse security checkpoint with a backpack containing an unaltered 70's alarm clock.
  But I would expect Whitehouse (where the president of the United States lives and works) security to be more strict than at a high school (which is a target for almost no one).
26. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 12:43 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  What a stupid cracker may look like
  I guarantee that whoever that cop in the picture is, he wasn't the one deciding what kind of charges were to be brought against Ahmed.
  Here is a picture of the police chief of Irving, Texas:
  http://cdn5.img.sputniknews.co...
  And here's a picture of him standing with his posse:
  http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm...
  [note: Take a look at the faces in that photo. Now remember that Irving, Texas is 60% minority. Get the picture?]
  Here is a picture of the mayor of Irving, Texas, who has been giving speeches about how Muslims are gonna take over the US legal system:
  http://cdn3.freedomoutpost.com...
  Yes, I stand by "stupid cracker". If you have a more apt term, I'm keen to hear it.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
27. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TWX · 2015-09-21 13:04 · Score: 2
  
  All teenagers have the capacity to be attention-whores, and it's worse when they're in an artificial environment that forces a whole bunch of people to interact with each other that would not have chosen to be around each other. The class-clown mouthing-off to the teacher is an attention whore. The football player that wears his letter-jacket with pride is an attention whore. The goth with her white Manic Panic foundation and dark cherry lipstick is an attention whore. The geek, with his shit that he figured out how to work with and brings it is not really any different than the rest.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
28. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TWX · 2015-09-21 13:06 · Score: 2
  
  Salim Abu Aziz: Do you know what this is?
  
  Harry: I know what this is...
  
  [Salim smiles]
  
  Harry: This is an espresso machine.
  
  [Salim frowns]
  
  Harry: No, no wait. It's a snow cone maker.
  
  [Salim approaches Harry]
  
  Harry: Is it a water heater?
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
29. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-21 13:48 · Score: 1
  
  So if this was because he was muslim then surely the dozens to hundreds of other kids arrested and expelled for things even more asinine, like chewing a poptart into the wrong shape, must have been because of their race too... right? I mean surely you aren't holding a double standard here only for your precious designated victim class...
  Your logic is, um, really bad. Let's try that over again so you can take a look at what you wrote.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
30. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-21 13:50 · Score: 2
  
  All teenagers have the capacity to be attention-whores, and it's worse when they're in an artificial environment that forces a whole bunch of people to interact with each other that would not have chosen to be around each other.
  
  Odd you mention that. The same people who are all up in arms calling him an attention whore, are probably applauding the media whoring of that woman in Kentucky who won't sign gay marriage certificates, and now has been caught altering them - a definite crime.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
31. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2015-09-21 16:12 · Score: 1
  
  . They are however allowed at schools
  Not so much anymore. Many schools are starting "clear bags only" policies. Because of all the violence and drugs that they suffer from.
  http://www.nbcchicago.com/news...
  https://www.google.com/search?...
  
  --
  If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
32. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by mark-t · 2015-09-21 16:28 · Score: 1
  
  Except he didn't cause alarm... they did, by suggesting that it was somehow supposed to be seen as a bomb.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
33. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 16:55 · Score: 1
  
  If the kid was a geek who had figured out how to work with his shit, it wouldn't simply have been the insides of a factory-made digital clock, that he took out of one enclosure and put into his own enclosure.
  His Maker group should suspend him as a poseur.
  But, then, his activist dad probably put him up to it.
34. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 17:01 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Maybe the clock was the source of the alarm... ;)
35. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Bing+Tsher+E · 2015-09-21 17:41 · Score: 1
  
  It's a Baby Milk Factory.
36. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by kenh · 2015-09-21 18:19 · Score: 1
  
  It was NOT a school project.
  
  --
  Ken
37. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 20:25 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  "Cracker"? What the fuck year is this? Don't drag us back in time by promoting racism, and don't dismiss your fellow man because of your own bigotry.
  You seem to think too many white people in a group should be called out. Or maybe that minorities (in this case a white person 40%) shouldn't be in position of power? Do you think all white people share the same mind so treating them like a group instead of individuals is justified?
  Or do you think being Muslim = race and so that is why you brought racist terms to the table? Your words represent what educated people should fight against.
38. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 22:07 · Score: 1
  
  Remember racism is fine as long as it's used against white folk.
  And every brown child is a hero. Staging a hoax and wearing a NASA shirt, damn,
  Professional Victims are starting younger and younger these days.
39. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-21 23:20 · Score: 1
  
  That's not the version i heard. Oh well. I guess the truth will come out in a few years but still not matter.
40. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-21 23:33 · Score: 1
  
  That's not the version i heard. Oh well. I guess the truth will come out in a few years but still not matter.
  An Ahmed the Clockmaker truther.
  You can't make this stuff up.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
41. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by jittles · 2015-09-22 00:37 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, I stand by "stupid cracker". If you have a more apt term, I'm keen to hear it.
  Stupid crackers or not, I don't think that kid even designed that circuit board. Many electronics experts agree that he just unscrewed the case of an old 1980s alarm clock and put the internals inside of a suitcase to make it look like it was something it was not.
42. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 05:07 · Score: 1
  
  They never claimed it was a bomb. They claimed it was a bomb hoax.
  Which is an interesting statement, since to date no-one has said that the *kid* was the source of a bomb hoax. He didn't stick it in the washroom. He made no threats. Which makes me wonder - exactly how is someone mistaking a clock for a bomb the fault of the kid?
  I mean, what they're trying to tell us is that this kid made a fake bomb, that he didn't tell anyone about, didn't place, and kept on his person the entire time. So... are we supposed to believe that he's a really shy faux suicide bomber?
43. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  So what was it's purpose and when did he tell them? What is not true again?
  He told the teacher in class, the principal at school, and the cops before they put the cuffs on him to take him away for interrogation. And "interrogation" was the word the police used, no Ahmed.
  This is a good time to mention that the kid asked for his parents to be called, and they refused. And then interrogated him, without the presence of either his attorney or his parents. It's not too far a stretch to suggest that being hauled into a room and being denied the opportunity to leave or call anyone is throwing distance to straight up unlawful confinement.
  (Not to mention, I haven't heard a reason *why* the school and cops decided that calling a minor's parents was such a terrible idea.)
44. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Raenex · 2015-09-22 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  Ahmed the Clockmaker
  He didn't make a clock. He pinned the guts of a manufactured clock to a case. That's some real impressive work. Somebody fund this kid's college career.
45. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Raenex · 2015-09-22 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  Like Dawkins? Too bad he backpedaled after the inevitable media backlash:
  
  But Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and noted writer, scholar and contrarian, found something in Ahmed's story to take issue with -- the use of the word "invention" to describe Mohamed's work. Dawkins went so far as to suggest that describing his clock as such was "fraud" and a "hoax."
  Disassembling & reassembling is great. But you shouldn't then claim it was your "invention". http://t.co/bBcaWoJpbd
  -- Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
  If the reassembled components did something more than the original clock, that's creative. If not, it looks like hoax http://t.co/bBcaWoJpbd
  -- Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
  Dawkins faced intense backlash for his remarks and repeatedly noted that he believes the teen's arrest was wrong.
  Yes, I completely agree with that. He should most certainly NOT have been arrested, handcuffed etc. https://t.co/B2yvE00Db9
  -- Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
  I'm not putting down the child. I'm putting down myself & the rest of us for being fooled. And the police for arresting him for nothing.
  -- Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
  He later apologized and retweeted the President's White House invitation.
46. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-22 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  Well. Then I'm glad I live in the good ol' USA and not whatever third-world fascist backwater you clearly live in.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
47. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-22 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  His parents and attorney are distractions at this point. If a cop catches someone with a gun whether real or imitation, he can ask what the kid was planning to do with it without either. He wasn't under arrest until he failed to answer which gave suspicions of illegal intent. It seems that he even now needs prodding to tell the story if you believe Mark Cuban 's story.
48. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-22 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  Seems to convoluted. It fails the sniff test. Especially since i responded to a bigot making a bigoted statement.
49. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by amicusNYCL · 2015-09-22 05:46 · Score: 2
  
  Yes, I stand by "stupid cracker". If you have a more apt term, I'm keen to hear it.
  How about literally any other term that doesn't make it sound like the race of the person is the real problem? Their racism might be the problem, but their race is not the problem. Maybe "racist" might be a better term than a racist term.
  Am I seriously explaining this?
  
  They claimed it was a bomb hoax to try to cover their racist asses.
  Look at that, now it's a statement that you don't have to be racist to agree with.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
50. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by david_thornley · 2015-09-22 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  His parents weren't distractions at that point. The best information I've got indicates that he maintained it was a clock, and was not believed. Are you saying the police should haul away a minor and interrogate him at length without notifying his parents because they didn't like his perfectly reasonable answer?
  
  --
  "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
51. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by anyGould · 2015-09-22 07:28 · Score: 1
  
  His parents and attorney are distractions at this point. If a cop catches someone with a gun whether real or imitation, he can ask what the kid was planning to do with it without either. He wasn't under arrest until he failed to answer which gave suspicions of illegal intent. It seems that he even now needs prodding to tell the story if you believe Mark Cuban 's story.
  No, they're due process at that point. He's at school and he's a minor. If you're going to call cops, you should be calling parents at the same time.
  Also, what story do you expect this kid to have? He brought a clock to school, and everyone lost their freaking shit. They asked him what it was. He said "it's a clock". They said "you're lying". What else can this kid say? He's locked in a room, they won't let him call his parents - buttoning up was probably the best possible result for him. Hell, he did better than I would have done at his age.
52. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by wyHunter · 2015-09-22 08:48 · Score: 1
  
  Or how latte swilling liberals defend their racism and classism?
53. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by dpidcoe · 2015-09-22 11:46 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly how is telling them it's a clock failure to answer the questions being asked? He literally just stuck the guts of a clock inside a case, there's not really a lot to expand on there.
54. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-22 11:52 · Score: 1
  
  He later apologized and retweeted the President's White House invitation.
  Jezzuz, so glad I don't use Twitter. The whole thing is designed to get people to make stupid knee jerk reactions.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
55. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by mark-t · 2015-09-22 12:01 · Score: 1
  
  Is it also the *only* possible truthful answer if it were actually not a bomb.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
56. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Raenex · 2015-09-22 12:06 · Score: 1
  
  I agree, inviting somebody to the Whitehouse for pinning the guts of a manufactured clock into a case is pretty stupid and knee-jerk.
57. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-22 15:11 · Score: 1
  
  There's nothing wrong with my logic except that it contradicts your religion.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
58. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-22 15:12 · Score: 1
  
  I'll try to make this as simple as possible: If hundreds of kids are being treated exactly the same way no matter what their religion or skin color is the problem here isn't racism.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
59. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-22 15:12 · Score: 1
  
  Alternatively there are no leaps to point out that Ahmed was treated exactly the same as hundreds of other kids who did things as simple as chew a poptart into the wrong shape.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
60. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-22 15:24 · Score: 1
  
  There's nothing wrong with my logic except that it contradicts your religion.
  Allow me.. Evrything is not like everything else. The kid may or may not have been singled out because of ethnicity. But even if he was, it does not follow that every child that has run afoul of the isane zero tolerance/ Police in schools disaster has been singled out for their ethnicity.
  I'll let you go now - The 700 Club is on pretty soon, and you don't want to miss it.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
61. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-22 15:32 · Score: 1
  
  Ok so the problem is you're completely incapable of grasping sarcasm when it's used to point out the idiocy of picking one designated victim out of the hundreds of boys thrown under the bus by the school system and crying "racism!!111eleventyone" only for that one designated victim.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
62. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-22 16:18 · Score: 1
  
  I'll make this as simple as possible. If you have 5 racist teachers and 5 non-racist teachers, it doesn't mean the teachers aren't racist.
63. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by kenh · 2015-09-23 06:23 · Score: 1
  
  I see what you did there... ;^)
  
  --
  Ken
64. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by kenh · 2015-09-23 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  They claimed it was a "bomb hoax" four hoursafter they arrested the kid and had examined the clock to discern it's arcane meaning.
  They claimed it was a bomb hoax to try to cover their stupid cracker asses.
  Of course - makes perfect sense:
  The teacher in the classroom thought it was a bomb, that's why she picked it up and carried it to the office
  The Principal thought it was a bomb, that's why he didn't evacuate the school building
  The police thought it was a bomb, that's why they didn't send the bomb squad or call in EMTs/Fire engines
  Or, and this is only aguess mind you, you are wrong.
  
  --
  Ken
65. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by volmtech · 2015-09-23 16:45 · Score: 1
  
  That's Mister Stupid Cracker buddy. How come the stupid crackers are in charge?
66. Re: They Never thought he had a bomb... by davester666 · 2015-09-23 17:08 · Score: 1
  
  It's not like you can just go into virtually any department store and buy a clock that alarms you...
  You have to go to the police and get the forms, fill them out, submit them with copies of your birth certificate and passport, wait at least three days [because you really don't want people to be in a rush to get alarmed] and then get your license for your "Alarm Clock".
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
67. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-23 17:28 · Score: 1
  
  Or alternatively you have 10 non-racist teachers but the moment they do something to the right kid a bunch of opportunists jump up and scream "RACISM!"
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
68. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by TsuruchiBrian · 2015-09-24 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  What I am saying is that examples of different teachers in different schools punishing different kids for doing different things, does not provide any evidence for non-racism in this instance.
  YOu could use this logic to prove their was no racism in the south. Afterall, lots of white people were also punished in the south, maybe it was because they were white too.
  I am not saying that I am sure racism was involved with Ahmed. What I am saying is that your test for excluding racism is seriously flawed.
69. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-24 12:23 · Score: 1
  
  They asked him why he was taking it to other classes when a teacher already told him he shouldn't because it looks like a bomb in the suitcase contraption.
  The big lie in this story is that anyone in charge who looked at the device actually thought it was a bomb. They all knew it wasn't. They wanted to know why he didn't put it away like another teacher suggested. A simple "to show my friends " would have likely ended it before the cops were even called. But given that his sister had already been suspended for uttering a bomb threat before, his refusing looked more sinister than it probably was.
70. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-24 12:34 · Score: 1
  
  I've looked and looked. I cannot find anything saying due process required parents outside of tv shows.
  And you should investigate this a lot better. No-one started freaking out when he brought it to school. He showed two separate teacher- one of which said not to carry it around because it looks like a bomb. It wasn't until several classes latter that it went off in a class disrupting it while he opened the case and turned the alarm off. This is when he was asked why he still had it with him. The principal remembered suspending his sister for uttering a bomb threat and called the law reporting a fake bomb. The cops asked him why he had it and he refused to say anything so they arrested him.
  I know , the real story is not as inciting as the popular narrative. But as far as i can tell, That's what happened
71. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by lucien86 · 2015-09-24 21:01 · Score: 1
  
  Give him a break, he's only a kid.
  
  --
  Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
72. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by lucien86 · 2015-09-24 21:08 · Score: 1
  
  They were either racist or stupider than crap. (I suspect the second or both) It quite clearly was not a bomb, and given the look of the thing its likely that it is a mains powered clock. Maybe he didn't think things through - but isn't that exactly what teenagers always do??
  
  --
  Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
73. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Raenex · 2015-09-24 22:28 · Score: 1
  
  Old enough to know better. I was 14 once too. The whole thing stinks like a PR stunt.
74. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2015-09-25 11:57 · Score: 1
  
  So the hundreds of other times young boys got arrested or expelled for things like chewing a poptart into the wrong shape were also because of racism?
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
75. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by lucien86 · 2015-09-25 13:21 · Score: 1
  
  In most of those cases the latter - they were stupider than crap. Not giving kids leeway for being children, is the kind of intolerant inhuman decision we see everywhere. I would label it as part of the bad side of political correctness.. In some cases yes racism is an extra factor so also yes for that.. and racism can be white to black or black to white or dozens of other combinations..
  Like it says on the can schools today are just prisons where adults store children until they can become useful workers.. [That was semi-ironic humour BTW]
  
  --
  Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
76. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by anyGould · 2015-09-26 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  I've looked and looked. I cannot find anything saying due process required parents outside of tv shows.
  He's a minor. And if that's not enough, then Miranda says he should get a lawyer. But what you have is a combination of the police questioning him and the school not permitting him to leave (or call anyone). And I'm sure when the inevitable lawsuits come, the story will be that the school wasn't questioning him, and the cops weren't preventing him from leaving - while dismissing the reality that you've now confined someone without due process. And that still ignores the question of "why isn't the school calling the parents". Isn't this a disciplinary issue?
  
  And you should investigate this a lot better. No-one started freaking out when he brought it to school. He showed two separate teacher- one of which said not to carry it around because it looks like a bomb. It wasn't until several classes latter that it went off in a class disrupting it while he opened the case and turned the alarm off. This is when he was asked why he still had it with him. The principal remembered suspending his sister for uttering a bomb threat and called the law reporting a fake bomb. The cops asked him why he had it and he refused to say anything so they arrested him.
  I know , the real story is not as inciting as the popular narrative. But as far as i can tell, That's what happened
  No, this still smells like BS. How is it a fake bomb? At any point, did this kid do *anything* to suggest, hint, or otherwise indicate that he wanted people to think he had a bomb? Or is this just another case of a school deciding that pop tarts in the shape of Idaho are a clear and present danger?
77. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by sumdumass · 2015-09-26 14:24 · Score: 1
  
  No. . Being a minor is not enough. The cops can and have questioned kids before. No Miranda does not say anything about it until the boy was under arrest. Being questioned - even if detained - does not equal under arrest. You are never under arrest when getting a speeding ticket but you are detained and often questioned.
  As for fake bomb. The first teacher he showed it to told him not to take it around school because it looked like it could be a bomb. My guess is that it actually looked like a bomb until you examined it closely.
78. Re:They Never thought he had a bomb... by anyGould · 2015-09-28 04:07 · Score: 1
  
  No. . Being a minor is not enough. The cops can and have questioned kids before. No Miranda does not say anything about it until the boy was under arrest. Being questioned - even if detained - does not equal under arrest. You are never under arrest when getting a speeding ticket but you are detained and often questioned.
  Of course, you're also not required to answer questions unless you're under arrest. (See the classic "Don't Talk To Police"). And the child was obviously not free to go. So something is still wrong here. And it still doesn't answer why they didn't allow him to call his parents.
  
  As for fake bomb. The first teacher he showed it to told him not to take it around school because it looked like it could be a bomb. My guess is that it actually looked like a bomb until you examined it closely.
  Which is still on you, not him. And it begs the question of "where was he supposed to put it"? Is anyone going to claim that this would have went better if it was found in his locker?
  But all this still misses the key problem - no one has shown any hint that this kid, at any time, intended this clock to be interpreted as a bomb. We can dissect the relative merits of a teenager's mechanical aptitude, judge his family life, and cast doubt on his character - but that doesn't change the fact that faking a bomb threat does, by definition, require claiming, hinting, or otherwise acting in a manner consistent with the idea that you have a bomb.
If I ever build a bomb by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-21 08:41 · Score: 1

I'll put a big fat LED countdown timer on the outside, because that is not what bombs look like.
1. Re:If I ever build a bomb by CanadianMacFan · 2015-09-21 10:04 · Score: 1
  
  But have it count down to some random event like some weird music festival opening or the anniversary of a ship sinking. When it hits zero it announces the event and moves onto the next one.
Sweet! by wardrich86 · 2015-09-21 08:42 · Score: 4, Informative

Damn Interesting has an awesome write-up all about this bomb. Definitely recommend this site for anybody interested. They've actually got a lot of really awesome articles there.
1. Re:Sweet! by radio4fan · 2015-09-21 20:07 · Score: 1
  
  The article in Atavist is great too.
  I couldn't help but think when I read it a couple of months ago that the problem with this type of extortion (or kidnapping) has always been the handover of the cash. This is where the feds are going to nab you.
  Less of a problem with bitcoin...
Recent "Prank" Bombs by Frosty+Piss · 2015-09-21 08:42 · Score: 1

The Stupid Prank Du Jour these days is often a pressure cooker inside a backpack left some place.

--
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Confidence in your design by belthize · 2015-09-21 08:43 · Score: 3, Interesting

When I'm working around live wires I will frequently test the circuit, trip the breaker and then re-test the circuit just to be sure. And even after all that I still will occasionally brush wires to frame to make sure I haven't over looked something. I'll readily admit to a bit of irrationality where all that is concerned.
That said I can't imagine buttoning up all that Rube Goldberg contraption, transporting and then setting it to armed without a lot of trepidation that it would just go boom. Maybe the tilt mechanism got stuck in the contact position, maybe there was a short somewhere, maybe maybe maybe.
I'm really curious what his heart rate was the second he threw the switch. Did he have 100% confidence in the design or did he flinch.
1. Re:Confidence in your design by phantomfive · 2015-09-21 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  I get the idea that he spent a good portion of his free time thinking about bombs, and perhaps even building them.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
2. Re:Confidence in your design by dfenstrate · 2015-09-22 02:01 · Score: 1
  
  When I'm working around live wires I will frequently test the circuit, trip the breaker and then re-test the circuit just to be sure. And even after all that I still will occasionally brush wires to frame to make sure I haven't over looked something. I'll readily admit to a bit of irrationality where all that is concerned.
  That said I can't imagine buttoning up all that Rube Goldberg contraption, transporting and then setting it to armed without a lot of trepidation that it would just go boom. Maybe the tilt mechanism got stuck in the contact position, maybe there was a short somewhere, maybe maybe maybe.
  I'm really curious what his heart rate was the second he threw the switch. Did he have 100% confidence in the design or did he flinch.
  He might have set up a series of latching 'fail-on' and 'fail-off' relays to ensure that the last switch could arm the bomb, but would not cause detonation. The article reports that the box made some noises; perhaps he set it up so that arming the bomb resulted in a certain noise that would confirm it would work.
  He might also have performed continuity and voltage checks before screwing on the last booby-trapped panel. He certainly took some time in the hotel room to get it properly set up.
  
  --
  Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
3. Re:Confidence in your design by toddestan · 2015-09-25 13:37 · Score: 1
  
  What I'm really curious about is if he actually provided the instructions to disarm the tilt sensor so that the bomb could be "safely" transported, would the bomb squad (or the casino owners) have actually taken their chances with actually toggling the switches as instructed and attempting to move the bomb, or would they have just gone ahead with their plans on trying to disable the device in place?
How did he put it together? by medv4380 · 2015-09-21 08:48 · Score: 1

I get how nasty this bomb looks, but for the life of me I can't think of how to get the explosive into this impossible to disarm assembly without having it explode. With all the traps even on the screws I don't see how it could be put together, and then armed. It probably requires some very specific way to put it together without having it explode.
Bombs or cows? by Okian+Warrior · 2015-09-21 09:23 · Score: 1

You are all Bombs. Bombs do BOOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOM bombs BOOOOOOOOOOM! bommmmmmmm make the bombs. YOU EXPLODING BOMBS!!!
And here I thought we were all cows?
There's been one of these in just about every post for a long time now.
Does anyone know what this noise is?
Indicator by Okian+Warrior · 2015-09-21 09:29 · Score: 1

That said I can't imagine buttoning up all that Rube Goldberg contraption, transporting and then setting it to armed without a lot of trepidation that it would just go boom. Maybe the tilt mechanism got stuck in the contact position, maybe there was a short somewhere, maybe maybe maybe.
I'm really curious what his heart rate was the second he threw the switch. Did he have 100% confidence in the design or did he flinch.
How about an indicator LED (or light, in his bomb) that lights up when anything is triggered?
Then you can transport the bomb and look at the light. If it's lit, you know that arming would result in an immediate explosion.
(I always tap a finger against the wire before grabbing it, and from operating X-ray machines in college I got into the habit of tapping *any* metal enclosure before operating a switch or control. Saved my life once when I did this to a refrigerator door handle by reflex and got a shock before actually grabbing it.)
Muslim Kid is a Fraud by Nehmo · 2015-09-21 09:51 · Score: 1, Informative

The submission article is in response to the story of the "overreaction" by Irving, Texas police and school authorities for a 14 year-old student bringing his invention (as he calls it) to school. He claims he built a clock, but his teacher said it looked like a bomb, and one thing led to another. The kid, Ahmed Mohammed, who calls himself a nerd, was cuffed, taken to the school's interrogation room (as he put it), and suspended from school.
Afterwards, his situation improved. The news media treated him favorably. Many people believed he was being treated unfairly. He was invited to MIT, Facebook and the White House, and he appeared on sympathetic talk shows. He wants his invention and his "humility back."
But it turns out his invention is simply the guts of a store-bought LED clock placed in a pencil box. Moreover, his father, Mohamed ElHassan Mohamed, is active in promoting islamophobic-awareness, like being the defense attorney in a anti-Islam staged trial for the Quran.

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(||) Nehmo (||)
1. Re: Muslim Kid is a Fraud by bobbied · 2015-09-21 11:26 · Score: 1
  
  Now you've done it... I wasted a LOT of my karma making this argument last week.... Have fun...
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
2. Re: Muslim Kid is a Fraud by Racemaniac · 2015-09-21 23:12 · Score: 1
  
  Luckily this still doesn't discredit the social aspect of the story, but it sucks that he didn't make it himself :(.
  I was also wondering how he made it when i saw the picture. I've recently started playing with electronics, and making a clock was a project i did. What i saw was completely not what i expected >_. i saw this wide ribbon wire going to the display, a pcb that seemed professionally made. Didn't look any further into it, but i'm not surprised reading this now...
3. Re: Muslim Kid is a Fraud by romanval · 2015-09-22 07:24 · Score: 1
  
  yup, he did a case mod of an existing clock. That's kind of a rudimentary thing that kids do when they're interested in tech... I don't know of many adults with STEM careers didn't do something similar when they were a child.
4. Re: Muslim Kid is a Fraud by Nehmo · 2015-09-22 13:53 · Score: 1
  
  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Thank you for introducing me to the acronym. Now I can collectively express my interests in one word - unfortunately, no one will understand ;-(
  The Muslim-Clock kid story has been over hashed by this point, and I hesitate to add, but I can't resist making a final point. The kid was really a proxy for his father. We notice in an early interview, when asked about the huge amount of attention, he responds with appending, " -- It was a lot of attention (pause) for a Muslim kid."
  The interviewer didn't probe further, but the kid was trying to advance his father's Islamophobia concept. His father repeatedly plays the Muslim card.
  It's unlikely the kid got all this attention independent of his father's coaching.
  A parent shouldn't use his kids to promote his own political/social agenda. Imposing your own ideas on your kids is self-serving and detrimental to their development. A parent should educate their kids but let them make up their own minds.
  (Should I say this? Checking the rulebook, I see I'm allowed if I add the "extremist" qualifier.) We all unfortunately know that putting bombs on your kids is a common Muslim extremist trick.
  
  --
  (||) Nehmo (||)
5. Re: Muslim Kid is a Fraud by Nehmo · 2015-09-22 15:59 · Score: 1
  
  I'm now at the old age of 61, and when I was a kid (I must have been 11 after my father died), I built a 3-chip binary coded decimal counter. Each chip cost a substantial $10 USD, and the money was difficult for me. Although the project added to my knowledge, and I, personally, was proudly fascinated by the device, I recall getting almost no interest from anybody else. My friends weren't into that stuff. My mother wasn't technical, and no other adult noticed. I went to a terrible school, BTW, that promoted regimentation not education. Taking something like that to school would have been out of place. Nobody did anything like that.
  I never built any other IC projects because I didn't have the money, and soon after that project, my living arrangement changed to a situation where making such things would be difficult.
  Until recently in life, I had never really examined my childhood. I had assumed I had an okay one. Now, I realize it probably was inadequate in some respects.
  There's nothing to do for me now, but there are plenty of new kids out there. Although the kid in the story doesn't deserve much applause for re-boxing a clock, he still should be encouraged technically. It's a pity the event had to become a social-political circus. For that, I feel sorry for him.
  
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  (||) Nehmo (||)
Re:What everyone is missing... by belthize · 2015-09-21 09:54 · Score: 1

A) No you're not going to get investigated for talking about it here.
B) The reason the crazies haven't done it yet is that the crazies, or at least the hyper extreme crazies are largely a figment of the media and congress critters mind. If you're not scared your not voting and watching the small amount of news they interlace between Viagra(TM) commercials.
Re:What everyone is missing... by belthize · 2015-09-21 09:57 · Score: 1

you're ... sigh.
Direct yes, contain no. Containment causes explosi by raymorris · 2015-09-21 09:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

> The only thing I can really think of would to try to build some kind of reinforced blast cage around it in order to minimize the amount of damage it can do or perhaps try to direct the explosion to minimize hard, much like a gun directs the force of a blast out of the barrel.
Directing the blast is certainly a reasonable approach. You can't really contain it. The container has to be maybe 1,000 times as big as the bomb, and very strong. So not feasible in most cases.
A great many explosives only explode BECAUSE they are confined. If you light a pile of gun powder in the open, you get fire. If you light the same quantity of gun powder inside of a container such as a cannon ball or gun, you get an explosion. The explosion occurs when the pressure gets high enough to burst open the containment.
Other explosives can self-confine - provided there is a significant quantity, the part in the middle is contained by the explosive around it, and that can start a chain reaction of pressure.
All that to say - if it were near an outside wall, assembling a vault around it to direct the energy through that wall would be the way to go. Maybe go ahead and cut a hole in the wall too.
If that was to happen today by CanadianMacFan · 2015-09-21 10:05 · Score: 1

the politicians would try to outlaw aluminum foil.
Re:What everyone is missing... by bickerdyke · 2015-09-21 10:07 · Score: 1

So again people are afraid of ending on secret lists compiled by police like forces.....

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bickerdyke
Re:What everyone is missing... by FranTaylor · 2015-09-21 10:10 · Score: 1

at least the hyper extreme crazies are largely a figment of the media
Wow, have you ever heard of the marathon bombers? What about Timothy McBay? Between them they killed a lot of US citizens. If a foreign agent killed this many Americans on our soil we would start a war with them (or some other convenient country).
Re:What everyone is missing... by belthize · 2015-09-21 10:16 · Score: 1

Which is why I said 'largely' and not 'purely'. The media, congress and many others would have the populace believe this kind of crap happens every day.
And no I've never heard of Timothy McBay. Is he the guy that makes all the shitty movies with the explosions in place of plot ?
The really hard part is getting the money by Yergle143 · 2015-09-21 10:16 · Score: 1

As in kidnapping cases the really hard part is getting paid. As soon as the FBI is involved all kinds of organization-tech can be deployed to catch the perp. Crime doesn't pay.
one instance by trb · 2015-09-21 10:36 · Score: 1

Yes, the Harvey's Casino bomb story is interesting. But saying "here's what a real bomb looks like" is like showing an image of a bowl of noodles and saying "here's what real food looks like." It doesn't help you identify whether or not another thing is food (or a bomb).
1. Re:one instance by dudpixel · 2015-09-21 17:40 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly!
  From the article:
  [quote]Most of all though, we can see that this bomb, like just about every other real bomb, didn’t have a visible clock. Placing a pretty LED display on the outside of the box is something that happens in the movies, not reality.[/quote]
  Um, yeah, until someone decides that putting a pretty LED display on the outside of the box would be a good way to have a bomb go undetected.
  
  --
  This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
Stormfront, /pol/, etc., GET OUT by bmo · 2015-09-21 10:36 · Score: 1

Fuck your noise.
Get the fuck off of Slashdot and go back to your own little cages. Pathetic fucks you are, pissing your pants about non-white-non-christians.
Bedwetters, the lot of you.
--
BMO
P.S.: Fuck You.
Re:What everyone is missing... by imidan · 2015-09-21 11:10 · Score: 3, Funny

And no I've never heard of Timothy McBay. Is he the guy that makes all the shitty movies with the explosions in place of plot ?
What about Ted Stravinsky, the tunabomber?
The MythBusters can build one by Joe_Dragon · 2015-09-21 11:10 · Score: 1

The MythBusters can build one and they can't make one that can't be disarmed.
Real story by Darinbob · 2015-09-21 11:24 · Score: 1

Go here instead of the initial link. It has a longer and more interesting story.
http://www.damninteresting.com...
Unreal by flacco · 2015-09-21 11:48 · Score: 1

This is so completely nuts. It reads like it comes straight out of an eleven-year-old's imagination.

--
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Re:What everyone is missing... by ceoyoyo · 2015-09-21 18:40 · Score: 1

Timothy McVeigh? It illustrates your point that you can't even remember the guy who committed the second most deadly attack on US soil.
Not a Honeywell test kit by Robotech_Master · 2015-09-21 21:03 · Score: 1

At least that actually is a bomb. There are Facebook memes going around that purport to show that Ahmed's clock actually resembles "a real bomb"...but the "real bomb" photo they use is a photo of a Honeywell security testing kit, ganked from a blog entry in which the owner of said kit elects not to bring it on an airline trip for fear it would be mistaken for a bomb. Which is rather ironic, or something.

--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Meh. by DarthVain · 2015-09-22 02:06 · Score: 1

You don't need an actual X-Ray trigger. You just have to tell them that you have one... How are they going to find out otherwise?
Though I would bet that the standard procedure for this sort of thing will be:
1) Evacuate people
2) Robot Delivered explosive device to set off bomb
3) Let the insurance company sort out the rest
1. Re:Meh. by SuricouRaven · 2015-09-22 17:47 · Score: 1
  
  Option 2 wouldn't be good in this case, as the bomb was big enough to destroy a sizable chunk of the building.
2. Re:Meh. by DarthVain · 2015-09-23 01:05 · Score: 1
  
  Which happened anyway. I'd say that the authorities would be more concerned with casualties than property damage.
3. Re:Meh. by SuricouRaven · 2015-09-23 05:31 · Score: 1
  
  Option two destroys a sizable chunk of the building.
  The option they went with, a high-risk attempt to sever the control lines without detonation, likely destroys a sizable chunk of the building. But not certainly. It's the superior option.
4. Re:Meh. by DarthVain · 2015-09-23 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  Though it is slightly funny...
  FBI Agent: This devious device, how can we disarm it without it blowing up?
  Bomb Squad Guy: Well... we could blow it up?
  FBI Agent: Genius!
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.
Re:Direct yes, contain no. Containment causes expl by DarthVain · 2015-09-22 02:08 · Score: 1

With an IED type thing perhaps.
This guy had 800lb of construction explosive. You're not going to be able to reasonably contain that amount of force.
Dead give away,,, by DarthVain · 2015-09-22 02:09 · Score: 1

Probably a lot lighter even with 800lb of explosives in it...
Droid by jitterman · 2015-09-22 02:35 · Score: 1

Gonk droid, is that your dad?

--
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it