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'Clock Kid' Ahmed Mohamed and His Family To Leave US, Move To Qatar

theodp writes: The curious case of Ahmed Mohamed, the 9th grader who was cuffed for scaring school officials with what turned out to be a repackaged digital clock, has taken yet another twist with news on Tuesday that the 'Clock Kid' and his family will move to Qatar. Less than 24 hours after Ahmed met President Obama at the White House, the family issued a news release saying, "After careful consideration of all the generous offers received, we would like to announce that we have accepted a kind offer from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program, which reflects the organization's on-going dedication to empowering young people and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity." Prior to the announcement, some in the press sensed something was amiss when the President seemed to give Ahmed the cold shoulder on Monday after personally inviting Ahmed to the White House for "Astronomy Night." Last month, Ahmed enjoyed a decidedly warmer welcome at Google, where he was literally put front and center before the Google Science Fair winners (including Grand Prize winner Olivia Hallisey, who came up with a novel way to detect Ebola), and enjoyed a meet-and-greet with Sergey Brin.

365 of 621 comments (clear)

  1. Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invited by r.freeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remove casing from a Wallmart clock
    get invited by Google and President

    Fucking genius, durrrr.
    It was a mass produced clock, not any "invention".

  2. OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, lets be 100% honest about this kid. This entire thing was a setup by his FATHER to get attention for his "cause". His father is a well known activist and Imam who plans these types of events. Now that the whole thing has been exposed as a fraud the father is moving. Of course the media never follows up, and the public never learns the truth.

    1. Re:OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But it is honest. If you read the followups and investigate the fathers background you will learn the truth as well. But you won't bother and continue to believe the narrative that the media fed you.

    2. Re:OK lets be real by willworkforbeer · · Score: 3, Informative

      At least he's moving somewhere tolerant and unlikely to react negatively to suspicious activity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      I hope whatever that "Sharia" reference is turns out to be some kind of "OMG Ponies!" -based legal philosophy; maybe worth a look though.

      --
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    3. Re:OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I don't need to "site" sources. Go do a Google Search. His dad is a well known Sudan politician and activist. His Dad is friends with the Sudanese leader who is a mass murderer. The entire thing was a setup and this kid was used. His sister was used for the same purpose.

    4. Re:OK lets be real by jabberw0k · · Score: 3, Funny

      More time to spend playing Qatar Hero.

    5. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you explain your point and site sources then people don't think you're making things up.

      What better source do you need than the actual photos of his arrest and the clock? You can see the circuit board was etched by a company that sold alarm clocks to Radioshack in the 1970s. You can see the logo for the company silkscreened right onto the board. Unless you think that the young lad decided to put a company logo on his 'invention'?

    6. Re:OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The media doesn't want to admit they got played.

    7. Re:OK lets be real by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2

      Just for fun let's say your assumption is one hundred percent correct and that's exactly what happened. Guess who remains the bad guy of the story? I'll give you a hint: They ain't purchasing plane tickets.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    8. Re:OK lets be real by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Even some of the initial media reports indicated that the father was an activist. I even commented about it at the time.

      If your father is the Sudanese version of Al Sharpton, it spins things in a different direction.

      --
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    9. Re:OK lets be real by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      That's quite inventive. Someone should invite you to the White House.

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    10. Re:OK lets be real by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What difference, at this point, does it make?

      --
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    11. Re:OK lets be real by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      At the end of the day a whole community of Texans were frightened by a kid named Ahmed playing with electronics. Even if he were a master activist with the supernatural skills you wish he had so it'd fit your narrative, he'd still be saying: "Holy shit that went way better than I ever could have hoped!"

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    12. Re:OK lets be real by MobyDisk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Wikipedia article provides no indication of a conspiracy theory. It has a section on it it that cites only one reporter, who later apologized for having suggested it. A Google search for "Ahmed Mohamed clock conspiracy theory" turns up articles pointing to extreme right-wing pundits with vague theories about a 9/11 conspiracy, but no actual concrete claims of any wrongdoing.

    13. Re:OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > What better source do you need than the actual photos of his arrest and the clock?

      It is not in dispute that the kid tinkered with and soldered the guts of a radio shack clock. What is in dispute is that the father put him up to it with a plan to gain publicity.

      This is standard conspiracy-theory bullshit - you are assuming that what happened after the event was planned. That's borderline insane - the idea that anyone could have foreseen the series of events and deliberately kicked them off is on the same level of as believing that your lucky numbers will win the lotto.

    14. Re:OK lets be real by AntronArgaiv · · Score: 1

      I don't need to "site" sources. Go do a Google Search. His dad is a well known Sudan politician and activist. His Dad is friends with the Sudanese leader who is a mass murderer. The entire thing was a setup and this kid was used. His sister was used for the same purpose.

      Interesting, then, that he chose to go to Qatar, instead of to Sudan.

    15. Re:OK lets be real by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Worst place in the world to cite as a reference on hot-button politicized issues is WIkipedia.

    16. Re:OK lets be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At the end of the day, you have been played by the media and Ahmed's who has counting on your typical anti-American prejudices to rise to the top.

      If a black man enters a store and knows he'll be arrested and can sue the store because the store owner is racist and the city's police are racist, the problem isn't the black man no matter how much he set forward to be arrested and make a big stink of the whole affair. THAT is the point. Replace black man with Jew and reference Nazi Germany if you like to see how fucking absurd and Hitler apologist you are. There is absolute no excuse to let trolling by activists work because you're racist and/or genocidal scum. So, keep spinning this all as being played by the media. Because the media couldn't play that violin if a 14yo boy hadn't been arrested over bring a clock to school.

      PS - And if it had escalated to an actual bomb, there wouldn't have been any real attempt to support a 14yo terrorist. Although by the same token, if the teacher had acted in the same way, they'd be a total fuckwad because instead of calling in the bomb squad, evacuating the school, etc... Right, no, it was all a "this is suspicious and I'm too stupid to know better, the kid isn't being helpful in dealing with my irrational fears (hint, I'm too stupid to know that bombs require a fuel source which clearly wasn't evident in the device), and the police when called will act just as stupid (including not treating it as an actual bomb) with an authoritarian smack down because the kid won't cooperate with more than "it's a clock"". And all because daddy is a known activist who thrives on the attention which I'll happily provide and get dumb shits in the community to stand behind because, you know, Muslim.

    17. Re:OK lets be real by tbannist · · Score: 1

      I can think of a few worse places...

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    18. Re:OK lets be real by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I'm seeing a bunch of posts saying similar, all AC, a bunch of them losing credibility for their racism, none of them providing any sources. Looking at the kid's dad on Wikipedia, he comes across as a politician and advocate but none of that seems particularly extreme.

      Essentially you come across as trolls or crazy right wing nutters.

    19. Re:OK lets be real by chispito · · Score: 1

      OK, lets be 100% honest about this kid. This entire thing was a setup by his FATHER to get attention for his "cause". His father is a well known activist and Imam who plans these types of events. Now that the whole thing has been exposed as a fraud the father is moving. Of course the media never follows up, and the public never learns the truth.

      The kid's dad could not MAKE the authorities overreact like they did, and he clearly is actually interested in electronics. See the lead photo here: http://www.dallasnews.com/opin...

      --
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    20. Re:OK lets be real by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      He probably doesn't look enough like he would if he was Obama's son.

    21. Re:OK lets be real by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Emphasis on word 'few.'

    22. Re:OK lets be real by BrookHarty · · Score: 1

      Thanks Hillary.

    23. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Of course everything you mention is not at all what the person i replied to was talking about.

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    24. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      And so because his Dad was all these things that means this had to be a setup? Do you come from some place were the rules of logic dont apply or do you choose to ignore them?

      "His Dad was involved in this completely unrelated stuff so he HAS to be some sort of evil mastermind behind this brilliant plot involving a string of events no one could predict"

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    25. Re:OK lets be real by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      The Wikipedia article provides no indication of a conspiracy theory. It has a section on it it that cites only one reporter, who later apologized for having suggested it. A Google search for "Ahmed Mohamed clock conspiracy theory" turns up articles pointing to extreme right-wing pundits with vague theories about a 9/11 conspiracy, but no actual concrete claims of any wrongdoing.

      You see, Wikipedia and Google are part of the conspiracy. How much more evidence do you need?

    26. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1

      Of course everything you mention is not at all what the person i replied to was talking about.

      Well you have to wonder what motive he had for even bringing the device to school in the first place. It's not apparent, but there is no question that his dad is politically motivated. I think there is a strong enough distaste and distrust of politicians for one to expect a father to use their child for attention. So if it was obvious to anyone who looked that the device was not invented by the student, what caused him to want to show it off at school? Especially after his science teacher told him to keep the clock in his bag and he later took it out and caused the alarm to go off in the middle of class? Even his English teacher told him to put it away and had to eventually confiscate it and send him to the principal's office. So what was his purpose in doing all of this? Obviously the principal overreacted but only after he had several opportunities to put it away and continue on with his life. So if his motive wasn't to garner attention, what was it?

    27. Re:OK lets be real by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

      I wish more parents had the guts to set up their kids like this. Then maybe we could get some common sense from our school administrators. Recent example: one of the kids yelled "penis" on the playground. Solution: drag all the kids in the group to the principal's office and tell them they can't play together anymore. WTF?!

    28. Re:OK lets be real by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

      "The media" is not a person. That's like saying congress would never criticize the president because "the government" doesn't want to admit it did anything wrong. I'm sure Fox news would be willing to admit that other media outlets were wrong whether it was true or not.

    29. Re:OK lets be real by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

      There can be more than one bad guy.

    30. Re:OK lets be real by Magnus+Pym · · Score: 1

      You have no evidence of this. This is just a right-wing talking point your side has conjured up to distract attention from the egg on your face.

      Nothing that I have read has indicated that his father set this up in any way, shape or form.

      Why does the fact that they have chosen not to remain in a country where a significant fraction (the wilfully ignorant and hate-filled part) is out for their blood seem surprising to you?

    31. Re:OK lets be real by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      I can assure you his father IS saying that to himself.

      If he's an activist because people make assumptions based on his skin color, religion, and/or last name, then you've said a lot more in that statement than you intended to.

      Oh you didn't know his SISTER was also suspended for something similar?

      Yeah? What specifically did she do that made them overreact?

      Or his father is a well known activist, and well known Sudanese politician?

      Yeah? How did his activism and being a politician influence the overreaction?

      At the end of the day, you have been played by the media and Ahmed's who has counting on your typical anti-American prejudices to rise to the top.

      Please pardon me for not hearing about this until after the kid was released, but how did the media or Anti-American sentiment cause him to be detained?

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    32. Re:OK lets be real by devnulljapan · · Score: 1

      So, his father set up having local cops handcuff his kid? Did he use the Force to compel them to do that? Vulcan Mind meld? Regular old hypnotism? Regardless of whether this kid is a genius or a regular kid, the reactions of the school and the police were completely OTT.

    33. Re:OK lets be real by koan · · Score: 1

      More data like a link showing your claims would be useful.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    34. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "Well you have to wonder what motive he had for even bringing the device to school in the first place...So if it was obvious to anyone who looked that the device was not invented by the student, what caused him to want to show it off at school?"

      I feel like what should be the very obvious answer is that he's a kid and he wanted to show off something he did. He literally said as such. Also, if i remeber correctly, the clock became a problem for him only after it made a noise in his bag and a specific teacher asked to see it and freaked out.

      Really, what's more likely? A kid known for tinkering inocently brought in something to show off or some crazy conspiracy theory about the Dad trying to further some poorly defined goals by having his kid bring into school a taken apart clock?

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    35. Re:OK lets be real by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      She said she was going to blow up the school with a bomb. I am not kidding. Go look it up.

      I found a reference to an accusation in 2009 at a difference school, I don't see where she called in a bomb threat.

      This has nothing to do with race. I don't even know what race this kid is. Muslim is not a race. If a white Christian kid came to school with that crap he would get the SAME treatment.

      Even if your most extreme supposition about the kid's father turned out to be true, he proved it very effectively. Not that he needed to, Fox News is having fun conflating Muslim with t'rrist. Heck, look at the refugees in Europe... you're following that, right?

      The entire family is a bunch of wackjobs.

      Maybe so, maybe no, but either they are known trolls, in which case the response was inappropriate, or the authorities involved went overboard ... which was inappropriate. Vilify the family all you want, but they're leaving... so we just point fingers and not move forward?

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    36. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1

      It's impossible for anyone outside his family to know. I just don't see any "Geek Cred" in taking an alarm clock out of its enclosure and putting it inside of a different box. Anyone with a screwdriver can do that. I'm pretty sure the average 6 year old could handle that. That's why what he did makes zero sense to me. Especially after being warned to put it away by two separate teachers.

    37. Re:OK lets be real by the_povinator · · Score: 1
      Wikipedia is very strict with its 'no defamation of living people' policy. Even if you supply a sourced reference in a reputable places such as a New Yorker article it can get rejected.

      This happened to me when I tried to update the Wikipedia page about the prosecutor in the Amanda Knox case with a reference to a New Yorker article about some of his previous misdeeds.

      --
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    38. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "It's impossible for anyone outside his family to know. "

      Sure, you could say that about anything involving a human motive. That doesnt mean the simplist answer isnt correct versus some heavily convoluted conspiracy

      "I just don't see any "Geek Cred" in taking an alarm clock out of its enclosure and putting it inside of a different box. Anyone with a screwdriver can do that. I'm pretty sure the average 6 year old could handle that."

      So he's not a genius? That's great but irrelevant to what is being discussed here

        "That's why what he did makes zero sense to me."

      So a little kid wanting to show off something he did, however unimpressive, makes no sense to you but some grand conspiracy involving the father sening his son to school with a taken apart clock sounds sensible or even plausible?

      "Especially after being warned to put it away by two separate teachers."

      As far as i've ever read it was one teacher who warned him off showing it around and then a teacher in 6th period (end of the day) who asked to see it after it made a noise in his bag.

      Http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/

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    39. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1

      I think that the influence of one's parents can be pretty strong at that age. If his dad wanted him to do something to make a scene, he probably would have thought it was a pretty cool idea. And the Wikipedia article I linked earlier said that the English teacher asked to see it after it made the noise. The teacher then told him to put it back in his bag and he persisted in fiddling with it. Of course that could be a revisionist statement from the English teacher. I just think his behavior through the whole event was a bit shifty, even for a 14 year old boy. I do believe he was trying to make a statement and I don't think that it had anything to do with his skills as a tinkerer.

      Why do you think that such a conspiracy between father and son is so incredibly implausible and unlikely? How many times have we seen a conspiracy between father and son to hide things such as physical abuse, sexual assault, murder, and other far more heinous things that making a political statement?

    40. Re:OK lets be real by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Can you cite any sources for your claims?

    41. Re: OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "I'm so stupid i dont even understand what rational, evidence based debate is!"

      LOL BEING A TROLL IS FUN!!!

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    42. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      I think it's unlikely because

      A) There's no evidence of one
      B) There's no strong motive for one.

      Just because you want to believe there's a conspiracy here doesnt mean there is one

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    43. Re:OK lets be real by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      As truck_soccer suggested, you really do need a dictionary.

      I have "sited" one for you. It is on my bookshelf.

    44. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1

      I honestly don't care whether or not this was some conspiracy or not. It annoys me that the kid got an invite to the white house and google for the same accomplishments of a six year old. It also annoys me that he was arrested for something stupid. And as to your first point how many people believed that Joe Paterno was involved in a conspiracy to conceal sexual abuse of little boys by his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky? There was no evidence that Joe knew what was going on for some 10 years before someone finally came clean about it. The lack of evidence means nothing. Especially when the only possible evidence would be communication between a father and a son. And my argument all this time is that the kid had no strong motive to behave the way that he did the day he was arrested. SO if argument B doesn't work for me, why should it work any better for you?

      To you the evidence suggests he was just being a normal kid curious about electronics. To me, the level of curiosity he was showing about electronics was so cursory that I don't see him as any sort of tinkerer. That could just be a product of upbringing, who knows. It doesn't really matter much, does it? There is no tangible evidence for either one of us at this time. Once they move to Qatar no one will likely ever hear from any of these clowns again.

    45. Re:OK lets be real by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      He got praise from his engineering teacher. That's a sufficient reason to bring something to school.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    46. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1
      From his Wiipedia page:

      His engineering teacher, upon seeing the clock said, "That's really nice", but advised him to keep the device in his backpack for the rest of the school day.

      I can't tell if that is supposed to be sarcastic but I would not say "That's really nice" without at least a hint of sarcasm. It just doesn't sound very genuine to me. And like I said, you could see the logo silk screened onto the circuit board even in low quality images - something I would expect an engineering teacher to notice. So that just further leads me to believe that the praise was sarcastic. But maybe I'm just a jerk and harsher than his teachers.

    47. Re:OK lets be real by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      Even if that is 100% true that just makes the son the modern equivalent of Rosa Parks. The response from the school administrators and police were completely inappropriate and in some ways illegal.

    48. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Going by your thinking on this we should assume everyone is molesting little boys and / or setting up bizarre conspiracies. Without evidence there's no reason to assume anything. Following your thinking we could just make up anything. "I believe he brought the clock to school because his alien leader told him to"

      As for motive, the kid clearly stated his motive. He is a well known electronics tinkerer. He was in the school's robotics club. The kid wanting to show something off to his teachers is well within reason and there is no significant evidence of any other motive.

      "But he tinkered with the clock for a few minutes after the teacher told him to put it away! Conspiracy!". The only conclusion i can come to on this is that you desperatly want a conspiracy here as you seem to be grasping at any shred of anything to support your conclusion

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    49. Re:OK lets be real by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

      See the lead photo here: http://www.dallasnews.com/opin...

      The fact you believe that to not be staged by someone with an axe to grind is cute.

      --
      The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
    50. Re:OK lets be real by houghi · · Score: 1

      The media does not care if they got played. People watched. Ads were sold.

      --
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    51. Re:OK lets be real by jittles · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that we have to go all pessimistic on the world. But again I would say he is NOT a tinkerer. He's a kid with a screwdriver. And he was told to put it away by multiple teachers before he got sent to the principal's office. If he was playing with one of those electronic kits and made a clock I would consider him a tinkerer. That's what makes me question his motives. Plus the kid has never come out and admitted that he didn't even build the clock despite the fact that it is obvious.

    52. Re:OK lets be real by skam240 · · Score: 1

      So then there MUST be a conspiracy (to bring us back from a tangent and to the point i questioned you on)!!! Since we have no evidence or motive I'm rejecting your father conspiracy and going with Mole Men. I know that just like the father conspiracy there's no evidence of Mole Men influence but pure and utter conjecture but I think it's much more fun then your story. I mean, a teenage student fiddling with something after a teacher tells them to put it away clearly has more to do with Mole Men influence then some sort of patriarchal conspiracy.

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  3. Re:Tic tic tic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cool post, AC. Want to bring it to the White House?

  4. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remove casing from a Wallmart clock

    get invited by Google and President

    Fucking genius, durrrr.

    It was a mass produced clock, not any "invention".

    Unfortunately true. He is not a particularly bright kid and is being unduly celebrated. He took apart a clock. While we should celebrate kids taking apart clocks, we shouldn't call it an invention.

  5. Bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Bye Felisha..

  6. The clock kid AND The World Cup by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Qatar's recruitment team is on a roll!

    Yawn...The family monetizes its 15 minutes of fame.

    Worker's Paradise!

    --
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    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:The clock kid AND The World Cup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah Pretty much, he's not a Olivia Hallisey and will have a hard time down the road.....
      I remember doing the same kind of things with the first walkmans, Amps and other electronics as a kid, adding, modifying and reboxing and
      that wasn't anything fantabulous back in the late seventies. Maybe it was because we hadn't gone LED yet, LED's are pretty no ?

  7. Mission accomplished? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The invention turned out to be nothing of the sort, and supposedly his sister had been trying to stir shit up w.r.t. Muslim oppression.

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    1. Re:Mission accomplished? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Their entire family are activists. The whole thing was a setup from the start. And everyone fell for it, including Google and the President.

    2. Re:Mission accomplished? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      People were outraged that the school and police response was so over the top, and wanted to let the authorities responsible know that their behaviour was not acceptable. It doesn't matter if it was a set up unless you think the school and police were somehow in on it and wanted to make themselves look bad.

    3. Re:Mission accomplished? by dywolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So, if you provoke a racist authority into displaying it for the world, they then not liable for said actions? Bull.
      This is the exact same garbage people tried to use to discredit civil rights activists 50 years ago.
      Hell, they still use these arguments.
      bigots never change.

      --
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  8. Makes sense by Opr33Opr33 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because clearly he deserves more recognition for reassembling a clock than Olivia does for discovering a new way to detect Ebola...

    1. Re:Makes sense by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      When did the police arrest, handcuff, and illegally interrogate Olivia? I hadn't heard.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    2. Re:Makes sense by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

      That's what really stood out for me in the article. I can just imagine the thoughts going through the exceptional kid's minds seeing the moron getting centre stage. It was very likely an a-ha moment for some of them.

      --
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  9. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No you forgot, he set it up like a suitcase bomb to get attention. Much more inventive than just taking it apart. Getting attention is the only route to success in America.

  10. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by rwven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I took apart 2-3 clocks growing up. Where's my medal?

  11. Ahmed should invent a stopwatch too by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    So that can watch his 15 minutes of fame elapsing with sub-second accuracy.

  12. Quatar by Meneth · · Score: 1

    I think I will learn a lot and have fun too.

    Maybe. Maybe not.

  13. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Shoten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remove casing from a Wallmart clock

    get invited by Google and President

    Fucking genius, durrrr.

    It was a mass produced clock, not any "invention".

    Don't forget the part about meeting with the leader of...Sudan, of all places. Yeah, he lost my support and all hope of my thinking he's interested in fairness and equality after that.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  14. Fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ahmed didn't just not invent anything, he disobeyed a science teacher who saw the clock and told him not to show it to anyone else in the school. Ahmed plugged in the clock and set an alarm to go off during his English class. The mess of unsecured components and wires was dangerous when plugged into 110V AC, if not scary for what it might be. The English teacher quite understandably freaked out.
    Ahmed's father had to have known the clock was not the invention of his son, yet he set up fundraisers.
    Last November, Ahmed's father registered a company named Twin Towers Transportation.

    Obama should be ashamed of his rush to judgement, as should Google.

    1. Re:Fraud by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      This is what the media and CAIR do not want widely known, they're too busy pushing *their* agenda which is to claim others have an agenda. At least Obama seems to have wised up a bit.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    2. Re:Fraud by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

      You both sound like drooling retards to me.

    3. Re:Fraud by anyGould · · Score: 1

      Ahmed didn't just not invent anything, he disobeyed a science teacher who saw the clock and told him not to show it to anyone else in the school. Ahmed plugged in the clock and set an alarm to go off during his English class. The mess of unsecured components and wires was dangerous when plugged into 110V AC, if not scary for what it might be. The English teacher quite understandably freaked out.

      Whoa - now we're saying the English teacher is an electronics expert and can recognize "unsecured components"? I don't know about you, but teachers that are electronics geeks teach science and computing and shop class, not English. (In the same way that your science teacher may not know a participle if it hit them in the adjective.)

      But let's roll with this - English teacher has the know-how to know what this is (and more importantly, what it's *not*). Where do the police come into this? Why would this knowledgeable teacher not simply unplug it from the wall, give the kid five hundred words on "why plugging random shit into the outlet is a bad idea" and move on with the day? Where does this mystery bomb threat come from, if the kid says it's a clock, the teacher knows it's a clock (at least according to you, and that's not what the police were saying, btw), what magically made this a not-bomb threat?

    4. Re:Fraud by houghi · · Score: 1

      And all that warrants how the police got involved with this? Times have changed. When I was in school, I had to stand in the corner, got send to the principal or was suspended if I disobeyd the teachers and was disruptive.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  15. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately true. He is not a particularly bright kid and is being unduly celebrated. He took apart a clock. While we should celebrate kids taking apart clocks, we shouldn't call it an invention.

    Good Riddance.

    It appears this family has tried this grab for attention more than once, with the daughter at least once....

    So, they finally got their 15min of fame, and now let's just be happy to have them out of the country and back where they want to be in the first place.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  16. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2, Informative

    I took apart 2-3 clocks growing up. Where's my medal?

    As I recall, he was arrested, not get a medal.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  17. Re:What the response says by halivar · · Score: 1

    is that people loved Ahmed, but when he leaves the U.S he's suddenly a traitor

    Of all the people that give a crap about Ahmed, whether they be fans or detractors, this particular point of view is expressed absolutely none of them. It's a complete non sequitur.

  18. Re:future enemy of the state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    but he didnt make a clock he or his father took a clock out of its case in an attempt for another bomb scare following up behind his sisters bomb scare all to promote his extremist cause

    so shut the fuck up

  19. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by gmack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is not about it being an invention. This is about him doing something interesting for his age and at the very least he did some re soldering there and instead of getting a pat on the head from his teachers, they overreacted the police. On top of that, he was illegally questioned by the police since his parents were not allowed to be present even after he asked for them. They made this kid feel like an isolated second class person and to be honest, I can't imagine a more effective way to turn this kid into an actual terrorist.

    The attention he got was more about undoing the damage than rewarding any actual genius.

  20. Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not saying Qatar is a paradise of democratic virtue or anything. But among the emirates, sultanates, sheikdoms and kingdoms over there, Qatar is one of the more progressive ones. It is trying hard to diversify away from oil. It gives freehand to Al Jazeera, as much a free hand you would expect from that part of the world.

    Among the OPEC nations, Qatar has the lowest "survival" oil price. Saudi Arabia has the lowest production cost, less than 5$ a barrel. But the government has so many obligations, borrowings, interest obligations etc etc, it needed oil to be at 105$ a barrel to survive. Other countries were even higher. Sensing the danger fracking is posing to OPEC, Saudi Arabia decided to take care of itself first. It built a large fund slowly to weather the storm and dropped the oil price. It was hoping it would stabilize at 80$ a barrel, making fracking not worth the investment, while stretching its reserve funds. But it took all other OPEC nations by surprise, there was no concerted action, no help from Saudis for immediate budget needs, so all hell broke loose and oil went south all the way to 40$ a barrel. It is hurting them all. But least hurt nations are Qatar, its survival price was about 60$ a barrel last Dec, and Saudi Arabia because it built a reserve fund and its production costs are so low.

    OPEC is hoping fracking will stop, inventories will dwindle and the oil price will go back up. But fracking does not need large lead times. The fracking leases already bought have been paid for, and new leases are coming in at low prices. So if oil goes back over 60$ fracking will start to thaw and it will keep oil below 80$ all the time.

    It is bad for global warming, renewables and all that, but for sustained economic growth there is nothing like low energy prices. Qatar might be the only country there to become an Arabian Singapore. So this invitation to the clock kid seems a natural fit for them. The clock kid's dad was a Presidential candidate in Sudan. Not some impoverished African, he got connections too.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's bullshit. Qatar are holding peoples' passports to prevent them from leaving the country, as they're need to build the stadiums for the corrupt World Cup. Hundreds of people are dying building something the country will never use, they are a disgusting nation, with worse public abuse than China.

      Stop sucking the PR teat of oil, and open your eyes.

    2. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by athe!st · · Score: 1

      Aljazeera English is wonderful varied, and mostly balanced news source, Aljazeera arabic is horrible, Islamist and conservative

    3. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by dunkelfalke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've been in Doha on business. It is a smoggy, dry and loud nouveau riche shithole and the only civilised people there seem to be the Thai guest workers.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    4. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Arabs still despise black people (even black Muslims) and call them "abeed" (worse things) behind their backs.

      This stupid kid's father might be 'king abeed', but he is still 'abeed' and therefore lower than dirt in the eyes of "real" Muslims (e.g. Arabs), who fancy themselves as the master race.

      No matter what they do, and no matter how hard they try, these black Sudanese Muslims will still be the lowest of the low, and no amount of butt-kissing to Arabs will change that.

    5. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      OPEC is hoping fracking will stop, inventories will dwindle and the oil price will go back up.

      It won't. Oil prices are going to drop even more.
      Saudi Arabia is betting electric cars and renewables will make oil demand drop like a rock, so they are selling as much as they can as fast as they can, while the price is still as high as it is. Iran is planning on increasing production to regain market share, now that sanctions have been lifted.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by Lakitu · · Score: 1

      Not saying Qatar is a paradise of democratic virtue or anything.

      Should probably just end your post there. This kid didn't deserve to be arrested for what happened, but he probably did deserve to get into trouble with his school for being intransigent and stubborn about setting off an alarm clock in class. If he thinks or was ever taught that his treatment in America is bad, he's probably going to be in for a shock at the way Qataris and Arabs will treat he and his family.

    7. Re:Qatar is not the typical arab oil sheikdom by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      I disagree. I was searching for unbiased news and bookmarked Al-J for a few months.

      It's the same sensatioinalistic bullshit that is in the U.S. Media. Mostly clickbait stories.

  21. You know what would be ironic? by GuB-42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    That they miss their plane because their alarm clock failed.

    1. Re:You know what would be ironic? by stud9920 · · Score: 1

      That they miss their plane because their alarm clock failed.

      or they forget the kid, and while he's home alone a pair of FBI agents try to enter his home to arrest him, only he makes up more inventions to stop them.

    2. Re:You know what would be ironic? by hambone142 · · Score: 2

      perhaps he will take his Radio Shack clock pieces through TSA at the airport and make all hell break loose.

    3. Re:You know what would be ironic? by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      For sure. After Obama invited him to the White House I was wondering how the boy genius was going to get his "invention" through the TSA checkpoint.
      Everyone is criticizing the school and the police for the way they handled the incident. I'll bet the TSA would have had a completely similar "freak out" response if he tried to carry disassembled clock components onto a plane.

  22. Good Riddance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Don't let the US door hit your ass on the way out.

  23. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yep.... I hate to say it, but I think a LOT of us just got fooled on this one, at least initially. As techie "geeks", we *wanted* to believe this was all about a young, brilliant kid getting held back by "the system".

    In reality, it's shaping up to look like this was all a political ploy.... Research the background of the kid's parents and you'll start to see what I mean.

    IMO, this was all part of a preconceived plan to scare people at school by bringing in a suspicious-looking device and then cry discrimination when called out on it.

  24. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    Well, both, so to speak. He got arrested first, and then came all the hype of his "inventiveness", and he became a media hero.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  25. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

    He'll probably marry into the Kardashian family in a few years.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  26. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sorry, but you need to be part of a celebrated group, re-assemble your clock into something that some people say resembles an IED, and then have the school go apeshit and overreact to it.

    Only *then* you can get your medal... but you'd better hurry up, the political landscape will most likely change in the next 18 months.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  27. I actually watched the "Cold Shoulder" link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    and I did not find anything of the sort. searching: "cold shoulder" obama ahmed mohomed, did not produce any good results. Can someone to something regarding the cold shoulder?

    1. Re:I actually watched the "Cold Shoulder" link by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      The submitter was editorializing. From TFS:

      Prior to the announcement, some in the press sensed something was amiss when the President seemed to give Ahmed the cold shoulder on Monday after personally inviting Ahmed to the White House for "Astronomy Night."

      Really? Who in the press? Apparently nobody who is linked in the summary.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  28. Re:future enemy of the state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So you've said:

    Wow, paranoia has gotten into Americans head.

    and also said:

    have Americans scared.

    and then you say:

    he made a Bxxx (not going to say the word... NSA is listening)

    Someone is paranoid and scared. But it's not Americans. It's you, you big pussy.

  29. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Around twenty years ago I was having problems with a really nice CRT, and I wanted to fix it. So, I bought a book on CRT repair, and got about as far as how much voltage is still hanging around in the electronics, and I decided, nope... I can get a new CRT.

  30. Fleeing potential criminal charges? by areusche · · Score: 2

    I'm curious if they're leaving the country to avoid a potential fraud charge. You don't insult a police department this haphazardly and get away with it. Nothing would make me happier than watching this piece of trash and his family get arrested as they try and leave the country.

    1. Re:Fleeing potential criminal charges? by bobbied · · Score: 2

      I'm pretty sure the Irving police department won't have a problem letting them go. Where they have likely defrauded folks with their story and enriched their bank accounts in the process it obviously didn't rise to the level of a crime. Defamation might be an issue, but that is a civil matter between individuals and would not preclude foreign travel.

      In my view, let them go, help them go even. I'd be happy to help pack up their stuff for shipping. Have a long and healthy life young man.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Fleeing potential criminal charges? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      They're leaving Texas. Anywhere else is a better place than Texas.

  31. Re:Good for him by neoritter · · Score: 1

    Well yeah, taking apart clocks is serious business in the middle east.

  32. Who cares about the kid? by quantax · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm not sure why everyone is so focused on whether he 'invented' the clock. Who cares? The real issue was the absurd over-reaction of the school administrators and police. Their conduct was pathetic, embarrassing and possibly illegal. I don't care if this kid's father is the biggest douche this side of the Mississippi, its nothing next to the cowardly mindlessness of those school authorities.

    --
    "What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
    1. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 3, Informative

      Like I said when this thing all originally broke....

      Once the administration of the school got on the "bomb hoax" path with this thing, there is no getting off. People need to understand that there are processes and procedures in a post 9/11 world to deal with this kind of thing that we legally required from public schools. People also need to realize that we don't have the full story, only the story as told by the kid and his family, because the police and school are prohibited from releasing the records until the parents allow it.

      The administration and police *may* have overreacted, but I seriously doubt it. Even with what we know, the case that this was perceived as a "bomb hoax" by the school is not totally far fetched. I can see how somebody mistook this thing and the kids actions as a hoax, just on it's face. But we don't know if the kid wasn't doing stupid stuff like leaving the device behind and running out the door yelling "it's a bomb!" or not. All we do know is that his 1st period teacher tells "him to put it away, don't show it to anybody, just take it home" yet it ends up plugged in and going off in 3rd period English class. Somebody thought the situation warranted being called a possible "hoax bomb" and with that, the train had left the station and you have to run the procedure rails dictated by what you are required to do for a possible "hoax bomb".

      The evidence is that *something* was amiss with all this, because not only did the school administration treat this like a hoax bomb, the police did too. The police have their own set of policies and procedures to follow and they claim they did exactly that in this case. Somebody said that the boy was verbally combative, evasive and aloof when the police where there questioning him. Enough so to raise suspicion that their might be more to this situation, that an actual crime may have been committed, so they detain the boy until they can investigate, which is totally legal and reasonable as they can hold you for at least 48 hours without charges. Once they determine no crime was committed (or the prosecutor declines to charge him) they release the boy.

      None of this seems outlandish or illegal to me. In hind sight it might be a bit much, but I expect that the family is refusing to release the school and police records of this for a reason and that reason is likely that the kid actually DID make a "hoax bomb threat" then acted inappropriately when interviewed by the administrators and police. The school believed it's case was good enough to expel him, and they haven't backed down from that. The only thing that saved him from being criminally charged is the DA refused to charge and try a minor for something like this.

      So, we really don't have good evidence that the school or the police where over reacting to the situation. It's very possible (and IMHO likely) that if all the facts where known, if the family would release the records, that the school and police did the right things. And until the family releases the records, it is premature and inappropriate to critique the school or police without all the facts.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Who cares about the kid? by iamacat · · Score: 1

      Having "procedures to follow" does not in any way diminish your moral responsibility to do the right thing. There was another story a while back about a schoolteacher who lost her job. There was left over lunch food and hungry kids whose parents didn't have money to pay for lunch, so she did what any decent person would do. Better to suffer personal hardship than lose your conciousness. And if people keep resisting evil/stupid rules, these will eventually be changed.

    3. Re:Who cares about the kid? by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      Every day that government workers show up they know they are participating in a scam, so this is a population that has no conscience. They are also unemployable outside of government, so it's basically suicide to risk their job. The person fired for feeding kids is no counterexample because 1) she could have easily paid out of her own pocket but of course the thought never occurred to her 2) she was likely used to getting away with stealing from the school and so also didn't think she was risking anything

    4. Re:Who cares about the kid? by neonfrog · · Score: 1

      That sounds wonderfully plausible, except for one thing: the police and school don't have to release the records to the public. But law enforcement certainly can see them. I wonder if the President knows anyone in law enforcement to ask before critiquing the school or police without all the facts?

      --

      I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.

    5. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Having "procedures to follow" does not in any way diminish your moral responsibility to do the right thing.

      As a public official you follow the law which says you follow your procedures and that's the ethical, moral thing to do. The only time you get to choose is when the situation isn't covered or there are conflicting rules. In this case, the school was REQUIRED by law to have procedures for this kind of thing and required to follow the procedures they had.

      Plus, your position assumes there wasn't some reason to proceed as they did, that they generally ignored the facts of the situation and went out and purposely mistreated this kid. I don't think anybody has evidence of that beyond hindsight. Remember, this kids parents are refusing to allow the school and police to speak freely about what happened and why. Further, they have avoided trying to fight the school over expelling their kid or the police for arresting him, I think because it would allow information into the public domain that doesn't match their narrative of what happened.

      I suggest that everybody back off and carefully consider what we really know about this and admit that neither of us have a full picture of what exactly transpired. This means we don't jump to conclusions...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    6. Re:Who cares about the kid? by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      Considering the fact that the POTUS, the media, MIT and executives in some big name companies were gushing over the boy genius, the "invention" aspect of the story is a completely relevant topic.
      There are thousands of genuine electronics whiz-kids out there whose creativity and inventions go unrecognized and un(der)appreciated. It was incredibly disappointing to see this kid lauded as some techno-genius for removing a few screws when there are kids who actually do "invent"
      things worthy of praise but receive none.

      Yes, the school's response seems absurd, but we live in times where "gun-shaped" things made out of cardboard and pop tarts can draw discipline under "zero tolerance" policies. In that albeit ridiculous context, is the school's response really so surprising? You could try this at 100 different schools and get dozens of similar "freak out" responses.

    7. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      At this point, the police and school CANNOT release any records because the law requires permission and the family refuses to allow it. The school administration has made multiple public pleas to the family to release the records to no avail. So, we don't know if the school would or wouldn't release the records if allowed and your suggesting that they wouldn't is pointless.

      However, the question about what's IN these records remains a valid question. The school and police maintain they want to release these records because these records explain their actions. The kids parents said "NO!" (or at least have not said yes) so asking yourself "why won't they release these records?" is a valid question.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    8. Re:Who cares about the kid? by Lakitu · · Score: 1

      100% agree. I don't give a shit about this kid at all, and it baffles me that so many people are caught up on his ethnicity or them thinking that people out there, somewhere, may believe that he "invented" a clock. Nobody thinks that, and nobody really cares, as far as I can tell -- people care about an establishment punishing good faith effort. Children should not be punished for trying, their behavior should just be shaped and redirected towards more fruitful or socially acceptable behavior if or when they go overboard.

      This is an incident that nobody outside of Irving should have ever heard of.

    9. Re:Who cares about the kid? by neonfrog · · Score: 1

      Were you replying to me? I'm confused by your assertions, but I'll remake mine in hopes that things will be a bit more clear. The police and school CANNOT release the records to THE PUBLIC. That's you and I. I am implying that the President of the United States, who has direct access to information from all kinds of law enforcement officials, may have some knowledge of the records or is advised by someone who has authority to review them. I could be wrong, but it certainly seems plausible. Assuming he has some level of access to them, would he assert something contradictory to them? That seems unlikely. That is all I intended to say.

      --

      I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.

    10. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Oh, You think Obama acts on the facts? That's rich...

      Look, he's a politician, he obviously acts on things for his political advantage and that's what he did here. He saw an opportunity to score some political points on this and jumped on the bandwagon without the facts. The press went wall to wall coverage on this boy because of the narrative it advanced, not because the story was important to the nation. We got regaled with the daily updates, pictures of the kid in handcuffs, the device, stories about how bright and promising this kid's future was because it drew the attention of the Facebook founder.

      NOBODY from the administration had time to fully investigate this boy and his family before that Tweet went out. Obama didn't have any facts, only the news stories we all heard and he jumped into the dog pile for political purposes and not much else.

      It was the SAME thing with Travon Martin, Mike Brown and that incident with the Cambridge Police he waded into just to name a few. There is a narrative that he wants to draw attention to, a specific story line he want's folks to hear, so he jumps on stories in the current news cycle that fit the message, using the bully pulpit of the presidency to enforce the perceptions he wants to call attention too and ignoring those things that don't advance his agenda.

      I don't begrudge him his ability to do this, he is the president and it's one of the things this position affords him. However, don't be fooled into thinking he had all the facts here, or that he would even care what they where if he had them. I don't think he sees past what he wants to push, what policy, what perceptions, what stays in the news that supports his political goals.

      So, you know the story about how Obama snubbed this kid at the Whitehouse right? Ever thought to wonder *why* this is a story? Could it be that this kid turned out to be a little less gifted than previously discussed? That he really only ripped a 1970's Radio Shack LED clock out of it's case and clumsily screwed it into a pencil box and really didn't *invent* anything but ruined a perfectly good alarm clock? Now that this is becoming obvious, this kid no longer matches the picture needed to advance the narrative desired, so he becomes yesterday's news and get's largely ignored. All this is political and I seriously doubt Obama took time to look at the facts because it didn't matter at the time, and really doesn't matter now.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    11. Re:Who cares about the kid? by 31415926535897 · · Score: 1

      I mostly agree with you, but one question I've had all along is that if they really thought it was a bomb threat, why didn't they evacuate the building? Why didn't they call the bomb squad? Why did the teacher just dump it in the desk drawer while class went on?

      If they really feared it was a bomb, a bomb threat, or were not sure what level of hoax it was, why didn't they treat it more seriously? Their health, life and safetly actions don't corroborate with they way they treated the kid.

    12. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Nobody has claimed it was a bomb threat, they claim it was a "Hoax bomb threat" which means they already knew it wasn't a bomb but they had reason to believe *somebody* was trying to lead folks to believe there was a threat of a bomb, either now or in the future.

      So don't get caught in the false narrative. Making a "hoax bomb threat" is a crime, but it only requires that you are making the threat of a bomb. You don't have any obvious bomb parts, build any possible parts or even know anything about how to obtain or build a bomb. You can create a "hoax" by just what you say and do. In this case, this kid built/repurposed an alarm clock which *could* be used as a bomb trigger. I don't know what he intended, what meaning he wished to convey when he (contrary the advice of his 1st period teacher) set it off during his third period English class, but I can see how these actions could easily be misinterpreted as a "Hoax Bomb threat" on it's face. If you can see that, then it's easy to figure out how the school and police got sucked into having to run the administrative procedures designed for such events, regardless of how stupid it all turns out to be in hindsight.

      Public institutions like schools run on their procedures. It's a sad commentary at times, but procedures at the government level are necessary and often mandated by law. Officials are NOT afforded the leeway of diverting from the procedure, or they break the law in many cases. I believe that in this case both the school and police got stuck following procedures and couldn't divert from the process once they started.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    13. Re:Who cares about the kid? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      What would make anyone think it was a bomb hoax? The kid never claimed it was a bomb, but kept maintaining that it was a clock. The device obviously wasn't a bomb, since the school was not evacuated, and the English teacher put it in her desk drawer. So, there's a kid bringing a device to school that obviously isn't a bomb, and never says it's a bomb, so how could it be a bomb hoax?

      The police illegally interrogated the kid without allowing his parents to be present. It's conceivable that this may be permissible under exigent circumstances, but that would only apply if there was a chance the device was a bomb. A bomb hoax does not amount to imminent danger.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    14. Re:Who cares about the kid? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      There is very strong evidence that nobody at the time thought the device was a bomb. This is not hindsight.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    15. Re:Who cares about the kid? by anyGould · · Score: 1

      Of course, this didn't stop the school and police from releasing statements.

      Also, if the kid had *actually* called in a "bomb", they would have pressed charges. And I'm up here in Canada - you would still absolutely evacuate the school. Even if you absolutely 100% positively *know* it's fake, you evacuate the school until the cops tell you it's fine. This was true a quarter-century ago, when a random kid at my school didn't want to take a test, so shoved some wires into a clock and labeled it "bomb". The school knew it wasn't a bomb, the cops knew it wasn't a bomb. But they still evacuated the school and treated it as a *possible* bomb, because (a) you never know, and more importantly (b) there's no harm in running the drill (both for the school and the police). It's only gotten more strict, too - my daughter's school will lock down if there's a domestic disturbance nearby, *just in case*.

      And we're not even in metal detector territory up here yet. So when you tell me that they didn't evacuate the school, that tells me a *lot* about the level of threat they're perceiving. Namely, *zero*. If "suspicious device" percolated through the building for any length of time, there would have been a "fire drill" and the school would be emptied until someone qualified looked at it.

      You're right that we don't have all the facts. The problem is that there's not an arrangement of facts that I can see that makes a lot of sense. And sadly, the closest is that this school and the cops screwed up. If they thought it might *possibly* be a bomb, they would have evacuated. If they thought the kid actually made a threat, they wouldn't have dropped the charges. Instead, we're in this weird world where the kid has a bomb that we know isn't a bomb, except we don't act like there's a bomb but we still punish the kid for pretending to have a bomb except that we're not saying the kid pretended anything so we arrested him because it was so serious except we dropped them right after.

    16. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      NOBODY thought it was a bomb. The kid was investigated for creating a "Bomb hoax" which doesn't require there to be anything resembling a bomb. Creating a "bomb hoax" is only about someone trying to make someone else think that you are threatening to have (now or in the future) a bomb. You are trying to scare somebody.

      You are falling for the false narrative that the school thought his alarm clock was a bomb and expelled him for it. That was an invention of the media and the family's story but that's not what the school or police are saying. The boy was investigated for creating a "bomb hoax", for trying to scare somebody into thinking he had or was building a bomb, nobody believed that what he had was a bomb.... See the difference?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    17. Re:Who cares about the kid? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Ok, now you are way into stuff we DON'T know. We don't know what the school and police saw and why they did what they did because the FAMILY refuses to release the information. They've been asked, time and again, for permission and have so far refused.

      I ask you to explain why that is? Why won't the family allow the police and school to fully disclose what happened here? I know what I think.... What say you?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  33. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by SomePoorSchmuck · · Score: 1

    They made this kid feel like an isolated second class person and to be honest, I can't imagine a more effective way to turn this kid into an actual terrorist.

    The attention he got was more about undoing the damage than rewarding any actual genius.

    So we're on Slashdot, the official Internet home of mom's basement losers and Magic The Gathering addicts.... in other words, hundreds of thousands of people for whom the first 25 years of their lives consisted of nothing but "[being made to ] feel like an isolated second class person". How many Slashdot users go blow up innocent people as a political ploy?

    If feeling a little isolated and second class is the most effective way to turn you into a terrorist, why didn't all of the isolated second class Italians and Irish and Germans and Chinese and Japanese immigrants who barely made it to this country with the clothes on their back and didn't have 30,438 federal assistance programs, become raging terrorists? How is this country even still standing -- what with all the mass bombings and slayings and blood running in the streets from all those angry disaffected young Japanese men terrorizing San Francisco?

    There is absolutely 0.000% of anything in this kid's history in the United States which should explain/justify/rationalize him turning into a terrorist in the future. You're simply making another instance of the Bundy-porn argument made by the James Dobsonites in the 1990s -- Bundy watched a lot of porn; Bundy raped/killed a lot of women; therefore if someone watches a lot of porn, "I can't imagine a more effective way to turn this kid into an actual serial rapist".

    --

    Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
  34. Re:Good for him by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    U.S education would most likely fail this kid, as most other American children. Or get him arrested. Again. What I really wonder is how many Americans are now thinking he's "aiding the enemy", for leaving the country and taking his talents elsewhere.

    They're welcome to him - they're wasting a scholorship on someone who can just about take the insides of an alarm clock out!

  35. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    PS: In 1979, I disassembled my mother's one and only (analog!) alarm clock (It was a GE - came with an AM/FM radio) to see how it worked.

    I was extremely careful about it, but that didn't stop her from issuing an ultimatum: re-assemble it into full working order, or get my ass beat into oblivion. I had three minutes to spare once I demonstrated it's functionality to her satisfaction.

    My reward was to get it back and keep it after she went out and bought another one; I think I added a couple of little speakers to it and a small amplifier (courtesy of an old Radio Shack 120-in-1 electronics kit). Sounded like pure crap, if I recall.

    (Strangest part of it all? I still have the damned thing...)

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  36. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

    Would you have benefitted from more praise/recognition for your experiments while you were in school?

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  37. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You could have correctly pointed out that this was a publicity stunt without using the moronic racist claptrap.

  38. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As I recall, he was arrested, not get a medal.

    True, not a medal. It was just your regular CAIR "American Muslim of the Year" award. He received that on October 19, 2015, in between his visits to "the Butcher" and the President.

  39. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by poity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Undeserved praise as a way of atoning for undeserved punishment does not show that we are more enlightened. In fact, it exposes further ignorance on our part.

    --
    your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
  40. This will be embarrassing to a certain DC family by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    The family who gave Clock Boy a dinner invitation.

    Does anyone know the Arabic for schadenfreude?

  41. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

    This is not about it being an invention. This is about him doing something interesting for his age and at the very least he did some re soldering there and instead of getting a pat on the head from his teachers, they overreacted the police.

    To be fair, if you were technically not-literate, then saw a suitcase with a bunch of wires and what looked like a timer in it...

    I agree they overreacted, but when you build something that looks passingly like an IED, and then you take it to school, what the hell else can you expect?

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  42. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Merely a sign of the times we live in. Politicians cater to the press, and the press is only loosely based on reality. But mostly on what sounds like a good story to sell a point. Journalistic integrity is dead and the self titled historians have decided instead to become fantasy writers. In this case, the poor oppressed muslim boy genius image is a winner because it's something to throw into the face of "islamophobes" in a day of islamic terrorism and the islamic invasion of Europe. Look - not ALL muslims are bad! Poor little kid got oppressed by our nasty school system it's not his fault he's a genius.

    And then the President (with abysmal ratings) decides to stick his oar in and see if he can salvage any credibility. But fools rush in where angels fear to tread. No one bothered to check to see if his "story" is actually true. Turns out it's not. But it DOESN'T MATTER because we'll just ignore the facts and bury any naysayers under a torrent of racism accusations. And if they don't shut up after that, we just have to direct our PC sheep towards them in the ultimate social DDOS attack. People love to hate and if you start pointing out facts you might just find yourself being the next Emmanuel Goldstein or worse, dragged before a court on hate-crime charges. Welcome to the Brave New World.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  43. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Kid experiments with electronics. Local government wrongly detains him and accuses him of being a t'rrist. President demonstrates that's exactly how we're not supposed to act by inviting him to the White House instead of a jail cell.

    As pointed out before: The kid 'invented' a bigotry-detector.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  44. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That would make sense. Kid gets a fucking medal for a Radio Shack clock. Other asshole gets a medal for taking her meds and putting on a dress. Film at 11.

  45. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    20,000 volts should be enough for anybody...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  46. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Izuzan · · Score: 1

    He did get a pat on the head. From his engeneering teacher. Who further told him to put the thing in his locker because other teachers may over react not knowing what it was. And he ignored him and was playing with it and setting it off in his next class.

  47. can come back as a h1b and get jobs that USC can't by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    can come back as a h1b and get jobs that USC can't get.

  48. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by gmack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I fully expect the teachers to check it out, that's just being responsible I might even expect them to confiscate it for safety reasons (those transformer connections look a bit suspect to me) or based on the fact that he was disrupting class with it. What I don't expect, would be for them to take him out of school in handcuffs and then illegally question him without his parents present or for that matter, having the principal send a letter to all of the parents implying the kid was potentially dangerous.

  49. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by kheldan · · Score: 1

    Actually it was a Radio Shack clock, not a Walmart clock.

    Regardless of that.. this whole thing is now sounding like it was some sort of setup from the beginning, a publicity stunt, intended to make the U.S. look bad to the rest of the world -- even worse than we already look, that is.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  50. Re:Please share more by olau · · Score: 1

    also, what the hell is he showing it to his english teacher for? and during the middle of class? if he wants his teachers' approval, after class so as to be non-disruptive. Also... he's trying to impress his teachers with a clock he took apart?

    Look, it's a school kid. If you look him up on Wikipedia, previous teachers are cited for explaining that he likes to hack electronics and bring them along to show.

    According to Wikipedia, the English teacher didn't freak out, but thought that it looked like a bomb, so the school decided to crack down on him for making a "hoax bomb" which is apparently a legal term in Texas.

  51. Cowardice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The mess of unsecured components and wires was dangerous when plugged into 110V AC, if not scary for what it might be.

    When I was that boy's age, we plugged in "unsecured components and wires" as part of our classroom instruction, and about a third of us got shocked at one point or another. Mr. Otto used to laugh and say "the burned finger teaches best" because he wanted us to learn basic safe behavior before we got to the part of the class where we blew up capacitors (wearing safety glasses of course).

    But that was when the USA was still trying to be the Home of the Brave, and wasn't yet the Home of the Cowardly Helicopter Parents.

    My son got his first 120VAC shock when he was about ten years old. I've had hundreds; frankly, they are usually less painful than a mosquito bite. 240 hurts like a bitch, though.

    1. Re:Cowardice by gweihir · · Score: 1

      The pain from the shock is not the problem. Usually you will not get any lasting damage, but sometimes (rarely) you may end up with a fibrillations and die in your sleep that night. Not good. Incidentally, electricians usually get hurt by falling off the ladder when shocked.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  52. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Probably, but in the 70s and 80s stuff like this was kinda downplayed in school. Most of us were regularly getting our asses beat from the football team for being who we are, so flaunting it wasn't a priority.

  53. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You might want to switch to decaf.

  54. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He seriously went to Google and was praised? That's very sad. I already knew Obama is a pandering idiot (he has a growing history of making a fool of himself by speaking without the facts), but I thought better of Google.

  55. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yep.... I hate to say it, but I think a LOT of us just got fooled on this one, at least initially. As techie "geeks", we *wanted* to believe this was all about a young, brilliant kid getting held back by "the system".

    I'm a geek, and nothing about how I reacted to the first story has changed. It doesn't matter at all if he built the clock from scratch, from parts or just took one apart. This is a kid, taking a clock apart is fun, it should be encouraged. Showing up with clock parts in a pencil case and immediately show it to your teacher and tell exactly what it is should not in any civilized country lead to a 14 year old being handcuffed and questioned while denied access to parents.

    The fear Americans let overrule the freedoms you used to have seems very disproportionate to the actual threat.

  56. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

    No, no - that's much too obvious. Do bombers really use suitcases nowadays? That's just so 20th century...

    Instead, if he really wanted to get attention, he would have disguised his clock as a clock. That way, they would think it was a bomb disguised as a clock. Now that would get attention.

  57. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by KingSkippus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are certain things you don't do....If you're muslim, you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb... if you're anybody you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb really, but especially if you're muslim.

    it shouldn't matter yada yada yada, but it does.

    Thank you for your recipe for how to ensure that systemic prejudices remain in place, that the world never changes for the better.

    To be blunt, this is the same attitude a bunch of white people had in the 1950s and 1960s when they said, "If you're black, you don't vote. You don't sit in the front of the bus. You don't eat at lunch counters. It shouldn't matter yada yada yada, but it does."

    Is Ahmed some sort of boy genius? Eh, I doubt it, but the simple fact is that NO ONE, Muslim or otherwise, should have to just sit back and tolerate endemic racism. And if it were my kid that you were telling that that's just "the world we live in," well, you and I would have a problem. Maybe you were a liberal, but if you think that this is okay, that it's Ahmed who should have to change, then it is most emphatically not the left that's moving away from you.

  58. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ph1ll · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not saying you're right, not saying you're wrong but can you please cite some references? I did a (quick) Google and didn't find anything untoward.

    Yes, it's not a proper invention but he's just a normal boy, taking things apart. From reading some posts here, you'd think he'd lied about having cured cancer and then been humiliatingly debunked.

    --
    --- "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
  59. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by gmack · · Score: 1

    This is a good lesson in why stereotypes are dumb. Have you forgotten about the Oklahoma bombing already? The most casualties in a bombing on US soil was a white guy. Or how about the bombs the Columbine attackers brought in when they shot up their school? Again white kids.

  60. Re:And a TERROIST IS BORNE from this! by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    New Jersey, thank you.

    Yours, ISIS

    Yes we must stop insulting the muzzies. We can offend them by protecting other kids in class from something which could be dangerous, searching suspicious travelers, having Jewish supermarkets, drawing pictures they don't like, claiming that beating women is wrong, giving equal rights to homosexuals. We really must stop it all.

  61. How the times have changed... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    When I was growing up in the 1970's, we were building bombs and blowing crap up. Which for many was an introduction to chemistry. These days you can't even buy a chemistry set without someone worrying about Little Ahmed making a bomb to go along with the clock.

    1. Re:How the times have changed... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Today's chemistry sets are like today's fireworks: more whimper and less bang for the buck.

    2. Re:How the times have changed... by friesofdoom · · Score: 1

      You've just stumbled upon Darwinian Evolution.Well done. Not a good enough reason IMHO - Look! Some kid put a fork in another kid's eye, BAN ALL FORKS ON THE PLANET! Look! Some kid hit another kid with a textbook, BAN ALL BOOKS ON THE PLANET!

  62. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by SomePoorSchmuck · · Score: 1

    None of the other people or nationalities you listed have books from God that tell them to kill nonbelievers ask a means to please their God.

    That is the difference.
    But, by all means, if you feel differently about it, you can travel to Syria and make nice with Isis.

    I'm sure you're up to the task, after all, you're so fair minded and much better than the rest of us.

    Huh? What comment are you replying to? What makes you think I am asking for fairness or being nice to terrorists. On the contrary that is my entire point -- the GP I was replying to was saying that this kid's supposed isolation as a result of the incident is the most effective way to make him into a terrorist. I am pointing out that isolation doesn't make someone into a terrorist. There are millions upon millions of people leading "lives of quiet desperation" every day and they don't become terrorists, and it is ridiculous to support anything remotely resembling any kind of understandable rational path to murdering people and blowing things up for a political/religious ideology. If feeling a bit isolated leads you to bombing civilians, then you were already a terrorist in your heart, and the isolation was just a minor catalyst which would have inevitably happened in thousands of future social situations.

    I don't see the relevance of your reply. If you are trying to make a point that belief in Islam makes terrorists, well that's your own thread, go for it.

    --

    Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
  63. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're muslim, you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb...

    And don't forget, if you're a girl, you don't wear provocative clothing that invites rape.

    this is the world we live in.

    This is the world we made!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  64. Qatar by PPH · · Score: 1

    So, no more clocks. Some guy in a tower tells you what time it is.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Qatar by PPH · · Score: 1

      Some guy in a tower

      Forgot to add this.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  65. Re:If I was a Muslim in US, I would also move by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I'd be okay with every Christian leaving the US. Your religion and culture is based on violence and the suppression of women. GTFO!

    FTFY

  66. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Deadstick · · Score: 2

    It's not a clock. It's an islamophobe detector, and it works perfectly.

  67. his Dad was a major Sudan politician by peter303 · · Score: 1

    He took his family into exile in the US, probably got bored, and is taking them back to a more compatible Muslim country.

    I think the clock thing was initially an independent event. But Dad leveraged it to meet some Muslim leaders and get a new home.

  68. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by jandersen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... but you'd better hurry up, the political landscape will most likely change in the next 18 months.

    How so? The US will still be run by the ultra-rich, privileged upper-class aided by their well-fed lackeys, the lobbying companies. Oh, you mean the puppets office will be different? Doesn't really count.

  69. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm a geek that has been in 2 schools for 2 different bomb scares. If that kid had taken out that device in any class I was in I would probably tackle him. As would most people he care about their lives and like to live.

    Wouldn't the real american way be to just shoot him, to be sure? I mean, people can't expect to play with DIY electronics without consequences.

  70. Re:Good for him by dave420 · · Score: 1

    You are assuming that was the pinnacle of his achievements, which is clearly not a rational approach to take. Not that you've ever thought twice about attacking Muslims, regardless of the facts.

  71. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Jesrad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He had the thing beep on purpose during english lesson. That is: he discreetly took it out of his bag during the lesson, opened it, plugged the adapter to a power outlet, and set it to beep. Then he was purposely evasive in his answers to the english teacher.

    The whole event was plain race-baiting.

    --
    Maybe we deserve this world ?
  72. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    "Merely a sign of the times we live in. Politicians cater to the press, and the press is only loosely based on reality. But mostly on what sounds like a good story to sell a point."

    And, Presto! RealityTheatre manifests itself according to predetermined narratives!

    Great parent post.

  73. No credit for Fox News... by erp_consultant · · Score: 2

    I recall that Fox called this whole thing out as a hoax from day one. Which was right about the time that the rest of the national media was drooling over this supposed boy genius.

    It just goes to show that politics has invaded every segment of society. The folks at Google don't think this kid is a genius any more than I do. But it was promoted for political reasons. Same with Obama. It advances their agenda to push for more H1-B visas. It also advances various "diversity" agendas. Too bad it wasn't a little girl - could have pushed that agenda too.

    So as usual when the national media gets the story wrong there is not retraction. There is no follow up. It's just on to the next story. This is pretty much why I have given up on CNN and CBS and NBC, etc. Every story is twisted to advance some sort of political agenda. Now some might say that Fox does the same thing, and they do, but at least Fox will correct the story if they make a mistake.

    Oh yeah, good riddance you little prick. Hope you enjoyed your 15 minutes of fame.

    1. Re:No credit for Fox News... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The kid isn't a genius, as far as I can tell. However, the police greatly overreacted, and that's the reason for all the coverage.

      There was no bomb hoax. The device was obviously not a bomb, and the kid never claimed it was.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    2. Re:No credit for Fox News... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure about that. If I saw someone carrying a device like that I might think it was a bomb too. A briefcase with a bunch of wires attached to a clock? These days you never know.

      Personally, I think the real overreaction took place after the fact with the whole boy-genius thing.

    3. Re:No credit for Fox News... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      Fox got it right. I'm not saying that they always get it right but this time they did. So there.

  74. Who gives a shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter. Children who experiment with obviously harmless electronics should not be arrested and imprisoned, regardless of what you think their parents told them to do.

  75. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

    IIRC, wasn't there also supposedly some weird stuff about his dad being some sort of famewhore type too? I seem to remember the implication that his dad might have egged the whole controversy on for publicity.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  76. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4

    The 'invention' was sophmoric at best(but, kiddo was a freshman who at least apparently cared about what his engineering teacher thinks, so there is at least room for cautious optimism about actually interesting future projects); but the support, while not merited by the 'invention' was arguably a valuable pushback against the mixture of idiot reflexive terror of circuit boards and shitkicking petty authoritarianism that he received.

    The point isn't "Wow, kid took apart a clock, how amazing, we should celebrate!!!"; but "When somebody does something other than text messaging with a gadget, we should encourage them to pursue even more interesting projects in the future; not pretend that exposed FR4 is somehow a WMD." Patting kiddo on the back just happened to be the most efficient way of telling the school district that they'd made themselves look like total morons in front of everyone.

  77. Re:I see... by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 2

    I've pretty much had it with Slashdot. Between the quality of stories going into the toilet and the comments burrowing into the septic tank, this place is done.

    I've been here since 1998 and I'm done.

  78. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

    Emannuel Goldstein, the guy edited 2600?

    No.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  79. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Alypius · · Score: 1

    Bye bye, Clockmed!

  80. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by konohitowa · · Score: 2

    The irony in your post is so painful.

  81. "Clock" my butt! by Sudo+Samurai · · Score: 1

    From the more in depth descriptions of the incident I read, the kid had cooked up a pretend bomb and put it in an attache to make it look scarier. But when a teacher didn't think his little joke was so funny, it suddenly became a clock he "built" . I saw a close up of his little invention and I was impressed - he actually made a mass produced printed circuit board ! I wonder if somebody tipped El Presidente off to what the punk had actually done and that was the reason for the "cold shoulder"? (Obama could not have withdrawn the invitation without looking looking like a fool)

    1. Re:"Clock" my butt! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The teacher was obviously certain that thing wasn't a bomb.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  82. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by gmack · · Score: 1

    On top of that, he was illegally questioned by the police since his parents were not allowed to be present even after he asked for them. .

    No perfectly legal, as in "exigent circumstances", google it.

    How can you have "exigent circumstances" after the device was determined not to be a bomb?

  83. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by HideyoshiJP · · Score: 1

    I mean, the arrest was still an overreaction, and I'm still willing to attribute some of that to racism/profiling. That's still an issue, regardless of the kid not being a genius and his parents being attention whores.

  84. Re:This will be embarrassing to a certain DC famil by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

    Maybe 'shamaatah'?

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  85. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    not pretend that exposed FR4 is somehow a WMD.

    It was probably cheap phenolic. Shitty consumer electronics doesn't come on fibreglass. The 'smarts' of the clock are probably under an epoxy bubble and the circuit board single sided, without plated holes.

    So there wasn't even much of a learning opportunity for the kid in taking it apart.

  86. Re:Good for him by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Well, for variable values of "talent". At that age, I had my own completely self-designed frequency/counter meter which I built from simple TTLs. Re-housing an industrially-made clock is a bit less difficult. I think this kid may be in serious trouble if great things are now expected from him.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  87. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by chispito · · Score: 2

    Research the background of the kid's parents and you'll start to see what I mean.

    IMO, this was all part of a preconceived plan to scare people at school by bringing in a suspicious-looking device and then cry discrimination when called out on it.

    You're assuming a lot.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  88. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    cry discrimination

    So this little troll is as red-white-and-blue American as Balloon Boy. Got it.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  89. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by chispito · · Score: 1

    As pointed out before: The kid 'invented' a bigotry-detector.

    Yes, though I really don't think it was ethnic bigotry. A socially awkward white boy would probably have received the same treatment, due to hysteria over school violence and whatnot.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  90. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    As pointed out before: The kid 'invented' a bigotry-detector.

    It would seem the kid's dad hacked our bigotry-detectors.

  91. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    I took apart 2-3 clocks growing up. Where's my medal?

    When I was in fifth grade, I took apart a carburetor *and* put it pack together! Where's my medal?

    Okay... There were a few really, small parts left over after putting it back together, but that was also a great lesson to pay attention when taking something apart and be organized when laying things out.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  92. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    anyway, this whole thing has always struck me as a publicity stunt. There are certain things you don't do. I don't want to get robbed, I don't go walking certain places in certain cities. If you're muslim, you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb... if you're anybody you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb really, but especially if you're muslim.

    I'm afraid if this was a publicity stunt, and the stunt was to show systemic discrimination and poor treatment of muslims, this was the right stunt to pull and the right way to do it. You can and should expect to be properly treated by the government, law enforcement and civilized society. Assuming a kid is carrying a bomb is a bad assumption, if he wanted to blow you up, he would have.

    Now if he was going to complain that some rednecks beat him up/killed him, etc. for this stunt, I'd have somewhat less sympathy. If you go poking at morons with a stick, you probably are going to get wrecked and I can't say I have a boatload of sympathy.

    The immediate parallel is the woman in "slutty clothes" crying rape. She should expect, under the law, equal treatment as anyone suffering a violent assault, and expect that everything will be done to catch and prosecute the perpetrators. She should also expect not to be raped, even if she was entirely naked, and that civilized society would let her be. If she deliberately exercised poor judgement in an effort to prove our system is broken, while I question whether this was the best means to do it, it's probably the right kind of stunt to highlight a systemic failure to address rape.

    If she was trying to prove that people in a rough neighborhood can't be relied upon to avoid raping her, and/or that the police are unable to keep the violent element of a rough neighborhood suppressed...absolutely no sympathy, that's the definition of a violent neighborhood, and they exist in every city all over the world, and sometimes you have to exercise sound judgement about where you go and how you go there.

  93. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    Big data operations like Google are part of the reason Obama was even elected. He had the engines of Big Data churning for his benefit throughout both elections. Especially for the first election.

    There are a lot of talented people working at Google, but the founders got there by being first, and finding the right advertising syndicates to sponsor them.

  94. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And now he'll be a tool of rich, anti-Western Islamists.

  95. The comments here are fucking depressing to read by dell623 · · Score: 1

    Stopped reading comments on other sites a long time ago, but the Slashdot moderation thing used to work mostly.

    He's 14 years old FFS. I don't remember much of what I did or did not do at that age, but I am damn sure I wouldn't come off great from a trial by social media.

    At least above average intelligence, socially awkward kid probably misuses the word 'invent'. Maybe he was a bit desperate for attention. Don't know, don't care. He got handcuffed out of his classroom, in every part of the world I have been to that is every level of messed up, and I wouldn't grudge him getting some time hanging out with people / institutions he looks up to. Maybe he wouldn't make this photo on merit: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qMS0...

    So fucking what. He got handcuffed out of his classroom. If he gets to visit NASA and Google and Facebook, that's pretty commensurate compensation. What the kid needed was some off the radar time hanging out with tech / science folks, then back to (a different) school. Pre social media, that would be possible - it would make the papers, then fade away, people forget your name.

    But now, we put a 14 year old's life under the type of scrutiny no one would survive unscathed. Some of the comments that I would love to annotate with 'HE'S FOURTEEN'.

    Browsing at '2' now:

    1) He is not a particularly bright kid and is being unduly celebrated.

    He's not particularly bright and spends his time publically denouncing unduly celebrated 14 year olds on internet forums.

    2) 20,000 volts should be enough for anybody

    Joke about tasering a skinny non violent 14 year old kid. HAHA

    3) Sorry, but you need to be part of a celebrated group, re-assemble your clock into something that some people say resembles an IED, and then have the school go apeshit and overreact to it.

    I made a better clock when I was 14 and no one cared, so I'll piss all over this 14 year old.

    4) So, they finally got their 15min of fame, and now let's just be happy to have them out of the country and back where they want to be in the first place.

    The funniest thing about the 'us vs them' theme is the denial of reality. The family are Americans, they hold American passports, they are and remain American in the only way that counts.

    5) IMO, this was all part of a preconceived plan to scare people at school by bringing in a suspicious-looking device and then cry discrimination when called out on it.

    (4 Insightful) Sigh

    6) Yep.... I hate to say it, but I think a LOT of us just got fooled on this one, at least initially. As techie geeks , we *wanted* to believe this was all about a young, brilliant kid getting held back by the system.

    Usual predictable media cycle of build them up then tear them down. Actually I don't think any real tech geek was 'fooled' even before the clock tear downs etc. I saw a curious kid stuck in a crap system being treated abysmally by public taxpayer funded institutions. The fix was to get him into a better environment where he can make what he can of himself. Not this circus. If you got fooled, the fault is yours, don't put it on the kid.

    7) If you're muslim, you don't bring anything to school that can be mistaken for a bomb

    I had the privilege of being brought up in an environment where that wasn't much of a concern when I went to school. I want all 14 year olds to have that privilege.

    And everyone goes on about 'muslim kid', when did we start stamping religion at birth? His muslim-ness didn't seem to be that big a part of his life before this whole business. Now we've given his dad an excuse to cut him off from the rest of the world, take him to Mecca, maybe enrol him in religious classes, move to a muslim country, all at a very impressionable age. If the kid turns into a bearded islamis

  96. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Your.Master · · Score: 2

    Who gives a shit if anybody ever said the word invention? This is such a huge distraction. So many people on slashdot are more concerned with the specific words you use than the actions you take.

    It's not about whether he's a genius. It's about whether innocent and safe intellectual curiosity is being punished by society. When the president, and Google, etc. invite Ahmed over, they are trying to counter the signal from police and school which said that it was unacceptable.

  97. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Your.Master · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's no irony here.

    Being born of a certain racial background is something you can't help, and which also doesn't make you a piece of shit.

    Being a Trump supporter is your own free choice and is also undeniably directly correlated to your political beliefs. You can argue that it's not correlated to the specific belief that it's okay to call children "half-nigger pieces of shit" for bringing a disassembled clock to school, but it's certainly not in the same ballpark.

  98. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    46% according to gallup. But let's not argue minutiae, I guess it depends a lot on where you live.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  99. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... but you'd better hurry up, the political landscape will most likely change in the next 18 months.

    How so? The US will still be run by the ultra-rich, privileged upper-class aided by their well-fed lackeys, the lobbying companies. Oh, you mean the puppets office will be different? Doesn't really count.

    To hazard a guess, I think he means most of us are getting fed up with the so-called social "justice" warriors who are continuously up in arms and having hissy fits over any perceived (though probably not real) slight. Yesterday provided a perfect example. Two guys on twitter made up a #boycottstarwarsvii hashtag, claiming the movie was racist against white people. Of course, SJWs went apoplectic with self-righteous indignation, and it even made CNN & The Daily Show, but it turns out it was all just a troll from the get-go. SJWs seem to go full retard every day.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  100. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Your.Master · · Score: 1

    Kid got arrested for the Radio Shack clock. Why are you skipping that part? Nobody would have cared if he wasn't arrested.

  101. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Didn't Tesla say that? Or am I getting it confused with someone else?

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  102. Well... by ricemanstm4672 · · Score: 1

    I hope the next "clock" he builds...blows up in his face... ...preferably in the family living room...

  103. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by IMightB · · Score: 1

    I believe it was Edison that said that

  104. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    There were a few really, small parts left over after putting it back together, but that was also a great lesson to pay attention when taking something apart and be organized when laying things out.

    In motorcycle racing, this is called 'adding lightness'.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  105. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The family isn't the one that turned this into a national story. The school and police did that.

  106. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's not what happened. It was away, but it accidentally beeped. Rather than asking him to silence it and put it away, or even give a minor punishment for the class disruption from the beeping, the teacher confiscated it, and called the cops (or maybe sent him to the principal and the principal called the cops; not sure).

    There was one other class where the clock was taken out.

    It was at no point on display.

  107. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Solandri · · Score: 2

    You're not a real geek if you didn't have mysterious parts left over after reassembling it. Bonus points if it still worked perfectly even without the parts.

  108. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    You're simplifying what happened, and thus changing the story. He showed it to his science teacher who thought it was cool. He then took it to English class, plugged it in and caused a distraction by having the alarm go off. When the non-technical english teacher saw it, he said it's just a clock. This version of the story sounds a whole more lot like he didn't get the attention he wanted from the first teacher, so intentionally created an incident with a second teacher who did not have the technical background to see there was no risk.
    Sure, the arrest might have been an over-reaction. Maybe there was a racial component to the reactions, which is always unfortunate. Maybe it was all a series of poorly thought out decisions on the kid's and teacher's part. I wonder if we'll ever know for sure.

  109. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    (Strangest part of it all? I still have the damned thing...)

    Do you have a picture? That sounds really cool.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  110. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Your.Master · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everybody knew it wasn't a bomb. The evidence is clear: nobody evacuated, and the bomb squad wasn't called in.

    Therefore, it did not look like a threat, and reactions as if it looked like a thread were incorrect.

  111. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Your.Master · · Score: 1

    If I'd brought something like that to school, I would have been arrested too.

    You're acting like this is okay, and that the problem is that this made news.

  112. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At this point, anything that proves that these SJW's are stupid is the best thing possible. So I salute those two guys who trolled SJW's and showed the entire world that they're nothing but hyper-emotional individuals that only do stuff because it "makes them feel good" while ignoring actual problems.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  113. Re:The comments here are fucking depressing to rea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wow, you're so caught up in patting yourself on the back for being "progressive" that you completely ignore the facts that the whole incident was a scam. You're like religious person, but instead of believing in God, you believe in Clock Boy. You wrote up a fucking big ass page long post to defend a social media hustler. Why are you so invested in viral marketing Clock Boy? I think Texans are a bunch of fucking retards, and love to bash them as much as the next smug New Englander, but in this case it's not their fault some kid's activist dad had him bring a fake bomb to school to create a controversy. The only difference is you're still believing the scam long after it's been exposed.

  114. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    So we're on Slashdot, the official Internet home of mom's basement losers and Magic The Gathering addicts.... in other words, hundreds of thousands of people for whom the first 25 years of their lives consisted of nothing but "[being made to ] feel like an isolated second class person". How many Slashdot users go blow up innocent people as a political ploy?

    We do seem to have a problem in this country of individuals going apeshit and killing a lot of people, the problem is per capita greater than most other civilized countries. Of those with an equal or greater problem, a generalization can be made that they are culturally even less tolerate of deviations from the norm than we are. This proves nothing, it's just a data point.

    If you are irrational, you blame our apeshit problem on guns. But, the gun nuts have a point that guns do not pull their own trigger, a human is behind them. So our problem is actually humans making the decision to try to mass murder. This is happening in significant and unusual quantities, so it's fair to say SOME aspect of our society is provoking this behavior, it's the only explanation that doesn't involve vast conspiracies and alien anus probes. While it would be nice from a scientific point of view to clearly identify the cause(s), and use that knowledge for all time, it seems reasonable in this case that one possible contributing factor might be social isolation due to arbitrary deviations from the norm (i.e. religion) and agree we're just not going to do that anymore because it is dumb to begin with. All problems will not be solved, but let's just not do it?

    If kid has a bomb or even creates a fake and pitches it as a bomb, then we take any and all necessary actions to deal with the kid and protect the public. If the kid is insane, we need to take him out of circulation and treat him. If he's trying to pull a political stunt (and he might have been), then the best way to defuse this sort of "bomb" is to give him absolutely nothing to work with by simply being decent human beings. "Oh yeah, so you got a clock huh? Cool."

  115. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

    i was a liberal, i find myself shifting further along to the right nowadays, and the left has moved further left too.

    What country do you live in? Obviously not the United States, unless you've substituted "Obama is an evil communist" for reality.

    christians don't use bombs, they're way more into guns.

    I vaguely recall there being some issues in Northern Ireland that might disagree with this.

  116. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

    Not saying you're right, not saying you're wrong but can you please cite some references? I did a (quick) Google and didn't find anything untoward.

    I just grabbed the first link of many I found when googling "Clock Boy Sister".

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  117. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So the appropriate response to a kid with something that looks like a bomb is to ask him to "put it away", and only then if he refuses, call the cops and have him arrested?

    It makes no sense that "put it away" is an appropriate response if they thought it actually might be a bomb. In this scenario, evacuating the whole school and calling the bomb squad might make more sense.

    It makes no sense to cal the cops and have him arrested if they knew it was not a bomb.

    Maybe the kid and his whole family are trolls. My question is why is this school so fucking dumb.

  118. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by stabiesoft · · Score: 1

    And I wonder if their christian friends in dallas will travel to that religiously diverse Qatar for togethers? And hopefully Ahmed does not decide to switch to christianity. Doing so in Qatar could be deadly.

  119. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    I don't thinking anyone is suggesting that taking apart a clock is equivalent to an earning an EE degree.

  120. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If this kid is the caliber of minds they are looking for there isn't much to worry about. They'll be to busy soldering CPUs to do anything dangerous.

  121. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    If he had put the parts in a paper bag, then it would have been a paper bag bomb.

  122. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

    You didn't get fooled you refused to read the articles Ignoring facts about the case it was all explained in the very first article. You guys swore up and down how the device was the innovative when it clearly was not innovative and it was clearly made to look like a bomb in a metal suitcase. I'm not buying we were fooled excuse.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  123. Voltage != Amperage by s.petry · · Score: 1

    People use voltage as a scare tactic, because the numbers are bigger. Even more frightening are "watts" if the number is bigger. Amperage is what kills you, not voltage.

    Link

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Voltage != Amperage by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      but V = IR therefore I = V/R. How resistive do you feel today?

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  124. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    Another thing you shouldn't do is post this dumb as fuck post as anything but "anonymous coward", because then everyone will know you are dumb. So good job on that part.

  125. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure that plenty of people on all sides of the political spectrum agree that school overreactions to this sort of crap is pretty bad. But the SCOTUS has pretty well ruled that kids in school have no rights. They can be strip searched for advil, detained for clock dissassembly, suspended for praying, and expelled for saying "bang!" My personal theory is that the school systems are just doing a super job of preparing kids for their future. I tell my kid this all the time: There's always going to be some idiot in a position of authority. You can either roll over and take it, pick your battles, or get detained by the TSA like daddy.

  126. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    I think the problem is that people think they know what IEDs look like because they watch the Jack Bauer show. IEDs are supposed to like like anything *but* IEDs. I expect people to recognize their own limitations. Just kidding, this is exactly what I expect.

  127. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    And the other teachers turned out to be exactly as dumb as the engineering teacher predicted.

  128. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bartles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do you think if he was a white kid he would have been invited to the White House? I think a little racist claptrap is appropriate in this case.

  129. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    A socially awkward white boy would probably have received the same treatment

    Maybe... but not an Asian kid....

  130. Extra parts... by Grog6 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    That's not a geek, that's a Retard.

    Extra parts do not exist; they're always there for a reason.

    If you keep it long enough, you'll figure out why they were there, lol.

    I had left over one large washer in a bike rebuild, only to find out far from home that it was to keep the pressed-in pins from falling out of the shifter drum/rachet assembly.

    Stuck in 6th gear, off road, 20 miles from home; that's not a lesson you forget.

    --
    Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
    1. Re:Extra parts... by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      ugh, an hour and a half on bike vs a day on foot.

      dear lord, i can't even imagine.

    2. Re:Extra parts... by nytes · · Score: 5, Funny

      Extra parts do not exist; they're always there for a reason

      That's not tru. I had a coupl of parts lft ovr from rassmbling my kyboard and it works just fin.

      --
      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
    3. Re:Extra parts... by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Occasionally, there are "extra" parts used to speed assembly that are not needed in the finished product.. For instance, the 1966 Corvette had rivets in the rear brake assembly that were not needed. When repair work was done, the rivets had to be drilled out, but they were never replaced during reassembly.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  131. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    That's like a publicity stunt to make the pope look religious.

  132. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    OK, so why didn't the teacher pull the alarm and evacuate the whole school? Dumb kids with shitty fathers have a good excuse for not acting appropriately.

  133. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Aighearach · · Score: 1, Informative

    He wasn't celebrated for being "bright," he was celebrated for being a nerd, and also being creative.

    Try getting half the neckbeards around here to do something creative. They'd sooner walk outdoors in daylight when the SJWs are prowling the streets than actually try to make their project case look nice. If they showed enough artistic talent to stuff some electronics in a less-ugly box, their imaginary friend would start calling them a hippie.

  134. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by Izuzan · · Score: 1

    So who is more stupid the teacher for over reacting(when his older sister was suspended for making bomb threats) or the kid for not doing as he was told and causing a commotion in the school.

  135. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bartles · · Score: 2

    Islamic terrorists kill more people in a week, than the IRA killed in 30 years. Let's not create false equivalencies.

  136. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by stephencrane · · Score: 1

    Wow, your life must be pretty disappointing for you if it's important to take potshots at a kid who got arrested for no good reason.

  137. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

    I thought both of his parents were middle eastern. Are you saying he's biracial?

  138. Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by shadesofgreen · · Score: 1

    I feel sad that this bright kid and his family have been convinced to move to Qatar. Unfortunately Texas and many of the southern US states have seen an increase in intolerance since 9/11. His family should have given a sincere thought to moving internally in US. Most of the Midwestern, East and West Coast would have been perfect. Sadly it seems that the decision was made on monetary grounds.

    1. Re:Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      9 out of 10 people on the street said his "clock" looked like a bomb. Only 1 out of 5 of his teachers who saw the device (plugged in and beeping!) took the bait and sent him to the principal. The only real problem was that the photo of him handcuffed was released, which was a violation of school policy and common decency to protect minors identity. Of course, if he was terribly mistreated, he should release all the reports about his arrest and the details of his "invention".

    2. Re:Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The teacher who saw it (from what I've read, only two teachers did) obviously was certain it was not a bomb. It is doubtless school policy to evacuate the building if there is a bomb scare.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    3. Re:Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by shadesofgreen · · Score: 1

      You are quoting these numbers as if there was survey taken after this kids arrest. Why would a 9th grade student be subjected to all the scrutiny and "supposed" forced to come clear about what he said in public? "Plugged in and beeping"...you understand that only happens in movies; that kid definitely has a sense of humor, could be said misplaced and ill-timed, but still a science project should not necessitate a complete freak-out by school authorities. They should have known better.

    4. Re:Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      There was a survey, of sorts.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... A sense of humor about bombs will get you detained at airports... and schools. Heck, bring an aspirin or butter knife to school and get sent home. Chew a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, or point your fingers and say "pew pew" and get suspended. Plugging an unsafe contraption (with exposed electrical components) in during English and having it make noise is grounds to be sent to the principal.

    5. Re:Texas is the wrong place to be a minority by bhlowe · · Score: 1
      Several sites including this one say he showed it to six teachers.. Finally his English teacher sent him to the principal (because he plugged it in and it was making noise!)

      Quote: Everyone with a brain knows that 14 year old boys are almost always up to some sort of mischief. They’re going through this phase where they’re learning to question authority and they love to see how far they can bend the rules. And if they can get a teacher all worked up about something innocent, they’re gonna do it. He showed the “clock” to five teachers who thought nothing of it. Then finally the sixth one, his English teacher, took the bait and reported it. That’s exactly what this kid did and you all fell for it.

  139. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by s.petry · · Score: 1

    The immediate parallel is the woman in "slutty clothes" crying rape.

    No, it's not. There is no way to make any such comparison, and in fact the SJW fantasy you are attempting to troll with has been proven wrong on so many occasions that it's not worth doing again.

    A person of any race or religion bringing to school something that looks like a bomb, which starts beeping in the middle of class drawing attention to both the student handling it and the device itself (which does not resemble a clock) would be treated the same way. If you do not know what the device looks like you have no place to express an opinion. If you do know what it looks like, as many technical people and experts have stated, the device does not appear to be a clock. In fact it does not appear to be an "invention" but rather appears to be crap cobbled together and appearing to be an explosive device.

    If you have any doubts about my claim that race and religion makes no difference with this issue, make some model propane tanks and put some fake timers on them and take them for a walk down the street. I don't care what skin color you are or who's religious garb you are displaying, people are going to detain you until they can prove that the devices are in fact fake. After which, you would be jailed for terrorism. None of this will be a kind polite experience, nor should it be.

    Do yourself a favor and actually study the material you are spouting an opinion about. SJWs are almost always anti-justice and are surely not warriors. They are generally "useful idiots" manipulated by social engineers.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  140. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Triklyn · · Score: 1

    i woulda locked him up for trying to incite a damn bomb scare.

    at what point do we say, hey, that's looks enough like a bomb to make it a problem for someone, of any color, to bring in?

    maybe if he had used some play-doh to hold all the components together?

  141. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by bohmt · · Score: 1

    Are those the countries you want the US compared to?

  142. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by kheldan · · Score: 1

    What I'm saying is that it seems a bit extreme to pick up and move out of the country over this. They've received much public support in the press, from the White House, from POTUS himself, etc. At the very least there is more to the story than what we all know at this point, and what's hidden is what's making me feel like this was some sort of pre-planned set-up. Have they received death threats, or been directly threatened? I think there's much we don't know and may not know for weeks or months from now.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  143. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    So I have a poor opinion of Obama and a medical degree. How does that fit your "uneducated right winger" demographic?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  144. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How did they overreact? Look the kid brought it out in several classes and was told by each teacher to put it away. Then he plugs it in, sets the alarm off in frigging english class and then refuses to answer questions about the obvious bomb facsimile. Then the school calls the police, not because anyone thinks its a bomb but because even a bomb facsimile is illegal and he was clearly trying to start a panic.

  145. Re:If I was a Muslim in US, I would also move by moeinvt · · Score: 1

    After that Republican guy brought up the idea that he would have a problem with a Muslim president, NPR reported on a poll which indicated that the only people less popular than Muslims(politically speaking) were atheists.

  146. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ProfBooty · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to Irving police, Ahmed's case contained a digital clock that the student had taken apart and rearranged. Police said the student had the briefcase in his English class, where he plugged it into an electrical outlet and it started to make noise.

    Ahmed said his English teacher confiscated his case. A few hours later, the student said the school's principal and resource officer pulled him out of class. Police confiscated the case along with Ahmed's tablet computer.

    Why the heck was the kid playing with his clock, plugging it into a wall during english class. He either was bored with a short attention span, or was looking for attention, since he already showed it to his science teacher.

    --
    Bring back the old version of slashdot.
  147. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    Kids are stupid by default. That's why we don't let them sign contracts or vote. I really don't know who is more stupid. All I know is that one of those 2 people is an adult and should know better.

  148. Leaving one 3rd world country for another? by haruchai · · Score: 3, Funny

      Except for the food, religion & clothes, are Texas & Qatar that much different?

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  149. This fraudster appears to be a "cause" for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You might want to put the SJW support party on hold for a bit and get some facts.

    1. The kid's dad turned out to be a Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR freak who has run for president in an African Muslim nation and is still involved in politics there. i.e. the family has no intentions of becoming Americans.

    2. The kid was photographed posing arm-in-arm with a friend of his dad, the war criminal leader of Sudan who is wanted by international courts for actual genocide (not the fake sort that Muslims often accuse any non Muslims of when they resist Muslim incursions). That Sudanese leader the boy embraced (well-known to him via his dad) personally beheaded children in front of their moms, among other things.

    3. Clock Boy took is movie-prop-bomb "invention" to school and was told by one teacher that it was cool (NOT a nasty or paranoid reaction, but the very sort everybody supporting him claims would be ideal) but that he ought not to show it around to other people because it looked like a bomb. He then proceeded to do so, having been told others would mistake it for a bomb. There is NO WAY his intent was good.

    4. The kid's sister had previously tried to stage a "see! they hate Muslims!" sort of scam event.

    5. When the cops understood the situation, they went to remove the handcuffs (often initially put on ANY detainee for the safety of EVERYBODY until a confused situation can be sorted out) but the kid's sister asked the cops to leave the cuffs on him so she could take the now famous photo (i.e. his "suffering" and "oppression" was staged)

    6. Immediately after the event, a bunch of men from CAIR showed-up at that school with prayer rugs and started mooning God on the lawn of the school... almost as though it was a set-up for publicity...

    7. When's the last time Obama backed away from publicly embracing a Muslim???? He even celebrates and hosts Muslim holidays at the white house. His cold-shoulder handling of this tells you he has learned more than you about this kid and his family.

  150. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    at what point do we say, hey, that's looks enough like a bomb to make it a problem for someone, of any color, to bring in?

    Maybe when people have a fucking clue of what a bomb actually looks like.

    Should you call the cops if you see a a gang fight? Yes. Should you call the cops if you can't tell the difference between a real gang fight and a stage production of west side story? Probably not.

    I don't expect people to know what bombs look like. They aren't like guns where they all kind of look the same. But I also don't expect people to think they know what bombs look like.

    I also expect people, if they are truly going to make the call and proceed as if some unknown thing is a potential bomb, to actually try to evacuate other people rather than simply get the "bombmaker" in legal trouble.

  151. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Twanfox · · Score: 1

    Apparently, as the individual bringing the 'questionable' item in, you can expect to be victim-shaming instead of the people that overreacted taking ownership of the mistake they made. And even when the people overreacting had it pointed out that they overreacted, an apology is simply too far for them to go. That's what you can expect.

  152. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Magnus+Pym · · Score: 1

    It was not about undeserved praise for Ahmed.

    It was well-deserved embarrassment and public humiliation for the ignorant and vindictive school officials and police department.

  153. Re:If I was a Muslim in US, I would also move by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Atheists are not associated with any particular ethnic group. As a group they would be hard to deport. Besides, no one wans to empty out the churches throughout the country.

  154. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by theArtificial · · Score: 1, Troll

    Eh, I doubt it, but the simple fact is that NO ONE, Muslim or otherwise, should have to just sit back and tolerate endemic racism.

    Would you clarify this point a bit, what race are Muslims?

    --
    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
  155. Where is APK when you need him? by mmell · · Score: 1

    Just askin'.

  156. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by butchersong · · Score: 1

    You can't reasonably take a population say 90% cultureA and 2% cultureE and then claim that because cultureA constitutes 60% violent incidents that cultureE is being stereotyped unfairly for being involved in 30% of incidents.

  157. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by Izuzan · · Score: 1

    And stupid kids dont learn unless taught. A slap on the wrist and "dont do it again" does not teach any highschool kid.

  158. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by butchersong · · Score: 2

    He wasn't accused of being a "t'rrist" he was accused of intentionally contructing a fake bomb in order to troll the school. At no point did the administration or the police think it was a bomb. GIven that his sister was suspected of previously making fake bomb threats and his father a well known activist who has participated in the past in stunts designed to garner publicity I'd say their response was measured and thought out and possibly correct depending on the kid and his family's true motivations.

  159. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by OhPlz · · Score: 1

    When it looks like an IED, yes! Columbine, anyone?

  160. So... by koan · · Score: 1

    So he takes the guts of a 1970's clock sticks it in a pencil case, then gets treated poorly by a school (that was probably required to handle it that way) and he gets front and center before those that actually did something worth acknowledging.
    Glad he is gone to Qatar, let him see how he likes the second most conservative Islamic regime.

    And he also gets to find out what "peaked early" means, I doubt this kid will fair well.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  161. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    So "disrupting class" should be something to call the cops for? This is a waste of taxpayer money. The school should punish the kid for disrupting class, and the school should be in trouble for frivolously calling the cops and wasting their time. It is not the job of police to discipline misbehaving kids. That's the school's job.

  162. Re:future enemy of the state by koan · · Score: 1

    You are an idiot.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  163. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I think he did intentionally make it look like a possible bomb. He probably thought is looked cool. I think the prank went further than he wanted/expected, and then he did the best thing he could: he denied it. If he had confessed, then he would have been charged with "making terroristic threats" or "terroristic activity". That would be an open opportunity to throw him in prison, put him and his family on a watch list, etc. Screw that.

    But his actions sure don't merit a free ride anywhere.

  164. Germany did the same thing ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... ran off the greatest minds on the planet at the time.

    America made great strides because of the "brain drain" caused by persecution.

    Next up:

    All white spelling bee participants with watered-down list of words.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re:Germany did the same thing ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      ... having invented a digital clock.

      You're responding to the wrong story?

      The digital clock was first invented in 1956.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    2. Re:Germany did the same thing ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Kinda like inventing a wheel, but not the wheel?

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  165. Look at the bigger picture by Codeyman · · Score: 1

    While what the kid did is not an "invention" by any sense of word, it servers as a beacon of hope to all the young kids out there that their need to scratch that DIY itch will be rewarded. The kid was on the right path, and that is what needs to be blown out of proportion, to give everyone else an idea to aspire too. The kid probably doesn't deserve all the attention, but we need people like him getting attention, to at least have more role models to aspire to other than Kardashians.

  166. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    I can't possibly fathom what point the original poster was trying to make, assuming there even was one. But I was responding to the AC who indicated that the original comment wasn't racist, when it clearly was.

  167. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Keep selling yourself those lies, and maybe one day you'll believe them too.

    The rest of us are glad this little Pinocchio troll got arrested for his fake bomb scare.
    The dipsit deserved it, what he didn't deserve was a trip to Google or the white house for being a little dipshit.

  168. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

    Also, you better be careful with your comments about trump - when he's president in 15 months he's gonna go after people who spoke out against him.

  169. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Redbehrend · · Score: 1

    That's media for you, jump on the hype train. I know kids his age that can solder custom circuit boards I don't see anyone jumping through hoops to help them get a good education.

  170. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Lakitu · · Score: 1

    I always love these kinds of stories and the childhood terror they emanate about having been caught doing something perceived as wrong because of the adult reactions to it. How dare you take apart that clock! Are you crazy? A hostile reaction to something I found to be so interesting and fun always kind of shocked me and sticks with me to this day.

    Of course, it turns out that all along your mom just didn't want to be late for work or whatever the next day because the alarm clock was in one hundred pieces sitting on the counter. Sorry, mom!

  171. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    I don't care what skin color you are or who's religious garb you are displaying, people are going to detain you until they can prove that the devices are in fact fake. After which, you would be jailed for terrorism. None of this will be a kind polite experience, nor should it be.

    The fact is I did all those things while studying engineering, and I no one ever batted an eye. I was well dressed, carrying a pile of electronics books. On any given monday i have been seen on a ferry assembling some bizarre electric contraption, with wires sticking out and seven segment displays counting in any direction, never once was I bothered. Certainly my DSP project really did look (unintentionally) like a bomb from a movie. The difference is, nobody would expect me to make a bomb. Honestly some of the things my friends and I did in (primarily high) school probably should have raised some eyes, and did involve explosive substances (gasoline, frequently).

    I'm not going to argue that this kid (and his father) may have been trying to get attention those facts were not in evidence initially and in full fairness if that's your gig, the mayor of that town is also known to be an agitator against muslims. All the required ingredients are there to make a sensation. But it seems unlikely any of this would have happened if he were a good christian boy.

  172. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Lakitu · · Score: 1

    Obama job approval by:
    REGION
    [East, Midwest, South, West] => [51, 44, 41, 51]

    EDUCATION
    [High School or less, Some College, College graduate only, Postgrad, All college grads, All college nongrads] => [45, 42, 46, 59, 51, 44]

    Don't you get it? 51% of people overwhelmingly agree!

    http://www.gallup.com/file/pol...

    The numbers are actually kinda shockingly mediocre across the board (as compared to previous Presidents' polling trends). The most notable things I see are the race demos (34% approval by white people, 84% approval by black Americans, 63% approval by hispanics) and age range, which goes 59 -> 45 -> 43 -> 38% approval rating based on age bracket. 60% of people who were maybe barely old enough to vote for him twice approve of his job.

    And, of course, the 82/43/10% split between Democrat/Independent/Republican party id, but that's not surprising at all.

  173. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

    If it was clearly a clock, then why was a 14 year old child hand cuffed by police and 'escorted' out of school? The real story here is the insane stupidity that is swallowing the United States - teachers are no longer able to teach or discuss controversial topics (even at the University level) for fear of being reported, history is being re-written minimizing science and promoting 'faith', global warming facts are marginalized, fracking environmental hazards are undermined, companies continue to profiteer off citizens so a few can be fabulously wealthy while the majority has seen income stagnation .... The facts are the US ranks 14th in Education, 2nd in ignorance of social topics.... Lacking the ability to intellectually, openly and critically discuss problems, removes the ability to solve them.

  174. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Lakitu · · Score: 2

    He was absolutely celebrated for being a nerd. People viewed it as authority stifling the creative and innovative spirit.

    If a black muslim threatens to kill a bunch of people at his school or join ISIS or whatever, it would get nowhere near the news attention as this did. If you're focusing on his ethnic background or the word "invention" in this story, then you're probably a fucking moron who is out of step with most of America.

  175. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    This all just seems like the other side of the same SJW bullshit. The media is suppressing information (that weirdly is still freely available to nearly everyone), and anybody with an opposing voice is labelled a racist and "buried" under criticism.

    Since when do you have a right to not be "buried under criticism". This all seems like it's just a normal marketplace of ideas doing it's thing. What exactly is the problem?

  176. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Coren22 · · Score: 2

    So, repeatedly telling your teacher it is a clock is a bomb threat now? Wow, that is pretty amazing.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  177. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by s.petry · · Score: 1

    Do you really expect anyone to believe that "Electronics Books" are the same thing as a a device which looks like a bomb? Having people watch you work on an open device is the same as having an enclosed device, built intentionally to look like an explosive device? Those are rhetorical questions intended to demonstrate the idiocy of your position and bogus claim. No sane person would believe either of those things to be true.

    I gave you the test, and you don't have the balls to do any such thing. You will continue to troll as if your fantasy matters, but you won't take the test.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  178. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...

    Further, the family (AFAIK) has refused to sign any waiver allowing the school to explain their side of the story fully.

    Dad's a media gadfly (from a profile of him long before the whole bomb thing)
    http://www.okayafrica.com/news...
    Calls himself a sheikh on his campaign page (one of them)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20...

    --
    -Styopa
  179. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    its like yelling fire in a theater when there is no fire

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  180. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps you should look again.

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/116...

    46% is less than half, so less than half of the people polled approve of how the president is doing things.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  181. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    i didnt see him say it was ok, only that a double standard is in place

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  182. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Or power the clock with 12 D cell batteries in 3 rows of 4 rolled up in paper to hold them together.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  183. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    Just because we called it an invention mistakenly does not mean he's not a bright kid. The average kids don't bother with this stuff or taking things apart and putting them back together in different ways. Yes, in college this would be considered hum drum, but in junior high it's well above average.

  184. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Lakitu · · Score: 1

    Boy Sets Alarm Clock To Go Off During Boring Class

  185. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by wyattstorch516 · · Score: 1

    You left out the part about him being a Muslim. Anybody can take apart a clock.

  186. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by gmack · · Score: 1

    Again, a fake bomb would not qualify as "exigent circumstances" after the point where they determined there was no threat so they had no legal right to question the kid without a parent or guardian present so the police interrogation was a violation of his civil rights.

  187. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    it happened to me when i was younger as well/ didnt get taken in but cops came to the school

    the reason?????

    a seethrough clear water pistol that fits in the palm of your hand

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  188. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by kellymcdonald78 · · Score: 1

    I guess you've never heard of the Fenian raids in the late 19th century.

  189. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by LordKronos · · Score: 1

    LOL. You are going to have to do a LOT better than that.

    So we know that this Muslim kid did some trivial little project and the school completely overracted by calling the police on him and accusing him of terrorism. That fact I think is pretty well indisputable. And then you go and post a link to an article talking about how his Muslim sister was also accused of terrorism by the same school district? I'm absolutely shocked!!!!

  190. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by LordKronos · · Score: 1

    Undeserved praise as a way of atoning for undeserved punishment does not show that we are more enlightened. In fact, it exposes further ignorance on our part.

    Wrong, kids are exceptionally impressionable. This kid has shown an interest in tinkering with things. Then he gets all this negative attention over it from his school and the police. In the end, even though he got off without any punishment, he's probably had the shit scared out of him. There's a very good chance he might never want to mess with stuff like this again. The "undeservice praise" is a way of really telling him "fuck those assholes...you do what you want to do, and don't let any racist dumbasses discourage you from the things you find interesting". Except the thing is, actually telling that to someone his age doesn't necessarily get the point across. You've got to make it a really positive experience to combat the really negative experience embedded deep into his memory.

  191. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Ahh that explains it. I am neither black nor young. Nor American, for that matter.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  192. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    This whole "incident" was fabricated to generate media outrage,

    If that is true, then BRAVO to the kid and his father.

    It is about goddamned time we stop this "anti-terrorist" motivated drift towards the foment of inter-cultural hate.

    That, and the US & Europe's drift in rhetoric (and real attacks) towards that, ahem, type of 'unpleasantness' that took place in Germany around the mid-20th century.

    Same story, new target. History doesn't repeat itself, but it damned-well rhymes.

  193. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

    I partially destroyed a bridge when I was growing up. Yes, for real. I exploited the harmonicities in a simple, symmetric truss-bridge. Anyone can do it – by hand.

    I neither received a medal, nor was arrested. The statute of limitations is long-expired on this prank.

    If anyone wants to give me a medal, or some (precious) metal, or perhaps even the mettle to go on living in this insane world, then please do. Just don't meddle in my affairs.

  194. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    Edison Gates

    Both horrible egotists, liars, and IP thieves.

    The world would be a better place if Tesla had given Edison 20,000 Volts – personally, with an Amp or so accompanying.

  195. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    I dunno, it's hard to beat the 'anti sjws' for being cryhards. If you're being stifled by women or people whining on the Internet the chances are you just suck at life.

    Really? Cause the sjw's are the ones whining about diversity and how meritocracy is "sexist and racist." I don't know about you, but if I'm hiring someone to fill a position, I want the best candidate I can get. I don't want someone in that position because of what their skin colour is, or because of their genitals. But I'm sure you're all for it, that's why your doctor is a Inuit who used to be the janitor on the first floor right?

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  196. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    True. The boy should get a medal for having innocuously shown the school and local 'authorities' to be xenophobes.

    Exposing Systemic Xenophobia in the USA. That is what this entire affair has been about from the start.

    It worked.

  197. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    Just don't shoot anyone with an IUD.

    Them ladies are serious dating material!

  198. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    Q: What do you call a person who graduated at the bottom of his/her class in medical school?

    Doctor. (more accurately physician, but I digress)

  199. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    ...The numbers are actually kinda shockingly mediocre across the board (as compared to previous Presidents' polling trends)....

    Really? Bush II started out around 90% just after the 9/11 events. (Any President would get that under such circumstances.)

    That high approval rating quickly plummeted to an unprecedentedly low number. I think it was around 15% at one point.

  200. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    ...46% is less than half, so less than half of the people polled approve of how the president is doing things.

    Look at this from a reporter's perspective.

    46% = 0.46, which rounds up to 50%

    That person's boss see's 50% (0.5), and rounds it up to 1. Voila, 100% approval rating.

  201. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    That's media for you, jump on the hype train. I know kids his age that can solder custom circuit boards I don't see anyone jumping through hoops to help them get a good education.

    It's actually quite difficult these days for a curious young mind to disassemble, and then reassemble or re-use, components in an electronic device.

    We have mostly moved past the era of individual devices, or standard-chip connectors, that can be de-soldered, and repurposed or re-used.

    Miniaturization has given us the gift of microelectronics and packaged modules. Touch a soldering iron to one of the super-tiny leads, and you will fry the parts. Learning by dis-assembly is, in many cases, no longer possible.

    Disassemble and re-purpose components of your iPhone, if you don't believe me. It's not possible. Everything is plug-in modules and glue-tacked leads.

    The maker movement, however, holds promise. You can buy modules with standard leads or sockets. Get a Raspberry Pi, MyDAQ, a breadboard, or whichever, and you can make stuff... but only from purchased modules and components... never from anything scavenged.

  202. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

    I agree they overreacted, but when you build something that looks passingly like an IED, and then you take it to school, what the hell else can you expect?

    US Army and other armed forced handbook provide instructions creating explosive devices from materials randomly at-hand, when in a dangerous, covert, or captured situation.

    When Americans do it, is it an IED, or just an explosive device?

    Why is it that the public has swallowed wholesale this new term of "IED" to mean, basically, "a bomb that someone we don't like prepared."?

    Do Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, or whichever military contractors make the bombs put s "stamp of approval" on the things... one that notes that, "this explosive device has not been improvised."?

    Distinction without a difference.

  203. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    The Oklahoma bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others. The 3000 dead at the twin towers far exceeds that. Are you going to try to push some silly distinction that flying aircraft into buildings isn't bombing?

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  204. Re:Tic tic tic by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    Now he has to go to the Middle East to get some training. :-p

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  205. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    If, as a pedestrian, you insist on your right-of-way in a crosswalk, you can end up dead. Don't act stupidly.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  206. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    You obviously haven't bothered to read about Obama's history.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  207. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If anyone really thought this was a bomb they would have evacuated the school and called the bomb squad. They had a kid that was irritating the teacher with a gadget, and called the police on him, handcuffed him and questioned him while denying him access to his parents. A society that thinks this is just fine have lost all touch with individual freedoms and civil rights.

  208. A brilliant invention. by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    I'd say the invention was quite brilliant.

    Let me see you build a device from a walmart clock and a pencil case, that will get you a nation-wide fame, invitation to the White House and Google, and a Quatar scholarship.
    It may be lousy at measuring time, or as a showcase of technical skill, but it was totally awesome at earning him publicity. Shun the technical side all you want, the clock was a true masterpiece of social engineering.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  209. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by jandersen · · Score: 2

    What would you suggest? I don't have a senator in my back pocket, and it's illegal to shoot the oligarchs.

    It may well be illegal to shoot the better off, even if they so richly deserve it, but there are other ways. Grassroots movements do actually achieve things, and the power of the internet is that it makes organising yourselves across the nation so easy. Now, I know what the first objection is going to be: "What chance do we have to even get off the ground, when [any of a number of reasons]?" There are many answers to that - one is: you never know until you try. Another is: look at the history of some of the movements that are now powerful; they all started out being seen as pathetic little things that would never fly. Somehow they managed to persuade enough people that they were worth following.

  210. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by theCzechGuy · · Score: 1

    Only if Trump was a race.

  211. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Making something that looks like a bomb to a teacher, pulling it out in every class, plugging it in, and setting the alarm to "go off" in class...

    Yeah, none of that was out of the ordinary behavior for a media attention troll...

  212. As a manager.... by codeButcher · · Score: 1

    .... I have to say, this looks like another win-win situation.

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
  213. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

    Because when I look for facts I choose okayafrica, wordpress and breitbart above all.

    --
    Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  214. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

    I didn't think to drag it out last night, but FYI, it's this model. The only difference is that mine has the fake woodgrain on the sides.

    Funny part is, the damned thing is probably worth more now ($20) than the original purchase price. The word "vintage" made me recoil a little, though :)

    Oh, and one correction - it was AM-only. I remember that because I once strung the internal antenna out to an aluminum window screen to try and get a better signal... managed to snag stations as far as 2-3 states away on a few nights when I did that.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  215. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    He put it in a hard case container for safety. Throwing it at the bottom of a soft bag would have been stupid.

  216. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get inv by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    Many girls have been suspended for "disrupting class" by having a skirt that didn't reach the knees, or a shoulder showing. Though I don't remember any escorted out by police.

  217. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're being stifled by women or people whining on the Internet the chances are you just suck at life.

    The Internet I couldn't give two shits about. It's when they dox your ass and start harassing you (and especially your employer) in real life that a pretty important line gets crossed.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  218. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    oh, interesting, I remember a clock very similar to that one.....

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  219. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

    Because when I look for facts I choose okayafrica, wordpress and breitbart above all.

    Well, facts exist in many places. Read the links and judge for yourself. If you find them inaccurate, let us know. But to simply dismiss arguments simply because of who makes them is an example of the ad hominem fallacy.

    I think it's especially true that valid information on controversial subjects often comes from non-mainstream sources. In this case, most of the media went with the consensus story, something like "Innocent boy is victim of Islamophobia." Only by digging deeper did some people discover the backstory of the family. Surely it is relevant that the father is a political activist, and that having his son be a victim of "Islamophobia" might help in his next campaign for president of Sudan? Surely it's interesting that the sister was expelled from the school district for a bomb threat, and might have a grudge?

    I read widely on this and realized that it was likely similar to the "Flying Imams" incident: Some Muslims do things which are technically innocent but calculated to look like a security threat, and then cry "Islamophobia!" when they authorities notice. The whole thing was a stunt.

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  220. Yup, I concur by Zeorge · · Score: 1

    It was a ploy and I even stated so to others and they were aghast that I would insinuate such a thing. Low and behold, I was right. This country needs a social media holiday for like a week, maybe some critical thinking will reappear.

  221. Buh Bye by AES84 · · Score: 1

    I would like to advise him to stay there too!

  222. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by GoCrazy · · Score: 1

    I also initially thought about how dumb his achievement was, but we also have to re-calibrate to what a 13 year old is capable of. If I, an 25 year old engineer, took a digital clockwork apart, put it in a metal box, and tied it with wire it's obviously a non-accomplishment. But a 13 year old might think it was cool.

    --
    No beer and no TV make Homer something something
  223. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    If you were able to comprehend what you read, you would know that I was challenging the premise of a "bomb facsimile". So simply stating that it was a bomb facsimile as if it is a fact is pointless.

    Being brown and Muslim doesn't mean you get to break the law as long as no one was in any real danger. No one would have given this story a second thought if the child had been white.

    Once again you seem to be completely missing the point of what is being argued. The argument is that *the reason* this clock was being portrayed as being a bomb facsimile is *because* the kid was muslim.

    Yes no one would have given it a second thought if the kid was white, including the teachers who would not have (hopefully) called the cops.

    Also, the *reason* a bomb facsimile is illegal is *because* it is *potentially* a real bomb. Which means that you are supposed to evacuate the school in the event of a bomb facsimile because you don't know it's not a real bomb until after the fact.

  224. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

    This is not subject to the ad hominem fallacy. I'm attacking the validity of facts on websites like wordpress where not only can facts be faked but also the person presenting the facts.

    Additionally, regardless of the fathers political ambitions, if a white male did this exact same thing would he have been led off in handcuffs? I wouldn't think so, so there is a point to be made.

    The fact remains that a kid with a clock in a briefcase was taken out of high school in handcuffs. Its hard to argue the school or police were in the right any way you look at it.

    --
    Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  225. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

    Nevertheless, you have not shown any of these facts to be incorrect.

    As for "it wouldn't have happened to a white person," nonsense. It happens to white people all the time. The kid who got in trouble for biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun was white. The college student who got in trouble for having a butter knife in her car (a "weapon on campus") was white. Plus, you are ignoring the fact that this was a stunt. The point was to get arrested and make a stink. That's why the kid did what he did, including plugging it in in class and setting the alarm, even after one teacher had told him to not show it to anyone. And then he was uncooperative with the police. And the famous picture of him with handcuffs was staged: the father insisted the handcuffs by put back on, so that a picture could be taken. Don't take a political stunt at face value.

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  226. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by jakimfett · · Score: 1

    And depression invoked suicides have killed more people than both put together. Did you have a point, or were you just spouting Islamophobia and random "Number A is larger than Number B"?

    17,891 deaths by terror attack in 2013.
    41,149 deaths by suicide in 2013 (in the US).

    Note that those figures for terror attacks may be just for the US, or they may be worldwide...I'm not bothering to check, because if they're just for the US, it means suicides outnumber terror attacks 2 to 1, and if it's NOT just for the US...it's a much worse ratio.

    Source(s):
    http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...
    http://www.who.int/mental_heal...
    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/n...

    --
    Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
  227. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    So my problem was paying attention to actual newspaper articles, rather than highly biased sources?

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  228. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    It makes no sense to pick up a suspected bomb and put it in a desk drawer, either. Everybody involved knew darn well it wasn't a bomb.

    The proper response if one has some reason to believe that it might possibly be a bomb is to leave it where it is, evacuate the building, and call in the police.

    Therefore, what the kid made was obviously not a bomb, and the kid claimed correctly that it was a clock, so where does this bomb threat idea come from?

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  229. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    If it looks enough like a bomb to be potentially scary, you don't touch it. You evacuate the building and call the bomb squad. You do NOT pick the thing up and put it in a drawer in your desk.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  230. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

    So my problem was paying attention to actual newspaper articles, rather than highly biased sources?

    Your problem was to assume that newspapers are not "highly biased sources."

    "Little does the public reck how much of the news it devours every day is manufactured by entrepreneurs. Not infrequently, I have detected as much as a whole page of it in the eminent Sunpaper, a journal more suspicious than most: it is far worse in others. One reads that the representative of a national organization is before Congress demanding this or that radical change in the laws, the plain fact is that the national organization consists of its representative -- that the rest of the members are simply dolts who have put up the money for his salary and expenses in order to bathe themselves in the glare of his publicity. One hears that a million children in Abyssinia are starving, that a fund of $5,000,000 is being raised to succor them, that Baltimore's quota is $216.000, the plain fact is that an accomplished drive manager has got a new job. One hears that "the women of the United States" are up in arms about this or that; the plain fact is that eight fat women, meeting in a hotel parlor, have decided to kick up some dust." —from “The Uplift as a Trade" by H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, March 2, 1915

    “The average newspaper, especially of the better sort, has the intelligence of a hillbilly evangelist, the courage of a rat, the fairness of a prohibitionist boob-jumper, the information of a high school janitor, the taste of a designer of celluloid valentines, and the honor of a police-station lawyer.” H.L. Mencken

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  231. What is exactly "innovative"... by Lotharus · · Score: 1

    ...about removing the insides from one box and putting them in another box in a much poorer, haphazard, looks-like-a-bomb-to-stupid-people way? Ahmed certainly shouldn't have been arrested for his act, but he sure as heck doesn't deserve any STEM-oriented praise, either.

  232. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Do you think that if he were white they'd have arrested him in the first place? Travesties of justice disproportionally fall on members of other races.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  233. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Except that if anybody involved thought it was a bomb, they should be fired for incompetence. The school was not evacuated. The device was not dealt with by the bomb squad (who do try to detonate stuff without explosives in it now and then). Instead, the "bomb" wound up in the teacher's desk drawer, so that if it was she'd be sure to go.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  234. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    It didn't look like a bomb. Everyone who dealt with it knew it wasn't a bomb. The teacher picked it up and put it in her desk drawer. Nobody suggested evacuating the school.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  235. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    The question is not about whether the school can do whatever, the question is about police activities. They are required to comply with the law.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  236. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    If it was possibly a bomb, why did the teacher pick it up, put it in her desk drawer, and not evacuate the school?

    Nobody took it for a bomb.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  237. Re:And a TERROIST IS BORNE from this! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Correction: the device was known to be definitely not a bomb, so the school was protecting the students from absolutely nothing. If they had thought it might possibly be a bomb, they would have evacuated the building, rather than put it in a desk drawer.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  238. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Why did you bother to source irrelevant information? What do depression related suicides have to do with terrorist bombings?

  239. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Absolutely I do.

  240. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    I am not even just talking about the teachers, who I agree with you, obviously either knew it wasn't a bomb, or are the dumbest people on the planet. I am talking about all the people weighing in on whether they think the device looks like a bomb, despite having zero clues about what a real life bomb actually looks like.

  241. Re:Columbine? by Whorhay · · Score: 1

    Actually school shootings, even here in the USA, are very rare. In 2009 - 2010 there were almost 99,000 public schools in the USA, and who knows how many private schools. Tens of millions, in the neighborhood of 76m, kids attend school in this country every school day and how many of them are involved in a shooting? We might hear about what little violence does occur in the media constantly but the odds of anyone you know being involved in such an incident are very long.

  242. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by jakimfett · · Score: 1

    Why did I bother? Because facts should be sourced.

    Why did I bring these particular facts in the first place? Because I was pointing out that anyone can say "This particular number is bigger than the number you're talking about" (as you did with the IRA deaths vs Islamic terrorists comment)...but that doesn't necessarily make it relevant. I even said as much in my comment.

    Suicides aren't necessarily directly related to terrorism related deaths, although they do share the rather significant similar factor of death.

    In this case, I'm also obliquely making the point that depression and suicide are a significantly bigger problem than terrorism (if a US citizen dies, they've got a 0.00061% chance it's from terrorism...and a 1.58% chance it's from suicide), and we in America are kinda idiots to ignore this.

    Regardless of the motives of the kid who took apart the clock, regardless of whether or not it was random chance or a precisely calculated media blitz by someone trying to grab the spotlight...the fact remains that a kid got arrested because he had a box full of wires that may or may not have looked like a thing that actually kills or injurs less than 0.00071% of all humans, worldwide...and meanwhile, we've got depressed kids (and adults!) in every single school in our nation.

    tl;dr version: We're severely overreacting to terrorism (especially in schools), and severely under-reacting to other causes of death.

    Sources:
    http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...
    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/n...
    http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...

    --
    Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
  243. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Bartles · · Score: 1

    That's all wonderful. But this thread is about terrorism. Both Islamic bombings and the IRA were mentioned. I provided information relating the two. Old age causes a lot more deaths than depression, why don't you provide data and sources for that too? You may be eloquent and prolific with your words, that does not make them relevant.

  244. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

    I guess that makes it all Ok then and those terrorism caused deaths are an acceptable loss. You are a fucking idiot.
    I seriously doubt your figures too.

    --
    The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
  245. Re:The comments here are fucking depressing to rea by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

    When I first started reading your comment I thought I might just write a rebuttal. I decided upon finishing it to just tell you to go and fuck off.

    --
    The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
  246. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Krishnoid · · Score: 2

    I was extremely careful about it, but that didn't stop her from issuing an ultimatum: re-assemble it into full working order, or get my ass beat into oblivion. I had three minutes to spare once I demonstrated it's functionality to her satisfaction.

    In one sentence, you managed to beat out every bomb-defusing scene in every movie I've ever watched. Sir, I would like to buy the rights to your story and make it into a short film :-)

  247. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    Claim are made the sister Suspended for three days, this from a rabid right wing politicians web site http://www.allenbwest.com/2015... becomes expelled for bomb scares. Typical pseudo religious, pseudo conservative bullshit, lies upon lies upon lies. If I had a child who had correctly designed and connected the circuits of a clock and was arrested and accused of terrorism, I would also with out hesitation leave the country, next time he could have half a dozen out of control law enforcers empty their magazine into the child's chest and half the surrounding landscape. Choke on your hatred and bile, just as you choke your country with it. What can you celebrate, the most hated murderous regime on the planet, far outdoing all the rest of the world combined in destruction of the planet and of humanity. Raging greed and hate, how about the white girl who had a circuit board on her T-Shirt, responce from 'your kind' of crazed law enforcement, "She was lucky I did not shoot her in the head".

    The reality is most of the attack was based around failed jock strap douche bags who hate computer geeks and nerds, jealous of their intelligence. No real threat just wanted to stick it to a smart ass, typical jack ass response. Why the huge offence because any one who rejects American exceptionlism who does not support America Number 1, no matter where they come from in the world or who they are must be attacked, must be denigrated, must be abused. Just crawl away you lead head http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi..., you are just so pathetically what the love of motor vehicles turned you into, a society and culture poisoned by the toys they loved more than any other country. Actually physically poisoned, not some simile - less caring, less understanding and less morale, as a result of inhaling all those tetraethyl lead fumes, ahh, do you smell the stink of that irony for what you did to yourselves and why your society is abusing the rest of the world in such a criminal fashion. Who wouldn't leave given a great opportunity, well, I suppose leads heads wouldn't.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  248. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by houghi · · Score: 1

    OK. So the kid was race-baiting and made them believe he had a bomb. I can believe that.

    So then why was the school not evacuated? Why did the teacher keep this dangerous device in her desk? So eithe she thought is was a bomb and handled incorrectly by keeping the danger with the other kids, or she thought it was not a bomb and overreacted by calling the cops.

    If it was race baiting, why did she fall for it? They could handle it by suspending the boy or whatever after making it clear that race-baiting is not allowed.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  249. Re: Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invi by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    There was no mention of Muslims in that trickle of words.

  250. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    Can someone explain to me why my post has been modded troll?

  251. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by Triklyn · · Score: 1

    i would say that just because someone sucks at trying to kill you, doesn't mean it's not attempted murder. Like the underwear bomber.

    just because it doesn't do a terribly good job of being a bomb scare, doesn't mean it's not in bomb-scare territory. Like if someone brought a toy gun into school and started to pretend to shoot it at people, and it had that terrible orange tag on the end still...

    i imagine they would frown on that too, even though "obviously it's a toy"

    Hey wait, lets say a kid 3d prints a replica handgun. spray paints it black, poorly. then brings it into school, and shows it to his shop teacher, who knows what it is and tells him he shouldn't wave it around, and then pretends to shoot it at a classmate in a class whose teacher doesn't know what it is?

    i imagine most people would say, yeah, give that kid something to think about, arrest him, make him remember that those kinds of jokes are in poor taste. And a certain subset read gun, and just thought, lynch the fucker. :)

  252. Clocks for Social Good by arduinoenigma · · Score: 1

    This event inspired the hackaday.io community to build entries for the Clocks for Social Good list. Some are very ingenious.

  253. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    Like if someone brought a toy gun into school and started to pretend to shoot it at people, and it had that terrible orange tag on the end still...

    Either you have reason to believe it's a real gun and evacuate the school or you believe it's a fake gun and discipline the kid.

    That's like saying "We think there is a leak in the nuclear reactor, but we aren't sure, so we didn't evacuate anybody, and we just gave the owner a fine".

    Hey wait, lets say a kid 3d prints a replica handgun. spray paints it black, poorly. then brings it into school, and shows it to his shop teacher, who knows what it is and tells him he shouldn't wave it around, and then pretends to shoot it at a classmate in a class whose teacher doesn't know what it is?

    Then you evacuate the fucking school because for all you know a kid is waiving a real gun around.

    i imagine most people would say, yeah, give that kid something to think about, arrest him, make him remember that those kinds of jokes are in poor taste. And a certain subset read gun, and just thought, lynch the fucker. :)

    I'd say arrest the teacher who decided to waste thousands of dollars in tax payer money just to teach a kid a lesson (something that's the school's job).

    If bringing a kid bringing a fake gun to school is in bad taste, what is it when an adult perpetuates the prank by calling the cops even if he knows it's fake?