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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.

85 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.

      --
      Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
    3. Re:OK lets be real by jabberw0k · · Score: 3, Funny

      More time to spend playing Qatar Hero.

    4. 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'?

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

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

    6. 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)

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

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

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    8. Re:OK lets be real by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What difference, at this point, does it make?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    9. 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.

    10. 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.

  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. 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!

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  6. 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.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    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 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.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  7. 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...

  8. 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.

  9. 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?

  10. 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.
  11. 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.

  12. 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.........
  13. 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.
  14. 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

  15. 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.

  16. 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 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
  17. 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 hambone142 · · Score: 2

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

  18. 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.

  19. 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.
  20. 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?
  21. 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.

  22. 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
  23. 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?
  24. 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.

  25. 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
  26. 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?
  27. 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.
  28. 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)

  29. 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.
  30. 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.

  31. 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.

  32. 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.

  33. 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.

  34. 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."
  35. 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.

  36. 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!”
  37. 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.

  38. 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.

  39. 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
  40. 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 ?
  41. 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.

  42. 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.

  43. 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.

  44. 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?
  45. Re:Remove casing from a Wallmart clock - get invit by konohitowa · · Score: 2

    The irony in your post is so painful.

  46. 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!
  47. 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.

  48. 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.

  49. 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.
  50. 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.

  51. 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.

  52. 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.

  53. 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...
  54. 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.........
  55. 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.

  56. 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.

  57. 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.

  58. 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.
  59. 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
  60. 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.

  61. 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.
  62. 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.

  63. 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?
  64. 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.
  65. 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.

  66. 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.

  67. 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.

  68. 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?
  69. 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 :-)