9th Grader Arrested in Houston for making ... a clock.

[Kjelt]

Kjelt
Nice how you leave out the truth,
The  official's broke their own law

You post some law, I read that law and frankly it makes sense for airports and such. What truth did I leave out?
BTW just to repost: I agree it is rediculous that they arrested him.

[Kjelt]

$64000 tv show question: what is inside the case?

A) a clock
B) a hoaxbomb
C) WTF?
D) all of the above.

[C]

author=Kjelt link=topic=55216.msg757352#msg757352 date=1442521761]

Kjelt
Nice how you leave out the truth,
The  official's broke their own law

You post some law, I read that law and frankly it makes sense for airports and such. What truth did I leave out?
BTW just to repost: I agree it is rediculous that they arrested him.
[/quote]
that the officials break the law and then claim someone else did.
That the Officials are making the law happen

C

[Kjelt]

Sorry can,t follow you, which law did they break?

[Stonent]

Oh and  word about Irving, Texas. Last year some group was trying to petition the local government to allow Muslims to have their own Sharia courts to enforce Muslim law but have the outcomes legally enforceable by the government.

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/muslims-are-angry-at-texas-mayor-after-she-stops-sharia-court-here-is-her-epic-response/

Bogus story from a well known right wing political hack site.

Unsurprisingly the same Mayor is defending the  police on their arrest of Ahmed.

IMO these kind of bogus stories and stereotype baiting websites (from right or left) just feed the hysteria, fear and hate which is dividing and destroying society. 

Texas has a lot of diversity and unfortunately people like this Mayor only feed into the stereotypes..

I live in the general area and it was local news.

[Kjelt]

Another question , how come a mains powered clock starts beeping in english class?

[HP-ILnerd]

There is a problem of the magnitude of the perceived threat.  Americans are orders of magnitude more likely to kill each other with guns (>11,000/year) or themselves (add another ~20k/year) than anything terrorists have collectively done.  Basically three 9/11's worth a year in gun homicide, yet hardly anyone blinks at it.  Politicians rarely mention it.  Yet we find plenty of people scrambling to back up authorities who thought a scrawny 14-year old in big glasses and a NASA t-shirt was super scary.

Fun facts:  http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/aug/27/nicholas-kristof/more-americans-killed-guns-1968-all-wars-says-colu/

Terrorists are mostly trying to scare people/nations into changing their behavior because they are too weak to force them to.  But even by that measure, compared to the constant-crises "IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU" media, they're all rank amateurs.

[continuo]

FWIW: Today I showed the picture of that clock device to my mother (50 yo, she has no interest in electronics but loves to watch movies) and asked her what she thought it was. She looked at it, pondered a while, shrug her shoulders and replied she had no idea. Probably a pile of electronics waste or something like that. She would have never thought anyone would consider that to be a bomb... 

[AF6LJ]

A drop in the bucket compared to all the other ways Americans die.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death

(Annual Causes of Death, By Cause)
Cause of death (Data from 2013 unless otherwise noted)    Number
   
All Causes    2,596,993
   
Major Cardiovascular Diseases [MCD]    796,494
   Cerebrovascular Diseases [subset of MCD]       128,978
   Essential Hypertension and Hypertensive Renal Disease [subset of MCD]       30,770
Malignant Neoplasms [Cancer]    584,881
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases    149,205
Accidents (Unintentional Injuries) [Total]    130,557
   Motor Vehicle Accidents [subset of Total Accidents]       35,369
Alzheimer's Disease    84,767
Diabetes Mellitus    75,578
Influenza and Pneumonia    56,979
Nephritis, Nephrotic Syndrome and Nephrosis    47,112
Drug-Induced Deaths1    46,471
Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide)    41,149
Septicemia    38,156
Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis    36,427
   Alcoholic Liver Disease [subset of Chronic Liver Disease]       18,146
Injury by Firearms    33,636
Alcohol-Induced Deaths    29,001
Parkinson's Disease    25,196
Pneumonitis Due to Solids and Liquids    18,579
Homicide    16,121
Viral Hepatitis    8,157
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Disease    6,955
All Illicit Drugs Combined (2000)2    17,0002
Cannabis (Marijuana)3    0

2013 Data Detailing Drug-Induced Deaths,
Breaking Out Specific Data for Prescription Analgesics and Heroin,
as Reported by the CDC4
Drug Overdose Total    43,982
Prescription Analgesics Total    16,235
Heroin Overdose Total    8,257       Combination of Heroin and Prescription Opioid Analgesics (subset of those two categories)       1,342

2010 Drug Overdose Mortality Data In Detail,
Reported By Paulozzi et al.5
Drug Overdose Total    38,329
Pharmaceutical Drugs    22,134
Pharmaceutical Opioid Analgesics    16,651

[Rasz]

And BTW did the teacher, the school and/or the police actually apologize to this boy?

so far school principal publicly apologized to the POLICE for negative PR that might affect them ...

[HP-ILnerd]

A drop in the bucket compared to all the other ways Americans die.

I was trying to compare intentional deaths with intentional deaths, but sure.  This only backs up my point.  Terrorism is perceived as a threat worthy of the expenditure of many billions of dollars, but a commensurate amount is not expended on curing Heart Disease, which will kill like a 1/3rd of everybody.

Nice stat on how deadly marijuana is too. 

[AF6LJ]

A drop in the bucket compared to all the other ways Americans die.

I was trying to compare intentional deaths with intentional deaths, but sure.  This only backs up my point.  Terrorism is perceived as a threat worthy of the expenditure of many billions of dollars, but a commensurate amount is not expended on curing Heart Disease, which will kill like a 1/3rd of everybody.

Nice stat on how deadly marijuana is too. 

The point I was making is there are far more deadly things than a chunk of steel that spits out led on command.

Back to our orginal topic...
To compare and contrast; from the state that often defines incompetence; there is this from LA...
http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Autistic-Boy-Dies-Hot-Bus-38426508

[edy]

When I was that age I used to take things apart all the time, and put them back together... Often in various different configurations.

Once I took an old rotary phone like this:



And disassembled it, and wired it all back together inside of a toilet plunger like this:



The rotary dialer was positioned into the opening at the bottom of the toilet plunger. The "hook" was mounted to the side, and the cord came out the back where the wooden handle screws into the rubber plunger.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun keeping track of all the wires (it was a complete analog mess)!

[zapta]

Those rotary phones were very complex inside, even though you could make it to work with just the dialer mechanism and the headset (connecting the dialer switch, the microphone and the speaker in series).

I never understood why the are so complex.

[Bickenheuser]

Ladies and Gentleman,  Another example of “You can't fix STUPID”
Stupid educators and police.

Ahmed Mohammed, I wish You the very best.

[edy]

Those rotary phones were very complex inside, even though you could make it to work with just the dialer mechanism and the headset (connecting the dialer switch, the microphone and the speaker in series).

I never understood why the are so complex.

Yes, they were very fun and complex.... and filled with lots of colored wires! See this link:

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/51



So they would definitely make people think it was a bomb!    Quick... which color wire do I cut! 


One has to wonder (although I wouldn't be surprised) if the fact that his name was "Ahmed Mohammed" may have contributed to his arrest, and if it would have happened if he was named "Bobby Winchester". 

[dr.diesel]

I was trying to compare intentional deaths with intentional deaths

I consider Smoking, alcoholism and obesity deaths intentional.

[Macbeth]

Those rotary phones were very complex inside, even though you could make it to work with just the dialer mechanism and the headset (connecting the dialer switch, the microphone and the speaker in series).

I never understood why the are so complex.

Well, you could just use the hookswitch to tap out the numbers the same frequency as the pulse dial mech. One method to get around payphones and parental dial key locks back in the 80's.

You should really take a look at the Strowger switch racks at the exchange the other end of the phone if you think the old telephones are complex 

Amazing to think the phone companies persisted with these well into the early '90s.  (as an ex phreaker I know!)

[TimFox]

Quoting Phil Rosenthal, the humor columnist on the Chicago Tribune's business page (Sept 17, 2015):
" ...  To be fair, some people are unaccustomed to seeing time move forward."

[edy]

I also modified by camera on this instructable here, which kind of made it look bomb-like:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Blackberry-Battery-Canon-Camera-Ring-Light-Hack/



A previous version had more wires kind of sticking out of the yellow battery holder (which looks like "dynamite sticks". The wires were spiral-curly looking things, 2 different colors, running to a switch. Imagine I added a small count-down self-timer LED segment display!

I figured I would never be able to take my camera on an airline somewhere to take macro-ring lighted photography on vacation! Especially if I ever boarded a plane to the USA... that camera would definitely alarm everyone in security.

Sort of like this story which just happened last week in Toronto:

http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/teen-charged-after-bringing-time-bomb-alarm-clock-in-carry-on-bag-to-torontos-pearson-airport

They say it turned out to be a novelty alarm clock that looked like several sticks of dynamite bound together with a timer.

Yeah, definitely don't want to bring anything to the airport.... nobody will bother to ask you whether it is real or not before you face-slam the ground.

[AF6LJ]

Here is a bomb like picture....


And some evil looking parts that look bomb-ish..

[TimFox]

The young man committed an offense that no school administrator or police official can forgive:  making a laughingstock out of the authorities.

[edy]

I was lucky... I went to a high-school that was full of nerds. We had computers, electronics labs, great science teachers. We competed in competitions with other schools. Nobody even thought twice about anything you bring in. The teachers knew who you were.... Nerds were not "socially isolated loners" because there were lots of them who shared interests. We had a math club, science club, etc...

I don't know anything about the school that Ahmed attended, but I wonder if not one teacher or student or anyone else surrounding this boy not stand up for his character? Not say to anyone that they know him and that he is completely in character, showing off one of his nerdy creations? Could nobody explain or at least listen to this boy explain or demonstrate this electronic device (which seems to have no explosive material in it whatsoever, just circuits)? Could not anyone figure this out before police showed up and arrested him and took him away in hand-cuffs.... With an awesome photo to boot!?!?!

Come on! This didn't happen in 2 seconds. They must have had at least 10-20 minutes or longer before police arrived to sit and talk and get other people involved. Or did they just sound the "panic button" and evacuate the entire class and school and run away from him?

[alien_douglas]

Is it time for another story??  You bet.
I used to work for Westpac Bank here in New Zealand (Pre 9/11). One of the money market Dealers nickname was 'Bomber'. And after some time working there I found out why.
A group of Dealers where going to fly across to the US and a couple of them decided to play a prank on 'Bomber'.
They found a discarded piece  of electronics from the old Dealing Room phone system, wrapped some red insulation tape around it and secretly dropped it into 'Bombers' carry on bag at the airport.
Well you can guess what happened when he went through the security checkpoint.
All I can say is that it was lucky that 9/11 had not happened yet.. Airport security did see the joke in the end. 'Bomber' didn't 

Go Ahmed!

Alien

[zapta]

Well, you could just use the hookswitch to tap out the numbers the same frequency as the pulse dial mech. One method to get around payphones and parental dial key locks back in the 80's.

I was very good at that, spent too much time hacking public phones, including building small portable digital dialers. I didn't have a scope or counter at the time so also got good at counting the pulses.

Then I figured out that inserting a resistor in series with the connection to ground defeats the coin drop signal that was sent between the two phone lines and ground.

Some of that stuff really justified an arrest but there was no malice involved, just technical curiosity.