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

[setishock]

I personally don't care what color your skin is or where your background is rooted. I know some real sharp young people that would put engineers to shame. These kids should be encouraged not put down.
He was proud of what he had cobbled together and in perfect youthful innocence took it to school to show off. His skin color and ethnic roots made him a target of unfounded suspicion.
His being walked out in cuffs in front of his classmates and teachers is humiliating and above everything else, be grounds for a lawsuit.

I read about these things all to often. Some days I'm embarrassed to be a human being. I weep for our species. 

[Richard Crowley]

In a country where simply drawing a picture of a firearm, or even pointing your finger like a "gun" will get you hauled before the "authorities", having a working circuit with moving 7-segment digits looks exactly like a bomb to anyone who watches TV. The really unfortunate thing is that we are trusting the education of the next generation to these politically-correct fools.

[sleemanj]

Such over-reaction is par for the course it seems in the US, especially the further south you go.

An appropriate reaction would have been for the teacher to say:
'great effort mate, but it kinda looks a bit like a bomb and this will freak some people out which would make for a really bad day, how about I keep it here in the office and you can collect it to take home after school; could I interest you in doing a presentation about your hobby, I think lots of people would be interested, maybe we can get an electronics club started'

Not:
'you have the right to remain silent....'

[EEVblog]

The population of Canada will spike if this happens and I'll be the first one over the border.

What's the deal with the US/Canadian border?
Can you guys just move there and live/work and vise-versa?

[hamster_nz]

Listen carefully to the ending in the video.  He says he did not put a lock on it because that would look like a threat.  He knew what he was doing, he knew it looked like a bomb. 

https://youtu.be/3mW4w0Y1OXE?t=85

My bet is the 3 day suspension will hold up. 

I agree the police over reacted but they are not electronic people and probably do not know that they could have gotten on this forum and found out is seconds that it was not a bomb.  I suggest someone contact the police and give this this forum's email address and an offer for us to help them in the future. 

As a matter of fact maybe someone can write an app where the police can upload photos to this forum.  They would get an expert answer in 5 minutes.  Comments?

Stupid kid, stupid teacher, stupid police,but maybe the school did the right thing
I think the kid put a nail into his coffin in the video, he confesses that it looked like a bomb.

How can you be serious - smart kid, stupid everybody else.

Soon it will get to the point where you can arrest any kid with a backpack, after all that could be a bomb!

Just wait until they mandate see-through backpacks for schools. - like this one



After all kids should have nothing to hide, so why not?

And while you are at it, you might as well ban everything with a battery.



 Too much energy in one place - it might be used as an incendiary device.

[linux-works]

Listen carefully to the ending in the video.  He says he did not put a lock on it because that would look like a threat.  He knew what he was doing, he knew it looked like a bomb. 

https://youtu.be/3mW4w0Y1OXE?t=85

he kid put a nail into his coffin in the video, he confesses that it looked like a bomb.

not my read at all.  he did avoid making it look 'scary' as much as he could.  that's pretty good thinking, at that age.  so, are we arguing that he should have gone farther and spent even more engineering effort on de-scary-izing (new word!) a design or build?

so that would be, let's see, 20% spent on the power supply, 30% spent on the processing system, 30% spent on firmware, 10% spent on making it less scary to ignorant yet powerful fools, what are we up to, so far?  are we at 100 yet?  did I allocate enough for de-scary-izing the chassis?  add more, maybe?

[linux-works]

The population of Canada will spike if this happens and I'll be the first one over the border.

What's the deal with the US/Canadian border?
Can you guys just move there and live/work and vise-versa?

nope.

in fact, a guy at work told a story about how he had a DUI (driving while under influence, drunk) on his background, many years ago (clean since) and when he went to enter canada for a short vacation, he was refused entry.  I think forever.  they ban your ass if you had a DUI, here, at least that's what I was told.  I think I was told; maybe it was a dream, or a drunken haze, or maybe even an ice cream headache....

[rx8pilot]

(I know it's a jerk comment)

The hell it is... It perfectly explains it. 

Having lived there I would disagree.
I would have expected this to happen in the people's republic of Kalifornia.

First, Irving is Dallas - not Houston.

Second, I lived in Houston for 20+ years and the last 10 years in California. In addition to that, I have traveled the world, primarily for work. Stupid shit like this happens everywhere there are people. Being so narrow minded to think this is normal or expected in Texas or California is hilarious and not too different from what led to this tragic event in the first place.

If you are appalled, you should also be appalled with yourself.

[linux-works]

like it or not, texas has a rep.

its been there a LONG time and none of us, here, are making shit up.

stop denying it.  this is typical texas attitude.

you can't fix it until you admit you have a problem.  and texas has 'issues'.  lets talk about it and stop denying it.

[Richard Crowley]

Those kinds of things happen with unfortunate regularity in EVERY state.
It is the education "industry" that has the reputation for a chronic deficit of common sense.

[DrGeoff]

Doesn't look any different from the Middle Ages. Anyone who possessed anything representing intelligence was called a witch. In any region where the average IQ is low, intelligence is viewed with suspicion, since it is an 'unknown' to the greater population. Plenty of examples through history of that.

[ErikTheNorwegian]

Doesn't look any different from the Middle Ages. Anyone who possessed anything representing intelligence was called a witch. In any region where the average IQ is low, intelligence is viewed with suspicion, since it is an 'unknown' to the greater population. Plenty of examples through history of that.

Amen,  to that!   

[Red Squirrel]

This is the kind of world we live in now, and it seems to be like this everywhere. Even here in Canada we have the "terrorist until proven innocent" stuff going on now. (though I have not really seen it in action yet, it's still early).  Governments are using terrorism as a way to control people.    It's cops/government that are actually the real terrorists now days.  It seems anyone who tries to be "different" than the norm by partaking in less typical hobbies are often victims.  Government does not like people who know too much stuff unless they are millionaires.  Kinda same idea as how Kevin Mitnick ended up in a maximum security prison for non violent crime.

[pickle9000]

The population of Canada will spike if this happens and I'll be the first one over the border.

What's the deal with the US/Canadian border?
Can you guys just move there and live/work and vise-versa?

The border is not quite as easy to cross as it used to be (you need a passport now). Prior to that only basic ID was required. Technically you do need government approval to stay long term but in reality it is done all the time. Work is another matter, to work legally you need approval.

I can honestly say that a parcel shipped to Canada is inspected more than a person. There are also locations where you can simply walk in or out and may or may not even have a camera monitoring the location. It's actually easier to have things shipped in from China then from a US location. Canada is considered a "terrorist waypoint" by the US and it is certainly harder to go south than come north.

[Armxnian]

like it or not, texas has a rep.

its been there a LONG time and none of us, here, are making shit up.

stop denying it.  this is typical texas attitude.

you can't fix it until you admit you have a problem.  and texas has 'issues'.  lets talk about it and stop denying it.

You're doing exactly what the authorities in the story did: generalizing. Not every person named Ahmad is a terrorist. Not everyone in Texas is a racist and religious zealot.

You don't fix the region, you fix the species.

[linux-works]

Those kinds of things happen with unfortunate regularity in EVERY state.

no, its not just 'everywhere'.  there are, lets call them 'bermuda triangles of ignorance' in various places in the US (I'm sure other countries have some anti-progressive parts to them).  texas is right smack in the center of one of those triangles, so to speak.  whenever there is a denial of evolution, texas is often right in the middle of it (or kansas).  when its about xenophobia, texas is right there to make the news.  when its about closing down womens health clinics, texas takes the lead.  pretty much establishing state religion, yup, texas is there for that goal, too.

an elephant in the room is to admit that we have problem areas that have not made the jump from the last century to this one, or even could be from 2 centuries ago.

go visit fark.com and read headlines and look at the locales.  do that for a week and see if you notice any recurring patterns.  you can really learn a lot from reading news parody-style sites and see all the different views from the posters, all over the world.  no one holds back and you see a spectrum of opinions.  see how well texas does, even over just a week or two of headlines.  compare that to other states.  who has the weirdest shit happening.  the stuff that drops your jaw. and from what areas of the country is that coming from.

and so, you could start to read headlines, try to guess where its coming from and see how often you guessed right. 

and do the whackos have local support?  yes!  that's what makes it worse.  its not just an out-lier.  people doing stupid shit in backwater towns (or states) seem to get away with it if its 'part of their heritage'.  don't get me started on THAT.

[linux-works]

like it or not, texas has a rep.

its been there a LONG time and none of us, here, are making shit up.

stop denying it.  this is typical texas attitude.

you can't fix it until you admit you have a problem.  and texas has 'issues'.  lets talk about it and stop denying it.

You're doing exactly what the authorities in the story did: generalizing. Not every person named Ahmad is a terrorist. Not everyone in Texas is a racist and religious zealot.

You don't fix the region, you fix the species.

no, you fix the region.

we did it in the US civil war.  it took longer than we expected, but we did win that one.

there is still a lot of backward thinking people and they do seem to congregate and remain in various areas of the country.  don't deny this, everyone knows there are red and blue areas, so to speak.  its a fact, and denying that there are at least 2 (or more) americas is part of the problem.

we do not all think the same way.  some are progressive and some are regressive.  its not horizontal and I'm not trying to be PC.  quite the contrary. I'm 'going there' and talking about the thing that is not to be talked about.

we need to fix attitudes and the 'heritage' factor is one thing that needs to be fixed.  'he is not one of us' is part of that heritage attitude and its regressive.  it needs to be fixed.  there is no if's and's or but's about it.

if we deny we have a problem, we cannot start to address and fix it.

[Richard Crowley]

no, its not just 'everywhere'.  there are, lets call them 'bermuda triangles of ignorance' in various places in the US (I'm sure other countries have some anti-progressive parts to them).

I regret to say that I live in a state famous for its "progressive" politics, and that kind of stupid reaction is exactly the kind of thing you could expect around here wherever there are politically-correct school officials and liberal teachers running things.

[Armxnian]

like it or not, texas has a rep.

its been there a LONG time and none of us, here, are making shit up.

stop denying it.  this is typical texas attitude.

you can't fix it until you admit you have a problem.  and texas has 'issues'.  lets talk about it and stop denying it.

You're doing exactly what the authorities in the story did: generalizing. Not every person named Ahmad is a terrorist. Not everyone in Texas is a racist and religious zealot.

You don't fix the region, you fix the species.

no, you fix the region.

we did it in the US civil war.  it took longer than we expected, but we did win that one.

there is still a lot of backward thinking people and they do seem to congregate and remain in various areas of the country.  don't deny this, everyone knows there are red and blue areas, so to speak.  its a fact, and denying that there are at least 2 (or more) americas is part of the problem.

we do not all think the same way.  some are progressive and some are regressive.  its not horizontal and I'm not trying to be PC.  quite the contrary. I'm 'going there' and talking about the thing that is not to be talked about.

we need to fix attitudes and the 'heritage' factor is one thing that needs to be fixed.  'he is not one of us' is part of that heritage attitude and its regressive.  it needs to be fixed.  there is no if's and's or but's about it.

if we deny we have a problem, we cannot start to address and fix it.

Wow, you use the Civil War like it was a great solution to a problem. Let's solve other things by eliminating everyone who disagrees with us. Sad part is, after half a million dead people, the problem still exists today.

Do you actually think you will fix the world's problems by tackling a single problem, in a single area, one at a time? We've tried that and its failed. We have all of history to prove it.

Generalizing and labeling people, whether in a specific area or not, is the first mistake, and is the root cause of many issues we have had in the past and today.

No one is denying problems. You don't fix current and future problems by throwing a racist in jail. Bad habits always come back. The only way to prevent future problems and solve current ones is to have a population who can rationally think for themsleves and think scientifically.

[GNU_Ninja]

Ludicrous ... What happened to plain and simple common sense? 

[Delta]

The irony of the self-righteous here is extremely amusing.  "Texans are so stoopid they think every muslim is a terrorist!"

[rx8pilot]

like it or not, texas has a rep.

its been there a LONG time and none of us, here, are making shit up.

stop denying it.  this is typical texas attitude.

you can't fix it until you admit you have a problem.  and texas has 'issues'.  lets talk about it and stop denying it.

Wow.

Texas is a massive place with an enormous number of people from every corner of the earth. You are the one that creates this "rep" you write about even though you clearly do not know every person in Texas. You know of the people that make the news which are always the on the fringes of society. This is true anywhere in the world - the weird and crazy make the headlines. In the case of Texas - there are 27 million people which ensures there will be an enormous variety.

Again, those who generalize the way you are is dangerous to the positive progress of society.

[timb]

Anytime I read a headline line this, I instantly think, "Has to be Florida or Texas." Several hundred stories and I haven't been wrong once. Not once.




Sent from my Tablet

[Mechanical Menace]

I had an Irish surname in school the 80s/90s and even with the weekly to monthly IRA bomb threats we had local I never had this sort of problem. And I was into chemistry and making rockets ffs...

“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for?

Probably the same reason I used to make carriage clocks. For the challenge of half accurately telling the fecking time with something you've built yourself. What's so hard to understand about that?

[linux-works]

Texas is a massive place with an enormous number of people from every corner of the earth. You are the one that creates this "rep" you write about even though you clearly do not know every person in Texas.

deniers gonna deny.

just like evolution.  texas, overall, denies that, too.

again, truth hurts.  I get that.  but denying it won't help fix it.

and I'm not saying 100% of everyone there is like that.   don't be absurd. but cultural areas DO have trends and belief systems and this is what I'm speaking to.  until very recently, the confederate flag continued to be tolerated in the south.  this was not helping and the south had to be pulled, yelling and screaming, into the modern era.

this is not about 'heritage'.  its about being on the wrong side of history.  and texas has a history of always picking the wrong sides.  their arrogance stops them from joining the modern era.

news stories like this flow from texas and the south.  that lady who insisted on being thrown into jail because she held onto her backwards belief systems even when the rest of the country finally got with the program.  her stubborn attitude - and the fact that her locale generally still backs her - is the kind of thing I'm referring to.  this happens overwhelmingly in the south.