Quote:Well... someone did say the world was going to end in September!
People keep thinking this was a briefcase sized thing (How did he fit it in his backpack?). It's the size of a pencil box (a pencil box was used as a case in fact I believe).
Students should be encouraged for this sort of thing. Taking things apart, and learning how they work is a good way to learn. I know my wife has a student in one of her classes who loves doing that sort of thing, and even though my wife knows absolutely nothing about most electronics she's always up to listening to her student talk to her about it. Students need encouragement, especially when they don't get it from home. But even when they do, getting input from a teacher on a project, or even advice is a great help. I know growing up I had teachers who encouraged me. One thing our teachers need to be doing is encouraging kids. It's not always easy, because class sizes are getting outrageous.
Absolutely these kids should be encouraged to to this sort of thing. Ever since I was a young kid I was taking things apart and experimenting. I can remember blowing fuses (as opposed to tripping a breaker) in my home as a youngster while messing with electronic stuff.
We should look at one important matter as it relates to politics and this story. Our current education system is in serious trouble, and something like common core doesn't solve anything. This story also highlights what we should be teaching our children. It should be a 21st Century education, not a 20th Century education. Nobody is saying that the basics are not important, but someone that graduates from high school should be better prepared to enter into an entry level job, and should have the basic fundamentals of how this world works right now. These kids today know how to use the smart phones that many of them possess. They can operate and use a "smart TV" or a DVD player better than most "older" people can. It's often brought up about working for McDonnalds and how that's an entry position into the working world. What do companies like fast food restaurants use? It's not a cash register like what I grew up with, it's a computer.
What if kids graduating knew not only how that computer works in the fast food restaurant, what if they knew how the computer that runs most modern cars on the road right now works?
The kid in the OP is far ahead of the game, and the administrators and police are still stuck back in the 20th Century.
The only candidate for President that I've heard talk about the future is Marco Rubio. All others seem to be fixated on the past.
Common Core is an absolute joke. Just throwing that out there.
Quote:Not all that big a difference. If it were an actual bomb then the only difference would be the size of the explosion. Someone could certainly make a small bomb in a case of that size, there's a lot more room than in a shoe for example.
The authorities clearly overreacted by arresting him. But I would hope the authorities would take every precaution until they knew for sure it wasn't a bomb.
I'm still baffled why they didn't evacuate the school. I'm sure they did think it was a bomb. Isn't that SOP?
Quote:I don't buy into the Muslim angle. I suppose it's possible, but I think this was more just a case of America's fine crop of public school teachers doing what they do best: going out of their way to stifle thought and hinder the process of learning.
Suppose it's possible? It is very possible. Lol really?
Quote:Suppose it's possible? It is very possible. Lol really?
Sure, and it's very possible that Betelgeuse might blow up tomorrow, sending forth a gamma ray burst that will wipe out all life in the solar system.
Well, even after determining it was a clock they still put handcuffs on him and took him to detention center and finger printed him. But yeah, I'm sure that happens to every innocent person.
I have no idea if it was racial profiling or not once the police got involved. I'm simply saying, especially knowing how it went down, it is a definite possibility.
Quote:Well, even after determining it was a clock they still put handcuffs on him and took him to detention center and finger printed him. But yeah, I'm sure that happens to every innocent person.
I have no idea if it was racial profiling or not once the police got involved. I'm simply saying, especially knowing how it went down, it is a definite possibility.
And I'm saying that I strongly doubt that it was. Think about it: a student finds himself in the principal's office because a teacher thought he had a bomb. The police are called in and determine that no, it's not a bomb. Still, people are selfish and stupid. Maybe the police decided to bring him on "hoax bomb" charges to avoid being questioned later on why they let a kid suspected of having a bomb go back to class. Maybe the cops really didn't believe Ahmed when he said over and over again that it was a clock, it was presented as a clock, and it was never said to be anything but a clock.
Maybe the principal didn't want to send Ahmed back to class then have teachers come after him for not backing Ahmed's English teacher up. Maybe the principal pressured the police into making the arrest because he was concerned that Johnny would go home and tell his parents that Ahmed brought a bomb/fake bomb to school but was allowed to go back to class, and the principal was concerned about having angry parents and district administrators crawling up his butt. Principals most certainly can pressure cops into making an arrest. It happened at least twice at my high school while I was there.
Or maybe they arrested him because he's a Muslim kid carrying a homemade digital clock around school. Who knows? Racism is certainly a possibility, but knowing how stupid cops and school administrators are these days, I suspect it was just, well, cops and school administrators being stupid.
Quote:There is some suspicion that the whole thing was a set up to provoke a reaction and then claim an anti-Muslim bias. If so it worked beyond his father's wildest dreams, with a trip to the White House, offers of college enrollment, and thousands of dollars in donations, along with a free computer and other goodies.
First off, why, of all days, did he bring a bomb-looking device to a school on 9/11? That's a heck of a coincidence.
Secondly, the clock was apparently just a digital clock taken out of its case and put into a pencil case.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/09/...arm-clock/
I don't know if any of these suspicions are true. If any of you know of refutations to them I'd like a link.
I doubt the suspicion.
First off, he did not take it to school on 9/11. It happened Monday the 14th.
Also,
this article gives a lot more detail and background on the kid. He does what so many other kids interested in electronics do. He harvests parts from broken or old devices that would end up in a landfill, and makes his own stuff.
Now to be fair, it doesn't look like he actually "made" the clock, it appears that he maybe harvested and/or repaired a broken clock and mounted it in the case. The only thing really "home made" is how he mounted it in the case.
If you look at some of the pictures in the article that I linked, it's apparent that he likes to tinker with and take apart stuff.
Of course he didn't "make" the clock. It's obviously a factory-built clock removed from its original case and placed in this suitcase looking pencil box. There was no science involved, yet the politicos are acting like Ahmed is the next Ben Franklin. It was probably "built" by his father, an attention-seeking crusader against "Islamophpbia". Ahmed was coached to give elusive answers to the police, and even the Ahmed in handcuffs photo was staged.
Now it turns out the family is seeking $100,000 in donations for attorney fees. They are blaming the mayor for little Ahmed's arrest. Huh? Yes, the Islamophobic mayor recently blocked an Islamic group in Irving, TX from establishing a "tribunal" to implement Sharia Law in Texas. So the Council for Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) is backing the Mohamed family. All this was pre-planned, including the tweets and invitations from the White House, the Clinton campaign, NASA, Facebook, etc.
Many have noted the reaction to this story was very different than with earlier stories about kids being suspended or arrested for pointing a finger at a student and saying "bang", or biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, and that's true. What's also true is that a finger is obviously not a gun, and a Pop Tart is obviously not a gun. Can the layperson quickly determine that Ahmed's mini-suitcase is not a bomb? No. The laypersons in here actually thought Ahmed built it "from scratch".
Quote:All this was pre-planned, including the tweets and invitations from the White House, the Clinton campaign, NASA, Facebook, etc.
Do you have enough tinfoil to make a nice hat out of over there? Because we're moving, and we have about half a roll that we don't feel like packing. I'd be happy to ship it to you.
Quote:Of course he didn't "make" the clock. It's obviously a factory-built clock removed from its original case and placed in this suitcase looking pencil box. There was no science involved, yet the politicos are acting like Ahmed is the next Ben Franklin. It was probably "built" by his father, an attention-seeking crusader against "Islamophpbia". Ahmed was coached to give elusive answers to the police, and even the Ahmed in handcuffs photo was staged.
Now it turns out the family is seeking $100,000 in donations for attorney fees. They are blaming the mayor for little Ahmed's arrest. Huh? Yes, the Islamophobic mayor recently blocked an Islamic group in Irving, TX from establishing a "tribunal" to implement Sharia Law in Texas. So the Council for Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) is backing the Mohamed family. All this was pre-planned, including the tweets and invitations from the White House, the Clinton campaign, NASA, Facebook, etc.
Many have noted the reaction to this story was very different than with earlier stories about kids being suspended or arrested for pointing a finger at a student and saying "bang", or biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, and that's true. What's also true is that a finger is obviously not a gun, and a Pop Tart is obviously not a gun. Can the layperson quickly determine that Ahmed's mini-suitcase is not a bomb? No. The laypersons in here actually thought Ahmed built it "from scratch".
Cute. Any evidence of your tin foil laden accusations or nah?
Evidence? Which part?
That most of the tweets advanced the false narrative that Ahmed "built" a clock?
That Ahmed's father is an attention-seeking crusader against "Islamophobia"?
That President Obama told NASA that their highest priority should be Muslim outreach?
That the underlying theme in all this is that questioning a Muslim who brings an IED to school in a suitcase is somehow "racist"?
Here's some more tinfoil to chew on:
In the case of Ahmed Mohammed, the introduction of CAIR into the equation suddenly pivoted the discussion from whether police exercised decent judgment, to accusations that all of the city of Irving, it’s school system, police, and government were islamophobes, and it was their Islamophobia, and not a beeping box filled with strange wires and circuits, that led police to Ahmed Mohammed.
It’s no surprise that an organization like CAIR would target Irving, since its Mayor, Beth Van Duyne, brought attention to an attempt by Muslim Brotherhood (MB) linked Imams to form a Shariah law tribunal in North Texas, and raised a ruckus by supporting the Constitution over the introduction of foreign law.
One of the organizations linked to the tribunal runs the mosque attended by the Mohammed family.
Is it possible CAIR is attempting to use this controversy in order to target one of its political opponents? Judging from history, it seems likely.
The Council on American Islamic Relations was
formed in response to a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia held by members of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and took place under the watchful eye of the FBI.
CAIR has always been far more than the civil rights organization it purports to be. Indeed at that very meeting, the members of Hamas, including those who would found CAIR, discussed how they could manipulate civil rights in order to further their interests.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleshide...s-n2053831
Quote:Of course he didn't "make" the clock. It's obviously a factory-built clock removed from its original case and placed in this suitcase looking pencil box. There was no science involved, yet the politicos are acting like Ahmed is the next Ben Franklin. It was probably "built" by his father, an attention-seeking crusader against "Islamophpbia". Ahmed was coached to give elusive answers to the police, and even the Ahmed in handcuffs photo was staged.
Now it turns out the family is seeking $100,000 in donations for attorney fees. They are blaming the mayor for little Ahmed's arrest. Huh? Yes, the Islamophobic mayor recently blocked an Islamic group in Irving, TX from establishing a "tribunal" to implement Sharia Law in Texas. So the Council for Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) is backing the Mohamed family. All this was pre-planned, including the tweets and invitations from the White House, the Clinton campaign, NASA, Facebook, etc.
Many have noted the reaction to this story was very different than with earlier stories about kids being suspended or arrested for pointing a finger at a student and saying "bang", or biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, and that's true. What's also true is that a finger is obviously not a gun, and a Pop Tart is obviously not a gun. Can the layperson quickly determine that Ahmed's mini-suitcase is not a bomb? No. The laypersons in here actually thought Ahmed built it "from scratch".
I haven't been following this very closely until the last few days but I agree that my bull doo meter is ringing loudly in regards to the motivations behind this whole thing. I could very well be wrong but that's my admittedly barely-informed feeling.
Quote:I haven't been following this very closely until the last few days but I agree that my bull doo meter is ringing loudly in regards to the motivations behind this whole thing. I could very well be wrong but that's my admittedly barely-informed feeling.
Your bull doo meter is not off by much.
After further review, I'm beginning to wonder a bit myself. At first I kind of "blew this story off" as a kid interested in the "maker community" that made an innocent mistake. While that's still possible, I think that there is a lot of dis-information regarding this that is being put out by the media.
As I pointed out in an earlier post, this was not something "home made" other than mounting electronics into an enclosure. Looking at some of the other photos that were in an article that I linked earlier, I don't see where this kid actually "made" anything.
Consider the following photo that the article showed and is captioned how he "made" a "USB router". I see nothing "home made" at all. It's a picture of the guts of a USB hub (note the words TRAVEL HUB silk screened on the circuit board). Also, most of the components shown are what are called "surface mount" components. There is no way that he "made" this.
Also, I'm pretty good at soldering, but there is no way that I can solder something together or even repair something like that using a soldering iron like this one.
My question is, why does the media keep reporting that this kid "made" this stuff when it's pretty clear that he didn't? Something really doesn't pass the "smell test". Why is CAIR involved? That's pretty much a no-brainer. Has this kid actually demonstrated any real ability that would warrant a trip to The White House or Facebook HQ? Not in the least.