TIL: Building a clock in Texas is illegal

[foghorn67]

I don't think the whole state of TX can tell the difference between their assholes and a hole in the ground?

How does that make you any better than them. You are doing what you accuse them of. Ignorance.

 

[JM Aggie08]

I don't like that they're making this kid out to be some sort of child prodigy. Anyone his age with access to those materials and the right YouTube channel could have easily replicated the same result...

 

[JM Aggie08]

I wish someone would split the whole southern half of the United States and let it fall into the ocean....

Ah, hypocrisy at its finest. Delicious.

 

[WelshBloke]

If you agree with this, then you will agree not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorist groups are Muslim. Nobody can magically tell the difference between Muslims and their radical brethren.

Wut?

 

[foghorn67]

Ah, hypocrisy at its finest. Delicious.

He's a moron. But unlike him, I won't resort to hating an entire culture or an entire state.
It's just him, nothing but himself is to blame for his lack of intelligence. Okay maybe his parents. Maybe they are morons too.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't like that they're making this kid out to be some sort of child prodigy. Anyone his age with access to those materials and the right YouTube channel could have easily replicated the same result...

Better than trying to make him out as some sort of terrorist.

 

[JTsyo]

Do you know why it doesn't look like a hoax bomb? BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL! My God, how foolish are people to think something looks like a bomb because it has circuit boards and LEDs and wires. If he had a blob of play-doh inside, I would agree with you. If he had some paper towel tubes in there, wrapped in red paper to look like sticks of dynamite, I'd agree with you. But bombs need more than just a timer.

So, I'll agree with you that it looked like a... TIMER. You know what else looks like a timer? A timer. A stop watch. A clock. You know what timers, stop watches, clocks have that bombs don't have? Blowy-up stuff. You know what hoax bombs have that timers, stop watches, and clocks don't have? Pretend blowy-up stuff.

Yup and you what else they use to trigger IEDs? cell phones. They should be stopping all the kids from bringing phones to school.

As for racial profiling, I doubt that's the case. Most school deaths (mass shooting) are caused by Caucasian boys. I think this is a case of the English teacher not understanding what he was looking at and playing it safe. Of course now, homemade electronics will probably be added to the school prohibition list next to gun shaped pop tarts.

 

[JTsyo]

Wut?

He obviously has no clue. In the US you more likely to run into other terrorist than Muslim ones, just because the news talk about the ME more, don't let it skew your view.

 

[waggy]

this thread went from slightly bad to full blown fucking insane. some of you have to be trolling.

I don't like that they're making this kid out to be some sort of child prodigy. Anyone his age with access to those materials and the right YouTube channel could have easily replicated the same result...

yeap. It was't amazing. it looked like something thrown together with shit he had. the box he had looks just like one my son had for a "spy kit" he got for x-mas 2 years ago.

Yes that's some intense verbal judo. I'm certain the parents coached him. There's no way the kid came up with saying the clock was a clock all on his own.

hmm great fucking point. Why would he say it's a clock? what is his real reason ? hmm it's not like he made a clock did? I think we are dealing with a terrorist mastermind.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Better than trying to make him out as some sort of terrorist.

The whole situation was poorly handled. I just hate that most folks tend to be one extreme or the other.

'His name? His skin color? tick tock? Terrorist!'
'THIS CHILD IS A GENIUS. GET HIM A RESEARCH GRANT, STAT.'

 

[waggy]

Then you are seriously saying that they should not have taken him out of class to ask questions, which is what you said was all they were entitled to do earlier. So: Which is it?

There you go again. That is all is was. Suspension is a punishment, yet there was no punishment/suspension issued. He was not kicked out of school or suspended from returning to school, he was taken out of class/school for questioning. He was not forced to miss a day as punishment, which is what it means to be "suspended from school." He went to school yesterday and he is welcome back today, meaning he missed a PARTIAL day due to REASONABLE concerns. Don't act childish by going back to "LOL! 'Reasonable?!' Only an idiot would think that looks like a bomb!" It looked REASONABLY like a hoax bomb, which is pretty serious on its own.

whaa?

are you insane? short on meds? something? How you don't understand what i said is rather amazing at this point.

 

[waggy]

The whole situation was poorly handled. I just hate that most folks tend to be one extreme or the other.

'His name? His skin color? tick tock? Terrorist!'
'THIS CHILD IS A GENIUS. GET HIM A RESEARCH GRANT, STAT.'

that's the lol part. he is neither. He is not a Terrorist or bomb hoax planing kid. He is also not a genius (as far as we know). I have seen people calling for college's like MIT to give him a slot and scholarship or that he should apprentice under Musk.

While neat he built a clock. it's not that amazing. hell my 9 yr old has taken apart a old clock i had and the parts out (still working). though he couldn't get it back together lol. Oh shit! he might be a terrorist too!?

 

[SP33Demon]

Just to recap?

I wonder how TX feels right about now?

Also, I wonder how those officers and teachers/admin feel right about now?

Considering in a few years this kid will be making more than all of them combined!!!!!!

Yes, because engineers are sooo rich. lmao

 

[SP33Demon]

that's the lol part. he is neither. He is not a Terrorist or bomb hoax planing kid. He is also not a genius (as far as we know). I have seen people calling for college's like MIT to give him a slot and scholarship or that he should apprentice under Musk.

While neat he built a clock. it's not that amazing. hell my 9 yr old has taken apart a old clock i had and the parts out (still working). though he couldn't get it back together lol. Oh shit! he might be a terrorist too!?

To reiterate, you have no idea what he'll grow up to be nor what his parents are teaching him. The % of muslims converting to extreme islam in their teens is much much higher than your average white boy, but that should be obvious. If anything, fear breeds fear and he'll be more resentful of the American system. FFS, this kid's parents must be the dumbest on the earth to let him go to school with that thing. Kid in OH got suspended for biting a cookie into the shape of a gun. 9/11 induced a lot of paranoia, some of it unfounded but being vigilant is still important. The Red Under you Bed and all that jazz except shit got a lot more real than the Cold War era. Go search for 9/11 Jumpers on Youtube if you think fear of Muslims is just hilarious. I'd also challenge you to tell your boss that you think 9/11 was hilarious and that it's hilarious that we have knee jerk reactions to Muslims now. It essentially gave the country PTSD through a news broadcast. Times have changed and they won't stop changing until Islam is branded as a terrorist organization because their holy book explicitly instructs its followers to kill others. When it's a divine religious command from their "prophet Muhammad", kind of hard to defeat that. In the end, it wouldn't surprise me if our security eventually became like Israel (martial law), their incident rate is a lot less than the US' but at a steep price.

 

[SlitheryDee]

While neat he built a clock. it's not that amazing. hell my 9 yr old has taken apart a old clock i had and the parts out (still working). though he couldn't get it back together lol. Oh shit! he might be a terrorist too!?

Genius or not, he probably learned lot of general information about how electronics worked with the project, which was the whole point anyway. Even if the end result is just a clock, getting everything assembled properly took some studying and thinking about.

*shrug* I don't think it's a bad project at all, but the end result DID resemble what a kid might think a bomb was supposed to look like. That much seems undeniable.

 

[alien42]

I have seen people calling for college's like MIT to give him a slot and scholarship

you twisted reality a bit there, MIT astrophysics postdoctoral fellow Chanda Prescod-Weinstein invited the kid to MIT.

 

[waggy]

you twisted reality a bit there, MIT astrophysics postdoctoral fellow Chanda Prescod-Weinstein invited the kid to MIT.

well i don't know about that person and that's not what i'm claiming.

I said i had seen some people saying he should Get a MIT scholarship among other insane things such as he should get an apprentice job with Nasa and Musk.

 

[CZroe]

you really think this is a social media stunt?



"hey, let's potentially ruin our kid's life just so he might make a big splash". that's so far on the high risk/high reward scale that i can't imagine any parent would possibly consider it a good idea.

Balloon boy.

I am always bothered by the ostensibly intelligent folk who are so willing to give up freedoms for security. I want to ask them what their remaining freedom is worth if they're unwilling to risk anything for for it?

If you're talking about me, that couldn't be further from my position (read my posts in the CNN vamping thread). We are saying that they were right to question him the same as any other free/innocent person in suspicious circumstances. Period. We didn't say that he needed his freedoms restricted or that it was OK to arrest him, though circumstances CAN justify that (not cooperating/lying, for example). If it were a hoax bomb then an arrest would be justified.

Well if he did what you described he wouldn't be having dinner with the President.

What? Like the President didn't jump to conclusions by injecting himself into past incidents ("if I had a son...")?

 

[steppinthrax]

Yes, because engineers are sooo rich. lmao

Engineering fields are highly compensated.

 

[CZroe]

First, I'm not saying that he was coached by malicious parents who wanted exactly the reaction they got. I AM saying that it is ONE POSSIBILITY. Everyone dismissing it is usually dismissing it for a poor reason.

And you do know that a short time duration does not mean he was not suspended dont you? If he wanted to argue duration he should have done so. Come on this is simple stuff here

And you do know that his implication was that it was punishment when he said that it "shouldn't have happened?" He specifically said that is was OK to take him out of class and talk to him, so that's clearly YOUR interpretation of "suspended" and not his. He specifically implied that the "suspension" was taking it too far in order to imply that it was more than it was (punishment).

Do you know why it doesn't look like a hoax bomb? BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL! My God, how foolish are people to think something looks like a bomb because it has circuit boards and LEDs and wires. If he had a blob of play-doh inside, I would agree with you. If he had some paper towel tubes in there, wrapped in red paper to look like sticks of dynamite, I'd agree with you. But bombs need more than just a timer.

So, I'll agree with you that it looked like a... TIMER. You know what else looks like a timer? A timer. A stop watch. A clock. You know what timers, stop watches, clocks have that bombs don't have? Blowy-up stuff. You know what hoax bombs have that timers, stop watches, and clocks don't have? Pretend blowy-up stuff.

Except that movie props and hoax bomb are often in a case that conceals the explosive (just like this) and the average person doesn't know an inductive transformer from a cube of C4. He probably wasn't going around and displaying the open case because that is the BACK side of the display in those pictures (there is a hole cut through the box so it is visible when closed). We already discussed the Federal guidelines for what constitutes a suspicious packages and this easily qualifies (specifically dented with protruding wires).

Most people think anything electronic can explode like a console on Star Trek. You don't seem to understand that the accusation that this could be the intended reaction INCLUDES deniability.

I think it was. But I was probably exaggerating, the seriousness of the intentions. So somewhat or fully take it back.

I've changed my mind again. Partly from reading what people are saying in this thread.

If he had seriously intended to make a (hoax) bomb device, he could have easily made something much more realistic. Then left it somewhere, so that it would cause terrible disruption.

Because it was sealed within his own bag (at the time of discovery), and it suddenly made a beep noise, which could have easily been a mistake or oversight on his part.

It looks likely that he did NOT intend to cause any (hoax) bomb incidents.

tl;dr
Probably an innocent mistake, from all parties involved. (Him/Teachers/Police).

The accusation is that they intended to claim that it never was a hoax bomb so that they could sue or benefit from the social media windfall, so of course they wouldn't take it that far. Means nothing.

There is no battery in the pic so I highly doubt it made a noise while concealed in his bag. It was almost certainly plugged in.

Yes that's some intense verbal judo. I'm certain the parents coached him. There's no way the kid came up with saying the clock was a clock all on his own.

The third dimension is time.

Sorry, you seem to be blissfully unaware that admitting it was a clock does not mean he didn't call it his "invention" before admitting that it was a clock. Like I said: coaching.

 

[Slew Foot]

If you see something, say something

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

The accusation is that they intended to claim that it never was a hoax bomb so that they could sue or benefit from the social media windfall, so of course they wouldn't take it that far. Means nothing.

There is no battery in the pic so I highly doubt it made a noise while concealed in his bag. It was almost certainly plugged in.

My gut feeling, is that it was not a social media stunt or something.

On the other hand, apparently there has recently been a lot of community tension as regards that communities somewhat new, "Muslim" residents.
So I could believe that it was plotted by people in their community. To cause trouble between the two communities.
But that would be speculation, without much/any evidence at the moment. BUT DON'T in practice think that is what happened.

tl;dr
I think it is UNLIKELY it was a plot, which he was performing. He did very little or nothing, to make this event happen. So I think it is unlikely.

I agree, that it was probably plugged in, which is what has been reported, in a number of places. But it still could have been (mostly), concealed in his bag. The noise/sound/beep could easily be explained away, by being an accident. I can fully believe that a childs hobby clock, could unintentionally beep. Without them intending for it to do that.

There are a lot of how to make a fake bomb videos, on youtube. This is potentially problematic. With it being highlighted in the news a lot now.

Relatively immature children, may be too exited about performing stunts like this. Without realizing the trouble, mayhem and dangers it poses.

In some countries (I am led to believe), you can be shot dead, straight through the head, via a number of shots. Just because someone or the Police, think you have a suicide bomb device, strapped to yourself.

E.g. A number of years ago, this happened in the UK. An innocent (except perhaps over staying their student visa), was shot dead by police. Who thought (incorrectly), that they were a suicide bomber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

tl;dr
If the media coverage, causes a number of future bomb hoaxes. We could see people, getting injured or even killed, if we are not careful.

If there is a real suicide bomber, which the authorities know about. It is very tricky/difficult to handle. Especially if you are not cleared to effectively shoot to kill, the suspect.

Apparently the police round the world, have developed procedures for handing it. In the interests of keeping it secret, from would be real suicide bombers. These details, are kept secret. If I understand the situation, correctly.

 

[Exterous]

And you do know that his implication was that it was punishment when he said that it "shouldn't have happened?" He specifically said that is was OK to take him out of class and talk to him, so that's clearly YOUR interpretation of "suspended" and not his. He specifically implied that the "suspension" was taking it too far in order to imply that it was more than it was (punishment).

Whose implication? Because it sounds like you are referring to mine. Regardless, talking to him outside of school is NOT the same as a suspension and doing so - even at the police station - does not require a suspension. A suspension, which the kid received, is a disciplinary action that remains on your permanent school record. I maintain that that is too much

 

[WelshBloke]

E.g. A number of years ago, this happened in the UK. An innocent (except perhaps over staying their student visa), was shot dead by police. Who thought (incorrectly), that they were a suicide bomber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

tl;dr
If the media coverage, causes a number of future bomb hoaxes. We could see people, getting injured or even killed, if we are not careful.

That was a total clusterfuck, but was nothing to do with a bomb hoax.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

That was a total clusterfuck, but was nothing to do with a bomb hoax.

It is what can happen, if you perform a bomb hoax, and it goes terribly wrong.

Bomb hoaxes, involving suicide bomb jackets, could go terribly wrong.

Even a brief case bomb, could make the authorities, end up shooting a prankster, by mistake.

If the Police think it is a real/viable device, and their only (safe to everyone else) option is to shoot the person. That is what they may well do.

In the UK (probably in many/all other countries), people are shot dead by police. Just because some innocent object, such as a table leg, they had in a bag. Is mistaken (by a member of the public, usually) for a gun.