#IStandWithAhmed (or Inventing While Muslim is a thing?)

[laughing dog]

Since there was no indication whatsoever by his actions that he intended it to look like a bomb, your position is untenable. They effed up. There was no reason to rush to judgment and treat him in the illegal manner they did,especially since no one was in danger. Really, how can any rational person defend the actions based on a "hoax bomb" given all the facts? And can you say for sure that his skin color or name did not influence their decision?

The reason is that his "clock" looked like an ameteurish replica of a suitcase bomb you might see on tv. That's a fact.

It is a fact that neither the school adm. or the police thought it was a bomb. It is a fact that no one has said Ahmed acted like it was a bomb or that he said it was bomb or made any indication it was a bomb. The presumption it was a hoax bomb is just that - a presumption.

And it's you who's rushing to judgment without knowing exactly how Ahmed presented the clock or how he defended it (based on his interviews, probably not very convincingly), and assuming that the cops must have been racists or islamophobes unless proven otherwise.

Unless Ahmed acted like the clock was a bomb, he is under no obligation to defend anything: he is innocent until proven guilty. I am not rushing to judgment - I asked you a question, since I don't know the answer. Clearly neither do you. If this lawsuit goes to trial, then we can see if the school and the police can convincingly answer this question.

 

[laughing dog]

Since there was no indication whatsoever by his actions that he intended it to look like a bomb, your position is untenable.

His action was to take a well designed functioning clock and haphazardly reassemble the wiring into another case so it resembles a timer for a homemade bomb. His next action was to take this makeshift timer to a public school which are notorious for zero tolerance and paranoia over violence.

I find paranoia to be an unconvincing reason to arrest the kid and violate his rights. Maybe such a lawsuit will scare the stupid and paranoia out of those people.

Hoax is the most plausible reason to jury-rig a clock and take to a public school.

Maybe to you and the school administrators and anyone looking to cause a kerfuffle over nothing. There were plenty of other ways to deal with this situation, including saying "Oops, we made a mistake and we are sorry" early on. But nooooooo, the school and the police had to up the ante.

 

[thebeave]

No, I'm saying that the presence or absence of explosive material is not the yard stick to determine whether something is a hoax bomb or not.

Then what is the yardstick if it isn't the appearance of explosive potential? I think you're blowing smoke.

I can't imagine any other yardstick. So please enlighten me.

The yardstick is what average person might conclude the device is,

If Oxford asked you to write the dictionary definition of a hoax bomb, you would write, "A hoax bomb is anything that an average person concludes is a hoax bomb."
The average person might think the world is flat without a decent education. Is that really how YOU classify things? Do you keep "average people" around to help you tell the difference between cat piss and your morning coffee?

and the timer is just as much a component of it as are the explosives.

A timer without explosives is Just a timer. Timers are unnecessary. Only the explosive material is necessary for a bomb or the appearance of explosive material for a hoax bomb. Movie hero spies love blowing things like cars using RPGs and sometimes just high caliber bullets. All that you need for a bomb hoax may be a pile of gasoline canisters on a roof.

As an example, Steve Wozniak tweeted a similar incident from his youth: He pranked one of his teachers with metronome that made a ticking sound. The teacher thought it was a bomb based solely on the sound. If simple ticking sound is enough to fool someone, then surely looking like a bomb timer that remotely resembles a suitcase bomb from a movie might do so as well.

Ticking is a potential indication of a bomb IF it is hidden and the the existence of explosive material cannot be determined. That's not the case here at all. Just as it wouldn't be if Wozniak had set the metronome out on the table by itself. At least a dozen people saw the clock on the day of Ahmed's arrest and NONE of them thought it looked explosive. NONE of them thought it was a bomb.

That the pencils could be made of explosive material and therefore it's a hoax bomb is silly...

How silly is it? Take away the pencils from your picture. Does it still look like a bomb to you? Or does it merely look like a clock with wires?

And take away Ahmed's clock from the pencil case, and it no longer would look like a suitcase bomb.

I'll take that as an agreement that the picture of the pencil bomb would not look like a bomb without the pencils standing in as potential sources of explosive material. But of course Ahmed's clock never looked like a suitcase bomb or any other kind of bomb to begin with. Everyone who saw it agreed. It didn't look like a bomb at all.

Just tangled wires. Or he could have put it in a different kind of case that wouldn't have looked like a bomb. Or he could have presented it differently, he didn't have to start using it during class or setting the alarms. There are plenty of ways Ahmed could have made his "invention" to not look like a bomb, but either deliberately or inadvertendly he did.

If he really wanted to make it look like a bomb he would have put SOMETHING in the pencilcase to simulate explosive material. Don't you agree? Have you ever seen a Halloween costume of a suicide bomber without some sort of simulation of explosive material involved? Everyone who knows what a bomb is knows bombs have explosive material. Everyone. Show a kid a clip of Wile E. Coyote and they will understand that explosions exist but they don't just happen out of thin air. You need a very special SOMETHING to make them happen. This means that if anyone had actually thought it looked like a bomb it would have been unintentional.

you might as well say that the linings in Ahmed's pencil case could have been made from explosive materials,

Ahmed's pencil case is tiny. The lining in his pencil case DIDN"T look like they were made of explosive material. Otherwise the people who have actually seen it would have treated them that way.

or it could be a remote trigger,

Why would anyone in the modern era make any kind of remote trigger that looks like that? Talk about nonsense. Remote triggers these days look like cell phones because they ARE cellphones. Which are still allowed in nearly all school districts in the entire country.

or he could have the explosives in his bag or at home, or ...

Sure, and I could have a sherman tank hiding in my garage. What does that have to do with Ahmed's clock or anything that happened to him that day?

The point is that the contraption looked remotely like a bomb you might see on tv:

The point of my suggestion (which you agreed with above) was that the picture of the pencil bomb only looked like it could be a bomb because of the pencils wired and arranged to look like they could be an explosive material. That's why it looks like a bomb. The ONLY key ingredient in a bomb is the explosive material. And the ONLY key ingredient in a hoax bomb is the appearance of explosive material.

nobody is saying that it was very convincing, but a bad hoax is still a hoax. And since it certainly didn't look like an alarm clock anymore, it could have been pretty much anything.

Wow, "It could have been pretty much anything?" Could it have been a banana? No, stop being silly. It had a digital display with 4 digits and a colon between the middle two digits. It still looks like a clock even though you can see more of it's functional electronic parts.

A bad hoax may still be a hoax but there was and is no indication that there was ever a hoax. No hoax bomb and no bomb threat.

Of course the list I gave was being facetious, to show how silly your suggestions that the pencils in the pencil bomb may have been made from an explosive material.

See above regarding the point of my suggestion.

Hoax bomb is really not the appropriate term in this case, IMHO. For lack of a better term, I'd refer to it as more of creating an "attention getting device". Ahmed knew that putting something in the pencil case that purposely resembles explosive material would change the whole narrative. He would be getting all the attention he seeked, but there would be no denying that he purposely and knowingly created a hoax bomb. It would be feeding the stereotype that Muslims like to "blow shit up", and of course, the school district and police would not be in the position to have to justify or defend their punitive actions against him. It would make himself and Muslims in general appear to be the bad guys. By just putting the clock guts only in a pencil case, he can create a "suspicious looking" (his own words) device to get the attention he seeks, but can fall back on the "its only a clock" story when questioned about it. Which is true...it is just a clock, but it enables him to throw around accusations of racism, profiling, etc. and demonstrate that Muslims have it so bad, white people hate them, etc.

I find it amusing how you claim that it obviously can't be mistaken for a bomb because... Halloween costumes and Wile Coyote. Yet a lot of other Ahmed apologists have mocked how foolish others are for thinking it looks a bomb because it looks like a bomb they saw on TV and the movies.

 

[ZiprHead]

Once the school realized it was not a bomb, nothing else should have happened. The issue is not with the teacher, but with the over-reaction of the school officials and the police. Yes, these dumbasses should think twice about they behave. If a lawsuit asking for $15million does that, then the lawsuit is a good idea, even if it never goes to trial and even if the plaintiffs do not receive a dime.

But because of security alerts almost everywhere, one shouldn't be too careful. Clockboy has Middle Eastern appearance, most terrorist attacks are from this group! Why wouldn't someone react?

I take it you are admitting that this was done because of ethnic prejudice then?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

No, I'm saying that the presence or absence of explosive material is not the yard stick to determine whether something is a hoax bomb or not.

Then what is the yardstick if it isn't the appearance of explosive potential? I think you're blowing smoke.

I can't imagine any other yardstick. So please enlighten me.

The yardstick is what average person might conclude the device is,

If Oxford asked you to write the dictionary definition of a hoax bomb, you would write, "A hoax bomb is anything that an average person concludes is a hoax bomb."
The average person might think the world is flat without a decent education. Is that really how YOU classify things? Do you keep "average people" around to help you tell the difference between cat piss and your morning coffee?

and the timer is just as much a component of it as are the explosives.

A timer without explosives is Just a timer. Timers are unnecessary. Only the explosive material is necessary for a bomb or the appearance of explosive material for a hoax bomb. Movie hero spies love blowing things like cars using RPGs and sometimes just high caliber bullets. All that you need for a bomb hoax may be a pile of gasoline canisters on a roof.

As an example, Steve Wozniak tweeted a similar incident from his youth: He pranked one of his teachers with metronome that made a ticking sound. The teacher thought it was a bomb based solely on the sound. If simple ticking sound is enough to fool someone, then surely looking like a bomb timer that remotely resembles a suitcase bomb from a movie might do so as well.

Ticking is a potential indication of a bomb IF it is hidden and the the existence of explosive material cannot be determined. That's not the case here at all. Just as it wouldn't be if Wozniak had set the metronome out on the table by itself. At least a dozen people saw the clock on the day of Ahmed's arrest and NONE of them thought it looked explosive. NONE of them thought it was a bomb.

That the pencils could be made of explosive material and therefore it's a hoax bomb is silly...

How silly is it? Take away the pencils from your picture. Does it still look like a bomb to you? Or does it merely look like a clock with wires?

And take away Ahmed's clock from the pencil case, and it no longer would look like a suitcase bomb.

I'll take that as an agreement that the picture of the pencil bomb would not look like a bomb without the pencils standing in as potential sources of explosive material. But of course Ahmed's clock never looked like a suitcase bomb or any other kind of bomb to begin with. Everyone who saw it agreed. It didn't look like a bomb at all.

Just tangled wires. Or he could have put it in a different kind of case that wouldn't have looked like a bomb. Or he could have presented it differently, he didn't have to start using it during class or setting the alarms. There are plenty of ways Ahmed could have made his "invention" to not look like a bomb, but either deliberately or inadvertendly he did.

If he really wanted to make it look like a bomb he would have put SOMETHING in the pencilcase to simulate explosive material. Don't you agree? Have you ever seen a Halloween costume of a suicide bomber without some sort of simulation of explosive material involved? Everyone who knows what a bomb is knows bombs have explosive material. Everyone. Show a kid a clip of Wile E. Coyote and they will understand that explosions exist but they don't just happen out of thin air. You need a very special SOMETHING to make them happen. This means that if anyone had actually thought it looked like a bomb it would have been unintentional.

you might as well say that the linings in Ahmed's pencil case could have been made from explosive materials,

Ahmed's pencil case is tiny. The lining in his pencil case DIDN"T look like they were made of explosive material. Otherwise the people who have actually seen it would have treated them that way.

or it could be a remote trigger,

Why would anyone in the modern era make any kind of remote trigger that looks like that? Talk about nonsense. Remote triggers these days look like cell phones because they ARE cellphones. Which are still allowed in nearly all school districts in the entire country.

or he could have the explosives in his bag or at home, or ...

Sure, and I could have a sherman tank hiding in my garage. What does that have to do with Ahmed's clock or anything that happened to him that day?

The point is that the contraption looked remotely like a bomb you might see on tv:

The point of my suggestion (which you agreed with above) was that the picture of the pencil bomb only looked like it could be a bomb because of the pencils wired and arranged to look like they could be an explosive material. That's why it looks like a bomb. The ONLY key ingredient in a bomb is the explosive material. And the ONLY key ingredient in a hoax bomb is the appearance of explosive material.

nobody is saying that it was very convincing, but a bad hoax is still a hoax. And since it certainly didn't look like an alarm clock anymore, it could have been pretty much anything.

Wow, "It could have been pretty much anything?" Could it have been a banana? No, stop being silly. It had a digital display with 4 digits and a colon between the middle two digits. It still looks like a clock even though you can see more of it's functional electronic parts.

A bad hoax may still be a hoax but there was and is no indication that there was ever a hoax. No hoax bomb and no bomb threat.

Of course the list I gave was being facetious, to show how silly your suggestions that the pencils in the pencil bomb may have been made from an explosive material.

See above regarding the point of my suggestion.

Hoax bomb is really not the appropriate term in this case, IMHO. For lack of a better term, I'd refer to it as more of creating an "attention getting device". Ahmed knew that putting something in the pencil case that purposely resembles explosive material would change the whole narrative. He would be getting all the attention he seeked, but there would be no denying that he purposely and knowingly created a hoax bomb. It would be feeding the stereotype that Muslims like to "blow shit up", and of course, the school district and police would not be in the position to have to justify or defend their punitive actions against him. It would make himself and Muslims in general appear to be the bad guys. By just putting the clock guts only in a pencil case, he can create a "suspicious looking" (his own words) device to get the attention he seeks, but can fall back on the "its only a clock" story when questioned about it. Which is true...it is just a clock, but it enables him to throw around accusations of racism, profiling, etc. and demonstrate that Muslims have it so bad, white people hate them, etc.

I find it amusing how you claim that it obviously can't be mistaken for a bomb because... Halloween costumes and Wile Coyote. Yet a lot of other Ahmed apologists have mocked how foolish others are for thinking it looks a bomb because it looks like a bomb they saw on TV and the movies.

I see three issues with what you wrote:
1. You are using the fact that he is Muslim to draw inferences or at least as a factor in your suspected scenario.
2. He only called it a suspicious looking device or whatever after receiving feedback from staff that it looked suspicious to them. It doesn't look suspicious to me or to a lot of other people.
3. The staff still has the ability not to draw conclusions in the way that they did. You've set up the scenario as if Ahmed is the director and the staff are his puppets.

Of course it's also very imaginative.

 

[Nexus]

Note the bolded... He pranked one of his teachers. He purposely tried to play a joke on her. Had the same teacher heard the metronome, but he said it was a metronome and had been saying all day that it was a metronome, she could not convincingly claim he was trying to play a hoax on her.

So if Wozniak had lied about his intentions he would have had enough plausible deniability about his hoax. But it would still be a hoax. Just like with Amhed's hoax timer.

He didn't improve the clock design or function. Its doesn't take any skill to attach clock guts to another case. So a hoax is the most plausible reason to jury-rig clock wires and electronic parts into another case and take it to a public school.

 

[RavenSky]

Note the bolded... He pranked one of his teachers. He purposely tried to play a joke on her. Had the same teacher heard the metronome, but he said it was a metronome and had been saying all day that it was a metronome, she could not convincingly claim he was trying to play a hoax on her.

So if Wozniak had lied about his intentions he would have had enough plausible deniability about his hoax. But it would still be a hoax.

We don't know enough about that situation to draw any such conclusion. But I can say with certainty that if Wozniak brought a metronome to school, showed it to his first period teacher and said it was a metronome, then (after it starting ticking in his next class) showed it to that teacher and told her it was a metronome, then told school officials and police that it was a metronome, plus all of the teachers and officials involved admit that none of them ever believed it was a bomb - then there would be zero reason to insist that Wozniak was *really* playing a hoax (and arrest him for it).

Just like with Amhed's hoax timer.

It wasn't a "hoax timer" or a "hoax bomb" and it never will be no matter how many times you insist otherwise.

 

[laughing dog]

So if Wozniak had lied about his intentions he would have had enough plausible deniability about his hoax. But it would still be a hoax.

We don't know enough about that situation to draw any such conclusion. But I can say with certainty that if Wozniak brought a metronome to school, showed it to his first period teacher and said it was a metronome, then (after it starting ticking in his next class) showed it to that teacher and told her it was a metronome, then told school officials and police that it was a metronome, plus all of the teachers and officials involved admit that none of them ever believed it was a bomb - then there would be zero reason to insist that Wozniak was *really* playing a hoax (and arrest him for it).

Steve Wozniak - I agree. Mohammedi Wozniak - I disagree.

 

[Nexus]

Just like with Amhed's hoax timer.

It wasn't a "hoax timer" or a "hoax bomb" and it never will be no matter how many times you insist otherwise.

Well its certainly not a better clock since his modifications ruined its design and function. So hoax is the most plausible reason he made it. Do you carry around an alarm clock? I keep my clocks at my house. And I certainly don't remove the wiring and make a less functional clock and then go show it to people at schools or businesses.

I'll tell you what will convince me you sincerely believe this was an innocent mistake by Ahmed and not simply Islamophilia defensive reflex. Get an alarm clock's wires and timer and connect it to a pencil case and then take that device to a courthouse or airport security.

 

[zorq]

He didn't improve the clock design or function. Its doesn't take any skill to attach clock guts to another case. So a hoax is the most plausible reason to jury-rig clock wires and electronic parts into another case and take it to a public school.

He may not have improved the function of the clock but it is a matter of asthetics as to whether he improved the design. Circuit boards are beautiful. Take this recycled circuit board converted into a notebook for example.

Not only are circuit boards beautiful but naked versions of interesting things have always been popular.

Like skeleton watches.

Or Gameboys

Or this home made, bare bones, computer case made and proudly posted by a member of this very messaging board (Schrodinger's Outlaw).
View attachment 4558
The most likely reason to have made the case mod for the clock and wanting to show it to his teachers is because he thought it looks cool.
Not because he was an idiot who was also an attention whore and also a master of intrigue who was seeking to create a commotion, a national controversy, death threats to his family and 15 million dollars.

 

[thebeave]

He didn't improve the clock design or function. Its doesn't take any skill to attach clock guts to another case. So a hoax is the most plausible reason to jury-rig clock wires and electronic parts into another case and take it to a public school.

He may not have improved the function of the clock but it is a matter of asthetics as to whether he improved the design. Circuit boards are beautiful. Take this recycled circuit board converted into a notebook for example.

Not only are circuit boards beautiful but naked versions of interesting things have always been popular.

Like skeleton watches.
View attachment 4863
Or Gameboys
View attachment 4864
Or this home made, bare bones, computer case made and proudly posted by a member of this very messaging board (Schrodinger's Outlaw).
View attachment 4558
The most likely reason to have made the case mod for the clock and wanting to show it to his teachers is because he thought it looks cool.
Not because he was an idiot who was also an attention whore and also a master of intrigue who was seeking to create a commotion, a national controversy, death threats to his family and 15 million dollars.

Speaking as an engineer, I would agree there is much beauty to be found in the design of machines, engines, electronics, etc. I like those items you pictured. Ahmed's creation is not even in the same ballpark as those. Unless you're into avant-garde shite.

 

[zorq]

Hoax bomb is really not the appropriate term in this case, IMHO. For lack of a better term, I'd refer to it as more of creating an "attention getting device".

Why do you presume he wanted this kind of attention? You have absolutely no evidence to suggest this kind of attention is something that he was pursuing. Really you have come to a conclusion with no evidnce this motive ever existed. Think about that.

Ahmed knew that putting something in the pencil case that purposely resembles explosive material would change the whole narrative.

Or he never even considered putting something in the pencil case that resembles explosive material. Or he considered it but that that was a dumb idea because he just wanted to do a case mod of a clock and wasn't interested in makeing hoax bombs at all. You aren't a mind reader and you REALLY don't know what he was thinking.

He would be getting all the attention he seeked, but there would be no denying that he purposely and knowingly created a hoax bomb. It would be feeding the stereotype that Muslims like to "blow shit up", and of course, the school district and police would not be in the position to have to justify or defend their punitive actions against him. It would make himself and Muslims in general appear to be the bad guys. By just putting the clock guts only in a pencil case, he can create a "suspicious looking" (his own words) device to get the attention he seeks, but can fall back on the "its only a clock" story when questioned about it.

He only realized it was suspicious looking when he recieved feedback from the people at school telling him it looked suspicious.

Which is true...it is just a clock,

Thank you. Please inform Barbos that it is just a clock the next time you see him too, thanks.

but it enables him to throw around accusations of racism, profiling, etc. and demonstrate that Muslims have it so bad, white people hate them, etc.

Nothing in the kid's background indicates that he has ever been interested in politics. His dad is, certainly, but not him.

I find it amusing how you claim that it obviously can't be mistaken for a bomb because... Halloween costumes and Wile Coyote. Yet a lot of other Ahmed apologists have mocked how foolish others are for thinking it looks a bomb because it looks like a bomb they saw on TV and the movies.

But does it REALLY look like a bomb in the movies? Does it have multicolored bubbling liquids? Does it have bundles of cylinders? Does it have a big hunk of grey clay? Does it have a metal sphere? No. It has a digital display and wires in a box. That's why it's so easy to mock the people who think it looks like a movie bomb, because IT DOESN'T.

 

[zorq]

View attachment 4865

Speaking as an engineer, I would agree there is much beauty to be found in the design of machines, engines, electronics, etc. I like those items you pictured. Ahmed's creation is not even in the same ballpark as those. Unless you're into avant-garde shite.

I'm serious. Does every creation have to be a work of art in your eyes? Kids may like the look of things that you don't. In fact I'm sure that there's some popular crap among the teens right now that doesn't float your boat. I remember when I was a kid a lot of my classmates were drawing these symbols all over their books. I thought it was silly, how many times do you need to draw a stylized "s" all over your crap? They spent hours and hours drawing this thing. They did it because they thought it looked cool.

Why would you be so quick to abandon asthetic appeal that you yourself can recognize as a motive but so quick to ascribe mischievous trickery?

 

[Arctish]

He didn't improve the clock design or function. Its doesn't take any skill to attach clock guts to another case. So a hoax is the most plausible reason to jury-rig clock wires and electronic parts into another case and take it to a public school.

Whether he improved the design is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure there are plenty of 14 year olds who would rather have a pencil case clock instead of an old factory issue one. Also, repurposing old items by installing electronics into them is "in" nowadays. When they're done well, people will pay good money for a fun and quirky case mod. For example, consider case of bass. It's more polished work than Ahmed did, but it's the same kind of repurposing and reconfiguration.

It doesn't matter if you think it's pointless. Some people enjoy taking electronic components out of their factory issue housing and installing them into a different housing, and some people like case mods so much they'll pay for them. The case mod Ahmed did isn't strange or unheard of, and there's no reason to believe he meant to use it in a hoax.

 

[RavenSky]

It wasn't a "hoax timer" or a "hoax bomb" and it never will be no matter how many times you insist otherwise.

Well its certainly not a better clock since his modifications ruined its design and function. So hoax is the most plausible reason he made it.

one does not follow from the other, so no that is not the "most plausible reason he made it"

The most plausible reason is exactly what he said from start to finish - he made it to show his robotics/math teacher in the hopes of impressing him. Whether you think his clock mod is worthy of praise or not has nothing to do with his motivations in making it.

Do you carry around an alarm clock? I keep my clocks at my house. And I certainly don't remove the wiring and make a less functional clock and then go show it to people at schools or businesses.

So what. I'm assuming you aren't in middle school any more either. I'm sure you did stuff you were proud of in middle/high school that would look really silly to your adult self now. And again, YOUR opinion of his clock mod does not make it into something it wasn't.

I'll tell you what will convince me you sincerely believe this was an innocent mistake by Ahmed and not simply Islamophilia defensive reflex. Get an alarm clock's wires and timer and connect it to a pencil case and then take that device to a courthouse or airport security.

Why would I, as an adult, take a clock mod to the airport or the courthouse. I've been out of middle/high school for more than 30 years, and even if I was still in school - SCHOOL is where the teachers I am trying to impress would be.

 

[Jayjay]

In response to it looking like a bomb, there are three elements missing: (1) an explosive material/device (2) it was in a pencil box not a suitcase and (3) there was no countdown.

In response to skepticism about Ahmed bringing in electronic devices regularly to school (his old school where he was in the robotics club)...

Kubiak [Ahmed's old teacher] also confirmed that Mohamed would regularly bring gadgets to school that were much more complicated than the clock assembled in a pencil box that recently got him into trouble.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...ks-of-suspensions-and-clashed-with-authority/

In response to why would a kid bring an electronic device in a case, that is not rare. I remember people doing that in college.

Thanks for the Kubiak comment. But it raises a question, if Ahmed was already brining more advanced gadgets in middle school, why did he do such a bad job with this one, especially if its purpose was to impress his teacher?

As for specific elements of a bomb, that's pedantic sophistry. Only real criteria is if people think it looks like a bomb, and we know that the English teacher did. The device certainly didn't look like a clock anymore.

 

[angelo]

Here's an interview with him on KISS 92.5:
http://www.kiss925.com/2015/09/30/listen-clockmaking-whiz-kid-ahmed-mohamed-on-kiss-92-5/

Skip to about 1:25. He said he did not invent the clock from scratch. He also said he did not take the back off a clock and put it in a case.

He's changed his tune from his original statement at school where he claimed to have made it from scratch.

 

[Jayjay]

The yardstick is what average person might conclude the device is, and the timer is just as much a component of it as are the explosives. As an example, Steve Wozniak tweeted a similar incident from his youth: He pranked one of his teachers with metronome that made a ticking sound. The teacher thought it was a bomb based solely on the sound. If simple ticking sound is enough to fool someone, then surely looking like a bomb timer that remotely resembles a suitcase bomb from a movie might do so as well.

Note the bolded... He pranked one of his teachers. He purposely tried to play a joke on her. Had the same teacher heard the metronome, but he said it was a metronome and had been saying all day that it was a metronome, she could not convincingly claim he was trying to play a hoax on her.

In the Wozniak situation, it was a deliberate and a successful hoax. It's not comparable to accidentally thinking something to be a bomb, that was probably not intended as such. But school rules in Irving forbid bringin any object to school that even look like weapons, prank or no prank.

 

[Jayjay]

The reason is that his "clock" looked like an ameteurish replica of a suitcase bomb you might see on tv. That's a fact.

It is a fact that neither the school adm. or the police thought it was a bomb. It is a fact that no one has said Ahmed acted like it was a bomb or that he said it was bomb or made any indication it was a bomb. The presumption it was a hoax bomb is just that - a presumption.

Right, which is why the police retracted the charge once they had looked into it.

And I'm tired of addressing the same old tired canard that "nobody thought it was a bomb", when in fact nobody is claiming that.

And it's you who's rushing to judgment without knowing exactly how Ahmed presented the clock or how he defended it (based on his interviews, probably not very convincingly), and assuming that the cops must have been racists or islamophobes unless proven otherwise.

Unless Ahmed acted like the clock was a bomb, he is under no obligation to defend anything: he is innocent until proven guilty. I am not rushing to judgment - I asked you a question, since I don't know the answer. Clearly neither do you. If this lawsuit goes to trial, then we can see if the school and the police can convincingly answer this question.

Presumption of innocence applies to the accused, not the accuser. Ahmed is not being charged or accused of any crime. If there is a lawsuit, it's the school and the police that will be on trial.

I do agree that as a spectator it would be fun to see a lawsuit and a trial, because then the police transcripts and possible witness statements from the school would be public. But that's only out of curiosity.

 

[zorq]

In response to it looking like a bomb, there are three elements missing: (1) an explosive material/device (2) it was in a pencil box not a suitcase and (3) there was no countdown.

In response to skepticism about Ahmed bringing in electronic devices regularly to school (his old school where he was in the robotics club)...


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...ks-of-suspensions-and-clashed-with-authority/

In response to why would a kid bring an electronic device in a case, that is not rare. I remember people doing that in college.

Thanks for the Kubiak comment. But it raises a question, if Ahmed was already brining more advanced gadgets in middle school, why did he do such a bad job with this one, especially if its purpose was to impress his teacher?

That you think this project was a "bad job" is your opinion. He wasn't trying to impress you. That's you projecting your biases.

As for specific elements of a bomb, that's pedantic sophistry. Only real criteria is if people think it looks like a bomb, and we know that the English teacher did. The device certainly didn't look like a clock anymore.

On the contrary the English teacher clearly did NOT think it looked like a bomb. Unless you think she thinks leaving explosive devices laying around on her desk for most of the day is standard procedure for bombs found in a school.

Also the device still looks like a clock. It looks a heck more like a clock than these actual clocks do.

Show

http://homedesigns99.com/technology-at-home/innovative-usb-led-fan-clock/

http://www.tuvie.com/bubble-clox-is-not-your-traditional-flat-clock/

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/lexon-around-clock-58618

It has a digital display with 4 digits and a colon between the middle two. It still looks like a clock.