Slightly better picture: http://i.imgur.com/jGZ8RBU.jpg

This is just an off the shelf alarm clock disassembled and crammed into a box from Target. I see an AC cord going to a bridge rectifier, a transformer, 9v battery holder, a display driver board and a long thin PCB for buttons. Here is a similar clock with a 2.5" tall display: http://i.imgur.com/1FceYfG.jpg

Surprisingly that box does make it look like a TV bomb, but I'd never actually mistake it for something that could explode.

the fucking giant 7 segment LED doesn't make you think "clock"? Or at least "no idiot would put a ridiculously large flashing display on a bomb"?

I mean, he probably needs a bit of advice about mains wiring and safety. He can probably get that when he's being shown the Mars rovers (or any of the other stuff kind NASA people have invited him to)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/ahmed-mohamed-arrested-clock...

EDIT (after several comments) I mistakenly thought this was a briefcased sized case, but it's not, it's much smaller. There's a battery connector for scale. So, I shouldn't have said "fucking huge LED". It's just normal size LED clock.

Hollywood lernin. Bombs always have big countdown timers. And they beep. And they're made by brown people.

Ergo, bomb.

I'd love this to be parody, but it seems to be the literal explanation here - with a side order of revenge for having an uppity father:

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9339063/ahmed-mohamed-elhassan

Those stories about his father are awesome. I'd like to be that guy.

So you fancy being a ringer for Al-Bashir?

I bet the guy knows very well that the Sudanese politics are farce and he was just playing along maybe for the limelight or to play the controlled opposition part so Al-Bashir can claim that he wins in a free and fair elections.

I think the biggest thing that says not a bomb was that he asked permission _before_ bringing it in[1].

[1]https://twitter.com/AnneClaireCNN/status/644158607035133952

Also, that it wasn't a bomb

That's funny, I would have thought the utter lack of anything explosive would differentiate it from a bomb. :)

In England several people (including children) have been arrested, and prosecuted, (and convicted?) for terrorism offences because they owned things like The Anarchists Cookbook.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7030096.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-33705944

(The explorer Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes while on service with the SAS used to work out how to efficiently use explosive, allowing him to keep small amounts after training exercises. He accumulated a small stock of explosive which he used to demolish an ugly damn.

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

)

In the photo, there is something that looks like a pouch next to the transformer. If someone thought they might be looking at a bomb, they might think that the explosive is in that pouch.

Anyone have a guess what that thing actually is?

That's exactly what made it look like a bomb to the dumbass principal:

> The principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t make a written statement, he said.

> “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed said.

> “I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”

> “He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’”

Bombs on tv ALWAYS have giant flashing 7 segment LEDs counting down to the time when the white male American hero disarms them.

He's 14 years old. He'll figure it out.

Did he solder the board for that or did he just take apart a nightstand clock and put it into another case?

This is what happens when people in charge have no clue anymore what is inside electronics. Computers and smartphones are just "magic".

The pictures I've seen look like the guts of a cheap digital alarm clock. I'm a little disappointed; from initial reports, I was hoping it was something he'd actually cobbled together using discrete logic or a microcontroller. :)

Seeing that photo did remind me of an episode of "24"

Why is that a bad idea? What common sense would dictate what this child has gone through?

A tiny modicum of common sense from the police or school authorities would go a long way here.

It's a bad idea because pretty much ANYONE with a little common sense could have predicted that there would be a realistic probability of a BAD outcome by bringing that to school. Even if it's just a little homemade clock project.

What common sense tells one that bringing an electronics project to school is a bad idea, exactly?

How else should a homemade electronics project look?

I hope you're just trolling. I hate to see this stuff on HN. This is ridiculous.

Oh come on, you're extremely naive if you couldn't have predicted some type of negative reaction by bringing that project to school, in Texas.

... while being brown, and quite obviously a latent tenorist.

This is the same (il)logic people apply to rape victims.

"If you didn't want to get raped then you shouldn't have dressed that way."

How he was treated (and profiled based on his skin color and name) was wrong. To suggest anything otherwise is victim-blaming.

Did I suggest otherwise? Re-read my comment.

Yes, you did.

  I'm not defending what happened, but I'm just pointing
  out that this could have been easily avoided.

No, it couldn't have been. Unless it's easy to avoid being born colored and named Ahmed Mohamed and having a love for electronics. Or unless it's easy to fix systemic prejudice. Saying this blames him for not using "common sense" --

  If I walk into a gas station with a ski mask and my hand
  in my jacket, I'm not breaking any laws. But I have enough
  common sense not to do that.

Let me fix this for you:

  s/common sense/privilege/rg

You compared a colored boy who indulged his creativity to someone dressing up as a mugger. See anything fucked up about that? You suggested that it shouldn't be common sense for him to go into school "being who he is" with an electronic device. He's 14 and his name's Ahmed Mohamed and he likes technology. What's common sense here?

You want a better comparison? You are saying "I have common sense not to be a black man loitering in public." As if black men should be harassed by law enforcement at any turn. You are saying "I have common sense not to be a woman dressed (some subset of) the population finds scandalous." As if her body were owned by the public and not herself and as if it weren't her prerogative to dress however she damn well pleased.

The illogical behavior / lack of common sense is completely on the part of the system. There ought not be a suggestion other than "fix the broken-ass system."

You have really terrible reading comprehension. The comment I replied to said "what happened to him was wrong. to suggest otherwise..." -- I did not suggest what happened to him was RIGHT (which would qualify as suggesting otherwise). I said it was PREDICTABLE. Do you understand the difference?

Second of all, I labeled my analogy as "extreme". Perhaps you missed that, or once again maybe it's just that your reading comprehension skills are lacking. I used an extreme example to illustrate my point clearly.

The common sense to not bring a hollywood-macguyver-homemade-electronic device into a school knowing full well there are incompetent, conservative-minded administration who will judge you based upon your name, appearance, and the fact you have a bomb-looking electronic device. Right or wrong, it's PREDICTABLE and puts yourself at meaningless risk with no upside.

Once again, this might be WRONG. But it is PREDICTABLE. This is the concept of idealism vs realism. The way the world is versus the way the world ought to be. Perhaps this type of conversation is above your head though.

  I did not suggest what happened to him was RIGHT 
  (which would qualify as suggesting otherwise). I
  said it was PREDICTABLE.

No. Your "extreme analogy" was to illustrate your "point" that he should have exercised "common sense." This is a form of victim blaming and is wrong. It does indicate you think he shouldn't have done what he did. This is "suggesting otherwise" because if he has the right to do something, he shouldn't be shamed or criticized or hurt for it. He shouldn't have to fear for it or operate by your nonsensical "common sense."

  Second of all, I labeled my analogy as "extreme". Perhaps 
  you missed that, or once again maybe it's just that your 
  reading comprehension skills are lacking. I used an 
  extreme example to illustrate my point clearly.

No, I did not miss your "extreme" nor your sadly ignorant point.

  Once again, this might be WRONG. But it is PREDICTABLE. 
  This is the concept of idealism vs realism. The way the 
  world is versus the way the world ought to be. Perhaps
  this type of conversation is above your head though.

I'm well aware of what constitutes an ideal and what constitutes reality. Here's reality: he was within his rights to do exactly what he did, he is now better for doing exactly what he did, and you suggesting that he settle for the status quo and suggesting that he made a mistake (because his immediate reality is filled with ignorant people) is not helpful. It's stupid, it blames the reaction he received on him, as if that's something he should have been concerned about. Your comments shame a victim and you're asinine for it.

In no world real or imagined was that something he should have been concerned about. Or the parents. In the real world, you fight the dickwagons who hurt you or your son. And in the ideal world, it never even happens.

To reiterate the point of my previous criticism: the illogical behavior / lack of common sense is completely on the part of the system. There ought not be a suggestion other than "fix the broken-ass system." Don't tell people what to do on the basis of a racist and dehumanizing system. You're perpetuating that shit.

You need to get with reality. Look at the fricking photo of what the kid brought.

It's inside a small case, with exposed wires, and a digital display. You're really naive if you don't think that's going to raise any eyebrows.

If some kid is passionate about cooking, should he bring in his homemade flour in small unmarked plastic baggies and start selling it to all his classmates? Completely within anybody's right to do that, but OBVIOUSLY a stupid idea. That's the category this kid's homemade clock falls under.

  OBVIOUSLY a stupid idea

Continue shaming a 14 year old boy for doing something within their rights.

The only OBVIOUSLY stupid thing (/ person) is you suggesting that he shouldn't have done what he did because of a very wrong status quo.

Your analogy is nearly as dumb as you. More accurate is "if a kid loves cooking, should he bake cupcakes and bring it in for his classmates? YES."

Should a kid get arrested for bringing in cupcakes? Obviously not. And if there are assholes in the school who arrest kids who bake cupcakes? Well, they can suck it, and hopefully people don't sit around and let it happen without a response. #thanksobama You don't call kids who bring cupcakes to school stupid.

--

What you construe as "reality" and what you judge as stupid or smart adds nothing to the topic. If the intent of your post was to say "the status quo of conservative america sucks," you're saying something everyone knows. If you're saying (and this is what your text ends up conveying) "it's stupid to exercise your rights," this is the problem. You don't get to blame victims. Nowhere in your commentary are you saying the aggressors are responsible for changing course. You only say the kid should have changed course. You call him stupid for his actions. Do you yet see how that's shitty of you?

I'm with you. Disregard the downvotes cast by people here, who live in their San Francisco bubble.

Does anyone else think that this story seems a little bit contrived? There are so many photos of the incident at each of the various stages -- it makes it look like it was engineered as a news story. The youtube video comes across as prepared and polished and the response (no talking without a lawyer present etc.) seems like something you'd see on PR wire.

I'm not saying that the whole thing isn't ridiculous, but I'm skeptical that this is the full story. Honestly, I'm as familiar with working on circuit boards as the next guy, but if I saw someone (anyone, any race) carrying something like that in an airport, it'd raise an eyebrow.

A school isn't an airport. And he ASKED to show his ENGINEERING teacher a project he had created. It's not as if he just showed up with an assortment of PCB's and wires that he whipped out in class.

In short, yes, it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb, but you'd think the police/school administration would have figured out he meant no harm after he told them several times that it was simply a clock. The outrage here is over the extreme reaction, not over the wisdom of his actions.

> In short, yes, it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb

This part of the issue has been less focused on than the racist angle, but the fact that kids are scared to tinker because of the zero-tolerance hyper-sensitivity of schools is in my mind the more interesting part of the story.

You're probably not wrong, but it's hugely sad to me that you consider it a bad idea to bring in a personal project, with permission, advance notification, and repeated clarifications of what it actually is, simply because it "could be perceived as a bomb" (which means it has wires?). I can't think of a better way to discourage kids from tinkering around with electronics.

I absolutely agree with you and was going to post a comment to similar effect but couldn't really find the right words. I'm presently a university student so I'm really just a few years removed from Ahmed's age and mindset. It's tragic to me that the default position of figures of authority toward students who are interested in technology (even in today's increasingly technology driven world), is one of suspicion and fear.

While I suspect that a lot of this is due to a generational divide between administrators and students, the message this sends is that students should not be interested in science and engineering because those topics sort of abstractly distant and scary. Students should be ENCOURAGED, not punished for being creative and inventive, even if it means they're being a little bit subversive or have viewpoints that run counter to those in people of positions of authority.

> While I suspect that a lot of this is due to a generational divide between administrators and students

I'm sure this is part of it, but the theory[1] that schools in general are built around churning out uncreative, docile workers for the industrial economy has been around for a long, long time. Hell, "Another Brick in the Wall" was, what, 1978?

[1] Note that I'm specifying that this is a theory since I've never done enough research on both sides to feel certain that this is a particularly well-founded belief. What little I've heard is fairly plausible.

> it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb

And women should dress modestly because you know... there are bad people out there who might perceive a short skirt as an invitation, amirite?

A good question is did the kid take apart an alarm clock and just rebuild it in another case or did he make a synthesis of many different parts? In that Brad Pitt movie about the Dalia Lama, the later had to take apart a clock to learn how it worked, I think the quote is "the best way to learn how something works is to take it apart." However, in this case the kid might have put together several different parts such as an LCD screen, the circuit from an alarm clock, and something that rings to act as the alarm. I don't think the point is that the kid is some type of genius but rather that he is doing it and not until today afraid to do it. That at 14 he started the process of learning so in 10 years at the age of 24 he can be at the top of a career in EE. It's not the skill level that is impressive it's the passion.

> There are so many photos of the incident at each of the various stages

Welcome to 2015. I think Ahmed is just really sharp and articulate.

His father is also an pro-Islamic activist according to some of the news articles. It is quite possible that the father is taking advantage of his son's interests to further a political cause.

edit: I am not commenting on whether the father is righteous or malevolent; simply positing an idea which may explain why there is so much video, documentation, and attention on this event.

where "pro Islamic" means he ran on a campaign including things like "ratifying human rights" and repealing laws against converting from Islam.

There's a bunch of anti-Muslim sentiment around. Standing up to that doesn't make someone a radical hardline Islamist.

This is a kid that enters robot competitions. https://twitter.com/sudanibae/status/643999495131262976/phot...

The article has one picture of the device (obtained from the police), one of Ahmed being led away in handcuffs (probably from someone's phone), and two that look like they were taken after this became a media sensation. Are there others?

You don't think a 14-year-old or their parents would know better than to talk to the police without a lawyer, especially after what's happened so far? Or that they haven't been contacted by dozens of lawyers wanting to represent them?

He wasn't at an airport. he also asked before bringing it in. He also kept it in his backpack, out of view.

What else should he have done? Just given up and not tried to make something cool?

If you trace back the source for these facts, the source is a tweet referencing an interview with Mohamed's father. These "facts" get bubbled up the chain until they make it into reputable news services without verification. It may be true that he asked, but I guarantee you that some of the critical "facts" you're reading about this will turn out not to be true.

You're debating that he was at an airport? Or that he didn't keep the thing in his backpack?

Both of those were reported by the school itself. And the tweet came from a reporter at the CNN.

I'll grant that CNN isn't the best, and has had issues, but for the purposes of this convo, I don't know how that is relevant (it's not like anything you or I say is going to matter to anyone anyway).

The critical facts are:

1) He took a clock to school

2) He got arrested

3) He got suspended

That alone should be sufficient to cause anger. US isn't a crime free zone. Why aren't police spending time dealing with real actual crime?

These are not the critical facts. The news media wants you to be outraged because it drives eyeballs. That's why it is in their interest to write the story in such a way that you think these are the critical facts.

are you seriously implying that it's a conspiracy?

I'm not implying its a "conspiracy." It happened, but likely not in exactly the way it is being reported in the news.

From what I've seen, this looks like it was engineered for sensationalized media consumption. The photos, press conference, celebrity/politican PR releases etc. indicate to me that someone wanted this to blow up to make a point -- it didn't really happen organically in the way that the press is making you believe. If you are actually interested in how these stories end up making headlines, I would recommend reading "Trust Me, I'm Lying." It completely changed my perspective on our media and why it emphasizes the things that it does.