[Closed] Remember that young lad who built the clock..

Racial profiling by an idiot = cha ching!

There will be someone due to make a hefty wedge in fees off of this, just a shame the kid will never get to escape this part of the story, it will forever overshadow all the good stuff up until now

I imagine he'll lose alot of goodwill over this

I'm throwing in a claim for 1.5 mill due to the mental anguish I felt on reading this story.

I did (still do) have quite a bit of sympathy for him, but the subsequent actions do make me go hmm...

It would take a lot more than an over-zealous security guard to make me move to Qatar that's for sure!

I am hoping my son is currently in custody, having set off to school this morning with a home made model of a Jacobite battle axe, 6' long with axe head, big hook and heel blade...
(has to be worth one-meeeeeelion pounds in compensation, no?)

😉

Have you actually seen the 'clock' that he took to skool?
Batteries, electronic board, wires and zip ties, a random thick sheet of plastic and all contained inside a metal briefcase!!!

If that showed up in my post room I'd be exiting sharply and calling bomb disposal....

Sounds like a poor-taste practical joke that went a bit too far.

If that showed up in my post room I'd be exiting sharply and calling bomb disposal....

Hmm, maybe I'll have to rethink using Royal Mail for my suitcase bomb cottage industry....

Harrison didn't make that from his clock.

Sounds like a poor-taste practical joke that went a bit too far.

Or a cunningly devised scheme to sue for millions of Benjamins.

The original story is not all it seemed. The arrest was all kinds of wrong, but he claimed to have invented the clock - I hate to go all jhj on you, but when he's clearly lying about that it makes you think...

You do crazy things to people in the land of litigation then it is almost inevitable that you are going to get sued. If I understand correctly then some of the officials involved still don't admit to doing anything wrong or over reacting - its hard for me to feel much concern for them. There are still many people on the net who claim it was intended to be some sort of "hoax" or "dummy bomb" - as far as I know there is no evidence of that!

Is $15MM too much? I don't know - how much would they have to pay me to move to country, with my family*... its probably not far off where a $15MM suit settles - especially if there are embarrassing details that the defendant would rather didn't come out in a public court room?

* of course there is an argument that no such move was required, but that's for the court to judge.

That video's quite interesting - I always thought it looked like a bit of a piss-take but if all he's done (or rather, his parents...) is remove the shell from a clock & stuff it inside a metal briefcase you have to ask why the hell anyone would do that? First thing I thought was - that does look like a bloody bomb...

I mean, if he'd re-programmed the clock internals to display profanities & jammed it inside a stuffed toy attached to a drone then I think we would all agree that would be quite awesome, but I smell shite, use the stupid American litigation game to build a new life in Quatar...

[quote=poly ]how much would they have to pay me to move to country, with my family*...

In his case the answer appears to be a scholarship to a prestigious school. There doesn't appear to be any suggestion that they needed to move.

I was happy to give him the benefit of the doubt before, but it now all smells kind of funny.

of course there is an argument that no such move was required, but that's for the court to judge.

I think that argument would be quite strong. It is hardly like he was hounded out of the US. Far from it, he was getting invites to the whitehouse and praised by the heads of tech industry.

I thought he moved as he got a scholarship or something...

if all he's done (or rather, his parents...) is remove the shell from a clock & stuff it inside a metal briefcase you have to ask why the hell anyone would do that?

Idle curiosity? I did loads of stuff like that when I was younger. No one ever lept to the conclusion I was in the IRA.

First thing I thought was - that does look like a bloody bomb...

Never go to a Makerspace or electronics club, you'll shit yourself.

Have you actually seen the 'clock' that he took to skool?
Batteries, electronic board, wires and zip ties, a random thick sheet of plastic and all contained inside a metal briefcase!!!

Except it's not a briefcase, [url= http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/ ]it's a kid's pencil case[/url]. The media shots seemed deliberately staged by the authorities to make it look scary with all the electronics hanging out and nothing on them for scale.

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/sir-sir-look-what-i-made ]As folk pointed out on a thread here at the time[/url], many of us have made similar things, here is one of gofasterstripes projects:

[img] [/img]

Looks a bit explodey to me.

If that showed up in my post room I'd be exiting sharply and calling bomb disposal....

I'm pretty sure that bombs only have big digital countdowns on them in Hollywood movies. And it's not exactly common for a bomber to proudly show off his contraption to authority figures.

But okay, if they genuinely thought it was a bomb then why didn't they do as you suggested and evacuate and call bomb squad. Instead of leaving him in a room with the "bomb" till the police arrived:

[img] [/img]

I always thought it looked like a bit of a piss-take but if all he's done (or rather, his parents...) is remove the shell from a clock & stuff it inside a metal briefcase you have to ask why the hell anyone would do that?

He's 14. He's maybe not quite up to fabricating his own PCBs just yet.

I used to take stuff apart all the time when I was 14.
It's what curious geeky engineer kids do.

[quote=lemonysam ]Idle curiosity? I did loads of stuff like that when I was younger.

Which is fine. Taking stuff apart is where a lot of engineers start. The trouble is it doesn't quite match up with the story - the question should be "why the hell would somebody repackage a commercial alarm clock and claim it is their own invention?"

"why the hell would somebody repackage a commercial alarm clock and claim it is their own invention?"

Children don't always tell the absolute truth?

the question should be "why the hell would somebody repackage a commercial alarm clock and claim it is their own invention?"

That is exactly what 'invention' is to a child!!

Terrible the way he was treated, but ffs, I imagine he'll lose alot of goodwill over this

I think it shows him to be every inch the American...

Just because they were advised to sue for that amount is not necessary the amount they could get. I wish him and his family goodluck and they should get as much money as they can. Lucky the kid wasn't shot, tazed or beaten during the arrest, but i could well imagine the amount of fear he may have had with getting arrested put in a cop car and held in custody, plus the crazy media stories that were calling him all kinds of horrible stuff.

Would he have had the same treatment if he was white, No he wouldn't

lemonysam - Member
Idle curiosity? I did loads of stuff like that when I was younger. No one ever lept to the conclusion I was in the IRA.

Never go to a Makerspace or electronics club, you'll shit yourself.

When I was much younger, a guy round the corner from me dismantled his old radio out of idle curiosity and absent-mindedly left the bits outside in a cardboard box, his neighbour thought he was in the IRA & a small remote controlled bomb disposal robot a bit like a crap Metal Mickey magically appeared & removed it, childhood gossip reported an explosion of sorts but we didn't hang around to explain matters lest we be incarcerated. 😆

I'll admit my bomb recognition skills are honed from many hours of bad movies & not real life, but I now see the scale issue - I thought it was a full size flight case like what movie bombs come in... although it's to scale for a small child's bomb 😉

Ok, ok - give him some money & stop being so racist America

J

Just read [url= https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/alexs-nixie-clock/ ]an article about a ten year old that built this rather lovely Raspberry Pi powered nixie clock[/url]:

[img] [/img]

Bit sad to see him say:

I was very nervous about taking it into school – the last boy that took an electronic clock into school in Texas got arrested...

He's 14. He's maybe not quite up to fabricating his own PCBs just yet.

well why the bloody hell not? pfft

As above, it certainly looked like a home made bomb. Try walking through an airport or a crowded city centre with that tucked under your arm and see what happens

$15m claim is ridiculous as much the fault of money grabbing no-win no-fee lawyers as anything else though

As above, it certainly looked like a home made bomb.

No it doesn't. It looks like an alarm clock mounted inside [url= http://www.amazon.com/Vaultz-Locking-Pencil-Inches-VZ01479/dp/B001BXZ28K ]a pencil case[/url].

THIS looks like a bomb:

[img] [/img]

So does THIS:

[img] [/img]

But okay, I accept the English teacher may not know much about electronics.

The question remains, if they [i]really[/i] thought it was a bomb then why didn't they evacuate the school and call the bomb squad?

Instead of leaving him in the school [i]with[/i] the device.

To be fair.... the police/security said that they never [u]believed[/u] it was a bomb, the reason they detained the child was for perpetrating a bomb hoax. ie: deliberately making something that would be mistaken for a bomb.

So what that argument hinges-on what the child's intention was... did he intend for people to mistake it for a bomb? I've not seen anything to suggest that he did. When he showed it to people, did he declare it was anything other than a clock? I don't think so.

They've moved to Qatar to get over the incident but now decide to sue for 15 million dollars. Irrespective of how wrong the whole incident was, it's somewhat unsurprising that they're suing. 🙄

deliberately making something that would be mistaken for a bomb.

He apparently took it to a number of classrooms and appeared to be trying to provoke a reaction.
He took the inside of a clock and put it into a case (thats not a pencil case like any I have ever seen) which is hardly invention. Graham that Rasperry Pi looks like something original, although it does require an external power supply and fixed LAN connectivity which reduces its portability just a tad 🙄
What this kid did doesnt appear to require any technical knowledge.

Graham that Rasperry Pi looks like something original, although it does require an external power supply and fixed LAN connectivity which reduces its portability just a tad

another bit of home sleuthing here:

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/

As above, it certainly looked like a home made bomb. Try walking through an airport or a crowded city centre with that tucked under your arm and see what happens

he went to his school (not crowed city or airport) with a lunch-box which at even the most cursory glance would have revealed it for what it was. Do try to reign in your manufactured hysteria.

This is what is wrong with the USA and to some extent, the rest of the world.

When I rule the world, his parents and his lawyers will get a slap around the head and be told to get out of the room.

with a lunch-box which at even the most cursory glance would have revealed it for what it was.

Well it didnt have "TNT" written on it like a Buster Keaton movie but I suspect it may take a trained eye to differentiate it from a bomb. Thats besides the point, apparently they knew it wasnt a bomb but it was a hoax (which probably isnt very funny) and that is what he was (heavy handedly) arrested for.
I understand his sister had previously been in trouble for either claiming she had a bomb or something similar so just maybe they were a bit sensitive!

I think he was well known at his school for messing about with electronics, wasn't he? He'd previous made a device which remotely controlled a projector, and had made a charger for a teacher's mobile, they referred to him as "Inventor Kid"

He showed the clock to 3 teachers before it was confiscated, and none of them thought it was any thing other than a clock thrown together by a 14 boy interested in taking things apart and throwing them together again...From any perspective, taking a boy of 14 for more than hour for interrogation (the words the police used) in handcuffs his fingerprints taken, and according to him, not allowed to have contact with his family, personally I think deserves some form of recompense.

From any perspective, taking a boy of 14 for more than hour for interrogation (the words the police used) in handcuffs his fingerprints taken, and according to him, not allowed to have contact with his family, personally I think deserves some form of recompense.

An apology and a trip to the whitehouse to meet the president would have been nice....

oh wait...

did he intend for people to mistake it for a bomb? I've not seen anything to suggest that he did. When he showed it to people, did he declare it was anything other than a clock? I don't think so.

Yep. From the [url= http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece ]Dallas Morning News story[/url]:

[i]Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, said police spokesman James McLellan. And police have no reason to think it was dangerous. But officers still didn’t believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story.

"We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb," McLellan said. "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation."[/i]

He apparently took it to a number of classrooms...

Are you suggesting he should have left it as a mysterious unattended device somewhere instead? 😆

..and appeared to be trying to provoke a reaction.

[url= http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Irving-Student-Says-Hes-Falsely-Accused-of-Making-a-Hoax-Bomb-327794401.html ]The NBC News report says[/url]:

[i]Mohamed said problems arose when the clock rang in his back pack in class with a second teacher later in the day. He said he showed that teacher the device after other students had left the room.

"She said, 'Well it looks like a bomb. Don't show it to anyone else,'" he said. "And she decides to take it from me."[/i]

Which seems fair enough. It could have just ended there.

(thats not a pencil case like any I have ever seen)

It is apparently this one that I linked to:

[img] [/img]

Or something very similar. (His had a tiger hologram on the front)

Graham that Rasperry Pi looks like something original, although it does require an external power supply and fixed LAN connectivity which reduces its portability just a tad 🙄

The Nixie tubes need a 170v supply - that would be quite a few duracells.

The LAN could easily have been replaced by a USB wifi dongle though.

What this kid did doesnt appear to require any technical knowledge.

I agree it's not particularly impressive. Ahmed himself said it took him 20 minutes to make.

An apology and a trip to the whitehouse to meet the president would have been nice..

😆 Indeed.

The thing is, this being the 21st century and social media being what it is, I can imagine the sort of emails, tweets and whatever that any number of crazy folk are sending this family probably daily and probably still. I don't have any idea what level of compensation would be reasonable, I'd imagine that figure is just a starting point.

I suspect it may take a trained eye to differentiate it from a bomb.

Not really. The fact that there is no explosive, or blocks of anything that might be mistaken for explosive, is a fairly big clue.

Also only in movies would a terrorist use a massive timer display that takes up most of the available case, instead of packing in something more useful like say explosive or nails.

Also most bombs are not mains powered.

Thats besides the point, apparently they knew it wasnt a bomb

I guess his English teacher has "a trained eye" then. 😀

.. but it was a hoax ..

Surely to be a hoax you have to pretend it is something that it is not?
He only ever said it was a clock. No one ever thought it was a bomb.

I have that exact case I think, used it to carry my little guitar toolkit. It's kind of cute, and you'd have to be a bit weird to call it a briefcase. From now on I'm calling it a bombcase.

surfer - Member

I suspect it may take a trained eye to differentiate it from a bomb.

Why do you suspect that? Nobody involved ever thought he had a bomb.

GrahamS - Member

"We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb," McLellan said. "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation."

I loved this. "What's this?" "It's a clock" "The truth? Not good enough! What is it?" "It's a clock!" "WHAT IS THE BROADER EXPLANATION?" "It's a clock. Ya raving mad dick" "Alright, I've had enough of this. Book him!" "What for?" "He says this clock's a clock!" "Ah, telling the truth with intent to explain. Send him to gitmo!"

in the absence of a like function i'll just repost
"I loved this. "What's this?" "It's a clock" "The truth? Not good enough! What is it?" "It's a clock!" "WHAT IS THE BROADER EXPLANATION?" "It's a clock. Ya raving mad dick" "Alright, I've had enough of this. Book him!" "What for?" "He says this clock's a clock!" "Ah, telling the truth with intent to explain. Send him to gitmo!"

If he had have been a dis-affected youth and he had fashioned a bomb around the clock ready to commit yet another US school atrocity then I am sure he would probably have given the same reply when asked what it was.

But at the point they were asking for "a broader explanation" they knew it wasn't a bomb.

In fact at [i]no point[/i] did [i]anyone[/i] think it was a bomb.

If he was making a bomb it would look similar to this

[img] [/img]

Not a comedy roadrunner type mock up

The fact that there is no explosive, or blocks of anything that might be mistaken for explosive, is a fairly big clue.

Wouldnt know, never seen any explosive. Basically its a crap clock. Well actually it was a clock before he took it apart and put it into that little case.

Bruneep that looks like a clock to me

Also most bombs are not mains powered.

Actually even my untrained eye spotted that which makes my point for me ref you attempt to compare the 10yr olds work to this errr.. Clock. They dont compare but at least try to find one that doesnt need a mains supply!

[quote=GrahamS ]Also most bombs are not mains powered.

Well next time I make a bomb it will be mains powered - that will put them off the scent (it will also have a whacking great clock display on the side).

you attempt to compare the 10yr olds work to this errr.. Clock.

Wasn't my attempt - the 10 year made that point himself. I just mentioned it here because I thought it was a bit sad that it even crossed his mind.

Basically its a crap clock.

That I agree with. All he has done is this:

They dont compare but at least try to find one that doesnt need a mains supply!

Huh? [i]Both[/i] clocks needed a main supply. How would finding one that didn't make it a fairer comparison?

Note: battery powered clocks are available. Some are even small enough to wear on a wrist...

[img] [/img]

Well next time I make a bomb it will be mains powered - that will put them off the scent (it will also have a whacking great clock display on the side).

This thread has probably got us on enough watch lists already.

If I were you I'd be lubing up for when the black helicopter arrives. 😉

Wasn't my attempt - the 10 year made that point himself

You posted the pic.

Huh? Both clocks needed a main supply

What?? If thats the case how did the alarm go off in his backpack?

If thats the case how did the alarm go off in his backpack?

That's unclear.

It's a mains powered clock with a 9v backup battery (to stop it losing the time in a power cut).

Some reports said he plugged it in during class, he set the time and the alarm went off.

Other reports said it went beep while in his backpack - in which case maybe the beep was an alert that the backup battery was running low or something? (there is no battery in the photos but I guess they may have removed it).

If thats the case how did the alarm go off in his backpack?

Given the evidence of 7/7, the Bangkok bomb, the Boston bombings and so on I'd have thought the clock actually looked a lot more like a bomb when it was in his rucksack. I bet there were loads of kids at school that day carrying fake bombs.

[quote=GrahamS ](there is no battery in the photos but I guess they may have removed it).

It all becomes clear - presumably the (removed) backup battery was one of these:

[img] [/img]

That's unclear.

It's a mains powered clock with a 9v backup battery (to stop it losing the time in a power cut).

Some reports said he plugged it in during class, he set the time and the alarm went off.

Other reports said it went beep while in his backpack - in which case maybe the beep was an alert that the backup battery was running low or something? (there is no battery in the photos but I guess they may have removed it).

Loads of guessing then.

Loads of guessing then.

Yep - founded on loads of lazy, poor or inaccurate reporting.

[quote=surfer ]The fact that there is no explosive, or blocks of anything that might be mistaken for explosive, is a fairly big clue.
Wouldnt know, never seen any explosive. Basically its a crap clock. Well actually it was a clock before he took it apart and put it into that little case.
Bruneep that looks like a clock to me
Also most bombs are not mains powered.
Actually even my untrained eye spotted that which makes my point for me ref you attempt to compare the 10yr olds work to this errr.. Clock. They dont compare but at least try to find one that doesnt need a mains supply!

surfer

Thats the bomb (allegedly) that took the Russian plane down