# RO: This is totally going to kill Bring Your Clock to School Day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2015, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454 "2015-09-16T08:35:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/321 "2015-09-19T00:48:24Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Someone should clock you for that! Just had to chime in, eh? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/322 "2015-09-19T00:54:12Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Given his anecdotes about his mad BASIC skillz and his supernatural feats of prognostication, this feels more like it has to do with **Slacker Inc’s** self promotion than anything else. Poor guy never got the attention he deserved. That much is true. 🆒 > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Yeah! Fuck him! And Atticus Finch, too! You really want to use Atticus there, now that we know he turned out to be a racist after all? > [@Mtgman](#): > > I’m always down for raggin on that smarmy bastard who defended the British soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre. What kind of lousy sumbich DEFENDS a bunch of soldiers who fire on civilians? Some kind of traitor that douchebag must have been. > > Enjoy, > Steven How do you figure that was a kangaroo court/show trial? Adams got most of those soldiers _acquitted_, and the other two got reduced sentences. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/323 "2015-09-19T01:28:42Z")
> [@Cyros](#): > > Just had to chime in, eh? That post really wound him up. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/324 "2015-09-19T03:29:09Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That post really wound him up. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/325 "2015-09-19T03:35:57Z")
And now, as if this was a mediocre police procedural, a late twist enters our story. [This post](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/) argues (with visual evidence) that Ahmed didn’t build a clock, merely repackaged it. While I don’t agree with the article that it necessarily means that Ahmed intended it as a hoax bomb, it might indicate some amount of deception on Ahmed’s part. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/326 "2015-09-19T03:47:05Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > **Princhester** , if that was actually just a sincere and naive attempt to make a clock, then he is not about to set the tech world on fire. I was making more impressive electronic items with the soldering kit I got for Christmas when I was nine. > > But I do give him more credit than that, and I think that he may well have been trolling people as you suggest. **Princhester** , did you ever suggest that Ahmed was trolling people? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/327 "2015-09-19T03:51:28Z")
> [@](#): > > We care about the story, but we don’t care about the actual facts. Headlines and click-bait are far more interesting than thinking for ourselves. This is what I am saying. Although I don’t agree with the author of the article that there was no racism/nativism involved. But trolling or pranking are certainly not worthy of elevating this kid to the next Woz. He’s closer to an anti-nativist version of the people who deceptively made those Planned Parenthood videos, except the crowd cheering him on doesn’t even know there is deception involved. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/328 "2015-09-19T03:52:05Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > P.S. I take it no one is any longer contesting the characterization of the kid’s father as a “publicity hound” at least? Everyone is contesting it, because it’s stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/329 "2015-09-19T03:54:25Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > And now, as if this was a mediocre police procedural, a late twist enters our story. [This post](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/) argues (with visual evidence) that Ahmed didn’t build a clock, merely repackaged it. While I don’t agree with the article that it necessarily means that Ahmed intended it as a hoax bomb, it might indicate some amount of deception on Ahmed’s part. Except he never was deceptive about that. For example: > [@](#): > > Mohamed says he wanted to show the engineering teacher there what he’d done over the weekend: take apart a clock and rebuild it inside a pencil case. > **[Texas High School Student Shows Off Homemade Clock, Gets Handcuffed](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/16/440820557/high-school-student-shows-off-homemade-clock-gets-handcuffed)** > > An aspiring engineer, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed repeatedly said that his clock was not, in fact, a bomb. But a teacher and the principal of MacArthur High School called the police. He never claimed he made a fusion reactor or anything. He took about 20 minutes to rebuild a clock inside a pencil case because he thought it was cool. Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/330 "2015-09-19T04:02:46Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > The parts of the Vox article that support his dad being a publicity hound are the ones I quoted upthread. (He had a campaign website for president despite never actually filing the paperwork to run for president; he inserted himself in the Jerry Jones ridiculousness; he touted himself as regularly going to public events and “accidentally” upstaging the featured speakers.) If you can’t or won’t see it, I’m not sure what else I can say. Holy fuck you’re stupid. Zero percent reading comprehension. Absolutely appallingly fucking stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/331 "2015-09-19T04:06:16Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Given his anecdotes about his mad BASIC skillz and his supernatural feats of prognostication, this feels more like it has to do with **Slacker Inc’s** self promotion than anything else. Poor guy never got the attention he deserved. He’s getting some of it now. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/332 "2015-09-19T04:21:19Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > And now, as if this was a mediocre police procedural, a late twist enters our story. [This post](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/) argues (with visual evidence) that Ahmed didn’t build a clock, merely repackaged it. While I don’t agree with the article that it necessarily means that Ahmed intended it as a hoax bomb, it might indicate some amount of deception on Ahmed’s part. It indicates that an at least partially self-taught 14 year old boy who has never studied patent law is susceptible to the Dunning-Kruger effect, and is unaware that what he thinks of as “my awesome new invention!” isn’t as impressive an innovation to an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/333 "2015-09-19T06:49:39Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > He never claimed he made a fusion reactor or anything. He took about 20 minutes to rebuild a clock inside a pencil case because he thought it was cool. Thanks for finding that article. But It’s not clear from the words he uses or, for that matter, many of the write-ups on the web that I’ve read. In the video on the NPR page you cite he calls it “my invention”. In [this](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece) Dallas News article it says he “built” it in 20 minutes, not “rebuilt”. That’s probably the source of the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/334 "2015-09-19T08:42:38Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Except he never was deceptive about that. For example: > > [Texas High School Student Shows Off Homemade Clock, Gets Handcuffed : The Two-Way : NPR](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/16/440820557/high-school-student-shows-off-homemade-clock-gets-handcuffed) > > He never claimed he made a fusion reactor or anything. He took about 20 minutes to rebuild a clock inside a pencil case because he thought it was cool. > > Jesus. Jesus your-fucking-self. This is some srsly revisionist history. Do you really want me to embarrass the people who, earlier in this thread, were hailing him as a great prodigy who was going to be the next Elon Musk or something? Do you want me to cite the stories that did \*not \*quote him as this being something he just “rebuilt” or threw together but “invented” or “created”? I would bet a large sum of money (if I had one) that a majority of the people who are aware of this story do not know he just quickly rebuilt an already-existing clock. BTW, if someone deserves to be “Queen for a day”, get the red carpet at the White House, etc., it’s [this kid.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/16/virginia-school-suspends-an-11-year-old-for-one-year-over-a-leaf-that-wasnt-marijuana/?tid=pm_business_pop_b) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/335 "2015-09-19T08:48:47Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Holy fuck you’re stupid. Zero percent reading comprehension. Absolutely appallingly fucking stupid. If you read the \*Vox \*piece and think my synopsis shows “zero percent reading comprehension”, and you really honestly believe that and aren’t just saying it to be a dick, then…I dunno. Black is white, up is down. Anyone can take any statement and just throw a bunch of curse words at it and call someone stupid. But you’re either trying to gaslight me, or you are not even remotely acquainted with reality. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/336 "2015-09-19T12:36:22Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > Thanks for finding that article. But It’s not clear from the words he uses or, for that matter, many of the write-ups on the web that I’ve read. In the video on the NPR page you cite he calls it “my invention”. In [this](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece) Dallas News article it says he “built” it in 20 minutes, not “rebuilt”. That’s probably the source of the confusion. to him - it is his invention- he moved it inside a ‘pencil case’ - thats how many new ideas start. Don’t you remember being excited about some thing you accomplished, that to adults would be trivial? even if he took clock bits from an electronic supply store and built a working clock from scratch - it still wouldn’t be an ‘invention’ in the patentable sense - but it would be something he would likely call his own. How many new programmers think that thier version of “hello world” is an accomplishment simply because they managed to do it? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/337 "2015-09-19T12:41:13Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Don’t you remember being excited about some thing you accomplished, that to adults would be trivial? Yeah. People seem to be thinking, “If _I_ brought a reassembled clock to my boss, MY boss wouldn’t be impressed!” But that’s projecting an adult-adult relationship on a teenager talking to his teacher. I’m not in a position to say whether what he did was impressive or not for a 14-year-old: I was no unappreciated Boy Genius like Slacker, nor am I the sort of pitiful adult who sobs in public about how nobody recognizes his brilliance. But that doesn’t matter. If his invention was a farce–if his “clock” was really just a handful of numbers drawn in crayon on a torn-up scrap of cardboard from a box of Froot Loops–it wouldn’t substantively affect the part of the story where he got arrested. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/338 "2015-09-19T14:22:46Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Exactly! If they honestly thought it was a bomb, there are procedures to follow. Everyone would have been evacuated, and a bomb squad would be called in to check it. > > Apparently, they might charge him with making a “hoax bomb”, like he was trying to make something that would look like a bomb to scare people: > > I don’t know what broader explanation that they would be wanting. I imagine that even if the kid explained everything about how the clock works, and why he made it, and how he made it, and the history of clocks and robotics, that nothing would be good enough. > > I really hope that the national attention means that he won’t get charged, and that he’s able to find some resources outside of school that can help him with his inventions and where he can show them off to people who won’t automatically think he’s trying to make bombs. Here we are touching on the crux of the matter: **Nobody ever believed it was a bomb.** Nobody took any measures remotely appropriate for a bomb scare. No evacuation, no bomb squad… Who do they think they are fooling? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/339 "2015-09-19T15:07:03Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > I’m always down for raggin on that smarmy bastard who defended the British soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre. What kind of lousy sumbich DEFENDS a bunch of soldiers who fire on civilians? Some kind of traitor that douchebag must have been. > [@Voyager](#): > > Yeah, and our sainted founding fathers put him in his place. Nothing was ever heard of him again. Absolutely! And thank God we never, ever elected him President. OR his kid, a sleazy lawyer who defended murderous Negroes before the SCOTUS. And then there is that wife of his who Chris Christy, a known idiot, suggested be the face on the ten dollar bill. In his place, indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/340 "2015-09-19T15:23:19Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Here we are touching on the crux of the matter: **Nobody ever believed it was a bomb.** Nobody took any measures remotely appropriate for a bomb scare. > > No evacuation, no bomb squad… Who do they think they are fooling? Much as I think they overreacted, I think this kind of argument is missing a key point. It was clearly not a bomb. But it was not clearly not a **hoax bomb** , at least at first. And an unconvincing hoax bomb is still not something a kid should be bringing to school. If teachers thought maybe he was planning on pulling some sort of bomb prank with it, they acted reasonably in kicking the issue upstairs, even if they knew for sure it wasn’t an actual bomb. The crime of pulling a bomb hoax does not depend on the skill with which the hoax bomb was made. Again, though, there’s zero evidence that the kid intended to hoax anyone with it, and plenty of evidence that he had no such intent. Once it was kicked upstairs, the principal correctly investigated the issue; things went off the rails when the issue was escalated to the police. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=18)