So he took a chance that people would be stupid and that the cops would refuse to admit ever making a mistake. Seems like a safe bet to me.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91b3nCkomUL.jpg
The Clock Ticks (Ahmed Mohamed's clock bomb)
- Thread starter Desert Reign
- Start date
So he took a chance that people would be stupid and that the cops would refuse to admit ever making a mistake. Seems like a safe bet to me.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91b3nCkomUL.jpg
Quetzal
New member
I will give it a go.
Because in his child-like mind, he did build it. The rest under this topic is just useless speculation. Next!
A rather pointless question to the argument as a whole. This question only exists to attempt to frame the story in the way the author wants it to be read, so we will skip it.
While it is fun to think that a kid would have the foresight to have it go off so he could take it out and show someone, I highly doubt that is what happened.
So, apparently his sister was suspended when another student claimed that Eyman wanted to blow up the school. The author argues that she is so bitter she would go to any means to get back at the school. His long winded conclusion is disappointing and I see it as a sibling being protective of a younger brother.
This is really the only question that holds any amount of weight (and it's not a lot). I have commented on this previously. In short, I don't think we will ever know the honest answer here.
Simple, it is really no ones business outside of the immediate parties involved. I am curious myself though...
I love fiction too.
The opening flight of fancy set the tone as the writer, almost palpably breathless, (which happens at altitude sometimes or in any situation where there's a lack of oxygen) recitates near fact. Near fact one? The boy was "arrested because school officials thought it looked like a bomb".
I'm pretty sure it was an English teacher's complaint that simply led to the police being called and following a thoughtless protocol that never should have advanced as it did.
But then you know an author is getting serious when we arrive at "points".
1. Why did Ahmed claim to build the clock if he didn’t actually build it?
The author mostly deflates this one in his own opening on the point with,
Forgetting the attitude suggested by "supposedly" we should stop to ask what throwing a clock together from parts entails. But our author doesn't do that. :nono: What he does instead is speculate with the force of fact:
The speculation that speculation rests on was from an anonymous fellow who couldn't get the decade right on the parts but felt good deciding that's what happened since it could have happened and the kid obviously didn't fabricate the parts himself.
lain: Which the kid never claimed to have done. And what we're left with is as easily explained by him taking parts and putting them together as anything else. Not an MIT project, to be sure.Why would a 14 year old boy, wanting to impress his instructors, call the thing an invention instead of a cobbling? Why indeed. Well, obviously for some nefarious purpose. Because it if wasn't then we'd be left with the highly implausible answer that a) he's fourteen and b) he put it in the most self-flattering way possible because c) he's fourteen and d) he wanted to impress his teacher.
2. At what point was the clock actually built?
This isn't actually of any relevance at all, but it does allow the author to tag it with,
The thus and possession really underscore the gravity of cobbling and holding on to what you cobbled.
Worse! Ahmed's father said something about his son waking up to the clock every morning....but Ahmed said he only just built it!! What could this mean? Maybe Ahmed took that same clock apart right before taking it to school!!!!!!!!!
Or maybe dad was thinking about the clock he wakes up with and goofed. Or maybe Ahmed used some part from that clock. Or maybe Ahmed just gutted the old clock and tried to make it look like he did more work than he actually did, which is pretty damning stuff...if he turned it in for a grade. Else, worse case, not so much.
3. Why did the clock go off during his English class?
I'm guessing it had something to do with a timer.
lain:Or the teacher knew the English teacher Ahmed had and was trying to head off the potential for lunacy.
Pretext...or, less sinister, reason. And no, it's not odd. It's just sloppy, or inattentive, which can happen with 14 year olds.
Left on the floor, unconsidered, the first teacher set the timer to screw around with the English teacher! :shocked:
Affair? Sorry, but at this point I had to abandon the read for something less speculative by a guy named Nostradamus.
oly:Which, sadly, made no reference at all to Ahmed's clock. :mmph:
Wow TH is really behind the crappy clock "maker". Who would have thunk?
Well it looks like TH put some actual thought into the subject. That's more than can be said for the reactionaries who saw something sinister behind this (or cheap cynics who think the kid's family is trying to cash in; one would think they'd have sued the school by now).
A kid brought a science project to school. People freaked out for no good reason. Bureaucrats are dim. End of story.
A kid brought a science project to school. People freaked out for no good reason. Bureaucrats are dim. End of story.
Isn't the stereotype of a young inventor someone who is constantly taking things apart and putting them back together to figure out how they work? I will grant you that this clock is no cold fusion reactor, and it isn't even a homemade FM radio, but he's a teenager with a bit of curiosity, and that shouldn't be discouraged. And we definitely shouldn't be casting his motives as excessively sinister because of his race or assumed religion.
As bright as this young fellow is touted to be wouldn't he have realized that by disobeying the teacher he would get into trouble?
I certainly do not agree with the way this was handled but the young fellow is not without some responsibility for his actions?
Because as we know people who always do exactly what they're told are the ones who get ahead in life and make a difference. Worked wonders for Ford, Tesla, Edison, Jobs, Lennon...
I think it's fair to say that he should have. But, once again, he's a teenager, more in need of guidance and correction than serious punishment and humiliation. And having him arrested is just absurd, to the point that I think the school is far more in the wrong than he was. A lot of the structural racism in this country isn't related to how we treat completely innocent people, but rather how we handle people who commit minor infractions or cause minor disruptions and inconvenience.
Well, I think that's reasonably close to agreement.
You would think ... but then again, kids do dumb things (due to lack of maturity), and I wouldn't expect them to think of the consequences in the same way an adult would. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be expectations, punishments or rewards, just not at the same level as that of adults.
I understand liberals do not think children need a father
someone who is aware of what they are doing
someone who provides guidance
someone who is a good example
it is the feminist argument
women don't need a man
and
children don't need a father
I hold Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed responsible
I did
He didn't take it apart and put it back together. If he did.... that would still not be very impressive. At least not impressive enough to get an invite to Google, Facebook, the UN, etc.
All this kid did was take the clock case off and stick the still functioning clock "guts" in a pencil box.
There are some actual genius kids out there that are doing really amazing stuff. I'd rather they get some credit and recognition than this obvious "I'm a victim racism" kid.
I was being sarcastic.
On that we can agree.
Quetzal
New member
Can we talk about that for a minute? Don't get me wrong, could this have been handled differently? Sure. Did the media run with it? You bet. But when I see this kid posing in front the Google Science Fair finalists and they are all pointing at him I think to myself... this kid put together a clock. These other guys are the finalists at the Google Science Fair. I guess I am confused, I do not believe this kid is what I would consider a celebrity that deserves this kind of attention. There are child prodigies that have invented wonderful things and they are lucky to get a margin space in the local papers.
Rubs me the wrong way, I guess.
Sounds like we are in agreement, right?
Quetzal
New member
Yeah, I just wanted my turn on the soap box. :chuckle:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/22/9369921/ahmed-mohamed-sergey-brin-google-science-fair
Well they invited him, so it's not like he crashed the party or anything. Show of solidarity and all that.
Perhaps the prodigies'll just be happy with changing the world as opposed to grabbing some ink?:idunno:
Quetzal
New member
Right, my thought is that there might be others who are more "deserving". But that is an abstract topic and completely off track.