Posted on 09/27/2015 7:01:58 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
Summary: U.S. Chief Data Scientist D.J. Patil shares why he's proud to see people across the country standing up for innovation and intellectual curiosity today.
Yesterday, a 14-year-old student named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing his engineering project (an electronic clock) to his high school. Officials mistook it for a bomb.
When I was growing up, my friends and I were fortunate to know how to use soldiering irons, circuit boards, and even a bit of duct tape when nothing else worked. We played, experimented, and learned through trial and error. The best part? When I brought my work in, my teachers loved it. And thanks to them it fed my desire to embrace science, engineering, and technology. That learning to play with technology and curiosity has helped me on every step of my journey so far.
That’s why I’m so proud to see people across the country standing up for the innovation and intellectual curiosity that Ahmed has shown.
That includes the President:
(President's tweet)
And he's not the only one. Today, Dr. John Holdren -- the President's top science advisor -- reached out to Ahmed and personally invited him to come to join us at the White House Astronomy Night on October 19, where we'll bring together scientists, engineers, and visionaries from astronomy and the space industry, along with students and teachers. They'll share their experiences and spend an evening stargazing from the South Lawn.
We think Ahmed will fit right in.
That's because we think it's really important that kids with a passion for science and technology have the opportunities they need to reach for the stars (sometimes, that's literal).
It's why the President has prioritized broadening participation in science and technology to a more diverse pool of students.
It's why we host kids from across the country at the White House Science Fair.
It’s why we believe that the National Maker Faire is so important, and why we are a nation of makers.
And it's why we're dedicated to telling the untold stories of some of the brightest minds in our country -- to inspire young people to follow in their footsteps.
Ahmed, you inspire us -- and we can't wait to meet you.
P.S. -- Don’t forget your NASA shirt. I’ll be wearing mine.
DJ Patil Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy and Chief Data Scientist in the Office of Science and Technology Policy Follow @DJ44
So in light of recent developments with this kid and his “invention”, does the invitation still stand?
Oh blech! What a thought!!!
Do the zombies who get their news from the usual leftist news outlets understand that this was a hoax? None of Ahmed’s teachers would have been impressed by his ability to use a screwdriver to disassemble an old clock. The only reason he took the clock’s innards to school, and the only reason he set the clock’s alarm to go off while he was in class, and the only reason he refused to answer questions about the clock, was to provoke reactions that he and his family could label Islamophobic.
Well this is from one of many very similar op/eds on the incident:
Kid clock maker Ahmed Mohamed wasn’t naive; the adults were paranoid
September 17, 2015 2:20 PM
By BARBARA SHELLY, The Kansas City Star
The police chief of Irving, Texas, says a young Muslim teenager’s humiliation and arrest for bringing a homemade clock to school was the result of “a naive accident,” presumably on the youth’s part.
If so, how very sad.
Have we really reached the point where a mechanically inclined 14-year-old boy is naive for making something extremely clever and wanting to show his teachers? Should Ahmed Mohamed have said to himself: “Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t take this great homemade clock to school because I’m Muslim and my last name is Mohamed and some nervous adult might think it’s a bomb”? No. The problem here is adult paranoia, not youthful naivete.
If you listen to Chief Larry Boyd’s statement to reporters, he’s still in blame-the-kid mode.
“It certainly was suspicious in nature,” he says of the clock.
(snip)
Well, I made it about 36 seconds into the clip before my I nodded off, fell out of my chair and hit my head on the way down. So....thanks for that.
Just kidding. It was super boring, though. If that Mr. Wizard-y guy wrote the article, you’d think he, of all people, would get soldering iron right. I guess he and Clock Boy will make good pals.
Ban Attack Pop Tarts NOW!!!!
U.S. Chief Data Scientist D.J. Patil must not be very smart as to not recognize that the brilliant Ahmed neither built or create a thing. Do you believe in Globull Warming as well? Idiot.
It was not an engineering project - he took a commercially available alarm clock and took it out of its casing and affixed it to a pencil box that looks like a briefcase. He invented nothing. He was arrested on suspicion of bringing a hoax bomb to school.
"I notice this article is dated 9/16. Later revelations have made Ahmed and his Dad’s actions questionable, at best. ...”
Indeed, a lot has been revealed since then to update this story.
*****Not only did the kid NOT invent a clock,[see this clip with Bill Mahr] during which he equates Ahmed’s invention with “bowl of cereal”:
... essentially "clockmed" (coined by Atlas) went "fishing" using his "bowl of cereal"/”invention” as bait moving from class to class until one of his teachers finally took his bait. The first teacher simply requested he put the 'invention' away and not take it out during school time. Clockmed was fully aware of the fact that his ‘invention’ looked suspicious:
“I closed [the ‘clock’] with a cable, I didn’t want to lock it to make it seem like a threat … so it won’t look that much suspicious.”
Instead of taking this instructors advice, this kid decided to plug in his 'clock invention' ensuring the alarm would sound off to obtain the attention he sought during class time.
Having achieved the sought after one-on-one attention, he’s suddenly traumatized by the fact that faculty was not enamored with his 'invention', rather they were concerned and annoyed, particularly when the kid refused to cooperate and respond to inquiry by various authority figures.
In fact, the kids family refused to respond to authority figures as well as refuse to sign a release form. Instead of appearing at the appointments to meet with school and police which were rescheduled to accommodate the family’s request, ...the kids family decided to hold a press conference in front of their home exactly at the appointed and agreed upon times they were supposed to be meeting with school & police.
Family members including the kid and his sister had no hindrances elaborating and voluntarily answering questions posed by the fawning and sympathetic media.
In fact, several subsequent media interviews provide damning details given by clockmed AND his sister which reveal prior instances of disciplinary action for similar terror related misconduct...all related while smiling at the cameras which are recording journalist reports about accolades and valuable gifts and scholarship offers to NASA’s Space Camp, invitations to drive NASA’s Opportunity Rover, tour MIT, intern at Twitter etc. etc. all lavished on this kid by celebrities like Dr. Oz, Ellen DeGenerous, Twitter, Google, NASA, and even from the current-occupant-of-the-oval-office (whose twitter admiration arrived before any of the details of this incident hit the media).
For instance:
"After the MSNBC segment, Eyman and I sit down in the hallway where she says the same thing happened to her as Ahmed. “I got suspended from school for three days from this stupid same district, from this girl saying I wanted to blow up the school, something I had nothing to do with.” Eyman talks with the slightest lisp, almost imperceptible, but it becomes stronger as she gets emotional. “I got suspended and I didn’t do anything about it and so when I heard about Ahmed, I was so mad because it happened to me and I didn’t get to stand up, so I’m making sure he’s standing up because it’s not right. So I’m not jealous, I’m kinda like—it’s like he’s standing for me.” Eyman said her suspension was in her first year of middle school, “my first year of attempting middle school in America. I knew English, but the culture was different, the people were different.”There is more posted today which reveals this is a precocious kid with a history of disruptive incidents resulting in detentions and eventual suspension from school involving an attorney ...a few choice quotes: :
"When a seemingly possessed projector kept shutting off midlecture, young boys’ snickers surrounded Ahmed’s desk, where he sat with a hand-built remote control in his lap.
Talkative to a point of disruption to class, Ahmed...
"...tried to get out of detention by reciting the First Amendment in the principal’s office." ..."While his discipline record is confidential and his father didn’t want to discuss it, the file was thick by some accounts.*****
Ahmed said he was suspended for several weeks in sixth grade. A family friend, Anthony Bond, said the boy and a cousin were blowing soap bubbles in the bathroom, and the school overreacted.
"Ahmed blamed an administrator at the school who, Bond wrote, the boy felt “has been terrorizing him since the 6th grade” — hindering him from praying in school and unfairly punishing him." ... "Bond’s letter called the boy’s treatment “Muslim bashing”
"Bertha Whatley, who was Irving ISD’s attorney last year, said “high-level” officials at the district reviewed Bond’s letter. Bond said the principal overturned the suspension after meeting with Ahmed".
"...“I told you one day I’m going to be — and you told me yourself — I’m going to be really big on the Internet one day,” Ahmed said."Now, after all is said and done...
Clockmed was not “handcuffed” at school. The only reason his classmates and student population are aware of his notoriety is because he was guided by those he trusted most to go to the media. The fact that clockmed refused to be forthcoming with details to the authorities resulted in self inflicted trauma.
Then talk about CHUTZPAH!
yet...
Despite this: via CNN: "Irving police had held onto the clock as evidence, but on Thursday, they told CNN that it's ready for Ahmed to pick it up." (last week)
&
WHO KNEW?! Ahmed is entitled to disrupt class at will – it’s his ‘right’!
*****Here’s an interesting video clip to ponder:
LIVELEAK video of "ALI VELSHI ON TARGET"
weekdays 10:30p ET / 7:30p PT
ON AL JAZEERA AMERICA
ff 0:10 Ali Vleshi: "...when you introduced your clock in your earlier classes the teachers liked it. . .it wasn't until you introduced it in a later class that a teacher felt that your digital clock was suspicious and said to put the clock away.
0:22 Ahmed: "...so um, I brought my clock to school and my teacher thought that it was a threat to her because in her eyes it looked suspicious. So, the clock, in fact, is built from scrap, scrap found around the house, some of the boards are already manufactured, yes, it was put together.
0:43 Ali Vleshi: "...so, what happened? Did the teacher ask you to put it away or what happened then?
0:46 Ahmed: "...um, the teacher – the clock, in fact, was plugged in during the classroom, so it didn't go off in my backpack. So, it was plugged in and I set a time on there and I showed it to a student sitting next to me." And it went off, so the teacher looked around and said 'what was that noise?' and I just unplugged it immediately."
01:13 Ali Vleshi: "...and then what happened? When did they call the security people at the school?
01:19 Ahmed: "...um, the security people were called around sixth period. Well, that's when I got called out of class. But, after the students left the classroom I did show my teacher the clock and I showed it to her and that's when she took, confiscated that from me.
01:35 Ali Vleshi: "...now is that the particular teacher that you wanted to impress? Was that your engineering teacher or was that a different teacher?
01:41 Ahmed: "...that was my, a different teacher, but I wanted to impress ALL of my teachers."
01:45 Ali Vleshi: "...and most of them, were they impressed?"
01:49 Ahmed: "...um, no, I only got to show two teachers because the rest of the day I didn't get to stay at school. (watch traumatized Ahmed grin broadly and glance over to his left)
01:54 Ali Vleshi: "...ah, no kidding. So, the security people called you in, then what happens? They look at this clock and they determine that it's a clock. At any point tell you that maybe it was a bomb or did they talk to you about whether it was a bomb?
02:09 Ahmed: "...um, yes they did talk to me whether it was a bomb. They looked at me and they were like 'what is that' and I told them that it was a clock. And they kept asking me that question. You're like 'it doesn't look like a bomb to me.' In face, oh, sorry, 'it doesn't look like a clock to me', one officer said. And when I told the other officer - one of the other officers told me, 'looks like a movie bomb', so he told me 'do you watch movies at home?' Of course, I told him 'yes'. And (he squirms) he told me, 'that looks like a movie bomb to me' and 'did you try to copy the bomb from the movie?' I told him, 'no, officer, I didn't.'
02:42 Ali Vlashi: "...amd then, I saw a picture of you with handcuffs. How did that happen?
02:46 Ahmed: "...um, I was detained later at school and then taken to the police station to where I was handcuffed.
02:56 Ali Vlashi: "...even though they had determined that it wasn't a bomb, that the decided it wasn't a bomb.
03:01 Ahmed: "...yes.
03:02 Ali Vlashi: "...so you say you felt like a terrorist and that wasn't the first time that you had felt that way. That struck me as pretty strong. You're a fourteen year old kid. How come you've been made to feel you're a terrorist?
03:14 Ahmed: "...well, in middle school it was a rough journey for me too. Sixth grade year, one of the students says "Osama bin Laden your uncle, why did he kill those people on 9/11?". I told him he wasn't my uncle. So, that really got to me and I really did feel like a terrorist.
03:31 Ali Vlashi: "...Wow. What, where, whe...let me ask you, where is this clock now? Have the police given it back to you?
03:37 Ahmed: "...um, no. It's still with the police.
03:39 Ali Vlashi: "...the Irving police chief said that you weren't forthcoming with information about your digital clock and that's partly why they took you into custody. Do have any reason why they...do you have any sense of why they think so? You seem like a talkative kid. Do you, do you....why would they say you weren't forthcoming?
03:55 Ahmed: "...um, I was forthcoming but I did tell the officers there was a clock multiple times and I told why about school. I told them all the questions they asked me so, I don't know why they said I wasn't forthcoming but yeah I did tell them the questions they asked me.
04:12 Ali Vlashi: "...uh, no charges were laid against you. I think that's important to - for everybody to know. And I'm sure you're very very relieved because of the whole thing. You want to proceed with a career moving toward engineering? Do you want to stay at your school?
04:26 Ahmed: "...I want to pursue engineer, a career in engineering.
04:33 Ali Vlashi: "...and are you o.k. going back to your school?
04:37 Ahmed: "...um, no, I uh, I'm not o.k. going back to my school cuz it's really - it didn't really feel good that what happened there. I don't want to go back to that.
04:45 Ali Vlashi: "...is there something they can do that will make you feel better - the school, or the mayor, or the police?
04:49 Ahmed: "...I mean, no. They could apoligize but that's not gonna change anything because what was done was done.
Other than Fox News, was the falsity of the claim that it was an “invention” reported anywhere else?
Oh, after reading a little more of the article I see that Mr. Wizard wasn’t the author (and, thus, can’t be blamed for the whole “soldiering” iron debacle), but I still hold him accountable for nearly putting me to sleep. :)
I actually thought that post would be pulled because of the whole blowing up Obama thing..but since I win..what do I win..a brand new car :-) I’ll take ANYTHING with wheels :-)
This may work out better than we hoped!
Thank you for all the info! Yeah, a real Boy Scout!
"When a seemingly possessed projector kept shutting off midlecture, young boys’ snickers surrounded Ahmed’s desk, where he sat with a hand-built remote control in his lap.
Talkative to a point of disruption to class, Ahmed...
"...tried to get out of detention by reciting the First Amendment in the principal’s office." ..."While his discipline record is confidential and his father didn’t want to discuss it, the file was thick by some accounts.*****
Ahmed said he was suspended for several weeks in sixth grade. A family friend, Anthony Bond, said the boy and a cousin were blowing soap bubbles in the bathroom, and the school overreacted.
"Ahmed blamed an administrator at the school who, Bond wrote, the boy felt “has been terrorizing him since the 6th grade” — hindering him from praying in school and unfairly punishing him." ... "Bond’s letter called the boy’s treatment “Muslim bashing”
"Bertha Whatley, who was Irving ISD’s attorney last year, said “high-level” officials at the district reviewed Bond’s letter. Bond said the principal overturned the suspension after meeting with Ahmed".
"...“I told you one day I’m going to be — and you told me yourself — I’m going to be really big on the Internet one day,” Ahmed said."
Bump to your post for later review.
Oh I have no doubt that punk has a record, and I have NO doubt that it was his parents who made that wannabe bomb. No way did Ahmed make it, his parents did, so they could sue the school for millions it was always about money
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