Boston v Lightbright round 2

[keiko]

A 19 year old female M.I.T. student was arrested at gunpoint after entering Boston's Logan International Airport with what authorities claim was "a fake bomb" strapped to her chest, according to wire reports. The device is said to have been some kind of computer circuit board with Play-Doh and wires attached, strapped over her black hoodie. Link to AP report on her arrest.
The young woman is identified as Star Simpson, shown in the image above left, and she is a sophomore from Hawaii. Here is her MIT website, here's her homepage, here's one of her recent projects. She has a user account on Instructables.

>> Full Story Here

This poor girl was nearly shot with sub-machine guns for having a battery (d cell) a circuit board, some play doh and some wire, all no bigger than a piec of toast, inside her black hoodie that said "Socket To Me Course VI" in electro- luminecent paint. They tried to SHOOT her with SUB MACHINE GUNS over a T-SHIRT that lit up.

The TV news is making me sick. Comments like "She's lucky to be in jail and not in the mourge."

I want to stab someone.

~K

[Tinman]

Hmm over reacted much?

Its just sad its come to this, but if they werent so robust, we d only read how someone managed to get past security, its just fucked up.

[keiko]

She wasn't going through security. She was picking up a friend. Stopped at an information kiosk and the attendant freaked. Girl was almost SHOT ....

Sorry I'm so infuriated I'm speechless. And I haven't been caffinated yet....

~K

[a_small_death]

Ok so let me wrap me cerebrum around this. This girl didn't even go through security and was nearly shot for wearing a home made light bright, with a sub machine gun. Welcome to the Police States Of Amerikastand.

[One Eyed Cat]

They should just stop the security checks. Arm the pilots. Passengers are already increasingly weary of each other. Let's make this a real party century. If I get knocked out of the sky, just remember I died laughing at the absurdity of it all. One of a gazillion reasons I oppose most US interventions, we can't stomach it without turning on ourselves. We end up with cops pointing guns at M.I.T. students with that much potential. Ridiculous.

JT

[Donald Rilea]

They should just stop the security checks. Arm the pilots. Passengers are already increasingly weary of each other. Let's make this a real party century. If I get knocked out of the sky, just remember I died laughing at the absurdity of it all. One of a gazillion reasons I oppose most US interventions, we can't stomach it without turning on ourselves. We end up with cops pointing guns at M.I.T. students with that much potential. Ridiculous.

JT

While I think Ms. Simpson might have given a bit more thought before wearing the art piece at Logan Airport, Captain Pare's rhetoric about the whole affair was, to put it politely, disgusting.

Haven't been on a plane since December '98, and, with silliness like this going on, the chances of my going on one, and wanting to be on one, grow increasingly smaller.

[Bikerpunk]

No offense, but what is it with MIT people that they're bright enough to figure out how to split an atom or play Bach with their toes but not to realise that the subhuman species they dig outta the police academies aren't gonna take their innate paranoia on someone who's nonwhite walking around with a hoodie with wires and batteries attached?

Try that shit in Israel and you'll get popped.

[Mr Karl]

sometimes certain clothing just isn't appropriate....dumb engineering student

[Donald Rilea]

More like socially and culturally maladroit engineering student, to me.

Sometimes wonder how many engineering students, in all fields of the subject, as well as various other "techie" professions might not be high-functioning autistics, have Asperger's Syndrome, or other, "cousin" conditions to these two, as HFAs, Asperger's, and other people who have "cousin" conditions to them, tend to be... shall we say, less than socially ept???

[Bikerpunk]

More like socially and culturally maladroit engineering student, to me.

Sometimes wonder how many engineering students, in all fields of the subject, as well as various other "techie" professions might not be high-functioning autistics, have Asperger's Syndrome, or other, "cousin" conditions to these two, as HFAs, Asperger's, and other people who have "cousin" conditions to them, tend to be... shall we say, less than socially ept???

I'd say the cousin condition is a level of arrogance.

"Well, duh, anyone with an IQ over room temperature knows that something like this is not a bomb. I mean, I could like so totally go to the media and roll my eyes about AmeriKKKa, just because I walked in with some weird contraption strapped to my chest and refuse to answer questions about it, at a time where they're paranoid about people carrying their own shampoo on a plane."

[Donald Rilea]

I'd say the cousin condition is a level of arrogance.

"Well, duh, anyone with an IQ over room temperature knows that something like this is not a bomb. I mean, I could like so totally go to the media and roll my eyes about AmeriKKKa, just because I walked in with some weird contraption strapped to my chest and refuse to answer questions about it, at a time where they're paranoid about people carrying their own shampoo on a plane."

Perhaps. But, arrogance isn't a quality solely confined to MIT students, engineering students in general, nor any one person or group in general.

I have noticed over the years, however, that various technical courses of studies and trades often attract the categories of people mentioned above, as well as so-called normals, who, for whatever reasons of their own, tend to be highly conceptually and academically intelligent, but socially quite clueless or stupid.

Won't go into the whys and possible where-fors here, as it'd take too damned long for others to read and me to write.

But, whatever the reasons behind the young lady's decision to wear her artistic contraption in greeting her friend of Logan International that day, it was a stupid one on her part, because of the developments in the US in general, and at Logan International, in particular, over the past six years.

Better to have left the device at home, or at school, where she could have shown her friend, and anyone else, later.

Instead, she got over-enthusiastic about her project, and it resulted in her detention, and brush with death.

BTW, it's been a little while since I've read that article, but I don't recall any particular political motivation on the young lady's part for wearing the silly thing being stated there.

Have you seen other articles about this incident since it was first posted that give some idea of that???

If so, please post the link or links to them here, as I, for one, would like to see it.