Geek Girl at gunpoint at logan.

[orionlion82]

so the media would have us believe that she was about to slaughter thousands.
she had something strapped to her chest that was probably a bomb. she had plastic explosives in her hands (what is play-doh for 1000 alex?)

(who could know different, right? not the people PAID AND TRAINED TO LOOK OUT FOR BOMBS AND KEEP US SAFE- thats asking too much.) talk about complete incompetance.

anybody heard of the moononites? in boston?

as a man with a geek girl in boston myself - what is the deal?


if i walk around with a breadbord and some LED's am i going to get shot or sent to guantanamo for being a terrorist?


im surprised nobody at CPF has said anything.

LED'S ARE NOT BOMBS!!!

if i want to walk around squishing play doh and twinkling do i have to give up all my rights in an airport and be treated like a member of al-bin-queda?

is this america?

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Interesting story. Just watched the reports on Fox website.

I think the authorities and troopers were a touch on the over-cautious side it seems but I haven't yet seen a representation of what her Led flashing circuitboard actually looked like - if it was a bundle of wires flashing lights and batteries, they are justified in investigation and CAA rules may make an arrest and trial mandatory if armed troopers are called in in the first place. However if what she had was an unthreatening flashing badge, then a casually attired, slight girl student with no bag or obvious place to hide explosives, causing no other threat with unusual questions or actions would indicate to me that maybe someone with any sense, would have presumed innocence and merely asked her what it was.

Further to that I suspect all the hoohah and hard line taken is to alleviate the embarrassment felt by the authorities calling out the troops in a knee-jerk reaction.

The girl is lucky to have survived this! I know of a man in the UK who did not survive such a mistake and his complete, mundane innocence have not helped him or his family.

We live in curious times.

Keep your head down!

Be lucky...

 

[Lee1959]

They have err on the side of caution, rather than not do something and have it be a real threat which kills innocents. Sorry its not a joke, its real life in our world these days. People have to think about what they are wearing, and doing in public and how it may be perceived.

 

[Groundhog66]

Common Sense IS NOT COMMON....:shakehead

How could she NOT think it would draw the wrong kind of attention? :duh2:

 

[BIGIRON]

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,2378,00.html#3_0

Don't know if this link will work or not.

She's obviously the intellectual equivalent of the guys laseing pilots and laughing about it.

 

[Roy]

As I understand the event....she was wearing a circuit board with flashing lights, a battery hooked to the circuit board, and all that connected to a wad of play-doh! And all of that strapped to her chest.

She is very lucky to have survived the stupid stunt!!!

 

[Groundhog66]

I thought you had to be smart to get into MIT??

:laughing:

 

[Phredd]

Geek Girl Wearing Fake Bomb at Airport

so the media would have us believe that she was about to slaughter thousands.

Every story I read referred to it as a hoax.

she had something strapped to her chest that was probably a bomb. she had plastic explosives in her hands (what is play-doh for 1000 alex?)

If you have any sense at all, you don't wear something that looks like a bomb when you're in an airport! Would you criticize the media if she walked through airport security with a fake gun?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Geek Girl Wearing Fake Bomb at Airport

All that was missing from this story was the girl screaming "Don't tase me, bro!" :shakehead

Clearly she was an idiot for wearing something like that at an airport. The addition of the play-doh makes me think that she was trying to provoke a reaction similar to what actually happened. While I think the authorities overreacted (again), she deserves a large part of the blame for this. I do NOT believe her claim that it was "just art."

 

[Nyctophiliac]

She is very lucky to have survived, indeed.

If she intended to cause concern and fear amongst the workers and passengers at the airport then she deserves all that the law can throw at her.

If she was just stupid, arrogant and naive, then she may be pitied and will learn an important life lesson here.

I guess we can't call it any way until the final details are made public.

But, as a middle aged familyman who often goes about his business with multiple battery powered devices on his person (not just torches!) all stored in a bag or holsters or multi pocketed jackets and vests, who often has wires trailing from pocket to pocket ( Ipod anyone? ) and has been known to press buttons on his mobile phone (texts or poker ) in airports (meeting people) whilst listening to loud music ( Walkman ) and wearing sunglasses ( my glasses do not go clear for a bit after being in bright sunlight) and who might also be carrying innapropriate items (Kids toys, balloons, play doh - I am a father after all) and who is of an ethnic minority ( ! ) - I'd just like others to err on the side of caution before I get a bullet between the eyes. I know this is no joke...


Be lucky everyone!

 

[TedTheLed]

I saw the circuit board on tv. it didn't look like a bomb at all. it was 6 or 7 green lights in a circular pattern about two inches wide.. the circuit board was a little 'breadboard' thing, with a couple loose wires sloppily sticking out of it..and it blinked. Supposedly she held the playdoh in her hand. I saw nothing "strapped" to any chest, the thing wass so small it looked like it was held on with a pin.
everyone knows real bombs have red and blue blinking lights, and a coundown lcd timer.
if you looked at the thing, inspected it, it would be obvious it wasn't any sort of bomb.
the only thing suspicious about was the sloppiness of the execution, the raggedly cut circuit boad and the stray wires everywhere..if were a neat, commercial-type blinking led button decoration light thingy I bet it wouldn't have made such a commotion..

i

 

[ViReN]

A Video for MSNBC News Coverage http://msnbc.vo.llnwd.net/e1/video/...21.flv&OBT_fname=n_mitbomber_court_070921.flv

Use SM Player or VLC to play the video

 

[Tubor]

Re: Geek Girl Wearing Fake Bomb at Airport

All that was missing from this story was the girl screaming "Don't tase me, bro!" :shakehead

Clearly she was an idiot for wearing something like that at an airport. The addition of the play-doh makes me think that she was trying to provoke a reaction similar to what actually happened. While I think the authorities overreacted (again), she deserves a large part of the blame for this. I do NOT believe her claim that it was "just art."

But maybe there was an innocent explanation like she thought she looked cool and just happening to be exercising with play doh while asking about plane ticket prices at the airport for that trip she was planning during her summer break? She was very lucky IMO but that doesn't distract from the fact that the situation stinks. Pretty soon it'll be auto-turrets-cameras on every street corner analyzing your speed/gait profile for signs of homicidal behavior. Jogger reaches for some gum - BLAM! Running for the bus - BLAM. Just see someone and you wave - BLAM. Maybe an exaggeration but don't people have the right to be innocent anymore? If it's such a problem at airports and shopping centers - people shouldn't be allowed to just wander in there.

 

[Groundhog66]

I think a big problem here is that we have never really experienced MAJOR acts of Terrorism here in America in the past, until fairly recent. Look at some other countries who have terrorists living amongst them, things get ugly pretty fast. No matter how you slice it, she was a dumba$$ for doing it.

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Speaking (or typing ) as someone who has grown up in London UK - and as a boy, regularly had my schoolbag searched before going into department stores and the bigger shops, and recently been practically on top of the Paddington tube bomb that went off, with others, all over London a couple of years ago , I hope that we can all expect the armed forces and the Police to do the right thing and protect the rights of any individual to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. That's all.

I'm not a fan of the Police state.

I think it is impossible, from what we know, to condemn this girl as an idiot.

I just hope that we can all remain relatively free and individual for the rest of our lives. Not have to conform to an acceptable norm decided by others.

Also, I wish I had the technical and soldering skills to make nine LED's flash in sequence :twothumbs.


Be seeing you...

 

[ViReN]

I felt that she tried to imitate a low cost version LED T Shirt that floated around a couple of months back ...

 

[Bullzeyebill]

She may be smart, but has no common sense, but common sense is not a valued trait for some groups of people.

Bill

 

[Empath]

........common sense, but common sense is not a valued trait for some groups of people.

The ones lacking common sense the most is our airport gestapo. It didn't look like a bomb, she never claimed it was a bomb, nor did it appear that she acted in a threatening manner. The claim of a "fake bomb" came from the jack-booted idiots that we have "protecting" the planes and airports.

Since they have someone that will end up defending themselves in real life, they'll end up demonstrating their stupidity before the world. If they wanted to appear otherwise, they should have shot her like they did the missionary that panicked and vaulted from the plane before take-off, sometime back. At least then, it would likely have been declared "justified". Since they didn't shoot her though, they're going to have to build a case against both theirs and her stupidity.

The account given is absurd. Someone from an information kiosk calls in a suspicion (after she left the building), they converge on her with drawn guns. If not for them claiming she had a "fake bomb", it would be difficult to identify the so-called crime. Absolute stupidity.

From the Associated Press:

A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson — wearing the device — approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.

The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her in front of the terminal.

"She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device," Pare said. "Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force."

He added, "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

 

[Bullzeyebill]

This type of thread sort of raises our passion level. Does mine. Reminds me of what my wife told me that her ex did at an airport. He was upset because of a search procedure that security was using on one of the children, and blurted out, "do you think she has a gun". He was pinned against the wall within a second or two. Don't say "gun" in an airport, don't say "bomb" in an airport", and don't wear something that could be confused as a bomb in an airport. I stand behind my "common sense" position.

Bill

 

[flashfan]

BigIron, thanks for the Fox link. It showed a picture of the circuit board. Must say that it looked very sloppy and amateurish for a geek who was captain of her high school robotics team and an intern at Squid Labs, among other things.

Whether or not the authorities over-reacted, I think that a comment made by the student's mother is very telling. (Sorry, I don't know how to post links, but here is part of a story printed in the Honolulu Star Bulletin.)

"But her mother...said it was an important lesson for her daughter. "You can be shot if you're that stupid to come up to the airport with something like that," Simpson said by phone from her Maui home. "She's going to have to learn from this experience.""

So...if the student's own mother felt her daughter's action was inappropriate, what are the authorities supposed to think? Sure the "authorities" should know what a bomb looks like (I sure don't), but is it impossible to "disguise" a bomb?

On the other hand, if someone were intent on blowing up the terminal, would they display the mechanism so openly???